Jessica WellsDay Editor

DeKALB | Kujtime Redzepi, co-owner of Molly’s Eatery and Drink-ery, sat in a leather upholstered chair at inside the new location Fri-day afternoon, admiring the hard work that had been put in over the past two months.

“I haven’t had a day off yet,” she said.

Redzepi, along with her hus-band and co-owner Shawn Redzepi, closed the former Molly’s location, 1022 W. Lincoln Highway, while students were on winter break. During this time, they worked to open their new location a few blocks down the road, 1000 W. Lin-coln Highway, at the former Cam-pus Club building.

New Features, Familiar Atmosphere“When people left for break,

Molly’s was still there,” Kujtime said. “They came back and [the former location] was gone. It’s like a surprise for people.”

Kujtime said they wanted to keep many things at the new lo-cation familiar for patrons. Many of the same pub tables and chairs remain, along with the pool ta-bles and various games from the former location.

“We also brought the Molly’s main bar with us,” Kujtime said. “We took a lot of things with us to preserve the history of Molly’s.”

While regulars may recognize the Molly’s atmosphere, there are some noticeable changes.

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DeKALB | Today marks the first day in almost four years Cole Hall will host classes.

The plan for the Cole Hall renovation started in March 2010. Workers were still there Friday, working on the finishing touches.

According to a fact sheet provided by Paul Pa-lian, director of NIU media and public relations, the renovation cost just under $6 million. The official building opening and reception for the NIU Anthropology Museum gallery is Feb. 12, said interim museum director Sara Pfannkuche. The museum will open to the public Feb. 14.

The renovation included a complete interi-or makeover. The two auditoriums have been

split into an auditorium that seats 351 stu-dents, a classroom lab and an anthropolo-gy museum, Palian said. Tables with swivel chairs have replaced fold-up desks. Students can spin around to work with classmates be-hind them, Palian said.

Palian said the classroom lab is very high-tech. It serves 48 students and allows interac-tion between the instructor and the students via computer technology and touch-screen smart boards.

“It is an exciting state-of-the-art classroom,” said Spanish professor Debra Currere. “I have been saying if all others are ‘smart,’ this one is pure genius.”

Currere attended training for Cole Hall

Room 106 and said the technological capa-bilities will add another dimension to the curriculum. Currere is already assigned to the classroom, but said she would have re-quested it if possible.

Communication professor Jeffrey Chown said he has taught in Cole Hall Room 100 since the fall of 1982. He said the university did a wonderful job of modernizing the auditorium, and he looks forward to teaching in it.

“I’ve seen it myself, and it’s awesome. It’s ev-erything that you’d want,” Palian said. “It’s high-tech and also high-touch. It’s going to be a state of the art learning environment.”

According to the fact sheet, 14 classes are scheduled in Cole Hall this semester.

COLE HALL REOPENS

$6M in renovations creates ‘state-of-the-art classroom’

tuesday, January 17, 2012

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Molly’s adds features to new locationupdated bathrooms, floor replacements, granite bar adorn drinkery

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Jerry Burnes & Jessica Wells | Northern Star

(Left) Workers put finishing touches on Cole Hall Friday. (Top right) The classroom in Cole Hall creates a different learning environment by separating students into pods. (Bottom right) Cole Hall’s new lecture hall can accommodate more than 350 students.

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