Two years after floodwaters ravaged University of Hawai'i's Manoa campus, the vast, one-acre basement of Hamilton Library sits empty. And it's likely to remain that way for three more years.

More than half of the $82 million in damage that occurred during the Halloween Eve 2004 flood happened at Hamilton Library. And while nearly every other ravaged portion of the Manoa campus has been rebuilt and is again in full use, library officials, department heads and project architects have yet to decide on design plans for the unused basement.

Among changes being considered are removing a moat that surrounds the library and extending the basement walls in what is expected to be a $30 million reconstruction project overall.

Former library occupants have watched as other parts of campus recovered, including the second-hardest-hit Biomedical Sciences building. They say they are anxious to return to the basement, which makes up about 15 percent of the total library space, but are discouraged by the snail's pace of the reconstruction process.

Construction is not scheduled to begin until July 2007 and could take about 18 months to complete, say university officials. But that's dependent on design plans being completed by January.

In the meantime, dozens of offices, faculty and students that used to call the library basement home have been displaced to several temporary locations across campus and even across town.

"Most of us are sharing offices, classroom space. Before the flood we had our own space. There was a sense of community, all of our resources were right there in the library. That was our laboratory," said Andrew Wertheimer, assistant professor of Library and Information Science. "It will be awhile before we have that back — 2009 seems like an awfully long time."

'NOT A SIMPLE TASK'

Kathy Cutshaw, vice chancellor for administration, finance and operations, said the bidding and construction phases do not appear to be unusually long, considering the university has to follow the state's bureaucratic procurement process.

"I think it took longer than usual for the library people and the architect to come up with a design that everyone agreed upon," Cutshaw said.

But a final design has yet to be approved, or even created, said Bob Schwarzwalder, assistant university librarian for Library Information Technology.

"There are lots of issues and a lot of concerns. It is not a simple task," he said.

The flood not only decimated about $34 million in rare documents, maps and books in the basement — more than 3 million items in all — but forced several departments to find space elsewhere.

The Library and Information Science program, which oversees about 150 graduate students, was one of the largest occupants of the basement floor. The basement also housed other library departments, including collection services and the government documents and maps collection.

WORKING IN A CLOSET

Library and Information Science now shares office and classroom space with other departments in the Pacific Ocean Science and Technology building and Bilger Hall. Some of it is "less than desirable," Wertheimer said, with one adjunct professor even working out of what had been a storage closet. He estimates that the temporary space the department now inhabits is about half of what they used to have when they were in the basement.

Still, he said, he is thankful that other academic units were kind enough to allow use of their space.

The Government Documents and Maps department is in a similar situation, with offices spread out across campus. The university also rents space at Dole Cannery in Iwilei because of the limited space at Manoa, said Gwen Sinclair, head of Government Documents and Maps.

"When we were in the basement before, people could just walk in and be served immediately," Sinclair said. "It has been difficult for our patrons because they can't find us, obviously, because we are so spread out now."

WEIGHING ALL VIEWS

After the flood it was difficult for the library departments to agree on exactly what should happen to the basement, Schwarzwalder said.

"We wanted to proceed carefully. We wanted to hear everyone who was interested in talking to us about it," he said. "There was certainly a lot of concern from the people who worked here about how we can make (the basement) safe."

For about nine months, two separate committees weighed various options — including flood prevention measures, he said.

"It caused a delay, yes. But it also demonstrated that we were interested in everyone's view."

Sinclair said there was a lot of disagreement about how to proceed with the project. Much of the disagreement stemmed from the reallocation of space, considering the basement would be reconstructed several thousand square feet larger.

"So it did take a long time for everyone to agree," she said.

Basement expansion?

One part of the proposed design includes eliminating the 6,400-square-foot moat that surrounds three-quarters of Hamilton Library and building out the walls of the basement. The collection of water in the broad ditch was partially blamed for the flood in the basement, said Schwarzwalder.

The walls of the basement would be extended to get rid of the moat and a concrete ceiling would be constructed over it, thereby enlarging the basement.

Some had disagreed on how the additional space should be used.

Plans to construct a separate building outside of Hamilton to house the air-conditioning chiller plant and electric transformer have been finalized.

Steven Chichi, a graduate student in Library and Information Science, said he is disappointed that work on the basement could not begin sooner.

"The Library (and Information Science) program itself has lost its main center. Until that area is rebuilt, it won't be back to normal," he said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.