Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) administrators moved back into their University Hall offices yesterday, marking the end of a six-month, $10 million project to modernize the historic structure.

The project, which comes after several high-profile renovations of FAS buildings, is University Hall's first major update since 1896. In addition to improving the building's heating, air conditioning and electrical systems, the renovation added an elevator and two chair lifts to make the structure more accessible to the disabled.

The structure joins a number of FAS buildings that have been renovated recently, in part to bring them in line with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

According to Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, the building--which had no ramps or elevator--suffered from "zero handicapped accessibility." That had proved problematic for the University because most prominent FAS administrators have their offices in the buildings and meetings of the Faculty are also held there.

Lewis said every location in the building is now accessible to people who use wheelchairs.

But bringing the building--which is protected as a historic structure--up to code proved challenging for University architects. For example, FAS could not install an elevator that would reach all floors of the building because it would have meant substantially changing the exterior of the building, which violates historic preservation regulations, said David A. Zewinski '76, FAS associate dean for physical resources and planning.

Administrators said they judged the move back into University Hall a success.

The renovation was done on time and on budget, according to Zewinski. The project met the original two-to-three-year time frame announced by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles in April 1999, as well as the more specific goal of being done before the spring semester, set when renovation began last June.