New Tower. Inside the new tower heating/cooling ducts, plumbing pipes, and electrical conduits continue to be installed. The temporary air conditioner/dehumidifier installed along Mills Street has allowed installation of significant quantities of drywall, which is making the interior look more and more like its final appearance.
Recently the facilities committee has been working to finalize details of the furnishings of spaces in the new tower. The areas shown in the two preceding photos are interaction spaces that connect the bank of four elevators to write-up rooms and laboratories on floors five through eight. In the right-hand photo, the spaces beyond the lavender-colored partial walls are write-up rooms that connect to a laboratory beyond. Last week the interaction space was temporarily occupied by metal studs, plasterboard, and pipes as seen in the photos above. It will eventually be an open area for informal study and interaction of faculty, staff, and TAs with students, as shown at the right.
The construction team is working hard to get two of the four tower elevators, one of which is the freight elevator, installed and working. This will enable transport of materials from ground level up to any floor and allow removal of the skip hoist that has been working all summer outside the east (Mills-Street) side of the tower. The current plan is for the elevators to be working by the end of September.
Fire Protection. Work begins in the Daniels sub-basement on August 31 and continues through September 4.
Work required by a mid-course improvement in the fire-protection design involves brief closures of certain floors in Daniels, Mathews, and Shain. On these floors, labs must be prepared for work on the fire alarms (not the sprinkler pipes). Here is the schedule for this work:
5th floor Shain September 2 – 8
6th floor Mathews September 9 – 11
5th floor Mathews September 14 – 16
4th floor Mathews September 17 – 18
Preparing labs for this work involves removing hazards:
- Remove chemicals, glassware, and general clutter from lab benches
- Remove all items from drying racks
- Remove clutter from aisles
The mid-course improvements have already been incorporated in fire alarm work done on the sixth floor and floors below the fifth floor of Shain, so no further work is required on those floors.
Stairwell Construction. A construction crew has nearly completed installation of vertical riser pipes in the stairwells in Daniels and Mathews. Riser installation is expected to be complete on lower floors before undergraduates re-enter the building Wednesday. Completion of all floors is scheduled for September 11. The southeast Daniels stairwell connecting floors B,1,2 and stairwells in Shain tower are not affected.
In an emergency, avoid the stairwell under construction and use any other available stairwell, regardless of direction.
This information is up to date as of Monday morning. Email bulletins will be provided as needed.
We are indebted to Gerald David of Miron Construction and Ballinger Architects for photographs in this report.
John Moore and Bob McMahon