乐播传媒

Since Aug. 19, 乐播传媒 students have been sleeping, socializing, and preparing for the new year in the college鈥檚 newest campus residence, now open for business following a renovation that began last December.

With fresh paint, stylish furniture, and a striking new lounge, 96 Campus Avenue has welcomed a handful of early arrivals, including student Residence Life staff, leaders of forthcoming AESOP trips for first-year students, and athletes starting their practices.

With the influx of the full student body this weekend, 57 of the building鈥檚 65 student beds will be filled. (A residence director also moved in last week.)

Following a period of years during which 96 Campus Avenue housed a day care and offices, the renovation has returned the three-story brick building to its residential roots. It was constructed in 1977 to house nuns of the Society of the Sisters of Charity, who worked at the facility nearby that is now known as St. Mary鈥檚 Health System.

乐播传媒 bought the building in 2021 and decided just 11 months ago to convert it into a dorm.

鈥淚 feel good about the project 鈥� I mean, it was a great transformation,鈥� Brian Lanoie, the Facility Services project manager in charge of the makeover, told us during an Aug. 21 tour. 鈥淚t was extremely helpful that it was designed as a dormitory. 

鈥淎nd we had a great team,鈥� in project designers Lavallee | Brensinger Architects and construction management firm Consigli Construction. 鈥淲e had the typical hiccups that you would expect, but we overcame those, and obviously we鈥檙e open on time.

鈥淪o overall, for the incredibly short timeframe we had, I’m very happy with the project.鈥�

The city of Lewiston certified the building as fit for occupancy on Aug. 9, and on that same day Consigli returned control of the building to 乐播传媒 as the two parties agreed that the project was, in the formal term, substantially complete. Still, minor chores remained, Lanoie explained during our tour.

Most could be categorized as punch-list items 鈥� minor problems revealed during final inspections. Those included a 鈥渓ittle bit of everything,鈥� Lanoie said. For instance, back-ordered items awaiting installation: a unit heater, a few light fixtures, some door hardware.

Plus 鈥渁 lot of touch-up painting. There鈥檚 woodwork that needs to be fixed or replaced in some areas. There鈥檚 a broken pane of glass that needs to be repaired. The bike rack isn鈥檛 installed yet.鈥�

He continued, 鈥淲hen I looked this morning, there were 75 items still being tracked, and we鈥檙e probably going to find some more鈥� encountered by occupants as they settle in.

Another late-in-the-game routine, though, is all but done. So-called commissioning, the process of testing the building鈥檚 utilities equipment, can be completed as soon as that back-ordered heater is installed. In fact, the firm providing the new building-management controls, Maine Controls, was scheduled to train Facility Services staff on Aug. 22.

Moving away from punch-lists and commissioning, the 96 Campus Avenue grounds still need touching up. St. Laurent & Son, the local firm responsible for site work on the project, will patch the lawn where construction equipment gouged it around the building. Meanwhile, in a separate project, Gottlieb Landscape Design of Mount Vernon will spiff up the tree-shaded area near the dorm鈥檚 outdoor deck.

The conclusion of the 96 Campus Avenue project will also conclude, for now, the presence on campus of Consigli, whose representatives have been at 乐播传媒 overseeing major construction at least as far back as 2006 鈥� and more or less continuously since 2018 and the start of the Bonney Science Center.

Finally, Lanoie pointed out that he and Chris Streifel, 乐播传媒鈥� director of capital planning and construction (and for years our guide through a number of big projects) have been working on a 鈥淒ay 2 list鈥� 鈥� possible upgrades to 96 Campus Avenue that have emerged in the course of the renovation just ending.

For example, an aging section of roof near the building鈥檚 new entrance should be replaced, as should the door to the building鈥檚 former main entrance. Putting a single metal door there in place of the current pair of glass doors would send a clear message that the main entrance is elsewhere (in fact, relocated to a former service area in an annex facing the main campus).

鈥淲e鈥檒l see if we can afford to do those based on what our contingency (fund) looks like at the end of the job,” Lanoie said. “And then we’ll prioritize that list and we’ll try to focus on them, maybe during a holiday break, and see what we can get done.鈥� (Campus Construction Update鈥檚 equivalent list at home is called the 鈥�2020 2023 2030 List.鈥�)

They left us with crumbs: By the time you read this (or at least skim it in search of wacky humor), a substantial portion of the Russell Street soccer field will be green. In the first phase of installing a new FieldTurf playing surface, workers for the turf manufacturer began rolling out long strips of the plastic grass-like product early in the week.

As workers used specialized machinery to unspool the turf onto the subgrade, that process was heavy and mechanical. But as other workers adjusted the seams and sewed the strips together, it was also precise and hands-on.

Each strip of turf is 15 feet wide, 183 feet long, and, not surprisingly, heavy 鈥� nearly 1,300 pounds. What was surprising is how fast a team of workers, half-a-dozen or so, could fasten the seam between two strips. For that process, the strips were arranged face to face 鈥� grassy side to grassy side.

Several members of the team used tong-like grippers to raise the strips, align them, clamp them together for stitching, and set them down again. In the middle of the group, one worker blew debris out of the seam with a jet of compressed air and another, FieldTurf site supervisor Dan Gleason, used a handheld electric sewing machine to stitch the seam.

As he moved along, the strip wranglers on the loose side got out of his way and crossed behind him to handle the stitched area.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Farnsworth noted, about three-quarters of the turf was in place. But it will take much longer, probably a couple of weeks, for the next phase of the job: working infill into the turf. That infill, reclaimed from prior turf surfaces elsewhere, comprises a mix of sand and rubber crumbs. After they use up the reclaimed material, 鈥渢hey will finish off the top of the field with new rubber pellets.鈥�

The infill provides shock absorption, structural stability, and, by holding the grass blades upright, an aesthetic benefit.

And the handwork will return later with the quasi-surgical activity of excising bits of turf so that sport-specific lines (such as the penalty area in soccer or goalie crease in lacrosse) and 乐播传媒-branding visuals can be stitched into the openings.

The infill has provided an additional aesthetic treat, too, but it鈥檚 temporary. Rubber crumbs started arriving last week, creating a spectacle at the Russell Street parking lot: a reef of fabric bags seeming to stretch from horizon to horizon, all filled with rubber crumbs (putting us in mind of the Three Stooges鈥� ditty, 鈥淪he was bred in old Kentucky, but she鈥檚 just a crumb up here鈥�). 

The crumbs are created by freezing and shattering worn-out (or you might say, retired) tires.

The Russell Street Field revamp also includes new field lights, and the bases for those, made of precast concrete, are in place. A crane will visit the field Sept. 5鈥�6 to erect the poles and place the lamp arrays, which should be fun to watch.

Paul Farnsworth, 乐播传媒 project manager for the field makeover, explains that the lights are activated for games by a central computer system. That system is a proprietary service provided by the lighting manufacturer, MUSCO, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. (乐播传媒 is a longtime MUSCO customer.)

Clients log in and indicate when the lights should shine, and the computer makes it happen wirelessly. The only wired connection is for the raw electricity feeding the lamps. (This makes more sense than what we had pictured: someone running around at game time to switch on each of the four field lights by pulling a very, very long chain.)

Finally, changes are coming to the Russell Street facilities for softball and for throwing events. New batting cages, one for visiting teams and one for the Bobcats, are being built.

Also under construction are a throwing cage for discus and hammer, and a javelin runway. The latter, Farnsworth explains, is needed because the old one is too close to the soccer field 鈥� 鈥渨e can’t throw javelins into our new turf.鈥� (The old runway will remain, but for use only with rubber-tipped javelins.)

These features are going into a grassy patch between the softball outfield and St. Mary鈥檚 Health System property. 乐播传媒鈥� Ultimate teams and other sports have used that area in the past, and they鈥檒l have more options with the new Field Turf.聽

Can we talk? Send your thoughts about past, present, future, and parallel-universe 乐播传媒 construction projects to Doug Hubley. Please put 鈥淐onstruction Update鈥� or 鈥淲as Shemp ever funny at all?鈥� in the subject line.

Doug Hubley is a writer and musician living in Portland, Maine.