If you’re one of the many career-forward young people curious about the lucrative and fast-paced field of campus construction reporting, ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ would have made an ideal training ground for you this summer. (Too bad Campus Construction Update got here first!)

That’s because there’s so much happening on the facility-improvements schedule — and it covers a fascinating diversity of construction projects that would teach you plenty about how buildings work, if you got to report on them, which you won’t.

North Bardwell Street will undergo surgery starting June 11. The evergreens down the right-hand side will come down to give breathing room to an adjacent row of deciduous trees. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

From ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ northern boundary on Russell Street to its southern counterpart on Campus Avenue, seven projects have come under CCU’s scrutiny.

We’ve already introduced you to the Alumni Gym revamp that will leave the basketball court with shiny new bleachers and floor by mid-June; and to the Ladd Library renovation that will give new offices to the Accessible Education and Student Services operation soon thereafter.

But another project at Ladd, along with Coram Library, promises to be much more conspicuous than the AESS work. Starting June 11, it’s a long-awaited two-part adventure in hardscaping: the enlargement of Coram’s porch to better accommodate public events such as Commencement, and waterproofing work that will culminate in a complete makeover of the sunny plaza between the two libraries.

Nearby, Carnegie Science Hall is the site of two separate undertakings. One is the installation of a more efficient hot-water system. And the other, which will put a crane on the Historic Quad for weeks, will replace aging components in the building’s massive rooftop HVAC plant.

Also starting June 11, a major utilities job will keep most of North Bardwell Street, site of Smith and Adams halls, closed for the summer. Steam, water, and sewerage pipes will be replaced or repaired.

Finally, one more project that’s now underway is near and dear to our hearts: the creation of new quarters for the ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Communications Office, which will move to Lane Hall next fall.

Yep, you heard it here first: ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Communications Plaza on Nichols Street, including the cozy CCU penthouse and our much-frequented meditation garden, will make way for progress in the form of a new ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ science building slated to open in 2021. But more about those developments in future installments.

For now, here are updates and overviews of the other projects:

Progress on the new Alumni Gym bleachers as of June 6, 2018. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Alumni Gym: Components for Alumni Gym’s new bleachers arrived on May 30 — hard pine for the seats and floorboards, a lot of large metal parts for the supporting structure, and many, many, many boxes of hardware.

The bleachers are being erected by J.M. Libbey and Sons of Sanford, Maine, a subcontractor to Robert H. Lord Co. of Manchester, Conn. Hussey Seating Co. of North Berwick, Maine, manufactured the units. When we visited on June 6, with a week or so to go, three workers were on the job and the work, to our inexpert eye, looked about half-done.

The first lucky hoopsters to enjoy the spiffy rejuvenated basketball court will be participants in a summer camp hosted by the ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ basketball team June 25–28. Returning from a year of playing pro ball in Europe, twin Bobcat standouts Marcus Delpeche ’17 and Malcolm Delpeche ’17 will co-direct the camp.

A Weatherize Northeast employee installing sprinklers in the Accessible Education office heads to his next location on May 3, 2018. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Accessible Education: Workers for the local firm Weatherize Northeast started installing wallboard in the new AESS offices, in the former periodicals area on Ladd Library’s ground floor, on May 20. That job was done within the week, and painting continued into early June.

The dominant paint color is Dover white, a standard at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. But a cornflower-blue accent wall, adorned with graphics by ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Communications designers, will greet visitors to AESS. Carpeting, utilities finish work, and furniture are still to come, with the last scheduled for June 18.

Project manager Shelby Burgau expects AESS director Abigail Nelson and administrative assistant Carson Dockum to be installed and admiring that blue wall before the end of June.

This three-tiered dais, which covers the top of a Ladd Library elevator system, will be reconfigured in this summer’s makeover of the plaza between Ladd and Coram libraries. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Ladd and Coram hardscaping: If the visuals for Nelson and Dockum will be a pleasure, the soundtrack in their new digs may be a different story. By the time they’ve moved in, Contracting Specialists, Inc., of Attleboro, Mass., will be digging up the plaza that connects Ladd and Coram libraries, more or less over the heads of the AESS staff.

“It’s all being driven by keeping the library dry,” says project manager Paul Farnsworth. Somewhere amidst the layers of building materials beneath the plaza is a rubber membrane that was waterproof when it was installed, 45 years ago, but isn’t any longer. In short, it leaks and lets water into the library.

Clearing away layers of pavement, sand, insulation, and other materials, Contracting Specialists will expose the old water barrier, replace it with a hot-applied rubberized asphalt system, and rebuild the plaza to a new design that will make this popular hangout spot even more inviting.

New features will include furnishings, made of rugged ipe wood, that combine planters and seating; entries to the plaza that will include an ADA-compliant access; and stylish cable railings.

After decades of use, these portable wooden ramps trodden by thousands of graduating seniors will be history by Commencement 2019. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

On Coram’s familiar east side, facing the Historic Quad, the contractor will use concrete and massive granite pavers — 18 by 36 inches, so keep your toes out of there when they’re laying ’em down — to extend the library’s porch 15 feet outward from the current structure. That will provide a permanent and deeper “stage” for public events.

Meanwhile, compact removable aluminum ramps will replace the old ungainly wooden jobs trodden by ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ graduates for the past few decades.

Summer access to Ladd will be via a door down near the loading dock, facing Hedge Hall. The Coram porch work will be finished in time for Convocation, with finishing touches on the plaza project continuing into the fall.

Project architect is Gale Associates, with six offices from New Hampshire to Florida. Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture of Freeport, Maine, the firm that designed the Parisian-feeling Den Terrace a few years ago, is in charge of look and feel for the new plaza.

Copper pipe is stockpiled in a Carnegie Science Hall corridor on June 6, 2018, as plumbers for Damon Mechanical upgrade the domestic hot water system. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Carnegie hot water: Underway now and through the summer is a project to upgrade the hot water supply in Carnegie Science. The crux of the matter, says project manager Alan Kelley, is to equip the system to recirculate hot water — that is, to maintain a hot-water loop instead of the current one-way, source-to-outlet flow.

Thanks to the physical proximity of the loop throughout the building, that will dramatically shorten the wait for hot water.

At the same time, plumbers and engineers for Damon Mechanical will reconfigure a gas-fired boiler, until now used only in the summer, to supply domestic hot water year-round. That will supplant a heat exchanger that depended on the campus-wide steam supply to heat the water. (The gas boiler, in fact, was originally installed to bridge the summer months when campus steam is shut down.)

They’ll also move the water tank from the basement to the fifth floor, where the heater is located. And, while they’re running all those new pipes for the circulating loop, they’ll also replace the original hot water supply lines, many of which have started to leak.

This van belonging to Damon Mechanical is parked about where a crane will be stationed in July for use in a major HVAC project atop Carnegie Science Hall. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Carnegie air: While the hot-water work proceeds out of public view, a second Carnegie project will be more than noticeable. For much of July, a crane will occupy a swath of the Historic Quad adjacent to the science hall as major components are replaced in its rooftop air handler.

Nick Nolin of Weatherize Northeast takes a break from spraying primer in the future Accessible Education office on May 31. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Installed around 1990, during the building’s most recent expansion, that massive HVAC plant is Carnegie’s primary source of heating, cooling, and ventilation. Its key components are at the end of their useful lives, says project manager Chris Streifel, and the replacement project will preclude a catastrophe HVAC failure — in January, say, when it’s 10 below.

“If they failed unexpectedly, it would be a huge problem,” Streifel says.

Situated in a penthouse under the rooftop satellite dishes, the items to be replaced are fans, which Streifel likens to jet engines in appearance and personality, and coils for heating and cooling. Four in all, the units are big and very heavy, and, given their location five stories up, the project will be no walk on the beach.

Streifel adds, “Right now, the plan is for the crews to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day, to get this done in as short a window as possible and minimize the impact on the building occupants.”

Mounted on a semi-trailer parked in the courtyard between Carnegie and Chase Hall, a temporary HVAC unit will seek to keep conditions inside Carnegie tolerable, feeding conditioned air through a duct up the side of the building to the roof and into the building’s own ductwork.

The project begins July 12, and the crane will show up in mid-July, occupying a barricaded work zone on the west side of Carnegie. The planned completion date is Aug. 30. Dynamic Air Corp. of West Kennebunk, Maine, is providing equipment and additional expertise, and technicians from Thayer Corp. of Auburn will do the hands-on work.

Notes From Underground: Mechanical and electrical services manager for Facility Services, Alan Kelley is also project manager for the North Bardwell utilities work. The project involves three sets of underground pipes — water, campus steam, and sewerage — and, perhaps counterintuitively, the big excitement is in the sewerage.

Those old 12-inch clay pipes, part of the city’s original sewer system, are at risk of collapse. But, as Kelley explains, they won’t be replaced: Instead, a project subcontractor, Texas-based Layne Inliner, will blow a new uncured fiberglass liner into the old clay pipes and then inject steam into the lines to harden the fiberglass.

The steam and water pipes, in contrast, will be replaced.

Above ground, the most visible evidence of the project will be tree work. Whitney Tree Service of New Gloucester will remove the evergreens now separating North Bardwell from Garcelon Field. Sounds alarming, but in fact, removing those spruces will restore a landscape concept from retired landscape designer Bill Bergevin. The deciduous shade trees he planted alongside the spruce will now be able to flourish.

Whitney will also remove a big old pine next to Smith that appears ready to cause trouble.

Can we talk? After a smorgasbord like this, what questions could anyone possibly have? Never mind, we want to hear from you anyway. Send your questions and comments about past, current, and speculative construction at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ to Doug Hubley. Please put “Construction Update” or “You guys get a meditation garden, too?” in the subject line.

An entrance to the future home of ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Communications on the ground floor of Lane Hall. The area is sealed off and posted while asbestos abatement is performed. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

“It’s a process,” said Jonathan Clement, foreman for New England Sports Floors. “It’s not like you can do this in a day or two.”

But pretty close to that, or so it has seemed. As Clement was commenting on the progress his team has made since mid-April in replacing the floor of Alumni Gym, his point was that it takes time to do the job right. But for us, the time since NESF started ripping the old floor out on April 18 has gone by in a blur.

When we looked in on May 14, the NESF crew was about done with painting — applying court lines and ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ Athletics branding, including the suave stylized Bobcat mascot at center court. (We petitioned to have the Campus Construction Update logo included in the Alumni floor decor, but no go.)

A worker for New England Sports Floors begins tearing out the old maple in Alumni Gym on April 18. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

New paint on the new Alumni Gym floor on May 14, 2018. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

The Alumni Gym Bobcat, looking urbane in a wood-reveal stencil job. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

New England Sports Floors foreman Jonathan Clement passes one of two yellow stencils for NESCAC logos in Alumni Gym. Aside from those logos, the paintwork was done by May 14. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Alumni Gym's new floor was laid and sanded by May 9. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Prominent marks like “ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝,” “Bobcats,” and the mascot were applied with a style of stenciling called “wood reveal.” This is reverse stenciling in which the letter shapes are masked, rather than outlined, by the stencil, leaving bare wood as the actual substance of each letter, surrounded by paint. (In the case of the Bobcat mascot, distinguishing features like eyes and whiskers are bare.)

More intriguing, yet easier to explain — it’s a win-win! — is the process for painting lines, especially curved lines like the three-point line or free-throw circle. Clement explained that a machine lays two tape strips along the desired alignment (including those nice even curves), and the paint is sprayed between the lines.

New paint on the new Alumni Gym floor on May 14, 2018. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

“I spent the last two days pulling up tape,” he said.

During our visit on the 14th, not much of the paint work remained to be done — just touching up, tidying ragged edges with razor blades, and removing the plastic stencils from two white NESCAC logos. The NESF crew was clearly pleased with their work, and rightly so.

A few coats of PoloPlaz NSB Sealer, a water-based coating, applied on the 15th and left to cure for several days, finished not only the floor but this phase of the Alumni Gym renovation that began a month ago.

New bleachers have yet to be installed, but that will wait till after Commencement. If rain (or snow or a plague of locusts, which, let’s face it, doesn’t seem so unlikely these days) forces graduation indoors, Alumni will be used as a robing and staging area — its new floor suitably protected. The bleacher installation should begin the day after Memorial Day.

A worker for New England Sports Floors pulls nails during removal of the old floor in Alumni Gym on May 1. The NESF foreman estimated that his crew pulled 10,000 nails altogether. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

We were glad to see sleek new paint on the sleek new floor. The demolition of the old floor was necessarily a rough business, Clement’s team wielding prybars and hammers to rip out the old wornout maple and a tarry horsehair underlayment.

After a few days the effect was kind of jarring, considering that the floor area is nearly 13,000 square feet. What remained of the old surface was a rubble of jagged wood, scrambled horsehair, and exposed nails, many of them crying out, “Don’t you want to walk over here?”

All of the nails would be removed — Clement estimated that his small crew pulled and threw away some 10,000 of them, a chore that took four days.

The new tongue-and-groove flooring, hard maple like the old, arrived on May 3, delivered by Westy’s Trucking of Oconto, Wisc. (“Are you Westy?” we asked the driver. “No, I’m a driver,” he replied, hurrying away.)

The hard maple flooring for Alumni Gym’s new floor arrives on May 3, courtesy of Westy’s Trucking. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Also based in the Badger State is the manufacturer, Aacer Flooring of Peshtigo, described on its website as “a true northern hardwood flooring manufacturer for the residential, sports and recreational markets.”

Using a rented forklift of the low-slung species known as a telehandler, a four-man NESF crew unloaded Westy’s flatbed semi and wrangled the palleted flooring in through a back door of Alumni Gym — a pretty snug fit.

The wood sat overnight, acclimating to local temperature and humidity, and a specialist from NESF declared it ready for installation the following day, May 4.

New England Sports Floors foreman Jonathan Clement passes one of two yellow stencils for NESCAC logos in Alumni Gym. Aside from those logos, the paintwork was done in Alumni Gym on May 14, 2018. (Doug Hubley/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ project manager Shelby Burgau had predicted that only a couple of days would be needed to lay the flooring, and so it happened. Our skeptical eyes were convinced by witnessing the amount of progress made by mid-afternoon on the 4th.

Wood had been cut and fitted to cover more than half of the floor, and much of it was already nailed down. The nails were driven through the tongues, rendering nailheads invisible in the finished product.

Picturing ourselves with a hammer, sore knees, and a pile of bent nails and spoiled floorboards, we were intrigued by the NESF methodology. The workers used rubber mallets for a number of tasks, and one of the tasks was to trigger pneumatic nail setters that, with a sharp bang, drove the fasteners in at the correct angle. Little pot-shaped compressors were scattered around the gym.

When we say “activate,” we mean “hit.” Pushing the nail setters along in front of them, the floor installers moved right down the line swinging the mallets like customers at a croquet driving range. Whack-whack-whack!

Can We Talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your comments and questions about current, past, future, and current construction at ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. Please use the comment apparatus below or send an email, with “Campus Construction Update” or “Croquet driving range?” in the subject line, to Doug Hubley at dhubley@bates.edu.

For a first-year Bobcat, there’s no better place to start your sports career than Alumni Gym. For ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ first-year volleyball players, that was Tuesday evening vs. the University of Southern Maine in the college’s first home contest of the year.

“Alumni is such a magical place for us,” says head coach Melissa DeRan.

“It’s always nice to be at home on our own court and in our own locker room, especially for our first-years. It’s special when you get to put on your collegiate jersey in front of your peers for the first time.”

They know Bobcat greatness when they see it. From left, Delaney Mayfield '21, Olivia McCulloch '21, and Jordan Camarillo '20 bow to their teammates. (Theophil Syslo/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Head coach Melissa DeRan likes what she sees as ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ defeats the University of Southern Maine. (Theophil Syslo/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Angel Echipue '21 (16) and Taylor Stafford-Smith '20 (9) go up for a block. (Theophil Syslo/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Angel Echipue '21 of Munich, Germany, says she liked the "intensity" of Alumni Gym. (Theophil Syslo/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

Jacqueline Forney '18 (15), Taylor Stafford-Smith '20 (9), Angel Echipue '21 (16), and Claire Naughton '19 (8) react after a point. (Theophil Syslo/ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ College)

ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ made a comeback after losing the first set, winning 3-1.

“Being the first college home game, it was a different experience,” says Angel Echipue ’21 of Munich, Germany. “It was really fun, very exciting. Being in Alumni was a different playing environment — a lot more intensity.”

Echipue, who spent part of her high school career in the U.S., says sports here “are so much more celebrated than in Germany.” Moving from high school to ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝, she sees “a lot more commitment with a college team. That’s why I love it.”

Ruby Lightbourn ’21 of Los Angeles agrees. “I love playing in Alumni Gym. It has a good energy and more of an environment — and more people in the stands.”

“It was good to see us all come together in the last couple games and to get a win at home,” says Delaney Mayfield ’21 of Santa Barbara, Calif. “It felt really comfortable and like our home.”

ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ volleyball will look for another win on .

With 4:34 remaining in the first half of the men’s basketball game vs. Bowdoin on Jan. 23, 2009, Neil Creahan ’10 of Hingham, Mass., drives between Bowdoin defenders and dishes to Jimmy O’Keefe ’10 (not pictured) of Lexington, Mass., for the layup. “The play was for Neil to go one-on-one, to let him operate,” explains head coach Jon Furbush ’05. Creahan picks up the story: “I beat my man, then was met by the second line of defense. With two guys on me, I found O’Keefe on the basket.” The Bobcats won, 57–54, giving Furbush his initial NESCAC coaching victory before a rambunctious home crowd in Alumni Gym.

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

For the first time in ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ history, the men’s and women’s basketball teams both finished in the top four of NESCAC, giving the Bobcats homecourt advantage in two first-round playoff games this Saturday.

Ranked No. 3 in NESCAC, the men’s team will host No. 6 Williams at 2 p.m. at Alumni Gymnasium. The women, ranked No. 2 in the conference, will play No. 7 Tufts University at 4 p.m. Admission to both games is free and open to the public.The men’s team finished the regular season 17-7 and 6-3 in NESCAC. Against Trinity on Feb. 12, center Elliott Linsley ’05 (Murrieta, Calif.) secured ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ third-place finish, draining an 18-footer from the right wing as time expired. The Bobcats won 69-67.

Rob Stockwell ’07 (Temple, N.H.) led the Bobcats this season, averaging 16 points and eight rebounds per game. Point guard Zak Ray ’07 (Bangor, Maine) averaged 12 points with five assists, while senior Brian Gerrity (Augusta, Maine) averaged 13 points per game. On Dec. 11, Gerrity became the 26th player in school history to score 1,000 career points.

Finishing the regular season 22-1 and 8-1 in NESCAC, the women’s team ranks No. 1 in the D3hoops.com national poll and No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches’ Poll.

The Bobcats only loss came against then No. 1 Bowdoin on Jan. 14. The Bobcats won their next 10 games, including a 74-62 win over Bowdoin on Feb. 1, but the Jan. 14 matchup was a conference game, giving the Polar Bears top seed in NESCAC.

ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ and Bowdoin finished a combined 4-0 against Colby this season, meaning the Bobcats’ win in February deferred the CBB title — and ultimate bragging rights — to the NESCAC tournament. ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝ and Bowdoin could face each other in the NESCAC championship game next weekend for the third time in as many years.

Forward Olivia Zurek (Arlington, Mass.) averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game her senior year. She recorded 14 double-doubles in 23 games and was named NESCAC Player of the Week three times. She scored her 1,000th career point on Nov. 23 and finished the regular season as ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝â€™ all-time leading rebounder (838). With 1,348 career points, Zurek ranks third in scoring.

Meg Coffin ’07 (Westford, Mass.) provided a presence on the blocks this season, averaging 12 points and seven rebounds per game; she finished the year with three double-doubles.

The men’s and women’s teams faired well against their playoff opponents during the regular season. The men beat Williams on the road, 80-70, while the women beat Tufts, 76-66, also away from Alumni Gymnasium.

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