Here’s an interactive look at six 乐播传媒 places now and when they were under construction between 1998 and 2010.

Lake Andrews

The beloved Puddle’s massive makeover in 1998 began with its complete draining. The restoration included creation of the Keigwin Amphitheater and Burgoyne Lakeside Walk.

Alumni Walk

In one fell swoop between mid-2006 and early 2008, 乐播传媒 created Alumni Walk, a new dining Commons, and a residence hall at 280 College Street.

Alumni Walk passes in front of Lane Hall and behind Parker, Hathorn, Dana, and Hedge halls. Besides replacing the former campus road and parking area once there, it brings architectural coherence to a maturing area of campus.

Commons

By September 2007, construction on Commons and Alumni Walk were heading into the home stretch.

280 College Street

Located on the field between Rand Hall and Mountain Avenue, the residence at 280 College St. includes a lofty signature space, Frank鈥檚 Lounge.

Roger Williams Hall and Hedge Hall

In 2010, former residence halls Roger Williams (1895) and Hedge (1890) were revamped and turned into academic buildings.

Hedge was a chemistry building until 1965, when it turned over its science role to Dana Chemistry Hall.

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College.

Julia Foxworth ’13 of New York City, at right, spent much of April 5 “bombing” a bench on Alumni Walk — yarn bombing, that is.

Aka 鈥済uerrilla knitting鈥� and 鈥済randma graffiti,鈥� yarn bombing is a genre of street art designed to raise awareness of the community environment, and inspire conversation and collaboration. Seeking to bring color and warmth to a concrete bench during a time of year that’s drab, chilly and stressful (finals are next week), Foxworth crocheted the piece with the help of 15 collaborators.

Later in the afternoon, other students were expected to celebrate the piece with ukulele playing, cupcakes, poetry, guerrilla knitting and other creative expressions. “The more color, the more collaborators, the better,” said Foxworth, shown above with classmate and fellow crocheter John Sowles. “The piece reflects the diversity of 乐播传媒.”

The piece was welcomed with simultaneous cries of “That’s so cool!” from passers-by. With the guidance of associate professor Pamela Johnson, art and visual culture major Foxworth undertook this project as an independent study complementary to her art history thesis. After 乐播传媒, Foxworth is off to a master’s program in arts administration at Columbia.

So here we were contemplating the renovation of Hedge and Roger Williams halls and thinking, Steel, baby, steel! It’s all about the steel!

But that’s so two weeks ago. Because now it’s all about the wood.

Hedge, in particular, has blossomed forth with what looks like poetry in lumber: a dense and intricate roof framework that includes big new dormers overlooking the Historic Quad.

It will take another couple weeks to build that out, says project manager Paul Farnsworth, with plywood sheathing soon to appear on the dormer side and the flat center section, and joists going onto the addition, adjacent to Alumni Walk.

Down at ground level, the green construction fence is concealing cool developments involving the Hedge addition. Workers are placing metal studs that will support exterior sheathing, and — if I may lord it over you, yet again, that I have a 6-foot stepladder and you don’t — a peek over the fence will show you what the windows near the building entrance will look like.

In other words, the face of this new campus presence is starting to appear.

The Alumni Walk entrance to the completed addition will extend a premise central to the design of Alumni Walk: that this space should invite passers-through to stop, say “howdy” and set fer a spell. The Hedge entrance plaza will lie a couple feet below Alumni Walk, and the retaining walls between the two levels will make a nice spot to sit and chat.

Inside Hedge, the major steel work is done. Some fireproofing — the gray stuff you can see on the addition, even without a stepladder — has been sprayed on the steel. The MEP guys (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) have worked out where their various connections will run, and are installing hangers to support those ducts, wires and pipes.

Finally, says Farnsworth, “we have a whole ground floor inside now,” with the pouring of a concrete slab a couple weeks ago.

Across the worksite at Roger Williams Hall, it’s all about the . . . never mind. The big news is the second phase of the foundation for the addition that will face New Commons and Alumni Gym. That was poured the week of Sept. 27, and Farnsworth expected the wooden forms to come off this weekend.

Probably the week of Oct. 4, the next step will be taking off the roof — nearly all of it will be removed, excepting the bit toward Garcelon Field where the chimneys are.

Inside, Farnsworth says, “they’re attaching the wood floor joists to the steel, working from the top down.” As the steel takes the floor load, workers are removing the shoring that’s been holding the building up.

“And when they finally get to the ground floor and get the shoring out of the way, the plumbers and everyone else who does stuff underground can finally do the stuff underground.”

.

With the arrival of warm weather, shorts appear on campus, and students line the Alumni Walkway to stroll, talk and study.

Hathorn Hall lines up with a pole light on the Alumni Walkway.

Images of 乐播传媒 College in June 2008. [More…]

Glow in the snow: On Dec. 5, the season鈥檚 first snow reflects the light from LED lamps set into Alumni Walk benches. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

If the schedule holds, in about 10 weeks Dining Services will serve the first meals in the new Commons.

“It’s going to be a fabulous facility,” Dining Services director Christine Schwartz told Campus Construction Update during a conversation about the transition from old to new. Her office, just inside from the loading dock at the old Memorial Commons, was a jumble of cardboard boxes packed, stacked and labeled for the move.

“I can’t tell you what an experience it is to have something start on paper” 鈥� she waved a hand at a tall carton bulging with rolled-up building plans 鈥� “see the outline of it in the foundation, and then see the walls go up, and then the equipment goes in.

“To see it actually come to life and start to breathe is a once-in-a lifetime experience.”

Alumni Walk after a December snowfall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

While some moving could begin as early as Dec. 26, Dining Services expects to take possession of the facility in late January, with training slated for two or three weeks thereafter.

The bulk of the move comes next, from Feb. 15 through 17, the beginning of 乐播传媒’ winter recess. Once the health inspector has looked things over, Schwartz anticipates that by Feb. 20 or so the facility will be ready to dish up. It will be a “soft opening,” with most students and many staff and faculty away.

“We’ll be inviting people as we 鈥� as I like to say 鈥� burn and learn,” she said. “So it’ll give us time to amp up and give everybody some level of comfort before we go to the full board plan.”

A construction worker passes the east entrance to Commons the morning after a snowfall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Show time is slated for the evening of Sunday, Feb. 24, as students return from break and take their first board plan meal in the new Commons.

How much stuff will Dining Services bring from Memorial Commons to the new one? A lot. Tables and chairs are now听being refurbished for use in the new dining hall. Tableware, flatware and serving pieces, all the catering equipment and a lot of office furniture will also go over.

With one major exception, however, the current kitchen equipment has outlived its usefulness to 乐播传媒. The equipment is still serviceable, Schwartz noted, just not for the high level of production needed in the new facility. She’s seeking new homes for the old appliances.

The one item in the culinary arsenal that will go to the new facility is the 2-year-old dishwashing machine. To transfer it, 乐播传媒 will have to remove an interior wall and a window to the outdoors, lower the machine from the second floor of old Commons by crane, haul it to the new building and wall it in at its new location. The move will take about a day, plus disconnecting and reconnecting.

For Schwartz and her staff, the single biggest issue in the transition is training. That’s partly because of new technology. But also, Schwartz noted, coming with the new space is “a whole different approach to what we’re doing.”

The ventilation monitor atop Commons is surrounded by scaffolding for sheet metal workers and glaziers. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

In the present Commons, a large proportion of the staff is tasked with serving food that has been prepared behind the scenes. In the new Commons, most cooking will be done to order, in view of the diners. Because of that shift, Schwartz explained, “we’ve had to change the profile of our dining staff, so we have more production people than service people.”

Restructuring the organization has been effected through attrition and retraining during the past 18 months, she said. “I actually sat down with every employee and asked, ‘What is it you want to be doing?’ So they got, for the most part, to pick what they wanted to do, and I’d say 99 times out of 100 it was a good fit.”

For instance, several people on the service side wanted to move into production. “They’re really, really excited about this, because not only do they get to keep the interaction with students, but then they get to do something with food. It’s been a great growth experience for the staff.”

Schwartz emphasized that her staff numbers will not increase, with the payroll remaining steady at 96 benefited employees and 50 or so on-call workers.

In the next edition of Campus Construction Update, Schwartz reveals her favorite new pieces of kitchen gear and explains what the new Commons experience will be like for diners. Watch for it the week of Jan. 7, 2008.

A view from the mezzanine in Commons on Nov. 26. 2007. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Meanwhile, on the construction front, project manager Paul Farnsworth reported that during the week of Dec. 10 the long-awaited skylight was installed in the ventilation monitor 鈥� that big box on the Commons roof. In the coming days, the monitor will be sheathed in purely cosmetic louvers. The scaffolding that’s been up there for months will finally disappear and the last of the roofing slate will be laid.

Inside the building, a couple of steps that we reported on previously are nearly complete. The room where the Commons’ computer equipment will live has been finished, so that gear will soon be installed and the building hooked into the campus computer net.

In the kitchen and servery areas, the ceiling grid has been hung, a procession of inspectors have made their inspections, and the ceiling tiles are about to go in. In that same part of the facility, Farnsworth added, “our first batch of countertops showed up on Dec. 8,” with another shipment due by the 14th.

With Pettengill Hall in the distance, Commons is still missing doors and some glass in December 2007. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

In the dining area, the ceiling made of recycled wood slats has been punch-listed 鈥� that is, inspected for defects 鈥� the overhead lights are all in place, and gray zinc trim is being installed around the windows.

Speaking of zinc, we asked about the green membrane underlying the zinc that’s being applied around the west entrance. Because wood and zinc expand and contract at different rates, that isolating barrier keeps them from damaging each other when the temperature changes, Farnsworth explained.

And when will the ugly plywood doors go away and the proper exterior doors be hung? Pretty soon, Farnsworth said. “We’re holding off with those doors because that’s the way we’re taking out the larger lifts” 鈥� the scissor lifts that allow workers to reach high ceilings and walls.

General contractor Consigli Construction “has put out an edict for the next couple of weeks 鈥� ‘You’ve got to get your work done, because we’re going to be closing up the front door and the lifts have to go.’ ”

Shown on Dec. 11, 2007, the west entrance of Commons still lacks some glass and trim, as well as its doors. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Readers write: Monthe Kofos ’11 wondered what the many small, shiny projections on the new Commons roof are. They’re snow guards, Farnsworth responded.

“These are intended to hold the snow pack and prevent it from sliding off as one large block of snow, as happens on Underhill and Merrill.”

Kofos also听asked if the fireplace lounge will have a piano, as is indicated by an artist’s rendering of the space. No piano has been selected yet for the lounge, Farnsworth replied.

An image in the previous update, which depicted the three major Alumni Walk pathways that approach the Commons, evoked a question from other readers: Why does the middle pathway stop short? Answer: The grassy expanse between that path and the building will accommodate the large tents that 乐播传媒 erects for special occasions.

Alumni Walk: Finally, is the Outing Club camping out under two blue plastic tarps on Alumni Walk? Nope. Those tarps are protecting the concrete bases for two granite installations, of which one听will display the college’s name听and the other will honor generations of 乐播传媒 alums. The听concrete needs to be kept warm while it cures.

Farnsworth explained that a search is continuing for the appropriate granite for the installations, and they will be completed as soon as that stone is found.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process?What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update returns the week of Jan. 7, 2008. If you just can’t do without until then, visit听the complete collection of Campus Construction Updates. And tell all your friends!

The frame will support a tent that will retain warm air to help the concrete base for a granite installation to cure. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Seen here from Mount David, the new student housing is essentially finished. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Just a few months ago, new construction projects at 乐播传媒 were transforming a swath of campus that extended from Mount David to Merrill Gym.

Now, like a Hollywood crane shot where the camera swoops down from lofty to intimate, the focus of construction at 乐播传媒 is closing in on the interior of the new dining Commons.

Let’s recap. In mid-August, the new student housing at 280 College St. opened for occupancy. The work that was awaiting completion at that point is now all but done, project manager Pam Wichroski said. What’s left, besides a few finishing touches on the exterior, is a final sweep of inspecting and correcting details.

Hathorn Hall seen from the foot of the new stairway connecting the Lane Hall courtyard and Alumni Walk. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

That “punch-list” process should be polished off during the Christmas break, Wichroski said. And that, for all practical purposes, will be that.

Because general contractor H.E. Callahan of Auburn has warranted the project for a year, it’s not impossible that we’ll see workers on the premises again after the current punch list is done, Wichroski noted.

“Of course, while you’re using the building you might notice different things — you might find that you’ve got a bad light fixture because the bulb keeps going out, or something like that. That’s just pretty standard. So it’s just keeping up with all of those things for the rest of the warranty, and then it will truly be a 乐播传媒-maintained building.”

The reborn Class of 1910 Gate. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Near completion, too, is Alumni Walk. Linking College Street with Central Avenue and 280 College with the new dining Commons, that project occupies two and a half central acres of campus. The area’s importance to cross-campus traffic became abundantly clear during the summer when general contractor Consigli Construction closed off large sections of it.

But the last construction fences have come down and the chore list has gotten short. The installation the other week of a handrail along the concrete steps between Lane and Pettengill halls completed one of the Walk’s last prominent pieces, the new amphitheater facing Lake Andrews.

Black stones on a roof and an Alumni Walk view. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

All that remains for major work on the walk is the placement of two granite installations. One of them, 12 feet long and bearing the words “乐播传媒 College,” will be set at the College Street entrance of the walk. Near Pettengill Hall, a 20-foot piece will recognize the role played by Jack ’59 and Beverly Keigwin P’86 in making the walk possible as a tribute to generations of 乐播传媒 alumni.

Each installation will consist of several two-foot-high chunks of cut black granite lined up on a concrete base. Diagonal gaps between the chunks will mirror the pathways that crisscross Alumni Walk. The foundations have been started, Farnsworth said, and the granite will be put in place in the weeks to come.

An unfinished skylight in the new Commons. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

In other landscaping news, the iron Class of 1910 Gate has been reassembled on its new brick piers. The gate now marks the south听access to a plaza around the entrance to the new Commons.

Near the gate, serviceberry trees have been planted in the new viewing garden that will soothe any sore eyes that happen to peer from the Commons’ southern windows. A layer of smooth black stones, identical to the ones covering certain roofs visible from inside Commons, will top the crushed rock now blanketing the garden.

Finally, the new Commons itself: With only a few sheets of window glass yet to be installed, the last major tasks on the exterior are the completion of the ventilation monitor at the building’s peak, and then the installation of slate roofing that’s been waiting for the monitor.

The new bakery. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Glass for the monitor’s skylight has arrived and a crane will come in to hang it next week, essentially completing that long-awaited step, Farnsworth said. The roofing should be done by Christmas.

As noted, most of the action nowadays is inside the Commons. The process of systems-testing called “commissioning” has begun, with local architecture firm Harriman Associates as agent. Farnsworth noted that there are 84 line items on the commissioning list, with some line items covering many examples of a given item. Faucets, for example.

A task scheduled for completion this week will simplify the commissioning. Farnsworth expected that the building’s connections to the campus computer net would be established, enabling some systems to be tested remotely.

“We need that connection for a number of things,” Farnsworth said. “For commissioning the security system, and then the building automation system which controls the heat. It’s a lot easier to commission all that equipment over the network.”

Farnsworth got us going when he mentioned that ceiling installers were “flooding” the kitchen and servery areas. Did they puncture a pipe? Nope: Instead, flooding is the verb the pros use where the rest of us might say that we have hung a big bunch of ceiling tiles. Farnsworth added that this particular expanse of ceiling gets an attractive double-layer treatment, with black tiles suspended above a white grid.

The Vegan Station. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

He estimated that three-quarters of the non-portable kitchen equipment was in place. The big push now, he explained, was on countertops and cabinetry.

Elsewhere in the building, as Farnsworth explained, “they’re into finishes.”

Painting is moving apace, elegant black masabi granite countertops have been installed in the meeting rooms, and granite wall veneers are nearly all in place.

In the fireplace lounge, whose windows are nearly done, the granite hearth and gas-burning fireplace are installed. Occupants of the lounge will be able to turn on the fire with a timer system, Farnsworth explained. “That way we don’t have to worry about someone forgetting to shut it off.”

Back in the distance is the Euro Grill. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Farnsworth went on to paint an alluring picture of this signature space: A walnut-composite floor, maple wall paneling, comfy furniture and floor lamps, and bookshelves that can be moved to serve as “walls” for hanging art.

Finally, we’ll return to the great outdoors and the new parking lot just opened behind Merrill Gym. With the city’s winter parking restrictions taking effect Dec. 1, the lot’s 70 spaces have come into service just in the nick of time.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates.

Fall arrives, leaves: Changing foliage frames 280 College St. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

There’s a scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where Clarence, guardian angel to James Stewart’s character George Bailey, comments that in Heaven, nobody uses money.

Bailey retorts, “Comes in pretty handy down here, bub.”

A parallel may apply to a 乐播传媒 construction project that has its own holiday connection. The project isn’t inspiring like Alumni Walk, magnificent like the new dining Commons or heartwarming like the new student housing. But a new parking lot behind Merrill Gymnasium that should open around Thanksgiving will come in handy, bub, easing the squeeze that 乐播传媒 motorists have felt the past six months.

An asphalt base coat for the 70-vehicle lot was laid Oct. 19. Between now and the holiday, a path will be paved from the new lot to the existing walkway between the athletics complex and Central Avenue. Merrill’s existing back doors will open onto new concrete pads and the parking area.

North Bardwell Street crosses the three main Alumni Walk paths. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The parking crunch began with the removal of spaces behind the old tennis courts on Central Avenue for the new Commons, and along Andrews Road for Alumni Walk. But Paul Farnsworth, manager of those projects, reported that the college will ultimately realize a net gain of 17 spaces.

He added that three existing handicapped spaces near Alumni Walk are being widened and restriped to meet current standards, and four new spaces are being added next to them. Six spaces will be created next to the new Commons for service vehicles.

Alumni Walk: If 90 percent of life is just showing up, as Woody Allen reputedly said, 90 percent of construction work seems to be paving.

The major paving for 乐播传媒’ new east-west connector was finished on Oct. 22, Farnsworth reported. That includes the many asphalt paths that crisscross the walk and a larger blacktop expanse extending North Bardwell Street 鈥� better known as the parking area for Smith and Adams halls 鈥� across the Alumni Walk corridor.

Looking west on the walk. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

At the same time, the service road behind Chase Hall, from Campus Avenue to Alumni Gym, got its long-awaited final coat of blacktop.

Also on the asphalt front, preparations are underway for a base coat at the foot of the new amphitheater, situated between Pettengill and Lane Halls and facing Lake Andrews. That base will be topped with an apron of the same cut-and-polished asphalt blocks used on the main Alumni Walk paths. Farnsworth noted that the concrete risers and the steps for the amphitheater are done.

Finally in Alumni Walk news, installation of LED lights in the concrete benches has begun, and the job should be听finished next week.

New dining Commons: History of sorts was made during the 乐播传媒-Middlebury football game Oct. 20 when Panther kicker Jack Britton’s extra point sailed through the uprights and smack into the huge windows on the Garcelon Field side of Commons.

The first pigskin-glass contact in Commons history “made quite a thud,” said Jay Burns, editor of 乐播传媒 Magazine. “You could see the glass vibrate.” The incident didn’t faze Farnsworth, also in attendance, who said that the contractor has no concerns about the glass breaking.

New Commons construction. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Just in case, though, Farnsworth had already ordered a net to catch high-flying pigskins.

In fact, most of the window glass has been installed, with the west entrance and the fireplace lounge among major features still unglazed. Farnsworth added that the skylight for the ventilation monitor 鈥� that big box on top of the roof 鈥� should be shipped by the end of the month. Once that’s installed, the last patch of slate roofing, on the south side, can be laid.

All of this work will make the shell of the building essentially weathertight.

Speaking of roofs and weathertightness, Farnsworth said that air handlers had been mounted on the roof over the kitchen on Oct. 19. That equipment won’t be operating for some time but at least, as Farnsworth pointed out, “it seals the roof openings.”

Meanwhile, masons have made good progress laying pavers around the new Commons. The main entrance approaches are being covered with the same kind of gray granite used at the College Street entrance to Alumni Walk, while walks and other areas get the asphalt blocks.

Commons’ west entrance. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Also echoing Alumni Walk is a sitting area along the north side of the building at the entrance to the Emporium, the facility’s “convenience store.” Here, along with a table and wooden benches, you’ll eventually find polished concrete benches resembling the risers in the amphitheater.

Inside Commons, the recycled wood cladding on the dining hall ceiling is about half completed. And the paving 鈥� er, tiling 鈥� of the servery walls is in progress. There was a delay there, Farnsworth noted, because the tiles originally ordered from Italy were held up in shipping. They’ve been supplanted by tiles from Texas that arrived on the 20th.

Finally, in our effort to leave no piece of paving news unreported, bub, Farnsworth said that concrete for the floor of the loading dock will be poured next week. The concrete is formulated to resist the corrosive effects of road salt.

Readers write: Shirley Serrao ’11 wanted to know what provisions would be made for playing music in the new Commons. “The facility has an integrated speaker system,” Farnsworth replied. “The rooms are divided into zones that can be controlled independently for music or public address.

New Commons. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“The fireplace lounge is also equipped with its own audio amplifier, microphone and speaker system so you could DJ an iPod performance or amplify a small string quartet.”

Serrao also wrote: “I can’t wait for the new Commons to open; we’re going to have another fireplace!”

New student housing: Serrao is likely referring to the fireplace in 280 College Street 鈥� specifically, in that signature gathering place called Frank’s Lounge. Made possible by a gift from Bruce Stangle ’70 and Emily Siegel Stangle ’72, the lounge named in honor of Bruce’s father, Frank J. Stangle, will be dedicated during a Trustee luncheon on Oct. 26.

Meanwhile, about 10 workers, give or take a few according to the day, are still on the job at 280 College St. Some are continuing to work on exterior trim. Others are pursuing the building’s commissioning, a process in which a third party 鈥� local architecture firm Harriman Associates 鈥� is testing the building’s nonstructural systems.

We were interested to learn from project manager Pam Wichroski that the commissioning process is now into the automated controls for systems such as heat, plumbing and some of the electrical.

She explained that computers in Facility Services headquarters, two long blocks away at the Cutten Maintenance Center, are being tied into the residence’s computers so that these systems can be monitored and even remotely controlled.

“For example, if there’s no hot water in a bathroom, we can take a look and make sure that the pumps are running, water heaters are running, what the temperatures are set at,” Wichroski said. “And we can adjust that remotely.” Facility Services staff are being trained to use these systems now.

Frank’s Lounge. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The same network of sensors, controls and computers will feed information to the “dashboard” monitor in the building’s center core enabling residents to monitor their resource use. This display, slated to go into service soon, will initially register the usage for the whole building. Later it will be modified to show data for different sections of the building.

As for the exterior trim work around glass-walled areas that has been going on all autumn, the contractor has had issues in making the window system airtight, Wichroski explained. The College has brought in a third party to test and monitor this work, in a parallel to the third-party commissioning process mentioned above.

“We’re making sure it’s absolutely right before the final finish goes on,” she said. Wichroski did not say “bub,” but we could hear it in her tone.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you, bub. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update appears every other week. See an index of earlier updates here.

Fireside chat: Donna Rampersad 鈥�08 of Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago, speaks with Kimal McCarthy 鈥�09 of Nantucket, Mass.,听in Frank鈥檚 Lounge at the new student housing. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The new dining Commons should be open for business when students return from break on Feb. 25, project manager Paul Farnsworth reported. And it’s hoped that construction work will be complete about a month prior to the opening.

While there’s still plenty to do on the 60,000-square-foot facility, recent progress has been “amazing,” Farnsworth said. “You walk through and notice things, and it’s like, ‘When did they do that?’ ”

At this point, he explained, a kind of snowball effect is prevailing. The more things that are finished, the more things can be finished.

The construction site is fenceless along the Commons鈥� north face.
(Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College).

“If there’s something they can do without being in the way of something else, it’s being done,” he said.

So, for instance, the wiring for the public address system is in place. Sprinkler heads are being installed. Even shelf brackets in custodial closets are being hung.

But the biggest news may be that meetings have begun in anticipation of the building’s commissioning 鈥� the process of bringing in a third party to test mechanical, electrical and other systems. As with the new student housing, the local architecture firm Harriman Associates will perform the commissioning.

Seen through glass, the dining hall鈥檚 wood ceiling. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Other big news? Heat from the campus steam plant was turned on in the new Commons during the last week of October. “It was a big milestone,” Farnsworth said. And on Nov. 5,听the emergency generator’s diesel engine听was tested. That was significant for the entire campus, since a set of electric pumps that return “used steam” 鈥� condensate 鈥� to the central steam plant is located in Commons. If electricity goes out during a winter storm, at least there will be heat.

The decorative recycled-wood ceiling veneer over the main dining area is complete, although, as Farnsworth reminded us, “there’s a difference between complete and accepted.” Let the tweaking begin. Light fixtures in that area are being installed, too. “They hang down, so it adds depth to the ceiling,” Farnsworth said. “It looks nicer” than the unadorned wood strips.

Birches at Commons’ east entrance. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Nearby, the wall tiles in the servery are virtually finished. Black granite veneer has gone up in a number of interior sites, from the shaft leading up to the central skylight to the space around the grand staircase near the dining hall. And construction of that staircase itself is well along.

Meanwhile, Farnsworth expects delivery of only two more tractor-trailer loads of kitchen equipment, both this month.

High atop the building, the first section of the central skylight should be installed in the boxlike ventilation monitor by Nov. 12, Farnsworth said. Most of the building’s windows are in place, with the fireplace lounge glass being the major section still outstanding.

Meanwhile, at ground level, the construction fence is gone from the worksite bordering Garcelon Field, and sod has been laid there.

Around the corner near the east entrance, trademark Alumni Walk paper birches have been planted. Sitting nearby, their roots bundled up, waiting to be planted, are several serviceberry trees (aka juneberry, shadblow, shadbush or Amelanchier canadensis). Stored near Central Avenue now, they’ll actually be planted in a new garden visible from the dining hall, near the Class of 1910 Gate.

The serviceberries are highly decorative trees that leaf out early in spring and make an attractive white fuzz in the process. They also produce edible berries in the summer (if you’re just too hungry to struggle onward to the Commons) and showy foliage in autumn.

The trees will be set in a field of smooth, small black stones, echoing the dark gray granite that is such a dominant motif, and a new one to 乐播传媒, on the Commons and Alumni Walk. Similar small stones, Farnsworth noted, will be laid on the small awning-like roofs around the building. The idea is to mask gunk that accumulates in such areas over time and that would be visible from higher windows.

Turf stacked near the plaza at the 1910 Gate. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Readers write: Helon Hoffer ’08 had a question about the asphalt pavers on the wider of Alumni Walk’s two main paths. This 20-foot-wide lane is divided lengthwise into two patterns. “Why is it split like this?” Helon asked.

Farnsworth responded: “The concept for Alumni Walk was two 10-foot-wide parallel paths. However, emergency vehicle access required us to make one path 20 feet wide. So we kept the concept of the two 10-foot paths through the pattern in the paving. Half of the 20-foot path is paved the same way as the 10-foot path.”

The amphitheater鈥檚 base at Lane Hall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Alumni Walk: Although it’s virtually complete, the last section of the walk, stretching 240 feet westward from the new Commons, remains fenced in to protect the new grass. (New grass elsewhere in the vicinity hasn’t been so lucky, as protective string cordons have been yanked out and the emerging sprouts trampled in spots.) The fence will be removed “before winter really hits,” Farnsworth said.

So there’s at least one reason to look forward to winter.

Within the fence, a wide lane of asphalt pavers extends听the Commons entrance plaza southward to join, via the reconstructed 1910 Gate, the Alumni Gym service road.

Finally, the amphitheater occupying the banking between Lane and Pettengill halls is about done. All that remains is some finish paving around the plaza at its base, the placement of grass around the big concrete risers, and the installation of a handrail along the staircase.

Those steps, which go from the Lake Andrews parking lot to Alumni Walk, will be electrically heated to keep snow and ice from building up. “With the numbers of people that use that and the length of a snowstorm, you could have someone there sweeping them continuously,” Farnsworth explained. “It just made sense from a safety standpoint to melt the snow off.”

New student housing: Project manager Pam Wichroski laughed when Campus Construction Update, feeling an emotion like childhood impatience on Christmas morning, asked: “Are we done yet?”

280 College Street. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Not quite, she replied. But we’re getting there. The exterior wood ceilings underneath the bridges 鈥� midair breezeways that link the building’s three sections 鈥� are about finished. But the ceiling sections that abut the buildings still need to be closed up with an insulating exterior coating resembling plaster.

In addition, Wichroski said, crews will be using an elaborate vibrating vacuum system to remove hardened dust deposits from the air ducts 鈥� stuff that regular vacuuming won’t touch.

Beyond that, and details like signage and pavement stripes, much of what remains is what insiders call “punch-list items” 鈥� details that were revealed, by the punch-list inspection, to need more work. For example, Wichroski offered tasks like “touching up drywall and paint, cleaning paint off things that paint doesn’t belong on, touching up seams in carpeting that we didn’t think were all that great. Minor things.”

“We’re moving from the east flanker,” or wing, “doing the punch-list, and then we’ll go to the west flanker,” she said. “Each side’s taken about two weeks to do. And then there’s the center building 鈥� a lot of that work, we’re going to try to hold off on until Christmas break. We don’t want them doing any work while finals are going on.”

As the earth churns. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

And after that? “The intent is that this phase is final. So they’re going through and then we’ll take a look at it again, and hopefully this time through that’s it. They’re done.”

Stay tuned, and have a happy Thanksgiving. Campus Construction Update returns the week of Nov. 26.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you, bub. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates.听We aim to publish every other week.

From left, Ladd Library, Alumni Gym, Roger Bill and the new Commons. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)