Garry Jenkins told a gathering on Sept. 7 that he has noticed a frequent theme in chatting with members of the college community: their warm feelings for 104-year-old Chase Hall. 

“They tell me about special, unforgettable moments that happened here,” Jenkins, president of �ֲ���ý since July, said to a crowd celebrating the building’s re-opening after an in-depth renovation that began last year. 

Former students recall sharing meals in Chase with friends, attending dances and club meetings, and enjoying casual encounters while checking their post-office boxes, Jenkins said. And even as longtime services were relocated from Chase in recent years, leaving students fewer reasons to visit, there was “still something about Chase that made it part of the beating heart of this campus,” he said.

“Now, after 14 months of renovation and rejuvenation, it’s absolutely fantastic [and] ready to bring students and faculty back — throwing open the doors, welcoming people in, ready to be relevant.”

Restoring the relevance of Chase was high on the list as the long-planned renovation tackled a variety of goals: consolidating Student Affairs staff and functions in a handy location, improving physical access to the building, making wayfinding easier, and brightening and opening up spaces once dim and confined.

Moreover, in keeping with other recent building projects at �ֲ���ý, Chase gained not only new spaces for students to study, meet, or zone out, but a wild diversity of configurations and appointments for those spaces. Even the former Dining Services loading dock, now considered part of a plaza that faces Muskie Archives, has been transformed into a place to take one’s ease.

There are ”one million interesting, comfortable nooks and crannies where you can hide out if you need to make a call, review your notes, or have a mindful few minutes,” estimated another speaker at the reopening, Allen Delong, senior associate dean for Purposeful Work and one of the building’s new inhabitants.

“It’s my hope for each of us that we get to know the timeless, beautiful multi-use spaces like Hirasawa and Skelton lounges, and the lovely little quirky ones that you’ll discover on your own,” Delong said to students at the reopening. “Over the years, alumni have made great memories in this building, and starting today you should, too.”

The ceremony took place in the Chase Hall courtyard in a dreamlike haze of angled sun and temps nudging 90. Also speaking was Geoff Swift, �ֲ���ý vice president for finance and administration and treasurer, who joined Jenkins in thanking the parties who helped bring the renovation to a successful conclusion — including Pam Wichroski, retired head of capital planning and construction, who was an early advocate for the project.

Student government Co-President Dhruv Chandra ’25 helped Jenkins and Swift cut the wide garnet ribbon to end the re-opening formalities, whereupon some 250 folks attending the event made for the refreshment tables or entered Chase for a look around. 

Wrapping up: The city of Lewiston issued a certificate of occupancy for Chase on Aug. 25, and staff representing six Student Affairs functions moved in during the last four days of August. (Those functions are Campus Life, Community Standards, Dean of Students, Intercultural Education, Purposeful Work, and Residence Life & Health Education.)

With construction still in progress — because of final repairs from the July rainstorm that drove water into �ֲ���ý buildings including Chase — the move-in was “crazy,” said Paul Farnsworth, senior project manager for �ֲ���ý Facility Services. “But par for the course.” 

“It was challenging, as renovation projects are,” said project manager Kristi Mynhier. “You never know what to expect, and this has been no different. But altogether we had the right team on board” — including the college’s project management staff, construction management firm Consigli Construction, and the architect, Canal Five Studio of Portland, Maine.

“We all worked together as a team and never lost sight of that.”

A few construction chores are still going on, primarily testing new building systems and closing out defects found during the punch-list inspections. 

We took our own look around an hour before the ribbon-cutting. We parked our chassis briefly at the inviting, elevated first-floor scenic viewpoint known as the Overnook, oohed and aahed at lots of colorful furniture, scampered up and down the Central Stair like innocent tots, and admired the expanded, glass-walled reception area for the Office of Intercultural Education.

The carpeting was nice in the Central Stair (and color-coded so you’ll know what level you’re on) and we liked the old-meets-new aesthetic created there by bare brick, glossy wood, and stainless-steel handrails. We also appreciated the bright new finishes applied to portions of Chase otherwise not involved in the renovation, such as the stairway and passage from the lobby to Memorial Commons, and the venerable second-floor Skelton and Hirasawa lounges.

Chase was mostly quiet for our inspection. We encountered only a lost student late for an appointment, a carpenter fitting wooden doors on the second floor, a few alumni happily agog at the building’s look and layout, and Chris Streifel, director of capital projects, at work on his laptop and enjoying the view from the Res Life reception area.

An exception to the tranquillity was in the Center for Purposeful Work, on the first floor, where Delong and other staff were abuzz with the excitement of their attractive new digs. Hoi Ning Ngai, director of employer engagement and business advising, gave us a quick tour. “I love the light,” she said — PW’s corner suite basks in southern sun that pours in through expanses of glass, including the new “lightwell,” a staircase-turned-atrium at the main Campus Avenue entrance. 

Ngai pointed out newly showcased features of the old building’s original architecture, such as prominent wooden trusses that help keep the whole works standing. And she explained that the office culture in Purposeful Work is dynamic. Only Delong and Sheila Anderson, director of operations, marketing and outreach, have permanently assigned offices, while everyone else floats, supported by such apparatus as unobtrusive employee lockers and rewriteable name plaques next to office doors.

Seems like a fitting example for students preparing for post-graduation workplaces much changed from even a few years ago. 

Folks attending the Sept. 7 reopening of Chase Hall look and listen as President Garry Jenkins offers remarks prior to the ribbon-cutting. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Seen from the Kenison Gate, this image of Chase Hall was taken an hour or so prior to its re-opening ceremony, on Sept. 7. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Looking upward in the lightwell, part of Chase Hall’s reconfigured main entrance onto Campus Avenue. Once this shaft was a stairwell. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A student worker checks in at the Center for Purposeful Work, in newly renovated Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This “bar” in the Purposeful Work suite is equipped with lockers for staff and student workers to stow their stuff. The angled wooden beams are load-bearing trusses that are original to century-old Chase Hall and have been left exposed as a reminder of the building’s long history. (Kristi Mynhier/�ֲ���ý College)

Oak stair treads, blond high-tech floor decking, LED accent lights, and metal handrails all add to the Central Stair’s stylish appeal. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Looking up through the Central Stair. The blond wood is cross-laminated timber, a wood product that’s greener than a traditional concrete and steel structure and much faster to install. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This meeting room in Chase Hall’s new Student Affairs office suite houses a rugged fireplace original to the century-old building. The projecting brick pattern is replicated in decorative brick insets flanking the main Chase entrance. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Comfy seating in the Residence Life offices. Stacked on the windowsill are board games that Res Life staff can borrow for student social events. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In its latest incarnation, the once-clubby Chase Hall Lounge has a decidely businesslike look. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall Lounge post-renovation. Note the new location of the entrance, and to the right of that, the three indented rectangles — exterior windows that were bricked in when the building was expanded in the late 1940s. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This seating area in the Student Affairs offices is situated about where art and stationery supplies were displayed in the College Store’s Chase Hall days. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view through glass of the lightwell from Chase Hall’s second-floor lobby. Applying black paint around the windows was among the last chores undertaken in the building’s 14-month makeover. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Daylight in a flex office space in Chase Hall’s Purposeful Work suite. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Cafe-style furniture lends an Old World ambience to this patio created from what was formerly the Dining Services loading dock. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Summery summary: Does a tree falling in the woods make a sound if there’s no one around to hear it (or if someone is there but plugging their ears and singing “La, la, la!” to block it out)?

Does construction take place at �ֲ���ý if Campus Construction Update doesn’t cover it?

We are not credentialed to address the first question. But we can confirm the existence, against all odds, of �ֲ���ý construction that we haven’t covered.

During summer 2023, for instance, Campus Construction Update failed to tell you about new window units being installed at the Residential Village (a project begun in 2022, when we also didn’t mention it). Nor about new finishes beautifying the Plavin Dance Studio locker room, nor modern desks replacing the antediluvian units in two Hathorn Hall classrooms. But those things happened!

Meanwhile, among non–Chase Hall projects that we did bestir ourselves to tell you about, three that �ֲ���ý had planned for the summer are done. (Still outstanding are repairs to Carnegie Science related to water damage from the July 25 cataclysm, but Smith and Hedge halls are fully back to their pre-flood selves.)

The inaugural contest on the brand-new Garcelon Field playing surface took place on Sept. 9, as women’s soccer welcomed Emerson College. The Bobcats didn’t prevail, but Head Coach Joe Vari said that the season opener “was extra-special with the new turf. The surface plays great and makes Garcelon a premier sports complex in Maine.” 

On Sept. 1, improvements to the attic of Hathorn Hall were completed, as builders finished repairing the platform beneath the bell tower, improving the ladder to the hatch leading to the roof, and activating a new HVAC machine. “We were able to wrap up just in the nick of time,” said Project Manager Brian Lanoie.

Also including new walkways, lighting, and retractable stairs for attic access, the project set the stage for replacement of the mechanism for sounding Hathorn’s historic bell. Preparations specific to that job are ongoing.

Finally, at the end of August, representatives from the West Coast firm DBPC finished installing high technology that drives �ֲ���ý’ new Immersive Media Studio. Room 110 in Coram Library is home to the so-called IMStudio, which will enable the elevation of art and performance pieces to new levels of interactivity and sensory stimulation. (Imagine the Star Trek universe “holodecks,” but with less-predictable plot points.)

DBPC also provided training for faculty and staff who will work with students in operating the facility, which comprises four windowless walls coated in “projector screen” paint and an overhead grid that supports the active technology.

During the training “we installed projectors and speakers, and learned how to program the various components of the network system,” said Associate Professor of Theater Tim Dugan. Dugan and Carolina González Valencia, associate professor of art and visual culture, are co–principal investigators of the grant that funded the project. 

“When we tested some video and sound from [music professor] Asha Tamirisa’s and Carolina’s projects for the first time, it was magical. We were elated,” Dugan said.

The IMStudio is an expression of the �ֲ���ý Arts Collaborative program called IMPACT 21st (Innovation, Media, Process, Arts, Collaboration, and Technology for the 21st century), a multifaceted approach to supporting students and faculty engaging in technology-based arts practices and education.

The IMStudio will host “visiting artists to exhibit and/or perform their state-of-the-art works for the community while engaging with students,” Dugan continued. “This will provide faculty, staff, and students with opportunities to integrate technology into the arts curriculum through regular workshops and training, and artist residency programs.”

More broadly, adds González, it’s hoped that the facility will “create the space to collaborate between different disciplines and academic units.”

Needless to say, the studio’s potential for both creativity and education is ripe for exploration. In terms of public exposure, plans for a “soft opening” are afoot, and an arts-faculty collaboration and open house in early December are also in the works. “I couldn’t be more excited about the potential that the IMStudio has to offer the �ֲ���ý community,” Dugan said.

Thanks to Aaron Morse, associate athletic communications director, for additional reporting.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you. Please send questions, comments, and reminiscences about construction at �ֲ���ý College to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “La, la, la!” in the subject line.

One of the destructive torrential rains that have characterized this summer in New England hit Lewiston and Auburn on July 25.

Across the Twin Cities, the evening storm dumped nearly four inches of rain in less than two hours. It flooded streets, buckled pavements, and briefly shut off electricity to hundreds of residents.

In �ֲ���ý’ neighborhood, the municipal stormwater drainage system was overwhelmed by the runoff. That meant that instead of entering that system as intended, much of the rain falling on �ֲ���ý stayed at �ֲ���ý, backing up into buildings and damaging walls, floors, and some equipment — and sparking an impressive cleanup response by the college’s Facilities Services team.

One of those buildings was Chase Hall — nearly ready to reopen after a 14-month renovation that is making this century-old student center a place that’s more welcoming and easier to navigate.

The storm hit one day after all the new furniture for Chase had arrived, three days before the city of Lewiston was scheduled to conduct its formal occupancy inspection, and less than a week before Student Affairs staff were scheduled to move in.

Most of the damage consisted of wet wallboard and carpeting (some of which was installed just hours before the storm). For the most part, the flood was less than an inch deep, but that was enough to necessitate throwing away new carpet and replacing strips of new wallboard adjoining the floor, along with the attached trim strips called “cove base.”

The stormwater affected portions of the lowest floors of Chase: a Residence Life office suite, the ground floor lobby, the Student Affairs offices in the former College Store site, and the bottom level of the new Central Stair.

That Central Stair location, in fact, was the scene of the most concentrated water damage. The pit at the base of the new elevator shaft filled up with water, which immersed and thereby ruined both the device that controls elevator speed and the cable that raises and lowers the car.

Still, as Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth pointed out during our visit on Aug. 1, the pit sequestered a lot of water that could have caused more widespread trouble elsewhere.

So now, more than two weeks after the deluge, where do things stand with Chase?

The city inspection that precedes the building’s certification for occupancy has been rescheduled for Aug. 25. An opening ceremony for the remodeled Chase is planned for Sept. 7.

And sometime in between, on a date or dates still to be determined, staff for Residence Life, the Center for Purposeful Work, and other Student Affairs functions will move into their new offices.

Just to give you some perspective, Student Affairs’ first heavy lift of the new school year — helping the new �ֲ���ýies of the Class of 2027 get settled in — commences on Aug. 31. (For a different kind of perspective, the Bobcat Den reopens Aug. 28 after being closed for much too long.)

If the cloud-and-silver-lining metaphor seems tacky in this instance, it’s still true that the storm’s impact on Chase could have been much worse. Much of the building’s new furniture had been placed in storm-affected areas, but waterproof legs and feet resisted any damage. Replacement of the damaged wallboard is underway, and replacement carpet will be laid after the walls are repainted.

And as Farnsworth pointed out, “If this had happened three weeks later, everyone would have moved in and I would have had to move them all out again.”

The storm’s scrambling of the original Chase timetable has even conferred certain advantages. For example, with the move-in delayed, the project team has been able to tackle so-called day-two items — tasks normally left until after the certificate of occupancy has been issued. “We’re able to get a lot of that work done now, rather than having to come back after the building’s occupied,” said Kristi Mynhier, �ֲ���ý’ project manager for Chase.

In at least one case, in fact, the storm even hastened Chase past a major milestone. As Mynhier explains, it was desirable to get the HVAC system running to help dry out the building. That entailed connecting the system to the campus-wide network of HVAC sensors and controls. So that got done faster than anticipated.

Meanwhile, in areas of Chase that didn’t get wet, the renovation is winding down. With the countertop and other woodwork now in place at the Overnook, the first-floor lobby is about done. The glass walls and doors have been installed around the reception area for the Office of Intercultural Education. And technicians are installing card-access readers in a variety of locations.

As noted, Chase wasn’t the only �ֲ���ý building harmed by the storm: Carnegie Science, Smith, Hedge, and Kalperis halls were the others. “Merrill Gym and Lindholm House had water that was removed, but no real damage to finishes,” notes Jay Phillips, director of Facility Services operations. (There was water erosion and other damage to the campus grounds, too.)

Phillips adds that some 40 �ֲ���ý staffers, including custodians and folks in the building trades, were involved in the clean-up and subsequent repairs. A crew from the cleaning and restoration company ServPro also helped out.

Nearly a week after a storm soaked floors in Chase Hall, getting things dry was still a priority. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

An Aug. 1 image from the Student Affairs office suite shows the aftermath of the July 25 rain: new carpet has been discarded, a 12-inch strip of wallboard removed, and a dehumidifier and fan are drying things out. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Just prior to the July 25 deluge, this Residence Life office had been fully carpeted. Stormwater entering through an HVAC condensate drain soaked, and spoiled, parts of the new carpet that were subsequently stripped out for replacement. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

One outcome of the July 25 stormwater backup into Chase Hall was a profusion of trash cans staged on the loading dock for emptying. But soon the dock, with furniture like something from a Parisian sidewalk cafe, will be a place for repose and for socializing. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A new Purposeful Work interview room on Chase Hall’s second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Plastic covers still protect much of the new furniture in a second-floor lounge in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

At 89 inches, this television in a second-floor Chase Hall lounge is �ֲ���ý’ largest flatscreen. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Sitting at a new table amidst other furnishings awaiting deployment, a member of the Consigli Construction staff works in Chase Hall Lounge. Note the remodeled ceiling, and the relocated wall in the background. The territory beyond will belong to the Center for Purposeful Work. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

At one time this wall separating the Central Stair and Chase Hall Lounge was the rear outside wall of Chase Hall. During the recent renovation, the old window openings were restored and reglazed to add visual interest to the building’s interior. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Inspired by �ֲ���ý Manufacturing Company bedspreads, woven in Lewiston, decorative metalwork has been applied to the front of the Overnook in Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall’s newly renovated main lobby. The stairway to the left of center leads to Memorial Commons. The corridor at center, adjacent to the new Overnook, leads to the Central Stair. The new staircase behind the column emerges on the second floor at Skelton and Hirasawa lounges. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The stairs and corridor to Memorial Commons have been snazzed up with new paint, floor and step coverings, and handrails. The blue material provides temporary protection to the new flooring. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This seating area in the Center for Purposeful Work backs up to the so-called lightwell, a former stairwell that still encloses one of Chase Hall’s two Campus Avenue entrances. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New paint, carpet, and furniture in a dean’s office in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view of the Central Stair and its elevator. Note the stylish new handrails. The blue plastic floor protection conceals oak stair treads and flooring (visible overhead) made from cross-laminated timber. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The reconstruction of Chase Hall’s main Campus Avenue entrance was nearly complete on Aug. 1, with just some missing trim and cleaning up to attend to. The doors predate the building’s renovation and were refinished for it. Note the textured brick pattern where the benches meet the building: projecting Flemish bond. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

When a building is flooded, Phillips explains, “It’s critical to get vent holes drilled and walls opened, drying equipment deployed, and lots of air moving within the first 24 hours, or the risk of mold growth increases.

“Our people responded exceptionally well, and their initial response along with continued action the next day prevented further damage and potential mold growth. I’m always impressed by the incredible work our folks perform and their great professionalism under pressure in these difficult situations.”

Projection room: Immersive Media Studio all but done

�ֲ���ý’ new Immersive Media Studio, located in a former classroom and computer lab in Coram Library, is close to completion.

Funded by a $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the facility will support instruction in and production of high-tech performances and installations incorporating sound, live action, and projected imagery.

When we visited on Aug. 1, all but a final coat of wall paint, a white “4K” formula that shows projected images to especially good advantage, had been applied. Black floor tiles were placed this week. The ceiling had been coated in matte black paint. With cables newly strung from the control room next door, the ceiling pipe-grid was ready to support the projectors, theatrical lights, and speakers that will cast the digital spells.

Still in their boxes, those gizmos and others were stockpiled in the control room. Technicians from the West Coast firm DBPC had spent the back half of July in there installing computers and controllers, with plans to return and finish up this month, in time for the start of classes.

Tin-knockers get ducts in a row in Hathorn Hall attic

With installation beginning the last week of July, the new retractable stairs that provide access to Hathorn Hall’s attic are in place. Getting to the attic is still a climb, but now a visitor is spared the claustrophobic aspects of the prior arrangement — a steep ladder, jammed into a closet in a faculty office, that topped out in something like the Munsters’ living room but without the laugh track.

Bright new lighting and solid, easily accessed walkways have put an end to the Munstery aspects.

Also in the attic is a new HVAC machine that replaced an obsolete unit, a substitution that in large part was the impetus for the Hathorn attic project. Cote Corp. of Auburn, known for challenging feats of hoisting and rigging, removed the old machine and brought in the new one, which is roughly the size of a chest freezer. Happily, the elevator was large enough to fit each unit, albeit with tolerances as close as an inch or two, says Brian Lanoie, �ֲ���ý project manager.

The HVAC work also entailed the replacement of a lot of air ducts, work done by the tin-knockers of Nason Mechanical Systems of Auburn. Still to be done on the HVAC front is connecting the new equipment to its power supply and to the campus-wide control network.

More broadly, carpentry contractor M.W. Hoss of Portland needs to restructure the attic floor where a hole was cut for the HVAC equipment (a smaller hole at that location where the new stairs are mounted still remains) and refinish the corresponding third-floor ceiling.

This view was taken from the top of the new retractable ladder serving the Hathorn Hall attic. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New ventilation ducts in the attic of Hathorn Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The installation of this new air handler was a key goal of the summer’s refurbishment of the attic of Hathorn Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Carpenters for M.W. Hoss of Portland, Maine, built this new ladder leading up to the Hathorn Hall belfry. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

And all that work, taking place through August, will complete this phase of the Hathorn attic project. The next phase, the replacement of the ringer for Hathorn’s bell, has yet to be scheduled.

Garcelon Field turf: ‘Bouncy and cushy‘

With athletic practices scheduled to start before the end of August, the overhaul of a landmark sports facility at �ֲ���ý is nearly finished.

Home to Bobcat lacrosse, soccer (occasionally), and — with the deepest historical roots — football, Garcelon Field has received a new playing surface this summer. A product called Legion, made by Shaw Sports Turf, the new artificial turf replaces the surface that was installed in 2010 and had reached the limit of its useful life.

ThenNow

An aerial view of Garcelon Field before and after its turf replacement. Use your mouse to grab the slider (or swipe your finger if on a phone or tablet) to reveal more or less of each image. (Branden Rush/�ֲ���ý College)

Both products comprise a grass-like plastic matrix that’s infilled with a mix of sand and crumb rubber. And both surfaces were installed by R.A.D. Sports of Rockland, Mass.

While the Legion is essentially complete (as is a replacement for the 2010 chain-link fence that had surrounded the field), Garcelon remains closed for another week or two while punch-listing and some tests are being conducted.

The turf came in massive rolls that were spooled out into place across the field by specially equipped tractors. But we were interested to learn from Chris Streifel, �ֲ���ý project manager for the turf replacement, that a significant proportion of the installation was performed by people using hand tools. Their work included finalizing the placement of the rolls, tweaking their seams, and — perhaps most interesting — setting in all but the biggest markings on the turf.

As a multi-sport field, Garcelon uses different colors for markings pertaining to different games. Most of these graphics can’t be fabricated at the factory and have to be created by hand on site. “So a lot of customized stuff would be done right on the field, and they would cut out pieces and sew in new pieces,” explains Streifel, the college’s director of capital planning and construction.

“Then somebody goes through and checks all that. So they actually spent the last week just going over in fine detail all of those seams.” Note that this is all done on hands and knees.

“And now you can’t even tell” that the work was done by hand. “It all blends together like it was always together from day one.” Streifel adds, “It’s a lot of fine detail and a lot of expertise.”

A close-up of the new Legion playing surface on Garcelon Field shows the artificial grass and the sand-and-crumb-rubber infill. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

The north end of the newly resurfaced Garcelon Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

As Garcelon Field is a multi-sport facility, different colors indicate markings on the turf for different games. Most of these field graphics were sewn in by hand. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

The colors pop on Garcelon Field’s new Legion playing surface. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view of the new Legion playing surface, made by Shaw Sports Turf, on Garcelon Field. Many of the markings shown were cut and stitched in by hand. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“It was a very smooth project,” he notes. Because �ֲ���ý issued its request for bids on the project early, the college was able to get a high slot on R.A.D.’s calendar and avoid the cumulative delays that are almost inevitable over the course of a busy contractor’s summer. “I have nothing but good things to say about the R.A.D. Sports team and Gale Associates, our designer.” Gale is based in Portland.

“The field’s awesome,” Streifel continues. “It’s so fun to step on. It’s so bouncy and cushy, and if I was going to get tackled hard by somebody at this point, that’s where I’d want to have it happen.”

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you. Please send questions and comments about past, present, future, and past-perfect construction at �ֲ���ý to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Does this work make you tense?” in the subject line.

Still a constellation of construction hotspots, but with �ֲ���ý folks scheduled to move back in by the second week of August, newly refurbished Chase Hall had a certain air of anticipation when we visited last week — something along the lines of, “Is it Christmas yet?”

Well, Ralphie, we’re getting there. Parts of the building are all but finished, sitting empty and quiet, such as the first-floor Purposeful Work suite and the second-floor corridor that parallels Campus Avenue. On the second floor, in fact, the conclusive inspection protocol known as punch-listing began last Friday.

In other Chase spaces, though, the 15-month renovation continues full tilt, with tools and supplies fully deployed, various plastics protecting new finishes, extension cords feeding power from temporary electrical boxes, and sprinkler hoses and data cables dangling from open ceiling grids.

In the big picture, as we’ve reported previously, project management firm Consigli Construction expects to hand control of the building back to �ֲ���ý by the end of July. An interesting focus of attention at the moment is the fire protection system, which includes — in addition to alarms, sprinklers, and illuminated exit signs — controls that, in the event of a fire, switch off the electromagnets that hold certain doors open. The resulting automatic closures of those strategically placed doors can help contain a blaze.

Another system that’s desirable to have in place by the time people move back in, though not directly related to life-safety, comprises local controls for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, says �ֲ���ý Project Manager Kristi Mynhier.

Specifically, there are gizmos that tell the system when humans enter a room so that local air flow and temperature will adjust to accommodate their comfort — an amenity that, in the interest of energy conservation, is otherwise quiescent. Those devices are known as occupancy sensors. Professionals call them as “occ sensors,” but that strikes us as occward jargon.

Bond — projecting Flemish bond: When we visited on June 27, bricklayers were piecing in a bold decorative pattern known as projecting Flemish bond on either side of the main Campus Avenue entrance. Over the entrance, the wooden form for a stainless steel awning was in place. Stainless panels on either side lent a sense of how all the steel trim might look when it’s complete.

Around the corner near the Muskie Archives, new facing had been applied to the sides of the former Chase loading dock, which is becoming a sort of patio. A new floor surface, railings, and outdoor furniture are coming soon. Together with gray asphalt pavers that were recently laid at either side, the area will be known as a plaza.

Inside, specifically in Chase Hall Lounge, new “faux beams” have joined the originals. None of these non-load-bearing features hold up the ceiling, but they do prettify it, and the new faux beams will contain light fixtures, so they can lord that sense of practical purpose over the old beams. New hardwood floorboards for the lounge were stacked in the first-floor lobby to acclimate and will be laid near the end of the renovation.

But new oak stair steps are already being installed on the central stair, a sort of three-dimensional crossroads that connects four levels of the building. The job involves two trades, as carpenters fasten the wood in place and rout out a rectangular depression to fit rubber treads, which will then be glued in by flooring installers. Easier to replace than the wooden steps, the inserts will take the wear from all the feet that use the stair (a song lyric in the making!).

Painters are coating the walls throughout the central stair. (And they’ve finished that eye-catching saturated red on the elevator’s wallboard enclosure.)

Painting is in progress in the first-floor lobby, too, including the new Overnook, that slightly elevated seating area along one wall. Before too long, it will sport new steel railings, which are being fabricated in a pattern resembling the famed �ֲ���ý Manufacturing bedspreads once woven in Lewiston. And that lobby is being cleared of building supplies, aside from the lounge floorboards.

On the upper level of the ground floor — let’s try that again. On what has been called the loading dock level and is now the plaza level — see above — the Residence Life office suite has made big strides since our last visit. Glass doors have been hung at the entrance, most utility terminal fixtures are in place, shiny fan-coil heater-coolers cling to the walls, and fresh paint abounds.

Temporarily a place to store paint, this is the future home of the �ֲ���ý Musicians Union. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Here’s a view of the central stair approached from Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby. The red walls enclose the elevator shaft. The two ladders stand at the entrance to the Office of Intercultural Education. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall’s new air handling machine. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The “Overnook,” a distinctive seating area in Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby, looks spiffy with new wallboard and paint on June 27. Sections of air duct are currently stashed there. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This hardwood flooring will be installed in Chase Hall Lounge toward the end of the Chase renovation. Shown on June 27, it was stored in the Chase Hall lobby to acclimate. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New landscaping in front of Chase Hall on a gray day in June. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A handrail awaits its installation in a new stairwell in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Floor-to-ceiling glass admits a lot of light into this new “huddle” meeting room in the Residence Life offices. A former Dining Services loading dock, just outside the glass, will be transformed into a patio. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Once the Chase Hall loading dock, this concrete platform is being transformed into a patio. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Good griddance

Since our last visit to Coram 110, the future site of �ֲ���ý’ Immersive Media Studio, its walls have been stripped of features. With the goal of rendering the walls into a smooth white surface suitable for image projection, the space has lost, among other things, interior window frames, chalkboards and projection screens, ventilation grilles, outlets for electricity and data, and a species of wood trim called a chair rail that kept belligerent furniture from roughing up the walls.

While daylight was abundant in the room during our visit, the outdoors won’t be viewable from the former classroom for long: Plywood panels that we saw stacked against the walls will soon block the window openings on the inside, although the exterior frames will remain.

But you know the old saying: When a window closes, a ceiling grid appears, and that’s what has happened in Coram 110. Specifically, it’s a theatrical-grade pipe grid. Composed of black 1.5-inch steel pipe, this sturdy frame will enable studio users “to hang anything anywhere,” said Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, referring to the lights, projectors, speakers, and other gear (disco balls?) that will provide images and sounds for productions in the studio.

The ceiling will be painted black so as not to draw attention away from the immersive art and performance action taking place below. The floor, too, will be black, in the form of quartz tiles.

An adjacent room will be equipped as the studio’s control center, home to the high-powered technology that will drive productions in the studio. In the early project planning, that function was located right in 110 itself. But the erstwhile occupant of the room next door, Michael Hanrahan, �ֲ���ý’ director for curricular and research computing, volunteered to move his office to Hedge Hall, thereby freeing more space for productions in the studio itself.

The control room, Farnsworth pointed out, houses one of the two massive fireplaces that originally helped to heat Coram, built in 1902. That fireplace has long been hidden behind wall board — but workers drilled through an upper corner of its 120-year-old brick facade to make way for cables that will connect the 21st-century control center to the immersive-studio gizmos on the ceiling grid.

Talk about worlds colliding.

Pad notes

At Garcelon Field, the 13-year-old FieldTurf was removed during the third week of June in preparation for a new playing surface, which is being laid now. When we visited on June 27, the dirt substrate had been graded and a small crew from the project contractor, R.A.D. Sports of Rockland, Mass., was placing a layer of shock-absorbent turf pads that would buffer between the ground and the playing surface itself.

Weighing just a few pounds apiece, the pads are composed of an aggregate of recycled chunks of soft rubber or plastic. It took 4,275 of them to blanket the field, which measures about 100,000 square feet.

They are laid held together by tabs and indents superficially resembling jigsaw puzzle pieces, but in regular shapes and intervals, making the pad layer easy to assemble but not much fun on a rainy day up to camp.

Meanwhile, 40 or so plastic-wrapped rolls of the new playing surface itself, a Shaw Sports Turf product called Legion, were stockpiled around Garcelon along with giant sacks of the sand-and-rubber-crumb infill that will finish the installation. Placement of the Legion started this week, with infill to follow by mid-July.

In this June 21 image, the Garcelon Field crew from R.A.D. Sports has finished removing the 2010 FieldTurf surface. (Aaron Morse/�ֲ���ý College)

In this June 27 image, Garcelon Field has been stripped of its old playing surface and the placement of shock-absorbing panels on the bare ground is about to begin. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Stockpiled near the Garcelon Field scoreboard on June 27 are shock pads that will underlay the field’s new playing surface. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Placing shock-absorbing turf pads on Garcelon Field as an underlayment for the forthcoming Legion playing surface. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The turf pads that form a shock-absorbing layer underneath the Garcelon playing surface are made from recycled materials. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown near Central Avenue on June 27 are some of the 40 rolls of Shaw Sports Turf that will soon be placed on Garcelon Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Ring, but no swing

Over at Hathorn Hall, someone cut a big hole in the third-floor ceiling. All part of the plan, of course, as retractable stairs will eventually be installed in the hole to improve access to the building’s attic and its historic bell.

In addition to the hole in the ceiling (something that some of us get to enjoy with no effort whatsoever!), the project team addressed two other objectives that will make the completion of the overall project easier and safer. One was the installation of several long LED light fixtures, replacing a few dim, widely dispersed lamps. The other was the creation of new walkways.

The hole, by the way, will come in handy during next week when old HVAC machines and ductwork are removed from the attic and a new machine is winched up there for installation. Cote Corp. of Auburn will handle that rigging job. Sometime later, the hole will be smallified to fit the new stairs.

The HVAC upgrade is a major goal of the Hathorn project. A second is to improve access to the bell, whose ringing mechanism will be replaced in hopes of returning the bell to its former prominence. In response to a question from Bruce Lyman ’67, we learned that an electromagnetic striker will supplant the current winch and cable that currently swing the bell. (It hasn’t been determined whether the striker will contact the inside of the bell or the outside.)

A necessary concession to cost and practicality, the proposed striker will mean the bell no longer swings to ring. But a representative of the ringing mechanism provider, Elderhorst Bells Inc. of Palm, Pa., assures us that the striker can be made to emulate the characteristic, romantic “double ring” of a swinging bell before it comes to rest.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you. Please send questions and comments about past, present, future, and past-perfect construction at �ֲ���ý to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “You used that Flemish bond joke already before!” in the subject line.

To one extent or another, renovations are always about history — finding a happy middle ground between what has been and what could be.

But sometimes, the historical aspect looms disproportionately large. That’s the case at �ֲ���ý this summer. In the context of Garry Jenkins’ arrival in a few weeks as the college’s new president, as well as Reunion this weekend, facility makeovers that might otherwise seem ho-hum (except, of course, to Campus Construction Update) suddenly seem to have new meaning and importance.

Updates to �ֲ���ý’ oldest building are focused on its bell, known since 1857 as a unifying voice on campus. A classroom in Coram Library, built in 1902 and also a campus landmark, is becoming a state-of-the-art venue for tech-driven immersive performance. Garcelon Field, named for a key supporter of the college at its founding and considered to be among the 10 oldest college football fields in the U.S., is getting a new playing surface.

And, of course, the latest reinvention of Chase Hall, for more than a century the orbital center of student life at �ֲ���ý, is nearly complete.

In a pair of Campus Construction Updates, we’ll look at the Chase renovation and �ֲ���ý’ forthcoming Immersive Media Studio this week — followed next week by the Garcelon turf replacement and the refurbishing of Hathorn Hall’s attic and belfry.

And here’s Chase Hall Lounge in May 2023. Near the end of the current renovation, additional “faux” beams, as well as paint, will be applied to the ceiling and a hardwood floor will be placed. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall seen from the Kenison Gate on May 31, 2023. Twin ramps converge from the sidewalk toward the Chase entrance. Note the new loam and trees, and the darker-gray bench seating. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

All the glass in this former stairwell will flood Chase Hall’s reconfigured entrance near the Kenison Gate with natural light, transforming it to a “lightwell.” (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This May 23 photo shows steps under construction near a Campus Avenue entrance to Chase Hall. The pink stuff is insulation and the wire mesh will insulate the concrete that’s about to be placed here. Flexible pipes, like the ones at right, will soon be embedded in the concrete to carry antifreeze as part of a snowmelt system. (Paul Farnsworth/�ֲ���ý College)

A worker fetches a ladder from a staging point on Chase Hall’s new Central Stair. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A corridor through Chase Hall’s second floor. The wooden trusses are original to this century-old section of Chase. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A student lounge on Chase Hall’s second floor, where a yearlong Chase renovation is furthest advanced. The blue material on the floor protects brand-new carpeting from incidental damage. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view of the lightwell and Chu Hall from a second-floor lounge in Chase Hall. It’s bound to be a popular spot. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

But no pressure: Given Chase Hall’s long history as a center for student life at �ֲ���ý, hard-hat tours of Chase offered this weekend as part of Reunion activities may be a popular draw.

Which has upped the pressure on the Chase renovation team. The second floor is all but finished, says project manager Kristi Mynhier, and the first floor is “well on its way,” notably a striking corner suite of Purposeful Work offices and the nearby Chase lobby.

On the ground floor, Student Life offices sited in the former College Store location (and a bowling alley prior to that) are nearing completion, while the Residential Life suite, at the other end of the building, hasn’t progressed quite so far. But all the “ground-floor storefront” — aka glass walls — “is going to be 100 percent complete” by June 9.

Altogether, says Mynhier, “that’ll be a good setup for the building tours inside.”

Among specific treats for Reunion visitors is the Overnook, that new, slightly elevated study area in the lobby. By June 9 it should be showing some paint and, more exciting, new metal railings that will heighten the site’s aesthetic and social appeal.

Down the hall from the Overnook, toward the Office of Intercultural Education, the so-called Central Stair will sport new paint on walls and trim — notably a rich crimson on the elevator shaft. But because heavy work is still ongoing, the snazzy laminated floor decking will remain under protective cover, and the oak stair treads won’t be installed till late in the project.

Nearby, the OIE has gained one new office, while a row of adjoining offices originally walled with translucent plastic, thereby resembling a greenhouse, have been rebuilt with wallboard and acoustic insulation.

Chase Hall’s primary Campus Avenue entrance, now situated slightly below street level, has bench seating on the outside and will be brilliant with natural light on the inside. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New asphalt pavers have been laid on both sides of the former Chase Hall loading dock, which will be spruced up for use as a patio. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New loam and trees have been placed on the Campus Avenue side of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Landscaping in progress at Chase Hall on May 31. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Sinks, mirrors, and soap dispensers have been installed in a new first-floor rest room in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Meanwhile, the former Dining Services loading dock facing Muskie Archives is transitioning to patio space, with new surface treatments and railings and surrounded by new pavement. Ultimately there will be cafe-style tables and chairs like the ones on the Bobcat Den patio.

And around the corner on Campus Avenue, grass seed has been strewn over fresh loam, new trees have been planted, and pavements for sidewalk and the entryway near the Kenison Gate have been laid. Better yet, now passers-by can even see all this progress, as most of the construction-site fencing has been removed. Only a few chain-link gates remain to block access to certain areas.

Speaking of that Campus Avenue entry near Kenison, we were pleased to pass through it for the first time since it was rebuilt. (The pleasures of campus construction reporting are weird but sweet.)

Where it once opened onto the first floor, new steps and ramps now lead into the ground level via a former stairwell that’s now a “lightwell,” thanks to bright new paint and ample glass facing inward and out. Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, our guide for a Chase tour last week, pointed out that thanks to a southern exposure, the new precast benches outside the entrance were “toasty” even back in March.

“You’re going to see people hanging out here.”

Meet our panel: An acute source of ��������à vanished in late May when the building’s new electrical panel emerged from the fog of supply-chain issues and arrived at �ֲ���ý. The 800-pound panel has been assembled in a mechanical space off the ground floor and is being connected currently. (See what we did there?)

A functioning panel will make it possible to test both the building’s new elevator, located in the Central Stair, and the HVAC machinery that had showed up at mid-month. That’s important because a deadline is looming that’s even heavier than Reunion.

“By the end of June, we’ll really need to have the electrical install complete,” says Mynhier, “so we can arrange the elevator inspection.” That will allow four weeks to get the inspection done in time for �ֲ���ý and project management firm Consigli Construction to declare that the project has attained substantial completion, thereby returning control of the building to �ֲ���ý.

Riggers and engineers attend to components of Chase Hall’s new energy recovery ventilator, newly loaded into the building on May 17, 2023. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall’s new air handling machine. It shares a new mechanical room on the first floor with an energy recovery ventilator. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Mechanical engineers connect the new energy recovery ventilation unit in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Located in the Office of Intercultural Education reception area, this energy recovery ventilator will move air down to the Residence Life office suite. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The project team also needs to bring all aspects of the renovation to a point where punch-listing — the protocol of detailed inspections that typically ends building projects — can be done. By July 17, when furniture will be delivered, “the goal is to have all of the spaces finished enough that we can create a list of work that needs to either be repaired or finished.”

That’s because the furniture delivery itself, large heavy objects being what they are, could inflict minor damage. So the project team needs an inventory of fixes that were outstanding prior to that delivery.

The order of punch-list inspections, by the way, has changed somewhat since we last described it. As noted above, that process will begin on the second-floor, which at this point needs only sensor installations and a thorough cleaning. The punch-listing will conclude in Chase Hall Lounge, because one of the final steps in the entire renovation will be the placement of a new hardwood floor there. That comes late in the game to minimize the likelihood of collateral damage from work elsewhere in the building.

In an undated photo, students shoot pool in the basement of Chase Hall. (Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

Formerly part of the College Store, this space on Chase Hall’s ground floor will soon be the office of Joshua McIntosh, �ֲ���ý’ vice president for campus life. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view through the new Student Life office suite, located in the former site of the College Store. Note the new wood trim framing the meeting room at center — a space that houses a fireplace original to century-old Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Painting and utilities work are still in progress in the Residence Life reception area on Chase Hall’s ground floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Speaking of large heavy objects, the May 17 load-in of the new air handler and energy recovery ventilator happened without trouble. Riggers from Auburn’s Cote Corporation started around 6:30 a.m. and were done by 8, wrangling the units through the Chase lobby, up a ramp, and into a newly configured mechanical room.

We were interested to learn that the design of the ERV, which extracts warmth and moisture from flowing air and directs those humors where they’ll do the most good, was influenced by the pandemic. The machine uses a series of increasingly fine filters, as characterized by so-called MERV ratings, to clean the airflow of particles— the larger the MERV, the smaller the particles a filter can trap.

Pre-pandemic, MERV 8 was considered the standard for cleaning recirculated air. Now it’s MERV 13 — which can intercept the COVID-19 virus. The six filters in �ֲ���ý’ new ERV range from 8 to 13. (MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, so it shouldn’t be confused with the late talk-show host, whose efficiency was never in doubt.)

In the White Room: If other summer 2023 projects at �ֲ���ý seek to update what you might call heirloom technology, there’s one underway in Coram Library — built in 1902 as the college’s primary library — that’s purely about the here and now.

A longtime computer lab and classroom, Coram 110 is being converted into an immersive media studio: a space enabling the creation of “immersive sound composition performances and installations, as well as multimedia installations that weave together animation, sound, video projection, devised performance, drawing and visual media, and complex lighting, sound, and projection design,” as our colleague Mary Pols reported in October. (So much for putting on a show in Grandpa’s barn.)

For all that, the construction aspect of the project is easy to summarize: “I’m just making a box with clean walls,” says Paul Farnsworth, who’s managing the project. “The idea is to make a nice surface everywhere” to project images onto.

So the walls of this large room will be rendered perfectly smooth and featureless: windows boarded up, and projections like picture moldings, light switches, ventilation grills, etc., removed. The resulting surface will be given a Level Five drywall finish — the top grade — and then a coating of so-called 4K paint, aka theater-screen paint.

In addition, a pipe grid upon which to hang projectors, lights, and speakers will be mounted on the ceiling, and grid and ceiling will be painted black for relative invisibility.

Supporting the project is a $500,000 grant from The Sherman Fairchild Foundation. The grant is also supporting four years of programming for the studio, as well as the purchase and installation of two ceramic kilns for the Olin Arts Center.

Handling the electronics for the project is DBPC, a West Coast purveyor of high-tech production and installation services whose clients have included Harvard University and Netflix.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you — especially if you tour Chase Hall during Reunion and have an impression you’d like to share. If not, we still like hearing from you: Please send questions, comments, and thoughts having no bearing on construction at �ֲ���ý College whatsoever to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Wire you always making such bad puns about electricity?” in the subject line.

If you give a construction project the kind of close reading that you would a great novel, does the appearance of new millwork and interior glass signify more than just kitchen counters and see-through walls?

As a matter of fact, it often does. When such installations begin, it’s likely also the beginning of the end for that project.

“We are not going to start glazing or millwork finishes until we’re confident that they’ll be safe,” explains Kristi Mynhier, �ֲ���ý’ project manager for the renovation of Chase Hall. “Carpet tile is pretty easy to replace” if it’s damaged in the course of construction activity. “Paint, pretty easy to touch up. Drywall, pretty easy to touch up.

“But millwork, not so easy. Glass, not so easy.” If someone accidentally damages one of those installations while doing something completely unrelated, “we risk not being able to replace it in time.” So when glass and cabinetry do appear, that “means that we have officially exited the rough stage of construction and entered the finish stage.”

If an abundance of interior glass has been a staple of �ֲ���ý construction for at least a decade, it has proven especially important in recent renovations like Chase and Dana halls, where a key goal is opening up sightlines and brightening up once-dim spaces.

In Chase, which will reopen in time for the 2023–24 academic year, glass features including office walls have been placed in the Purposeful Work suite, on the first floor, as well as some locations upstairs.

And there’s plenty more glass to come, including an enclosure around the entire reception area for the Office of Intercultural Education. The subcontractor for the glazing is Cumberland County Glass, of Bowdoinham. Those same sections of the building, as well as a few spaces on the ground floor, are also sporting new cabinets, counters, and shelves, thanks to subcontractor Windham Millwork.

Getting punchy: Another sign that a construction project is winding down is the punch list. Not to be confused with handy reference guides provided to boxers, punch listing is a late-in-the-game round of detailed inspections and associated repairs.

Mynhier reports that punch listing is slated to begin on the second floor of Chase around the middle of May. The first floor comes next, starting the first or second week of June. And the ground floor will conclude punch listing. “Around the end of June, we’ll get to the loading-dock floor and just kind of [inspect] our way right out of the building,” she says.

The combination of blue-gray paint and suspended-tile “clouds” on the ceiling, ample natural light, and exposed wooden trusses makes this Purposeful Work office most attractive. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Even on a rainy April day, daylight floods the three-story “light well” — formerly a stairwell — enclosing Chase Hall’s main Campus Avenue entrance. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A stockpile of new carpet tiles awaiting installation in Chase Hall. Because of its long and narrow shape, this format is called a plank tile. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A study lounge on Chase Hall’s second floor. The wooden columns, which are load-bearing, will keep their natural appearance. The blue material protects new carpeting from premature wear. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Cool blue tiles in a new Chase Hall restroom near the Overnook. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A student meeting area on the second floor of Chase Hall. This was the space in which much of the floor decking next to the windows needed to be replaced because of water damage. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Hard on the heels of punch listing are building systems — electrical and electronic, mechanical, plumbing — that will be test-run and fine-tuned in a process called commissioning. That will begin in Chase in July, and will continue to some extent for months afterward, as the commissioning engineers see how the HVAC machinery responds to changes of season and other variables. 

Based in Vermont but with an office in Portland, the engineering firm CX Associates is already deep in preparations to conduct the commissioning.

As long as we’re pondering endings, let’s take a look at finishes — that is, the coverings of walls, floors, and ceilings. (See what we did there?) Chase’s first and second floors in particular look sharp with new topcoats of paint and edges of pristine carpet peeking around their protective covers.

During a tour on April 25, we were especially taken by an elegant space connecting several offices in the Purposeful Work suite. Utilities infrastructure on the ceiling has been visually transformed by matte paint in a deep blue-gray (call our tailor!) setting off “clouds” of ceiling tile. Punctuating two walls are newly refinished wooden trusses original to the structure of 104-year-old Chase Hall.

And it’s all lit both by large west-facing exterior windows and by daylight shining through glass walls from adjoining offices. Not only bright but rather brilliant, if you get our drift.

Chase Hall’s main Campus Avenue entrance is shown from a second-floor window. Two accessible ramps converging from left and right will meet a short flight of steps at center, marked by orange rebar caps. The dark gray masonry is bench seating. Low in the image, the gray box just left of center is a drainage vault. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Workers for Gendron & Gendron locate the edge of a wall footing in front of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

As two Gendron & Gendron employees look on, an excavator contours soil for a ramp that will lead to Chase Hall’s main Campus Avenue entrance. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In this view near the main Campus Avenue entrance to Chase Hall, the dark gray masonry is bench seating. The wires will connect to lamps in the openings. The orange-capped rebar is part of footings for steps leading from the sidewalk to the building. At lower right is a drain. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Site work in progress in front of Chase Hall, seen from a second-story window. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

They can dig it: Returning with the springtime was Gendron & Gendron, the local firm that often handles site work for �ֲ���ý. When we stopped by on a rainy April 25, a small G&G crew was contouring soil around the Chase Hall entrance near the Kenison Gate.

As we’ve written previously, that entrance was once several feet above ground level but is now slightly below it, as part of reconfigured traffic patterns inside Chase. So an excavator was forming two long ramps that will converge on the entrance in a shallow V shape. A short flight of steps will be built where the ramps meet.

Next steps included laying tubing and other infrastructure for a snowmelt system, to be followed by the placement of concrete for the ramps and steps, likely this week. Already in place are precast benches that will afford a sense of welcome to the building and, more pragmatically, make waiting for the Greyhound and Concord buses more comfortable.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Chase, the process of sprucing up the Chase Hall loading dock will soon resume. Joining new stairs placed there last fall, handrails will be affixed to the dock itself and asphalt pavers laid around it. Plantings and patio furniture will follow.

While deliveries for the Bobcat Den and other Chase recipients will continue to arrive there, the dock will take on an additional role as an outdoor gathering space for students. (And EV chargers will be installed there, too.) By Commencement, says Mynhier, “the exterior of the site is going to look drastically different.”

The Overnook, a feature in Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby, is shown on April 25. The temporary platform at left was built to provide footing for workers erecting the corner wall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This view from the Overnook shows Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby and the exit toward the Carnegie Science courtyard. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A telescoping-arm forklift operated by Consigli Construction delivers a new mop sink to the Chase Hall entrance near the Kenison Gate. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The central stair as seen from a main corridor connecting to Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby. The walkway at right is temporary, placed over a flight of steps to provide a platform for wallboard hangers and painters. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This view of the central stair area shows the new elevator at center and, at right, the corridor leading to Chase Hall’s Overnook and first-floor lobby. The opening at left looks into Chase Hall Lounge. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown are three of the four Chase Hall levels linked by the central stair. At top is the reception area for the Office of Intercultural Education, which will be enclosed in glass. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The milky stuff on the joists and overhead decking in Chase Hall’s Little Room is fire retardant. Changes to the first-floor lobby, overhead, changed its classification under the fire code and necessitated the treatment. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

An Overnook look: As we reported last time, a new feature in Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby will both assist wayfinding in the building and give users a nice view of lobby traffic.

The so-called Overnook forms a junction between two levels of the famously maze-like Chase: the lobby floor and, roughly three and a half feet higher, a section of the building comprising Memorial Commons, the Office of Intercultural Education, and myriad other spaces.

The balcony-like structure and surroundings of the so-called Overnook are now complete. With old brickwork forming a proscenium over the space, new wallboard defines one end of the Overnook and a new half-wall the other. Behind the Overnook, blue-tiled restrooms and a connecting corridor have been built. A half-stairway adjacent to the Overnook leads from the lobby toward the OIE.

A counter fronted with decorative metalwork will span the side of the nook facing the lobby. Wall and floor finishes will be applied by June, at the same time the rest of the lobby is done.

Though the Overnook was a late addition to the renovation plan, “we’re right on schedule,” Mynhier points out. Consigli Construction, the firm managing the renovation for �ֲ���ý, “was absolutely amazing when it came to getting that in,” she adds.

Stair steps: Like the Overnook, the so-called central stair is also new to Chase. This assemblage of stairs, elevator, and walkways will serve as a sort of three-dimensional crossroads in a historically baffling part of the building.

We look forward to scampering up and down the entirety of the completed central stair like the winsome and rambunctious tot we once were, back in the 1950s. If it weren’t for a platform temporarily blocking some of the steps so that wallboard installers would have a place to stand, we could have done that during our visit last week. Permanent stair treads made of oak will soon replace the rough treads now in place.

The other big central-stair news is that the elevator car has been assembled in its shaft and is ready to test. A major impediment to testing at the moment, though, is the delayed shipment of a new main electrical panel for Chase (supply chain issues!), which may also affect the testing of new HVAC machines that will be installed, not far from the central stair, around May 16.

Finally, something we haven’t brought up in a while is the fact that while all of Chase Hall has been closed for about a year, much of the building has not been directly involved in the current renovation. Memorial Commons and the Bobcat Den interior will be cleaned prior to reopening, but that’s about it. (Drainage from the Den patio will be upgraded, though.)

Other spaces will remain structurally unaltered but get more than a cleaning. For instance, the Little Room — a ground-floor function room near the main Campus Avenue entrance — recently had fire retardant applied to its ceiling. That’s because of its location directly beneath the first-floor lobby, explained Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, who showed us around on the 25th.

Changes to that lobby including a new stairway to the second floor have affected building egress in a way that changes the lobby’s classification under the fire code, necessitating the retardant job.

In addition, speaking of the second floor, the familiar lounges at the west end, Hirasawa and Skelton, are being prettied up with new paint, carpeting in Hirasawa, and sanding and refinishing for Skelton’s original hardwood floor.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you, except when you interrupt our nap. Please send questions, comments, and reminiscences about construction at �ֲ���ý College to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Is there a list of people who still serve punch?” in the subject line.

A feature of the Chase Hall renovation that had been a “maybe” has become a “yes” — and may also become one of the most-used attractions in Chase.

It’s called the Overnook. And that name (not to be confused with a ski resort or a brand of California wine) reflects the role this new seating area will play in Chase Hall traffic.

Sited on a sort of ledge facing the lobby, the Overnook will be just what its name suggests: both an overlook and a cozy nook, an appealing place to spend some time.

Its design takes advantage of Chase Hall’s division into nine floor levels, including several half-levels. The Overnook is situated along the seam where an addition, opened in 1950, butts up to what started out as an exterior wall of the original building, which was dedicated in 1919 and contains the lobby. (It’s also roughly where, more than 50 years ago, art professor Don Lent and his students created a 40-foot mural based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Now in storage, the mural gave hungry students something to ponder as they waited in line to enter Commons.) 

The 1950 floor is 3 feet, 7 inches higher than the lobby floor. To make the Overnook, that higher floor plane will be extended into the lobby, creating a low balcony with a lobby view. A counter, fronted with an ornate screen, and stools will make the nook convenient for working or snacking. Windows bricked up in 1950 have been reopened and enlarged to form a spacious doorway into the newer section.

Parked at Chase Hall’s Campus Avenue entrance near the Kenison Gate, this telescoping-boom lift is used to take supplies to and refuse from the building. The machine’s owner, Consigli Construction, is overseeing the Chase renovation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In Chase Hall Lounge, members of the construction team watch a worker outside the photo frame. The current renovation will leave the lounge brighter and expose architectural details that have long been concealed, such as the arched doorway at left rear. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Directly adjacent to the central stair, this space at the entrance to the Office of Intercultural Education will be glassed in and become the OIE reception area. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Here’s a view of Lock-Deck tongue-and-groove, cross-laminated timber floor in the central stair. Note the contrasting colors of the crossed wood layers, or lamellas. The gray metal angle at right will support a stair tread. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This image provides some sense of how the central stair will function. Taken from the top level, it shows a walkway one-half level below (and, in shadow, the ground level access). The doorway at upper right leads to stairs exiting the building — that blue glow. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The central stair rises from this part of Chase Hall’s ground floor, once upon a time used by the College Store. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown is Chase Hall’s first-floor lobby, with Carnegie Science Hall behind the camera. From left: the forthcoming Overnook, a casual spot to relax; steps and a hallway leading to the central stair; and a new staircase to the second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In some sections of the renovated Chase Hall, like this common space in the Purposeful Work suite, overhead utilities will be embellished with “clouds” — sections of ceiling tile with gaps around the edges. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

One objective of the current Chase Hall renovation is to reveal architectural features, especially in the century-old original section, that were concealed by previous makeovers. Here, bolted to a ceiling beam in the Purposeful Work suite, is an anchor for metal truss rods. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Bisected by metal wall studs, this view faces the central stair and the future reception area for the Office of Multicultural Education. At right is a mechanical room that will house air-handling equipment that will rest on the girders. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Awaiting paint is this new staircase that connects Chase Hall’s first- and second-floor lobbies. Note the cross-laminated timber column at right. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New wall paint, new carpet, and a few new ceiling tiles in Chase Hall’s second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New carpeting (and a protective temporary carpet cover, at lower left) on the second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The arrangement of new tiles in a second-floor restroom suits the century-old aesthetic of Chase Hall’s original structure. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

So the Overnook will provide not only a place to chill but a great vantage point for spotting someone you’re expecting (or hoping to avoid). Its structural prominence will also draw attention to another landmark, an adjacent hallway leading to the new central stair, which will be key to much-improved wayfinding in Chase.

The Overnook aligns with a major goal for the renovation: simplifying navigation within a building previously known as something of a maze. “It opens up the building itself,” says Kristi Mynhier, �ֲ���ý’ project manager for the Chase makeover. “When you walk into the Chase lobby, it’ll be open and airy, and not, ‘I’m standing in a room that has four different stairs off of it, and I don’t know where I’m going.’”

The Overnook was approved in January. Mynhier explains that the Overnook was one of several possibilities for the renovation that were left on hold — a “wish list” of subprojects contingent on finding fundage to build them out. In fact, in the construction world, “contingency” has a particular meaning: It’s a portion of the budget held in reserve to meet unanticipated expenses, with any unspent funds being returned to the owner at the end of the project.

“As we move through a project, the risk that the contingency is going to be needed lessens, and I start to look at items that are on the wish list…to see if we’re at a point where we can put them in without causing a delay,” Mynhier explains. 

Another possibility-made-real was the reopening of other exterior windows, this time in the back wall of Chase Hall Lounge, that were filled in as Chase Hall expanded. The newly reopened windows now bring daylight and outdoor views deep into the second Chase addition, dating from 1978. Those views are framed by beveled brick columns elegantly crafted by masons from Consigli Construction (which is also the firm managing the Chase reconstruction for �ֲ���ý).

Speaking of floor extensions, by the way, there are two new ones of note in addition to the Overnook. Both in the former stairwell at the Campus Avenue entrance near the Kenison Gate, these will add square footage to the Purposeful Work suite and, upstairs, to the lobby between Hirasawa and Skelton lounges. Glass walls, again, will convey natural light from the stairwell into the Chase interior.

Locked and decked: Touring Chase last week for the first time in nearly two months (there was a long line at the dry cleaner), we were impressed by progress on the central stair, which combines walkways, an elevator, and stairs to provide ready access, visual and corporeal, to four half-levels of the building.

The elevator shaft has been fully enclosed and awaits application of a high-gloss red paint (exact hue to be determined). Walkways are planked with Lock-Deck, the cross-laminated timber product we described in a previous update. Plywood panels are protecting the upper walkway surfaces for the time being, but you can still admire the tongue-and-groove Lock-Deck panels from underneath.

The central stair, though, is still missing central components: the stairs themselves. But with the supporting steel angles already in place, the oak stair treads should appear within weeks.

A nearby meeting room and the Musicians Union studio that we talked about in January are approaching completion, as are new sets of restrooms, but not so lucky is a newly configured mechanical space. One of its two tenants has been delayed: an energy-recovery ventilator, or ERV, that‘s been held up by persistent kinks in the electronics supply chain and won’t be installed until the end of April at the earliest. 

Its companion unit, an air handler, is already in Lewiston, being stored until the ERV shows up. Because these are large, heavy machines that must be wrangled through confined corridors and doorways, they’ll be installed at the same time so that the rigging company will need to make only one visit.

Moreover, the timing of a few other operations is affected by that installation. Lest they be damaged during the load-in, permanent steps near the Overnook won’t be built till afterward. And, says Mynhier, “we’re currently studying the impact on finishes” like paint and flooring.

“We were going to leave out all of the finishes in the path of delivery,” but because of time pressure from the ERV delay, “we might need to do a few select finishes and protect them, rather than leave them out.”

Elsewhere in Chase, though, the state of finishes is a cause for optimism rather than concern. Much of the second floor is looking rather done, with swaths of new carpet and final coats of paint in place. Still to be installed are most of the terminal utility fittings — electrical outlets, faucets, etc. — and ceiling tiles. (The latter occurs in a process called “flooding,” which sounds like good fun unless you’ve ever had an upstairs bathtub overflow.)

One story down, the suite of offices dedicated to the Center for Purposeful Work is showing similar progress. Paintwork is largely done and subflooring is ready to be carpeted over. But ceiling “clouds” — arrangements of tiles with space around them, instead of a solid layer — still need to be hung. (We’re curious about the association between suspended ceilings and water.)

And in Purposeful Work, as well as everywhere else in the renovation zone, there’s a lot of glass to be placed, in the forms of interior windows, sidelights, entire walls, etc. The Maine firm Cumberland County Glass, based in Bowdoinham, will install glass in Chase, beginning within weeks.

The Chase Hall loading dock is a main entrance for the construction team. Still with their manufacturer labels in place, the lower row of windows at right were recently installed in what will be Student Affairs office space. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Fitting a ceiling channel for wall studs in a section of Chase Hall’s ground floor that will house Student Affairs offices. The windows, offering views of the Library Quad, are new. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Utility rough-ins are complete in what will be a suite of Residence Life offices near the Chase Hall loading dock. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Once the entrance to the College Store, this doorway now leads to a future suite of Student Affairs offices. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Concrete blocks and new water pipes for the HVAC system fill what used to be a much-used doorway between Chase Hall’s ground-floor lobby and the Campus Avenue entrance near Kenison Gate. (Note the “Stair” placard.) A corkboard occupied the red rectangle. The purple expanse is new wallboard. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Formerly one end of a campus post office, this area will soon be office space for Student Affairs. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A meeting room is being created around the (non-functioning) fireplace on the ground floor of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Student Affairs office space in the basement of Chase Hall, which was originally a bowling alley and later the College Store. This view faces the ground-floor lobby at far right. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Interior glass abounds in recent construction at �ֲ���ý, in both renovations like the historically dim Chase and Dana halls and new construction like the Bonney Science Center.  

Anyhoo, on the two levels of the ground floor, offices for Student Affairs are shaping up fast. Furthest along are those created in the former College Store (which itself was created in the former bowling alley). There, says Mynhier, “we’re finishing up drywall. The tapers are coming through to make sure all of the drywall seams are beautiful and ready for paint.”

Up one-half level and underneath Memorial Commons, Residence Life offices are still just bare aluminum wall studs. A suite near the loading dock has been equipped with utility rough-ins. Down the ramp to the former Package Center, where Dean of Students Erin Foster Zsiga and her staff will be quartered, framing has just started. But there are nice new windows that, once the snowbanks are gone, will admit fine views of the Library Quad.

After the flood: A campus water-main break on Jan. 21 was not anyone’s idea of a good time — but from the standpoint of the Chase Hall renovation team, it could have been much worse.

In January, a water main broke behind Chase Hall, sending as much as two inches of water into the Bobcat Den. The booths are shown after they were cleaned. Portable furnishings are stacked in the other end of the dining area, to the right of the image frame. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Furnishings were moved into one end of the Bobcat Den in response to the flood from a broken water main in late January. The water didn’t affect areas of Chase undergoing renovation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The rupture, under a walkway between Chase and Ladd Library, disrupted the water supply to several buildings and sent about an inch of water and silt — two inches in spots — into the Bobcat Den. “Everything had to be moved,” says Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, and ServPro came in to clean up. 

But between heroic floor drains and sheer good luck, no water entered areas of Chase that are being renovated, Farnsworth says. 

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you, especially if you’re lavish with praise. Please send questions, comments, and reminiscences about construction at �ֲ���ý College to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Does the dry cleaner do your ironing?” in the subject line.

Even though Campus Construction Update continues to scour garage sales for carbon paper and reel-to-reel audiotape, we still know progress when we see it.

Take cross-laminated timber, a material that’s key to a signature feature of the current Chase Hall makeover. Used in Europe for decades, CLT is “gaining quite a bit of popularity in the U.S for multiple reasons,” says Kristi Mynhier, �ֲ���ý project manager for the Chase renovation.

CLT has a couple of functions in the so-called central stair, which incorporates an elevator and walkways as well as stairs. As we’ve reported, this feature near the Office of Intercultural Education suite will simplify wayfinding in Chase, providing a sort of three-dimensional traffic circle linking several common destinations.

CLT itself consists of wooden layers, called lamellas, that have been kiln-dried and glued together under pressure with their grains at right angles (ergo “cross-laminated”).

According to the architecture website , CLT is impressively virtuous. It’s strong, structurally stable, and quite sustainable. As a wood product, CLT sequesters atmospheric carbon. It requires much less energy to produce than traditional structural materials — specifically, half the energy of making concrete and about 1 percent of smelting steel.

“You see its increased popularity as far as environmental impact,” Mynhier adds, but “it’s also wonderful when it comes to installation speed.” Because CLT can be cut and drilled to order at the factory, installation at the construction site is just a matter of bolting it into place.

“So it costs a little bit more” up front, she says, “but it takes way less time to install than an all-steel structure or metal decking that has to be filled with concrete, which needs time to cure” before any subsequent work can begin.

This view over the fence enclosing the Chase Hall construction site shows the Campus Avenue entrance near the Kenison Gate. The tarps cover concrete retaining walls and seating. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

And here’s a look upward inside that same Chase entrance near the Kenison Gate. Shown are two of the three levels of the original Chase Hall. The top opening leads to the lobby for Skelton and Hirasawa lounges. One level down is the Purposeful Work suite. At bottom outside the image frame, the main building entrance will be reconfigured. The new gray steel framework by the doorways will support floor extensions into this former stairwell. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Wooden guardrails mark where, in the Purposeful Work suite, the first floor will extend into the Campus Avenue entrance that will serve as a kind of atrium, with a similar arrangement on the second floor. Glass walls will admit daylight. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Once a storage area for Dining Services, more recently the campus Package Center, this ground-floor space in Chase will soon house Residence Life offices. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Wood and insulation cover four new window openings in a ground-floor area of Chase Hall that has served as the campus Package Center and before that, storage and a laundry facility for Dining Services. Residential Life staffers whose offices will be built here can expect gorgeous views of the Library Quad. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Closed during the Chase Hall renovation, the Bobcat Den sits patiently awaiting its reopening at the start of the next school year. New Residential Life offices will be built just a few steps away. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“You get the CLT decking in place and you can immediately put lifts on it and get people working above.”

In Chase, CLT panels will serve as floor decking for central stair landings and walkways linking flights of steps. In addition, CLT beams will help support the new elevator. Disdero Lumber Co. of Clackamas, Ore., manufactures the Lock-Deck brand CLT that �ֲ���ý is using.

The stair treads themselves, though, will be natural oak. And placement of all those components is imminent.

But when we toured Chase on Jan. 11, the central-stair action was focused, instead, on the brick walls that surround it. After spending decades concealed behind wallboard, these are being smoothed and stripped of dust, paint, and other accumulated residues.

That’s because the brick walls will be left exposed when the renovation is done (reminding us of the fern bars in our distant youth). Moreover, much of the new structural steel that holds up the central stair will also remain in view. Now gray, its final color will be black. Stylish!

Be bop a LULA: Speaking of the new central-stair elevator (even though it won’t be installed for a while), it too can claim distinctiveness. We wouldn’t call it a lulu, but that’s only because it’s a “LULA”: a .

Such elevators are especially well-suited for installation in existing structures. They are relatively small and limited by building codes to no more than 25 feet of vertical travel. Moreover, a LULA needs less clearance at the top of its shaft and a shallower pit at its base than a conventional lift, simplifying construction, and will be less expensive to both build and operate.

Meanwhile, during last week’s tour, as we gazed at the new gray structural steel and pondered all this rampant futurity, a mason to our left was accomplishing something more useful: mixing mortar so he could get on with building a concrete-block wall. That wall forming one side of a new meeting room will also incorporate a glass door and sidelight, opening new sightlines and dispelling ghosts of the old blank corridors in this section of Chase that comprises additions, in 1950 and ’78, to the original building.

At work in a future Chase Hall meeting room, a mason mixes mortar for a new section of concrete-block wall. Behind him, men are working in what will become the Musicians Union studio. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Although there has always been a doorway in this opening at the far end of Chase Lounge, the brick arch was concealed behind wallboard for decades. Like several other architectural treats original to Chase Hall, the arch will be left exposed by the current renovation. Note the pale new brick. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A technician pulls data cables into new Student Affairs offices on the ground floor of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Covered by tarps in the long-ago site of the College Store is a stockpile of panels for the floor decking in and around the central stair. The panels are made of cross-laminated timber, aka CLT, something of a wonder product in the construction world. Complete with the original fireplace, behind the tarps, this space will be a meeting room. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New joists and floorboards are mated to a new ledger board and masonry in this decking above Chase Hall Lounge. A large section of the old floor was replaced because of moisture damage. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Here’s a close view of the new joists, ledger board, and rebuilt masonry used to replace a patch of water-damaged floor decking above Chase Hall Lounge. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The Chase Hall construction site with Campus Avenue in the foreground on a chilly January morning. The first-floor windows at center show the approximate site of the floor repair in the previous images. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Past the mason, workers in other trades were up to something, maybe rough-ins, in a different space, the future �ֲ���ý Musicians Union studio. Behind us, a new set of restrooms was due for wallboard. To our right, a new mechanical space awaited its tenant, an energy-efficient HVAC unit that will push air to overhead blowers throughout the building.

That big contraption should arrive in March. Installation will be a tight fit, says Mynhier, but a recent test run with a mockup proved that it’s possible. The machine will enter Chase via the door facing Carnegie Science, will be trundled through the lobby past the Memorial Commons entry, and will be hoisted a half-level, about five feet, through a recently cut doorway leading to its home near the central stair.

What’s up elsewhere in Chase Hall? Let’s turn our backs on the central stair and descend that half-level back to the first floor lobby (carefully — the stairs haven’t been built yet). Now we’re in the original section of the building, opened in 1919.

Along the wall facing Campus Avenue, around the old building entrance, the Center for Purposeful Work is the prime occupant.

The new Purposeful Work offices have come a long way in what seems like a short time. Most wallboard is in place and the color coats of paint, though not the final coats, are apparent. (Topcoats will appear near the end of the renovation, minimizing opportunities for marring new paint.) Utility rough-ins are complete and inspected. Subflooring has been laid.

At the other end of the first floor, in Chase Hall Lounge, a new wall erected between two original brick columns separates the lounge from Purposeful Work. The replacement floor overhead that we told you about last time, necessitated by water damage to floor joists, is complete and quite beautiful.

The carpentry was performed by North & South Construction Services of Newington, N.H., and the masonry rebuilt by Consigli Construction, which was founded as a masonry operation in 1905 and is now the firm that’s managing overall construction on the Chase project.

Also in the realm of offices and flexible spaces on the second floor, new walls have been primed and given their first color coats. Utility rough-ins are complete except for fire-protection systems. Suspended-ceiling grids are going up, with tiles soon to follow. Here too, new subflooring is in place.

In yet another concession to modernity, meeting rooms and student storage areas throughout Chase will be equipped with electronic locks controlled by card readers, similar to those that regulate exterior access to �ֲ���ý buildings. This will eliminate the distribution of olde-fashioned mechanical keys.

“That way we won’t have to worry about keys that are lost or not returned,” explained Paul Farnsworth, senior project manager for �ֲ���ý Facility Services and our tour guide on Jan. 11.

Finally, let’s check out the ground floor. All but unrecognizable is the area where student post office boxes and the College Store were situated back in auld lang syne. This will become a student lounge within the so-called Student Center, which also includes a study room that’s now demarcated with new wall studs.

From left, Campus Avenue, the site fence, Carnegie Science Hall, and a Chase Hall entrance fronted by new hardscaping, swaddled against the weather. The Kenison Gate is barely discernable behind the signpost and adjacent utility pole at left. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Finishing wallboard and subflooring seams in the second-floor corridor in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Utility rough-ins are about done, the first coat of finish paint applied, and the ceiling grid hung in this open area on the second floor of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown on a second-level ceiling is an HVAC fan-coil unit with air ducts and the white-insulated pipes that feed it hot and cold water. The water heats or cools the air pushed out by the unit. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown in a second-floor office, this is one of 15 new video monitor installations in Chase Hall. The boost that COVID gave to Zoom video communications has made such installations more important than ever. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Progress in a second-floor office includes new subflooring, a grid for the suspended ceiling, and the first round of wall paint finish coats. The windows afford a view of Chase Hall’s roof. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The Chase Hall renovation has had aspects of an archaeological project. Shown are three enlargers, devices used in the days of film photography to make prints. Sizing, focus, and other variables were controlled mechanically. The enlargers are parked for now in the office of the �ֲ���ý Student newspaper. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Remnants of the Chase Hall darkroom, used in ancient times for producing images from paper, strips of celluloid, and precious metals, are stored in the once and future office of the �ֲ���ý Student newspaper. Shown is the darkroom timer, used for controlling chemical reactions. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Adjacent to the Student Center, in the old College Store retail space, new offices for Student Affairs are taking shape. There, electrical rough-ins — that is, the installation of cables and other components that will feed things like lights and outlets — are done. Mechanical roughs, primarily HVAC gear, are going in now.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you, especially if you’re giving away carbon paper. Please send questions, comments, and reminiscences about construction at �ֲ���ý College to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Didn’t the Kinks play ‘Lula’ — ‘L-U-L-A, Lula’?” in the subject line.

Empty no longer is that gobsmacking gulf that demolition crews created within Chase Hall late last summer. 

Starting in November and finishing last week, workers for New England Tech Air & Maine Steel filled the big canyon, located behind the back wall of Chase Hall Lounge, with a steel supporting structure for the new central stair and its connecting walkways.

As we’ve reported, the central stair and a related elevator will provide a convenient means of navigating labyrinthine Chase Hall. It will link four building levels (an existing stairway nearby will continue to serve the second story) and serve as a crossroads between the east and west ends of the building.

Chase Hall behind the construction fence in December 2022. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This interior brick wall was one of Chase’s exterior walls (the plain-brick rectangles were windows) until 1978, when an addition expanded Memorial Commons by 350 seats. At left is steel for the new central stair that will fill this huge interior space. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Floor-to-ceiling steel for the central stair. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Located in the 1978 addition to Chase Hall — you can tell from, among other clues, the precast concrete slabs overhead — this newly placed structural steel will support the central stair. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This ground-level view of new structural steel for Chase Hall’s central stair shows brackets that will support stair treads. Note the distance between the floor and the first stair landing: one-half level. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A carpenter passes a plank through the wall studs enclosing this new staircase, which connects the lobby near Chase Hall’s Carnegie Science–facing entrance with the second floor, shown. Note Skelton Lounge at left: It will remain structurally unaltered by the current renovation, but will receive new paint and other cosmetic upgrades. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A saw for cutting metal wall studs is set up in the once and future ground-level lobby in Chase Hall. The old post office was situated at left where the new studs are. The red patches are old wall paint that was covered by bulletin boards. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Assembled with chains and pulleys, bolts and welds, the three-story gray metal skeleton links floor to ceiling and spans the space lengthwise. One end touches the former and future Office of Intercultural Education reception area and beneath that, offices to be created for Residence Life staff.

The other end adjoins what used to be a maze of corridors and rooms dating from Dining Services’ long Chase Hall occupancy. Corridors and rooms will again prevail here, including a new mechanical room and restrooms, but it will feel less like a maze.

Handy to Memorial Commons, the new restrooms will be an amenity particularly welcomed by folks presenting public events in that space: If you’re familiar with the pre-renovation Chase, can you imagine trying to direct innocent members of the public to facilities elsewhere in the building?

A concrete-block elevator shaft will be built at the structure’s core. Construction of walkway floors associated with the stairs and elevator will begin this month, and those should be walkable in January. The new floors will be made from cross-laminated timber, which is something of a miracle product in contemporary construction. 

And when those floors are done, that dramatic Chase Hall abyss will be nothing but a memory. (But we’ll always keep the “This car crossed the Chase Hall Chasm” sticker on our bumper.)

If the central stair gets the boldest headline this time around, there’s plenty else happening in the 15-month Chase renovation. There’s even additional stair news. For instance, situated in the first-floor lobby that faces Carnegie Science Hall, there’s a new wooden staircase to the second floor.

Emerging near Skelton and Hirasawa lounges, this staircase replaces the now-demolished stairs in the nearby Campus Avenue entrance, which henceforth will provide street access to the ground floor only. (In addition to the central stair, stairs and elevators predating the renovation will get you from the ground floor to the first.)

Although they won’t receive cosmetic finishes till later, the new stairs are fully functional and give construction workers a second means of access to Chase’s second floor — one of those happy cases of local progress that accelerates project-wide progress. 

Also in Stair World, two new sets of concrete steps have been placed outside Chase. These too are replacements. One is situated at the loading dock, where the longtime service entrance will become a public entrance.

The other is at the Campus Avenue entrance near the loading dock. (This is the entrance served by the central stair.) The previous steps at that location lacked a landing — that is, a top step big enough to accommodate the full swing of the door and make the first step down less of a jolt — and so violated building-safety code.

New partition walls are being placed in Chase Hall’s ground-floor lobby where a campus post office and the College Store entrance were formerly found. This area will again serve as a lobby, but one more important than before: Everyone entering Chase through the Campus Avenue entrance near the Kenison Gate will pass through here. Note the shiny new HVAC ducts overhead. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A temporary door in the Chase Hall entrance near the Kenison Gate is surrounded by pale-blue insulation. The doorway at the left opens to the ground-level lobby, and the one at right to the Little Room. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A view of the Campus Avenue entrance to Chase Hall near the Kenison Gate. The black blanket in the right foreground is draped over a new retaining wall and precast concrete seating. (The blanket keeps fresh concrete at the right temperature for curing.) The orange “flowers” in the left foreground are safety caps on a patch of rebar for another section of wall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Maine Masonry concrete workers clean the surfaces of a new wall at the Chase Hall entrance on Campus Avenue near the Kenison Gate. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Offices and a meeting room in the first-floor Purposeful Work suite in Chase Hall. The insulation will provide soundproofing. The wooden trusses are original to century-old Chase Hall and will be left exposed. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Wall framing and utility rough-ins for forthcoming Student Affairs offices in the former College Store, which was relocated to Kalperis Hall in 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This view toward the central stair from Chase Hall’s lobby provides a sense of the building’s multilayered personality. The arched doorway frames a corridor that’s a half-level higher than the lobby. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Here’s a view from the other side of the arched doorway seen in the previous image, facing the Chase Hall lobby and the doors to the Chase-Carnegie courtyard. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In addition to the landing, the new steps rest on a frost wall, which the old ones lacked. “They would change height” as frost heaving occurred, as our Facility Services guide for a Dec. 8 tour, Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, pointed out. 

If this autumn’s unusually warm weather has not soothed anxieties about the changing climate, it has at least facilitated outdoor construction. Along with new steps, workers have also been able to place precast concrete seating along the new retaining walls at the other Campus Avenue entrance, by the Kenison Gate. “I’ll gladly be spoiled by fall-like weather in December,” says Kristi Mynhier, �ֲ���ý project manager for the Chase makeover.

That said, though, the project team will still wait for spring to place the automatic snowmelt system and final concrete surfaces at that entry.

Back indoors, progress is less sensational but still impressive as wallboard crews and utilities technicians continue to turn empty space into rooms and hallways. Sun streaming into new office and lounge spaces during our visit was an auspicious sight.

Mynhier estimates that subcontractor North & South Construction Services of Newington, N.H., is about 85 percent done hanging wallboard on the second floor, and perhaps 50 to 60 percent on the first floor. MEP installations — mechanical, electrical, plumbing — must pass municipal inspections before new walls can be covered on both sides, which affects the pace of wall completion.

On the ground floor, the former College Store is now a forest of shiny metal wall studs. A student lounge and offices for Student Affairs staff will go there. The framers will head next to former Dining Services spaces near the loading dock, where Residence Life and Health Education staff will be quartered. A notable change there that occurred early in the project was the cutting of large window openings in the concrete walls of the former Package Center.

Headlining progress during the coming months, Mynhier says, will be the arrival of an energy-recovery ventilator — that is, a heat-and-moisture-conserving air handler — that will live in the new mechanical room near the central stair. That unit was ordered nearly a year ago and has been delayed by — you guessed it — supply-chain problems.

In January we’ll see the placement of floor coverings, resilient tiles and carpet tiles, on the second floor. Also on that floor, masons will repair the wall bricks where, as we explained last time, water damage affected the floor structure. Part of the floor in a new second-floor lounge has been removed for the interim (jacks and girders are holding up the remaining floor) and we like to stand by the safety rail, gaze down through the gap at Chase Hall Lounge, and think back to that three-story canyon that once was nearby.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, and future construction at �ֲ���ý. (But not currant construction, which would put us in a jam.) Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Before automation, did air handlers wear gloves?” in the subject line.

About five months into the yearlong renovation of Chase Hall, Project Manager Kristi Mynhier feels that the undertaking has turned an important corner.

The first phase of construction, Mynhier points out, was dominated by demolition and by the abatement of hazardous materials. Those processes uncovered conditions that necessitated changes of plan and unforeseen work, including additional demo and abatement. Every construction project has its surprises, but they’ve abounded in Chase, for a variety of reasons.

But now the demo and abatement days are done, fundamentally changing the course of the renovation. “We’ve finally [transitioned] from being reactive, while we discovered and uncovered, to being proactive,” says Mynhier. “That’s probably the most crucial part of a project, when you can start to look forward and plan properly, rather than consistently discovering new things and having to pivot. 

“That’s where you start to get good progress.”

Site work is progressing at the entrance to Chase Hall on Campus Avenue, near Carnegie. The new retaining walls flank the course of a ramp that will lead to a revamped lobby on the ground floor. The wing walls in the foreground will be fronted with built-in concrete benches — an amenity for folks waiting at the bus stop that will return to this spot post-renovation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Former stairwell, future atrium at a Campus Avenue entrance to Chase Hall. The wall “stripes” show where the stairs used to be. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Workers plan the next step in the creation of a new stairway near the entrance facing Carnegie Science. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

While remaining a main entrance into Chase Hall from Campus Avenue, the former stairwell near the Kenison Gate will become a sort of atrium admitting light into the building. Shown is one of two points where the floor will be extended into the atrium. The other is the next level up. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The east end of Chase Hall Lounge. The arch and surrounding bricks will be left exposed, but sheetrock will cover the righthand half of the wall. Peeping through the doorway are �ֲ���ý Project Manager Kristi Mynhier and a project engineer. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Surprise! Beneath the wallboard, the Chase renovation team expected to find a solid brick wall separating Chase Lounge from the lobby — but what was there instead were two brick columns. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown is the Chase entrance into the courtyard shared with Carnegie Science. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The angled wooden beams are load-bearing trusses that are original to this century-old section of Chase Hall. When the current renovation is complete, they will be partially exposed as an allusion to the building’s history. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The rush is on to frame up walls in the front half of Chase Hall. Shown is what will be a warren of Purposeful Work offices and meeting rooms. At left rear is the former main staircase connecting the three floors of the original structure. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

One of the last of several surprises that lent the Chase project such a thrill-ride quality, and gave Campus Construction Update so much great material (it’s always better when we don’t have to make things up), appeared in September.

Wooden floors in the building are supported by long beams, aka joists, whose ends rest in notches in the interior brick wall. Demolition in Chase Hall Lounge, though, revealed that the ends of a number of joists overhead had been sawed off, denying them contact with the joist pockets in the brick. 

The precise motivation for removing the joist ends isn’t known, but that work was done adjacent to windows. It’s believed that incoming moisture, whether because the window units failed or someone failed to close them, rotted the joists.

To compensate for the lost support, the cut ends were fastened together with additional pieces of lumber, serving as ledger boards. These in turn were attached to the brick wall, but this doesn’t provide the same quality of support as the original arrangement. That created some saggy spots in the second floor. But baseboard heaters concealed the cause of the droopiness until their removal during demo.

The fix, Mynhier explains, will entail removing interior brick where joist pockets once were, connecting the truncated joist ends to the exterior layer of brick with metal “ties,” and then rebuilding the interior wall. (In cross-section, the wall in question consists of a double exterior layer and a single interior layer, separated by an air gap.)

Joist right: Seen from below in Chase Hall Lounge, the thick gray wood at center is a joist supporting Chase Hall’s second floor. The joist end rests in a notch, or “pocket,” in the brick wall that helps bear the weight of the floor. Damaged by moisture, other joists had their ends cut off and a different, and less effective, wall attachment installed. The joist joints will be remedied during the current renovation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

One flight up from the previous photo, empty joist pockets in the brick wall are obvious. The ends of floor joists once rested in those pockets, thereby supporting the floor, but were sawed off because of moisture damage. Called a ledger, the doubled board parallel to the brick was intended to take the weight once borne by the pockets, but hasn’t quite been up to the task, causing the second floor to sag. To fix the problem, metal ties that reconnect the joists to the brick will be installed. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The Chase Lounge windows to the right of center mark the approximate location of the overhead joists shown in the previous images. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“It’s probably been about a month from initial discovery of the problem to having the engineer look at it, bringing the abatement contractor back to do the Chase Lounge ceiling, and then having the engineer finalize the plan” for repair.

So you can see how the whack-a-mole nature of exigency response in the Chase project has caused some shuffling of timetables. As we reported in September, the amount of effort going into MEP infrastructure — mechanical, electrical, plumbing — will be doubled from the original plan. That will happen around the beginning of November, as workers on the first floor start to complement those who have been busy upstairs for a few weeks now.

“In the next month you’ll see the overhead mechanical work continue,” Mynhier explains — “mechanical” referring largely but not exclusively to HVAC. “That’s really our critical path for the entire job.” 

“Also, to minimize the impact to the schedule,” she adds, “we’ve started framing everywhere” — meaning that the metal and wooden studs that hold walls up are being erected and, in effect, making floor plans visible. “That allows the in-wall [MEP] rough-ins to continue and allows us to at least get board on the walls.”

In fact, placing wallboard is well underway on the second floor, whose layout will be the least altered by the renovation. On the first floor, the former lobby and Purposeful Work area is a forest of metal studs and two-by-fours that will ultimately coalesce into the largest unified office space Purposeful Work has enjoyed thus far. And on the ground level, the first few studs for Student Affairs offices have appeared in the former College Store retail area.

“In December floor coverings will begin on the second floor,” Mynhier says, which will mark, if you will, the start of finish work.

Grand Central Stair: In December, too, assembly of a new Chase landmark will begin: what the project team refers to, variously, as the grand or central stair. 

“All of the wood is on site for the stair treads and landings, and the steel [for structural support] is on its way,” says Mynhier.

Sited near the Office of Intercultural Education, which will return to its old quarters in Chase at renovation’s end, a new elevator shaft will form the core of a staircase that rises from the ground floor (which really seems like the only logical way to go) and tops out at the OIE level. From there, a nearby stairway original to the building serves the second floor. (At the other end of Chase, near Carnegie Science, a current elevator and a new set of stairs will also terminate at the second floor.) 

Handy to the existing Campus Avenue entrance near Muskie Archives, the central stair will constitute one of the main arteries, if you will, through Chase. It will touch four building levels — ground floor; the Residence Life and Health Education area a half-level up, near the loading dock; the first floor; and the OIE floor, another half-level higher. (A fun fact for readers, if not for the renovation team, is that Chase Hall, with its two additions, is a three-story building containing nine discrete floor levels.)  

The central stair will be built in the area behind Chase Hall Lounge that we referred to last month as an abyss, created by removing two big sections of concrete floor slab. Now visible at the bottom of that gulf are a square depression that will provide a base for the elevator, and a pattern of holes where steel columns will be set to hold up the stairway and new floor slabs.

Meanwhile, we learned more about the building’s other main artery, which will begin where it always has — the Campus Avenue entrance near the Kenison Gate — but will otherwise give visitors an experience nearly as new as what the central stair has in store. 

The definitive differences lie at the street entrance itself. For one thing, as we’ve reported previously, entry to Chase will now occur a bit below ground level, via a ramp descending from the sidewalk. That will lead to a lobby sited approximately where, back in the day, you used to find your P.O. box and the College Store.

But a change more dramatic than the ramp involves the three-story former staircase just inside the door: The stairs are gone, they won’t be back, and that space instead will be a sort of atrium spilling light on people as they come and go, and, via glass interior walls, bringing daylight more deeply into the building as well. In fact, on the first and second levels, floor space will be extended into the atrium. 

These century-old wooden trusses on the second floor, and others downstairs, will be left partially exposed as a reminder of Chase Hall’s history. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Four rooms were combined to create an open space on the second floor. Note the stockpiles of wallboard and the new HVAC infrastructure, including the boxlike fan-coil unit, on the ceiling. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New steel replaces a load-bearing wall on the second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A technician connects a new HVAC fan-coil unit in a second-floor office in Chase Hall. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work — aka MEP — is a high priority in the Chase Hall renovation these days. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

New wallboard lines the corridor on Chase Hall’s second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The construction zone in front of Chase Hall contains supplies — lumber, weatherproofing fabric, various forms of rebar, etc. At lower left, a hose drains an excavation near the building. To the right of center are new retaining walls near a building entrance. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Wall framing has begun in what will be Student Affairs offices in the ground floor space occupied long ago by the College Store. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This space once housed stairs connecting the three levels of the original 1919 Chase Hall. Still a main entrance to the building but with stairwise access moved elsewhere, it will be repurposed as an atrium. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“It becomes more of a viewing area and a welcoming walk-in,” says Mynhier.

Once you’ve entered Chase through the atrium, you’ll find a variety of new and old stairways and elevators to take you where you’re going. 

So, in a sense, the central stair will take on the role of the stairs that are now gone from the atrium— that is, a consolidated means of accessing different levels of the building. Which is all, of course, more of a conceptual than practical distinction. After all, a key goal for the entire makeover is to render Chase easier to get around in.    

And speaking of that, retaining walls flanking the path of the forthcoming entrance ramp have been placed, as have foundations for two wing walls that will line the sidewalk. And a precast concrete drainage system will be installed along the Campus Avenue facade in the next couple of weeks.   

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, future, and current construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Didn’t the knights of olde used to joist? Did they ever get board?” in the subject line.

After more than a year of renovation that has redefined Dana Hall’s role in science education at �ֲ���ý, the building formally reopened with a celebration on Aug. 29.

“It is kind of spectacular, the transformation that has been accomplished over a fairly brief time — it really is brief, when you consider the scope of the work,” Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, told the gathering.

That transformation rendered Dana’s interior infinitely more user-friendly, replacing a dim and labyrinthine interior with bright surfaces, long sightlines, and cheerful student spaces. And the project broadened Dana’s academic mission from a singular focus on chemistry to introductory chem and biology, with a side order of three active-learning classrooms suitable for any subject. 

Shear excitement: On the brink of the Aug. 29 ribbon-cutting that formally opened Dana Hall are, from left, Geoff Swift, vice president for finance and administration and treasurer; President Clayton Spencer; and Malcolm Hill, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

A fume hood in a first-floor chemistry lab in Dana Hall stands next to a window revealing an associated classroom. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Chris Streifel, the �ֲ���ý Facility Services senior project manager who has overseen the renovation of Dana Hall and other high-profile construction projects in recent years, climbs a Dana stairway during the Aug. 29 reopening. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

A corner office in Dana Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

President Clayton Spencer and Hoi Ning Ngai, associate director of the Center for Purposeful Work, pass a third-floor study room during the Aug. 29 reopening reception for Dana Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Dana Hall shown from Alumni Walk on Sept. 14, a week into the 2022–2023 academic year. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Both academically and socially, in other words, the renovated Dana is now a place for all �ֲ���ý students.

“That is all due to the hard work of many, including our design and construction partners and the brilliant �ֲ���ý facilities team,” Hill told the Aug. 29 gathering. Like the rest of campus, Dana opened for the academic year the week of Labor Day.

Dana made his fortune in part through investing in the production of the universal joint — not a populist cannabis product.

Also speaking at the event, as well as joining Hill in a ritual ribbon-cutting, were �ֲ���ý President Clayton Spencer and Geoff Swift, vice president for finance and administration and the college’s treasurer.

Spencer offered a concise history of Dana, which was dedicated in 1965 and named for lead donor Charles A. Dana, who was a kind of Johnny Appleseed of campus construction at a variety of schools. (We learned later that Dana made his fortune in part through investing in the production of the universal joint — not a populist cannabis product, but an industrially vital mechanical device often seen spinning underneath box trucks.)

Swift, meanwhile, thanked the many parties whose efforts made the Dana renovation a reality, including �ֲ���ý’ capital projects staff, construction management company Consigli, the project designers of Boston architectural firm Payette, and many more.    

Thirty or 40 people attended the afternoon gathering, which began at Dana’s Alumni Walk entrance with a supply of Dining Services treats close by. Most of the scheduled two hours was allotted simply for folks to wander through the building. 

Many who were familiar with Dana were “kind of shocked,” in a good way, by the results of the makeover, says Chris Streifel, who has overseen the renovation as a senior project manager for �ֲ���ý.

“A large number of people had never been in Dana before, too, were just impressed with what they found, not even knowing what the transformation really meant. So I think that my biggest takeaway was just the gratification of [observing] people see what I have seen, which is a much different building now, and for the better.”

Indeed, there’s a lot to admire in the new Dana, from banks of state-of-the art lab equipment to preserved remnants of past construction techniques to unprogrammed student spaces of a kind increasingly considered essential to student success. 

Jay Burns, �ֲ���ý Communications editorial director, took a moment to talk with architect Michael Hinchcliffe about the thinking behind those student spaces. Hinchcliffe, a principal at Payette, was the lead architect of the Dana project as well as the Bonney Science Center, which opened last year. (Both projects, as well as Carnegie Science Hall, are part of a strategic reconfiguration of �ֲ���ý science facilities.)

Hinchcliffe pointed to a significant difference in emphasis between Dana and Bonney. The latter, he explained, was designed in large part to create “advanced scientific environments in an undergraduate setting.” But the new Dana — originally Dana Chemistry Hall — was reinvented largely to appeal to a broad swath of users and to take advantage of its central location on Alumni Walk.

Central to that objective are features such as glass-walled study rooms, furniture casually sited along public ways, and an inviting “living room” with fab views of Alumni Walk. (But note that this point of contrast between Dana and Bonney isn’t absolute. Bonney’s two-story, glass-walled Beacon lounge is also meant to draw users from across campus.)  

Consultations with the campus community during the design phase revealed that �ֲ���ý students, like their peers elsewhere, seek out seemingly random seating for myriad purposes — for solitude, for a quiet conversation, for a perch to munch a power bar between commitments.

“That was in the back of our minds for spaces like this,” Hinchcliffe said. “Most campus buildings from the ’50s [onward] even into the ’80s were over-programmed. Everything was super efficient. They didn’t have this little bit of extra space for students.

“Buildings like Dana and Bonney can offer a type of ‘third space.’ So if you’re working on a problem set or on a project with some peers, you can come to a place like this and work in a way that’s different from someone’s dorm room or a classroom. It’s a little bit more public“ — which can afford a sense of security when people don’t know each other well — “yet it still provides a focus, and quiet, and resources like whiteboards and monitors.”

Such places can nurture a sense of belonging, Hinchcliffe continued. According to “a fair amount of literature on modeled behavior and territoriality, students tend to find a place their freshman or their sophomore year that they feel comfortable in. And they’ll tend to go back there, and they also tend to create communities of ‘Oh, yeah, I always see someone else studying there, so it’s okay for me to study there.”

Are we there yet? Oftentimes, says Streifel, there’s a comfortable interval between the actual end of construction on a major project and its ceremonial conclusion. So in terms of readiness and presentability, “the shine is already on the apple at that point.”

In the case of Dana, though, “we were really polishing it right up to the very end.”

And even now there’s some work to do. (By way of perspective, some punch list items across campus at the Bonney Center weren’t cleared until this summer.) 

There are subtle finishing touches to Dana’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems remaining — the kind of things that someone can do before classes start for the day. The casework contractor paid a few evening visits last week to discipline some balky drawer slides. Prior to that, there was late-arriving door glass to install.

In the longer term, the tardy autoclave that we mentioned last time will arrive in time for installation during October break, as will some water purification equipment and additional casework. And, as we’ve written before, it takes four seasons to fine-tune a new HVAC system. Streifel himself has a lot of desk work still to do in closing out contracts, etc.

But with Aug. 29 receding in the rearview mirror, he says, “it’s just a relief to be at the tail end of a significant project that was full of challenges and unknowns. And to be able to take something right at the core of the campus, and do a very significant renovation, and turn it back over to its intended use on schedule and on budget, is always a very good deal.”

Chasm Hall: You could say — in fact, we actually are saying — that a recent theme for the Chase Hall renovation has been “holes.”

If you passed the building via Campus Avenue last week, you might have seen a big old hole right in front of the entrance near the Chase–Carnegie Science courtyard. The bottom of the pit had been lined with gravel and was being compacted in preparation for concrete. Along one end of the pit, a partial retaining wall had been placed and a rodbuster was wiring up rebar in anticipation of the next pour.

Here a ramp will be built to carry visitors down into Chase’s new main lobby. But before that happens, walls lining the public sidewalk to either side of the ramp location will be started, with bench seats molded right into the concrete.

Other holes could be found inside Chase. There was a pretty good one inside that same main entrance, as the stairs and the landing outside Skelton and Hirasawa lounges had been demolished. One could look straight down from the second floor to ground level.

Where people using this Chase Hall entrance previously climbed some steps to enter the building, the renovation will provide an accessible ramp here that descends gently from street level into the ground floor. Here, workers are preparing the site for the new construction. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A second-floor window affords a view of site work in front of Chase Hall. A new ramp descending from street level will serve one of two rebuilt Campus Avenue entrances. Note the glossy marine clay around the excavation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Three separate rooms are being joined to form a student activity space on Chase Hall’s second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

If you came up to Chase Hall’s first floor from the ground level last week, this view of the lobby is what greeted you. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Stockpiled building materials and new ceilings on the second floor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

This wall in Chase Hall’s lobby will accommodate, at left behind the chair, a door leading to OIE prayer rooms and other first-floor facilities; and, at right, access to a major stairway connecting the building’s three main levels. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The former College Store looking toward the entrance and Chase Hall’s ground-level lobby. Between the camera and the red-brick columns, offices for Campus Life and a community service program will be placed. The space beyond the brick columns will become a student lounge. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Chase Hall Lounge, minus a wall. Note the familiar fireplace at left. The yellow doorway at center shows the location of a new main stairway that will connect all levels of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A “rodbuster” wires up rebar in preparation for the placement of a concrete retaining wall at what was once Chase Hall’s primary Campus Avenue entrance. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

But the biggest and best hole was in the area behind Chase Lounge. Once a zone of student arts clubs and before them, Dining Services facilities, it’s the future location of stairs and an elevator. In the past weeks the concrete first- and second-floor slabs had been removed, leaving something like a messy atrium.

But how is a floor slab removed safely? “The concrete slabs were demolished via a robotic electric concrete-cutting saw,” explained Mike Carpentier, Chase project superintendent for Consigli Construction, the firm managing the project for �ֲ���ý.

“The rails for the saw are bolted to the slab and it travels on them to make the cuts. This allows the pieces to be dropped to the floor below without workers being in the area. When workers were in the area to move the saw along to the location of the next cut, they were tied off via safety harnesses to the steel structure above.”

We gawked at this spectacle (and looked around for a concession stand) while �ֲ���ý project manager Kristi Mynhier, our tour guide, discussed sprinkler-pipe placement with master plumber Chris Becker, who stood on the far side of the chasm. We expected to hear echoes.

But this man-made wonder of the world won’t be around long. Footings and the foundation for the new stairway and elevator will be placed during the next month.

In previous Chase reporting we’ve mentioned a series of “surprises,” building conditions not shown in old plans or other records. These have been good for Campus Construction Update (yay, sources of dramatic tension that we didn’t have to contrive!) — but not so much for the people actually doing the construction, who have had to scramble to accommodate things like unanticipated hazardous materials and undocumented structural elements.

Well, here’s an example of the scrambling. Mynhier says that new emphasis is being given to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing rough-ins — in fact, in a change of plan, MEP crews will have to work on multiple floors at the same time so the Chase project can be finished by the stipulated date.

“With all of these unforeseen issues that we encountered while we were demoing and exposing the existing structure, it pushed the schedule so that we had to resequence, and the MEP rough-ins became the critical path” — the sequence of jobs that have priority.

“So we actually had to make sure the crews could increase their size in order to do both the first floor rough-in and the second floor rough-in at the same time to keep us on schedule.”

At least, Mynhier says, “I think we’ve uncovered all the surprises now, thankfully.” And the construction team for Chase’s next renovation — 100 years from now? — will be able to refer to the 360-degree construction images, many of them in-wall, that the project team is making now.

The Farnsworth Report: Of project manager Paul Farnsworth’s summer responsibilities, Olin Arts Center is where the most work remains to be done. For both the HVAC system replacement and the installation of a new main electrical panel, the arrival of major components has been delayed.

But the building is running just fine. The 800-amp panel was ordered in January and, says Farnsworth, “we’re still not sure it will arrive by next January.” In the meantime, the current distribution panel (or current current distribution panel — see what we did there?) is fully functional, just old.  

As for the HVAC system, still outstanding are chillers that will cool and dehydrate interior air. But rental units are bridging the gap till the permanent units are installed, which is expected by October. System debugging is still in progress, but the rental units have enabled technicians to balance flows within the system, so that important step is done.

Appearing beneath the “�ֲ���ý” in this drone image of the resurfaced Russell Street Track is the water jump for the steeplechase course. (Courtesy of Dave Cleaveland/Maine Imaging)

A view of the new Russell Street Track surface, with Lafayette Street in the background. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Terracotta is the color of the brand-new Mondo surface on the Russell Street Track. While the surface is settling in, the black mat protects it from foot traffic using the soccer field enclosed by the track. The vans in the background are rented by the college for student activities. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

An oblique camera angle turns the Russell Street Track surface into diamonds. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

John Bertram Hall provides a backdrop to the new grandstand at the Campus Avenue Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

ADA-compliant access to the new bleachers at the Campus Avenue Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The new bleachers at the Campus Avenue Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Farnsworth also oversaw two high-profile undertakings for �ֲ���ý Athletics during the summer. One is done: the replacement of the Mondo-brand rubber surface on the Russell Street Track. Bobcats in the track and field program will first compete on the new surface next spring. 

Finally, over at the Campus Avenue Field, the new permanent bleachers are fully functional but still awaiting the metaphorical cherry on top: a �ֲ���ý-branded awning to cover the platform where photographers and videographers work. That should ship by the end of September.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, future, and current construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Don’t bogart that populist cannabis product, my friend!” in the subject line.