Taken at the unfinished Campus Avenue Field in mid-August, this image shows the concrete channel into which the edge of the GreenFields TX turf would be tucked and secured. At right is the TenCate Ecocept elastic layer, which is unique in North America — at least for now. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In the new and improved Smith Hall showers, fancy metalwork decorates the drain troughs and a tiled barrier ensures that bathers don't have to stand in each others' runoff. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A field hockey practice on the new GreenFields TX turf on Campus Avenue Field on Sept. 1, 2016 . (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Field hockey balls on the GreenFields TX turf on Sept. 1, 2016, the second day of practice on the new surface. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

There's no doubt whose this new turf this is. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

We’ve been together 18 months, but now our time’s running out.

Our hearts are heavy. It’s hard not to regret the places we never saw together, the experiences we never had, the pleasures left untried. The things we wanted to tell you about, but couldn’t.

Such as the conversion of Carnegie 225 from tiered to level seating. The new steam pipe between Chase Hall and the Muskie Archives. And the new windows on Chase — 100 new energy-efficient windows.

There’s no doubt whose this new turf this is. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Since March 2014, it has been our pleasure to give you the news of major facilities improvements at �ֲ���ý. But with the new Campus Avenue dorms open and the summer’s three remaining projects virtually complete, it’s time for Campus Construction Update to end this series and return to honest — er, other communications work.

Yet we still have a few intimacies to share with you before we pack up the 8-foot ladder, leave our hard hat and orange safety vest rolled up and stashed behind your couch, and call it a day.

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, the �ֲ���ý field hockey team held its first practice on a newly resurfaced Campus Avenue Field. In fact, it was the first practice in North America for any team on this specific configuration of GreenFields TX turf.

While this acclaimed turf by the Dutch manufacturer GreenFields is in use elsewhere on the continent, �ֲ���ý’ Campus Avenue Field is the only installation employing the proprietary TenCate Ecocept elastic layer — the shock-absorbing layer that underlies the faux grass.

A mixture of recycled rubber and plastic bound with polyurethane, the Ecocept product imparts superior playing qualities and drainage to the turf, says field hockey coach Danielle Ryder.

A field hockey practice on the new GreenFields TX turf on Campus Avenue Field on Sept. 1, 2016 . (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“It’s a very nice turf in terms of playability and bounce and speed,” she says. “And it’s a very fast turf. That’s going to be really useful when we go play on slower turfs, because we’ll be used to performing fast.”

The TX is also, simply, a consistent surface. It will enable the team to focus exclusively on playing without the distractions from the worn-out AstroTurf that it replaced.

The old turf’s irrigation system — field hockey is played on wet turf — left puddles that would stop the ball dead. There were frayed spots and other irregularities in the playing surface that sent balls flying wildly and tripped players. (The Bobcat emblem in the middle was a particular tripping hazard.)

Most important, Ryder explains, the GreenFields is “physically a lot more forgiving to the players’ bodies. The old turf was really hard to play on.”

The last major task at Campus Avenue Field was completed early this week: fastening the grassy layer in place. This was done by securing the edge of that carpet into a channel cut into a concrete anchor wall that surrounds the field and whose top is flush with ground level.

Panels of the GreenFields TX turf were still being placed on Aug. 17, 2016. Slathered with glue, this tape was used to hold the panels together. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Other than that, the finishing touches were cosmetic — touchups to markings on and around the field. Ryder points out an interesting distinction among the markings: Curved lines, like the shooting circle, are painted on, and straight-line markings are inset and glued into the surface.

That’s because curved seams don’t hold up as well as straight seams.

The renewed field is a tremendous morale boost. “It’s a huge advantage to have a brand-new facility,” Ryder says. “And it’s definitely a vote of confidence.”

The Bobcats make their competitive debut on the new turf in a game vs. Worcester State at 5 p.m. Sept. 6.

“It’s a cathedral,” says rowing coach Peter Steenstra: The boat storage area in the boathouse. The wood on the floor was recovered from �ֲ���ý’ old boathouse for decorative use in the new facility. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Focused on racks: �ֲ���ý’ new boathouse will be the last of the college’s big summer facility projects to cross the finish line.

Rowing coach Peter Steenstra reports that the all-important boat storage racks will be installed during the week of Sept. 12. That date falls two days after the teams’ first practice, and a few weeks past the original installation schedule.

Sideboards from the old boathouse were saved, planed, and resized for reuse in the new boathouse team room, shown here, and in a connecting corridor. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

But the delay is a good thing. The racks are being custom-made for �ֲ���ý and their designer-fabricator, Focus Rack Systems of Nashville, Mich., is taking the time it needs to get them right.

The racks are distinctive in one way, and probably unique in a second way. As noted in previous updates, the first distinction lies in a drawer-like action in the supporting arms that allows the boats to slide out and in for easy storage.

The unique feature? Each rack has three arms that support boats: bow, center, and stern. But the Focus rack’s center arm can be moved along the boat’s length. That’s to accommodate different arrangements of the so-called outriggers, gunwale-mounted fittings that support the oarlocks.

Because outrigger placement varies from boat to boat and the boats are racked upside-down, the movable arm will simplify boat storage in tight quarters and reduce the risk of damaging the delicate craft.

“That’s something they’ve never done, so they’re kind of excited about it,” says Steenstra, who worked with Focus proprietor Paul Smith on the innovation. “It’s the first of its kind.”

We dropped by the boathouse site, by the Androscoggin River in the town of Greene, on Aug. 30. Project management firm Consigli Construction still had a field office there, but the construction fence was gone and the landscaping done: paving stones placed in the parking area, trees and bushes planted, grass seed under a blanket of straw panting for rain.

Painters were finishing up the exterior of �ֲ���ý’ new boathouse on Aug. 30, 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

It was gratifying to see that something of the old boathouse lives in the new one: The rustic wainscoting and ceiling trim fabricated from the sideboards of the old boathouse, which was torn down a month ago.

Wainscoting and all, the new boathouse is beautiful, says Steenstra. “Particularly the inside, with the main boat bays,” he says, adding with a laugh, “It’s a cathedral.”

To passers-by, the structure sets the right tone. Set in a rolling field a few hundred yards from a working farm, the boathouse fits its rural setting. “When you’re driving by, you’re going to see what looks to be a very large barn,” Steenstra says. “But get a little closer and you start to realize what it is.”

A grand opening for the boathouse is scheduled for Oct. 29.

The foosball table is ready for action in a Smith Hall Lounge. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Notes from a basement: Back on the sunny shores of Lake Andrews, the first student residents of post-renovation Smith and Wentworth Adams halls have settled in.

Smith will remain mostly empty until the majority of the student body returns to campus this weekend. But 50 or so first-years moved into Adams on Opening Day, Aug. 29, arriving among the 499 members of �ֲ���ý’ Class of 2020.

When it’s complete, this sectional lounging unit in Smith Hall’s basement will have counter seating along the backs of each sofa unit. Imagine the fun to be had with spitballs and popcorn during a binge-viewing session of films by Ingmar Bergman! (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Opening Day came a week after another milestone for the dorms’ renovation: the issuance of the certificate of substantial completion for Smith and Adams by �ֲ���ý, general contractor Langford & Low, and architect Harriman Associates.

As we’ve previously written, the practical effect of substantial completion is that �ֲ���ý assumes authority over the buildings from the general contractor. But as we’ve seen with the Campus Avenue residences, substantial completion and even student occupancy don’t signal the end of work.

At Smith and Adams as at 55 and 65 Campus Ave., workers continue to make tweaks, repairs, and replacements revealed by the punch-list inspection process.

On Aug. 24, when Campus Construction Update stopped by for a look-see, the new lakeside entrance to Wentworth Adams Hall was all but complete, with access-system work to be done and the ceilings awaiting their full complement of tiles.

Completed tasks at Adams included the creation of a first-year study center in the basement; the upgrade of a first-floor suite now occupied by the residence director; and paint and light fixtures that bring new brilliance to the main corridors of the ground-level and street-level floors.

A new study lounge in the renovated basement of Smith Hall. Banquette seating is a design theme in the lounge spaces �ֲ���ý has created this year. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Next door, the transformation of Smith — especially its basement — was striking. The wall colors were on, most furniture in place, and the residence coordinator was already ensconced in her sunny basement abode.

The basement kitchen-lounge was ready for action. The furniture was a mix of formats including mid-sized tables, four-person high-tops with unusual shovel-shaped stools, and, across the aisle in a television lounge, a giant sectional with both sofa and counter seating. It was an elaborate system for lounging.

Down the corridor a large, well-lit study lounge straddled the aisle and, again, was furnished to accommodate all manner of seating preferences — from long banquettes to six-person tables, from paired soft chairs perfect for tête-à-têtes to tall loungers for solo thinkers.

Upstairs in the residential zone, Farnsworth showed off the new shower drains that, for the first time in this venerable building, limit one’s run-off to one’s own stall. (Previously, two stalls shared a drain.)

The individualized shower drains, which required some time to perfect, comprise a trough in each stall equipped with a decorative patterned-metal cover. The stalls are separated by a tiled berm. Hygiene and elegance too.

In the new and improved Smith Hall showers, fancy metalwork decorates the drain troughs and a tiled barrier ensures that bathers don’t have to stand in each others’ runoff. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Looking at the overall project, Farnsworth had nothing but praise for Langford & Low, calling the Portland-based contractor “awesome.” Deadlines were tight: It was key to get the buildings to the point where the city could issue the certificates of occupancy (a precursor to substantial completion), because otherwise �ֲ���ý couldn’t use the buildings.

“They understood the goal of having this work done in time for the return of the students — there was no other place for the students to go.”

“We got everything done that needed to be done in time.”

Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye: Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, future, desirable, and imaginary construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Thanks for the memories” in the subject line. Or use the 21st-century commenting system below.

Mixed pavers cover the boathouse parking area. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A pipefitter for Johnson & Jordan works in the basement of Smith Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Plywood covers openings where wall material was removed to enlarge the windows on the back side of Smith Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The canopy over the forthcoming lakeside entrance at Wentworth Adams Hall on July 13, 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The Smith Hall basement will gain a recreation area featuring, at rear, a kitchen and banquette. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Floor show: A stripped floor in Smith Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but you just can’t take any old chain saw and start slicing through the exterior walls of brick buildings.

However, if you have the right saw, the know-how, a good set of plans, and the building owner’s blessing, then have at it. Because in truth, cutting new doorways, window openings, etc., in a brick building can really impress your friends.

This incision marking the site of a new entrance in the back wall of Wentworth Adams Hall was made by the Westbrook, Maine, subcontractor Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

At any rate, Campus Construction Update was impressed to see incisions that had been made in the back wall of Wentworth Adams Hall in late June. Subcontractor Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting of Westbrook made the cuts around a pair of windows preparatory to removing a hunk of wall.

And that opening will become a rear entrance giving student residents easier access to the charms of Lake Andrews.

Workers used an appropriately equipped chain saw, explained project manager Paul Farnsworth, to cut openings for the new entrance.

When the wall section is removed, plywood will cover the opening until the plate-glass door arrives, in early August.

In late June, the foundation for the new entrance was placed and some preliminary landscaping was done — roughing out the walkway that will link the entrance to the parking lot and the apron that will give chilling students a place to set their lawn chairs.

The foundation, Farnsworth noted, is the real deal: footers and a frost wall sunk four and a half feet deep. “We didn’t want it to heave,” he said.

And a walk-by this week revealed that the steel framework and decking for the canopy over the entrance is now in place, thanks to steelworkers from LMC Light Iron of Limerick.

The canopy over the forthcoming lakeside entrance at Wentworth Adams Hall on July 13, 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Still on the outside, but at adjacent Smith Hall, sections of wall have been removed to deepen the basement window openings. The idea here is to admit more light to a basement that is being renovated into a more versatile and mood-lifting common space for Smith residents.

Plywood covers openings where wall material was removed to enlarge the windows on the back side of Smith Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Inside Adams, the heavy renovation action has been concentrated on a pair of spaces in addition to the back entryway. These are the first-year study being created on the ground floor from three former student rooms, as part of that floor’s conversion to a first-year center; and the new residence director’s quarters on the street level, again repurposed from former student rooms.

Next door at Smith, the renovation goals are more comprehensive. One is the basement rehab. The other is the makeover of, well, everything else, including student rooms that are being converted from quadruple to double occupancy.

During our visit, the process of rerouting heating pipes from the basement ceiling to the first-floor ceiling was underway. Again, the objective is to allow more daylight into the basement by relocating pipes that cross the window tops. (Higher ceilings on the first floor make the relocated pipes much less intrusive.)

The Smith Hall basement will gain a recreation area featuring, at rear, a kitchen and banquette. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Also in the basement, the in-wall plumbing and electrical installations have been completed and city-inspected, Farnsworth said. Most new spaces have been framed out and a lot of new wallboard hung.

Farnsworth led us through the new laundry room (largely taken up with a giant toolbox); the expansive space for a recreation area complete with kitchen, to be furnished with a long counter perpendicular to the wall and banquette seating; a large study space; the yoga room; and the residence coordinator’s quarters, sporting a new, bright green shower stall.

The basement will also feature two two-person study nooks, right off the main corridor, that will allow students to occupy that collegiate sweet spot where both studies and the social scene get their proper amounts of attention.

We also crept around inside the boiler room, which is being completely re-equipped: new heat exchangers connected to the campus steam plant; condensate pumps that will return spent steam (aka water) to the plant; and a gas-fired boiler that will heat the building during the campus plant’s off season.

Floor show: A stripped floor in Smith Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Upstairs, the floors of the 48 student rooms have been stripped and floor specialist Paul G. White Interior Solutions, of Portland, has begun laying new vinyl flooring in the upper stories.

The old ceilings in the second through the fourth floors of Smith North are gone. Also in Smith North, Farnsworth said, “The painters have started and wall accent colors are starting to show up in a building that never had them before.”

He explained, “The accents will distinguish the stairwells and show up in an accent wall on all floors at each respective tower’s corridor.”

The three accent colors are by Sherwin-Williams. , a cool, milky medium green, will appear in Smith North; the mustard-yellow in the middle tower; and , a tranquil blue, in Smith South.

Finally, sinks and wall tiles in Smith’s 12 common bathrooms are gone, with replacements in store. And plumbers for subcontractor Johnson & Jordan are rectifying a longstanding issue for Smith inhabitants: the fact that every pair of shower stalls shared one drain, causing bathers to stand in each other’s runoff.

The plumbers have retrofitted each bathroom with a drain for each stall. At last, Smith inhabitants can put their soles at ease.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, future, and fictitious construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “You didn’t say ‘upsprucing‘!” in the subject line. Or use the 21st-century commenting system below.

A chicken in every pot and a drain for every shower: Just as Smith Hall is being de-densified from quad rooms to doubles, its shower drains are being de-densified from doubles to singles. The blue gizmos mark the drains. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A new entrance to Wentworth Adams Hall will enable students to better enjoy this view of Lake Andrews. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Even as finishing touches are applied to the new residences at 55 and 65 Campus Ave. this summer, a whole new component of the Campus Life Project will come to life — at the opposite side of campus, a third of a mile away.

The doorway leads to the four-bunk bedroom in a typical Smith Hall suite. A renovation project in summer 2016 will convert Smith from quads to doubles. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Short Term will see the start of significant renovations to Smith and Wentworth Adams halls. And the biggest news involves Smith.

Currently sleeping most of its inhabitants in quads — that is, four beds in a two-room suite — the residence will be converted to doubles. This “de-densification” will halve the student population in Smith’s above-ground floors, from 192 to 96 beds, with the other 96 coming back as part of the new Campus Avenue residences.

It’s a “back to the future” kind of deal, as Smith comprised doubles when it opened, in 1940. Adopted 15 years ago, the quads imposed an intimacy that, at its best, has “encouraged a tight-knit community,” says Erin Foster Zsiga, head of �ֲ���ý’ residence-life program.

“Many first-year roommates have gone on to be roommates for all four years, and friends beyond �ֲ���ý,” she says. “An alumnus came back last summer to propose to his fiancée in his former Smith room.”

Walls will be removed, heating pipes shifted upstairs, and windows enlarged to make Smith Hall’s basement brighter and more spacious. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Nevertheless, it’s a timely change. The converted suites are going to be “desirable spaces,” says Paul Farnsworth, Facility Services’ project manager for the Smith-Adams work. “Just cutting the population in half is going to make a huge difference.”

Another focus of the Smith work involves the basement. To make that rather claustrophobic space feel more, er, spacious, soil outside the foundation will be cut back on the Lake Andrews side of the building and the windows enlarged downward to admit more daylight.

The 15 student beds now situated there will be removed, and the area will be refitted for study and recreation: progressing from quiet to animated, the basement will house study rooms, a lounge, a game room, and an open-plan kitchen, as well as new restrooms and a relocated laundry. Also in store are a room for meditation or individual yoga, and new quarters for a residence coordinator.

The ground floor windows at center, near the bald spot in the lawn, indicate where a new entrance into Wentworth Adams Hall will be constructed this summer. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Currently for first-years exclusively, Smith will henceforth house upperclass students.

Also driving the renovations in both residences, says Farnsworth, is the need to address deferred maintenance. In Smith, which was last renovated in 1986, that entails:

• major upgrades to the data network, ventilation, and heating systems, including the relocation of pipes — upward to the ceiling level of the first floor — to unblock basement windows;
• installation of a new fire alarm system;
• replacement of flooring and ceilings;
• upgrades or replacements to lighting, including a change to energy-efficient LED fixtures outside;
• and fresh paint, inside and out.
• In addition, Americans with Disabilities Act signage and new door handles will improve accessibility. The revamped basement, Farnsworth says, will be fully ADA-compliant.

Common spaces will get nice new furniture. And finally, the bathrooms will receive new sinks and counters, among other improvements — including the provision of a drain for every shower stall. Now, every two stalls share a drain, forcing students in neighboring stalls to stand in each other’s runoff. Civilization at last.

More daylight will brighten Smith Hall’s ground floor after the window openings are enlarged — down to about the level of the outlet — during a summer 2016 renovation. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Next door at Wentworth Adams, forthcoming improvements include the creation of a new entrance on the Lake Andrews side of the building. It means the sacrifice of a student room (No. 118, if there’s any history there you’d like to share), but the aesthetic gain will be considerable.

“The grass behind the building is just prime real estate for gatherings, but it’s so far from the existing entrances that it just doesn’t work,” Farnsworth says. “So there’ll be an entrance and a path toward Pettengill.”

While the first-years are leaving Smith, a new first-year center — clustered accommodations for first-years and a junior adviser — will be created on the ground floor of Adams. One story up, a new suite will be created for a residence director, a paid staffer who coordinates student life programming across residences.

Opening off the elegant oak vestibule at Adams’ main entrance and incorporating a kitchenette and full bath in addition to sleeping quarters, that suite will occupy space once inhabited by the Wentworth Adams house mothers.

Described as a summer project, the Smith–Wentworth Adams work will start up incrementally as residential use winds down during the spring. Both buildings will have occupants right through Reunion.

Work at Smith will begin during Short Term and then, following Reunion, general contractor Langford and Low, of Portland, can really pour on the coals.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, and future construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Drain-sharing horror stories” in the subject line. Or use the comments system below.

Smith Hall, with a tree-veiled Wentworth Adams Hall beside it, viewed from the 60-foot Campus Construction Update stepladder. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)