In store for 乐播传媒: While architects from the Ann Beha firm consult with a Consigli Construction executive, a ventilation technician cuts a piece of duct on Jan. 12, 2016. The 乐播传媒 College Store will occupy this space in 65 Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

In most building projects, at least the ones above ground level, there comes a transition in the parade of progress when you can get a vivid sense of how the new structure will interact with its surroundings.

With the 65 Campus Ave. residence at left and the Muskie Archives quad at right, the Central-Campus intersection will serve as the gateway to campus. Note the dorm’s storefront glass and stepped-back fourth floor. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

For Campus Construction Update, witnessing that transition is one of the best parts of the job (second only, perhaps, to loitering in the Den wearing a hard hat, orange safety vest, and mirrored sunglasses).

That revelatory metamorphosis is happening now for the two Campus Life Project student residences being built on the south side of the 乐播传媒 College campus.

A closer view of storefront glass on the 65 Campus Ave. residence on Jan. 13, 2016 鈥� a gusty day following a moderate snowfall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

True, there’s still considerable exterior work to be done on the dorms, not to mention site work and landscaping that won’t happen till spring. But in terms of grand impressions, 55 and 65 Campus Ave. appear to passers-by today very much the way they will appear when they’re complete, next summer.

And increasingly, you can appreciate the strategic design choices that the Boston firm Ann Beha Architects, guided by the 乐播传媒 community, have made.

“There are important things that we’ve tried to achieve with the scale, the arrangement, and the design of the buildings,” says Chris Streifel, 乐播传媒’ project manager for the residences. “ABA really drove that process, with campus input from a lot of different groups on how the buildings look and integrate with the campus.”

The view up Campus Avenue from the fourth-floor technology room of 65 Campus Ave. on Jan. 12, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

At four stories each, the new dorms aren’t small. But one thing 乐播传媒 didn’t want, in Streifel’s words, was “a canyon-like effect” that would result if the new buildings buddied up too close to Campus Avenue, especially with Carnegie and Chase looming across the street.

So only 65 Campus, which will house the College and Office Services, sits near the street. The bulk of No. 55 is way back on its lot.

The future home of Office Services, shown on Jan. 12, 2016. The pastel lighting is an artifact of the digital camera 鈥� too cool to correct! (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

To further reduce the urban-canyon feel, the roofs of both buildings have a relatively shallow pitch. And, in an oldie-but-goodie tactic, a fourth-floor setback on each building markedly reduces the impact of those top floors from some angles.

(The setbacks also create the perception that there’s a fourth-floor terrace on each building, which would be way cool 鈥� if it were true. But those flat places are just roofs and will be inaccessible from the inside.)

These measures bring the buildings’ perceived height “down to a level that seems a little more approachable,” says Streifel. “To me, it looks like they’re scaled perfectly with Lewiston Middle School in the background and with our nearby buildings.”

Technicians for Industrial Roofing Corp. install a weatherproof membrane on a shallow overhang at 65 Campus Ave. on Jan. 7, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The design team also wrangled with the dorms’ attitude toward both the neighborhood and the rest of campus across the street. Hence the orientation of the L-shaped buildings to one another 鈥� as seen from on high, they’re positioned like diagonally opposed corners of a rectangle.

“It creates a flow between the neighborhood and campus,” Streifel says, “a visually open feeling. And it creates a nice green space in the front” 鈥� which, this being January, we’ll just have to imagine for a few months.

At the moment, between the construction fence and the expanses of mud and snow within it, the physical gap between Nos. 55 and 65 seems uncomfortably broad. But that impression won’t last. In time, both plantings and hardscaping — the use of pavements and other masonry features — will seem to draw the dorms closer together.

Taller greenery will screen spaces that are “left open to allow community members to throw a ball around, throw a Frisbee around, lay outside and catch the rays,” says Streifel.

A bathroom at 65 Campus Ave. on Jan. 12, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The public sidewalks around the site will be asphalt, in keeping with the neighborhood, but in the open space between dorms “we’ll have a lot of brick pavers at the front of the buildings,” where most activity is expected to occur. “Those will provide a nice unifying feature.” In particular, a major brick walkway paralleling the public sidewalk will directly link the two buildings.

Finally, for visitors, the intersection of Central and Campus avenues will become a distinct, if understated, gateway to campus, with glassy 65 Campus Ave. at your left and the tree-shaded Edmund S. Muskie Archives on your right.

“You’re going to roll up and see this new building with beautiful architecture and landscaping — and you’ll know you’ve arrived,” Streifel says. Visitors who have picked up takeout at Luiggi’s and are approaching via College Street will just have to go around the block.

A fireplace being built in the Treehouse, the fourth-floor rec room at 65 Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

A high of 187: Jan. 12 was a red-letter day for the Campus Avenue project as the number of workers on the job reached its peak: 187, affiliated with 20 or so different subcontractors.

That total will drop off in two or three weeks as exterior work winds down. For example, with bricklaying complete, Maine Masonry has downsized its 乐播传媒 crew, which is now finishing granite installations and will likely tip its mortar board in farewell, so to speak, by early February.

In other exterior progress, Oakes & Parkhurst Glass has installed nearly all the prefab window units, with just a dozen left to do on 55 Campus Ave.

Still ahead for that Augusta firm is putting in more storefront — the large sheets of glass whose complex frames, designed to keep glass, warmth, and water where they belong, will be pieced together on the spot.

A double room on the fourth floor of 65 Campus Ave. serves as temporary storage for kitchen cabinetry on Jan. 12, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The storefront that has been finished, on the ground floor of No. 65 and climbing the corner of that building where Campus and Central avenues meet, is very pretty. We’re looking forward to seeing it replace the dull poly film and plywood currently covering most of the large window openings on the two buildings.

Two attentive workers and some indifferent metal channels ride a lift at 55 Campus Ave. on Jan. 7, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The first week of January saw a crane on campus hoisting a variety of HVAC machinery onto the dorm roofs. The equipment includes air handlers equipped to recover warmth from exhaust air. Unique to No. 65 are water chillers that will help with climate control — a big one for both buildings, and smaller units dedicated to cooling the IT room at 65.

And in between snowfalls, there’s been work on utilities, stormwater disposal, and other chores on the construction sites. So, despite winter, there’s a lot of outside work going on (we’re getting worn out just describing it).

The lobby of 55 Campus Ave. on Jan. 12, 2015. The workman is headed toward Campus Avenue. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

But that’s nothing compared to the interior stuff.

At 65 Campus Ave., all 74 student rooms 鈥� 38 singles and 36 doubles 鈥� have been framed in, dry-walled, primed and given the first coat of finish paint, an unassuming off-white. The placement of the floor covering, a dark gray, LEED-compliant wood-grained resilient product, is underway on the third and fourth floors.

The installation of bathroom tiling 鈥� glossy white “subway” tiles 鈥� is well along. Likewise the bathroom fixtures, including powerful Dyson Airblade hand dryers that are a far cry from the burlap towels, recycled from potato sacks, that Campus Construction Update had to use back at the old state university.

Having hoisted HVAC equipment to the roofs of both new student residences, a Cote Crane & Rigging telescopic crane pulls onto Franklin Street on its way back to Auburn on Jan. 7, 2016. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

And all that same work is happening at No. 55, just a couple of weeks behind its sibling.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, and future construction at 乐播传媒. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting 鈥淐ampus Construction鈥� or 鈥淏urlap? That’s nothing! We had to dry our hands on old cardboard!鈥� in the subject line. Or use the 21st-century commenting system below.

The new student residences at 65 (left) and 55 Campus Ave., seen at dusk Nov. 6, 2015. The cupola in between belongs to Lewiston Middle School. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Whatever the weather may bring, this winter will not be like last winter on the site where two new 乐播传媒 residences are being built.

What makes the difference is the simple fact that much of the forthcoming work will take place indoors at 55 and 65 Campus Ave. 鈥� whereas last year at this time, there was no indoors.

Cables, ducts and pipes will disappear behind the ceiling when 55 Campus Ave. is complete. Photograph taken Dec. 1, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Back then, workers under the overall supervision of Consigli Construction were still preparing the sites for building foundations, to say nothing of walls and roofs. So every heavy dose of winter weather, and there were a lot starting in January, stalled progress until snow could be cleared. And the workers, of course, had to contend with daylong exposure to cold and snow.

A laundry room in the making at 55 Campus Ave. on Dec. 1, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Now, although roofing and outdoor masonry are likely to continue at 55 Campus Ave. into January, most of the work outstanding now is interior. Things like building walls, running utilities, hanging ceilings, applying surface treatments, and so on.

So this year, says 乐播传媒 project manager Chris Streifel, winter’s biggest threat to progress would be weather that “prevents people from getting here and getting into the buildings.”

Maine Masonry was starting on the south wall of 55 Campus Ave. on Dec. 1, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Consigli has been planning for winter since summer, and its preparations have been facilitated by a benign autumn. (Pause while we figure out how to work “spring” into that sentence too . . . )

Tim Schneider, Consigli’s on-site project manager, explains that most of the winter prep falls into the realm of common sense. For example, laying in sand and salt to deal with slippery pavements, and tidying up the work site so tools and supplies are findable in the snow.

A drywall installer and an electrician fit out the fourth floor of 55 Campus Ave. on Dec. 1, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Of course, getting the buildings buttoned up and weatherproofed has been a priority through the fall, with heavy polyethylene sheets sealing the openings where permanent materials, such as “storefront” plate glass, have yet to be installed.

Keeping things toasty inside are gas-burning heaters: stationary high-capacity units to serve each building as a whole, and portable heaters for specific sites, such as the poly tent that has been draped over the mortar bins that the bricklayers use, since mortar needs to be kept warm.

Tank propane feeds the portable heaters. The whole-building heaters use natural gas, which is more economical, and are hooked into each building’s permanent Unitil gas feed.

Interestingly, the whole-building units are “indirect fired” 鈥� the gas combustion warms a heat exchanger, which in turn heats the fresh air that’s pumped into the building through big floppy ducts. Indirect firing minimizes moisture, which can adversely affect building processes like drywalling and flooring, and keeps out exhaust, which can adversely affect biological processes like living.

Concrete, brick, glass

A natural-gas fired heater pumps toasty air into the first and third floors at 65 Campus Ave. on Oct. 30, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Landscapers won’t be around to beautify the Campus Avenue compound till next spring or summer, and that will be something to look forward to. But subcontractor Gendron & Gendron had a crew at No. 65 this week doing some advance work: installing concrete foundations for features such as seat walls and benches.

Also in the realm of materials you don’t want to bang your head against, bricklayers for Maine Masonry are on the home stretch. They are polishing off details at No. 65, and next door have one last expanse to cover, a south wall facing away from the street and toward the parking lot.

“So we鈥檙e looking at a January time frame for the bricklayers to wrap up,” says Streifel. “And if there’s anything else, they’ll return in the spring.”

Meanwhile, a crew from the local branch of Industrial Roofing Companies is near the finish line at 65 Campus Ave. “They鈥檝e got the side walls of the mechanical well left to do, the caps on the tops of those walls, and there鈥檚 some other detail work. But essentially the shingling portion is complete,” says Streifel.

At 55 Campus, IRC folks are about half-done layering up the various sheet and rigid materials that form the roof substrate. Shingling will commence soon.

The other major component of a building’s envelope, of course, is the windows. For the technicians of subcontractor Oakes & Parkhurst, the 乐播传媒 job has two parts. The “storefront,” or plate glass, that will wrap around certain corners and enclose the street-level fa莽ade at 65 and other expanses hasn’t been top priority. So expect to see a lot of poly sheeting in its place on both buildings for a little while yet.

Storefront glass on the ground floor of 65 Campus Ave. reveals workers inside the building on Oct. 30, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

But some of the storefront is in evidence at 65, notably on the first floor, where you can see it from Campus Avenue through the construction fence. The聽storefront makes a very nice effect.

O&P’s top priority, instead, has been prefab window units that equip all the residential rooms. They are about done with those at 65 Campus, and are roughly at the halfway mark at No. 55. (The World Wide Web tells us that these units are described as “awning” windows, meaning that they are hinged at the top to open from the bottom.)

A roofing technician seen from the mechanical well at 55 Campus Ave. on Dec. 1, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Streifel explains that O&P is concentrating on the window units in order to make way for drywall crews, whose work includes making “returns” 鈥� recessed areas around the windows.

“It’s part of Consigli鈥檚 efforts to plan ahead and make sure that each trade can finish an area they’ve started,” Streifel says.

The 55 Campus Ave. residence glows at dusk on Nov. 9, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“Without good planning it is easy to end up with subs only doing 90 percent of a space and then leaving. And then somebody else wants to get in there, and it just slows everyone down and lowers the quality.

“It’s important to both keep these guys moving at full speed and give them space so they can do 100 percent.”

You appreciate Consigli’s choreographic ability still more as you observe the people doing the interior work 鈥� wallboard installers, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, tilers, and more.

Workers for Industrial Roofing atop 65 Campus Ave. on Nov. 10, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“It can look chaotic in there, but there鈥檚 a method to the madness,” Streifel says. “Consigli鈥檚 doing a fantastic job, but I also give credit to Ann Beha Architects,” the Boston firm that designed the new residences.

乐播传媒 engaged the firm to design the residences 鈥� which are part of a greater Campus Life Project that will reinvent 乐播传媒’ southern periphery 鈥� after Beha conducted a preliminary planning study that involved significant campus participation.

A morning image of the new student residences on Campus Avenue, taken on Oct. 30, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“They put together a design package that鈥檚 quite constructible and they are doing a great job of supporting the construction,” Streifel continues, referring to the portfolio of plans and specifications that Consigli and the subcontractors are following. “Overall it鈥檚 a cohesive set of documents and that makes it easier for Consigli to keep the work flowing.”

He explains, “A lot of times the stuff that鈥檚 in two dimensions doesn鈥檛 translate well to three dimensions, or there鈥檚 a lot more information that鈥檚 needed that isn鈥檛 in those two-dimensional drawings.

“There are varying degrees of completeness and quality that you find on construction projects and this, again, has been a good one.”

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, and future construction at 乐播传媒. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting 鈥淐ampus Construction鈥� or ‘Don’t bang your head!” in the subject line. Or use the 21st-century commenting system below.

Chris Streifel, Facility Services project manager for the Campus Avenue dorm construction, climbs stairs at No. 65 on Sept. 21, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Seeing red: Surrounded by brick dust, a masonry saw on the 65 Campus Ave. work site is covered up for the night. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

A Hydro Mobile self-elevating platform at 55 Campus Ave. Visible at right is the open-work mast that the platform climbs. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Watch this space: Serving as a mockup, this third-floor single bedroom at 65 Campus Ave. will be finished early in order to pre-test construction techniques. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

View of the rooms: On the fourth floor of 65 Campus Ave. on Sept. 21, 2015, the studs at left enclose the building "core" while the doorframes at right will serve student rooms. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

As the Maine Masonry bricklayers finished their work on the north side of the student residence being built at 65 Campus Ave., the before-and-after difference was striking in a surprising way.

65 Campus Ave. is looking eminently bricky on an overcast Sept. 10, 2015. Notice the new sidewalk “bumpout” at bottom. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Uniform brickwork has replaced the bold blue weatherproof film on the walls, and windows that were once gaping black openings are now blanked with translucent polyethylene sheeting. But what’s really weird is that, although we know the bricks have actually made the building slightly bigger, we could swear it looks smaller.

With the new student residence at 65 Campus Ave. in the background on Sept. 21, 2015, granite and pre-cast concrete forms await their turn with the masons. The conical bins hold mortar. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Yet another reminder, as if we needed it, that perception isn’t reality. “The brick chosen for the buildings is both matte and dark, so it is a light-absorbing surface rather than light-reflecting,” explains Pamela Johnson, associate professor of art and visual culture. “So now the walls appear to recede.

“The small-scale patterning in the brickwork also adds to the illusion of receding space,” she adds.

“But most important, perception of color is contextual. The brick integrates the new dorms with the buildings across the street, so the new construction merges with old into one harmonious view.”

Chris Streifel, Facility Services project manager for the Campus Avenue dorm construction, climbs stairs at No. 65 on Sept. 21, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

With that in mind, we can expect No. 65 to continue its apparent shrinking act through the coming weeks, as the masons have essentially finished with the second of the six major walls (a narrow west-facing side) and are going great guns on the long south wall.

The other residence constituting this phase of the Campus Life Project, No. 65’s younger sibling at 55 Campus, is playing the receding trick as well, as Maine Masonry started bricking up its west wall during Labor Day week and rounded the corner to the wall nearest Campus Avenue this week.

Seeing red: Surrounded by brick dust, a masonry saw on the 65 Campus Ave. work site is covered up for the night. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Early evidence that the masons are on the scene includes the appearance of Hydro Mobile “mast climbing work platforms” 鈥� impressive mechanized scaffolds that use hydraulic motors to lift the masons and their weighty materials to the desired height. In the manner of a cog railway, the motors raise or lower the platforms by turning gears that engage a toothed rack on the masts that support the whole contraption.

Those motors will do some heavy lifting in the coming months. By the time their work is complete, Maine Masonry workers will have placed 138,000 bricks, weighing in at 552,000 pounds (all figures are approximate); 7,500 square feet of split-face granite veneer, or 1,237,500 pounds; and 1,950 linear feet of precast concrete trim, or 191,500 pounds.

(Thanks to Tim Schneider, who is running the 乐播传媒 residence job for Consigli Construction, for those figures.)

Bricklayers on the Hydro Mobile mast-climbing platform on the Bardwell Street side of 55 Campus Ave. on Sept. 21, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Meanwhile, the residence facades are about to evolve again as Oakes & Parkhurst Glass of Augusta starts installing window units, possibly by the end of September. It’s a job that can’t be done until the bricklaying is done in a given area, so again the work will begin on the completely bricky wall of No. 65 that faces Campus Avenue, says 乐播传媒 project manager Chris Streifel.

A Hydro Mobile self-elevating platform at 55 Campus Ave. on Sept. 10. Visible at right is the open-work mast that the platform climbs. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Mounted on wooden frames, the heavy poly sheets now sealing the windows at 65 Campus will be saved for re-use at No. 55 as the permanent windows replace them. O&P Glass, as it likes to be known, will also install the “storefront” glass 鈥� large glass sheets, not encased window units 鈥� that will allow dramatic views from the staircases and corners of the dorms.

With winter coming (as Campus Construction Update likes to say, repeatedly, to people who are new to the North), the building team is acutely aware that the more windows that are installed, the more weathertight the residences will be.

Technicians on two lifts working on the roof of No. 65 Campus Ave. on Sept. 16, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

But the roofs have been waterproof for weeks now, thanks to a weather-barrier membrane covering them. The next step for roofers from the Lewiston division of Industrial Roofing Companies, Streifel notes, is to mount a wooden rim around the roof edges. This will provide a substrate suitable for attaching other roofing components.

“The roof membrane wraps over that and ties back in with the blue wall covering below,” Streifel explains, “so it鈥檚 wrapped 100 percent all the way around” to form a solid weather barrier.

A bench for cutting wall studs at 65 Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Among the workers appreciating the increasingly weather-free interior of No. 65 are the wallboard hangers of Timberland Drywall of Gorham. They know better than most that it’s a problem when drywall becomes wetwall. “Unlike the wallboard on the outside of the building, the sheet rock on the inside is not treated against water,” says Streifel.

On the scene for most of September, Timberland has put metal wall studs in place through much of No. 65. A quick tour revealed striking expanses of shiny studs and dull gray doorframes, some set in place, some in big stacks awaiting installation.

Ducts in a row: Seen past a stockpile of air ducts on the fourth floor of 65 Campus Ave., the trees at Central and Campus avenues are just starting to turn on Sept. 21, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

One newly framed-in student room on the third floor is serving as a mockup or demonstrator where construction processes will be tried out before they are broadly applied 鈥� a tactic being employed in different areas in both buildings, and best exemplified by the freestanding wall mockup near the fence on the 55 Campus site.

In the case of the mockup bedroom, a single, “the idea is that we will finish that room far enough ahead of the others that we can learn from the intricacies of it,” Streifel says. “So we’ll see if the fan coil unit fits where it鈥檚 supposed to, outlets end up where they鈥檙e supposed to, and that everyone鈥檚 happy with the way that everything else is installed.”

Plans for the fourth floor of 65 Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“So if there鈥檚 something to learn there before we go on and repeat an operation 167 times” 鈥� the number of bedrooms in the two buildings 鈥� “we have the opportunity to make some changes.”

Streifel explains that the subcontractor for a given process will assign someone to do the mockup who will then serve as the resident expert when the wholesale execution of that process begins. “It’s a learning experience for that person, so they’ll understand what the expectations are for the work.

Watch this space: Serving as a mockup, this third-floor single bedroom at 65 Campus Ave. will be finished early in order to pre-test construction techniques. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

“The contractor ends up with someone who knows exactly what to do, and they should be that much faster and have that much less corrective work to be taken care of later on.”

Timberland workers are also putting in the wallboard itself. “Typically they鈥檒l do the tops of the walls first,” Streifel says, “because it鈥檚 usually the more challenging portion of it. There’s a lot of cutting, fitting, and sealing around pipes and beams and conduits.”

He adds that it’s typical to sheetrock one side of a wall at a time and then move on, leaving the other side open for utility installations and the code inspections that those installations require. Once those are done, the other side of the wall will be installed. That way everybody can keep working.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes queries and comments about current, past, future, and imaginary construction at 乐播传媒. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting 鈥淐ampus Construction鈥� or 鈥淭he ’60s! Now those were some hard winters!” in the subject line. Or use the comments system below.

The Chase Hall courtyard with the 55 Campus Ave. student residence in the background, photographed on Sept. 2, 2015. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

A 19th-century house is 乐播传媒’ newest student residence, the green carpet is rolled out at Garcelon Field and Campus Construction Update is beaming as the steelwork continues at Hedge and Roger Williams halls:

• This fall, 23 乐播传媒 students will find themselves studying, socializing and sleeping inside a lesson in local architectural history. Acquired by 乐播传媒 in 2009, the large brick house at 10 Frye St. is the latest addition to the college’s stock of student residences. But it’s one of the older buildings in the fleet, dating to 1873. .
• The big news in the Garcelon Field renovation these days, of course, is the installation of the FieldTurf playing surface. .
• As this was written, on Aug. 20, Hedge Hall was something to watch as a crane swung long steel beams across the blue sky toward the building. There’s plenty of new steel in Hedge already, but the creation of the building’s framework will become more of a spectator sport as it increasingly happens outside the building’s shell. .

Pipefitters at work on the new steam lines between Hedge Hall and Ladd Library on Aug. 5. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Workers dismantle disused steam pipes next to Roger Williams Hall on Aug. 5. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The east side of Roger Williams Hall was prepared for a new addition in July and August. By Aug. 5, the wall was completely opened up where people will pass between the two sections, and the windows were filled in where there will just be wall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

New structural steel and wood are visible inside Hedge Hall in this image taken Aug. 3. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The service road between Ladd Library and Hedge Hall was blocked for much of August while new steam lines and other utilities were installed between the buildings. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions, reminiscences and comments about campus improvements. Please e-mail staff writer Doug Hubley at this E-mail, stating “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Colors of spring: The newly sprayed insulation on the new student housing is the green of Mint Julep candies, while the dried product is more of an acid green. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Between the mud, the plastic wrap and the concrete, the colors of construction work are predominantly drab. But what “colorful” colors there are, as major projects abuilding at 乐播传媒 this year have shown, can be surprisingly bold.

Intense-blue weather membranes. Orange-yellow baffles for stormwater detention. Turquoise pipes. Not to mention the insulation: Hot pink around the foundation of the new Commons! Lurid mustard on the Commons walls!

And, starting this week, acid green insulating foam on the new student housing.

The 2-inch foam layer, sprayed on by a person wearing what looks like a space suit, brings the housing project a step closer to its finished appearance (no, not green). The foam will ultimately coat all three sections of the building, followed by the final sheathing: brick on the two flankers (that is, wings), and on the center core a cementitious product that resembles clapboards.

Spraying insulation on the new student housing on April 9, 2007. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

With staging already in place by the southeast wall of the building, the bricklaying could begin next week, depending on the weather, said project manager Pam Wichroski. Much of the brick, she said, “is a red brick that’s kind of a cross between the colors of Libbey and Rand,” buildings to either side of the new housing.

In addition, on the walls facing the center core and the courtyard area between building sections, “there will be bands of grayish-white brick,” she added. The idea is “to add a little bit of life to the courtyard. There’s enough going on elsewhere with all the dormers and the glazing, but when you get to the courtyard, the bands add interest and scale.”

Supplying the brick is a local firm, Morin Brick Co. of Auburn.

Out of the public eye, meanwhile, workers in diverse trades are pulling the interior into shape. Ceramic tiling is complete in the first-floor bathrooms in the east flanker, and first-floor drywall is all but finished in both flankers. Drywall work is about to begin on the third floors, with the second floors well along.

Progress engenders progress. Because some permanent staircases are now in place, augmenting cramped temporary scaffold staircases,聽and聽because workers can now cross the bridges between the flankers and center section, getting around inside is much easier. “It certainly has an impact,” said Wichroski. “If you need to compare something on one side of the building vs. the other, you don’t have to go all the way down, across and up again.”

Andrews Road parking is soon to be only a cherished memory. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Alumni Walk: As this space indicated last week, work on the cross-campus Alumni Walk resumes on Monday, April 16.

New details about the work are available. Notably, parking on Andrews Road will be discontinued forever at 5 p.m. Sunday, according to the Security and Campus Safety office.

In addition, 聽indicates the work zones for the opening phases of construction. Initial pedestrian walkways 鈥� they will change over time 鈥� are indicated by heavy violet lines.

Workers building the new Commons roof on April 9, 2007. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Paul Farnsworth, manager of the Alumni Walk and new dining Commons projects, noted in an April 11 e-mail to staff that “construction noise will be similar to what was experienced last fall and what has been ongoing at the dining construction site all year.”

Finally, some 11 trees tagged last fall for removal, but left standing during the big cut-down in December,聽will be felled in the coming days. Most of them are smaller trees near the new Commons, but also doomed, as landscaping begins, are the two large maples standing guard at the west end of Andrews Road. Already weakened by disease and damage, they would have been removed regardless of the Alumni Walk work, Farnsworth wrote.

Orange baffles and turquoise pipes at the new Commons site. Note the stacks of silvery steel deck plates pre-positioned on the roof. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Dining Commons: The new housing and Commons offer constant reminders that construction is successive in nature 鈥� that is, task C can’t be performed until tasks A and B are done.

“It’s a whole series of trades that always follow each other,” Farnsworth commented.

So after the concrete slab for the Commons kitchen floor was poured on April 6, the fireproofer could then go in and do his spraying, so that the framers could follow him and start installing studs for the interior walls. And after the servery floor is poured today, it all comes ’round again.

We were curious about the fireproofing. That, Farnsworth explained, entails the spray application of a cellulose-based compound on the building’s structural elements. It’s a kind of insulation that, in case of fire, would protect the structural steel from the weakening effects of heat, buying more time for people to exit the building and for firefighters to do their work.

The next major slab to be poured will be at the Commons’ northeast corner, where rest rooms and offices will be located. The pour will likely happen the last week of April. The second-floor slab will follow.

The concrete comes from the Dragon Products plant in Lewiston.

On the outside, the placement of corrugated steel roof decking continues apace, making for dramatic scenes of workers clambering up and down the roofline.

If you’ve seen panels scattered seemingly at random and unattended on the west face of the roof, those are actually stacks of panels pre-positioned when a crane of sufficient muscle was available. Now workers are shifting the plates into place with ropes and fastening them down. The next phase of roofing will involve white panels that afford a flat support for the upper layers of the roofing sandwich.

Mmmmm, roofing sandwich . . .

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

Our Back Pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates here.

Photo Opps: See panoramic views taken March 13 of campus improvement projects. Click the links for the itself, Commons in a , in a and the .听

And for a bird’s-eye view of the locations for the new student housing and dining Commons, plug these coordinates into or (for the latter, click “Satellite” or “Hybrid”):

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W
New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W

We knew the three-story scaffold staircase was safe, because dozens of construction workers use it everyday without incident. But nevertheless it wobbled, the stairtreads were small, and it was all exposed, so there was no question about how far away the ground was.

On the other hand, if one did take the express route down, all that mud would have made for a nice soft landing. Churned to a fine consistency by all the workboots, it was remarkable mud. It was mud like some crazy love affair聽鈥� deep, clinging, complex and unforgettable.

Susanne takes you up: Clerk of the works Susanne Grant guided Campus Construction Update through the new student housing. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Those are a couple impressions from March 22, when Campus Construction Update and 乐播传媒 staff photographer Phyllis Graber Jensen toured the new student housing at the foot of Mount David. We were accompanied by Susanne Grant, the clerk of the works for the project — the College’s eyes and ears on the job site.

Grant graciously gave us the grand tour. We saw all three stories of the east wing, aka “flanker,” of the three-part structure and the four levels, including the basement, of the center. We saw lots of gray concrete blocks and drywall, silvery steel wall framing and exposed pipes, translucent white poly sheeting that’s hung all over. Dense loops of wire for thermostats and computer hookups dangled like vines from the ceiling joists. We peeked into dorm rooms and bathrooms, sampled the fine campus views that 152 students will enjoy next fall and visited shadowy mechanical spaces that they may never see.

The scaffold stairway at the new student housing. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

With about five months left until occupancy, the interior is well-enough defined to show the “cluster” concept realized by architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott. Student rooms, hallways, common rooms and even bathrooms form minicomplexes聽鈥� like villages on an intimate scale聽鈥� that, it’s hoped, will breed a sense of communal responsibility as well as camaraderie within each suite.

Especially impressive were the two lounges in the center section. The glass-walled fireplace lounge聽鈥� open to the sun and the wind during our visit聽鈥� will afford lots of light and some interesting views inside and out. In the basement, the large lower lounge will conjure up a clublike atmosphere for parties and performances.

A third-floor living room at 280 College St. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

The tour afforded a good grasp of construction progress, as we went from the fresh gray drywall on the flanker’s first floor to the bare shining metal wall studs on the third. It was also up-close-and-personal exposure to the conditions on a building site聽鈥� not just the mud under foot and the countless trips up and down scaffolding, but wacky temperature shifts, the constant clutter of construction materials and debris, the roar of wood saws and pipe cutters, and the glare of work lights.

While workers have been busy inside and out, exterior progress hasn’t been obvious to the casual observer. That will change the week of April 2, when the plastic wrap comes off and workers start spraying insulation on the flankers’ concrete block walls. At the same time, Grant said, the metal sheets that will form the top layer of the roof will start going into place.

A dormered dorm room. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

New dining Commons: It would take all day on March 29 to pour the concrete base for the roof over the new Commons’ kitchen and servery area, project manager Paul Farnsworth said.

The concrete would keep flowing in that area next week, he predicted, as the kitchen floor was poured 鈥� first some minor pours, such as depressed slabs that will be topped with insulation for the coolers and freezers to rest on, and then the floor slab itself.

A carpenter at work in the fireplace lounge at the new student housing. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

With the hanging of additional beams on March 28 to frame the fireplace lounge at the building’s northwest corner, the structural steel for the Commons was essentially done, Farnsworth said. Also finished is the inspection of important welds at what are called “moment connections,” special joints that give the structure resiliency in strong winds. With those inspections passed, Farnsworth said, the pace of installing corrugated roof decking should pick up dramatically.

Finally, in a quick Note from Underground: “We鈥檙e trying to get out of the service road” that runs between Alumni Gym and the Library Quad, Farnsworth said. After months of opening the road up and closing it again for new stormwater and sewage drains, there’s one more connection to make, with the city lines at Campus Avenue, near Dining Services’ loading dock.

“Of course we work around Christine’s schedule,” he said, referring to Dining Services director Christine Schwartz. “Fridays are a big food delivery day.”

Hanging steel for the Commons’ fireplace lounge. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

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

Our Back Pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates here.

Photo Opps: See panoramic views taken March 13 of campus improvement projects. Click the links for the Commons itself, Commons in a , in a and the new student housing.听

And for a bird’s-eye view of the locations for the new student housing and dining Commons, plug these coordinates into or (for the latter, click “Satellite” or “Hybrid”):

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W

New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W

Second story, man: Taken on March 14 from the second story of the new Commons, the image above shows Pettengill Hall and other buildings to the west. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

An interior tour of the new Commons on March 14 impressed Campus Construction Update many times over.

What was so impressive? So much steel overhead and so much ice-crusted mud underfoot. The fast pace and no-nonsense demeanor of the workers hired by contractor Consigli Construction Co. Most of all, the size of the building, the soaring space of the building’s main dining hall and the views of campus it will command.

The main dining area. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Paul Farnsworth, who manages the Commons and Alumni Walk construction projects for 乐播传媒, guided us through the facility on a cool, damp day. From the east entrance we went directly into a long corridor defined by steelwork on one side and plastic sheets on the other. That will become the Arcade, linking meeting rooms, offices and a convenience store with the dining area.

We followed the Arcade west to the future fireplace lounge 鈥� now just a foundation and some steel 鈥� and to the main entrance and dining hall. Shiny metal decking overhead in the Arcade gave way to a view of gray sky cut up by the steel skelton. Farnsworth pointed out the framework for the second-story dining mezzanine, which will afford views of the main seating area from above, and for a huge skylight near the peak of the roof that will light the seating area.

Even as we spoke, workers high overhead and the big Link-Belt crane were wrangling steel into place. (The structural steelwork was virtually complete and the Link-Belt gone by March 22).

A heap of dirt where the pizza oven and serving station will be situated. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

A ladder brought us to the second floor. Carefully negotiating the corrugations of the decking, we passed spaces that will become meeting rooms overlooking Garcelon Field, and watched workers on the roof deck above the kitchen and servery areas. The height afforded swell views west, past Roger Bill and Pettengill along the course of the new Alumni Walk, and north to the residential village.

We went inside the plastic tent to visit the kitchen and servery area. “At the moment the top priority is the underground work within that area,” Farnsworth said in a later interview. During our visit, the dirt had been thawed, excavation equipment was moving around, trenches had been dug for stormwater drains, a collection tank for cooking grease was in place and a heap of soil marked where students will eventually pick up their pizza.

During the week of March 26, Farnsworth said, concrete will be poured onto the steel roof decking that covers the kitchen and servery. Though more layers of roofing are yet to come, the concrete will give enough protection from rain to enable the roughing-in of walls and above-ground services.

Roger Williams and Hedge halls from the Commons’ second floor. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

How does it all fit together? If you flew low over the new Commons from the
west, you’d first see a right angle two stories high. That contains the dining areas and lounge, the Arcade and its upstairs equivalent. Nestled inside the angle is the one-story section that houses the kitchen and servery.

New Student Housing: Let’s think twice before we bring Christo and Jeanne-Claude to campus. Thanks to Auburn contractor H.E. Callahan, we have a very nicely wrapped building right here already 鈥� the student housing being built next to Mount David. For days, the concrete-block building has been completely swaddled in construction-grade poly sheeting.

Why the wrap job? “To prevent water and snow being soaked up by the blockwork,” explained Susanne Grant, 乐播传媒’ clerk of the works for the project. “The next big step is to spray foam insulation on the exterior of the building, and if the block is wet, you can鈥檛 spray foam.”

The new student housing, swaddled in plastic. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The 2-inch insulation layer should be applied next week, said Grant.

Meanwhile, out of the public eye, the interior work is charging along. Concrete was poured on March 22 to make beds for stairwells and the floors of the bridges that connect the two wings, aka “flankers,” with the center section of the building. The workers installing drywall moved this week moved to the flankers’ second stories, and should take it to the next level, so to speak, next week.

Notes from Underground: The second of five new concrete steam vaults was in place the week of March 19, at a site at the edge of the library quad. The process had been delayed by the need to abate asbestos. A third vault will likely be planted on the 22nd between Alumni Gym and the new Commons.

And the long-suffering service road that leads from Campus Avenue past Alumni Gym and the Gray Athletic Building goes back into surgery the week of March 26. “With the Gala this weekend, we didn鈥檛 want to dig it up,” Farnsworth said. “So we鈥檒l get into it next week to tie Alumni Gym and Gray Cage into the new storm and sewer lines that we brought up.”

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

So, during your Gala pit stops, take a moment to say farewell to the old root-clogged drainage that has outlived its usefulness. It’s true what they say: We’ve all got to go sometime.

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

Our Back Pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates here.

Photo Opps: See panoramic views taken March 13 of campus improvement projects. Click the links for the itself, Commons in a , in a and the .听

And for a bird’s-eye view of the locations for the new student housing and dining Commons, plug these coordinates into or (for the latter, click “Satellite” or “Hybrid”):

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W

New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W

Walk this way: This image taken from College Street in February shows the site of the future Alumni Walk. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College).

In April, work resumes on the cross-campus connector originally known as the 乐播传媒 Walk, now officially titled the Alumni Walk.

This east-west corridor will run from College Street through what is now Andrews Road and up to the new dining Commons. Paul Farnsworth, manager of both projects, explained this week that Walk work will recommence at a site between Lane and Pettengill halls.

A welder makes sparks on the new Commons. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Thanks to the vagaries of New England weather, Farnsworth couldn’t say exactly when that project will start. But it is clear that it won’t be finished when Commencement weekend arrives on May 25, and consequently things will go a bit differently this year.

The graduation procession that traditionally forms up on Andrews Road will gather in the Lane Hall parking lot and walk up College Street, right past the new student housing.

New dining Commons: Structural steelwork is all but done on the Commons, Farnsworth noted. The Link-Belt crane that has hoisted all that steel into place was finishing its work March 15鈥�16, lifting beams for the roof over the fireplace lounge. The crane, which has been visible from much of campus for two months, goes away early next week.

The Alumni Walk, to be completed next fall, will sport a variety of amenities that will make it an inviting place to meet, mingle and gather. Where a path currently undulates down to a parking lot by Lake Andrews, a small amphitheater will be built for classes and performances. Space is being allocated for public art. Pairs of facing benches along the walkways are intended to encourage conversation. After dark, light fixtures in the benches’ bases will make them appear to float.

Steel studs and insulation on the kitchen wall. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Photo Opps: See panoramic views of campus improvement projects Commons taken March 13. Click the links for the itself, Commons in a , in a and the .

New Student Housing: On Libby Avenue, just blocks away from the new student housing being built next to Mount David, Maine Welding and Fabrication has been fabricating the stairs for the new residence, and was expected to deliver the components for the first of six sets this week. As previously reported, contractor Consigli Construction Co. is pushing hard on the kitchen-servery area, next to Alumni Gym, where the greatest concentration of infrastructure needs to be done. Though we won’t see the outer brick veneer for some time to come, the inner wall layers are well along 鈥� passers-by on Central Avenue are seeing a lot of yellow insulation these days 鈥� and a concrete roof layer will be poured by the end of month.

Plastic wrap on the new student housing. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

The largest flight will go into the center section of the three-part building, explained Susanne Grant, 乐播传媒’ clerk of the works for that project. “It goes from the basement all the way up to the attic,” Grant said, “so it鈥檚 a very big set of stairs.”

Otherwise, it’s business as usual for the residence project, Grant said. After last week’s subzero nighttime temperatures, a run of warmer-than-normal weather has been a tonic for the 80-plus workers on the job. “It just makes working inside and outside the buildings very comfortable right now,” Grant said.

The workers installing drywall finished the first story in each of the two wings, aka “flankers,” and expected to head upstairs next week. An insulation layer has been laid onto the west flanker’s roof, and a weather barrier on the center section is being started soon.

Rand Hall seen through the west bridge of the new housing. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

Toward the end of this month, we should start to see plastic wrap come off the flankers and the application of a 2-inch layer of insulating foam. During the first week of April, Grant said, the brick veneer will start to go on. Morin Brick Company of Auburn is supplying the two colors of brick for this project as well as the Commons, as we explained last week.

Two more will be planted this month, one between the Commons and Alumni Gym, and the other at the edge of the Library Quad, at a site where abatement work is being done on an old asbestos-covered steam line.

Notes from Underground: You won’t notice it once all is said and done, but it’s getting mighty crowded in the ground west of the new Commons. The latest hole inside the work-site fence is for the first of five steam vaults, chambers that will give Facility Services access to the lines that conduct steam from the central heating plant to much of the campus. That first vault 鈥� basically a big concrete box with holes in it for pipes, valves and manholes 鈥� should be in place by March 16.

Finally, a reader inquired about a one-day excavation right next to the entrance of Pettengill Hall. That was a test pit, Farnsworth explained, to determine the depth of an existing stormwater line that will be joined to a new line later on. Which affords a perfect segue to:

The Link-Belt crane, seen between Coram and Ladd, has loomed over campus for weeks. (Doug Hubley/乐播传媒 College)

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

Our Back Pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates here.

For a bird’s-eye view of the locations for the new student housing and dining Commons, plug these coordinates into or (for the latter, click “Satellite” or “Hybrid”):

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W

New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W