Construction Desk Notes, Vol. 8

This is the eighth edition of my Desk Notes. Facilities Management has finished up with almost all of the "summer" projects at this point (Yes, I do realize it's fall. I think I was tipped off by the torrential down pours … either that or the consistently bad news coming out of Pullman and Seattle vis-à-vis football) and we are starting to gear up for next summer. We have four major on-going projects that will continue through the academic year. They are the Miller Hall renovation, Wilson Library Special Collections, Chemistry addition and Buchanan Towers addition.

The Miller Hall renovation is winding down the "soft" demolition phase. Soft demolition is anything that does not need large amounts of jack hammering and/or wrecking balls. The second, third and fourth floors of the 1960s wing are totally gutted.  Demo on the first floor has progressed to about 50 percent as of Oct. 22. Shoring is beginning to be installed to allow for the "hard" (unfortunately noisier) concrete demolition starting next week. This demolition will continue through January of next year. We are continuing to un-knit the utilities and services between the 1960s and 1940s buildings. Work is progressing on schedule with minimal surprises so far. I would like to take a moment to once again thank the staff and faculty of Woodring College of Education for their wonderful cooperation and fortitude. We couldn't do this without you.

The contractor has finished sheetrocking and painting almost all the walls in the new Wilson Library Special Collections area on the sixth floor. Most of the light fixtures are installed, cabinets are mostly in and countertops are showing up next week. There is still a lot of work to be done, but you can now really get a feeling for the space.

The Chemistry addition is progressing very nicely. The exterior enclosure of this project is framed, and roofing has been installed. Substantial portions of the research lab mechanical and electrical systems are complete. Interior lab walls are framed, and gypsum board installation has commenced. In the coming weeks, exterior sheathing, windows and the exterior metal panel system will be installed. The Chemistry faculty and staff are another group that deserves accolades. They have had an equally intrusive project going on right next to them and have done a wonderful job working with my staff. Thanks!

The Buchanan Towers addition: The construction is proceeding with foundations and sub-surface drainage. The residences of the existing BT tower deserve kudos for living and working in conjunction with this construction. The BT addition is going to add a wonderful new look to the southern portion of the campus as well as give University Residences 100-plus new beds in some quality space. I can't wait till it's done.

Other items of interest:

• The parking lot next to the Fraser Lecture Hall was re-striped to squeeze a few more parking spots into that area. I would be interested to know how that configuration is working. If you park there, please drop me a note with a thumbs up or down. The access road behind Miller Hall is still being used by a few pedestrians and bicyclists. We will be adding new signage in the hopes that we can convince everyone that it is still not really safe for them to use that route.
• We got our sign machine back and it is still working! We are busily churning out signs trying to catch up with a number of backlogged projects. (Note to self: Send note of apology for highly intemperate e-mail sent to manufacturer prior to receiving machine back.)
• The season is changing and the leaves are coming down, but this year we have attempted to mitigate the impact of the cleanup by changing over to newer, quieter leaf blowers. We have recognized over the years that this is probably one of the tasks that have the most impact on the learning environment. As a consequence, when we had the opportunity to purchase some quieter blowers at a less than extortionate rate, we took it. Let me know what you think.
• The brown bag sessions have been completed for the Draft Climate Action Plan. Thanks to everyone who took the time to attend and provide comments. You can still view the Draft Plan on the Web at https://sustain.wwu.edu/ in the documents section.  If you would like to provide comments, please e-mail climateneutralwestern@wwu.edu.
• The new domestic water pumps for Environmental Studies are functioning well. We have had to do a lot of testing to bring the new emergency generator for the pumps online. We have tried to work around the times the building is most occupied but in some instances have been constrained to doing the testing during the day. My apologies to the occupants of ES for the disruption to their work.
• Shannon Point Marine Center: As many of you may remember, I had an "occurrence" when I was writing about this project last time. For those of you who voiced concern to the police, I would just like to say that my analyst has assured me that I will be fine as long as no one mentions "pump" and "entrained air" to me in the same sentence.

-Tim