Campus Construction Update April 29, 2022

Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull chats with University Communications' Dave Blanks about the construction progress for App State's New River Hall and the Child Development Center expansion is on schedule, set for completion in May 2022.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey folks. I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications, back with a campus construction update, which, that time, I pronounced correctly, Matt. So, we can use that one. Hello, Matt Dull. You're here with me.

Matt Dull: Hey, Hey, good to be back in the studio.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, I'm glad you're here. You're in my office. We're in a different setup than we normally have, but we can still give the same information we give.

Matt Dull: That's right. That's right.

Dave Blanks: Hopefully they'll notice no difference. We won't get a lot of angry letters about "Why did Matt's microphone sound quiet?" Because I'll fix it all in post.

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: What's going on, man? How are you?

Matt Dull: I'm doing great. Semester's winding down.

Dave Blanks: Yep.

Matt Dull: Last week of class.

Dave Blanks: Well, yeah. That's crazy that we're already done with a semester. Our jobs don't change so much...

Matt Dull: No, not really.

Dave Blanks: ...with the academic calendar.

Matt Dull: Just wrapping up that semester.

Dave Blanks: No more snow, right?

Matt Dull: Hopefully not. We had snow at the house earlier this week.

Dave Blanks: I know. I'm just tempting fate.

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: No more snow. All done with it. Did you already put up your snow shovel? Surely you did.

Matt Dull: Oh yeah. Come on. We put up all of that stuff.

Dave Blanks: I already did all my lawn stuff. I aerated.

Matt Dull: Well, we did too. We did last weekend, and then it was like 25 one morning this week.

Dave Blanks: What's going on today on the campus construction update? We're doing New River updates. We're doing Child Development Center updates, as well. Let's start with New River.

Matt Dull: Yeah, we'll start with New River.

Dave Blanks: Okay.

Matt Dull: We talked about last time, that the masonry work on the outside of the building, except for a few little pieces, is completely done. So, that's nice to have that exterior of the building done. They're going through, as the weather's nice, doing a little bit of pressure washing and final caulking around some of the vent caps and things on the exterior of the building. So, that exterior's really getting wrapped up here this week and next week.

Matt Dull: Inside the building, we've got final paint starting on the bottom floor of the B-section of the building. So, if you remember the B-section of the building is the side of the building that's closest to where Gardner/Coltrane was. Really closest to where the main entrance of Justice was, right there.

Dave Blanks: Right.

Matt Dull: So, that wing of the building, we're all the way down to the bottom floor now. Final paints going on there, carpet, and the rubberized base that goes around the bottom of the walls, that's going in on the second floor and first floor, that bottom floor, right now, as well.

Matt Dull: Really focused on, really, this amenity space, that central space, right when you go in the main entrance of the building, where we've got the main lobby, we've got our offices for our Res Life staff, we've got the multipurpose room, it's part of that building, and some study rooms. All of that is where we're, kind of, converging next. So, after finishing up in the next week or two on this last paint and carpet, tying a bow on the units, we're really going to be focusing in on last, getting all of the drywall up and then really, kind of, moving forward with finishing out that last small section of the building, right at the main entrance, and just, kind of, working our way out of the building.

Matt Dull: So we're really very close to being wrapped up here within the next month and a half or so. Wrapping up elevators, getting them finalized, get them certified, get the steam pipe and fire pumps and electrical and water systems, getting all of that, kind of, wrapped up here the next month or so.

Matt Dull: Things are going great on the inside. We'll be starting some of the furniture move-in in June, in that timeframe. We'll be starting, kind of, a deeper clean to, kind of, get it really ready and reinspect rooms to make sure they're really ready for students to move in. That happens in, kind of, the June/July timeframe. So, everything's looking great for an August move-in for students.

Dave Blanks: The laydown area is looking more and more like a parking lot [crosstalk 00:03:39]

Matt Dull: Yeah. More and more empty, right?

Dave Blanks: Yeah. I'm like, "Oh, they've got more cars in there. Oh, more cars."

Matt Dull: Yeah. It's more parking now for all the contractors that are in the building and less laydown. So...

Dave Blanks: Exactly.

Matt Dull: And we had a big laydown space up where the [Boyho 00:03:54] Inn used to be. That's been totally vacated, now, as well.

Dave Blanks: Oh, no kidding.

Matt Dull: So it's totally-

Dave Blanks: That was a lot of stuff.

Matt Dull: Yeah. There was a lot up there.

Dave Blanks: Well, we built stuff with it.

Matt Dull: Yeah. So yeah, all of that material is now in that building. So...

Dave Blanks: Nice.

Matt Dull: That's all wrapped up up there. So, that construction site keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller as we get things finished up in the building. Outside of the building, doing a lot of the little side stairs, the front patio of the building, and also, kind of, that back courtyard area is really focusing in on pouring the concrete and getting ready to put in pavers and, kind of, the walking path areas of both the front and the back of the building, the front and back courtyard. So, that's moving forward. Yeah.

Matt Dull: And really just trying to get things finalized on the site, all the little random site walls, pouring concrete for where the dumpster pad's going to go, where we put the recycling and trash dumpsters and all of the things that really are... We've really had to wait to just warmer weather. And now it's really warming up, we can really finish up a lot of this outside work. Then they'll move into landscaping once we know we're not going to have some nasty weather here. So, in that-

Dave Blanks: When do you really know that, Matt? I mean...

Matt Dull: Well, that's right.

Dave Blanks: They always say after Mother's Day, right?

Dave Blanks: Yes. That's exactly what I've heard. Yeah. Which, reminder.

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: Prep for Mother's Day, all right?

Matt Dull: Get your card ready.

Dave Blanks: Everybody, come on. Where else did you want to go? Inside, is there any more to cover in there? I mean, you said the furniture's getting in, focusing more on the entryway and all that lower-level stuff and...

Matt Dull: Yeah, that's the main thing. I mean, really, most of the rooms are move-in ready for students, other than the furniture. So, they're really ready for us to start doing furniture here over the summer. And so, it's really that focus in on that central, kind of, amenity space, right when you get into the front of the building. That's going to be that next focus in the month of May, is getting that totally wrapped up in that space.

Dave Blanks: Sweet. Cool.

Matt Dull: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: All right. So, Child Development Center updates. What do we have now? How's the building? How's the traffic flow?

Matt Dull: Yeah. Doing really well. So, this is that expansion to the current existing Child Development Center. We're really in probably the last three to four weeks of interior construction of that project.

Dave Blanks: So, the whole time that we've talked construction, we've been talking construction of these enormous structures. And the fact that we're almost done with this one is so weird to me because, yes, we've been working on it for a while, but comparatively speaking, I'm like, "There's no way this is almost done." You know what I mean? We've been talking about it for a year.

Matt Dull: That's right. Yeah. So, it's a modular-type construction, a really off-site construction, where most of the building was done off-site, and then shipped in, and then craned into place. And so, they moved the modular units in December, like the second week of December, right after exams finished up for students, and we closed for, kind of, a day...

Dave Blanks: That was it.

Matt Dull: And they worked over the weekend and a day, and, all of a sudden, there was building there. And so, they've had to do a lot of on-site things like, kind of, connecting that structure. There's a lot of the doors that we've got some storefront, kind of, glass or, kind of, bigger doors that were all installed in the field versus in the factory. We've got a pitched roof that's on top that was all installed in the field, not in the factory, all the heating and ventilation and air conditioning and a lot of the IT, so your data throughout the building for Wi-Fi and phones, all of that has been installed on-site versus pre-installed in the factory.

Matt Dull: So, all of those activities happened in the spring. So, it is pretty amazing. You were talking, kind of, wrapping this up in mid-to-late May with construction, but, really, we didn't have a building there in December. So, it is. It's about a five-month or so construction timeline on the building on-site.

Dave Blanks: Impressive.

Matt Dull: So, yeah. So, a lot of that interior work is getting wrapped up, really working on finishing up the data, connecting all of these different mechanical systems, and doing some testing on those systems, make sure they're operating as planned. So, that's really what's, kind of, focused on here in the next three weeks or so as we, kind of, wrap the interior up. We've got furniture coming in mid-May, so we're about three weeks out from furniture moving into the building and getting that in place.

Matt Dull: And then, on the exterior of the building, that'll, kind of, continue into to the latter part of May. They'll really start focusing on getting that wrapped up after the first week or so of May. So, most of the grading is complete, the mass grading is complete. They've got a little bit of fine grading to do. We've got landscaping to do. We've got curb and gutter to go in on the week of May 2nd. Once they put on the curb and gutter, they're also doing sidewalk and dumpster pads and all the other, kind of, concrete work will happen, kind of, in that early May timeframe around the site. They were also adding a number of parking places around the area and doing a Loop Road, that up above, actually, where there used to be this barn on the site, an old, old barn that was on the site for many, many years.

Dave Blanks: That's cool.

Matt Dull: We ended up having to take the barn down. It wasn't in great shape. We just were not able to keep it in place and keep it as a safe structure. And so, we had to take the barn down. Where that barn is, part of that is where the new building in, and then part of that is, also, where this, kind of, circular drive is going to go to help with queuing and for drop-off for parents. When you've got a little one, it's not like elementary school where you open the door, and they go run to their teacher, and they go inside the building. You actually have to stop the car, get out of the car...

Dave Blanks: Not as mobile.

Matt Dull: ...get them out of the car seat, and then take them in and actually, kind of, hand-off to the teacher.

Matt Dull: So, it's a little different. You got to have this, kind of, queue up. So, that's all part of this project. That's all going to happen here in the month of May, of doing the paving, and they're repaving the entire existing parking lot and then, kind of, everything all at once.

Matt Dull: So, yeah. Lots still to go here in, kind of, the month of May on the exterior of the building. But the interior of the building, we're hoping to start moving in furniture. We've got it scheduled for, I think, May 16th. So, the middle of May.

Dave Blanks: Fantastic.

Matt Dull: So, yeah.

Dave Blanks: Well, Matt, thanks for the updates. We'll do it again. Sound good?

Matt Dull: Yeah. Sounds great.

Dave Blanks: Talk to you next time.

Matt Dull: Yep.