Campus Construction Update, July 13, 2020

On this all-new Campus Construction Update, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull chats with University Communications' Dave Blanks concerning progress on Appalachian's new residence halls and addresses the question of why construction continues despite budgetary concerns.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey there, folks. This is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update, joined by Matt Dull. Howdy, Matt.

Dave Blanks: Hey there, folks. This is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update, joined by Matt Dull. Howdy, Matt.

Matt Dull: Hey. Hey. How are ya?

Dave Blanks: What's up, man? I'm good. How are you?

Matt Dull: I'm doing well. Good to be back.

Dave Blanks: It's good to have you back. Do you have the place to yourself for our interview or are you going to have to like ...

Matt Dull: Wrangle some puppies? Yeah, I do. I'm actually by myself today. So hopefully, fingers crossed, no interruptions.

Dave Blanks: Cool. Well, my children are screaming, so, we may have to pause for that, but let's get started on some updates. How's that sound?

Matt Dull: That sounds great.

Dave Blanks: Whatcha got?

Matt Dull: Well, why don't we start with Raven Rocks today? We'll switch it up. Raven Rocks, Building 200. Because I think going through what we're doing at Raven Rocks, Thunder Hill will be literally right behind it. So hopefully when we cover things with Raven Rocks, there will just be a few little changes to what's happened over at Thunder Hill.

Dave Blanks: Perfect.

Matt Dull: So starting with Raven Rocks, we're getting very close to the finish line here. So, a lot of little finishing touches with things like finishing the metal paneling on the exterior of the building. If you looked at the pictures of the building, they've got these kind of classic Appalachian green panels that look similar to kind of that green standing seam metal roof we've got everywhere on the study nooks, kind of on the corners of the building. So that metal paneling is finishing up this week, and we've got a lot of testing and inspection happening this week. So, you know, things like the fire protection system, the fire alarm system, the fire alarm panels, you know, all of the life safety things that keep people safe within the buildings. Those are being inspected this week. We're also installing and testing things like our security cameras, wireless access points, the emergency blue light phones that we have all over campus. We have those kind of around the building and on the building. So those are being installed and tested. Let's see, we're installing and testing the steam room equipment. We're using steam to heat hot water in the building, as well as steam for heating of the common spaces in the building. So, we have a central steam plant on campus. We talked a little bit about replacing some of the steam lines as a part of this project and those steam lines will also help service the buildings that are part of the P3 project for heating water and then heating kind of the common areas in the building. We're using steam for that. Let's see, a lot of final things, again, happening, final painting and carpet and those upper floors of the quarters are finished now. So now we're moving to that final paint and carpet and those lower floor corridors. And let's see, the terrazzo, the central kind of lobby area has a terrazzo finish. It's a pretty indestructible ... I don't know if you know anything about terrazzo, but you know, it's that, almost like what you end up seeing in hospital settings or kind of that traditional, institutional setting, but it's such a good, durable surface that's really great for common areas and central spots of buildings, because —

Dave Blanks: It's the speckled flooring. You see it so many places. What is terrazzo?

Matt Dull: Yeah. Now the terrazzo we're using, it uses kind of like a synthetic binder, but it's traditionally almost like it's concrete with little flakes of different types of aggregate kind of things that give it that speckled look. And there's also this really intricate process of basically continuing to sand and take down a little bit of layer at a time and re-polishing and taking it back a little bit and re-polishing, like how you might sand and finish a table or something. You know, this piece of furniture where, you know, you just kind of slowly get to that final finish coat and that final polished coat that's somewhat similar with terrazzo. We're using kind of a preformed terrazzo tile. It's the same material, but it's made up into the kind of square tiles that are put together. It's a little easier to install, with similar durability as you might have with like a poured terrazzo, but certainly a lot easier to install and doesn't require quite as much expertise on site to install it. So, it's more like installing tile than it is installing the traditional poured terrazzo.

Dave Blanks: I knew, see, I knew you were going to say a table because didn't you just make a table recently?

Matt Dull: Yeah. Just finished up an outside table for whenever we can get together with other people again.

Dave Blanks: I knew it! I knew you were going to say table.

Matt Dull: We now have a table for that to happen. So yeah, I've been doing a little bit of woodwork during the time at home in the evenings, since we have lots less going on on campus in the evenings now. So, I've been able to do a little woodwork and just finished up a cool little outdoor table that I'm excited about.

Dave Blanks: That's a perfect use of your time. You should be excited. That's awesome. All right, so the terrazzo, thank you for the lesson in terrazzo. That's cool.

Matt Dull: Yeah. And then, you know, installing appliances that started in the past couple of weeks and continues. So, appliances in our apartment units or in the common kitchens, those are going in. Student furniture is now in each of the units. The beds and desks and dressers and all the things that the students will use inside their units have all been assembled and are now in the units. You know, all of the common space furniture will be going in later in July. That's kind of a little bit later in the process. Let's see, other things going on. Exterior sidewalks and hardscapes are being poured and installed this week. That started a couple of weeks ago, but obviously we're still doing a lot of construction on that side of Stadium Drive with Building 300 or Laurel Creek Hall going in, but trying to at least get the sidewalks and our ADA accessible pathways from ADA stalls or ADA parking spaces into the building, getting all those things. Those do have to be finished and ready when the building is ready. So those things are going in. There's a nice little patio area outside of Building 200 and Building 100, or Raven Rocks Hall or Thunder Hill Hall. There's a nice little, kind of, paver patio that use those kind of red brick papers that we have on other places on campus. Those have to finish up here in the next few weeks. So, all of that hardscape stuff that's really been the theme of late June and into July as we've gotten warmer weather, it's easier to do the pours. We've had some drier weeks, so it's been good to be able to keep on track with all those little sidewalks and hardscapes going in.

Dave Blanks: Are we throwing some boulders around?

Matt Dull: Not any huge boulders.

Dave Blanks: I just wondered if they dug up anything. Like, "Oh, this is a big one. Let's just set this one over here." If it were at my house, that's how it would go.

Matt Dull: I would say most have been hauled off. There's a couple of boulders that we're going to use for some pedestrian traffic, kind of helping direct some pedestrian traffic. You'll see a few larger boulders kind of around, around the parking deck and kind of around the site, but nothing too substantial. So again, most of ...

Dave Blanks: We're not trying to give The Rock any competition or anything like that. Right on. So, hardscape getting in place.

Matt Dull: Hardscape is getting in place and sidewalks. You know, again, doing all those kind of installation and testing and kind of the systems and commissioning them and getting them ready to open up and have students in there. Greenbuilt, which is the group that we are doing our sustainability inspections with, they're now inspecting all of our HVAC systems in the building. So, again, a lot of the testing and balancing of all the different systems is all taking place right now for Raven Rocks Hall.

Dave Blanks: Great. That sounds very promising. What else you got, Matt?

Matt Dull: So I guess moving right over to Thunder Hill Hall, as I mentioned in the beginning, a lot of things that are very similar, those unit finishes are substantially complete in the building, continuing to work on the finishing of the corridors throughout the building. So that final paint. Installing the carpet, installing the ceiling, those kinds of things are happening throughout the building. You know, we talked about it in past podcasts, we're kind of working down. So finishing the top floors and working down towards the bottom floor. So, a lot of those things being finished up. We're finishing up the kitchen and common spaces, installing and testing of security cameras and wireless access points and emergency blue lights. So really, really similar to what we've heard from Raven Rocks Hall. We're really just a couple of weeks behind the completion of Building 200. We've talked about that all the way through. Building 200 is a much smaller building. So we've got a little bit faster schedule for finishing up Building 200, or Raven Rocks Hall, compared to Thunder Hill Hall, just because Thunder Hill Hall is a good bit larger. So everything takes a little bit longer as you work down through the building. So, things are moving along well on Thunder Hill and we are looking forward to a completion right before students get here in the fall of both buildings.

Dave Blanks: Fantastic. All right, where else do you want to go today?

Matt Dull: Let's see, real quick, I guess over to phase two. Construction began, we talked about, you know, back in February, construction began on Building 300, or Laurel Creek Hall. Construction is moving along really nicely. All of the foundation work is done. We're getting ready to, here in the next week or two, is pouring the slab for Building 300, or Laurel Creek. We've got our CMU towers, those kind of cinder block towers, for both the stairwell and the elevators are being finished up here in the next week or two. So, really trying to get a poured slab and get those towers up so we can begin our framing of Building 300. I keep saying Building 300 — we have a name, Laurel Creek Hall. We're starting the framing of Laurel Creek here towards the end of July. So, it's exciting to have a structure of that building really started by the time students get back this fall. So, that'll be nice for them to be able to actually see what the building's going to look like.

Dave Blanks: Absolutely! Good news. So is everything on schedule?

Matt Dull: Yeah, everything is on schedule. We're trying to make the most of the sunny days. Crews are on site, literally, seven days a week. Last week, we had over 400 workers on site each day. So, it is busy. Lots going on over there, and that, of course, having to balance with keeping people safe and using masks and working at safe distances from each other. So, it is a fine dance, if you will, for trying to keep people safe and also trying to keep on schedule.

Dave Blanks: Well, Matt, do you have any more updates for today?

Matt Dull: I guess one of the, you know, Justice Hall demolition — continuing to move forward on that. At this point, in the phase of removing hazardous materials from the building. So, any kind of asbestos-containing material, or, you know, other kind of little hazardous type materials that might be in the building, behind the walls; that is happening now. That's not uncommon, what you see with buildings built prior to kind of the '80s, that you're going to have some hazardous materials in the buildings that are, you know, behind the walls or up on the ceiling and that have been there forever. And now it's time to take those out in a safe way. So, that's happening right now, that abatement, and then demolition, again, is on schedule to really start in earnest. Once students get back in August and demolition will begin kind of that September and continue through October, hopefully ending up with a clean site for New River Hall by the time we end the fall semester.

Dave Blanks: Absolutely. And not doing an implosion on Justice we should mention again.

Matt Dull: Yeah, that's correct. No implosion, doing a mechanical demolition of that building. So, it'll be, kind of, taken apart kind of piece by piece and separating out the materials for recycling and that kind of thing.

Dave Blanks: Less dramatic, but far more practical in this scenario.

Matt Dull: Less dramatic. That's right. Certainly practical in this kind of low-rise building.

Dave Blanks: All right. Well, if no further updates, then I will, with your permission, pose a question to you, Matt, that we received. Is that cool with you?

Matt Dull: Yeah, that's great.

Dave Blanks: All right. So. Here's the question: With the university trying to deal with budgetary problems, why are we continuing construction? And I feel like this is potentially one that we've kind of covered in the past, especially when we started talking about the project and how it's funded. But yeah, if you can handle that one.

Matt Dull: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So, with this project, and it's not the same with every construction project, but this particular project, you know, there's no state funding going into the project. There's no state dollars that could be diverted to some other project or some other budgetary need for the campus. Also, you know, each building we build, they have to be self-sustaining, which means as you build the building, you've got to be able to collect rent equivalent enough to not only build the building, but also to operate the building. And so, because they are really kind of self-sustaining structures, you know, we're not using existing dollars or existing revenues we already have and diverting them to constructing these buildings. These buildings have to be self-sustaining because it is a public–private partnership. It's kind of a separate business, right? It's very different from constructing, say, a classroom building or using repair and renovation funds from campus on doing repairs to classroom buildings or sidewalks or handrails. There is no kind of pot of money that's coming from the state or from some other source to build these buildings. These buildings are self-contained and basically have to be operated and float their own, or we like to use the word "pencil," but they have to be able to support themselves. Right. So, we have to bring in enough revenue to support the debt on the buildings as well as to operate the building. So, if we don't construct the buildings, then there's really no new money coming in to pay for it. So it's not like we're not diverting money to be able to build these buildings, not diverting from any other funding source to be able to build the buildings.

Dave Blanks: I mean, I guess that's what people think, that there's a big pot and in this pot there's lots of money, and this money we've set aside to do the P3 project. And they're like, "Well, things have changed. So, why are we still building it?" But I think you kind of just handled that.

Matt Dull: Yeah. I mean, there is no pot of money that is being used to build these buildings, right? So, we took out debt already and not the university, the owner of the buildings, Beyond Boone LLC, took out debt to build the buildings. And we're under obligation to finish building the buildings because we've already started and we already have the money. We have already taken out the debt and already have the money from bond holders to be able to construct the building, so we need to finish building the building because we need an asset that people can actually use and generate revenue through rents to be able to pay off the debt. So, we're kind of already in there, we've already kind of got the money from the bank, if you will, you know, we've already got the money to build the buildings and now we need to actually construct the buildings and then operate them so that we're able to pay the debt on the building. So, again, it's not taking from any other existing funding sources out there. And really, we cannot use that money that we have gotten from bond holders for anything else. Right? So we've already made a commitment that this is what's going to be built with that money. We already have a commitment to that's how that those funds are going to be used and they really can't be used for anything else.

Dave Blanks: Gotcha. All right. Well, Matt, thank you for answering the question. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Matt Dull: Yeah, absolutely.

Dave Blanks: Well, we will do it again, sir. Does that sound good?

Matt Dull: That sounds great.

Dave Blanks: Alright. Thanks for your time, Matt.

Matt Dull: Yep. Thanks.