Campus Construction Update, August 19, 2019
Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull talks move-in day and thanks many individuals for a job well done on the completion of Appalachian's newest parking facility.
Transcript
Dave Blanks: Hi, folks. This is Dave Blanks from University Communications. Joined once again by Matt Dull. Hello, Matt Dull.
Matt Dull: Hey, Dave. Good to be back.
Dave Blanks: Glad to have you back. Big news. Obviously we announced it last time, but the grand opening has occurred, right?
Matt Dull: That's right. The ribbon-cutting has happened, the grand opening has occurred.
Dave Blanks: The big scissors.
Matt Dull: The big scissors came out. Great picture opportunities, but yes, that parking deck is open.
Dave Blanks: And how many new spaces? It's like 400.
Matt Dull: 477 spaces.
Dave Blanks: 400, no more, no less.
Matt Dull: No more, no less. Very precise with our definition of number of spaces in that deck.
Dave Blanks: Exactly 477. Well, cool.
Matt Dull: That's huge, huge news.
Dave Blanks: That's exciting.
Matt Dull: Got our certificate of occupancy. That's where your local authority has said, "Yes, you can use that building for the purpose of the building."
Dave Blanks: Town of Boone's checked off on it.
Matt Dull: Town of Boone checked it off last Monday.
Dave Blanks: Cool.
Matt Dull: We did a ribbon-cutting last Wednesday and had a great event there. That's where the big scissors got pulled out. Had a great little crowd there.
Dave Blanks: I was going to ask ... the turnout.
Matt Dull: Yeah. Good little turnout. Had some students there that were helping other students move in. Some of our upperclassmen and just saw what was going on and wanted to come over and see and be there. Some of our RAs, actually, from a few of our residence halls. Yeah, it was a really great event, and it was exciting to have the parking deck open for the start of fall and be able to utilize it for move-in throughout the weekend.
Dave Blanks: Absolutely.
Matt Dull: Yeah, it's been great.
Dave Blanks: Classes have begun, everybody's moved in that's going to be moving in and the parking deck is wide open and was used during the move-in period. And the Big Sale happened.
Matt Dull: And the Big Sale happened. So much going on this past weekend.
Dave Blanks: It was a huge weekend.
Matt Dull: Just so much stuff going on. Different events happening over on Sanford Mall with a lot of our incoming students. Big Sale, Spiritual Opportunities Fair was on Sunday, Club Expo was on Sunday. Helping students get involved and engaged on campus when they were here.
Dave Blanks: Were you in any clubs?
Matt Dull: I was in clubs.
Dave Blanks: What clubs were you in?
Matt Dull: All right. I was a Student Ambassador.
Dave Blanks: Ah, yes. Well that's a lot of your time.
Matt Dull: Oh yes, that's a lot. It's campus tours. It's working with alumni. I worked with the Chancellor's Office, do special events. A lot of time but just a really rewarding program to be a part of.
Dave Blanks: Absolutely. Did you do intramural stuff?
Matt Dull: I didn't do intramurals, no. Ambassadors, Club Council, was president of Club Council. Did some stuff in our hall, our Hall Council in Justice Hall and helped do some programming there.
Dave Blanks: Cool, cool.
Matt Dull: I loved my undergraduate experience.
Dave Blanks: Absolutely.
Matt Dull: I think most of us do.
Dave Blanks: Me too. Samesies. There's so many opportunities here at App. Still a lot going on on the building site.
Matt Dull: Yeah, still lots going on. And I guess before we even jump in there, I just want to take a second just to thank all of the different folks that have really been involved in getting that first big check off the list of having that parking deck finished. RISE Real Estate, they're our developer on the project. If you really think about, we did financial close on the 14th of February of 2019. So the majority of that construction happened in about five months.
Dave Blanks: Wow.
Matt Dull: Which is pretty fast, that's a pretty fast turnaround to get all of that work done and and have a parking deck ready for students and for our fall academic session. Yeah, so RISE did a great job getting us there. Choate Construction, can't say enough good things about them. They've been knocking it out of the park. They've been really helpful and getting this project complete on time and have been very, very focused on student safety, on overall site safety, really focused on anything that will make the experience better for students, faculty and staff at Appalachian. Anything we've asked them to do, it's done immediately, before you even get out of the meeting.
Dave Blanks: What more can you ask?
Matt Dull: What more can you ask? They've been amazing. Ted LeJeune, who's our project manager at Appalachian, who's been kind of the lead, day-to-day engineer, if you will, on the site, and really working just tirelessly, especially these past few weeks trying to get everything finished up for the parking deck. Ted's been amazing. And then just countless others. It's just hard to name everyone. Niles Bolton Associates — he's our architect on the project. So many Appalachian folks that have really just had great input and bringing their expertise to the project. It's just been awesome to have a project done on time and ready for the fall semester, and we just had a great team. Can't thank them enough. I think sometimes we forget to actually stop and thank everyone that's really involved in the project and really helping to make it happen.
Dave Blanks: Well I'd say the completion of a parking deck is a good moment to choose to stop for a second.
Matt Dull: Just stop and say thank you.
Dave Blanks: What else is going on, Matt?
Matt Dull: We have building 100, 200, continue to work on those. Building 100, we're doing that last section of concrete foundation walls and slab pours over the next few weeks. A lot of that foundation work is really going to be wrapping up late August, early September. It'll be exciting to get that done and then really moving more forward into framing, sheeting, Tyveking. That's that kind of cool little wrap.
Dave Blanks: The wrap.
Matt Dull: Plastic that you see a lot now. And that all is happening over the next two months or so for building 100.
Dave Blanks: The framing is super visible now.
Matt Dull: For 100, yeah. In addition to 200, both those buildings are really coming up now, but 100 you've really seen a lot of progress in the past week and a half, two weeks on the framing there. We've had great weather here that's been helpful to keep some of these projects moving as quick as possible.
Dave Blanks: Yeah, that's lucky.
Matt Dull: Building 200, again, continue to focus on framing, sheeting and that's really just really over the next month or so, and being able to hopefully top out that building within the month. About mid-September is the goal, so hopefully have most of the framing and sheeting and wrap done by the middle of September. On track with that building as well.
Dave Blanks: Quick.
Matt Dull: Yeah, quick.
Dave Blanks: It's all quick.
Matt Dull: Yeah, it's amazing how quick it is. I'd say for both buildings, we're kind of entering into the exact same phase, really focusing on doing the framing, sheeting Tyvek, and then we'll really start working on the interior here as we move into the fall months.
Dave Blanks: Right. Yeah, that makes sense.
Matt Dull: Yeah, that's most of the updates for this week. Just again, we're just really excited to have the parking deck finished up. Thankful for all the folks that have put in countless hours on the project, and we're just really proud of the project and proud of the project team to be able to get us to this point on schedule so that students have a place to park this fall and that did it, finished on time and everybody seemed to be really happy with it.
Dave Blanks: Absolutely. It looks great.
Matt Dull: Yeah, it looks great. Super proud of it.
Dave Blanks: Thanks, Matt.
Matt Dull: Absolutely. Thanks.
Dave Blanks: We'll do again, we'll do it again next week.
Matt Dull: Sounds good.
