Campus Construction Update, November 9, 2020

On this all-new Campus Construction Update, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull chats with University Communications' Dave Blanks about the latest updates on construction progress for App State's Laurel Creek Residence Hall. Dull also shares details on the process of relocating App State's Career Development Center, now underway.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey, folks. This is Dave Blanks from University Communications, back once again with a Campus Construction Update, and I'm joined by Matt Dull. Hello, Matt Dull.

Matt Dull: Hey, Dave. How are you doing?

Dave Blanks: Hey, I'm great. I hope you're doing well today.

Matt Dull: Doing well.

Dave Blanks: All right. Super. So, framing has been the name of the game on Laurel Creek Hall, which is Building 300. So have we completed the framing gaming? Not how I meant to say that; the frame game is what I was going to say.

Matt Dull: Yeah. So yeah, we are on track to, again, finish that as we kind of go into the winter months. So we've got a few more weeks of framing. There's one section of the building. So, we talked about the building is kind of separated into an east section and a west section. The east wing of the building — that's the wing closest to Trivette Hall. The framing is complete on that wing of the building. So, what we're focusing in on, on this week, is that Tyvek wrap. That's that waterproofing kind of wrap. You might see it on houses. It's usually, you know ... Tyvek is a name brand, but, you know, it's that kind of white, almost like fabric-type wrap that you put on the outside of the wood sheathing on the outside of the building.

Dave Blanks: I got ya.

Matt Dull: That's going on. So the Tyvek wraps went on, on that wing. Also that's happening on that wing, we're in the process of putting in kind of the roof curbs and all the little boots around — that's the little pieces that go around any kind of penetration in the roof, you know, vents and pipes or anything that needs to go to the roof for equipment on the roof or to ventilate out of the building. So all of that is going in right now. What we'll start here shortly next week is actually installing the roof membrane. So, that section of the building, we're really moving forward towards getting it dried in with our roof on it here as we get ready to leave for Thanksgiving. So this week focusing on kind of the roof curb and penetrations and getting the Tyvek on the outside of the building.

Matt Dull: And then next week focusing on getting the roof membrane on the building. So, that's going well. We've talked about it in the past couple of podcasts that we are having our rough-in, mechanical work, plumbing, electrical, the fire sprinklers — all of that is going up the building. So we started on the bottom floor and we're working our way up. So for the east wing, the electrical, plumbing and sprinkler, mechanical rough-ins will all be on the fourth level this week, and then start moving towards the fifth level towards the end of this week. So, rough-in is pretty closely behind the framing work in that wing of the building. That's going nicely. So yes, framing is done and just finishing up right now for that east wing. We look over on the west wing — that's that side next to Bowie, Eggers. Our new stadium parking deck — finishing up the framing of the fifth level this week, as well as installing the roof trusses and that roof decking.

Matt Dull: So, for all intents and purposes, next week, we will be finished with framing on that west wing. So, most of the framing will finish up here right before Thanksgiving. When we look at the north wing, that kind of central core I think is how we've described it on past podcasts, it's coming right behind that ... that west wing, we'll start erecting the level-four walls in that center section of the building this week and into next week. Then level five, we'll start end of next week, kind of, it'll probably straddle kind of the Thanksgiving holiday. And then the roof decking will be kind of the next step for that. So again, should have all of the framing complete shortly after Thanksgiving, and then should have the buildings with Tyvek on the outside, roof on, all of the rough exterior work done as we go into the holiday season.

Matt Dull: Yeah. Making a lot of progress there.

Dave Blanks: That's excellent. Do the construction workers get Thanksgiving off?

Matt Dull: Yeah, so Thanksgiving will be a no one on-site day, but they will likely be working throughout that weekend. Usually we've got folks ... it's usually about a six-day week. You know, it's not as populated on the site on Saturdays, but there are certainly folks kind of working usually six of the seven days a week right now to kind of keep the project on schedule and moving.

Dave Blanks: Gotcha. How many floors in Laurel Creek Hall? Is it five?

Matt Dull: Yeah. So, Laurel Creek is five floors and then there's a terrace level, which is kind of a ... it's, I guess, like a basement level, but it's not what you ... it has windows. You know, we don't create residence hall rooms where people don't have windows.

Matt Dull: People like to have some natural light in their living area. It's almost like a sub floor that it doesn't go throughout the entire footprint of the building. Does that make sense? So, you know, two-thirds of the footprint of the building starts at the first floor, and then there's like a lower floor just because the elevation of the site. The side that's closest down towards Trivette Hall has a terrace level, which are, you know, because there's about a 10-foot elevation distance as you move from Trivette Hall back up towards kind of Bowie and Eggers and the parking deck. So, we're actually able to use that topography to add a few more rooms on this bottom kind of terrace level. We have the same thing, actually, over in Raven Rocks. We've got rooms on a terrace level there, so it's like a half wing.

Matt Dull: It's got some rooms that are, again, following the topography of the site. And then the same thing happened over in Building 100. If you remember, like we have a terrace level at the bottom that's kind of across the road from Trivette Hall, but there is a large meeting room. There's not residential space down there. So we've got a terrace level in every building. Same thing when we move across the street to New River Hall, there's going to be a terrace level or kind of a half floor. And there's also going to be kind of a half floor at the top floor. It's going to be interesting, you know, not every floor in the building is a complete floor throughout the entire footprint of the building. So, you really kind of work with the topography as you kind of move up hill to make them both attractive, but also kind of utilize, you know, the footprint. You know, the land is at a premium up here, and we're kind of landlocked on campus. And so you've got to really think about how you use every square foot of the space that you're building on to make sure you're maximizing it, because you're building these buildings for 40, 50 years. Right? You know, so not a whole lot of opportunity to add another 50 beds on that site anytime soon. So we have to maximize the footprint.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, that kind of dovetails into another topic I think we were going to discuss today, which is some changes to the student union. Correct?

Matt Dull: So, we'll continue to give updates, but on a different project, we are in the process of moving our Career Development Center. And the Career Development Center is located over ... now it's kind of split — that part of the Career Development Center over in our John E. Thomas Building (JET), on the third floor. And then a small portion of that building, our Career Exploration Center, is located in the student union currently. And what we're looking at is we are planning to move the whole Career Development Center all together in one space. And that will be in the Plemmons Student Union on the second floor. That will be kind of outside of McAlister's Deli. For those of you who haven't been on campus in a long time you, may remember the Gold Room as an eating option on campus. And so we're kind of up there in that space next to what used to be the Gold Room. I guess that's been gone for probably about 20, 25 years.

Dave Blanks: Yeah. It's like in the area where I'm like, right when I came to App, which was in 2000, everybody was like, "Oh man, they just got rid of the bowling alley." It's like somewhere up there. And I'm like, OK. I really didn't hang out there much during my time as a student, but maybe I went to some shows in the ... what was the first lounge area that you said?

Matt Dull: The Whitewater Lounge. And they do some small-scale shows there. That's been a space that's been somewhat used throughout the years for different activities. So what we're planning on doing is putting the Career Development Center in that kind of whole side of the building. So, it will kind of take up from where McAlister's is all the way through Whitewater Lounge. And then there's the Profile Trail Lounge kind of just adjacent to Whitewater Lounge. That whole area is going to be our Career Development Center. Dave and I were kind of chatting before hitting record on the session today about really looking at it as like a dual-purpose space. You know, space is such a premium on a college campus. It's, you know, it is expensive to construct new things on a college campus. And one thing that's going to be exciting about this space is it's going to be kind of a dual-purpose space.

Matt Dull: So during the day, it's going to be kind of the office and lounge area, and we're going to be able to do kind of our one-on-one kind of resume review clinics, all in this kind of area. But all of the offices will be able to be kind of shut off from the front area of the Career Development Center, where it's a lobby area and some of those career studio areas, what we call it, where we can do resume reviews and career coaching with students. That whole area up front actually will be available to anyone after hours and on weekends as lounge spaces. There's going to be a virtual interview room there that would be open for students that need to do virtual interviews after hours, or just want to use the space for class projects. So there'll be a couple of group study rooms that are a part of that. They're going to be shared use with the Career Development Center. So, there will be similar type space to what we've seen and Whitewater Lounge and Profile Trail Lounge. It's just going to be of dual-purpose now, where it's going to be both for the use of the Career Development Center during their operating hours and then be student, kind of a general student study space after hours and on the weekends.

Dave Blanks: I think that's great. I mean, yeah, it is exciting, because there's going to be so much more foot traffic and people who would not have taken advantage of the service with this location versus the JET Building. It's just way more traveled.

Matt Dull: Absolutely. That's kind of the key, you know, we wanted to kind of combine the spaces and kind of get all of the Career Development Center in one space, but we also wanted to put them in a highly visible space on campus. Right? So with the Career Development Center being on the third floor of the JET Building, it's kind of far away from students now. You know, the JET Building originated as the Student Support Services building. It was ... Financial Aid was in the building, Student Accounts in the building. You've got the Registrar's Office, Housing, and Admissions, and all of these really important offices that are in there. And, you know, when the building was done in the '90s, you know, you still actually had to physically go somewhere to register for classes. You know, you had to physically go somewhere to do a room change.

Matt Dull: If you wanted to have a new roommate in housing, you went by the office and you talked to somebody and you, you filled a room change petition. So, you know, same thing: Financial Aid always had all this paper you had to turn in. Right? So, you know, that was a great building for the Career Development Center to be in because students were in there all the time, doing all of these in-person functions and paper-based functions. And then as we have evolved as a campus over the past 25, 30 years, the need for the in-person piece has really started to dwindle as so much more has been moved online. And so, you've got less and less students that, you know, there are certainly students that go by Financial Aid in person, but you're seeing less and less students need to just casually drop by to drop off paperwork, right?

Matt Dull: That can be uploaded. A lot of that's done automatically, you know, all electronically. So there's just less paperwork needed physically delivered to that building. So, the student traffic in the building really has declined over the years. And so, we really want to move that Career Development Center right front and center to where students are. And, you know, the student union can have 20 to 25,000 people walk through the building every day. To be able to have that type of exposure for our Career Development Center, I think is really important. I think it sends a really strong message about the importance of developing your career and really thinking about career development, not just right before you graduate, but what are you doing all four years, you know, to get ready to go to whatever's next for you?

Matt Dull: Is it grad school? Is it starting your career? I'm excited about getting that space in the student union, getting more students exposed to the space, knowing where it is, knowing what they do. It's really exciting, I think, for us. So that project will start here as we move into the winter break. So in December, that will continue through next summer. And then our plan right now is to have that space open for the opening of the fall 2021 semester. So, it's about an eight-month construction project. Pretty small project, you know, in the grand scheme of what we do on campus. But I think it's really important to kind of the long-term student success and being able to really launch students as they graduate from Appalachian. So, we're excited about it. We'll give more updates on that construction as we kind of go through the spring semester and as things progress in that area.

Dave Blanks: That's huge. I'm excited about that too. Cool. Thank you for sharing that, Matt. Thank you. Did you have another update you wanted to mention before we wrap this podcast up for this day?

Matt Dull: Yeah, I think those are the main things. We will finish up the steam line project here in the next two weeks or so. So, this week really just kind of doing the last bit of testing on the steam line that's been installed. And then we'll start patching the asphalt and doing some final paving here this week and early next week, as weather allows. Then we'll be finished up with kind of the steam line improvements that are a part of phase two. And all of the focus will really be on getting Laurel Creek Hall finished up for an Aug. 21 opening.

Dave Blanks: Matt Dull, thank you for your time. I appreciate you, sir. We will do it again.

Matt Dull: Absolutely. Thanks, Dave.