Campus Construction Update, December 21, 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 as well as the early building stages of New River Hall, located on the site of the former Justice Hall.

Transcript

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

Matt Dull: Hey, how are you, Dave?

Matt Dull: Hey, I'm great. It's good to talk to you again. Hope you've been doing well.

Matt Dull: I am doing well, staying well, staying healthy. Doing good.

Dave Blanks: Me too. Same over here. I'm back home. We're out of the office for the holiday break and so I'm sequestered in the basement here, and I'm surrounded by children who are being really quiet. Yeah, I'm very impressed. I don't know, they might have some candy or something coming their way in a second, after we're done. Oh, now they're talking. I jinxed it. Anyway, what do you want to talk about today, Matt Dull? How about campus construction?

Matt Dull: Yeah. Why not?

Dave Blanks: All right. That sounds good. So what did we want to start with?

Matt Dull: We can start over on phase two. So with Laurel Creek Hall, things are moving along. Framing is wrapping up. I know that's been the theme of the fall. I feel like it's been every podcast we've talked about has been about framing. We're doing more framing this week. We're on this floor. We're on that floor. But hopefully this will be the last podcast we actually mention the word framing.

Dave Blanks: Really?

Matt Dull: For phase two. Hey, don't ... just wait.

Dave Blanks: Right. It will come back. Yeah.

Dave Blanks: Framing will come back.

Matt Dull: Framing will come back. So, for phase two, framing's wrapping up, so, you know, pretty much across the building it is wrapping up. So on that wing closest to Trivette Hall, that's that east wing we've been calling it. That east wing roof trusses are done. The decking is finished. The roofing is on. The TyveK wrap that's on the outside of the building and the window frames are installed and windows are going in. They started last week, early last week, maybe even the week before, and windows will continue to go into that east wing of the building throughout the holidays. We are moving quickly to a dried in section of the building; that section of the building will be dried in by New Year's. So pretty exciting to be able to say we're reaching that kind of critical milestone of dried in pretty quickly.

Dave Blanks: That's big. In the past couple of weeks we've been getting some of that winter weather that we're accustomed to in the area, but it's been some pretty good weather up until that point for construction. So I'm glad they've gotten to the dried in phase of the east wing.

Matt Dull: Yeah. And it really has. I mean, the weather has been really interesting because it's kind of like you get both sides of the weather each week, which is kind of nice. You know, you don't have a full week that you lose because, you know, it's been 20 degrees and snowing or sleeting or whatever else for the entire week. It's been kind of, hey, we'll have a cold couple of days or a windy day or two, or, you know, a little snow or whatever, and then the other half of the week's like 50 or 60 degrees. It's just kind of odd for Boone, but it's been great for the project because it just means you're not getting full weeks behind with weather delays, which has been really nice.

Dave Blanks: Right. Well so framing's done on the east wing. What about, what were we calling the center part?

Matt Dull: I call it like the core or the center part of the building. You know, it's like a V-shape and it's kind of that little bottom section of the V, that central core. Roof trusses are on, decking is on and wrapping up. So, there's a few little areas that are in kind of the connections between the wings. We've got these lounges, these study lounges that are going to have ... we call them a storefront system, but it's like those big, kind of large windows, those beautiful windows that we saw on the first phase that are like these little, kind of end of the hallway study nooks for students made for just two or three students and a little table and some comfortable chairs. Those are being framed right now and wrapping up this week. So that'll really wrap up all of the framing on the building. Once those are done, there's a little bit of a, what's called a high roof system view, look at Thunder Hill or Raven Rocks. There's a little bit of this kind of just one section of the building that's slightly higher, has a angled kind of metal roof to it. It just gives it a little bit more interest. That little section is also going to be continuing through the next couple of weeks. So we're really close to wrapping up the framing, which again, that'll be really good so we can then really get the building dried in and really focus in on the interiors. As we go into the coldest months of, you know, January and February up here, usually the kind of nastiest ones.

Dave Blanks: They'll be here before you know it. What's next, Matt?

Matt Dull: Again, framing's mostly complete. Roofing is being installed kind of throughout the building over the month of December. So that eastern wing of the building closest to Trivette, that roof membrane is on the insulation roof membrane. On the west wing closest to Bowie and Eggers, that roof membrane and insulation is installed. So, just that central core area, as we wrap up the decking, then we can go in and do the insulation and roof membrane. That's going to be going on over the next couple of weeks. So, really most of the roof should be wrapped up here other than that high roof area as we go into the new year. So, Tyvek wrapping will be on the entire building by the end of the year, windows will be in the wing closest to Trivette Hall. And then as we move from the east wing, we'll move over then to the west wing on December the 30th or so, we're putting in windows in that wing and then the following week we'll move to that central core.

Matt Dull: So really kind of by mid-to-late January, all the windows will be in, the roof will be on and we will really have a dried in building completely in all sections of the building by the end of January. So we're getting very close to really having that outside building envelope ready for masonry work. So, let's see, brick and cast stone, masonry, all that ... the masonry work on the exterior of the building. We started that a couple of weeks ago on the east wing of the building, closest to Trivette. So that work has started and that will continue on that wing to about February. And then we will kind of move again across the building throughout the months of January, February and March, and a little bit into April on the exterior brick and cast stone masonry work. That'll kind of progress as we're doing the work inside the building, but the building will be dried in as they're finishing that work.

Dave Blanks: Tell me our brick color. What was it, again?

Matt Dull: The brick is Old Guilford.

Dave Blanks: That was it. I forgot it. I remembered like there's Hartford, right? Isn't it the Hartford green?

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

Dave Blanks: Right.

Matt Dull: That's the campus green color that anodized aluminum that you see on all of our campus buildings is that Hartford green color.

Dave Blanks: What color are the lamps? Shner ... ?

Matt Dull: Sternberg.

Dave Blanks: Sternberg! Sternberg lamps that we have around campus. Those aren't Hartford green. They're like something else.

Matt Dull: They're like an antique bronze look, or maybe like an antique brass. I can't remember what they call them, but ...

Dave Blanks: They're pretty.

Matt Dull: Yeah, that patina kind of brass look, those are being installed throughout the housing project as well to kind of match the rest of the campus aesthetic.

Dave Blanks: Fantastic. But that's not happening right now. They got to, like, finish the actual building, right?

Matt Dull: Yeah. There are some that are up. We've got quite a bit that are kind of attached to Raven Rocks and Thunder Hill. So the exterior lamps on those buildings that are attached to the buildings, like you would normally have like a flood light, you know, think about your house or a security light, or the lights at the front entrance of the door. All of those are a smaller version of those Sternberg lights mounted on the building. So even the building kind of connects with the lamps that we see kind of around campus. And then some of those Sternberg lights went in where we've completely finished all the site work, where it's kind of the final condition that it's going to look like. So kind of going down Jack Branch Road across to the new stadium end zone building ... the lighting and stuff from that road's all permanent and final.

Matt Dull: When we finish up Laurel Creek, that whole central courtyard area, that's when it'll get all of its Sternberg lamps and the final treatment, if you will, once we wrap up Laurel Creek. By fall of 2021, again, that whole central part that used to be Duck Pond in the Stadium Parking Lot, all of that will be really wrapped up and nice and neat with a bow on it that it's got all of the lamps and the sidewalks. And there's going to actually be a small hammock garden over there. And one of the spaces that really was kind of an unused outdoor space, it wasn't a huge space. It wasn't really a great way to program it. So, we're actually going to put in some pre-installed poles for students to have as like a hammock garden over there, which is going to be kind of cool.

Dave Blanks: Sweet.

Matt Dull: Yeah. So we've wanted to try it out on campus in a couple of different places. This actually seemed like a really great place to pilot it and try it out and see how people use it. And if they like it, and that might be something we can then replicate in some of our other residential areas on campus.

Dave Blanks: Hey, where else do you want to go on the podcast today, Matt?

Matt Dull: So, I mean, I think we can probably run over to phase three, New River Hall.

Dave Blanks: Let's do it! Phase three.

Matt Dull: Phase three. So, we successfully closed phase three last Friday on December the 18th. We received approval from the Board of Governors for the closing. And so we started. We did have some early site work started about two weeks ago down Stadium Drive. And Dave, as you've been driving down Stadium Drive from your house, you've probably seen some of that construction.

Dave Blanks: I have.

Matt Dull: So we've kind of taken up some of the sidewalk down Stadium Drive. We're putting in conduit for telecom utilities and then covering that back up with basically a sidewalk in the exact same spot. Right now, some of those utilities are running under the future foundation of New River Hall. So we really had to move those out first, before we start doing the foundation work. But that wrapped up last week. There's a little bit left this week to wrap that up, but that allows us to go ahead and start construction over at New River Hall this week.

Matt Dull: So, there's been a lot of construction activity there with the demolition of Justice Hall. So it's not going to look significantly different this week and next week. It's just going to look kind of like more of moving dirt around. But the first part of this is constructing the underground stormwater retention system. So that's kind of our first thing that we'll do to manage the stormwater from that site, as well as Gardner/Coltrane kind of up the hill from that site, a way to manage all the stormwater. That goes in first and then we'll start foundation work in the new year. That underground stormwater retention system will be kind of the first real construction on the site for New River Hall. That will start this week,

Dave Blanks: Not a visible feature, but something that's very important to have.

Matt Dull: Yeah, not a visible feature, but really important to have. The purpose of those systems is to capture that stormwater in a big storm from kind of everything up hill from the site and/or on the site, and kind of retain as much of that as possible. And then help slowly release it down through Kraut Creek or Boone Creek, whatever you call it, to really just keep Kraut Creek from moving into its kind of flood stage and flooding kind of downstream from us. So it's really to help slow down a lot of the water that's coming from that section of campus. So I think in the long run, it'll be a really positive add to kind of our campus stormwater system as well.

Dave Blanks: Well, what else do you want to cover today, Matt?

Matt Dull: I think that's the highlights today.

Dave Blanks: All right. Well, Matt Dull, we'll do it again. Thanks for your time, sir. And continue to stay safe. If I don't talk to you, have a happy holiday.

Matt Dull: You as well. Thanks, Dave. Good to talk to you today.