Crossroads of the Campus

Twas the night before break, when all through the Campus Center
Not a worker was stirring, not even a barista bartender.
The work belts were hung by the Great Room chimney with care,
In hopes that construction supplies soon would be there.

The dining staff were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of blast chillers danced in their heads.
And Lynn in her 'kerchief, and Bob in his chef's cap,
Had just settled their brains for a much needed nap.

When out on the green roof there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the C-store to see what was the matter.
Away to the Cafe I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the Union-hill snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to the sustainable garden below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature skid loader, and eight tiny reindeer.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning to greet,
I saw a jolly old man strolling up Main Street.

He was dressed all in Carhartt, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with drywall and soot.
A bundle of gifts he had flung on his back,
Something for everyone stuffed in that sack.

10" plates for Julia and a meal plan for Pat,
On budget for Brian and aesthetics for Nat.
A timetable for Eric and with some magic up his sleeve,
He left every gizmo and gadget for Steve.

Having delivered his goodies, he sprang to his sleigh,
And away they all flew much to our dismay.
But I heard him exclaim, in the form of a holiday cheer,
Have a great semester break, it will open next year!

The temperature is a balmy zero degrees Fahrenheit this morning, so why am I writing about fresh fruits and vegetables? Recently I have gotten a number of questions regarding dining options/changes we can expect to see next year in the new facility (thanks for the e-mails Laura and Jody). While the dining program for next year is very much a work in progress, we do know there will be significant enhancements to the campus dining experience.

The Warch Campus Center has four distinct dining options, three of which are ala carte pricing (albeit part of the meal plan) and the fourth, Andrew Commons on the first level, will likely have both a door price and an entry swipe option (Andrew Commons is an all-you-can-eat facility). The serving area in the Andrew Commons will look more like a food court than a cafeteria. Much of the food will be prepared to order using fresh ingredients and locally grown items whenever possible.

The cafe', located on Main Street will likely have the most extensive hours, opening before most students are even out of bed and closing way beyond my bedtime. The fare will change throughout the day starting with fresh baked almond bear claws and breakfast items such as organic Muesli with fresh raspberries in the morning. Changing to fresh basil, roasted red peppers, prosciutto, and mozzarella panini sandwiches with a spicy gazpacho soup and a baby arugula salad during the day. Late at night, they will fire up the gill and serve assorted burgers, fries and even the original Anchor Bar buffalo chicken wings.

Within the cafe' is a separate coffee shop featuring locally roasted (Milwaukee) Alterra coffees (organic and fair trade). This will be a full service coffee shop including specialty drinks & teas, fresh baked goods, gelato, fresh fruit smoothies and other healthful options.

Even the convenience store, located on level two has dining options for students. Besides the standard boxes of granola bars, bags of chips and packages of Twinkies, the store will offer prepared sandwiches (a mean PB&J), packaged salads and carrot sticks & dip, and sliced fresh fruit. Students will also be able to get hot foods including fresh made pizzas (by the slice or the whole Gorgonzola cheese/Portabella mushroom pie), pretzels and nachos.

This is only a cursory look at campus dining for next year. As we flesh out more details in the coming weeks and months I will write more extensively on what should be a fresh new approach to dining at Lawrence.

No, we did not get to sample some new dining services concoction (although dining services did feed us quite well) and we did not lick the furniture a la David Sedaris. Last week our interior designer, Susie Fondrie of Uihlein-Wilson Architects
and her colleagues brought in a bevy of chairs for us to taste test. Over 40 Lawrence students, faculty and staff stopped in lower Brokaw to sit, spin and lounge on nearly two dozen chairs. Even though students selected all of the lounge furnishings a year ago, it was surprising how many additional chairs we need. Outside dining chairs, office desk chairs, side chairs, conference room chairs and event seating, when all of this is done we may well have one chair for every current Lawrence student. It would be great to know that we could have the entire student body in the Warch Campus Center, and everyone would have a seat. Surprisingly (a pleasant surprise), when all the votes were tallied, the favored chair for each purpose had the approval of 2/3 or more of the participants. We seem to know what we like when we see it.

As promised in an earlier blog, I will expand this space try to include information about various spaces and the possible uses of those spaces. Recently we have spent considerable time focusing on the new campus cinema located on level two. The 134-seat venue creates opportunities to increase film showings on campus, support the fledgling film studies curriculum and maybe offer late night entertainment for students on Friday and Saturday nights. The venue's design creates a superior cinematic experience. No longer will Lawrence have to show campus films in a science lecture hall or a residence hall lounge. Moreover, what movie going experience would be complete without popcorn? In recent conversations, the idea for a movable food cart has floated around, something that would roll down to the cinema and provide popcorn and soda for the patrons. Maybe they will find room for my favorite movie treat, SnoCaps. In addition, we configured the room to accommodate more than film. The speakers are located at the front of the small performance space and additional input lines (microphone and other) are built-in meaning we can host lectures, panel discussions, small ensembles or multi-media performances with ease. Certainly, we will find other creative uses for this space and the flexibility built-in will allow us to make those things possible. It is great fun to imagine new and creative uses for all the new spaces in the Warch Campus Center.

Maybe soon, Chefs Julia or Bob will provide us a taste test of some of the treats they plan to serve in their new facilities. I have heard rumors of a secret new pizza crust recipe replete with a delicious new sauce.

While Lawrence has experienced 70 degree temperatures this week, this is northeastern Wisconsin and it is not going to last. Activity at the Warch Campus Center
is quickly changing from exterior to interior work. Even the masons have moved inside as they are now placing the Fond du Lac stone in various locations along Main Street. Wednesday marked the first day of drywalling. The drywallers have begun on level one, which is watertight. Next Tuesday Boldt and Lawrence facilities staff will fire up the Campus Center boiler in order to heat the areas where the drywallers are working.

With most of the windows in place and the walls taking shape, the look of Main Street is taking shape. The glulam (glued-laminated timbers) beams are most impressive (seen in the picture above). Why use glulams? Glued-laminated timbers are a green alternative to traditional structural materials (steel, concrete or aluminum). Glulams provide a resource-efficient use of wood utilizing fast growing trees while safeguarding older forests. Use of wood and wood-engineered products encourages reforestation compounding the environmental benefits.

Next up: choosing fabrics and furnishings for 107,000 square feet of space. Stay tuned!

Every day brings significant and noticeable progress on the Richard and Margot Warch Campus Center. Much of the 17,000 square feet of glass has been installed and the building will be essentially enclosed within a week. The last of the 693,000 pounds of Fond du Lac stone veneer will be laid today on the north side of the center. When complete, the stone will cover over 21,000 square feet of the building's surface. Tomorrow (Saturday, November 1st) a fixture of the Lawrence University skyline will disappear. The highest crane ever erected in the Fox River Valley and a fixture on the Lawrence campus these past 15 months will come down.

With Appleton's demolition of the College Avenue Bridge (to be replaced by a four-lane bridge set to open in late 2009), the traffic on Lawe Street has increased ten-fold. With that change, the campus has begun to depend on the Hurvis Crossing (land bridge) to get across campus. The views from Hurvis Crossing are spectacular and it does not feel like a bridge with its green grass, trees and park-like benches. It is easy to see how this new structure will seamlessly link the Lawrence University campus together.

It is my intent, to provide short but frequent updates to this page highlighting both construction progress and program development. Let me close this first blog by saying it is such a privilege to return to my alma mater as the Warch Campus Center director. This new facility promises to be outstanding and enhance our already exceptional residential liberal arts college.

We are about to celebrate another concrete milestone....the pouring of the fourth floor columns and floor. The construction crew will certainly be celebrating the completion of the pouring as the forms have become more difficult to reach as the building height increased. I bet the invoices coming across my desk will shrink by 40%! More concrete than you can imagine and enough rebar to make receiving of cell phone calls in the Campus Center difficult. We will be installing repeaters to solve this problem.

To reach our goal of completion by September 2008, work on the land bridge has been flourishing. Our roofing contractor has applied the waterproof "skin" to the bed of the bridge and we are exploring a coating for the bridge façade to eliminate the need for acid washing if unrestrained creativity becomes a problem. Julie and Tom Hurvis, the donors of the land bridge, were in Appleton in May and photographed the bridge from various angles, finding their gift larger than imagined. They have worked with the architects on a quotation which will be found spanning the length of the built-in stone bench. The landscape architects have chosen plant material indigenous to this area of Wisconsin. This bridge is going to be a beauty, visually minimizing the divide between the east and west sides of the campus.

Boldt has come to the rescue as I struggle with my construction vocabulary. They crafted a dictionary for me and now glu-lam, elephant trunk and gravel stop no longer leave me in the dark. My new vocabulary will be shared with you, the reader, as I continue to "blog."

The committees responsible for making Campus Center decisions have toured Level "0" and found the mechanical equipment for the building neatly installed on concrete pads. The steam fitters, sheet metal workers, electricians and masons have contributed to the progress on this level. The Kohler generator, the air handling units, the electrical conduits and even the conduits for technical needs have all been appropriately placed and await being catapulted into action.

It is necessary and aesthetically desirable to have many pieces of our equipment, tech lines, and water lines buried in the ground. By far the largest piece of equipment to be buried is the grease trap for the kitchen. Its size is specified by code and I trust the size of ours does not have any relationship to the menus being planned. I am more aware than ever for the need of maps detailing exactly where everything is located under ground. Early on we had some under ground surprises alongside ol'Sage, this lesson has been taken to heart as beneath ground equipment and lines for the Campus Center have been noted on under ground utility drawings.
Masonry work has begun on level "0" The creation of concrete block walls for the various mechanical departments are complete. When the masons move to the outside of the building there will be 20 workers focused on just the limestone, block and mortar. The outside masonry work will begin on the south side of the building and then start wrapping around the west wall. We are hoping the north façade of the building and tower will be completed in October in time for the building naming and land bridge dedication.

For an awesome view of the Campus Center, head north on Lawe Street, now open, from South River Road. What a site, what a view, what a building!

Yes, we continue to pour concrete and will for some time. Now that the lens is not covered with ice, check out the webcam to see the walls of the second level being formed. The space between the Campus Center and Sage is being back filled and the floors of the second level are being poured. Snow did impact the project, slowing work down by forcing us to truck snow away from the site. No longer is it permissible to dump snow into the Fox River and the added task of removing it fell upon the crews at the site. Three weeks time was lost to the harsh winter weather.

The land bridge is in place with only railings and landscaping left to finish. As predicted in the last blog, we are going to have the land bridge open when students return this fall, the academic year 2008-2009. The land bridge promises to be a success, both physical and aesthetic, bridging the central and eastern parts of the campus. Landscaping plans have been submitted and approved by the LU grounds crew!

The river walk will extend from our property on the east, under Lawe Street to the sustainable garden, a.k.a SLUG (Sustainable Lawrence University Garden). An initial workshop has been held with our landscape architect, two members of Uihlein-Wilson architectural firm and four members of our faculty who teach or have taught environmental studies. Using the 2006 student river walk project as the basis for discussion and design, all workshop members were in accord philosophically. Like the land bridge, the river walk adds a new dimension to our engagement with and view of the river.

As the project continues, so does my education. There are many crews at work on the building which represent the varied "trades". They are confined to their specialties but are often supported by Boldt Construction Laborers when timing requires or the task is massive.

The Iron Workers, to date, have spent a tremendous amount of their time tying rebar. The rebar (re-enforcing bars) are the iron rods in the walls and slabs which must be tied together before concrete can be poured. Having just finished a pour of 684 cubic yards of concrete for level two, the iron workers prepared two walls on the east and north for the "pour." After a floor pour the Cement Finishers come in to level and finish the concrete. As mentioned, the Construction Laborers assist many trades, but so far have been responsible for placing much of the 10,000 cubic yards of concrete poured to date. The 10,000 cubic yards of concrete poured is enough to build to a sidewalk from Appleton to Green Bay.

Another very visible trade on the site is the Carpenters. There are two groups within this trade. The carpenters who build the forms for the concrete and layout the project components are very much in evidence these days. Once the building is enclosed they will install the drywall and place the metal studs. The "Finishing Carpenters" construct ceilings, hang doors and install hardware and finished wood products throughout the building.

Equipment Operators include the man operating the enormous crane, the men responsible for the concrete pump and "elephant trunk", the operators of forklifts and all of the excavation equipment. Throughout the project these men are guaranteed 2 hours of work, 5 days a week, rain or snow.

Obviously, the power needed to operate the Campus Center requires Electricians. Their trade installs all of the power in the building, placing all conduit, including that for phone and data lines.

The Plumbers are responsible for laying all of the PVC for drains, sewers and water piping and then install all of the toilets, sinks showers, water heaters and grease traps. The kitchen behind the servery, a very detailed job for plumbers, must be carefully coordinated with the work of electricians. Separate from the plumbers are the Steamfitters who install the HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air-conditioning) piping systems, equipment and chillers. They usually work with cast iron, steel, copper and stainless steel piping. The Sheet Metal workers follow the steamfitters and build/install the ductwork necessary for the air supply system and the air handling units.

The Glazers and Masons begin their work once the Campus Center structure is in place. The glazers install the entire glass system including the curtain walls and the masons lay the exterior Fond du Lac stone and any concrete block required.

Once the building is enclosed, the finish trades will work on the inside of the building, but I will save that for another blog. The building is really taking shape as it rises out of the ground. Progress continues as we pour more and more and more concrete! Stay tuned!!