The blasts of winter are upon us and as you probably expected it has slowed the work on the Campus Center however, not unexpected, Boldt is prepared.
The cold weather has necessitated the rental of heaters to be put into the areas where concrete has been poured. Heating the area does not expedite the process but aids in the process of "curing'.To insure our concrete has dried without loss of strength, poured cylinders are removed and taken for evaluation by the engineers at River Valley Testing. No forms are removed from the site pourings until the engineers have approved the sample cylinders.
The largest pouring occurred when 114 yards of concrete were delivered and "raked" into place for the floor of the dining area and the area backing up to Sage. That was a marathon day with the workers laboring from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm! The night lighting at the site was tremendous, I thought a circus had moved onto campus.
One of the most difficult jobs during the cold weather is that of the iron workers. They must anchor and tie all of the rebars in place, a job that is a challenge without gloves! Boldt was prepared for all the cold weather demands and has adjusted their schedule. They are using the heaters on a daily basis and they had been reserved before the cold weather hit.
Our land bridge is in place! What a massive effort it was with the 18 sections being carefully put into place. The administration and Campus Center teams are concerned about students, faculty and staff crossing Lawe Street as they await a safer route with the completion of the land bridge. The College Avenue bridge construction will force traffic to Lawe Street and our only crossing from the east to the west side of the campus is Lawe Street. With our largest food facility located to the east, the amount of foot traffic is significant. In tandem with Boldt we are escalating the schedule on the bridge and hope to have it safe and useable by the beginning of the next academic year.
When touring our site I am continually struck by the size of our building and the land bridge. Sure, I knew all along that the building was 107,000 square feet and I knew the land bridge was going to be as wide as Riverview Lounge is long but seeing the reality, everything is much larger than I had imagined. Check it out!
I was disappointed to read the staff editorial in the "Lawrentian" on January 24, 2008. The Campus Center Planning Committee, which includes student members feels that our new "hub" presents new opportunities for interaction as well as improved services. The writers of the editorial were misinformed about the offices currently residing in Raymond House and Brokaw. There is NO plan to move to these offices to the new building. In my mind, the advantages of our Campus Center outweigh even a period of "rough transition"
At present Uihlein Wilson, the architects and Peter Schaupt, the landscape architect are at work on the details of the plaza in front of the Campus Center and the river walk. The initial design for the river walk was conceived by students in Andy Knudsen's environmental class. Theirs was a very thorough examination of the existing site and a creative use of the present plantings including proposed historic and informative signage. Again, we have an opportunity to enhance the campus with a user friendly and environmentally sound project. Details will be forth coming in another blog.
