Campus Construction

[RaginFan2]

What amazing progress in a year's time!

[HelmutVII]

They were really smoking yesterday, Saturday Jan. 21, They started work this morning Suday Jan 22 but apparently a neighbor must have complained about the noise and they were shut down tight as a drum by noon. They started with the renovation work on Harris and Randolph Halls this past week and as a result placed fencing around both buildings. Since they were shut down all the gates were locked and I couldn't get into my usual view points. So some different views this week.

This is a view of the first building from the corner of Hebrard Blvd and University. They are up to the fourth and final level at this location of the building and started to place roof trusses. Tyvek wrap continues to get higher.




This is a view from the Student Union Service Drive off of Boucher Street showing building 1 on the left and building 2 on the right. It looks like the combined both crews to concentrate on building 1. They are probably looking to get it out of the weather so they can work through the rest of the winter.



Building 2 showing not much progress over the last week.



Another view of building 2 with Harris Hall on the right. I usually take photos from the Harris Hall fire escape.



Another vier of the two buildings from Boucher Street. McLaren Gym is to the left and out of sight of the camera and Harris Hall is to the right of the photo.



A view of building 1 reaching the fourth and final level.



More water proofing of concrete masonry units. They will continue this the full height of the building.

[ulforlife]

this commercial construction is a whole different ballgame, I can't imagine the scheduling it takes

[HelmutVII]

Scheduling in commercial construction is the key. The Framing contractor has the electrical, mechanical and plumbing contractors chasing him with rough in. They in turn have the sheet rock and finishing contractors after them who have the electrical, mechanical and plumbing contractors after them so they can do installs. They in turn have the painting contractor after them so he can finish. It looks like a a bunch of ants crawling all over the place but they eventually get it all done. Along with the general superintendent there are at least 4 or five other guys in the job shack making sure that everybody is doing what they are supposed to do. Every sub contractor has a superintendent that not only makes sure he has enough people on the job but has all the materials he needs and a place to store it. He also needs to make sure that there is equipment and tools on site too. Labor, materials, equipment where and when you need it and the space to work and store "stuff" when you don't.

A big problem on jobs like this is if a sub shows up early (because he doesn't have anything else to do and he needs to keep his workers busy) or if he is late because he is busy trying to finish another job. Early is bad but late is worse.

Today I had a call from a contractor on one of my projects needing layout staking for a drainage project so he could work TODAY. It's a good thing he called early this morning and I could reschedule and get it done. It's not that he showed up early it's just that he showed up unexpectedly. It would have been nice if he would have called on Thursday or Friday but that's the way it is.

[HelmutVII]

Renovation work on Randolph and Harris Hall has started. Randolph Hall is having asbestos removed, they haven't started asbestos removal in Harris Hall yet.

This is a view from the University Ave Hebrard Blvd intersection. Randolph Hall is to the right and University Ave is to the left. Roof trusses are on this section of the building and the roof is decked as you will see later.



View of the first building as seen from the steps to the Saucier Clinic building.



View of the first building as seen from the North Harris Hall fire escape.



Nailing OSB sheeting on the exterior of the fourth floor. At least he had his safety line on but it needs to be closer to him.



View of first building from the top of Olivier Parking Tower. Roof of the student union is in the foreground. Buchanan Hall is to the left. Roof is decked on both sides and should be felted in the next few days.




View of second building from the north Harris Hall fire escape.



View of second building from the east Harris Hall fire escape. This is where Bonin Hall used to be. The trees behind the building are along University Ave.



Another view of the second building from the east Harris Hall fire escape. Trees to the right are along University Ave.



Wind bracing on the first floor of the second rose garden building. As seen from the north Harris Hall fire escape.



View of construction from my driveway. The traffic cone is from the University Ave overlay project.



The oak trees are so large I really can't see any more of the new buildings then the old buildings.

[HelmutVII]

Three inches of rain on Saturday February 4 put a damper on work this past week but they still have made good progress. It looks like the two Rose Garden buildings will be named Bonin and Corona Halls although I don't know which one is which. Corona Hall is one of the eyesore buildings in the student union complex. I was expecting one of them to be named Evangeline Hall.

This is Building 1 as seen from the University Ave. Hebrard Blvd intersection. University is to the left and Randolph Hall is to the right.



The first building as seen from the Saucier Clinic steps.



The first building as seen from the Student Union service drive.



The first building as seen from the top of the Olivier Parking Tower. (Olivier hall is another of the Student Union eysore buildings)



Half of the roof is totally shingled and that portion of the building is getting windows installed. Looks like they are really trying to get out of the weather.

The second building as seen from the Student Union service drive.



The second building as seen from north Harris Hall fire escape. University Ave is to the rear of this building. (where Bonin Hall used to be).



The second building as seen from the north Harris Hall fire escape. The first building is to the rear.



Here are some building components up close.

These are the "eyebrow" convection roof air vents. One of the workers at the fab shop wrote "Made in USA" on it. I should have taken a photo of it.



Fan driven roof discharge air vents.



A pallet of what was about 60 Precast stone sills.

[Turbine]

Great stuff thanks.

Looks like a whirl wind (of workers) went through one of those pictures.

[HelmutVII]

An inch of rain on Friday February 9 and rain throughout the last week has kept the site pretty muddy but they still continue to make progress.

A view of Building one from the Hebrard Blvd and East University Intersection. Randolph Hall is to the right. They were setting up scaffolding to proceed with brick work. this building has about 60 percent of the windows installed. Once the roof is finished then the building will be out of the weather and they can really start to get interior work done.



A view of Building one from the Saucier Clinic steps. (the clinic has moved to the renovated OK Allen Hall). Windows are installed on a portion of this facade and they are moving to the left with window installation.



Building one as seen from the Student Union Service drive.



Building one to the rear getting its roof while a portion of building two in the foreground is at level two with the third floor deck on the way. This is from the north Harris Hall fire escape. I don't think I will be able to see building one from this vantage point much longer.



Building two as seen from North Harris Hall fire escape. This is where Bonin Hall used to be. The other end of Harris Hall is to the extreme right.



Building two as seen from Student Union Service drive. The fork lift bringing scaffolds to the front of building one passed through this area and it is so muddy the fork lift is sinking almost to its axles.



Randolph Hall renovation has begun now that interior Asbestos has been removed. They are removing asbestos from the crawl space now.



A view of construction from the driveway to my home. It won't be much different then before because the oak tress will hide most of the new buildings.



They were really getting with it yesterday and today because we are expecting rain almost every day this coming week.

[HelmutVII]

The last photograph in the above post was the 590th photo of Campus construction. I will have to open another Flcikr account in a couple of weeks.

[Just1More]

Wow. That's a lot of pics. Thanks for doing this for us, Helmet (posting your pics and explanations).

[USL1970]

Best Thread on Site ... THANK YOU!

[HelmutVII]

Thank you all very much. As you can see in the last photo above, I really don't have to go too far from home to get to the site. I originally started doing this for myself, but after a while I realized that many of the posters on this site are out of the Lafayette area and might enjoy seeing the happenings on campus. So I decided to do a weekly update. I try to keep in mind that lots of people on the site may not be as familiar with the campus as I am and I try to include the vantage point of each photo. I hope I have not confused too many people. If anybody is confused about and location please let me know and I will try to help you out.

As it has turned out I have made contact with the general superintendent for Juneau construction and provide him with a CD of all the photos once a month. He along with his home office are thankful for the photos. In the mean time I have provided Dr. Savoie with a complete copy of all the photos I have taken. I figured they might need them some day and they can use them for a historical record of what happened. Some of the photos have showed up on the "future student" Facebook page which came as a surprise to me. Np matter what, the University has a weekly record of construction from January 2 2011 to last weekend and I am glad to be able to do it. Thank God for digital cameras.

[CajunDreDog]

I drove through campus on signing day and was amazed!!!

[kelbow7]

The union phase should be getting underway really soon. Today, I saw workers clearing out Olivier Hall (old Parking & Transit Building) and tomorrow will be the last day Guillory Hall will be open.

[HelmutVII]

It is my understanding that they are going to make Guillory Hall the temporary dining hall while they renovate the union. It will take some time to do this. They will probably start using Guillory as a dining hall for the Summer semester. Dr. Savoie told me the real renovation of the union won't start until August.

Guillory Hall was originally a dining hall so what comes around goes around.