Campus Construction Update, August 12, 2019

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Matt Dull announces the completion of Appalachian's newest parking facility as well as construction progress for building 100 and 200.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey folks, this is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update. Joined as always by Matt Dull. Hey, Matt.

Matt Dull: Hey, Dave.

Dave Blanks: What's up?

Matt Dull: Hey, not much. Ah, just kidding. Lots going on.

Dave Blanks: Not much and that's a wrap, we're done. No there are some updates to share. That's why you're here, right?

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: Cool. Well what are we going to start out with today, sir?

Matt Dull: I guess let's just start with the parking deck.

Dave Blanks: OK.

Matt Dull: Exciting news on the parking deck.

Dave Blanks: Yes.

Matt Dull: The parking deck is finished.

Dave Blanks: It's complete.

Matt Dull: It is complete. So we have our certificate of occupancy from town of Boone.

Dave Blanks: Awesome.

Matt Dull: And we will actually be using that parking deck as part of the move-in process at the end of this week. And yeah, permits are sold for it, for faculty, staff and student permits in that parking deck.

Dave Blanks: So totally on track, completed on schedule. How many cars will the parking deck accommodate?

Matt Dull: So we have 477 parking spaces in that parking deck, in addition to some bike parking in the parking deck. Basically the parking deck is replacing what was in your normal day parking situation in the Stadium Lot. So kind of moving that whole Stadium Lot and collapsing it into a four-level parking deck.

Dave Blanks: Gotcha.

Matt Dull: So yeah, 477 spaces. So opening up for students for move-in and then available this fall for regular day parking and available also for game day parking as well.

Dave Blanks: And one cool thing about the parking deck, if I'm not mistaken, has Wi-Fi.

Matt Dull: It does. So we're in the process of putting in those Wi-Fi routers, literally right now, going in and putting all the access points for the Wi-Fi so that they will be ready for this fall.

Dave Blanks: Sweet.

Matt Dull: So exciting to have that in there and yeah, just cannot thank our team enough, with Choate Construction, for making this a smooth process for getting us to this point. It's just been great working with them and they've done a great job making sure that they've delivered the project within the budget and on time for us to actually open it up for the fall semester.

Dave Blanks: Absolutely. Fantastic job they've done over there.

Matt Dull: Yeah and speaking of Choate, there's been over 67,000 person hours to date on the project.

Dave Blanks: Wow.

Matt Dull: And that's the parking deck, that's building 100, 200, all of the other kind of site work going on in the project. It's just exciting to see how many people and all the different people that are involved and making this big project, keeping it on track with the schedule and with the budget.

Dave Blanks: Absolutely. So when can people go check out the parking deck?

Matt Dull: Parking deck is open now so people can stop by and check it out. We are asking people not to park long term in the parking deck really until after this weekend is over, because we are using it for move-in day and for early move-in and for that kind of move-in weekend when we're bringing in almost 6,000 students back to campus.

Matt Dull: So we will be using that deck for that move-in process. So it's not an open parking space this week, but it will start next week, or the start of classes on Monday. It'll go to a permitted parking lot, just like all of our other parking lots and will require a parking deck pass during the normal school day. So it'll follow the same time frame as our library parking deck.

Dave Blanks: Well, so what about progress with 100 and 200?

Matt Dull: So building 100, team's continuing to install footings, foundation walls for building 100, trying to get everything structurally set up so we can start framing on the entire building 100, so that's continuing to form structural walls that are part of that first floor of the building. We talked past couple of times, there's kind of three different levels. So we're at three different phases to that building.

Dave Blanks: Yes, starting at the upper one, right?

Matt Dull: Starting at that upper and working our way down. So structural walls are totally completed, the upper, and we're actually doing framing now in the upper part of the building. So you'll start seeing the framing going up.

Dave Blanks: I have seen that.

Matt Dull: Elevator shafts and stairwells are going in for that building, we're working our way down the building. Some of the structural steel has started to come in for that building over the past week or two and it'll continue this week so we can stay on track to continue framing up the building. So it's exciting to get the framing started on building 100 a couple of weeks ago.

Dave Blanks: Cool and Stadium's back to two lanes now and patched up there?

Matt Dull: Stadium Drive's back to two lanes, patched up. Yeah, so it's looking good for move-in. And speaking of move-in, we're in that process of prepping for move-in. So we're actually, on Tuesday, doing a site walk with all the contractors and the university to make sure all the things are good to go on the site for our big week of students moving back to Boone.

Matt Dull: So that's kind of getting our fence line cleaned up and replacing broken and missing asphalt from all of the different parts of the project and other projects that have kind of torn up some of the asphalt on Jack Branch and getting that paved over, a new curbing put in. A temporary curbing just again to make sure Jack Branch has a clear, two-way traffic path for all of the folks moving in over on Gardner, Eggers, Frank, Belk, Newland, just making sure that there's a two-way path in and out of that area.

Matt Dull: So we'll do that site walk early next week and make sure everything's kind of cleaned up and ready for our students to come back. And we are utilizing that new parking deck for moving in students to Eggers and Bowie and Frank and Belk. So those upper floors are really going to be more for helping move in folks in Eggers and Bowie and the bottom floors for Frank and Belk, which is right next door to the parking deck.

Dave Blanks: That works out really well.

Matt Dull: Yeah, it works out great. It actually, it's even closer for those students to park there than it was to even park in the Stadium Lot.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, for sure.

Matt Dull: So it'll be a little bit closer to to where the students are actually living.

Dave Blanks: So how's the change in the ... I guess it's asphalt or concrete in front of Frank and Belk? Is that all completed and wrapped up?

Matt Dull: Yeah, that's all completed, so that new driveway that kind of goes between the parking deck and Frank Hall, all that concrete is done. It's actually all ... was striped last week for our fire lane and no parking and all that kind of stuff you need to be able to keep fire trucks to be able to get up to that back side of Frank Hall. That front porch area in front of Frank that had some failing concrete, all of that's been replaced and is looking really good.

Matt Dull: I was up there this morning and it looks great. It's amazing how much that parking deck and Frank and Belk and all that area, how nice and neat and cleaned up it really looks now with new sidewalks and new driveways and front porch area on Frank. It really helps make that whole area look really new. We renovated Frank and Belk over the past four or five years and to finish up some of this other site work and get the parking deck finished up and some of the site work in front of it, it really makes that area look really nice.

Dave Blanks: Kind of just ties a bow on.

Matt Dull: Yeah, it really ties a bow on it. I think it's gonna look really great for students and their families at move-in.

Dave Blanks: Cool. I haven't seen that. I don't know if there are any pictures of that on the Future site.

Matt Dull: Yeah, I don't think there are, but we can get some pictures up. It really looks good.

Dave Blanks: Cool. Right on. What else, Matt?

Matt Dull: So, let's see. We didn't talk about building 200. 200's moving forward. Again, we're continuing framing work and sheeting work of the building and that'll continue through mid-September or so. All the structural steel work is complete on that building. So really the focus over the next few weeks is framing and sheeting of that building and getting it ready for us to start putting in the roof structures and those kinds of things as we get into September.

Dave Blanks: Nice.

Matt Dull: And the exterior of the building. So yeah, things are going great with building 200. Other smaller updates, we've added two ADA accessible parking spaces to service Trivette and Newland Hall and those were finished up last week. So we're ready to open up Trivette and moving in students into Newland this week.

Matt Dull: So those two spaces just help make sure that we have accessible means for folks that need those clear paths to Newland and Trivette Hall and to that that side of campus. Those have finished up.

Dave Blanks: We had ADA spots before?

Matt Dull: We did, we had them before. Over the summer, we've had to expand the fence line for building 100 to get some of the underground work done in that area and we had to relocate those ADA spaces over to ... and actually the spaces are more kind of right in the middle —

Dave Blanks: Little more convenient.

Matt Dull: ... between Newland and Trivette, and actually I think does a better job to service both buildings. So this is a solution, really it's probably a one-year solution and then next summer we'll get to where we'll have probably another slight change to that solution and it'd be more of a final solution for those ADA spaces, but we wanted to make sure those were in place for the start of the school year and for the opening of Trivette, kind of back to full service once students are in.

Dave Blanks: For sure. What else, Matt?

Matt Dull: So work's continued on the steam line that runs down Jack Branch, that steam line replacement from the back end of Gardner, Coltrane all the way down Jack Branch Road to where it branches off towards the end of building 200. We've kind of taken a brief pause in that work over the next week or so, to make sure that we get Jack Branch into a shape for move-in and all the extra traffic we've got coming up. So they'll be taking a brief pause this week.

Dave Blanks: How much more of the steam line work is there? I don't know why I assumed it was wrapped up already, it's not.

Matt Dull: There's a little bit left and the steam line, they'll keep —

Dave Blanks: Like on the Gardner side, it's complete, right?

Matt Dull: They have crossed under Stadium Drive. There's still one last little connection that actually needs to be made in that steam line that services Gardner, Coltrane, as well as Quinn Center up on the top of the hill as you go up Stadium Drive. That little section will be completed into the fall semester and then there's a kind of another section as it crosses Stadium Heights Drive, that's the road where if you go off Stadium Drive —

Dave Blanks: ... turn right.

Matt Dull: ... on to Jack Branch and then turn right again, like you were going into where you would have gone into the Stadium Parking Lot, that's Stadium Heights Drive. They will cross under Stadium Heights Drive also, once the fall semester starts. So a little bit of work left to do on the steam line project, but I would say a good part of the work was done over the summer to try to limit the amount of disruption to that Jack Branch Road, to when the least amount of people were using it.

Dave Blanks: Gotcha. So pausing on that one so they can get Jack Branch.

Matt Dull: Taking a brief pause, get Jack Branch into a great shape for move-in. Make sure we got two-lane traffic for all that extra traffic we've got coming in and then starting that work back that first week of class.

Dave Blanks: Cool. What else, Matt?

Matt Dull: So I think those are all of the big updates for this week and I think, stay tuned for updated pictures of the parking deck in its completed form on the site, on the Future site.

Dave Blanks: For sure, that's appstate.edu/future, check it out. Then it's like, Building the Physical Infrastructure, I think is what the little link is called —

Matt Dull: That's right.

Dave Blanks: ... to see this stuff.

Matt Dull: And the parking deck, I think, is under the residence halls portion too, to look at that.

Dave Blanks: Right, right. I've now learned they're not dorms, they're residence halls.

Matt Dull: They're not dorms, they're residence halls and that's changed too. Thinking about how we've designed these buildings differently from ... like in Eggers, Bowie, Gardner, Coltrane, when you go into the existing buildings, there's not really a lot of common space. It really was looked at as places where people literally would just sleep. We know today that this is home for students, and it needs to be more than just a small little cube that ... or small area that students sleep. It's really where students are living, it's where they're studying. It's where they're building community with other residents in those buildings and so, that national term has moved away from dorm or dormitory to residence hall because it really is, it's beyond where you sleep. It's where you're living, it's where you're hopefully building community, it's where you may be cooking things together in the kitchen.

Dave Blanks: Well and we did. Yeah, yeah for sure. That's what you were doing, even when we called it a dorm. That is what was happening.

Matt Dull: Yeah, even when you called it [inaudible 00:11:59], you really were ... it was your house and it really was your home.

Dave Blanks: It's just not as big.

Matt Dull: Yeah, it's just not as big.

Dave Blanks: There wasn't as much room,.Yeah, yeah.

Matt Dull: Right.

Dave Blanks: I mean we had enough room for the ping pong table. I was in Hoey. So there was a ping pong table.

Matt Dull: And there is room, but I think when we're looking at designing new spaces, we've got more of a focus on community space, on study spaces, on group study rooms. We weren't creating group study rooms on campuses in the '60s, when we look at the buildings we're replacing, and in these new buildings we're doing things like group study rooms because that's a real demand of students. There's not enough small group study spaces on campus. When you go into the library, most afternoons and evenings, it doesn't matter whether it's exam time or —

Dave Blanks: They're full up.

Matt Dull: ... the first week of class, they're full, the group study spaces and a lot of the spaces in the library are already full. So, we're trying to build in some more spaces for students to be able to work together and work individually within the places where they live.

Dave Blanks: It's exciting.

Matt Dull: It is exciting.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, well we'll talk to you next week, Matt.

Matt Dull: Sounds good.

Dave Blanks: I imagine. Do you think?

Matt Dull: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: There's probably going to be more updates then.

Matt Dull: I think there'll be updates next week too.

Dave Blanks: Thanks as always, Matt.

Matt Dull: Absolutely. Thanks.