Yes, we had what some might call a soft opening of Purce Hall this week. The classroom spaces are functional but not complete. There is still work taking place in the four lecture halls. A lot of work still needs to take place, so if you happen to visit or have visited the interior of the Lecture Hall building this week don’t dare think it is done. I did a “punch list” walk with our architect and contractor on Wednesday and lots of things still needs to happen. I am not confident that it will all be wrapping up as quickly as I would like it to be.

Yesterday I gave a little presentation to a sustainability class about the Lecture Hall project. The class happens to be taught by one of my former co-workers Gretchen Van Dusen, and her co-teaching partner Justin Hocking. I’m not sure how well I did, but these students were extremely thankful for my time and asked me some really good questions. I hope they learned something from me.

I also noticed an article about the Lecture Hall project that was recently published in Evergreen’s Cooper Point Journal. This blog and my name were mentioned in the piece. Too bad I was not granted an interview, I could have added some more insight as to why this project has dragged on. Thanks for spelling my last name correctly Chloe! It usually gets butchered.

So, the latest schedule for completing the four lecture hall spaces is now October 10th. All focus now is getting the A/V systems installed in these rooms and backbone equipment that supports it. Here is a panoramic photo of Lecture Hall 1 from this morning as it nears completion:

Lecture Hall 1 9/30/16

A huge projection screen was just installed in this space and it looks as big as any screen you would see in a local movie theater. And there are not just two, or three, or four, but five huge speakers behind the projection screen. I get the feeling this place is gonna rock out on occasion. Here is a photo of a dorky looking model displaying the scale of this screen:

Lecture Hall 1 projection screen

You may have noticed some landscaping work that is also taking place. The contractor wants to start installing mulch in the landscaping beds on Monday, but I just reminded them with the fact that we don’t have an approved submittal for the product they propose using and we also need a sample of the material so that our Grounds Supervisor can inspect it before being placed. Sometime next week they will likely install the mulch bedding. Warning: It will be very noisy when the do so because they will be blowing it in place similar to this example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rol3WnxHjU

Happy Friday and congratulations students and faculty on completing week one of the 2016 fall quarter.

Cheers!

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

Yes, you may have heard by now that our new Lecture Hall Building (a.k.a.: Purce Hall) won’t be fully completed by the start of the fall quarter. If it is not one thing it is another lately. I feel terrible because I was so confident things would work out and we could get the teaching and learning process going in these new spaces as originally planned.

Our current revised (seemingly revised again, and again) schedule puts us at getting the building official to do a inspection on this Friday, September 16th. This will be the start of our final building inspections. Final cleaning of the building is currently scheduled for completion on September 20th. The Final FINAL inspection for obtaining our Certificate of Occupancy is scheduled for September 23rd. Unfortunately at that point work will not be compete to fully use the building as intended.

The one issue that is driving the schedule for us in using the building for it’s high performing pedagogical experience is regarding audio / visual (A/V) capabilities. We had a very skookum A/V system designed for the lecture hall spaces. The bids received for this system were very high and beyond our modest budget, so we worked on revising the design with the contractor and some of our staff who have expertise in this realm. We went back and forth for a while figuring out how to get this built without it costing an arm and leg. If I compare it to makes and models of cars, we had a Porsche Cayenne chosen for us, when a Toyota Prius would really suit us just fine; just don’t include the $3,000 sunroof and backup camera on our package. Anyway, the going back and forth on this subject took so long that we were told recently that a completed A/V system would not be possible by the time school is scheduled to start. I’m guessing that most of our faculty members are not Amish and will likely need a fully functioning A/V system to effectively teach to our grand student body. Some of the A/V equipment will take a while to get here and once it is here it will take some time to make all the connections and perform testing of the equipment to ensure it is working properly. Anyhow, as of now it appears we should be able to start fully utilizing all the new classroom environments in Purce Hall starting October 17th.

A contingency plan has been in the works and it appears we should be able to shuffle some classes around to various spaces in the interim. Keep your fingers crossed so that we don’t have any other delays! Nobody here needs that added stress.

That is all for now.

Cheers!

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093