Have you ever walked around campus and were almost run down by somebody playing with their “smart” phone instead of watching the world around them? It seems like it happens to me almost everyday at Evergreen.

A few years back I attended a lecture by a renowned brain researcher at the University of Washington. I was extremely surprised to hear him say that with all the research that has been done on the brain there is very little we have learned on how it works. There were only a handful of things that research work has concluded about the brain. One of them is the whole left brain / right brain thing is hogwash. Another is that multi-tasking is actually not possible being the brain can only handle one thing at a time. You might think you can safely walk while texting on your smartphone, but it is not always going to be possible. Maybe you are physically able to text and walk at the same time, but you are not going to see what you are going to walk into being your brain is focused on that smartphone. Did you know that people needing to visit the emergency room due to injuries acquired while using a smartphone have doubled each year for the past eight years? Researcher’s scientific term for this dangerous practice is called “inattention blindness”. It is injuring and killing people everyday. And it does not have to be texting and walking. Many people have a false sense of safety when they are in a crosswalk. The thinking is “I’m in a crosswalk, I don’t have to look because everybody will see me”. WRONG! And if you happen to be doing so while talking on your cell phone you won’t be paying close attention to drivers approaching the crosswalk. Unfortunately some of those drivers are likely playing with their smartphones. That combination can be life altering. So be smart with that smartphone people!

A lot of progress was made this week with finishing up work on the lecture halls and the AV equipment for the building. We were able to start using lecture halls 2, 3 and 4 beginning today. The basic systems are now working to enable teaching to begin in those spaces. Lecture Hall 1, which is by far the largest one, will come on line on Monday 10/17. The full production AV systems for the entire building will take another week or so to come together. What this means is we won’t be capable of holding the last of the Presidential Debates here in Purce Hall next week. You will have to hear Donald Trump say the words “very, very” numerous times some place else.

The bark mulch installation for the landscaping is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 10/13. Be aware this work is going to be noisy being it will be blown in place with a large truck. You might want to consider ear plugs or head phones while playing Frisbee on Red Square.

We are getting so close to being complete. I’m very happy to report hearing positive feedback regarding the building so far! That is it for now.

Cheers!

Tim

Tim Byrne, Project Manager

The Evergreen State College

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

Yes, I’m really getting anxious to see this Lecture Hall project completed. Yes we are behind schedule, and there have been a plethora of reasons why we are behind schedule. I guess I could blame them on our project Superintendent since he is now retired and is not around to defend himself, but I won’t do that.

Currently we are now scheduled to be substantially complete on September 1. I say substantially complete because the project will not be totally finished on that date. There will be many loose ends to wrap up, but we should be able to move in and start getting things situated so that we may start using the building as intended at the start of the fall quarter.

Last Friday I took faculty member Bob Haft for another photography walk of the construction project. He shared an abundance of his images with me, some of them I share with you here:

Work in progress in Lecture Hall 1

Lecture Hall 1

Work in progress in Classroom 2

Exterior of Lecture Hall

One thing that I have not touched on with my previous updates is all the significant amount of work taking place at the lower level of the Lecture Hall. The lower level previously was a strange shaped room containing cubicles. Off of this room were inefficiently shaped storage spaces and custodial closets. This area is now primarily dedicated to mechanical and utility lines. Bob Haft told me all the new utility piping at this level reminded him of a building in Paris in which all the brightly colored piping, tubes and mechanical systems are exposed on the outside of the structure as an expression of technology at the time. I new exactly what building Bob was referring to being I remembered studying that building in architectural history class. Here is a photo I found of the building he mentioned:

Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

Anyway, this building was designed by a team of famous architects from Great Britain and Italy. It was very well disliked by Parisian’s when it was first completed, as was the Eiffel Tower when it was first completed. But the architectural community mostly loved it and it won many awards at the time in 1977. It is also a major attraction for tourists and supposedly Parisian’s now accept it, just as it took time for them to do so with the Eiffel Tower.

Well hardly any of you will ever be able to marvel at the number of mechanical lines, water pipes, electrical conduit, fire sprinkler lines, of mechanical units that lie below the new rotunda of the Lecture Hall, but Bob took a number of outstanding photos of these areas. One of my favorites is right here:

Mechanical level of Purce Hall

Well, lately for me it seem like everyone wants to tour the Lecture Hall. You can’t all do so yet. But if I had my way I would let you all take a peak for a mere $20 a piece, plus a $2.50 facility fee and a $7.80 convenience fee. I am also considering taking the green fence screen down so you could see more of what is going on behind the fencing. Let me know what you think.

There won’t be much activity taking place outside the building this week. Copious amounts of work will be taking place inside the building though. There is a mass amount of finish work going on, such as painting walls and ceilings, installing finished floors, finished ceiling tiles, acoustical wall panels, placing of light fixtures, and installing doors and windows. Soon you should see some landscaping work taking place as the site starts to come together.

You may have noticed there is really slow progress in painting of the “Purce Hall” sign out front. I’m not even sure why they started painting it being the focus is on getting the inside of the building complete. But it is strange that for a week or so you could just see “PU”. Now you can see the “PUR”. Can I buy a “C” Mr. Painter?

That is it for now. Have a great week!

Cheers,

Tim

Yes! The Glazier’s strike is over!!!

I know it has been a while since I provided my last Lecture Hall construction digest. I’ve been pretty darn busy, plus I took off work last Friday to make it an ambitious long weekend for me in spending quality time with my beloved motorcycle. I put in almost 1,400 miles of fun. It was all worthwhile and now my mind is clearer and I’m ready for more challenges at work.

One challenge we won’t have to worry about anymore is the Glazier’s Union settled their strike and are now back to work. Now our contractor will be able to look at the schedule and revise it to reflect progress resuming with the window installation. Once I have that update I’ll share it with you all.

One milestone for this project this week involves not part of the building but part of them team working on the building. Absher’s Construction Superintendent, Dwayne Hiam (aka: Dewey) is retiring today (Thursday) after 36-years in construction. All 36-years of his career have been with working for Absher. The fact that he has worked for this one employer for his entire career is amazing to me when I think of all the different places I’ve worked in my lifetime. A lot of the jobs I’ve held wouldn’t necessarily be in the career category, such as dishwasher, warehouse grunt, newspaper delivery, shoe salesperson, as well as pizza delivery. Others were just summer jobs in between academic studies, yet helpful to my eventual career, these were in the field of swimming pool construction and steel shop drawings. After college my real career began and I just now realize that Evergreen is my eighth post-graduation employer.  To be able to produce a resume and have only one employer on it is certainly remarkable.

Anyway, congratulations to Dewey for 36-years of successfully being a part of the built environment! It has been a great experience to have worked with you on this challenging Lecture Hall project. Enjoy this new turn in life and may it be free of snakes and full of grandchildren!

Dewey in action. He’s the one in the hard hat and the goatee. The white hard hat and white goatee that is.

Today is the last mud pour as they construct an area under the new sign to the lecture hall. Next week we will see more windows go in and more metal siding panels being installed. The “Purce Hall” sign near the new entry will be painted. We will also see some landscaping work beginning and shortly after top soil will be imported for placement.

That is it for now.

Cheers,

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093

I don’t know about you, but when saw the news headlines this AM I was really disgusted. What is this world coming to!? Racism has been part of our country for far too long, but it cannot be solved with violence. Whether you are black, white, or any shade of brown, man, woman, trans, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Atheist, conservative, liberal, straight, bi, gay, queer, or neither, we all live in this world together. I personally think contrast is a good thing, it is one thing that makes life interesting and it draws one to emerge forward in life.

I subscribe to the Seattle Times and I think the timing of one of their projects is timely with current events. If you are not aware of it they are taking on racism. How do you do so? You talk about it. It will make some people uncomfortable, some people will get mad, some people will be enlightened, but it needs to be discussed by people of all the various races if we are going to understand one another. This project consists of videos of local people talking about racism, prejudice, white privilege, empathy, ignorance, etc… You don’t have a choice in the color of your skin, and no sunburn does not count in this discussion, but we are all humans that deserve the respect of each other. Join the conversation, read the viewpoints, be enlightened: http://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/under-our-skin/# but please do so on your own time. It is suppose to be a rainy weekend, so why not hang out at home and join in?

Well, the Glaziers and Glassworkers Local 188 are still on strike. Why do I care? Because this will add days to the completion of the Lecture Hall project. No Glassworkers means no windows. We won’t know how this impacts the construction schedule of the Lecture Hall until this strike is resolved. The union representatives are scheduled to meet again with federal mediators next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed so they get back to work!

Next week some of the new metal siding will start going up. We were suppose to see some of it being installed this week, but there was an error with the first shipment. Anyway, if things go per plan we should also see the “Purce Hall” sign being installed just north of the new building entrance. If the weather cooperates we will see more roofing work take place. Inside the building the drywall work will be wrapping up in areas, more wall painting will occur, and ceiling finishes will continue to be installed. On site we will see more sidewalks being formed, poured and finished. In the not so distant future we should see the new landscaping taking place.

That is it for now.

Cheers,

Tim

So, we are seeking LEED certification on the Lecture Hall project. That is nothing new to Evergreen, we already have at least two LEED Gold Certified buildings, which are the CAB and Seminar II building. I also understand the Lab I 1st and 2nd floor renovations achieved LEED Certification. Our goal is to achieve LEED Gold on the Lecture Hall project. If you don’t know already LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a third-party verification system for rating “green” or sustainable buildings. This system was established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to create a verification system for sustainable structures. The main goal is in having minimal impact on the environment while building a facility, and also considering the long term impact on the environment once the facility is up and operating. I bring this subject up at this point in the project because recently I’ve been coordinating portions of the LEED checklist with our design team.

The LEED checklist consists of a long list of opportunities to consider before the design even begins. You use the checklist to create a list of goals that once achieved will give you points. The amount of goals / points achieved is tallied and verified once the construction is complete. The paperwork is filed with the USGBC and they go through the submitted checklist and all the supporting documentation and they certify (or not if you did not do your job) what LEED benchmark has been achieved. Currently there are four levels of certification, all based on the number of points achieved on a project. The first of these levels is “Certified” which is the easiest level of achievement; a building must achieve a minimum of 40 points to meet this benchmark. The next levels of achievement are Silver, then Gold, and the highest level is Platinum. Being able to achieve Platinum would be ideal for a college like Evergreen, but there are certain costs associated with a number of these points, thus you really need to strike a balance between costs and benefits. We also have a budget to adhear to, which we are continuously keeping in mind. We are a public institution, so striking that balance is especially important with spending tax payers dollars. It currently looks like we may achieve 62 LEED points, which is a few points into the Gold level. Here is the LEED scorecard for New Construction and Major Renovations if you are interested in this subject:U.S. Green Building Council score card

Yes, we had another power outage on campus. I don’t know about you, but these seem to be an all too common experience this year. We had our weekly construction meeting during the power outage. I joked that we should get LEED points on this project for holding construction meetings without using any electricity. It made me think that maybe we should plan on having planned power outages twice a day. Doing so forces you to step away from the computer and actually talk with your co-workers. And think of the resources we would save! I’m sure our computing and networking offices would love it.

We are now officially behind schedule on the Lecture Hall construction. The stars don’t seem to be aligning for me at this juncture in time. Don’t worry though, we have a huge buffer between when we are supposed to be substantially complete to the time we need to start holding classes in this facility. Anyway, there are a number of factors that are hurting us. Some of the issues include light fixtures not shipping when they should have, fire sprinkler inspections not taking place as planned, and just today the Glaziers Union is on strike. We need to get all those windows installed ASAP, and nobody ever thought a strike was even in the works! I’ve asked our contractor to provide us with an updated schedule so we can see what the new substantial completion date is that we are shooting for. That won’t really be possible until we know when this darn strike is over with.

Hat channels and clips that hold the channels in place are currently being installed on the new exterior walls of the Lecture Hall. These hat channels are going to support all the exterior insulation. Yes, the current building code requires exterior wall insulation in order to minimize thermal bridging that occurs if the insulation is just between the structural members. Once the Rock Wool insulation is installed we’ll soon see the metal siding being installed. More about Rock Wool can be found here: http://www.roxul.com/ Fine grading of ground around the perimeter of the Lecture Hall is currently taking place. As is the grading for the new ADA ramp that will lead from Red Square to the upper area between Lab I and II and the Lecture Hall.

More sidewalks are currently being formed around the Lecture Hall. We will see those being poured on Tuesday, July 5th. Keep an eye out for the concrete trucks accessing the job site.

That is it for this time. Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Cheers,

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093

I had hoped to post an update on the Lecture Hall construction last Thursday, but time got away from me, and before you know it I had to hit the road. I neede to drive to SeaTac and pick up my Mom so that we could attend another milestone in my life. My one an only daughter graduated from Olympia High School on Thursday. I then took Friday off to spend some time with visiting family members. Anyhow, the weekend is over and I’m finally able to give you a much needed construction update.

Today was the start of concrete flatwork. Flatwork in construction mostly refers to concrete work outside the building and is considered site work. So, this morning the concrete pumper arrived promptly at 7 AM and the concrete truck showed up shortly thereafter.

Formwork for the flatwork had been setup towards the end of last week. Placing of the concrete (aka: mud) and finishing of it began today. Here is what an area looked like with just the formwork:

Flatwork forms

And a few hours later it was looking a whole lot better:

Installed flatwork

Some of this work also entailed a set of stairs leading off the back of Lecture Hall 1 and the new Classroom behind Lecture Hall 1. They were about halfway done pumping the concrete into the stairs formwork when it started to bow out:

Stairway pour

It isn’t really noticeable in the above photo, but all the workers saw what was happening and feared the form might blow out and create a real headache. Anyway, with quick thinking and action they moved the versatile four-wheel drive forklift over to the stairway and lodged a piece of wood against the form and managed to push the formwork back into place:

Forklift as extra brace

A few extra braces were also added and a crisis was averted for today!

Other new things you might notice is window framework and glazing for the windows has begun. The windows will continued to be installed over the next week or two. Here is the one at Workshop 2 that faces Red Square:

Workshop 2 windows

Next week our new metal siding is due to arrive on site. It will be exciting to see that go up and the exterior finishes start to all come together.

That is it for now. I hope to provide another update late next week.

Have a great week and happy solstice!

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093

Yes, at last we have come to the day of the last concrete pour for the interior floor of the Lecture Hall project. These were all areas that also contain hydronic piping for the radiant slab heating system. I’ve been very concerned with these areas because we also have steel rebar that is placed over the hydronic piping. Our contractor at first just laid the steel rebar directly on top of the plastic piping; essentially the pipe was supporting the rebar. Well I questioned why it was not supported by chairs (or dobbies). After a little of discussion with our contractor, and talking with the manufacturer of the piping, it was determined the rebar had to be set above the piping. Anyway, we have a skookum installation on our hands. Here are some photos from today’s work.

Entry

Rotunda

Rotunda to LH 1 ramp

LH 1 ramp

Outside Classroom 2

I was also joined for a while this morning by Evergreen faculty member and photography buff Bob Haft. Here is my photograph of the photographer in action.

Photograph of the photographer

I also took a journey up to the top of the Evergreen Clock Tower today on an issue related to the clocks for campus and the Lecture Hall. I took the opportunity to get a nice aerial shot from that location. You can see the concrete truck feeding the pumper truck and the long arm of the pumper reaching into the Lecture Hall.

From Clock Tower

In that shot you can also see one of the carpenters installing the wood decking over the glulam beams by the entry to the Lecture Hall.

All together it was a very productive day. The crew that does the concrete leveling and finishing work are an amazing team. I could tell they have been working together for a long time being they don’t even need to talk to each other while they do there thing. Bob Haft noticed the same thing.

Anyway, I intended to get out a construction digest update last week but I got pulled away to do a tour of the Lecture Hall for my colleagues in the Facilities office. It was a good day to so last Friday being all the construction workers took off at noon to start their holiday weekend early. I’ve been giving so many tours to various groups that I am starting to thing my job title should be “Tour Guide”. I probably won’t be providing an update next week being next Friday is graduation. There will not be any construction going on that day so the festivities may take place without the disruption of construction activity. Anyway, congratulations to all the students and faculty to making it to the last day of classes! I’m sure it is a great relief to make it this far.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093

Okay, so I’m taking the day off tomorrow, and being so I’m presenting my weekly update one day early. It has been a busy week on this project and it is kind of crazy at times with all the different trades on site. Here are the different trades and areas of work I counted today: metal stud framers, dry wall installers, dry wall tapers, carpenters, general laborers, electricians, plumbers, sheet metal duct workers, hydronic piping installation, excavation, weather barrier installation, as well as painting. I also counted 15 man lifts on site. Anyway, here is a current look at all the work and material inside the rotunda.

Rotunda

Preparation work on the floors in the two Workshops and the Classroom located between them began this week. Carpenters were installing the rigid insulation in Workshop 2 on Wednesday are shown here:

Rigid Insulation Installation

Today the Mechanical Contractor is installing the plumbing lines for the hydronic floor heating as shown below.

Hydronic piping installation

This maze of piping connects to a manifold in the wall that distributes the different zones of heated water lines is indicated here:

Hydronic manifold

Next week these floors will have steel rebar installed just above the water pipe. The water lines will then be connected and pressure tested to ensure there are no leaks. On Thursday the concrete is scheduled to be poured which will become the finished floor in these areas of the building addition.

Yesterday we had a very detailed discussion with our architectural team, our general contractor (Absher) and their metal wall panel subcontractor about the look the architect is seeking on the exterior walls. They selected four different profiles of panels, 2-inch, 4-inch, 6-inch, and 10-inch modules that are to be installed in order to create a random look. It certainly won’t be easy to do but it should be modern and distinctive looking once it is installed. Here is our team in action:

Teamwork!

Counterclockwise from the right in this image we have Chris Griffes and Justin Rabe of ZGF Architects, Fred Hamond from Architectural Sheet Metal, and the guy in the Canadian Tuxedo is Dewey Hiam of Absher Construction. They were playing around with the different sized profiles to help Fred understand how the installation should work. Anyway, they just ordered the metal panels and this material has around a six week lead time, so we won’t see the wall panel installation anytime soon.

Next week we will continued to frame in the glulam beams at the rotunda and entry area. The weather barrier installation just began and as that goes up the current yellow sheathed addition will turn orange. Window installation will follow that work. As I mentioned above, we will be pouring the concrete floors in the workshop / classroom addition, so we will see a number of concrete trucks coming and going on Thursday.

Cheers!

Tim