1. Restructuring enhances Bates’ commitment to diversity and inclusion
2. Chemistry major wins top award at international conference
3. Bates Fund flourishes in 2009-2010 fiscal year
4. Campus Construction Update
5. Museum of Art offers summer retrospective by noted painter Nicoletti
6. With Young Dancers Workshop, festival bridges gap in dance education
7. Save the date: Parents & Family Weekend Oct. 8-10
8. Bates in the News

1. Multimedia: Commencement 2010 in words and images
2. Multimedia: Garcelon Field getting makeover — see it live
3. Video: Scholarship luncheon is a time of reflection and thanks
4. Bates Scholar-Athletes inducted for 2010
5. Bates women’s rowing team repeats as national runner-up
6. The 14th Non-Required Summer Reading List
7. Leadership program provides skills for success
8. Resending: Bates Alumni Pride created
9. Campus Construction Updates return
10. Bates People in the News

Commencement videos, slide shows and text are online:
http://home.bates.edu/views/2010/05/30/commence-report2010/

Give to the Bates Fund, which helps make the Bates experience possible:
http://www.bates.edu/supporting-bates.xml

We learned that not everyone was able to use the May e-mail link.
So here it is again: larry [dot] handerhan [at] gmail [dot] com

Box lunch: A delivery driver brings part of the inaugural food shipment into the new Commons on Feb. 7 (photo by Elizabeth Mitchell '10). Below: With the scissor lift not quite ready for use, the driver used portable ramps (Mitchell photo); Portland designer Angela Adams provided the upholstery for booths in the flex dining area; a staff-faculty tour group visits the main dining hall; the Arcade won't be so empty much longer; Milt's Emporium; zinc, glass and granite at the east entrance; at bottom, the new Commons seen from the Library Quad.

With the official opening just weeks away, the new dining Commons passed a milestone early on Feb. 7: the arrival of its first truckload of food.

The Performance Food Group semi backed into the Commons’ truck bay, on Central Avenue, shortly after dawn as an overnight snowfall tapered off. The load, said Dining Services director Christine Schwartz, was all nonperishables — everything from preserved artichoke hearts to crackers to pasta to canned tuna.

The truck bay’s scissor lift, installed to expedite the unloading of trucks, wasn’t working in time for the delivery, and the unloading crew used portable ramps instead. But the lift was ready to go by the end of the day, said project manager Paul Farnsworth. Its completion was delayed by the repouring of its concrete base to allow the lift to retract flush with floor level.

The Commons project passed another milestone a week before the food shipment. Forty or so Dining Services staff made their first working visit on Jan. 31, cleaning cooking equipment and training with more than a dozen appliance-maker representatives.

The session took place inside a plastic tent: The servery had been enclosed in plastic sheets the previous week — not, as we first suspected, to block Campus Construction Update’s inquiring gaze through the western windows, but instead to keep out the dust from construction in the adjacent dining hall.

The servery was unwrapped the evening of the 31st, at the end of a long day for a Dining Services staff that had to keep producing meals in the old Commons while training in the new.

Schwartz will have staff in the new facility henceforth. Cleaning is continuing, and Bates cooks are learning their new appliances and trialing recipes for things like dough.

For example, “we don’t know whether we want a 16-ounce ball to make a 14-piece pizza, or a 14 to make a 12, or a 15 to make a 14,” Schwartz said, losing Campus Construction Update altogether. “We want to mess with the weight of the dough ball to make sure what we’re getting.”

During the week of Feb. 11, Dining Services will be serving the results of its experiments in the new facility to students, staff and faculty volunteers.

Schwartz announced to the campus this week that the last board plan meal in Memorial Commons will be dinner on Feb. 15. From Feb. 16-20, students remaining on campus during the winter recess can dine during specific mealtimes in the Den, which will be closed to the general public. Starting Feb. 21, Dining Services will be serving in the new facility — and, because this is a “soft opening” with a limited menu, there will be no charge for meals Feb. 21-23.

When the dining hall opens officially for dinner on Feb. 24, please disregard any lack of visual harmony between the tables and chairs. The chairs Bates purchased for the facility have been delayed, Farnsworth reported, and in the meantime the vendors are loaning the College 414 chairs to complement 540 or so being retained from the old facility.

The vendors “stepped up to the plate and are getting us chairs so we’ll have something to sit on until the ones we asked for show up,” he said.

Movers will start bringing in furniture during the week of Feb. 11, with the dining hall pieces going in around the 15th.

Think about the last time you moved your household, and then multiply that effort by a factor of hundreds. Schwartz pointed out that it’s typical for an institutional dining service to hire a consulting company to help with a transition like this. But she and her staff eschewed that step, feeling that the experience would be invaluable.

“I asked my management staff, ‘This is what I’m thinking — can we do it?’ Because this is hugely labor-intensive,” she explained. “Especially from a management point of view, it eats a chunk of time.

“And they all agreed, and that’s what we’ve done, and we’re on track,” she said. “I don’t feel that a consultant could have done any better than we have done.

“This has been a great time for people to grow.”

The supply of construction news per se is dwindling (and with it the life expectancy of this series of Campus Construction Updates). Back in the milestone department, the city of Lewiston issued a partial occupancy permit the week of Jan. 28 — partial only because some carpeting remained unfinished on the second floor.

“They gave us the servery, the kitchen and the access to them,” Farnsworth said. “That’s what we needed in order to continue with cleaning and training.”

Woodworkers are still installing curved panels of maple veneer and other finishing touches in the fireplace lounge, which will likely be the last space completed in the building.

In addition, movable glass partitions for Milt’s Emporium, the flex dining area and a small dining room recently arrived and are being installed.

For areas apart from the kitchen and servery, general contractor Consigli Construction has brought in a cleaning company. The final inspection process — called “punch-listing” — is under way. And so is commissioning, in which a third party tests the technical systems.

Alumni Walk: Finally, though their concrete bases are hidden under the snow, there was news about the forthcoming installation of markers at both ends of the walk. Project architects at Sasaki Associates have approved the dark-gray granite for them and they will be positioned during the spring.

One bearing the words “Alumni Walk,” the other a tribute to Bates alumni, the markers will consist of stone chunks separated by gaps that, when viewed from above, reflect the pathways crossing Alumni Walk.

Farnsworth also held out some reassurance vis-à-vis an end to winter’s monotone. In the not-too-distant future, he reminded us, 140,000 scilla bulbs will be sending slender green shoots up through the grass and then producing a carpet of intense blue blossoms.

“You’re supposed to plant scillas late in the season,” Farnsworth explained, “and obviously we wanted to finish the Alumni Walk work so we put them in a little early.” That was a bit worrisome. But, he said, when they’ve had to peel back the turf for walk repairs, “they’ve started to sprout. They’re alive.”

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to this Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Visit the index of earlier Campus Construction Updates.

In recent weeks we’ve learned what Dining Services director Christine Schwartz likes about the new dining Commons. Now it’s the turn of Paul Farnsworth, Bates’ project manager for the building.

A mechanical engineer, Farnsworth especially appreciates the ventilation scheme. There’s no building-wide air conditioning per se. Instead, it’s essentially a natural system, he explained: the high-peaked main dining hall and an adjacent airshaft will create a chimney effect to pull fresh air in through windows that can actually be opened — an unusual feature these days in large new buildings.

The rising air will exit through the ventilation monitor, that big box on the roof. The air handling isn’t entirely natural, as the monitor contains big exhaust fans that will give nature a boost on the warmest days. Also in the monitor is a clever device that can direct rising air either straight outside or, on cold days, back down into the building so its heat won’t be wasted.

Farnsworth also appreciates the sheer volume of the new Commons, especially that soaring dining hall and the 3,200-square-foot mezzanine that overlooks it. The building, he laughed, is “anticlaustrophobic.”

Finally, he said, “the level of finishes is special.” He pointed to the dark-gray granite that lines the main stairway and covers other walls, and to the pale maple wood throughout the interior, appearing as a veneer on the walls and as trim around doorways and on handrails.

In the realm of special finishes, we add another nominee: the tiles in the servery area. These include expanses of gleaming white wall tile and clusters of smaller glass squares in vivid splashes of mixed color.

The servery, in fact, is as much of a feast for the eyes as its cuisine will be for the palate. Snazzy ceiling fixtures, shiny stainless steel and abundant glass provide a lively play of light. Even the shapes of the food stations are attractive, especially the circular brick oven.

The serving stations are close to complete, with the millwork — cabinets, counters, knee walls, etc. — expected to be done this week. The pressure now is on the kitchen equipment installer, who is placing and connecting the myriad grills, broilers, ovens, burners, chillers and other gadgets that turn groceries into food.

Like much that happens in the construction biz, Farnsworth explained, that work rarely offers the gratification of orderly and straightforward progress. It’s not a march, it’s a dance: There are test-fittings, adjustments and delays if another trade needs to get at a location.

For example, Farnsworth pointed to a chrome pipe that supports a glass sneeze guard at the brick oven. The pipe attaches to a piece of wood inside a counter, close to an electrical junction box. So attaching that one piece involves the kitchen-equipment technician, carpenters and perhaps an electrician if the junction box is in the wrong place.

Meanwhile, the second story of the new dining Commons is essentially finished, aside from a lot of cleaning. The last big chore upstairs, Farnsworth reported, was the laying of carpet during the weekend of Jan. 12.

He noted that weekend work for the carpet installers, or any of the trades, is nothing unusual. Workers have been on the job six days a week since ground was broken in autumn 2006. The project has been on the fast track since it began, and a six-day work week also affords logistical flexibility. For instance, because covering a floor pretty much precludes any other work in a given space, the carpet crew has often gone in on Saturdays, when there are fewer other trades to conflict with.

That carpet, meanwhile, has a dynamic rectilinear pattern in dark-chocolate brown and a pale tan that echoes the ubiquitous maple. The same material will appear throughout the building, and in fact the carpet people were prepping the main dining hall when Campus Construction Update passed through on Jan. 18.

With that 5,900-square-foot floor cordoned off, bare of workers and equipment, it was the first time we were really able to grasp the luxury of space that diners will enjoy in the new Commons. Anticlaustrophobic indeed.

Another great leap forward in the second story was the removal of staging in the air-and-light shaft that reaches up to the ventilation monitor. That happened after workers hung the light fixtures and repainted the walls in a shade of green less violent than the previous choice.

Speaking of that monitor — and it may be the last time we do in this space — louvers were installed on its exterior during the second week of January. Also in the heavens, Farnsworth reported, roofers took advantage of warm weather that week to work on flashing and other finishing touches on the slate roof. And with the hanging of the main doors earlier in the month, major exterior work on the new Commons is done.

That same week, landscapers spread smooth blue-gray stones in the viewing garden next to the south-facing dining hall windows.

Finally, Farnsworth expects to pass another milestone on Jan. 23, when the city of Lewiston issues a certificate of occupancy. This culminates a series of safety-related inspections covering everything from the elevator to fire alarms to emergency egress issues.

The Den: We received additional information about plans for the Den when Memorial Commons goes dark in less than a month. The Den’s new hours will be 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it will be closed in the summer.

More imminently, Dining Services director Christine Schwartz announced that with old Commons closing, the Den will be used only for student dining

during most of the winter recess, from Feb. 16 through 21. It’s expected that the new dining hall will serve its first meal to students Feb. 24, with a soft opening — aka “burn and learn,” in Schwartz’s words — during the days just prior.

Notes from underground: We haven’t talked about the steam heating system for a while, but one last chore was recently checked off that list. Now complete, the replacement of a connection between the steam plant and Merrill Gym was stalled some weeks ago when it was discovered that the existing steam lines were inaccessibly located beneath telecom conduits encased in concrete. Because the gym has own boilers, it wasn’t a pressing task.

“It was easier just to find a different path for the steam, but that took several rounds of engineering because we didn’t want to reorder the piping,” which is custom-made, Farnsworth said. “We found a way around.”

Eventually those old telecom lines won’t be needed, Farnsworth noted. But they won’t be wasted. In 20 or 50 years their rediscovery will give Campus Construction Update fodder for a column.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Visit the index of earlier Campus Construction Updates.

A student serving on a food advisory committee once told Christine Schwartz, Dining Services’ director, that anticipating a meal at the current Memorial Commons is like getting psyched up for battle.

“You pretty much have to fight your way through Commons now” because of the way the space is arranged, Schwartz said. New arrivals at mealtime, still burdened with coats and backpacks, immediately find themselves in a confusion of food stations and fellow diners pressing in all directions.

All that will change when the new Commons opens in February.

In the present dining hall, “you come in and you’re forced to make a food choice,” Schwartz said. The new facility will turn that around: “You’ll come in and choose your seat, and then have time to reflect upon what you actually want to eat.”

Schwartz added that “instead of just a few points at which people can make food choices, there will be 15″ — the various stations in the area called the servery, such as the “Euro-kitchen” with its array of comfort foods, a grill for burgers and other sizzling treats, the pizza lover’s brick oven and a vegan-vegetarian stand.

In addition to easing the congestion, spreading the choices around this way will engender more depth and imagination in the menu. Nowadays, Schwartz said, “it’s hard to realize exactly all we have to offer because it’s all sort of meshed together.”

But as diners become more conscious of Dining Services’ creative reach, they’ll want more variety. “In the long run, it will mean a lot of improvement in the food on offer,” Schwartz said. “It’s certainly going to change the way students perceive Commons.”

In another strategic advance over the current setup, “most of the food will be finished out front,” in full view of the diners, she explained. “You want as much interaction between the customer and the cook as possible. It allows us to make a product that’s fresher and more to order. The customers get better food and we’ll have less waste.”

The highly energetic Schwartz and her staff have been involved in the design of the new facility every step of the way. “I know where every drain, every outlet, every table and every piece of equipment is going,” the director said.

In fact, her counterparts at other schools have been surprised by, even a bit jealous of, the amount of input Dining Services has enjoyed.

“Functionally, we got everything we wanted,” Schwartz said. She is particularly jazzed by the kitchen’s battery of “blast chillers,” which can cool or freeze food rapidly enough to avoid the damage caused by conventional refrigeration. That will enable Dining Services to purchase produce locally in season, when it costs the least but there are few people around to eat it, and serve it during the academic year without sacrificing much quality.

So when you’re fixing your cereal during the long cold winter of 2008–09, watch for tempting displays of good Maine strawberries and blueberries to put over it.

Another new feature is the Euro-kitchen, aka Euro Grill. The latter is a bit of a misnomer: While the concept of a sequenced suite of cooking appliances comes from Europe, a grill is just a part of the orchestra. Schwartz described the Euro Grill offerings as “comfort foods — your mashed potatoes, turkey, roast beef. All those things that make us feel warm and fuzzy on a cold day.”

A brick oven, in a spectacular large island that is the first station you’ll encounter entering the servery, is another bragging point. But Schwartz hastened to explain that while this massive installation made by Wood Stone will be used for pizza, that’s just one slice of its capabilities.

Though cooks from time immemorial have been working with the residual heat that lingers in a stone fireplace, Dining Services has never been equipped to do it. Now, after a day of firing pizzas, Schwartz’s chefs can shut off the gas, put roasts into the oven and slow-cook them overnight.

Schwartz herself could do it, in fact, since she went to the factory in Washington state to train on the Wood Stone. The unit “is really expensive,” she said, “and I wanted to make sure it was the right thing for Bates.”

Finally, with Memorial Commons just weeks away from becoming a memory itself, we asked Schwartz to clarify what will become of the Bobcat Den, whose friendly staff and intimate atmosphere have made it a cult favorite.

The hours will be reduced, she said, but the Den won’t be shut down anytime soon. Instead, a new gathering place designed to provide a Dennish kind of café feel will likely be included when the “Main Street” phase of the campus master plan is built out, some years down the road.

So what’s up on the construction front? On Jan. 4 project manager Paul Farnsworth took Campus Construction Update through the new Commons, including a couple of newly christened spaces.

Once known simply as the Arcade, the main east-west corridor on the first floor is now called the MacNaughton Arcade. The space was made possible by a gift in honor of his family from Trustee David MacNaughton ’73.

Opening onto the arcade is Milt’s, a convenience store-cum-fast food shop previously called the Emporium. Donor David Barlow ’79 chose the name to honor Milton Lindholm ’35, dean emeritus of admissions.

Across the MacNaughton Arcade from Milt’s is a space that may rival the Den as a place to gather after dark. The so-called arcade dining area, painted a vivid green, will sport not just tables but booths upholstered by acclaimed Portland designer Angela Adams.

By day, a retractable glass wall will close the space off from the arcade, and it will serve as Commons seating. After dining-hall hours, though, the wall will be retracted and night owls will be able to bring their sandwiches or prepacked meals from Milt’s to a cozy booth.

The Commons’ exterior is largely complete, giving passers-by an impression of inactivity that’s quite misleading. Inside, the race is on to get the facility ready to receive Dining Services staff by the end of January. Painting, carpeting and other surface work is going hot and heavy throughout this sprawling space. But the focus of activity is on the servery.

Here, with most of the fixed equipment in place and the room surfaces done, workers are concentrating on millwork — e.g. countertops, cabinetry and knee walls — and installing fittings such as sneeze shields and utensil holders.

As mentioned previously, the circular station housing the brick oven is the star of this show. One finishing touch will be a neon accent light around the top of the station — no words, just a glowing line. As Farnsworth explained, “we had strong feedback from the students. They didn’t want it to look like a food court.”

Also striking is the bakery. Located at the rear of the servery, it suggests a storefront, with its gleaming tile façade, mock marquee over the doorway and four big windows that afford views into the work area.

Meanwhile, in the dining hall and its mezzanine, the finish work still outstanding includes sheets of maple veneer that will cover baseboards and accent the giant windows. Where the theme for the building’s exterior is charcoal-gray granite and brick, on the inside pale woods complement the dark stone. Along with the maple, Forest Stewardship Council-certified Western hemlock is being used on certain ceilings.

The kitchens, in an area behind the servery that also includes offices, freezers and various storage and service rooms, are all but finished. In a marked contrast with the cramped, dark workspaces in the current Commons, the new kitchens are spacious and well-lit by east-facing windows.

Also in this mazelike area behind the scenes is a room full of miscellany awaiting deployment. Included are eight pallets of food-service gear that Schwartz bought when she saw it at, of all places, the local Marden’s discount department store. The prices were irresistible, Farnsworth said — so much so that former Dining Services director Bob Volpi, now at Williams, came north to take advantage of the sale.

This room also reminded us that large or small, moving is moving. As with every shift of household you have ever seen, there was, along one wall and stacked to the ceiling, a pile of banana boxes packed full and closed with their handy covers.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process?What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Visit the index of earlier Campus Construction Updates.

-Doug Hubley, Office of Communications and Media Relations

There’s a scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where Clarence, guardian angel to James Stewart’s character George Bailey, comments that in Heaven, nobody uses money.

Bailey retorts, “Comes in pretty handy down here, bub.”

A parallel may apply to a Bates construction project that has its own holiday connection. The project isn’t inspiring like Alumni Walk, magnificent like the new dining Commons or heartwarming like the new student housing. But a new parking lot behind Merrill Gymnasium that should open around Thanksgiving will come in handy, bub, easing the squeeze that Bates motorists have felt the past six months.

An asphalt base coat for the 70-vehicle lot was laid Oct. 19. Between now and the holiday, a path will be paved from the new lot to the existing walkway between the athletics complex and Central Avenue. Merrill’s existing back doors will open onto new concrete pads and the parking area.

The parking crunch began with the removal of spaces behind the old tennis courts on Central Avenue for the new Commons, and along Andrews Road for Alumni Walk. But Paul Farnsworth, manager of those projects, reported that the College will ultimately realize a net gain of 17 spaces.

He added that three existing handicapped spaces near Alumni Walk are being widened and restriped to meet current standards, and four new spaces are being added next to them. Six spaces will be created next to the new Commons for service vehicles.

Alumni Walk: If 90 percent of life is just showing up, as Woody Allen reputedly said, 90 percent of construction work seems to be paving.

The major paving for Bates’ new east-west connector was finished on Oct. 22, Farnsworth reported. That includes the many asphalt paths that crisscross the walk and a larger blacktop expanse extending North Bardwell Street — better known as the parking area for Smith and Adams halls — across the Alumni Walk corridor.

At the same time, the service road behind Chase Hall, from Campus Avenue to Alumni Gym, got its long-awaited final coat of blacktop.

Also on the asphalt front, preparations are under way for a base coat at the foot of the new amphitheater, situated between Pettengill and Lane Halls and facing Lake Andrews. That base will be topped with an apron of the same cut and polished asphalt blocks used on the main Alumni Walk paths. Farnsworth noted that the concrete risers and the steps for the amphitheater are done.

Finally in Alumni Walk news, installation of LED lights in the concrete benches has begun, and the job should be finished next week.

New dining Commons: History of sorts was made during the Bates-Middlebury football game Oct. 20 when Panther kicker Jack Britton’s extra point sailed through the uprights and smack into the huge windows on the Garcelon Field side of Commons.

The first pigskin-glass contact in Commons history “made quite a thud,” said Jay Burns, editor of Bates Magazine. “You could see the glass vibrate.” The incident didn’t faze Farnsworth, also in attendance, who said that the contractor has no concerns about the glass breaking.

Just in case, though, Farnsworth had already ordered a net to catch high-flying pigskins.

In fact, most of the window glass has been installed, with the west entrance and the fireplace lounge among major features still unglazed. Farnsworth added that the skylight for the ventilation monitor — that big box on top of the roof — should be shipped by the end of the month. Once that’s installed, the last patch of slate roofing, on the south side, can be laid.

All of this work will make the shell of the building essentially weathertight.

Speaking of roofs and weathertightness, Farnsworth said that air handlers had been mounted on the roof over the kitchen on Oct. 19. That equipment won’t be operating for some time but at least, as Farnsworth pointed out, “it seals the roof openings.”

Meanwhile, masons have made good progress laying pavers around the new Commons. The main entrance approaches are being covered with gray granite blocks similar to those on the building walls, while walkways and other areas get the the same kind of asphalt blocks used on Alumni Walk.

Also echoing Alumni Walk is a sitting area along the north side of the building at the entrance to the Emporium, the facility’s “convenience store.” Here, along with a table and wooden benches, you’ll eventually find polished concrete benches resembling the risers in the amphitheater.

Inside Commons, the recycled wood cladding on the dining hall ceiling is about half completed. And the paving — er, tiling — of the servery walls is in progress. There was a delay there, Farnsworth noted, because the tiles originally ordered from Italy were held up in shipping. They’ve been supplanted by tiles from Texas that arrived on the 20th.

Finally, in our effort to leave no piece of paving news unreported, bub, Farnsworth said that concrete for the floor of the loading dock will be poured next week. The concrete is formulated to resist the corrosive effects of road salt.

Readers write: Shirley Serrao ’11 wanted to know what provisions would be made for playing music in the new Commons. “The facility has an integrated speaker system,” Farnsworth replied. “The rooms are divided into zones that can be controlled independently for music or public address.

“The fireplace lounge is also equipped with its own audio amplifier, microphone and speaker system so you could DJ an iPod performance or amplify a small string quartet.”

Serrao also wrote: “I can’t wait for the new Commons to open; we’re going to have another fireplace!”

New student housing: Serrao is likely referring to the fireplace in 280 College St. — specifically, in that signature gathering place called Frank’s Lounge. Made possible by a gift from Bruce Stangle ’70 and Emily Siegel Stangle ’72, the lounge named in honor of Bruce’s father, Frank J. Stangle, will be dedicated during a Trustee luncheon on Oct. 26.

Meanwhile, about 10 workers, give or take a few according to the day, are still on the job at 280 College St. Some are continuing to work on exterior trim. Others are pursuing the building’s commissioning, a process in which a third party — local architecture firm Harriman Associates — is testing the building’s nonstructural systems.

We were interested to learn from project manager Pam Wichroski that the commissioning process is now into the automated controls for systems such as heat, plumbing and some of the electrical.

She explained that computers in Physical Plant headquarters, two blocks away at the Cutten Maintenance Center, are being tied into the residence’s computers so that these systems can be monitored and even remotely controlled.

“For example, if there’s no hot water in a bathroom, we can take a look and make sure that the pumps are running, water heaters are running, what the temperatures are set at,” Wichroski said. “And we can adjust that remotely.” Physical Plant staff are being trained to use these systems now.

The same network of sensors, controls and computers will feed information to the “dashboard” monitor in the building’s center core enabling residents to monitor their resource use. This display, slated to go into service soon, will initially register the usage for the whole building. Later it will be modified to show data for different sections of the building.

As for the exterior trim work around glass-walled areas that has been going on all autumn, the contractor has had issues in making the window system airtight, Wichroski explained. The College has brought in a third party to test and monitor this work, in a parallel to the third-party commissioning process mentioned above.

“We’re making sure it’s absolutely right before the final finish goes on,” she said. Wichroski did not say “bub,” but we could hear it in her tone.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you, bub. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update appears every other week. See an index of earlier updates here.

The new dining Commons should be open for business when students return from break on Feb. 25, project manager Paul Farnsworth reported. And it’s hoped that construction work will be complete about a month prior to the opening.

While there’s still plenty to do on the 60,000-square-foot facility, recent progress has been “amazing,” Farnsworth said. “You walk through and notice things, and it’s like, ‘When did they do that?’ “

At this point, he explained, a kind of snowball effect is prevailing. The more things that are finished, the more things can be finished.

“If there’s something they can do without being in the way of something else, it’s being done,” he said.

So, for instance, the wiring for the public address system is in place. Sprinkler heads are being installed. Even shelf brackets in custodial closets are being hung.

But the biggest news may be that meetings have begun in anticipation of the building’s commissioning — the process of bringing in a third party to test mechanical, electrical and other systems. As with the new student housing, the local architecture firm Harriman Associates will perform the commissioning.

Other big news? Heat from the campus steam plant was turned on in the new Commons during the last week of October. “It was a big milestone,” Farnsworth said. And on Nov. 5, the emergency generator’s diesel engine was tested. That was significant for the entire campus, since a set of electric pumps that return “used steam” — condensate — to the central steam plant is located in Commons. If electricity goes out during a winter storm, at least there will be heat.

The decorative recycled-wood ceiling veneer over the main dining area is complete, although, as Farnsworth reminded us, “there’s a difference between complete and accepted.” Let the tweaking begin. Light fixtures in that area are being installed, too. “They hang down, so it adds depth to the ceiling,” Farnsworth said. “It looks nicer” than the unadorned wood strips.

Nearby, the wall tiles in the servery are virtually finished. Black granite veneer has gone up in a number of interior sites, from the shaft leading up to the central skylight to the space around the grand staircase near the dining hall. And construction of that staircase itself is well along.

Meanwhile, Farnsworth expects delivery of only two more tractor-trailer loads of kitchen equipment, both this month.

High atop the building, the first section of the central skylight should be installed in the boxlike ventilation monitor by Nov. 12, Farnsworth said. Most of the building’s windows are in place, with the fireplace lounge glass being the major section still outstanding.

Meanwhile, at ground level, the construction fence is gone from the worksite bordering Garcelon Field, and sod has been laid there.

Around the corner near the east entrance, trademark Alumni Walk paper birches have been planted. Sitting nearby, their roots bundled up, waited to be planted, are several serviceberry trees (aka juneberry, shadblow, shadbush or Amelanchier canadensis). Stored near Central Avenue now, they’ll actually be planted in a new garden near the Library Quad, visible from the dining hall.

The serviceberries are highly decorative trees that leaf out early in spring and make an attractive white fuzz in the process. They also produce edible berries in the summer (if you’re just too hungry to struggle onward to the Commons) and showy foliage in autumn.

The trees will be set in a field of smooth, small black stones, echoing the dark gray granite that is such a dominant motif, and a new one to Bates, on the Commons and Alumni Walk. Similar small stones, Farnsworth noted, will be laid on the small awning-like roofs around the building. The idea is to mask gunk that accumulates in such areas over time and that would be visible from higher windows.

Readers write: Helon Hoffer ’08 had a question about the asphalt pavers on the wider of Alumni Walk’s two main paths. This 20-foot-wide lane is divided lengthwise into two patterns. “Why is it split like this?” Helon asked.

Farnsworth responded: “The concept for Alumni Walk was two 10-foot-wide parallel paths. However, emergency vehicle access required us to make one path 20 feet wide. So we kept the concept of the two 10-foot paths through the pattern in the paving. Half of the 20-foot path is paved the same way as the 10-foot path.”

Alumni Walk: Although it’s virtually complete, the last section of the walk, stretching 240 feet westward from the new Commons, remains fenced in to protect the new grass. (New grass elsewhere in the vicinity hasn’t been so lucky, as protective string cordons have been yanked out and the emerging sprouts trampled in spots.) The fence will be removed “before winter really hits,” Farnsworth said.

So there’s at least one reason to look forward to winter.

Within the fence, a wide lane of asphalt pavers extends the Commons entrance plaza southward to join, via the reconstructed 1910 Gate, the Alumni Gym service road.

Finally, the amphitheater occupying the banking between Lane and Pettengill halls is about done. All that remains is some finish paving around the plaza at its base, the placement of grass around the big concrete risers, and the installation of a handrail along the staircase.

Those steps, which go from the Lake Andrews parking lot to Alumni Walk, will be electrically heated to keep snow and ice from building up. “With the numbers of people that use that and the length of a snowstorm, you could have someone there sweeping them continuously,” Farnsworth explained. “It just made sense from a safety standpoint to melt the snow off.”

New student housing: Project manager Pam Wichroski laughed when Campus Construction Update, feeling an emotion like childhood impatience on Christmas morning, asked: “Are we done yet?”

Not quite, she replied. But we’re getting there. The exterior wood ceilings underneath the bridges — midair breezeways that link the building’s three sections — are about finished. But the ceiling sections that abut the buildings still need to be closed up with an insulating exterior coating resembling plaster.

In addition, Wichroski said, crews will be using an elaborate vibrating vacuum system to remove hardened dust deposits from the air ducts — stuff that regular vacuuming won’t touch.

Beyond that, and details like signage and pavement stripes, much of what remains is what insiders call “punch-list items” — details that were revealed, by the punch-list inspection, to need more work. For example, Wichroski offered tasks like “touching up drywall and paint, cleaning paint off things that paint doesn’t belong on, touching up seams in carpeting that we didn’t think were all that great. Minor things.”

“We’re moving from the east flanker,” or wing, “doing the punch-list, and then we’ll go to the west flanker,” she said. “Each side’s taken about two weeks to do. And then there’s the center building — a lot of that work, we’re going to try to hold off on until Christmas break. We don’t want them doing any work while finals are going on.”

And after that? “The intent is that this phase is final. So they’re going through and then we’ll take a look at it again, and hopefully this time through that’s it. They’re done.”

Stay tuned, and have a happy Thanksgiving. Campus Construction Update returns the week of Nov. 26.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you, bub. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: See an index of earlier Campus Construction Updates. We aim to publish every other week.

On Oct. 8, the outdoor gas grill at 280 College St., the new student residence, made its barbecue debut.

Residence coordinators Jenn Linton ’08 and Matt Lopez ’08 hosted an inaugural cookout that had been delayed a couple weeks while shipping damage to the grill was fixed.

The gathering was a hit. “The line for food was long — people were excited to eat the first barbecue from the new grill,” said Jessica Mellen, the building’s resident director. “About 100 people attended at one point or another.”

The menu was Dining Services’ standard “Late Night Barbecue” package, including dogs, burgers (meat and veggie), chips, salads and cookies.

The shiny Viking grill, Mellen added, “is easy to use — just turn on the gas and push the ignite button.”

Turning on gas, in fact, became kind of a theme for the week. A few days after the cookout, Mellen and Physical Plant staff were trained to use a gas fireplace that is a defining feature in Frank’s Lounge at 280 College, aka the Stangle Lounge.

The placement of a chimney cap on Oct. 9 was the finishing touch for the fireplace. A second fireplace lounge will be featured in the new Commons, bookending the cross-campus Alumni Walk with those cozy amenities.

“They’re especially appropriate in a college setting, where students are making the transition from their bedroom at home to a new environment where the college is home,” noted Steve Erwin, the principal at the architecture firm Shepley Bulfinch who led the 280 College project.

Frank’s Lounge received its furniture, a mix of café furniture, colorful plush pieces and low tables for floor-sitting studiers, the first week of October.

In other 280 College news, the commissioning process — the third-party testing of building systems — is nearly complete. The major outstanding item is the heating system, which will likely be tested early the week of Oct. 15, after the campuswide steam heating plant goes into action.

Finally, we erred the other week in reporting the expected completion date for exterior trim. Pam Wichroski, project manager, said that the trim should be finished by early November, a month later than stated here.

Much of the trim will appear around the windows that form the walls of the living rooms on each floor. It’s fussy work that entails installing an air barrier prior to the actual metal trim, Wichroski explained. Similar trim is being applied on the “bridges,” the glass skyways that link the building’s three sections; and on the outside of Frank’s Lounge.

New dining Commons: From time to time, the colors and shapes of building construction provide unexpected bits of beauty.

During a tour of the Commons on Sept. 26, for instance, we were charmed by the blue floor treatment that workers were applying in the servery. It bounced rich blue light throughout the space. As project manager Paul Farnsworth explained, the treatment will keep the floor tiling from fracturing when temperatures change, since the tiles and concrete subfloor have different expansion rates.

We also liked to look 44 feet upward to the ceiling of the main dining hall. Workers from the local millwork company Selmore had started nailing up lengths of recycled wood that will sheathe the ceiling, but the uncovered portions showed long black mounting strips in a captivating pattern.

The tour also revealed some of the gear and design elements needed to feed a campus full of people. For instance, we were surprised to learn that one room will be dedicated solely to bulk breakfast cereal storage. Another one will house canisters of soft-drink syrups that will be combined with soda water and piped through plastic tubing some distance to their dispensers.

And we marveled at the giant stainless steel “tip kettles,” used for boiling foods like pasta, that can be swiveled on bearings to dump out their contents.

In fact, much of the kitchen equipment is on the work site, albeit not always in its final location. “They’ve got pieces stored all over the place,” Farnsworth said in a subsequent interview.

By the week of Oct. 8, all of the building’s toilets — the water-saving dual-flush kind often seen in Europe — were in place. The servery floor tiles were all but complete, and masons had begun placing the black granite on the walls around the grand staircase at the north side of the building. And the dining hall ceiling, Farnsworth estimated, was 20 percent complete. The 10 Selmore carpenters, he said, “are just hitting their stride now.”

Farnsworth also reported that all the window glass for Commons had been delivered. Maine glass subcontractor Oakes & Parkhurst, he said, planned a full-court press on Oct. 11, hoping to make good progress prior to the following day’s predicted rainstorm.

Finally, the east side of the building looks much dressier thanks to sod and five sugar maples planted along Central Avenue late last week.

Alumni Walk: Reader Jason Buxbaum ’08 had an Alumni Walk question. “I was wondering why they laid down sod in some places but planted grass seed elsewhere,” Buxbaum wrote.

It’s about money, replied Farnsworth. Hydroseeding — the spraying of a slurry of grass seed, fertilizer, binding agents and lifelike (or not) green dye — costs less than sod. But the grass in sod sets root faster. So where the College wanted to have grass well established by next spring, landscapers laid sod. Where that wasn’t so important, mostly on bankings south of the walk, they sprayed.

Speaking of landscapers, this month they finished planting the 140,000 scilla bulbs in between the walkways — “minus a few that the squirrels got,” Farnsworth said.

The crew of three or four landscapers ended up lying on the ground to stick them in, he explained. If it had been Campus Construction Update doing that job, we would have had to lie on on the ground for some hours afterward, too.

In recent days landscapers have spread and graded loam at the east end of Alumni Walk, near the new Commons and enclosed by construction fencing. There are three walkways paved with asphalt blocks in that area, and the middle lane is pretty much done. Paving the outboard lanes, which will run right up to the building, can’t be finished until contractor Consigli Construction is done moving heavy equipment around.

“In two weeks we hope to have all the grading around the building complete,” Farnsworth said. An area between Pettengill and Smith halls that had been badly beaten up over the last year of construction, he added, has been loamed, graded and its paths repaved.

Great strides have been made, meanwhile, on the amphitheater between Pettengill and Lane halls. The concrete risers for seating have been set and are being backfilled, and pouring of the stairs on the Lane side is about half done.

All the pole lighting is in place on the walk, as are the 10 pairs of concrete benches. Farnsworth pointed out that to set the benches, which are cast-concrete cuboids — elongated cubes — workers lowered them with straps onto blocks of dry ice. The dry ice provided temporary clearance to remove the straps and then evaporated, letting the blocks settle into place.

The LED light strips on the benches should be hooked up soon. Those lights will be something to see on a snowy or foggy evening, on your way to a fireplace lounge.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update appears every other week. See an index of earlier updates here.

An afternoon thunderstorm on Sept. 27 occasioned an Alumni Walk first: emergency vehicles entering in response to a campus alarm.

Although there was no fire, lightning caused a power surge in the fire detection system, frying a computer chip and setting off an alarm in Hathorn Hall. Two Lewiston Fire Department units responded to the call sent out by the system, according to Greg LaCroix, lead electrician for Physical Plant.

The following day saw a different kind of thrill on the walk as it was opened to pedestrian traffic between Pettengill Hall and North Bardwell Street — the former city thoroughfare that is now the parking area for Smith and Adams halls.

The opening was timed for Parents & Family Weekend. But there was no formal or dramatic opening, just the repositioning of construction-zone markers. In fact, the two main walkways have been fully paved for some time now and pedestrians have strayed into the construction zone east of Pettengill with little ado.

So what really seemed like a breakthrough as the festive weekend began on Sept. 28 was the opening of a broad blacktop connection between North Bardwell and the Library Quad. That removed the last north-south barrier on the walk. Also noteworthy was the newly liberated entrance plaza to Pettengill Hall, unencumbered by construction fencing for the first time in weeks.

Aside from paving, the other heavy Alumni Walk work was taking place in the space between Lane and Pettengill halls. Delayed by the unexpected need to replace a steam line, construction of the little amphitheater facing Lake Andrews resumed by the last week of September. Workers built a set of forms for the concrete steps and were grading the slope as the month drew to a close.

Cosmetic projects were also in progress, with the planting of the 140,000 scilla bulbs, the laying of sod and the erection of pole lights on the walk. The concrete benches for the walk would start to appear during the first week of October, said Paul Farnsworth, manager of the Alumni Walk and new dining Commons projects. But the lights mounted underneath the benches won’t cast their dreamlike glow for a while, as equipment for that system will need to be installed in Pettengill.

New student housing: With the construction workforce at 280 College St. dwindling fast, the most conspicuous activity this week has been paving.

The top coat of asphalt on the main walkway at College Street and Mountain Avenue should be completed Sept. 28. Asphalt crews are also finishing sidewalks around the building site, as well as finish-coating the roadway on Mountain Avenue where it was opened up for utilities work at the start of the new student housing project, way back when.

For a few weeks, new crosswalks configured for handicapped access have been in the works on College Street near the new residence. That project is mostly done — the final impediment being the demand for parking. Parked cars have continually blocked access to a crosswalk ramp opposite Ware Street, “and the contractor has not been able to pave the ramp,” clerk of the works Susanne Grant wrote this week in a campuswide e-mail. The contractor planned to try again on the 28th.

On the outside of 280 College, a fair amount of trim remains to be installed. Approved this week in mockup form, metal panels will soon appear between and around the window-walls of the living rooms and the Stangle Lounge (formerly known as the fireplace lounge). Metal trim and a wooden ceiling will cover the bottoms of the “bridges,” the aerial breezeways that link the sections of the building.

It’s not the quickest process, explained project manager Pam Wichroski, because “there are lots of trades involved in a small area” for each trim job. She expects the trim to be finished in early October.

Meanwhile, the last of four decorative fiberglass columns were erected on the porch of the Stangle Lounge on the 28th. Also in that courtyard, a replacement gas grill is expected next week, as the current unit was damaged in shipping. Students won’t have to miss next week’s predicted barbecuing weather, Wichroski noted: “The day the grill shows up, it can be connected” and fired up. Buon appetito.

The commissioning process is all but complete, with the testing of the steam-heat system the last major piece. That will happen when the campuswide heating plant is fired up, probably in October, and will take a couple weeks to complete, Wichroski said.

The Frank J. Stangle Lounge — made possible by a gift from Bruce Stangle ’70 and Emily Siegel Stangle ’72 in memory of Bruce’s father — has seen the last big concentration of interior work. And now it’s nearly done. With a small formal dedication planned for the Trustees’ October visit, “essentially, the lounge is ready to be used,” said Wichroski. Cleaning, touch-ups and the “punch list” — a final inspection process — remain to be done. Furniture goes in next week.

Wichroski noted that the city issued an occupancy permit for the lounge on Sept. 27. That same day, Campus Construction Update peeked through an open door and was impressed by the cherry-stained wood ceiling and the cool greens and blues of the flooring — to say nothing of the play of sunlight and shadows in this lofty, complex space.

Dana renovation: Parents & Family Weekend also provided an occasion for the campus community and guests to inspect two newly renovated labs in Dana Chemistry. Upgraded during the summer, labs 106 and 206 were gutted and extensively refitted, their new appointments including ceilings, flooring and nearly everything in between.

A particular focus was the ventilation system. An additional exhaust fan was installed in the attic, while existing air systems got new motors and modern controls. Most important, early-1960s fume hoods were replaced with larger, all-glass models affording instructors better visibility into the units.

“The rest of the building is in decent shape, as renovations took place in other areas in the late ’90s,” said Physical Plant’s Mike Gustin, who led the project.

New dining Commons: What the heck are tip kettles and why does the new Commons need them when Dining Services workers don’t even accept gratuities? Find out on Oct. 12, when Campus Construction Update reports on a visit behind the scenes.

Readers write: “I’ve noticed on many nights that condensation forms on the roof of the new dorm and it virtually ‘rains’ off the roof from late night through early morning,” wrote Nick Bauer ’08.

The reason could be that the roof is metal, Wichroski suggested. Since metal cools faster than other roofing materials, condensation takes place more quickly and therefore more water rains off, especially during periods of high humidity and broad temperature swings. Which leads us to . . .

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update appears every other week. See an index of earlier updates here.

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For a bird’s-eye view of the locations for the new student housing and dining Commons, plug these coordinates into Google Earth or Google Maps (for the latter, click “Satellite” or “Hybrid”):

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W

New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W

Paul Farnsworth, manager of the new dining Commons and Alumni Walk projects, reported that 140,000 flower bulbs were shipped our way from California on Sept. 11. The bulbs are scillas, which bloom around the same time as crocuses.

So, early next spring, look for dense and lovely carpets of medium-blue blossoms around the birches and between the pathways throughout Alumni Walk.

If you’re curious about the specific locations, look for the patches that the landscapers left bare as they laid sod this week.

That’s a lot of bulbs to plant without some sort of magic dibble. “I have no idea how they’re going to do it,” Farnsworth laughed. “That’s going to be a lot of work.”

The intention, Farnsworth added, is to pretty much finish landscaping Alumni Walk and the area around the new Commons this fall.

Paving crews are hard at work with the goal of extending the accessible area of the cross-campus connector east of Pettengill Hall by the week of Sept. 17. As this was written, the walk was usable nearly to Pettengill’s main entrance, and the paved plaza around the entrance itself was all but finished.

Near the new Commons and Alumni Gym, workers started building concrete and brick piers for the Class of 1910 Gate, removed last fall when construction started. The signature pieces of the Gate have been stored since then, Farnsworth said. The Evelyn Minard Phillips Remembrance Garden in the same location will also be replaced.

New dining Commons: “We’re on track,” said Farnsworth.The installation of window glass has begun, starting on the east and south sides. The application of gray zinc trim is proceeding around the building. Masons continue to place black granite at the west entrance, but otherwise the brick and stone veneer on the exterior is done, and the masons are heading inside to place granite trim there.

They join the dozens of drywallers, painters, ceiling hangers, carpenters, electricians, etc., that for months have kept this beehive buzzing. Farnsworth reported that the tiling of the kitchen floor is essentially finished and tilers are now doing the walls. “Equipment for the kitchen should start showing up here shortly,” he said.

The servery floor is next in line for tiling, starting the week of Sept 17. At the same time, craftsmen from Selmore Manufacturing, located a short walk from campus down near the river, made templates last week for counters in the servery and are fabricating them now.

In the dining areas, the overhead drywalling is about finished and the installation of acoustic insulation begins soon. Meanwhile, carpenters are putting the decorative wood finish into the mezzanine overlooking the main dining area.

New student housing: Students, not construction workers, are causing most of the buzz these days at 280 College St. The building is fully occupied and nearly all the common spaces are in service. In fact, although its air-handling system still needed a tweak, the subterranean all-campus lounge was the site of an inaugural dance Sept. 7.

But 20 or so workers are still coming and going. The action is centered on the space known until recently as the fireplace lounge — now the Frank J. Stangle Lounge, thanks to a gift from Bruce Stangle ’70 and Emily Siegel Stangle ’72 in memory of Bruce’s father. Workers began to build the ceiling the week of Sept. 10, and there’s still painting, a little drywalling and other surface work to do before the lounge can open, likely in October.

The ceiling will be finished in sustainably produced, cherry-stained wood, noted project manager Pam Wichroski. Another particularly snazzy effect will be slate trim in colors of blue, green and rust.

Those colors will also appear in the furniture, a combination of soft seating, dining furniture, and tables of varying heights, including low ones at which floor-sitters can study.

She added that the gas-fueled fireplace is place but hasn’t been tested. (Most other systems testing, aka commissioning, should be completed the week of Sept. 17.)

On the building exterior, brick work around the student living rooms is complete and metal trim is being fastened around the rooms’ glass walls. Paving and other hardscaping is nearly done, and landscapers were expected to finish plantings by mid-September.

With a sigh, Wichroski added that in the race to rule the lawns at 280 College, the weeds have gotten the jump on the grass. “We’re trying to deal with that right now,” she said.

Time for another weeds column? “I was hoping not,” Wichroski laughed.

Can we talk? What do you think about the campus improvements process? What would you like to know about it? What do you know that we don’t? We want to hear from you. Please e-mail your questions and comments to Doug Hubley, with “Construction Update” in the subject line.

Our back pages: Campus Construction Update appears every other week. See an index of earlier updates here.

New Student Housing: 44 06 25.65 N, 70 12 23.67 W

New Dining Commons: 44 06 19.83 N, 70 12 06.93 W