Going up at 45 Campus Ave., across from Carnegie Science Hall on a plot bordered by Bardwell and Nichols streets, the project will give the college another destination along its southern edge, amping up the energy created by the 2016 opening of student residences on the avenue, Kalperis and Chu halls<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\n\t Nichols Street angles off to the right and Campus Avenue to the left in this view of the future site of the new Bates science building. At far left is Chu Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t Snowbanks on the future site of Bates' new science building nearly conceal a garage that, until it was cleared out last summer, was used for storage by the geology department and other science programs. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t Closing at the end of the business day on Friday, March 15, is the Nichols Street parking lot. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t Designer of Bates' new science building, the Boston firm Payette had these mockups placed on the project site in summer 2018 to test the effects of different brick treatments. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t The former Bates Communications Office houses on Nichols Street: 145, at left, and 141. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t The structure will be visible from the heart of campus \u2014 in fact, a key feature is named the Beacon \u2014 and is meant as a gathering space for students in all disciplines. Its design, by the Boston firm Payette, uses eye-catching contours and generous expanses of glass to bring a contemporary note to Bates\u2019 bricky design heritage.<\/p>\n All that said, though, the building\u2019s biggest and furthest-reaching contributions will likely be academic. Bringing together programs in chemistry, biology, and neuroscience, the facility will advance faculty collaboration and set the pace for the evolution of science education at Bates.<\/p>\n At three stories and about 65,000 square feet, the building will house cutting-edge technology, flexible spaces for teaching and research, and, extending an architectural theme prevalent in recent Bates construction, areas that support study and interaction. And the new building is the linchpin in a strategic plan for upgrading Bates science facilities, a plan that entails a serious makeover for Dana Chemistry and vital improvements to Carnegie Science.<\/p>\n An architectural rendering of the new science building at Bates, opening in 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n Announced about a year ago, the project is anchored by a $50 million donation from the family foundation of Alison Grott Bonney \u201980 and Michael Bonney \u201980. The building will open in time for the 2021\u201322 school year.<\/p>\n The construction site is occupied now, but not for long, by trees, brush, parking, and three buildings. On Nichols Street, nos. 141 and 145 housed the Bates Communications Office until last November (and Admission during the winter while Lindholm House underwent a refresh). The recovery of still-useful stuff from the buildings, followed by asbestos remediation, has been in progress for weeks.<\/p>\n Snowbanks on the future site of Bates’ new science building nearly conceal a garage that, until it was cleared out last summer, was used for storage by the geology department and other science programs. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n The third building is a garage that the geology and other science departments have used for storage. (Old core samples, anyone?) That garage once belonged to a much different 45 Campus Ave. \u2014 a house, torn down in 2014, that was most recently used by student organizations and, until Pettengill Hall opened in 1999, the politics department.<\/p>\n For some folks, the most conspicuous sign of the project\u2019 beginning will be the closure, effective at the end of the day March 17, of the parking lot at the corner of Nichols and Campus. On-street parking in the immediate vicinity of the building site will be also be restricted. But the college has rented a lot nearby, on Vale Street near Wood, for supplemental staff and faculty parking.<\/p>\n Designer of Bates’ new science building, the Boston firm Payette had these mockups placed on the project site in summer 2018 to test the effects of different brick treatments. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n In what Chris Streifel, the Bates project manager for the new building, describes as \u201cmobilization activities,” the week of the 18th will see the placement of Campus Construction Update\u2019s nemesis, a construction fence. Shortly afterward, the portable field office for Consigli Construction Co., the firm that\u2019s managing construction of the project for Bates, will show up.<\/p>\n Regular readers of these updates will be familiar with Consigli<\/a>, whose Bates projects have included the dining Commons (2008); Chu and Kalperis halls; the Traquina Boathouse (2016); and a renovation of the Peter J. Gomes Chapel<\/a> that\u2019s in progress now.<\/p>\n Also during the week of the 18th, cameras and nostalgia will run rampant as 141 and 145 are demolished (along with the garage, but who will weep for the garage?).<\/p>\n Trees and brush will be removed. Gravel pads will be laid at site entrances and at equipment work stations, the former to keep vehicles from tracking mud into the street and the second to give big machines firm footing.<\/p>\n Nichols Street angles off to the right and Campus Avenue to the left in this view of the future site of the new Bates science building. At far left is Chu Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n And then, probably the week of March 25, excavation for the foundation will commence. \u201cThey won\u2019t wait too long to start digging the hole,\u201d Streifel says. \u201cThere won\u2019t be a lot of other activities prior to just moving dirt.\u201d The dig will continue well into May.<\/p>\n Streifel notes that the 45 Campus Ave. construction site, unlike nearby Chu and Kalperis, is very tight relative to the size of the building. For example, Chu Hall, with a footprint of roughly 10,000 gross square feet, had a 72,000-square-foot construction site to work with \u2014 vs. the new science building, whose 15,500-square-foot, er, footprint has to be content with about 44,000 square feet of land. So Chu occupied about an eighth of its construction site, and the new building, more than a third.<\/p>\n That has implications. For instance, most of the construction workers will end up parking a block or so away, at a different Vale Street lot. More important, as Streifel explains, there won\u2019t be room to slope the sides of the excavation to prevent sliding earth. Instead, corrugated metal sheets or something similar will serve as retaining walls. (We won\u2019t even mention the impact of the small lot on Campus Construction Update, who will have less room to stand around in.)<\/p>\n Closing at the end of the business day on Friday, March 15, is the Nichols Street parking lot. A temporary lot on Vale Street is providing supplementary parking. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n For Streifel, who oversaw Chu and Kalperis for Bates and who was named project manager for the new science building in late 2017, recent weeks have been consumed with negotiating contracts, finalizing budgets, and working out schedules.<\/p>\n Budgets and schedules have been particularly volatile. \u201cThe construction marketplace right now is busy, which puts pressure on pricing, pressure on schedules, pressure on supply and demand,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of demand, and supply is fixed for the most part, so it\u2019s just hard to say with as much certainty as you can at other times where a project is going to price out at.\u201d<\/p>\n The science building is a signature facility for Bates, and Streifel is raring for the construction itself to leave the gate. \u201cThis is a major undertaking,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s happening, and here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/03\/190306_CCU_SciBldg_6201_dlh-900x600.jpg\")
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