{"id":154349,"date":"2023-06-06T13:48:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T17:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=154349"},"modified":"2023-07-03T13:42:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T17:42:25","slug":"campus-construction-update-june-9-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/06\/06\/campus-construction-update-june-9-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Campus Construction Update: June 9, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To one extent or another, renovations are always about history \u2014 finding a happy middle ground between what has been and what could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes, the historical aspect looms disproportionately large. That\u2019s the case at Bates this summer. In the context of Garry Jenkins<\/a>\u2019 arrival in a few weeks as the college\u2019s new president, as well as Reunion this weekend, facility makeovers that might otherwise seem ho-hum (except, of course, to Campus Construction Update) suddenly seem to have new meaning and importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This undated photo depicts Chase Hall Lounge sometime prior to the addition in the late 1940s that included Memorial Commons. A new Purposeful Work office suite is now located in the center distance. Note the windows at right: Once offering an outdoor view, they were blocked by the Commons addition. HVAC machinery was installed in that area in May 2023 as part of the current Chase renovation. (Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Updates to Bates\u2019 oldest building are focused on its bell, known since 1857 as a unifying voice on campus. A classroom in Coram Library, built in 1902 and also a campus landmark, is becoming a state-of-the-art venue for tech-driven immersive performance. Garcelon Field, named for a key supporter of the college at its founding and considered to be among the 10 oldest college football fields in the U.S., is getting a new playing surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, the latest reinvention of Chase Hall, for more than a century the orbital center of student life at Bates, is nearly complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a pair of Campus Construction Updates, we\u2019ll look at the Chase renovation and Bates\u2019 forthcoming Immersive Media Studio this week \u2014 followed next week by the Garcelon turf replacement and the refurbishing of Hathorn Hall\u2019s attic and belfry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"And

And here\u2019s Chase Hall Lounge in May 2023. Near the end of the current renovation, additional \u201cfaux\u201d beams, as well as paint, will be applied to the ceiling and a hardwood floor will be placed. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Chase

Chase Hall seen from the Kenison Gate on May 31, 2023. Twin ramps converge from the sidewalk toward the Chase entrance. Note the new loam and trees, and the darker-gray bench seating. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"All

All the glass in this former stairwell will flood Chase Hall\u2019s reconfigured entrance near the Kenison Gate with natural light, transforming it to a “lightwell.” (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"This

This May 23 photo shows steps under construction near a Campus Avenue entrance to Chase Hall. The pink stuff is insulation and the wire mesh will insulate the concrete that\u2019s about to be placed here. Flexible pipes, like the ones at right, will soon be embedded in the concrete to carry antifreeze as part of a snowmelt system. (Paul Farnsworth\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A worker fetches a ladder from a staging point on Chase Hall\u2019s new Central Stair. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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A corridor through Chase Hall\u2019s second floor. The wooden trusses are original to this century-old section of Chase. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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A student lounge on Chase Hall\u2019s second floor, where a yearlong Chase renovation is furthest advanced. The blue material on the floor protects brand-new carpeting from incidental damage. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A view of the lightwell and Chu Hall from a second-floor lounge in Chase Hall. It’s bound to be a popular spot. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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But no pressure<\/strong>: Given Chase Hall\u2019s long history as a center for student life at Bates, hard-hat tours of Chase offered this weekend as part of Reunion activities<\/a> may be a popular draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which has upped the pressure on the Chase renovation team. The second floor is all but finished, says project manager Kristi Mynhier, and the first floor is \u201cwell on its way,\u201d notably a striking corner suite of Purposeful Work offices and the nearby Chase lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ground floor, Student Life offices sited in the former College Store location (and a bowling alley prior to that) are nearing completion, while the Residential Life suite, at the other end of the building, hasn\u2019t progressed quite so far. But all the \u201cground-floor storefront\u201d \u2014 aka glass walls \u2014 \u201cis going to be 100 percent complete\u201d by June 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altogether, says Mynhier, \u201cthat\u2019ll be a good setup for the building tours inside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"An
An air duct forms a graceful curve next to the elevator shaft in the Central Stair. Note the red paint, which will soon coat all of the wallboard enclosing the shaft. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Among specific treats for Reunion visitors is the Overnook<\/a>, that new, slightly elevated study area in the lobby. By June 9 it should be showing some paint and, more exciting, new metal railings that will heighten the site\u2019s aesthetic and social appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down the hall from the Overnook, toward the Office of Intercultural Education, the so-called Central Stair will sport new paint on walls and trim \u2014 notably a rich crimson on the elevator shaft. But because heavy work is still ongoing, the snazzy laminated floor decking will remain under protective cover, and the oak stair treads won\u2019t be installed till late in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearby, the OIE has gained one new office, while a row of adjoining offices originally walled with translucent plastic, thereby resembling a greenhouse, have been rebuilt with wallboard and acoustic insulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Chase

Chase Hall\u2019s primary Campus Avenue entrance, now situated slightly below street level, has bench seating on the outside and will be brilliant with natural light on the inside. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"New

New asphalt pavers have been laid on both sides of the former Chase Hall loading dock, which will be spruced up for use as a patio. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"New

New loam and trees have been placed on the Campus Avenue side of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Landscaping

Landscaping in progress at Chase Hall on May 31. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Sinks,

Sinks, mirrors, and soap dispensers have been installed in a new first-floor rest room in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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Meanwhile, the former Dining Services loading dock facing Muskie Archives is transitioning to patio space, with new surface treatments and railings and surrounded by new pavement. Ultimately there will be cafe-style tables and chairs like the ones on the Bobcat Den patio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And around the corner on Campus Avenue, grass seed has been strewn over fresh loam, new trees have been planted, and pavements for sidewalk and the entryway near the Kenison Gate have been laid. Better yet, now passers-by can even see all this progress, as most of the construction-site fencing has been removed. Only a few chain-link gates remain to block access to certain areas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
‘Toasty’: The Chase Hall entrance plaza, with bench seating at left and Campus Avenue and Chu Hall in the background. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Speaking of that Campus Avenue entry near Kenison, we were pleased to pass through it for the first time since it was rebuilt. (The pleasures of campus construction reporting are weird but sweet.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where it once opened onto the first floor, new steps and ramps now lead into the ground level via a former stairwell that\u2019s now a \u201clightwell,\u201d thanks to bright new paint and ample glass facing inward and out. Senior Project Manager Paul Farnsworth, our guide for a Chase tour last week, pointed out that thanks to a southern exposure, the new precast benches outside the entrance were \u201ctoasty\u201d even back in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see people hanging out here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Meet our panel<\/strong>: An acute source of agit\u00e0<\/em> vanished in late May when the building\u2019s new electrical panel emerged from the fog of supply-chain issues and arrived at Bates. The 800-pound panel has been assembled in a mechanical space off the ground floor and is being connected currently. (See what we did there?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A functioning panel will make it possible to test both the building\u2019s new elevator, located in the Central Stair, and the HVAC machinery that had showed up at mid-month. That\u2019s important because a deadline is looming that\u2019s even heavier than Reunion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy the end of June, we\u2019ll really need to have the electrical install complete,\u201d says Mynhier, \u201cso we can arrange the elevator inspection.\u201d That will allow four weeks to get the inspection done in time for Bates and project management firm Consigli Construction to declare that the project has attained substantial completion, thereby returning control of the building to Bates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Riggers

Riggers and engineers attend to components of Chase Hall\u2019s new energy recovery ventilator, newly loaded into the building on May 17, 2023. (Jay Burns\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Chase

Chase Hall\u2019s new air handling machine. It shares a new mechanical room on the first floor with an energy recovery ventilator. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Mechanical

Mechanical engineers connect the new energy recovery ventilation unit in Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Located

Located in the Office of Intercultural Education reception area, this energy recovery ventilator will move air down to the Residence Life office suite. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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The project team also needs to bring all aspects of the renovation to a point where punch-listing \u2014 the protocol of detailed inspections that typically ends building projects \u2014 can be done. By July 17, when furniture will be delivered, \u201cthe goal is to have all of the spaces finished enough that we can create a list of work that needs to either be repaired or finished.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because the furniture delivery itself, large heavy objects being what they are, could inflict minor damage. So the project team needs an inventory of fixes that were outstanding prior to that delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order of punch-list inspections, by the way, has changed somewhat since we last described it. As noted above, that process will begin on the second-floor, which at this point needs only sensor installations and a thorough cleaning. The punch-listing will conclude in Chase Hall Lounge, because one of the final steps in the entire renovation will be the placement of a new hardwood floor there. That comes late in the game to minimize the likelihood of collateral damage from work elsewhere in the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In an undated photo, students shoot pool in the basement of Chase Hall. (Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Formerly

Formerly part of the College Store, this space on Chase Hall\u2019s ground floor will soon be the office of Joshua McIntosh, Bates\u2019 vice president for campus life. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A view through the new Student Life office suite, located in the former site of the College Store. Note the new wood trim framing the meeting room at center \u2014 a space that houses a fireplace original to century-old Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Painting

Painting and utilities work are still in progress in the Residence Life reception area on Chase Hall\u2019s ground floor. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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Speaking of large heavy objects, the May 17 load-in of the new air handler and energy recovery ventilator happened without trouble. Riggers from Auburn\u2019s Cote Corporation started around 6:30 a.m. and were done by 8, wrangling the units through the Chase lobby, up a ramp, and into a newly configured mechanical room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were interested to learn that the design of the ERV, which extracts warmth and moisture from flowing air and directs those humors where they\u2019ll do the most good, was influenced by the pandemic. The machine uses a series of increasingly fine filters, as characterized by so-called MERV ratings, to clean the airflow of particles\u2014 the larger the MERV, the smaller the particles a filter can trap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-pandemic, MERV 8 was considered the standard for cleaning recirculated air. Now it\u2019s MERV 13 \u2014 which can intercept the COVID-19 virus. The six filters in Bates\u2019 new ERV range from 8 to 13. (MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, so it shouldn\u2019t be confused with the late talk-show host, whose efficiency was never in doubt.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the White Room<\/strong>: If other summer 2023 projects at Bates seek to update what you might call heirloom technology, there\u2019s one underway in Coram Library \u2014 built in 1902 as the college\u2019s primary library \u2014 that\u2019s purely about the here and now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s Coram 110 in action in 2017, as Ashley Hart ’91 leads a digital marketing course during Short Term. During summer 2023, this space will be converted to an immersive media studio. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A longtime computer lab and classroom, Coram 110 is being converted into an immersive media studio: a space enabling the creation of \u201cimmersive sound composition performances and installations, as well as multimedia installations that weave together animation, sound, video projection, devised performance, drawing and visual media, and complex lighting, sound, and projection design,\u201d as our colleague Mary Pols reported in October<\/a>. (So much for putting on a show in Grandpa\u2019s barn.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all that, the construction aspect of the project is easy to summarize: \u201cI’m just making a box with clean walls,\u201d says Paul Farnsworth, who\u2019s managing the project. \u201cThe idea is to make a nice surface everywhere\u201d to project images onto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the walls of this large room will be rendered perfectly smooth and featureless: windows boarded up, and projections like picture moldings, light switches, ventilation grills, etc., removed. The resulting surface will be given a Level Five drywall finish \u2014 the top grade \u2014 and then a coating of so-called 4K paint, aka theater-screen paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Students at work in the Jonathan Y. Stanton Room of Coram Library are shown in this undated photo. (Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition, a pipe grid upon which to hang projectors, lights, and speakers will be mounted on the ceiling, and grid and ceiling will be painted black for relative invisibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting the project is a $500,000 grant from The Sherman Fairchild Foundation. The grant is also supporting four years of programming for the studio, as well as the purchase and installation of two ceramic kilns for the Olin Arts Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handling the electronics for the project is DBPC, a West Coast purveyor of high-tech production and installation services whose clients have included Harvard University and Netflix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we talk<\/strong>? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you \u2014 especially if you tour Chase Hall during Reunion and have an impression you\u2019d like to share. If not, we still like hearing from you: Please send questions, comments, and thoughts having no bearing on construction at Bates College whatsoever to dhubley@bates.edu<\/em><\/a>, with \u201cCampus Construction\u201d or \u201cWire you always making such bad puns about electricity?” in the subject line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it\u2019s tourist season in Maine, it’s construction season at Bates. Join Campus Construction Update this week and next for a look at this summer\u2019s projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":154734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1,11009],"tags":[1932,10837,11652],"class_list":["post-154349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batesnews","category-the-college","tag-campus-construction-updates","tag-chase-hall","tag-coram-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154349"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155540,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154349\/revisions\/155540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}