Masonry Begins

Photo: Julianne Rice

Masons working on the South side of the North Stair Tower

View of North Curtain Wall framing from the Mason's scaffolding

Looking North from the second floor offices

Head of wall masonry detail

Photo: Julianne Rice

Details - Mechanical Garden Screening

An architectural screen wall provides a common area for the Rooftop Mechanical equipment

The Architectural Design team grouped the Rooftop Mechanical equipment into a single area and surrounded it with a sculptural galvanized steel screening.  The open mesh panels behind the "X's" were requested by the local Community Appearance Board.  The area is known on the project as the Mechanical Garden.

The chiller platform in the foreground is elevated 4' above
the roof deck to facilitate roof repairs and maintenance.

Screen Wall Detail

Much Progress Has Been Made

Here are some recent pictures from the jobsite.

Building is topped and taking shape.

South Elevation.  The curved wall at the scaffold will be brick.

Workman re-applies spray-on
air and vapor barrier to the building envelope.

Masons building the firewall at the Connector

Team discusses the removable portion of the Rooftop Mechanical Screen

Interior Metal Framing

It has been a couple weeks since the last Post.  Nonetheless work is progressing nicely.  Below are a some snapshots of the Interior metal framing as well as a few exterior views.

Looking through some of the Faculty Offices on the second floor

Looking into the second floor corner office

Large 80 person classroom taking shape

Head of wall detail.

View of the first floor bathroom entry vestibule

Those two puddles are intentional - They are bathroom floor drain locations

View of the East wall parapet framing 

Workers frame the south exterior wall

Exterior Sheathing going up along the East wall

July 24, 2011 - Exterior Metal Framing

Last week work continued with the interior partition framing and most of the first floor was framed.  Work also began on the exterior metal framing.  These are the exterior walls of the building around the perimeter that keep the weather out.

You can see the new silver exterior framing at the base of the Eastern wall columns

Detail at base of column

The Construction Documents require that all ductwork be sealed while under construction.
This prevents dust and construction particulates from contaminating the ductwork.

Special types of slotted attachment anchors are required at the top of the metal framed walls.
Interior walls need to accommodate up to 1-1/2" of movement and the exterior walls need to accommodate up to 1". 

Taking Shape

July 17, 2011 - Begin Metal Framing

Last week Precision Walls installed the partition framing on the second floor while the plumbers, RC Jacobs,  worked roughing-in the plumbing from the ground floor below.

Looking East from the North Stair, second floor.  
Faculty offices straight ahead and to the left.  

Shared Ground Floor plumbing stack.  Mens room to the right and Womens room to the left.

Looking South, second floor corridor.  Classrooms are to the left and to the right.

These sleeves fit within the cavity wall for plumbing in this location.

These sleeves will be relocated into the cavity wall to the right.

Electrical conduits for a wall panel on left and Roof drain sleeve on the right.

Contractor is using the largest classroom on second floor for material staging.

Floor slab and curb poured at Mechanical penthouse.  Penthouse roof framing and sheathing is also in place. 

Until the next Post...  Lookin' Good!

July 7, 2011 - Isolation Pockets and Full Penetration Welding

With the majority of the two steel packages in place and the second floor slab poured, workers are now tending to smaller miscellaneous items.

Now that the second floor slab is placed and the steel columns are true,
the isolation pockets at the base of the East wall columns are being filled with concrete,

Looking south down central corridor in the clinic, sterilization is to the right.
These isolation pockets at the base of the short columns are round and still need to be filled with concrete.

Welder works on full penetration welds as Special Inspector stands by.
Each one of these special Full Penetration Welds takes about half a day.
There are at least 40 of these welds required on the project.

Detail of completed weld.

Special Inspector sign-off of completed weld.
Translation: "Inspected by MT, weld is OK, June 30th"

Welder works off special platform in a hard to reach spot.

Detail of platform.

Workers preparing to pour the slab in the mechanical penthouse.