This is the first of an ongoing series of messages intended to provide information to the campus on current and anticipated construction.  In this communication, I will not attempt to cover every project that we have ongoing (more than 40 projects are being executed by either our own Western personnel or contractor personnel) but will look at the next two weeks and highlight those projects that have significant impact or interest to campus.

[More:]

This summer, we are working very hard to prepare for the renovation of Miller Hall.  We are preparing an alternate for the Miller Hall Market (that’s the large trailer parked on the north side of Red Square) as well as developing alternates for pedestrian, bike and vehicle movement.  The South Campus Circulation and Safety project is designed to guide bike and pedestrian traffic away from the heavy construction traffic on East College Way.  The fenced-off areas on the south side of campus are part of that project, but the entire project is scheduled to be completed prior to the start of the demolition of Miller Hall (1960s wing) in mid-August.  We appreciate the patience of everyone as you have detoured around the construction areas.  We are also preparing a significantly revised parking and vehicle circulation plan for the east side of campus (Parking Lots 8G and 10G) that will begin in the mid-August time frame.  This will include the needed repaving of the north end of Parking Lot 17G.  Look for more information about that in future editions of ‘Desk Notes’ and a special edition of the ‘The Shape of Things to Come.’

If you approach the campus from the south via Bill McDonald Parkway, you will note a lot of activity in and around Buchanan Towers.  This is the beginning of construction of the Buchanan Towers Addition.  The project will provide an additional 102 beds for the Buchanan Towers complex as well as a retail food market.  There will be additional construction traffic in and around the corner of 25th and Bill McDonald Parkway, but other than that there should be little impact to the campus.

We are adding 4,300 square feet to the Chemistry Building.  This will provide more room in the Chemistry Building for badly needed labs, offices and classrooms.  Most of the construction is not noticeable from Haskell Plaza but it is very noticeable from the west (Carver Field) side and, of course, from inside the building.  Many thanks to all the occupants of the building for their tolerance during this period.  We are trying to get as much of the high impact (noisy!) construction work completed prior to start of classes in the fall.  The project is scheduled to be completed in March of next year.

Parks Hall is not getting an addition, but its entire bottom floor (former home of the Communication Science and Disorders Department) is being reconfigured to provide more space for the College of Business and Economics.  That project is scheduled to be done prior to the start of classes this fall.

We are also reconfiguring the sixth floor of Wilson Library to provide a new and improved home for the Library’s Special Collections.  That construction will continue through the fall quarter, so look for continued contractor activity in and around Wilson Library.

Some of you have probably noted a lot of activity in and around the Fairhaven Residence Halls.  We have a number of different projects taking place there this summer.  By the end of the summer, the entire complex will have new fire sprinkler systems and a new paint job.

In the category of what’s new:  Believe it or not, College Hall now has an elevator that will provide access for student, staff and faculty with disabilities to more than 95 percent of the rooms in that facility.  This has been an addition that we have wanted to do for a long time and are very glad that we can finally say that College Hall has an elevator.

Haskell Plaza has been given a facelift!  The bricks in Haskell Plaza were cracking and causing a lot of tripping problems.  We have been able to replace most of the broken bricks and reset the bricks in a lot of the most damaged areas. We hope to go back in future years to complete the change out of the yellow bricks, which represent the currents in and around the San Juan Islands.

Well, this is getting a little long winded, so I will close by committing to preparing a construction update every two weeks.  If you have any question related to construction and would like to have it answered, please e-mail me at tim.wynn@wwu.edu.  Chances are that if you have a question there are a lot of others who have the same question, and I would welcome the opportunity to address it in these updates.

Thanks for reading.

Till next time,

Tim

Tim Wynn is the director of Facilities Management at WWU. Watch for his construction 'Desk Notes' column twice a month in FAST Online and Western Today.