Email #43 - Topping Off

Wow!..it's been three weeks since I last updated you on the construction progress in Architecture Hall. I continue to shoot in there several days a week, but I haven't had the time to edit the photos or think up some more emails. So let me try to catch you up on what's happening in there.

The attached photos were taken Nov. 6 on the platform scaffolding installed near the ceiling of the auditorium. The purpose of the scaffolding is to allow access to the walls high up so the new seismic shear walls could be built. To do that, the painted plaster ceiling was demolished around its perimeter, but the "bowl" of the ceiling remains intact, as shown in the photo. The lamps stored on platform came from the perimeter ceiling and will be reinstalled after the perimeter ceiling is rebuilt to its original condition. Note the "boom box" speakers on the right.

The bottom vertical photo was taken soon after the new seismic structural system was topped off on Halloween, exactly on schedule. The photo shows the top of the west wall of the auditorium. Where once was red brick, there is now grayish shotcrete. The auditorium walls were the last and most difficult walls to reinforce so making the Oct. 31 benchmark was important. From now on, the building will appear to "move faster."

Note the water leaking through the top of the ceiling in the vertical photo. The roof had not yet been sealed when this photo was taken on Nov. 6. Rain water can be a problem for a building under construction. In the next email I'll show you more about that.

John Stamets
Nov. 14, 2006