Email #59 - Ground to a Halt

Once again I'm going off-topic, but not too far off.

You may have noticed that the UW construction site behind the College Inn has ground to a halt. In fact Ness Crane Co. came and took back their tower crane on Saturday Dec. 30, as shown in the upper photo. The six story building for the UW Extension Program should have been coming out of the ground by now. But instead it's still a pit, with no signs of life.

It's a case of a Design-Build project gone bad. The university has terminated it's contract with LedCor Design Build in a legal dispute over costs and schedule. What's next - I don't know - but I expect we'll be looking at this pit all winter, at least.

The good news is the rare exposed view of the north side of the College Inn (bottom photo) will not be covered up for months, so enjoy it while you can. This building is one of the few surviving buildings from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Two of the others are on campus: Cunningham Hall and Architecture Hall.

See, I got back on-topic!

John Stamets
Jan 3, 2007

See also #71