I guess it's pretty easy to stay on schedule when you're just ripping the guts out of an historic building.
March 07, 2009 12:00 am •
Work is ahead of schedule on the project to expand and renovate the Trickett Hall campus of the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, Dean Philip McConnaughay said last week.
Penn State is expecting substantial completion of the revamped campus by October or November, he said, but the university still plans to wait until December to move its operation from the former Advantica building in Middlesex Township.
That is to avoid disrupting classes during the fall semester, McConnaughay said. Classes at the Trickett Hall campus are expected to begin in January 2010, the start of the spring semester.
“We are not confronting any difficulties,” the dean added. “The weather has been in our favor.”
The $50 million project started with the demolition of the 1963 and 1978 additions to Trickett Hall along with “the curtilage,” a collection of small brick buildings on South College Street that once served as faculty offices.
Planned for the area between Trickett Hall and the 1985 addition, Lewis Katz Hall will house three large classrooms, a courtyard, a commons area and a 200-seat courtroom/auditorium.
Trickett Hall, meanwhile, will be renovated to house the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Law Library and a legislative hearing room.
Kelly Rimmer, director of marketing and communications for the law school, said interior work on the buildings is staggered so one type of crew can move along and not be in the way of others.
“Electricians go first and move to the next location, drywall crews work a room next, and so on,” she said. “The 1985 addition is getting its interior work done first, followed by Trickett Hall and, finally, the Lewis Katz Hall.”
The 1985 addition will be renovated to house faculty and administrative offices, a cafe and rooms for seminars and interviews, Rimmer said. Electrical and drywall crews are working on the ground floor and basement levels.
Work is underway to install new heating and cooling systems, framing for fascia and rudiments of the frames that will hold the glass curtain walls in place.
Meanwhile, at Trickett Hall, crews have cleaned and serviced the boilers, which will be reused in the new heating system, which conveys steam heat through the floors of the facility, Rimmer said.
The corner of the building that collapsed in November has been reconstructed to insulate the building from the weather and to permit interior work to proceed, she added. Exterior masonry work continues along with repairs to the roof.
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