Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

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Monday, June 22, 2015

Plywood Windows?

Starting this week, the construction crews will start installing plywood over all of the windows on the south and west sides of Huntsman Hall. It will look like the building has plywood windows. I am writing this blog in anticipation of being asked the question, “Uh, why does your new business building have plywood windows – don’t you have enough money for glass windows?”

So here’s the answer to the obvious question. 

Yes, we do have enough money for glass windows. Matter of fact, the glass windows are all installed. We are now covering all of the windows to protect them while we install the shades on the building. If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember my blog from April 11, 2014 titled “So Bright You’ve Gotta Wear Shades.” The shades are to control the heat gain in the building, and to reduce the demand for air conditioning on hot days. This picture is a rendering with a red arrow pointing to one of the shades.

The answer to that question may lead to a few other questions, such as:

· Why do you need to cover the windows with plywood?

That’s a great question. It’s because the shades are welded to the support structure, and sparks from the welding process may damage the windows.

· Why didn’t you install the shades first and then install the windows – instead of having to put plywood over all of them?

Because the windows are so large that they cannot be installed once the shades are in place.

So now you know why we have plywood windows. It will only last a few weeks.

Ken Snyder

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Summertime



With classes running full tilt, and with thousands of students around, there are certain construction items we can’t do very easily when school is on. Summertime gives us a chance to do these construction items with less impact.

We have a few big construction items we are tackling this summer. Most of these items are related to entrances, or to the connections between our current Eccles Building and the new Huntsman Hall. The entrance most affected by construction is the main entrance used by over 75% of the people who enter the business building – the entrance on the northwest corner of the Eccles Building. We want this entrance to serve as a seamless entrance into both buildings. This will require jackhammering up the existing concrete steps, rebuilding the steps as a single, seamless unit, adding snow melt so the entrance will be easy to navigate in the winter, and making the entrance look and feel like it is one entrance into the business building complex. I have attached a rendering of what the entrance will look like by the end of summer.

There are six connections between the two buildings. We are also finalize the work on all of those connections this summer to avoid having to do the work when classes are on and students are roaming about. More on that later…
Ken Snyder

Monday, June 8, 2015

The Last Beam



A few months ago, I celebrated the pouring of the last slab of concrete for our new Huntsman Hall (see “The LastSlab” post from the 24th of February). This past week, we reached another “the last” milestone – the last beam. Beams are the structural steel that supports the building. Workers installed the last beam on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

This symbolizes the final step of completing the structure of the building. Granted, most of the structure was installed months ago – especially on the west wing of the building and the south wing of the building. We’ve really been building three different buildings – the two wings are two of the buildings, and the curved space that connects the two wings, and houses the cafeteria, the student lounges, and other spaces, is the third building. This third space has lagged the other two due to space and construction constraints.

The location of the last beam is above the grand entrance at the SW corner of the building. It connects to, and supports, the grand staircase (see “Stairway to Heaven” postings dated 13 Aug2014 and 14 April 2015).

I have attached some photos from the perspective of being inside the new building looking out. Enjoy one more milestone in the progress of Huntsman Hall!
Ken Snyder