Doors

There are 324 doors in the new building. Some doors need to be fire-rated – most do not. We want most doors to have electronic access controls, but some doors do not need this. Some doors need to have electronic scheduling capability, but most do not. Some doors are wood and some are glass. Some doors just need an old-fashioned key lock. Some doors need emergency exit bars. Most do not. I could go on. And on… It may be hard to believe, but it gets more complicated depending on how many functions a door needs to serve.

I never realized how complicated doors could be. We’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks figuring out exactly what each one of the 324 doors needs to do. The most surprising finding: There are very few doors that are exactly like any other door.

After our research into the various functions each of the doors needs to have, we all got together last week for a “door meeting.” We went through all 324 doors one-by-one. It took two hours. Present in the meeting were representatives of the business school, the university architect/job manager, key/lock specialists from the university Facilities Office, the building architects, representatives of the general contractor, the architect’s door advisor, and the firm that we hired to install the doors.

Ken Snyder

I said two things in the meeting. It was about principles. When we got into a difficult discussion about how we could get a certain door to serve multiple functions, I questioned whether or not we even needed that door. Principle #1: Keep it simple! In another case, doors were designed to serve the needs of the HVAC system, but ran counter to the needs of our students. Principle #2: This building is about the students!

I am happy to report that, due to the diligent preparation of the many people involved, we resolved the specifications of every door except one. This door requires a little more research into fire code, and technologies available to serve multiple functions. We’ll come back and re-visit that one door at a future meeting.

USU Students Win Five Awards at Statewide Entrepreneurship Competition

By Dr. Mike Glauser

Last Saturday night was the awards banquet for the state-wide entrepreneurship competition. We had another good year, with Utah State University winning five awards:

Best Technology Award - Cody Pickering, Align Skate Decks ($5,000)
Best Bootstrapped Award - Cody Pickering, Align Skate Decks ($2,500)
Best Social Impact Award - Spencer Finch, Rental on Me ($1,000) and Cody Pickering ($1,000)
Best Beehive Startup Award - Cody Pickering, Align Skate Decks (Donations in Kind)

Cody and Spencer, along with two other USU entrepreneurs, will compete in our Shark Tank night this coming Wednesday in the Eccles Conference Center at 6:00 pm. We have an additional $6,000 to be distributed among these four entrepreneurs. Hope you can join us. 

When will the new building be finished?

The question I get asked most often is when will the building be finished? This blog is an update on where we are at in answering that question.

Over the past few months, we've been working under the assumption that we CAN and SHOULD finish construction of Huntsman Hall in December 2015. At my request, in a meeting a few weeks ago, we reviewed a detailed schedule of what has to happen in order to finish in December. After reviewing the schedule, the contractor – and all of the rest of us, including the business school contingent, USU facilities representatives, the architects, etc., who need to support the contractor in order to achieve that completion date – committed to finishing in December. This means that we are moving forward with plans to use the classrooms starting in January 2016.

We also went through each critical item that may prevent a December completion and discussed contingency plans on how we can overcome any delays caused by those problems. To be honest, there are a huge number of items that need to be done between now and then. On the good side, the number of items is almost manageable!

Ken Snyder

Note: I apologize about the vacation my blog has taken the past few weeks. I've been in Japan with a group of MBA students, and didn't really have the time to write. 

Finishing Up the Finishes

As we’ve focused on structural issues, we’ve been put off some less time-sensitive decisions. Specifically, we put off deciding what to do about finishes.

Finishes is a general term used to refer to surface materials, colors, etc. We decided things like the color of the wood on the walls at the front of the classrooms, the color of carpets in the office areas and classrooms, etc. It’s all the little things that make the building look great versus just functional.

Last week we met with the architects, interior designer, and contractor to review finishes. The architects and interior designer prepared many options for us to consider. In most cases, we went with what they recommended. In some cases we went with an option they presented but did not recommend. In one case, the podiums, we rejected what they presented and told them what we’d like to see. We’ll have to circle back to them on that one.

With the exception of two or three items, everything was chosen. And, I can promise you, we went for great-looking and not just functional pieces and accents. It really will be a beautiful building that will be finished up very nicely.

Ken Snyder

The Last Slab

Last week the contractor poured the last slab of concrete. Technically, the last slab of concrete that is part of the structure. There are a few more non-structural slabs, and a few more added layers on top of the existing slabs, left to be poured. But it is one more major milestone!

The “last slab” is on Level 4 of the new Huntsman Hall building. It is in the curved area that connects the two wings. Part of the slab will be the floor of our fantastic new event space. Part of the last slab will be the floor of our amazing new board room space.

I hiked up to Level 4 so that I could inspect the process personally, and so I could take pictures to commemorate the event.

Some of you may wonder – What is a slab? If you want to learn, I recommend the simple explanation on Wikipedia.

As we come to the end of pouring concrete, you may also wonder – How much concrete will we use in Huntsman Hall? The answer is that we will use almost 11,000 cubic yards of concrete. The material cost for the concrete alone is almost $1,000,000.

That’s a lot of concrete, but there’s no more concrete for structural slabs.

Ken Snyder

The Brick Wall is Done

A few weeks ago (see the January 13th blog about laying bricks), I mentioned that the masons started laying bricks for the wall that runs along the north face of Huntsman Hall. This is the wall that faces the Merrill-Cazier Library.

Last Friday they finished the wall! This is the first exterior wall of Huntsman Hall to be completely finished – OK, yes, I know they still need to take down the scaffolding, but, the wall itself is all done!

I just happened to be taking a group of visitors on a tour of the facility as the masons were finishing the wall. Because the masons did most of the wall behind a shroud (the “moving tent”), it was difficult to see how far they were progressing. It just so happened that when our tour group got to the top floor, the masons had just pulled back the shroud, and were laying the very last bricks of the very top row. We were right there with them as they did the work. It was fun to congratulate them in person.

But, as they say in late-night infomercials, that’s not all! You may have noticed that the sheet glass surrounding the NW stairway was also installed last week. The combination of completing both of these projects allows the people passing by while walking on the busiest corridor of campus, to see what this side of Huntsman Hall will look like. And it looks nice – doesn't it?

North wall and stairway

The masons have already moved around the NW corner of the building and are laying bricks on the west exterior wall. They should finish that brickwork in the next few weeks.

Ken Snyder

The Face

Last week was truly the busiest week yet in the construction of Huntsman Hall. We had more people on site, and more different projects going on, than any previous week since we started construction.

One of the projects started last week was the hanging of the sheet glass on the south side of Huntsman Hall, facing the highway. 

South glass exterior wall

Sheet glass is the exterior wall of the building. We are using sheet glass for about 70 percent of the exterior walls. We’ve been hanging sheet glass for the past several weeks on the inward facing walls (i.e., the walls facing our current Eccles business building). As a matter of fact, the west wing inward facing wall is all done. But it wasn’t until last week that we started hanging sheet glass on the outward facing walls. Another milestone!

I look at the outward facing walls as the “face” of the new building – the part that the people passing by on the highway will see. And isn’t is a great-looking “face”?

Ken Snyder