Campus Construction Updates

Appalachian State University

Dave Blanks welcomes a variety of guests to discuss ongoing and future construction at App State.

Episodes

  1. 03/28/2025 ·  Video

    Campus Construction Update, March 28, 2025

    This episode of Campus Construction Update features host Dave Blanks from University Communications in conversation with Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management Nick Katers. They discuss ongoing and upcoming construction projects on campus including the restoration of the campus bell tower chimes, the completion of the new women’s softball field and major infrastructure improvements such as road closures, new traffic lights and the continued development of the Innovation Campus. The episode provides insight into the challenges and progress of these projects highlighting efforts to enhance campus safety, sustainability and student facilities.   Transcript:  Dave: Hey, folks, how's it going? I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications back with another Campus Construction Update video edition, and I'm joined by Mr. Nick Katers, hello, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management. Welcome back to the studio, Nick. Nick: It's great to be here again. Dave: I'm glad you're here. Well, summertime's not upon us yet, it's not even spring yet, but we're talking about some of the summer projects that we have on tap and some of the things that we've checked off our list, one of which you can hear if you've come to campus. Nick: Absolutely. Dave: Yeah. Nick: So the bells are back by popular demand. We have repaired the chimes in the steam tower/bell tower, so you can hear them every hour on the hour. And we'll start mixing it up as we go forward here a little bit, so it'll get a little bit more exciting. Dave: What are we talking about, mixing it up? Nick: Oh, we've played music before. Dave: Okay. Nick: So I think we can gauge the mood of the campus and really be appropriate. Some good wins on some of these sports teams, we could get out there. Dave: Oh, sweet. Nick: Maybe not a little AC/DC, but something- Dave: Very appropriate for the bell tower. Exactly. Well, cool. Well, all right, so what happened to it? Why was it broken? Nick: It kind of wore out over a number of years, so a pretty expensive sound system was in there. And just from weather and everything else that it was faced with, it broke down right before COVID. And then we just never got around to replacing it. But this year, thanks to some initiative from my team, we've got the bells working again. Dave: I think our videographer, Malia, I don't know that she even knew that there were bells in the steam tower, so that's exciting. All right, well what else, Nick? Nick: I also want to just point out that the new women's softball field out at the old high school site App 105 is complete. And that's been a huge goal of ours to get this done for the start of the softball season. And the first women's home softball game is this Friday, the 21st of March at 12 o'clock. So we'll be able to sort of inaugurate our new stadium and it looks fantastic. Dave: It is beautiful. Nick: Yes. Dave: Yeah, it really is nice. And that's out on 105? Nick: Yeah, 105 where the old high school location was. Dave: Watauga High. Nick: Right. It's also outdoor tennis, the track and field complex, and now adding softball. Pretty soon we'll be adding the indoor tennis facility as well. Dave: Okay. Well, where does that go? It's kind of hard for this, but where is that in association? Nick: Between the track and field area and the new softball field? It'll be attached to the new field house that we have there. So this will be six indoor tennis courts. It'll be a fantastic facility. Dave: Sweet. Wow, that is wonderful. Nick: Yes. Dave: Well, cool. What else? Nick: So you've probably noticed we've got a lot of construction going on on campus right now. Dave: I noticed. Nick: We're at 43 projects, $350 million worth of placement, and it causes a lot of chaos across campus. One of the areas that's been hit the hardest is the Peacock AppalCart Circle. So we've been trying to slide it around and move it around in order to make it as safe as possible. So I think we've finally settled on not moving it out of the Peacock lot, but sliding it closer to River Street. We've now restricted the traffic to one way and we're putting the bus shelter in the middle of a circle, so I think it'll be much more efficient. We won't have to have students with their backs up against the fence where they're up against the construction fence. So it'll stay this way for the rest of the semester and then we'll look at what we're going to do with it during the summer. But I anticipate until Peacock and Duncan are complete with their construction, we'll have to have that AppalCart stop there. And it'll be a while before those finish up. Duncan will finish up in the fall, the Peacock edition, which you can't even really visualize yet because it's just now starting to come out of the ground, that'll be done in the fall of '26. Dave: Okay, excellent. All right. Nick: In addition to that, we've had Bodenheimer closed for about three months as we've been working near Mountaineer Hall to replace steam, water, electrical, all the lines. Basically, everything we have that's infrastructure-wise runs underneath Bodenheimer, all the way up the hill. Dave: And that's at the intersection of Depot and River Street. Nick: Yes. Dave: If you keep going up- Nick: If you keep going up towards the Innovation Campus where the baseball field is. Dave: Right. Nick: So Bodenheimer is open again, I'm sure the students that live up in App Heights and stuff will be happy about that. They don't have to take the long detour. So that's open again. We're really getting finished now with the hurricane cleanup, which has been a monumental task for the last four months just to get everything cleaned up. So we're down to just our last few pieces right now. So you'll see a big van pull in by Rankin Science West. That'll be the temporary chiller that will provide air conditioning, essentially, until we get the permanent chiller in. They take about six to eight months to manufacture those things, so we're running a little bit behind. Walker Hall, the same thing. We're going to be getting its new chiller the first week in April, so hopefully, and I don't like to be hopeful in my business, but hopefully, we don't have too many days of hot weather so that we can get this chiller in the first week of April and nobody gets too hot. A couple other things that were going on. We're going to be repairing the pedestrian walk between Wey Hall and Newland Hall. There's a pedestrian crossing area there, it's one of the brick paths. It's like a wide walk on the West campus. With the construction of Wey Hall, we went back and we repaired some of the infrastructure there. So that'll be closed down for a couple of weeks. And we have a number of road projects that are coming up this summer. We're going to close down the crossing by Hill Street, which is where the Holmes Convocation Center is, be installing a traffic light there so that it's safer for people to cross from the new parking deck across into Durham Park. Dave: Oh, that's good. Nick: And the same thing over by the tunnels. We're going to be working on some infrastructure there. So part of River Street will be closed down for a good portion of the summer. My goal is to have everything fixed for the fall. Dave: So there is going to be a light at the intersection of, it's Hill Street and River Street. Nick:  Hill Street and River Street, yes. Dave: Okay. Yeah. Wow. Nick: That's been a long time in coming. It's a little bit close to the intersection to have a second light, but this will make that area much safer. Dave: Yeah, they don't want them to be too close. So you'll be able to push a button. Nick: Push a button and cross, yeah. Dave: Okay. All right, cool. Well, sorry to derail you there, but where were you headed next? Nick: Innovation Campus. Dave: All right, let's go up there. Nick: I thought we'd kind of transition to the top of the hill. Lots of work going on up there. We've had tons of detours and disruptions, but as you can see from most of anywhere you look on campus, the two new wind turbines have been put up. Dave: Very invisible. Nick: Yeah. And they're fantastic. They're big 600-kilowatt turbines. They're about four times the size of the old turbine that was up there, the little one that's still spinning. Dave: Still up there. Nick: Yeah, still up there. So we're going to energize these in about the next two weeks. So these two turbines will start producing energy for the campus and they're really the second part of the Innovation District energy system, which will provide energy to the whole top part of the campus. So about a megawatt of energy from those two wind turbines. Then we have 90 geothermal wells that'll provide heating and cooling to all the buildings up there. And then the last part is we're going to be putting in a whole bunch of solar up on top of the hill too. It's a perfect signature to get a lot of sun up there. So that'll add the last piece of the electrical. Dave: Fantastic. Nick: At that point, the District energy system will be humming along and we'll be able to make a lot of our own energy for the campus. Dave: So the District energy building is finished now? Nick: So the District energy building is 90% complete. It's ready to start accepting inputs from the different components of the energy system. So we're about two or three months away from putting the hot water/cold water geothermal system through. But as soon as we crank up the wind turbines in about two weeks, it'll be able to start accepting energy there. The District energy building is really going to be a really interesting place where we can do research, we can have student groups up there. You can walk into the lobby of the District energy building and see how much energy is being produced at any time of the day or night. And it'll show you in real time how much hot, cold water, how much electricity is being produced, and what

  2. 11/06/2024 ·  Video

    Campus Construction Update, November 6, 2024

    On this latest episode, University Communications' Dave Blanks sits down with Nick Katers, App State’s associate vice chancellor of facilities management, to talk about the new addition to Peacock Hall — home of the largest undergraduate College of Business in the University of North Carolina System. The two discuss the history of the Walker College of Business, the reasons behind the expansion to Peacock Hall and what the App State Community can expect during and after the project. Katers shared that this $40 million project, set to be completed in August 2026, is part of a phased campus transformation that will ultimately include the long-awaited daylighting of Boone Creek to bring natural spaces to the Boone campus. Find out what’s next for this landmark project at App State! (This episode was recorded Sept. 18, 2024.)       TRANSCRIPT Dave Blanks: Hey folks. How's it going? I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications back with another campus construction update. I am joined today in studio by Nick Katers, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management. Howdy, Nick. How's it going? Nick Katers: Dave, it's good to be a part of this first one on video. Dave Blanks: Man, I know. I'm excited. It's very different. We've been exposed. Here we are. This is what we actually look like. Nick Katers: Right. Dave Blanks: Yeah, so we'll see how it goes. Today's topic is Peacock Hall, the addition to Peacock. Here's the plan for today. We'll see if I pull it off. We're going to start off with a little history lesson that'll take us up to present day just about the College of Business at Appalachian State. Nick Katers: Sure. Dave Blanks: After I get through with that, we're going to discuss the need for the addition, which is the topic today, and then we'll share some details on what that addition consists of, who it's going to benefit, how long is it going to take, what's the impact that we're going to deal with while it's being constructed and then just some of the positive stuff that's going to happen after it's built. Nick Katers: Great. Okay. Dave Blanks: So, yeah, how does that sound? Good plan? Nick Katers: It sounds good. Dave Blanks: I'm going to start out with my history lesson of the College of Business. Before I went to business.appstate.edu, I knew some of this, I didn't know all of this. We're starting in 1970, when the College of Business is officially founded at Appalachian State. So when it started, small and business classes were held in Smith-Wright Hall, which was part of the New Deal. It was a public works administration building, funded and completed by the PWA, and it was completed in 1940. Interesting little bit of history there. It's the current home of the Department of Psychology and it's right next door to us. But they weren't in there for long because Walker Hall was completed in 1975 and the College of Business moved there in '76. Walker College of Business and Walker Hall are both named in honor of John A. Walker. He was a Lowe's Company's founding director and always a strong supporter of Appalachian State and the College of Business. 15 years later, 1990, faculty and staff moved from Walker into a new College of Business building, 130,000 square feet, four-story structure in the middle of App's campus, named and dedicated in honor of Thelma, C. Raley. The dedication came in '93, the building was built in 1990. Then in 2014, with the Raley family's blessing, Raley Hall became Peacock Hall in honor of outgoing Chancellor Dr. Kenneth Peacock. And that takes us up to the addition is the next thing. But yeah, interesting history of the Walker College of Business. You can check it out at business.appstate.edu and we'll also put it in the show notes. Today's topic is the addition at Peacock Hall. So can we discuss a little bit about the need for the addition? We've mentioned it on previous campus construction updates, but why do we need an addition to Peacock? Nick Katers: Well, I think you could start out with just by looking at the age of Peacock, former Raley Hall, like you said, built in 1990. It's 30 years old, so it was time to start considering a renovation. So a renovation of 130,000 square foot building is pretty expensive. At the same time the college of business is growing and growing and growing and it's literally bursting from the amount of students that are now involved in this program. Dave Blanks: What were you telling me that about the- Nick Katers: It's the largest undergraduate college of business in the UNC system. Dave Blanks: Wow. Nick Katers: And you wouldn't think that here. We're famous for a lot of things, teachers, nurses, stuff, but the College of Business, it was a little unexpected to hear that fact. But what that really meant is they had to make a choice. Do we want to do the renovation and take the building offline or do we want to try to make more space for it? So it's kind of a phased project. They made the decision to construct an addition. So again, the renovation probably would've cost in the neighborhood of 50 to 65 million dollars three or four years ago when we started talking about it, but an addition was going to be a lot cheaper than that. We were really focused on a number of about $25 million is what we thought we could get from the legislature, that would've given us a 50,000 square foot addition back in the day. That's $500 a square foot. Well, since we started looking at this in 2021, three years have passed and now we're really looking at closer to $800 a square foot. So in the 2021/22 biennium, the legislature gave us $25 million. We went through the preliminary design functions. We came up with a 50,000 square foot addition, a nice round extension of the building, but that turned out to only give us enough for two floors. So we went back in '23 and '24 to that budget biennium and we were able to get another $15 million based on the design that we went. So now we have $40 million total to do an addition, a 50,000 square foot addition to 130,000 square foot building, which will make it now the third-largest building in App's inventory. This will give the College of Business room to grow for a number of years. While it doesn't address some of the older portions of the existing building, that can be a later follow-on phase. We are going to do some minor renovations of the existing building. We'll probably improve the HVAC quite a bit because we're bringing in new chillers, we're replacing the elevator carriages that are in the older portion of the building and we're getting rid of that glass half-moon rotunda area. Dave Blanks: Right. Nick Katers: And it's going to be completely enclosed. Dave Blanks: Okay. Is the new addition... And we'll show some pictures of that as well. Nick Katers: Sure. Dave Blanks: And you can see those on the future site, which we'll also link in the show notes. But is the new edition actually taking over the place where that little curved thing is? Nick Katers: Yeah. Dave Blanks: I know it's stretching out into the parking lot, into Peacock parking lot. So yeah, that'll kind of- Nick Katers: Yeah. Think of the glass Rotunda outdoor structure as now kind of the center of the building and we're going to build out into what was the patio area and as far out as where the AppalCART bus stop was. So all of the patio will be taken up and probably two or three rows of parking that went into the Peacock lot. And that old glass feature will become an enclosed rotunda, similar to what you see in the library. Dave Blanks: Okay, yeah. Nick Katers: Something that's more of a structural internal feature instead of an external feature. Dave Blanks: Right. And it's like a semicircle right now. Nick Katers: Right. Dave Blanks: It'll be a full circle. Nick Katers: A full rotunda. Yes. Dave Blanks: Okay. Gotcha. Anything else you want to cover as far as the exterior changes? And you did talk about the HVAC as well. Nick Katers: We're going to try our best to match the new construction to the old building, but we're talking about 30-year-old bricks and a 30-year-old facade. Dave Blanks: Speaking of bricks, it did win an award when it was built. It won an award, and I'm going to mess it up, but it was from the Brick Association of either America or North Carolina because of its use of bricks. Nick Katers: Right. Dave Blanks: I found that interesting. Yeah, I don't know. Nick Katers: It's a little bit off color from our campus design standards. So it'll be interesting to try to match some of the older structural features. The Peacock building's kind of square, and this is going to be more modern and round and a lot more glass in the addition. Dave Blanks: Right. Yeah, it looks beautiful. And as I said, we'll share some pictures of it as well. So Nick, can you tell me a little bit about the design? Nick Katers: Sure, sure. We started design in 2022 and that's when we kind of figured out we didn't have enough money for the thing we wanted. Well, we were able to bring in Charlotte architect McMillan Pazdan Smith to be able to give us something innovative and new that would still fit within the campus design. So they started in 2023 with the new design, which is the rounded design. And then in late 2023, we chose local builder of Vannoy Construction out of Jefferson to be the construction manager at risk for the project. So now that the team is assembled, they were able to really start moving on this. Ironically, we also use them for Duncan, knowing that we were going to share a lot of laydown space. Dave Blanks: It's right there. Yeah. Nick Katers: Yeah. It didn't make sense to have two completely different construction contractors so close to each other. This way, we were able to share the architectural design, share the laydown space. And the construction contractor could do a renovation in one building and an addition on the other. Dave Blan

  3. 08/16/2024

    Campus Construction Update, August 16, 2024

    Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management Nick Katers and Vice Provost of Academic Program Development and Strategic Initiatives Mike McKenzie join University Communications’ Dave Blanks in studio to discuss Edwin Duncan Hall’s use as a space for art classes during the 2024-25 academic year, as well as the opening of the Holmes Drive Parking Deck, upgrades to the University Post Office and construction progress at the Appalachian 105 sports complex. New classroom spaces at App State's Hickory campus and parking changes for the Duncan Rankin/Peacock lots are also highlighted, along with the start of construction for the Peacock Hall addition project.       TRANSCRIPT   Dave Hey, folks, how's it going? I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications. Back with another campus construction update. I'm joined in the studio today by associate vice chancellor of facilities management, Mr. Nick Katers and vice provost of academic program development and strategic Initiatives Dr. Mike McKenzie. Today, it's a discussion of what to expect when you're returning to campus. Hello guys. Thanks for coming in.   Nick Katers  Hey.   Mike McKenzie  Yeah, thanks for having me.   Dave Yeah, we appreciate it. You guys are regulars, I love it. I'm glad. I'm glad. You have great information. Nick, I guess we'll start out with you. Can you give us a little bit of a summary of everything that's gone on over the summer? As it has been a lot. Nick Katers  It has been a lot. This is one of the busiest summers we've had. First off, the Holmes parking deck is open. 600 more parking spaces, for the university to be able to use. Also, the post office renovation is complete and that's going to be a fantastic new technology upgrade there. So you won't have to go up to the counter.   Nick Katers  You'll be able to go in and swipe in with your card. A locker will appear and you'll be able to go and take your stuff out of the locker for that day. So it's a completely automated post office. Nobody will have set boxes anymore. There'll be dynamic reassignment of boxes, and that's, that's really kind of a fascinating upgraded way to do mail.   Nick Katers  Also, we've been very successful with the weather this summer. So the App 105 Sports Complex is hitting a milestone this summer, too. We've finished the outdoor tennis courts, we're finishing up the women's softball. And we also have the auxiliary building finished up. That just leaves one more phase to go and that's the indoor tennis facility.   Nick Katers  Down at Hickory, we have three new classrooms coming online for this fall semester, all on the second floor. It's the beginning of the second floor renovation. Three new classrooms will include a laboratory space, a general computer science lab and a cybersecurity lab. So all of those happened over the summer. Also, we're really close on a couple of new traffic lights, and I'll talk traffic at the end here for what the construction impact is.   Nick Katers  But we're going to get a new traffic light at Hill Street to accommodate people crossing River Street from the new parking deck. Then the traffic light will be reinstalled out at App 105 to allow kids to get in and out of that giant parking lot a lot easier. And then the biggest accomplishment, I think, over the summer, was getting all of the functions that were still in Wey Hall, out of Wey Hall and redistributed to the other positions on campus.   Nick Katers  I’ll let Mike talk about where they went.   Dave Yeah! Please, Mike, share with us. I mean, I've been keeping my eye on the Octagon as I've been walking past, and I know that's a part of it.   Mike McKenzie  Right, Yeah. So, Dave, if you remember, we talked previously about Wey Hall, just how it was unique in that that whole ground floor were not spaces that were really replicated anywhere on campus. It wasn't just as simple as, hey, this place needs a classroom. I can find you a classroom. These were places that very unique artistic skills and machinery that were needed that we just had to find completely new homes for.   Mike McKenzie  And so, yeah, to Nick's point, over the summer, a lot of that is moving into the Octagon portion of Duncan. The other portion of Duncan is still undergoing construction, but we have been able to fit most things that were in Wey Hall into the Octagon. But if I give you a quick rundown just for students who are taking... whether they're art majors or are taking, you know, some of their gen ed requirements in that area, so they'll know where to go.   Mike McKenzie  We are still using East Hall some. So students who are in the DigiLab, which is like the laser cutting lab or the alternative processes lab for photography, will still be on level one of East Hall. Level two of East Hall will still have art education, the book arts. fibers and some of our design studios, painting studios and senior studios workshops.   Mike McKenzie  Also in East Hall, we have our synergy lab and some paper making type skills. Now what we have completely moved into Duncan is our clay studios. So if you remember the Octagon, it's kind of divided into four really big separate units. And so each of these areas will have their own unit over there. So Clay Studios will be one fourth of the octagon.   Mike McKenzie  The foundations to woodshop will be another fourth of the octagon. The printmaking studios will be a fourth. And then the final fourth is like the senior studio workspaces. So when they do their presentations, when they do their shows and things like that, we have a space for them there. The one thing we did move over, actually, into Katherine Harper Hall, which already is a fine and applied arts building, but that's more the applied design and STBE (Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment) sustainable development type classrooms...   Mike McKenzie  We have metal smithing and sculpture over there. Without getting too far into the weeds, they just have some very specific airflow and gas demands. And there actually was a classroom in Harper that had previously been built that was being used by STBE, that had this already in existence. And so STBE was very gracious to say, hey, it doesn't make sense for you to build out a whole new classroom just to accommodate this for a year.   Dave And I will mention for our listeners, STBE: Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment.   Mike McKenzie  Right. And as Nick mentioned, this has been not only ongoing all summer, but at the end of the spring semester, we did a hardhat walkthrough with the faculty, and we really gave them a blank slate. We said, hey, tell us what makes the most sense to you. You know, we don't want to pretend to understand their discipline better than they do.   Mike McKenzie  And they went right in there and got to work and said, oh, this should be here. This should be here. And we actually did another hardhat walkthrough a week ago with not only the entire faculty who will be teaching in the Octagon, but the department chair and the dean as well. The collaboration that was involved, the faculty, Nick's folks, and other academic affairs will really make it a great year as we have our art programs, mainly in the Edwin Duncan Octagon until Wey Hall opens up probably next fall, where, you know, we'll have that brand new showcase for them.   Dave Fantastic, Nick, and we'll go back to you on this. With all these changes, you still have to have pedestrians moving through the area. Can you speak to the disruption?   Nick Katers  Sure. Thanks, Dave. And again, there's a lot going on and progress sometimes causes us to kick up a little dust and have to close off areas. I'll sort of start with some of the easier ones. First Wey Hall is completely closed now, but you can get around Wey Hall on both sides, so you can get around it through the wide walk area that runs from the parking deck area.   Nick Katers  And you can also get around it on the hillside where the students entered last year, so you can get through from the West Campus residence hall area to the Schaefer Center, still on two different paths. So while there's a fenced off area, it's still passable. The central dining roof is still in process, so there will be vehicles around the central dining hall for about another 2 to 3 weeks.   Nick Katers  But both entrances to the central dining hall will still be open, so that shouldn't be a major disruption, and we're hoping to wrap that up in a couple of weeks. The Duncan Peacock Complex is probably our biggest disruption, so fences have now gone up on both projects. Duncan is completely fenced off. You can get to the parking area that runs closest to River Street and get through both tunnels, and be able to traverse towards the Peacock parking lot and to the Rankin Science Complex.   Nick Katers  But you won't be able to go through the old courtyard for now. While that's open. Most of the Peacock parking lot is still open. We had to reconfigure that lot to move the Appalcart bus stop a little closer to River Street, so you'll see a new traffic pattern for the bus that goes there.   Nick Katers  Between Duncan and Peacock there is going to be one pedestrian lane that you can still pass through, and that will remain open during the duration of the construction. And then Peacock, as most people can probably see, the patio has been all torn up already.   Dave I did see that.   Nick Katers  So, that's quite a dramatic change. For a couple more weeks. You'll still be able to use that entrance up against the wall where the patio was, but soon we'll be shifting the entrance to Peacock, primarily to Howard Street, so the Howard Street entrance will become the main entrance for Peacock during the duration of the addition onto Peacock.   Nick Katers  And I think it's worth saying that Peacock is

  4. 07/16/2024

    Campus Construction Update, July 16, 2024

    Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management Nick Katers and Vice Provost of Academic Program Development and Strategic Initiatives Mike McKenzie join University Communications' Dave Blanks in studio to discuss progress on the second-floor renovation of App State's Hickory campus, as well as the finishing touches that are being applied to the Holmes Drive Parking Deck.     Transcript   Dave Blanks Hey, folks, how's it going? I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications. Back with another Campus Construction Update. Today I'm joined in studio by Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management, Mr. Nick Katers and Vice Provost of Academic Program Development and Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Mike McKenzie for a discussion about the App State Hickory campus. Guys, thank you both so much for being here today. I appreciate it.   Nick Katers Thanks, Dave.   Mike McKenzie Thanks for having us.   Dave Blanks So the topic at hand is the Hickory Campus. Hickory opened up to its inaugural class of mountaineer students on August 21st, 2023, and now phase two renovations are underway. So that's our topic for today. So I don't know if Nick, you want to start it out. This is phase two. Obviously phase one is complete. How many phases in the Hickory campus.   Nick Katers So you know, we've probably we're probably looking at five phases. Initially we had a very generous appropriation from the state legislature for $41 million, and it was spread out over four years. So we realized that we couldn't just attack the entire building at the same time, and we would have to phase the building according to floor. So there are five above ground floors. So there will be five phases to the entire project. The good news here is that the $41 million appropriation is no longer spread out over four years. It's only spread out over two. So we'll be able to attack the second floor, in good order and more quickly than we had previously anticipated. So right now we're in Phase 2a, which, you know, Phase 2 is assume the second floor. Phase 2a is a very small improvement to the second floor. We're really focused on the addition of three new classrooms on the second floor. There's essentially a computer lab, a cyber security lab and a general chemistry lab. So I can let Mike kind of tell what went into the selection of those three. But again, we were working off the initial funding model, which didn't have a lot of money this year. And so we can talk about the future phases as well.   Dave Blanks Sure. Yeah. Mike, speak to the classrooms.   Mike McKenzie Sure. So as Nick mentioned, we have three new spaces that we're really excited about because there's a big need for them, frankly, based on the academic interest of the students there and where we see the future going with Hickory. So space one, as Nick mentioned, is a cybersecurity lab and Appalachian State last year had approval to offer a standalone bachelor's in cybersecurity. We have a cybersecurity lab that we're building in Boone. And now we also have one in Hickory. And what really makes the cyber lab cool is we've worked with Dr. Scott Hunsinger and his colleagues and other faculty to really design this to be state of the art. They told us what works for them from a, you know, a student experience and kind of where we landed.... the best way to describe it, I would say there's these pods where students work together and there's a control room where the faculty member can do things like send attacks at the students in real time, they have to kind of fend these off. And one of the biggest things that I learned very early on in talking to our IT folks is because of the nature of what cyber does, it is really important that they, in simplest terms, have their standalone computer network. You don't want to just use regular computers. So they kind of needed their own network to be able to do this. So they have this unique space that really is designated for cyber security. The other two spaces that we're really excited about that are opening this fall... one is a computer lab, and that space kind of doubles between when it's not in use as a classroom, students can obviously go and complete their work, but a lot of the programs that we've had interest in are, frankly, College of Business courses, and a lot of those require some technical computer programs and things that a student wouldn't just have on their standalone laptop at home, for example. So, having this lab with the specifications that the faculty need to teach these upper level courses to the students, and then the final space that we're really excited about for fall is this kind of general science lab. And so, you know, we do have a large number of students who are taking general education courses down there. Obviously a component in every gen ed is there's a science course, and we have not been able to teach a lab in person. You know, there are some online labs that we've been able to do, but we don't have a way to teach a lab where students can be hands-on. So, this is the first hands-on lab in the Hickory building. So students can actually take that science lab in person and get that hands-on experience that they like. And again, this lab in particular is really made for the intro courses. Intro to biology based on the location on where it is. And, you know, specs that a lab would need in terms of airflow and things like that. We'll have an opportunity to build some more advanced labs in additional parts of phase two. But early on, Phase 2a, we're really excited to have that computer lab, the cyber lab, in the intro to bio lab space.   Dave Blanks Fantastic. So when are the completion dates for Phase 2a?   Nick Katers So Phase 2a really got started in May and it didn't offer us a lot of time to get everything ready for the fall. but we'll have those three classrooms ready for the August start of the semester. And then the rest of the second floor is sort of broken down into two sub phases. We may not keep it that way now that the money has been sort of pushed forward in the queue a little bit. So as soon as we finish with Phase 2a, which is done, fall of 24, we’ll immediately go into 2b, which is the rest of the north side of the building. So think approximately there's 7 to 8 new classrooms, some study spaces, some office spaces, some additional student lounge space. Then Phase 2c is the rest of the second floor. We're really shooting for fall of 25, to have the rest of the second floor done. In fall of 2026 for phases 3, 4 and 5. Those are smaller floor plates so we should be able to move through the tower pretty quickly.   Dave Blanks Sounds good. All right. So even though Phase 2 is underway, that doesn't mean the first floor hasn't had some changes. I understand there have been. Nick, if you want to speak to those.   Nick Katers Yeah, sure. I mean, we're continuing to go back in and update the first floor. The wayfinding has been drastically improved. The grab and go areas, the vending areas. The most exciting part of the updates to the first floor, though, is the addition of the coffee kiosk, which will be in the Student Commons area on the north side that will be open for students all day long to not only get coffee, but there's some hot vending machines in the area and they're going to have some other limited offerings as well. So, one of the big complaints about students there is that there's not enough opportunities for food. So we're addressing this immediately, and we're continuing to improve the classroom environment on the first floor. We have 11 classrooms on the first floor and each subsequent semester, as we learn lessons from the previous one, they're being updated. On the ground floor, again we have the addition of the student Commons student Union game room area, which is adjacent to the cafeteria. The gym is open and the capabilities in the gym are improving every year. We’re getting as we get more students. Eventually the cafeteria will reopen as well.   Mike McKenzie Yeah. Nick, I think you're really selling yourself short a little bit with some of the renovations. I know you threw in that student lounge space, and I think the student lounge is a great example of where, you know, you and your team have been receptive to student requests. And, you know, when we originally planned this first floor, there's these huge spaces. We thought students would use this as their congregating and study space. And while they study in that space a lot, the message we heard from students was, hey, I just need a hangout space. I feel like I need to be quieter here, for example. And so we used that information and Nick and his team built this nice little student lounge on the first floor next to the cafeteria.   Nick Katers With a lot of help from Student Affairs.   Mike McKenzie With student affairs. Yeah. They interviewed students and asked what they wanted. And as Nick said, there's a pool table down there, there's a skee-ball table, there's some video games. If you go down there, you'll hear students playing their music. So it is more of that, like, hey, right now, like I'm taking a break from study. This is my nonacademic space. And I think naively, maybe when we built it, we thought the common spaces on the first floor would do that. And like I said, the students kind of told us that, no, we need this dedicated space for that.   Dave Blanks They're too respectful.   Mike McKenzie They are! And so if you go to the ground floor, you will always see students in there just honestly having a good time. I'm hoping to get down there and, you know, challenge some of our students in Mario Kart.   Dave Blanks Oh heck yeah. Oh that sounds great.   Nick Katers And we've also got some outdoor spaces that they asked for during the semester. So tell me about that. So we've added some, some hammock stands out there, some additional picnic tables s

  5. 06/15/2024

    Campus Construction Update, June 14, 2024

    App State Director of Planning, Design and Construction Jeff Pierce and University Interior Designer Jacki McGuire join University Communications' Dave Blanks in studio to discuss a number of ongoing campus construction and renovation projects at App State, including renovations to Edwin Duncan Hall and the University Post Office.     TRANSCRIPT Dave Blanks Hey, folks, this is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update. And I'm really happy to have Mr. Jeff Pierce and Jacki McGuire in the house. Hey, Jeff and Jacki how are y'all? Jeff Pierce  Hey, Dave, it's good to be back with you. Jacki McGuire  Hey Dave. Dave Blanks I know y'all are good because you've been talking, like, nonstop since you came in here, so... Jeff Pierce  It's always a good time with you, Dave and on podcasts. Dave Blanks I mean, you know, It is fun, and I'm glad that you're down here. And, that's the kind of energy we want, you know, for a podcast. Because if you're not talking, podcasts are pretty dull. Jeff Pierce  Go figure. Dave Blanks Yeah, I know! Weird right? So Jeff Pierce, the director of planning, design and construction, and Jacki McGuire, the university's interior designer. Great to have you both. And on the, podcast today, we're going to talk about, a few different things, an overview of some of the bigger projects that are going on, here in Boone, also in Hickory, also going to discuss the post office, which is getting a big change. It looks great in there. It looks really cool. I've seen some artist renderings, some mock ups. And then we're going to get specific on Edwin Duncan. But first off, Jeff, if you don't mind starting with, kind of a broad overview, get up, get up high for, for a view of the of the school and what we're doing. Jeff Pierce  Will do! We're doing $300 million worth of construction between the main campus here at Boone and the Hickory campus, the innovation campus, which is the old Broyhill Inn site, we're doing faculty housing units up there through a public private partnership, as well as a district energy system, which we're putting in geothermal wells. We're putting in solar and putting in two additional wind turbines as well, to provide that hilltop up there with energy. As we move down the hill, we're doing construction work at Wey Hall. It’s a full renovation of Wey Hall which is the arts building. We come across the street there at Edwin Duncan. We'll talk about more of that later. We'll go down the street. We're doing some minor projects. Katherine Harper Kerr Scott, as we're moving the people out of Wey Hall, we're moving some of them into there as well, over into the Octagon and East Hall and then down in Hickory, we're doing a, renovation on the second floor, renovating the second floor. We're putting in a cyber lab, initially a kind of a general studies lab for like, chemistry, general sciences and then there's just a standard computer lab as well. Dave Blanks Okay. Computer lab, cybersecurity lab. And then to general instruction. Okay. Jeff Pierce  And then we'll renovate the other floor with other labs over the next 1 to 2 years down there as well. And then once we're done with that one, we'll move to the third, fourth and then fifth floor. Dave Blanks Total of five floors. Jeff Pierce  Correct. We got about $40 million that we've got right now, that we're planning out. And we'll take it as far as we go in this dynamic time of, inflation and construction these days.. Dave Blanks Well, everything when we started the Campus Construction Update, it was before Covid, and then we went through Covid and access to materials and inflation and all these other factors like, came in and became such huge players. And it's still... Jeff Pierce  It still is. It’s not as dramatic as it and it kind of pops around from roofs at the beginning and during the pandemic was hard to get long lead items. Dozer came back in line. But there will be different things like HVAC systems. Dave Blanks Right. Jeff Pierce  That are hard to get long lead items, generators and stuff. And pricing hasn't really came down that much. What has happened is we have adjusted our estimation to account for it to be more conservative, to account for that. Dave Blanks I'm not sure they want to come down on the price to be totally honest. Jeff Pierce  No. They don't and it never does. It's amazing. Once you get a rise it will drop down a little bit and then it will level off but it will never go back to where it was before. Dave Blanks Sad but true. Jeff Pierce  It’s the nature of the business. Dave Blanks Anything else broad overview you want to you want to mention before we get into, the post office? Jeff Pierce  No, we'll go ahead and dive into that. Dave Blanks Sounds good. Jacki, tell us what's happening with the post office. So let's start that way. Jacki McGuire  So the post office, we're doing a complete renovation of all of the public facing areas. So a new passport office, new counter for picking up packages and buying stamps, things like that, and then a new locker system that's really exciting. It's going to allow students and faculty and staff to pick up packages outside of business hours for the post office. Dave Blanks That is not something that's currently happening. Jacki McGuire  No. Right now with packages, you do have to go to the counter when they're open. Which is super inconvenient for some students if they're busy or faculty that are busy all day. So we're really excited to be able to expand the offerings for the post office. So this is my first capital project that I'm the project manager for. So since it's an interior renovation, we felt like this was a good fit as the university interior designer. So we're working with a design team called Studio Archibene. This our first project with them on this campus, so we're really excited to have a new architecture team. They've come up with some really fun ideas that really feel branded for App State and we’ve got some cool, unique features that we're going to have in there. Dave Blanks Some very different stuff. Yeah, no offense to the post office right now, not the most fun place in the world. I love the people that work there. They're fantastic. But yeah, the, the mock ups that I've seen look so cool. Especially the passport office as you, as you mentioned, isn't there going to be, like, a map on the wall or something? Dave Blanks Or you're thinking about it? Jacki McGuire  We're going to add it, I think, after the project we've been talking about what that might look like. We want to do a world map. So as people are coming to renew their passports, they can kind of put a little note of where our App family has been around the world. So that would be so cool. I think it's going to be super fun. This is going to bring the passport office out so that the entrance is coming from the lobby and there will be a true waiting area. So I think that's going to be a really nice addition and just kind of remind people that service exists. There also be some new furniture and a really cool block A installation that's going to be built by our carpentry shop. So we're very excited to be able to include them in something cool that will be a focal point for years to come. Dave Blanks Yeah, that's going to be fun. Currently the passport office, you can get your picture taken there, but you have to go like back around to where the employees are working. Not not really. Wasn't designed with that in mind I don’t think. Jacki McGuire  Yes. So I got to say the first time I went to that part of the post office, I was getting my passport and I felt so out of place. I was a brand new employee and I was like, this is not where I'm supposed to be, right now. Dave Blanks It feels like, yeah, it feels like employees only area. That's going to be great. So how long is that going to take? Do you all know is it started in earnest? It has now. Jacki McGuire  Yes. So, we have completed demo and they are in the process of putting up walls. So it's starting to really take shape. It's going to be ready at the end of the summer. Just in time for students come back. So it is a very short timeline, which is tough to do. But we wanted to make sure we were disrupting the services the post office provides as little as possible and making it easier for students when they come back. So all of this will make it a better environment for everybody involved. Jeff Pierce  Most people don't realize that we have a very short window to get our construction done, especially in an occupied building. So, usually our summer is our longest duration when we have, you know, less population on campus. And you figure it's only about three months and that's our longest time span. Then we try to hit, you know, critical outages during fall and spring break and then during a holiday break as well. But those are short durations. That's our biggest obstacle alot of the time is trying to find times to get the work done that have the least impact on our students and faculty. Dave Blanks Are you all starting with most of the things you need? You know what I mean? You’re not waiting on, those how did you phrase it? Jeff Pierce  Long lead items. So yeah, that's another one of our obstacles. And so like for Jacki, she can expand more on it. But just like the locker system. We knew that was a long lead item. We pulled that one out and we purchased that outside of the contract so we could go ahead and get that purchase and have it ready to meet that timeline. Dave Blanks Is it sitting somewhere right now on our campus? Jacki McGuire  No. Not yet. That is why. So, we had to order that as equipment outside of the project because it was, I think, I want to say, a three month lead time in itself. And since we only have three months to complete the project, we needed to get it ready. So, we expect those coming towards the en

  6. 04/22/2024

    Campus Construction Update, April 22, 2024

    Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management Nick Katers and Vice Provost of Academic Program Development and Strategic Initiatives Mike McKenzie join Dave Blanks in studio to discuss the renovation of Wey Hall.       TRANSCRIPT Dave Blanks: Hey folks, how's it going? I'm Dave Blanks from University Communications and this is the campus construction update. It's been a moment since I've been in studio, but it's good to be back here. And I'm joined by Nick Katers and Dr. Mike McKenzie. Mike is the... Hey guys, how's it going? I'll say hey to you first. Nick Katers: Good morning. Dr. McKenzie: Good, good to be here. Nick Katers: And how are you? Dave Blanks: I'm great. I'm doing well. So Mike McKenzie, the vice provost of Academic Program Development and Strategic Initiatives, also the designated Academic Affairs representative for the university's space committee, and the designated person from the provost leadership team who's been working with the associate vice chancellor, Mr. Nick Katers, our other guest on the academic needs related to the Wey Hall renovation. That's the topic of the day, is Wey Hall. Nick Katers, associate vice chancellor of Facilities Management. I'll just give a little information about Wey, and then we're going to address some questions about it. So Wey is the home of the Department of Art. It offers more than 100 course sections to approximately 1,400 students. The building's classrooms are used by University College for general education and for first-year seminar courses. I guess, Nick, when was Wey built? Wey's been there for a little while. Nick Katers: Right, yeah, that's exactly why we're talking about this today. So Wey Hall was built in 1976. It was the oldest building that the university had that had never been touched by a holistic renovation, so it was approaching end of life on several critical systems to include the electrical and plumbing. The bathrooms were out of date. The elevator was probably not functional about half the time, and there was no fire suppression or sprinkler system in the building. Now there is a fully functional alarm system, but given all of those faults and the impending loss of some of those critical systems, we judged it was time to give Wey a full comprehensive renovation. Dave Blanks: Right. Yeah. Well that makes sense. Yeah, 50 years is a long time and it's had smaller stuff done, like you said, but not, what was your terminology for it? Comprehensive. Nick Katers: Comprehensive renovation, essentially where we gut the whole thing and start over. Dave Blanks: So that's what we're getting into now and we will talk about that in a little bit, but I understand there have been recent safety concerns about Wey, so if y'all would like to speak to those, maybe? Nick Katers: During spring break, we had to do some destructive testing of the floors between the first and second floor. So we chose to do that where the students weren't there. The contractor ended up drilling some bores through the concrete deck of the second floor, and a couple of pieces of concrete fell. One fell into an unoccupied office at the time, and some other smaller pieces fell onto the ceiling tiles above one of the first floor labs. At no time did any of the concrete fall through an occupied area. Dave Blanks: Yeah. So that was a big concern for people and there were some different storylines going around out there, but thank you for clarifying that. So the renovation currently going on, when did it start? Nick Katers: Well, we've been working on the planning for about two years now, but we really started last summer by closing down the second and third floors. We decided because of a lack of similar type lab and industrial arts classrooms to keep the first floor open for this academic year while we work to find alternative spaces. But for the most part, the renovations are proceeding as scheduled on the second and third floor. The third floor is actually now starting to put new walls up. It's really looking pretty good. Dave Blanks: So was it completely gutted? Nick Katers: The second and third floors have been completely gutted. All the internal walls, all the bathrooms, everything was essentially pulled down so that we could start over. We had to run new electrical, new plumbing, new IT systems, HVAC improvements, fire suppression systems. All of those things are being added. And we're taking, similar to what we did with Sanford, we're taking the old internal elevator and moving it to the outside to be able to buy some of that space back for program area. Dave Blanks: Gotcha. Yeah, it looks cool on Sanford. I like the visual of that. Maybe Mike, I don't know if you could address this, but are faculty and staff still in Wey right now? Dr. McKenzie: So there are classes on that first floor, and those are those studio kind of classes, think your huge kilns and wood shops and metal shops. But the second and third floor are completely vacant, and the offices have been also vacated already. And those people have found homes across campus, a lot of them are in East Hall during the renovation. So the only active place right now in Wey Hall are those first floor studio spaces that, as Nick mentioned, are very unique. When Sanford shut down, it was just a matter of using our class software to move those classes to other locations across campus. And that works fine if you just need a classroom of 25 people, but when you need kilns and saws and those kinds of things, those classrooms don't exist. And so the decision was made in consultation with the academic leadership of the college, and consultation with the faculty, to keep the first floor open this year because it is the most unique space from an academic perspective we have on campus, I would say. Dave Blanks: Okay. How is App addressing the student learning experience? So students are... If they've had to move out of Wey and faculty and staff as well, where are they working now? Dr. McKenzie: So again, the studios are still open in Wey, so they have had access to all the equipment that they would've had under any other condition prior to this semester. Some of the other classes have been moved to East Hall. We have a class that Turchin has been nice enough to offer some space up. So if it's more of a traditional class, we've been able to move it really anywhere. If it is a very art-specific class where art is... They leave a trail sometimes. Dave Blanks: My dad was an artist, so yes. My mom will attest to that. Dr. McKenzie: Right. So a lot of those are in East Hall because we're not as concerned with paint and materials getting on the floor, the walls, as we would be if say I placed them in the College of Business for example. Dave Blanks: Right. Yeah. Okay, I see what you mean. You did mention East is a space that's being utilized. Can y'all talk a little bit about safety inspections that have occurred in Wey, in East? I understand there have been some, maybe Nick you can handle that? Nick Katers: That. Yeah, sure. Let me start with East. So East Hall, obviously a former residence hall built in 1952, built before the Americans with Disabilities Act was put in place. So there are some challenges that we have worked to address in East Hall. We're lucky to have three different level entrances into East Hall, and we've been able to accommodate every request that has come in. East Hall, again is an older building on campus. It has steam heat that's able to keep it climate controlled during the winter. What it doesn't have is a air conditioning system, and we still have a number of older buildings on campus that do not have air conditioning systems. So I'm happy that we've had a relatively mild spring so far, but East Hall was slated to be removed from inventory in the next couple of years. We had stopped using it as a residence hall, because we had the nice new beautiful residence halls on West Campus, and this provided us an opportunity to have some swing space while we were renovating both Wey and Duncan Hall. And so it's hard to take two academic buildings offline at the same time, but we were lucky enough to get this money from the legislature, so we had to move with what we had before prices went up too much. As far as safety inspections go, we've done multiple safety inspections at both East Hall and Wey Hall. At Wey Hall, we have ongoing daily inspections by Meter Construction, who's the general contractor. There are weekly inspections by the Office of Planning Design and Construction. And we also have an independent safety consultant that has been commissioned by Meter Construction to do that. Addressing some of the issues with the fire system, the Office of the State Fire Marshal came out on 1 April and conducted a holistic review of a previous inspection they had done in the fall. They passed the system. The fire alarm system is fully functional for all the studio spaces on the first floor, and they had no recommendations. We've had some internal inspections continue. We've had OSHA inspections that have all come through, and really the only findings that they have are to keep the access and egress areas clear. Sometimes we'll have stuff, not just from the contractor but from the students, to allow their pieces of work that they're working on there, sometimes that'll accumulate outside of the studio areas, and we just have to keep reinforcing that those access egress areas need to be kept clear. But right now there are no findings from the Office of the State Fire Marshal or the OSHA inspectors. Dave Blanks: So Nick, you mentioned it, the state legislature allocated quite a bit of money for the upgrade of Wey to bring it to a state-of-the-art experience for our art students. So how much did we receive? Nick Katers: 24.1 million is our current level of funding. Yeah, I would've told you when that was allocated in 2019, 2020, that that would've been more than enough, but we're still s

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Dave Blanks welcomes a variety of guests to discuss ongoing and future construction at App State.

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  • Creator
    Appalachian State University
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    6
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    Clean
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    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Campus Construction Updates