You think this is going to be done in HOW many days?

(Answer - it depends, either 18 or 36)

I'm Pete Sandberg, assistant vice president for facilities at St. Olaf College. It's a Monday and I'm trying retrain myself after a four day weekend "vacation". We're going to be blogging during the countdown to Regents Hall coming on line, and I hope you find it interesting. Feel free to write with comments or something you'd like to know about. By the way - it is Regents Hall, not Regent's, or Regents'. Like our Kings Room it is plural but not possessive!

There are 18 days until we hope to get a conditional Certificate of Occupancy for Regents Hall at St. Olaf College on August 15. A conditional certificate allows us to move in and do some things, but with conditions. We hope to get a final Certificate of Occupancy another 18 days later on September 2. Conditional lets us move in and get things set up. The actual work of professors and support staff cannot begin until we have the final CO. I know, it's science, but CO is Certificate of Occupancy, not carbon monoxide!

The 2nd is a pretty important date because classes begin on the 4th, and once we set off down the moving road everything and everyone is committed to being able to teach and learn on the 4th.

So, with 18 or 36 days to go, what all is happening? The short answer is - everything! Literally every trade that has ever been on the job is still on it, or in some cases, is on it again. Maybe 150 people are in, on, or around the building every day this week.

Most spaces in the west wing are nearing completion. Today crews are pulling together the far west classrooms that are in each of the top three floors. Once those and the west atrium are complete we will be able to begin final cleaning and finishing of surfaces. The labs are largely complete, and finishing touches are underway for the faculty offices.

The central atrium made a great deal of progress over the last week, and while there is plenty to do you can see today that it will house a collection of some of the best spaces on campus. In particular, the 400 level (top floor) study-lounge spaces just outside the entry to the rooftop greenhouse on the east wing has striking views of Norway Valley, the Cannon River Valley, and Northfield. The 100 level of the center atrium is also student study-lounge space, and it serves the adjacent Science Library as well as providing reception space for one of the many speakers who will present in the large lecture hall that is contiguous with it. The south half of the 200 level is a coffee shop with seating literally out in Norway Valley. The north side of this space is still more group study are. The 300 level south is a large conference room that projects out into the Valley and is actually surrounded by glazing.

Even our jaded construction professionals get excited in some spaces and can see that we'll make our dates. Then, a walk down another corridor may have the same group shaking their heads wondering why they ever promised whatever it was they committed to. This situation is just the nature of our beast.

Why the great big rush?

We did a ton of early work to move the construction start, and so, occupancy, forward a full year. With the exploding construction material market and commodity futures going off the charts, this brave decision of the board of regents made it possible to do the work within the funding levels we'd identified while projects all over the country went off the rails. In fact, at a recent conference, a team from St. Olaf heard prominent architects who specialize in science say that they felt it was impossible to do much at all for a science building with less than $450 per square foot.

Regents Hall is likely to achieve LEED Platinum status, and be a beautiful St. Olaf building, for about $320 per square foot and this is a tremendous achievement

When we approached our lead team from Boldt Construction with a scenario that moved things 365 days closer, they rolled up their sleeves, went through everything possible, and said that it could be done. The lead sub contractors readily agreed to give it a try, as did the architects and engineers of Holabird and Root.

Everyone involved knew at the start that we'd be in just about exactly the spot we are in this week, so most are fairly sanguine. Still - many are also in the start up phase of the sleepless nights that will take them through the CO.

Luckily, there is still a great esprits de corps on the site, and that has been one of the strongest features of the job to date. From the wonderful faculty design team, through the design-build team of St. Olaf facilities folks, Boldt staff, Holabird and Root architects and engineers,the lead sub-contractors, and really all of the contractors who've had anything to do with the job, everyone is sort of in love with the project and working to do their best for St. Olaf.