Whoa!

8/13/08 - Whoa! The days are FLYing by.

Regents Hall is a beehive of activity as we head to Friday 8/15 when we hope to get a conditional certificate of occupancy for the west wing. A second conditional permit for the east wing will be on 8/22, and the final on 8/29.

Everything looks to be on track for 8/15, but there’s still plenty to do. In order to get a conditional occupancy permit, all of the life safety aspects of the building must be complete, tested, and operational. The college has seen a great deal of cooperation between contractors and sub-contractors the appropriate Northfield officials and the State of Minnesota inspectors for plumbing and elevators.

Boldt’s Jim McConachie helped to set the stage for this cooperative attitude by asking to meet with Building Official John Brookins, Community Development Director Brian O’Connell, Fire Chief Gerry Franek, and City Planner Dan Olson, when the very early conceptual ideas were first on paper. The basic concept of the building – entries, number of occupants, circulation, and exiting – was introduced so that we could get early reactions. With that sort of information, we could make any conceptual changes that were needed before there was further design development. These sessions continued informally through the project and the formal and informal communication established a new level of city/college relations. A real win – win for St. Olaf and Northfield.

McConachie has been the lead Boldt person for St/ Olaf projects since the addition to, and renovation of, Rolvaag Library in the early ‘90s. He’s a resident of Cloquet, MN, location of Boldt’s Minnesota Operations office. He has contributed to a great body of work at St. Olaf with the Rolvaag project, Buntrock Commons, Dittmann Center, the Tostrud Center, the wind turbine, Boe Chapel, and other smaller projects before Regents Hall. Four or five of these are among the very best buildings of their kind in America.

Jim and his wife Nancy, a teacher and retired coach in Cloquet, had two kids who are smart enough to settle in great places to visit, Colorado and Florida. He is a guy with more hobbies than time as he is an avid hunter, fisherman, archer, and golfer. He was also one of the lead people for the Cloquet Hockey Association when they built the newer Cloquet arena with volunteer labor.

Jim is planning to open a bait shop in Death Valley at the conclusion of Regents Hall work.