Faculty in the School of Education moved to Hewitt Union, for what was supposed to be one year, while Wilber Hall was being renovated. Nearly four years later, faculty are finally set to move back into Wilber Hall in August.
The Wilber Hall renovations are the third phase of a larger project that started with the addition of new labs in Wilber Hall in 2012 and the rehabilitation of Park Hall in 2013. The projects connected Wilber Hall and Park Hall, creating a new main entrance for the School of Education.
“It has been a long time coming,” said Allen Bradberry, the director of major projects at Oswego State.
The third and final phase of the project is focused on renovating the three-story, or “tower” section, of Wilber Hall. The project started on May 10, 2015, and will officially be completed on July 29, 2019, according to the Facilities Services January 2018 Monthly Project Update.
According to a story published in February 2016 in The Oswegonian, the original cost of Phase III was $9.6 million, with reconstruction starting after spring break in 2016 and lasting until the summer of 2017. The actual bid cost of the project was $10.5 million.
As of the Facilities Services January Monthly Project Update, the projected budget is over $14.7 million, with reconstruction and renovations lasting until June 3, 2019.
Bradberry said the delay of the project was caused by funding issues.
“[Funding issues] always are a problem with a capital plan,” Bradberry said.
Bradberry said weather had no impact on the project, due to the project being mostly interior, with the exception of the windows on the outside.
Annually, the governor approves the budget, and in the 2016-17 budget, there were no additions to the capital plan, Bradberry said.
“We were questioning when we were going to have one or not,” Bradberry said. “They did end up coming through with a $500 million capital plan, which allowed us to continue with that work, and we have other projects ongoing.”
Bradberry said the governor cut back on some of that funding this year for all of the SUNY system.
“This year it is only $350 million,” Bradberry said. “If you look at the budgets to maintain all of the buildings on campuses in New York state, it’s not a lot of money.”
The funding is in place right now for the projects currently underway, Bradberry said.
“The [projects] that are out one year, two years, three years, you can’t plan on with just a one-year budget plan,” Bradberry said. “The planning that goes on one year at a time, if you have a project going on that is phased, when you’re done, if you don’t get any more money, then that project has to stand on its own. Wherever you draw that line, it needs to work.”
The total cost included new furnishings, technology and more. Larry Gettino, the senior project coordinator, said they did not have to cut back costs after not receiving the entire amount they wanted.
“I think it was designed based on what we thought we were going to get,” Gettino said.
According to the Schematic Cost Estimate Summary from March 23, 2016, published on the Oswego State website, the cost of Phase III was originally projected at $8.1 million, but did not include soft costs, construction contingency, manager fees, soil remediation, furniture, fixtures, equipment and site work.
Mitch Fields, the associate vice president for facilities services, attended meetings regarding the renovations with other Oswego faculty, the Chiang O’Brien Architects working on the project and Pathfinder Engineers and Architects.
In the meeting report from Feb. 19, 2016, attendees discussed the designs, and the design team was told to evaluate a reduced project scope to meet the budget, with additional desired work identified as alternates. According to the report, Fields suggested doing work on the first to third floors with the basement build-out as an alternate. He requested that the project be “brilliantly inexpensive.”
Fields also said at the meeting that the project seemed to be on budget.
“Mitch Fields indicated that in his
experience, Baer’s estimates tend to be high, but in this case, certainly not so inflated that their conservative approach would suggest that the project is actually on budget,” according to the report.
The design team for the renovations is made up of Chiang O’Brien Architects, Pathfinder Engineers and Architects as the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineer, Ryan Biggs Clark Davis Engineering and Surveying as the structural engineer, Watts Architecture and Engineering as environmental design, Baer and Associates as cost estimating team, and Green2 Consulting as LEED consulting.
The Design Schematics Report from March 23, 2016, published on the Oswego State website, is based on review of existing building drawings dated June 3, 1963, prepared by Lorimer Rich and Associates, and observations made on March 4 and 9, 2016, by the design team. The report lays out current building conditions and plans for renovations.
According to the report, the current railing systems are extruded aluminum, with a handrail at 3 feet above the floor, an intermediate rail at 2 feet, and a second intermediate rail 1 foot above the floor at landings. The railing profiles are characteristic for the building’s vintage but are not in compliance with current standards.
“Section 705.2 of the Existing Building Code of New York State provides an exemption from compliance with the means of egress requirements of the code for buildings that were constructed in compliance with the codes in effect at the time,” according to the report.
The treads on the stairs have abrasive strip inserts, but not in a contrasting color for the visually impaired, according to the report.
According to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors website, objectives in designing a building’s lateral resistance to wind and earthquake forces are: to provide a system of shear walls, diaphragms, and interconnections to transfer lateral loads and overturning forces to the foundation; to prevent building collapse in extreme wind and seismic events; and to provide adequate stiffness to the structure for service loads experienced in moderate wind and seismic events.
It was also discovered by the design team that there is no defined lateral system noted in the existing building drawings.
In 2006, the first floor of Wilber Hall was renovated, and the interior masonry partition walls were removed. In 2015, the additional masonry walls were removed on the second and third floors, but full documentation of these changes were not available for review, according to the design schematics report.
“The steel framing is built tight to the exterior masonry walls and the interior partitions are typically 6-inch or 4-inch masonry. It is likely that originally the exterior and interior masonry walls provided the lateral strength of the building,” the report said.
According to the report, it is unclear whether the impact of removal of the masonry partitions was reviewed during the 2006 and 2015 renovations.
The design team also raised concerns about vertical cracking at some of the projecting pillars on the outside of the building. The existing steel columns are located within the projections, and the team concluded the columns could be corroding due to moisture infiltration and rust jacking.
Although, according to the Oswego State website, Oswego is committed to being a “leader in sustainability, improving the environment and developing a deeper awareness of environmental and technological departments.” The basis of mechanical design will focus on a system that maintains the use of the existing steam and distributed chilled water systems, as requested by the campus. According to the Design Schematics Report, high efficiency, geothermal system alternatives were explored and found to not be achievable within the project budget.
Per the LEED Schematic Project Scorecard and Task List for the renovations in the Design Schematics Report, a project requirement was to increase breathing zone outdoor air ventilation rates to all occupied spaces by at least 30 percent above the minimum rates required. According to the documentation comments, it would have a negative impact on energy performance.
The floor in Wilber Hall is a combination of wood, ceramic tile, vinyl-asbestos tile and carpeting, all of which will be demolished.
Asbestos removal is a major part of the renovations. Several different materials were identified as asbestos-containing materials, which contain greater than 1 percent of asbestos. According to the design schematics report, several materials have been previously removed during Phase I and II of the project.
Per the Mesothelioma Help website, the U.S. government recognized the danger of asbestos in 1918, after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report revealing an abnormally high risk of early death among asbestos workers. By 1960, multiple publications described the hazards of asbestos. At the time, asbestos was cheap, durable, flexible and naturally acted as an insulating and fireproofing agent.
As part of Phase III, the following asbestos materials will be abated: window caulk, window glazing compound, sprayed-on fireproofing, pipe and duct insulation, plaster walls, tan mastic on metal duct insulation hangers, transite panels, floor tiles, caulk in seams of concrete roof panels, vibration dampeners and transite pieces associated with elevator control panels.
“We’re fully into construction,” Gettino said. “We’re working our way from the top floor down and out of the building.”
Currently, Gettino said they are reinstalling mechanicals, electricals and plumbing, as well as putting up new walls and hanging new sheet rock on some of the floors.
In 2016, art students were occupying the building while Tyler’s renovations were being completed. Gettino said no one has been using the building for over a year.
“When we have major renovations like that in a building, typically we will relocate those folks,” Bradberry said. “In this case, there was a lot of them already relocated in other areas across the campus, and they remained there, and we took this building out of service.”
Offices across campus will be consolidated and moved into Wilber Hall.
“I think the programs have been able to operate in different locations, and people are more spread out than they have been,” Gettino said. “That’s often the goal of our new building with full renovations, to consolidate the departments that over the years have been around campus in different buildings and try to bring them back to one home.”
The building will be mostly faculty offices, with classrooms. Faculty are projected to be able to begin moving into their new offices in August.
“I think it’s going well,” Bradberry said. “School of [Education] has been in Hewitt for some time. It’s not that they’ve been displaced, it’s that they’ve had their place and it is now going to be consolidated. They’ve waited a while.”
Marcia Burrell, professor and chair of the curriculum and instruction department, said originally the professors were supposed to be moved to Hewitt for one year.
“We’ve been here now for four years,” Burrell said. “The good thing is that they prepared the space well. While our offices were not perfect, we did still have two classrooms over here that were similar to the classrooms that would have been in Wilber.”
Over the last four years, professors have gotten used to the space, Burrell said.
“I think our students got exactly the same service,” Burrell said. “When you’re a freshman, you don’t know what the space is supposed to look like. They just came and were accommodated at the space we’re in now.”
Students that are seniors now, probably were not in Wilber before they moved, Burrell said.
All faculty members were moved to Hewitt with the exception of three faculty members, all part of the ‘Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Program,’ who stayed in Park Hall.
“We can’t wait [to move in],” Burrell said. “It’s nothing like Wilber used to be. I think it will be worth the wait.”
Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian
