To: The Wellesley Community
From: Dave Chakraborty, Ann Velenchik, Cathy Summa, Tim Singleton, and Michelle Maheu, Science Center Core Project Team
Re: Update on What’s Happening on Science Hill
Date: September 4, 2018
We hope you all had a great summer. We are excited to welcome you back to campus and fill you in on the many things that have been happening and will continue to happen on Science Hill.
The Projects:
Modular teaching and research spaces: Over the course of the spring we built nearly 30,000 square feet of modular buildings and moved much of the activity from the L wing into those spaces. The series of connected structures can be entered from the north, east or west, and are color coded as follows, starting from the north:
The Brick/Brown painted building is Mod 1, room numbers M100s
The Blue painted building is Mod 2, room numbers M200s
The Yellow painted building is Mod 3, room numbers M300s
The Green painted building is Mod 4, room numbers M400s
Global Flora: The foundation and steel structure for Global Flora are complete and it is easy to see, already, how beautiful this new facility is going to be. We are on target for completion in summer 2019.
Observatory: The utility work has begun and we expect to complete work on the new dome by the end of the fall semester.
The L wing Exterior: Even walking past on College Road you can see the heavy equipment and the people working to replace the exterior of the building with new aluminum framing and new glass. The new framing replicates the original paint colors, which have faded a great deal since the building was built. So far, the new parts are beautiful and it is very exciting to think that we will soon be able to see what the science center looked like when it was fresh and new. We are on track to have this work completed before the winter comes. Also be on the lookout for landscape grading to be done to prepare for the new front porch.
The L wing Interior: Through truly Herculean effort on the part of science center faculty and staff and the team from facilities, the L wing was emptied this spring and early summer, and work on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems has begun, as has the work to create the new Data Lab/Data Lounge in the library space. If you go into the Focus, you will see a temporary wall blocking off that space to contain the construction work. When the wall was erected, we removed the taxidermed birds that had lined the beams in that space, as well as the birds in the glass cases on the L wing façade facing the focus. The birds were sent to the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, where they can be properly stored and conserved. We recognize that they were a well-known feature of the space, but we also recognize that, as scientific specimens, they were not being properly cared for here and need to be curated appropriately. We have retained some examples that we will incorporate in display along with other important items that illustrate the history of science teaching at the College.
Navigating the Site:
Please note that all of Science Hill is an active construction site and it is important that all members of our community obey the posted signs, refrain from entering the construction zones even when work is not underway, and exercise caution whenever you are near work areas.
As you can see from the road, you cannot enter the Science Center through the L wing entrance on College Road. The main entrance to the building is through Sage Hall, opposite the observatory. To access that entrance, and the modular classrooms on Gray lot, you may follow the path around the L wing to the east or take the path up hill from Paramecium Pond to the west of the building. The better route depends on your starting point and your relative preference for shorter and steeper versus longer and flatter. There are signs posted to guide you.
Noise and Disruption:
We wish we could write and say that we will be doing this work with a new noise-free, dust-free, disruption-free building technology but, sadly, there is no such thing. We are working with our general contractor, Turner Construction, with their subcontractors and with a team of mitigation consultants from CSL Consulting to make sure that we do everything we can to keep occupants, neighbors and the community as a whole informed about what to expect, and to minimize the negative impacts of the project on your environment. If we are failing to do that, please let us know by writing to scienceconstruction@wellesley.
This is, as we have said over and over again, the most complicated construction project in the College’s history and, we are told, among the most complicated that our architects and contractors have worked on. It is moving forward successfully because of the focused effort of an enormous team of people on campus and off, and because of the good-natured collaboration of the faculty, staff and students in the science center. Our heartfelt thanks to you all.
