当我在校园或城镇周围看到大学或城市社区成员时, the question I get is, “What is going on with the Powerhouse construction?” The simple answer is “Lots!”

Working with new Powerhouse Director Steve Robinson，我们认为详细的施工简介会受到社区的欢迎. Going forward, we will provide twice-monthly updates.

As a quick reminder for new members of our community, Powerhouse是学院新成立的联合学生会, recreation, and athletic center. 它旨在以多种方式增强学院当前的使命. The project’s $38 million cost is fully funded by donations from alumni and friends of the college and with significant public resources in the form of tax credits and grants from the state and federal government. 最近，它是世界上10个被授予荣誉的项目之一 World Architecture Festival.

Construction

 

Construction kicked off in late spring of 2017 when Alliant Energy/WPL undertook the complicated task of removing all the equipment that was previously used to generate electricity for the region. 这包括切割、移除和回收成千上万吨的金属. This first phase was completed by March 1, 2018.

在此之后，我们位于beloit的施工经理CCI, Inc.接管了场地，并开始了他们的工作，以实现我们在2019年秋季开放建筑的愿景.

Progress continues each day, and this post is intended to give you a flavor of the work going on that often cannot be seen from the street.

Structural Steel

 

目前的建筑中大多不存在已完成的发电站的多个层次. Removing six-story coal boilers and two 30 megawatt turbines left wide open spaces ready for us to fill in with our vision.

Practically this means tons and tons of structural steel are installed by a specialty crew of ironworkers. They install steel beams — called ‘horizontal members’ — and attach these to the existing vertical columns — called, interestingly enough, “柱子”和支架连接到现有建筑基础的厚混凝土墙上.

After this steel is installed, decking is put down, 很快，混凝土就会被浇筑起来，为我们的大楼新建一层. In some places, we will tile or carpet this floor, 但通常我们会有一个专业的混凝土抛光生产我们的成品和耐用的地板. 地下室还包括棒球和垒球击球区，非常远.

从Powerhouse开始，我们一直致力于100%可访问. For us, that means bringing principles of universal design into both the building and the programming of the building. 我们住在校园里，校园里的建筑可以追溯到19世纪, with too many places that are not fully accessible.

为了达到这些目标，我们将在大楼里安装四台电梯. 主要的两部电梯将到达大楼的每一层. With two, there is a redundancy that will allow for more rapid movement throughout the building and will allow for planned or unplanned service calls to occur while still keeping the building fully accessible.

The third elevator will meet the bridge as it comes over from campus and will connect the bridge level with the “main” level 2 and the ground floor level 1. 这座桥将直接穿过奥尔德里奇菲尔德地区，而不需要走上斜坡.

第四部电梯是货梯，以确保我们的工作人员可以移动设备, food, and trash, etc.，有效地在12万平方英尺的“动力发电站”内运行.

这些电梯塔正在大楼里拔地而起.

The lower level floor is beginning to take shape. We are raising the floor from 18 to 30 inches and putting in a modern drain tile system to ensure any ground water that makes it into the space below the floor is quickly pumped out with a sump system. 地下室也有多个储藏室占用空间.

储藏室的地板已经填满，混凝土浇筑完毕. A little window into the life of a project manager: I was oddly and unnaturally excited this summer about one of the rooms that had a finished floor drain. 看到大楼的第一部分完工真是太好了.

The campus vision, achieved through a shared governance process, 寻求在高等教育中建立一个独特的建筑-这个联合学生会, recreation, and athletic center. It is meant not to compartmentalize each space but to build a space that allows our community to move from one part of their Beloit experience to another.

A key part of that vision is a new 165-seat auditorium This space spans between the lower level and the ground floor. 它将有高质量的投影设备，弯曲的排和倾斜的座位. Events will range from Weissberg residency talks to Academic Senate to Beloit International Film festival screenings. 是的，学生生活计划在这里为学生放映电影.