Campus Construction Update, June 14, 2024

App State Director of Planning, Design and Construction Jeff Pierce and University Interior Designer Jacki McGuire join University Communications' Dave Blanks in studio to discuss a number of ongoing campus construction and renovation projects at App State, including renovations to Edwin Duncan Hall and the University Post Office.

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

Dave Blanks
Hey, folks, this is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update. And I'm really happy to have Mr. Jeff Pierce and Jacki McGuire in the house. Hey, Jeff and Jacki how are y'all?

Jeff Pierce 
Hey, Dave, it's good to be back with you.

Jacki McGuire 
Hey Dave.

Dave Blanks
I know y'all are good because you've been talking, like, nonstop since you came in here, so...

Jeff Pierce 
It's always a good time with you, Dave and on podcasts.

Dave Blanks
I mean, you know, It is fun, and I'm glad that you're down here. And, that's the kind of energy we want, you know, for a podcast. Because if you're not talking, podcasts are pretty dull.

Jeff Pierce 
Go figure.

Dave Blanks
Yeah, I know! Weird right? So Jeff Pierce, the director of planning, design and construction, and Jacki McGuire, the university's interior designer. Great to have you both. And on the, podcast today, we're going to talk about, a few different things, an overview of some of the bigger projects that are going on, here in Boone, also in Hickory, also going to discuss the post office, which is getting a big change. It looks great in there. It looks really cool. I've seen some artist renderings, some mock ups. And then we're going to get specific on Edwin Duncan. But first off, Jeff, if you don't mind starting with, kind of a broad overview, get up, get up high for, for a view of the of the school and what we're doing.

Jeff Pierce 
Will do! We're doing $300 million worth of construction between the main campus here at Boone and the Hickory campus, the innovation campus, which is the old Broyhill Inn site, we're doing faculty housing units up there through a public private partnership, as well as a district energy system, which we're putting in geothermal wells. We're putting in solar and putting in two additional wind turbines as well, to provide that hilltop up there with energy. As we move down the hill, we're doing construction work at Wey Hall. It’s a full renovation of Wey Hall which is the arts building. We come across the street there at Edwin Duncan. We'll talk about more of that later. We'll go down the street. We're doing some minor projects. Katherine Harper Kerr Scott, as we're moving the people out of Wey Hall, we're moving some of them into there as well, over into the Octagon and East Hall and then down in Hickory, we're doing a, renovation on the second floor, renovating the second floor. We're putting in a cyber lab, initially a kind of a general studies lab for like, chemistry, general sciences and then there's just a standard computer lab as well.

Dave Blanks
Okay. Computer lab, cybersecurity lab. And then to general instruction. Okay.

Jeff Pierce 
And then we'll renovate the other floor with other labs over the next 1 to 2 years down there as well. And then once we're done with that one, we'll move to the third, fourth and then fifth floor.

Dave Blanks
Total of five floors.

Jeff Pierce 
Correct. We got about $40 million that we've got right now, that we're planning out. And we'll take it as far as we go in this dynamic time of, inflation and construction these days..

Dave Blanks
Well, everything when we started the Campus Construction Update, it was before Covid, and then we went through Covid and access to materials and inflation and all these other factors like, came in and became such huge players. And it's still...

Jeff Pierce 
It still is. It’s not as dramatic as it and it kind of pops around from roofs at the beginning and during the pandemic was hard to get long lead items. Dozer came back in line. But there will be different things like HVAC systems.

Dave Blanks
Right.

Jeff Pierce 
That are hard to get long lead items, generators and stuff. And pricing hasn't really came down that much. What has happened is we have adjusted our estimation to account for it to be more conservative, to account for that.

Dave Blanks
I'm not sure they want to come down on the price to be totally honest.

Jeff Pierce 
No. They don't and it never does. It's amazing. Once you get a rise it will drop down a little bit and then it will level off but it will never go back to where it was before.

Dave Blanks
Sad but true.

Jeff Pierce 
It’s the nature of the business.

Dave Blanks
Anything else broad overview you want to you want to mention before we get into, the post office?

Jeff Pierce 
No, we'll go ahead and dive into that.

Dave Blanks
Sounds good. Jacki, tell us what's happening with the post office. So let's start that way.

Jacki McGuire 
So the post office, we're doing a complete renovation of all of the public facing areas. So a new passport office, new counter for picking up packages and buying stamps, things like that, and then a new locker system that's really exciting. It's going to allow students and faculty and staff to pick up packages outside of business hours for the post office.

Dave Blanks
That is not something that's currently happening.

Jacki McGuire 
No. Right now with packages, you do have to go to the counter when they're open. Which is super inconvenient for some students if they're busy or faculty that are busy all day. So we're really excited to be able to expand the offerings for the post office. So this is my first capital project that I'm the project manager for. So since it's an interior renovation, we felt like this was a good fit as the university interior designer. So we're working with a design team called Studio Archibene. This our first project with them on this campus, so we're really excited to have a new architecture team. They've come up with some really fun ideas that really feel branded for App State and we’ve got some cool, unique features that we're going to have in there.

Dave Blanks
Some very different stuff. Yeah, no offense to the post office right now, not the most fun place in the world. I love the people that work there. They're fantastic. But yeah, the, the mock ups that I've seen look so cool. Especially the passport office as you, as you mentioned, isn't there going to be, like, a map on the wall or something?

Dave Blanks
Or you're thinking about it?

Jacki McGuire 
We're going to add it, I think, after the project we've been talking about what that might look like. We want to do a world map. So as people are coming to renew their passports, they can kind of put a little note of where our App family has been around the world. So that would be so cool. I think it's going to be super fun. This is going to bring the passport office out so that the entrance is coming from the lobby and there will be a true waiting area. So I think that's going to be a really nice addition and just kind of remind people that service exists. There also be some new furniture and a really cool block A installation that's going to be built by our carpentry shop. So we're very excited to be able to include them in something cool that will be a focal point for years to come.

Dave Blanks
Yeah, that's going to be fun. Currently the passport office, you can get your picture taken there, but you have to go like back around to where the employees are working. Not not really. Wasn't designed with that in mind I don’t think.

Jacki McGuire 
Yes. So I got to say the first time I went to that part of the post office, I was getting my passport and I felt so out of place. I was a brand new employee and I was like, this is not where I'm supposed to be, right now.

Dave Blanks
It feels like, yeah, it feels like employees only area. That's going to be great. So how long is that going to take? Do you all know is it started in earnest? It has now.

Jacki McGuire 
Yes. So, we have completed demo and they are in the process of putting up walls. So it's starting to really take shape. It's going to be ready at the end of the summer. Just in time for students come back. So it is a very short timeline, which is tough to do. But we wanted to make sure we were disrupting the services the post office provides as little as possible and making it easier for students when they come back. So all of this will make it a better environment for everybody involved.

Jeff Pierce 
Most people don't realize that we have a very short window to get our construction done, especially in an occupied building. So, usually our summer is our longest duration when we have, you know, less population on campus. And you figure it's only about three months and that's our longest time span. Then we try to hit, you know, critical outages during fall and spring break and then during a holiday break as well. But those are short durations. That's our biggest obstacle alot of the time is trying to find times to get the work done that have the least impact on our students and faculty.

Dave Blanks
Are you all starting with most of the things you need? You know what I mean? You’re not waiting on, those how did you phrase it?

Jeff Pierce 
Long lead items. So yeah, that's another one of our obstacles. And so like for Jacki, she can expand more on it. But just like the locker system. We knew that was a long lead item. We pulled that one out and we purchased that outside of the contract so we could go ahead and get that purchase and have it ready to meet that timeline.

Dave Blanks
Is it sitting somewhere right now on our campus?

Jacki McGuire 
No. Not yet. That is why. So, we had to order that as equipment outside of the project because it was, I think, I want to say, a three month lead time in itself. And since we only have three months to complete the project, we needed to get it ready. So, we expect those coming towards the end of July. They'll come in, get delivered and just slide right into place. So the contractor is basically going to build a little box out, and those lockers will slide in once they arrive.

Jeff Pierce 
So we have a lot of risk in our project. So we we have to plan a lot of times and go ahead and start construction with the hope. And I use that sparingly. But the hope that everything matches up perfectly at the end and comes together and you know, it doesn't impact the faculty and staff and students here.

Dave Blanks
That's the anticipation.

Jeff Pierce 
It is! You know, it's like the Heinz ketchup anticipation.

Dave Blanks
You’re waiting for it! Yeah! Well, so okay, how is it going to change with the old boxes like, I mean as far as, like what's happening with them. Are people still getting their mail and they can go check it like the way they used to. It's just that now a package can fit into it. Right?

Jacki McGuire 
Kind of. So one thing will be that you won't get assigned a specific P.O. box the way you used to. What will happen is you'll get an email that says you've received a package. You'll take your phone, your app card or whatever to the post office, and you can log in, swipe or scan a QR code at a kiosk, and that will pop open the locker where your product is, and you'll be able to pick that up whether it's mail, there's some smaller lockers for traditional mail or larger lockers for a package. So it'll allow the postal workers to utilize different lockers based on what's actually coming in that day.

Dave Blanks
Oh, that's gonna make it way easier for them to distribute that stuff.

Jacki McGuire 
They're super excited. And then things will only stay in the lockers for 24 hours. Then it'll get pulled out and you will have to go to the counter to pick them up at that point. But it also allows them to kind of keep track of things, because currently what happens is a lot of students get mail at the beginning of the semester and it just sits in their mailbox all year because they don't check it. So this is a better way to notify students and help make sure that the mail gets picked up and we don't have grandma's check sitting in the mailbox for a year.

Dave Blanks
Yes. Well, we don't want to miss out on that.

Jacki McGuire 
Right?!

Dave Blanks
Yeah. So what's the total cost? What are the numbers on that renovation?

Jacki McGuire 
So the post office is a $1.2 million budget. That includes the design services, the purchasing of the lockers, and the overall construction. Our biggest thing is on time and on budget. That's what planning, design and construction does.

Dave Blanks
Jeff, did she say that correctly?

Jeff Pierce
She did! That was perfect.

Dave Blanks
Okay. Excellent. If we're done with post office, why don't we move on to Edwin Duncan? So yeah, you can see driving past it. It's in a state now.

Jeff Pierce 
A state of openness.

Dave Blanks
Yeah, it’s wide open. the octagon area of it where I used to park. No longer an option for me. And y'all didn't run that past me before. You just.

Jeff Pierce 
I'm sorry. We we took away your covered, parking area, but however, let me put a plug in our $21.7 million parking deck will be open up. New 600 spots, down beside Holmes Convocation at the end of July.

Dave Blanks
It does look. It looks nice. That thing looks nice. Yeah. Lots of changes to Edwin Duncan. So, where are we on that, Jeff?

Jeff Pierce 
So right now we are in the middle of getting the final contract awarded. It's been awarded to Vannoy Construction. They've already started. We had a couple early packages that was awarded, which is demolition. That's what you're seeing going on right now. So they've demolished, gone in and opened up, taken out the windows on all three floors. We got all the hazardous material out. There was asbestos in that building. And any time we go in, do a renovation, we go in and we remove all the hazardous material and we go back in with clean material that is not a hazard to anybody in the future. So we've gone through and done that. The building's roughly about 90,000ft² between the three floors. We've got about 26 million to do that renovation. The octagon. We're not going to we're doing some temporary construction there to move some of the art students in like ceramics and stuff like that, though. So that’s in there for a year, because.

Dave Blanks
Wey is still...

Jeff Pierce 
Wey is under full construction there.

Dave Blanks
Right.

Jeff Pierce 
So we’ve had to find some extra space to be, very, studious about finding open space to put, these departments into because we're out of swing space.

Dave Blanks
And if this is the first, campus construction podcast you're listening to, then listen to the previous one if you're interested in hearing about Wey and because, Mike McKenzie and Nick Katers came in and were so kind as to give us a lot of information about that.

Jeff Pierce 
Yeah. So Edwin Duncan will be totally the college of Fine and Applied Arts. And so you'll have, some labs, you'll have some teaching spaces all on the first floor. You come up to the second floor it’s more the admin is where the dean suite will be at some more teaching spaces, larger classrooms. And then the third floor will be where the faculty will be at.

Jeff Pierce 
You know, our construction up here, these buildings were built in the 1960s.

Dave Blanks
Okay. Edwin Duncan was the 60s.

Jeff Pierce 
Yes. Yeah. 1960s building...Wey... And so these are 1960s buildings. So we're just going there and gutting them and bringing in all completely new HVAC systems and Electrical systems. Wey was never sprinklered. So we're putting a new sprinkler system in there. Same way with the Edwin Duncan.

Dave Blanks
So Jackie, what have you been doing with Edwin Duncan? I mean, I guess here you haven’t been able to get in there and put anything in there yet.

Jacki McGuire 
No, but we have started conversations. We're really trying to think about the interior design of Edwin Duncan and Wey Hall together, as two big buildings that are part of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. So, we're looking at how we can use finishes that are similar across both buildings, make them feel like they're part of that same college, and give that college an identity that it hasn't really had in the past.

Jeff Pierce 
And what we're going to do there is we'll take these design standards or these guidelines. And so, like Jacki will put together an interior package that we’ll be able to go back to future renovations and say, all right, here's what we use. And so it should make the process a lot easier for our faculty and staff as we move forward as we go through the design process.

Dave Blanks
Gotcha. Jacki, what's something you're excited about that we haven't done? Can you share anything specific?

Jacki McGuire 
Well, for me, one exciting thing that we've only started talking about in our office is developing some campus standards for interior design. So, currently we have campus standards for a lot of the things that are shops do in their specialties with, you know, electrical, HVAC all those types of things. But we don't have a lot of interior design standards. And if anybody's been to surplus, you'll see that our warehouse is super full of mismatched, old, outdated items that people just don't want.

Dave Blanks
Sounds cool. I want to get a surplus.

Jacki McGuire 
So, we're trying to be really thoughtful about when we do buy new furniture. What does that look like? So that we can have things across campus that all feel cohesive. People will be more likely to keep them longer and be able to repurpose them in new places, because everything feels kind of connected. So I'm really excited to kind of improve our App State branding in a way that you feel like you're here without having it pushed in your face. Right. and we just really want to create a great, fun space. I taught last semester, and I had some students tell me they had friends who had really cool spaces on their campuses that they saw on social media.

Dave Blanks
Jelly.

Jacki McGuire 
I mean, I was so I'm really trying to, you know, we have cool outdoor spaces, now let's work on the indoor spaces. So we've been really working on some cool, fun ideas, bringing some better identity to campus.

Dave Blanks
Nice. Well, that is exciting.

Jeff Pierce 
It also ties back into our sustainability goal as well. So as we standardize our interior design, our furniture, so forth, if we have a need somewhere else when we're renovating a space, we can take that furniture and move it somewhere else.

Dave Blanks
Right.

Jeff Pierce 
Reuse it and repurpose it.

Dave Blanks
So it doesn't end up sad, mismatched and alone in the surplus.

Jacki McGuire 
Exactly.

Dave Blanks
Yeah I gotcha. Well, anything else you want to cover before we wrap it up today?

Jeff Pierce 
Well, yes, there's one other thing. So we started the, campus master plan.

Dave Blanks
Okay.

Jeff Pierce 
And so we were starting down that. We started a data gathering, and some of the areas that we were looking at was outdoor spaces. How can we improve upon that? What we've done, Dave, just let everybody know that we've put that on pause at this point in time.

Jeff Pierce 
Due to the change in leadership here at the university. We want to just pause that and then we'll pick that up once things get set in the future with the new leadership, then we'll pick that back up. And those are the things that we'll be looking at our campus standards, our guidelines, better meeting spaces outside. How do we utilize our environment? Which is why a biggest number of our kids come here. They love the space here. Then taking that down to Hickory as well, what's going to be the nuances down there that's going to attract the kids to go down there. And what's going to be those key courses and offerings down there.

Dave Blanks
Okay. So the master plan right now.

Jeff Pierce 
Is on hold.

Dave Blanks
So well all right. Thank you. That's a good head's up to have. Thank you. You all thank you so much! Jacki McGuire. Mr. Jeff Pierce, I appreciate you both very, very much for coming in today. And, yeah, thanks a lot.

Jeff Pierce 
Always a pleasure. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Jacki McGuire 
Yeah, thanks!