Cold Weather Slowing North Adams School Project

The frigid weather is making masonry work difficult at Colegrove Park Elementary School.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The bitter cold has been slowing down some of the renovation work at what will be Colegrove Park Elementary School.

With the project at about 50 percent, officials are confident the contractor will meet the "substantially complete" deadline of July 22 — but the weather isn't helping.

"This cold weather is a big, big challenge," Daniel Daisy, representing owner's project manager Strategic Building Solutions, told the School Building Committee on Monday. "It's just unbearably cold right now."

A good portion of the three-story former high school has been covered in plastic and portable heaters are working full blast to keep workers and materials from freezing.

The main issue has been the masonry work, which requires warm temperatures, Daisy said. "This is one of the areas that's a challenge because of the weather."

That work has affected the schedule for installing windows because the masonry window openings have to be rebuilt, fortified and repointed. All of the windows are onsite and the subcontractor has been working with officials to install them as a section is completed.

The good news is that the roof is complete with the exception of a small portion on the south end of the building. That will be finished as the weather warms but since it was in good shape to begin with, there is no concern of leaking.

New mechanical equipment in still being installed and the ductwork is being tested; the sprinkler system is nominally complete on the first and third floors and interior concrete work is being finished up.

Drywall and framing have also started but continued structural work is forcing crews to work around certain areas. Daisy said the only a couple beams are left to install but they require chopping out existing floor joists and piecing everything back together.

The new gym subfloor is also nearly complete and required some creative construction since it is covering what had been the sloped auditorium floor.

Margo Jones of Jones Whitsett Architects noted, however, that reimbursement invoices had jumped, showing "they're picking up speed."

Dorrie Brooks of Jones Whitsett Architects gave a preview of some of the furniture being considered for the school. Bidders may offer alternatives from that selected by the school's designer, Blue Line Design, so there will be a process for making changes before the final selection.

The focus is on versatile furnishings — tables that can moved around or connected — and chairs and stools with a little bounce for restive children. The idea is to vary the size and shapes at each grade but still have a connected style throughout the school, including cafeteria furniture, chairs and moveable stacks in the library, hi-tops and stools, conferance tables and audio-visual carts.

"All kind of coordinated together so it works," said Brooks, adding the furniture colors will coordinate with that chosen for each floor.

The school will also feature information on its history and its Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design designation, expected to be silver or gold.

Reused blackboards mounted on acrylic will offer explanations as to the changes in the century-old school's layout as it was expanded and changed from high school to middle school to now an elementary school. It will also look at the costs and benefits associated with renovating, the masonry construction and new energy efficiencies.

Brooks said the information panels will really be targeted for adults, but the cafeteria and gym areas will feature 8-by-10-foot picture panels of the school's past. The difficulty has been in finding good images that can be blown up to that size.  

"The photos have to be high quality enough to reproduce at that scale," she said.

The committee will next meet on Monday, March 16; a walk-through of the building has been tentatively scheduled for March 27.

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