Update Memo of April 21st

Our contractor, PCF State, is taking full advantage of the Spring Break to complete as much of the necessary demolition work as possible so that there will be much less dust and noise when the children return on April 28. The contractor reports that he is making good progress and expects to complete all of his objectives, including the structural reinforcement of the main roof beams. With the approval of the controlling engineer, the steel will be encapsulated in concrete and plastered. Consequently, all of the existing lally columns should be removed by the end of Spring Break.

The raking of the mortar joints on the Garfield Place facade has progressed down to the sidewalk bridge level, and should be completed by next week. Bricks are being laid in the light well, and the statue of Moses is ready to be dismantled and moved.

The Garfield Place parapet wall still needs to be dismantled so that continuous through-the-wall flashing can be installed. The parapet wall will then be rebuilt. These measures will go a long way to correct our water infiltration problems.

We've retained the services of Precision Environmental Inc. to monitor air quality, ventilation and noise as well as other work on an as needed basis. The true scope of their work will be determined after they meet with the contractor next Tuesday.

We've hired an outside cleaning firm to thoroughly clean all the classrooms and hallways on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the Temple House just before the children return. This work will occur over the April 26 weekend.

We fully expect the Temple House to be ready to receive students on Monday, April 28. Just in case some unexpected work comes up that might be intrusive, we're moving the fourth floor nursery school children across the street to the Rotunda classrooms for the remainder of the year. As for program scheduling for the summer and next year, we won’t have definite answers about building and classroom usage until Precision Environmental performs its work.

Until summer, when the next phase of demolition work is scheduled, the contractor will be focusing on production work—i.e., laying brick and other rebuilding work. This work will be neither noisy nor dusty.

Finally (for now), we are identifying candidates to serve as the owner's representative (project manager), and hope to have more to report on this in the next update.