Dolan Center users get a peak at their future home

"The whole construction team is excited to be here," declared Bill Heywood, who is responsible for quality control for Turner Construction, the general contractor for the $66.4 million Dolan Center for Science and Technology.  "This is not your typical commercial building.  This is built to last forever.  Architecturally it will be a beautiful building."

Heywood, whose father, John, is a 1952 graduate of JCU, gave a tour of the site to several members of the users committee, including the chairman, David Ewing (chemistry); Nick Baumgartner and Joseph Miller, Dean and Associate Dean, respectively, of the College of Arts & Sciences; Paul Challen (Chemistry Chair); Dwight Olson (Mathematics & Computer Sciences Chair); Jerry Moreno (Math & Computer Science); and Klaus Fritsch (Physics).  Also on hand from Turner was Civil Engineer Courtney Arrington, an alumna of Hathaway Brown and graduate of Tufts University.

Heywood, who was a carpenter on the construction crew that built Hamlin Hall, said the mechanical phase of construction (installation of air handling, power and other utilities, as well as oxygen and gas and other facilities for laboratories) is massive.  "The mechanical drawings for this job are 4 inches thick," he said, comparing the Dolan Center to a gigantic emergency room.

Pouring of concrete is about one-third complete and will be ready for the structural steel to be erected beginning in mid-January.  Each column (like the one in the background, above right) sits on two truckloads of concrete.  The team includes a specialist whose sole job is to test every load of concrete.  "If it's not up to snuff, everything that truck delivered is torn out," Heywood said.  "The bottom line is, if you use the subcontractors we're using, you're not going to have a problem."  Subcontractors currently include Independence Excavating, Cleveland Cement Contractors, Kelley Steel Erectors, Foti Masonry and Carroll Glass.