Barnard College Construction Update - Jan. 28, 2016

Dear Neighbor,

We hope you stayed warm and safe through the first (and we hope, only) blizzard of the season. We know there is a lot of activity along Claremont this week for us to tell you more about.

First, a clarification from last week’s post:  Although we’ve closed the entire length of the sidewalk on the Barnard side of Claremont from W. 116th to W. 120th, we want to emphasize that the entrance at W. 119th remains open and is not affected by the sidewalk closing. You will still be able to move across and through campus at the 119th Street entrances on Claremont and Broadway, as well as via the main entrance on Broadway.                                                                                       

Two-Week Look Ahead – Jan 28- Feb. 11

• In addition to continuing construction of the fence along Claremont, which we hope to have completed by the end of next week, we also will begin constructing the scaffolding around the perimeter of the fence. The first phase of this work will be on the north side of the site – between Lehman and Altschul halls – and along the Barnard lawn. You will start to see fine mesh netting in areas to further help contain dust. We also will be working to add netting and coverings on the north side of Barnard Hall to protect the building’s windows and air-handling unit during construction.
• We will be continuing our abatement work inside Lehman Hall on Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.-midnight for the next 4-6 weeks. The crews have started on the fourth floor and will work their way down. We have worked with our environmental safety consultants and the city's environmental protection officials to make certain we are using best practices in this abatement work. The recommended practices include closing most windows on each floor and sealing them on the inside with plastic. In addition, best practices call for using HEPA filtration units in a few windows on each floor to help contain dust particles within the workspace barrier. These units, which create negative pressure, are designed to capture 99.97% of airborne particles that measure 0.3 micrometers in diameter or greater.
• And finally, we will be removing five trees along Claremont Avenue that stand within the construction footprint. This area, along with the other spaces on campus where we’ve had to remove trees and shrubs to make way for the construction, will be landscaped once the teaching and learning center is completed in 2018.  

Questions?

We appreciate your consideration and patience. For general questions and comments, please email me at newbuilding@barnard.edu. If you have an urgent issue that needs to be addressed immediately, please email constructionteam@barnard.edu during regular work hours, or call Barnard Public Safety at 212/854-3362 outside of regular work hours.

You can also find specific construction-related FAQs on our website: http://barnard.edu/about-barnard/new-teaching-learning-center/construction-faqs.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Quenta Vettel, Communications Director, Special Projects
Barnard College