Barnard College Construction Update - Feb. 10, 2016

Dear Neighbor,

We are nearing completion of the work inside Lehman Hall that must be done before we can begin demolition. The building will be demolished from the top down beginning in late February/early March and we should be finished sometime in mid-to-late May.

Demolition will be a noisy operation, but we have noise and dust mitigation measures in place to minimize the impacts.  You can visit Construction FAQs for more information.

The construction fence is nearly finished, and we are awaiting delivery of the sound-deadening blankets which we’ll install over the next couple of weeks.

We continue to hear from people about the closure of the sidewalk on the east side of Claremont Avenue and the inconvenience of having to continue walking down 116th Street to cross to the west side of Claremont. While we understand the inconvenience, the reason the Department of Transportation required the sidewalk closure in Barnard’s permit is to increase the number of people using the 116th Street crosswalk to decrease jaywalking and increase safety.  This is especially important during construction.  

The crossing issues on Claremont are, of course, not a new issue. As the Department of Transportation explained during our permitting discussions, they believe the crosswalks at 116th Street and 120th Street are sufficient for the block, and they do not intend to add any additional crosswalks or sidewalks.                                             

Two-Week Look Ahead – Feb. 10- 24

In addition to finishing the construction fence, we are continuing to build the scaffolding around the site. We have had a few days in the past week when weather caused us to get a later start in the morning, which means we have run past our usual 4 p.m. closing time.  Just a reminder, our permits do allow us to work until 6 p.m., but we hope to keep that to a minimum and finish most days by 4 p.m.

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 our overall construction plan and 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