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photo by Lin Finishing touches are being made to the new Life Sciences building, which is scheduled for completion by June.

David Moore is proud. The company he works for, Wolverine Construction, is just putting the finishing touches on the new Life Sciences building and they are almost dead on schedule.

Squinting through the bright sunlight at the Life Sciences building, Moore, the superintendent in charge of the site, was full of praise for his company. “This should have been a 16 to 18 month project; we’re done in 13,” he said. “We just kicked it in the butt and I’m real happy with the progress we’ve made.”

Construction on the Life Sciences building is expected to be complete by the first of June, just 15 days later than the goal set at the beginning of work on the site.

The new engineering building, which is also being built by Wolverine, is scheduled for completion by August 15 of this year. Both buildings will be used for classes in the fall.

Moore explained that this is one of the most technologically advanced building he has ever worked on. “For a building of this size (75,000 square feet), technical aspects (such as ventilation, electrical, plumbing and electronics) would normally add up to $500,000. The Life Sciences building has $4.5 million in technical aspects.”

Walking through the construction site, Moore pointed out different interesting aspects of the new building. Michigan State University just built a new animal research building, he said, and the new Life Sciences building is at a par with this building. “It’s state-of-the-art.”

Moore, whose first project was to build the Gerald R. Ford Museum downtown, says that the finishing touches are being put on the Life Sciences building in anticipation of its June completion. The first floor is 99 percent done, the second floor 90 percent complete, and the third floor 85 percent finished. Already, fume hoods and lab tables have been installed in the building. The scientific equipment is expected to arrive over the summer.

The engineering building is not as far along, as much of the raw concrete, brick and roofing is currently being laid down. Moore expects the finishing touches on this building to be done within the next few months.

But these will not be the only changes made this summer, said Calvin Architect Frank Gorman. A new version of the Master Plan, an outline of the changes anticipated on campus over the course of the next few years, was released on April 15 (see the upcoming edition of Dialogue for a copy of the Master Plan). The Plan calls for four athletic fields to be added in the northwest corner of Calvin’s campus.

Students this fall will also find additional parking space on campus. Three hundred spots will be added to the Kalsbeek-Huizenga lot, and the Burton Street lot will be expanded by 120 spaces.

In addition, renovations will be done in the existing Science Building, beginning this June. Gorman expects the ground, first and second floor renovations to be completed by September. If renovations are completed on time, the Psychology department, which is currently on the third floor of Spoelhof Center, will move to the third floor of the Science Building during interim.

Looking farther ahead, construction is set to begin in spring of 2000 on a pedestrian bridge across the East Beltline, additional parking and a road connecting the campus directly with East Paris Ave.

Groundbreaking on the DeVos Communications Arts and Sciences building is expected to take place in spring 2001, and work is set to begin on the Prince Conference building in 2002.