Campus Construction Update, June 14, 2024

App State Director of Planning, Design and Construction Jeff Pierce and University Interior Designer Jacki McGuire join University Communications' Dave Blanks in studio to discuss a number of ongoing campus construction and renovation projects at App State, including renovations to Edwin Duncan Hall and the University Post Office.

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

Dave Blanks Hey, folks, this is Dave Blanks from University Communications back with a Campus Construction Update. And I'm really happy to have Mr. Jeff Pierce and Jacki McGuire in the house. Hey, Jeff and Jacki how are y'all?

Jeff Pierce  Hey, Dave, it's good to be back with you.

Jacki McGuire  Hey Dave.

Dave Blanks I know y'all are good because you've been talking, like, nonstop since you came in here, so...

Jeff Pierce  It's always a good time with you, Dave and on podcasts.

Dave Blanks I mean, you know, It is fun, and I'm glad that you're down here. And, that's the kind of energy we want, you know, for a podcast. Because if you're not talking, podcasts are pretty dull.

Jeff Pierce  Go figure.

Dave Blanks Yeah, I know! Weird right? So Jeff Pierce, the director of planning, design and construction, and Jacki McGuire, the university's interior designer. Great to have you both. And on the, podcast today, we're going to talk about, a few different things, an overview of some of the bigger projects that are going on, here in Boone, also in Hickory, also going to discuss the post office, which is getting a big change. It looks great in there. It looks really cool. I've seen some artist renderings, some mock ups. And then we're going to get specific on Edwin Duncan. But first off, Jeff, if you don't mind starting with, kind of a broad overview, get up, get up high for, for a view of the of the school and what we're doing.

Jeff Pierce  Will do! We're doing $300 million worth of construction between the main campus here at Boone and the Hickory campus, the innovation campus, which is the old Broyhill Inn site, we're doing faculty housing units up there through a public private partnership, as well as a district energy system, which we're putting in geothermal wells. We're putting in solar and putting in two additional wind turbines as well, to provide that hilltop up there with energy. As we move down the hill, we're doing construction work at Wey Hall. It’s a full renovation of Wey Hall which is the arts building. We come across the street there at Edwin Duncan. We'll talk about more of that later. We'll go down the street. We're doing some minor projects. Katherine Harper Kerr Scott, as we're moving the people out of Wey Hall, we're moving some of them into there as well, over into the Octagon and East Hall and then down in Hickory, we're doing a, renovation on the second floor, renovating the second floor. We're putting in a cyber lab, initially a kind of a general studies lab for like, chemistry, general sciences and then there's just a standard computer lab as well.

Dave Blanks Okay. Computer lab, cybersecurity lab. And then to general instruction. Okay.

Jeff Pierce  And then we'll renovate the other floor with other labs over the next 1 to 2 years down there as well. And then once we're done with that one, we'll move to the third, fourth and then fifth floor.

Dave Blanks Total of five floors.

Jeff Pierce  Correct. We got about $40 million that we've got right now, that we're planning out. And we'll take it as far as we go in this dynamic time of, inflation and construction these days..

Dave Blanks Well, everything when we started the Campus Construction Update, it was before Covid, and then we went through Covid and access to materials and inflation and all these other factors like, came in and became such huge players. And it's still...

Jeff Pierce  It still is. It’s not as dramatic as it and it kind of pops around from roofs at the beginning and during the pandemic was hard to get long lead items. Dozer came back in line. But there will be different things like HVAC systems.

Dave Blanks Right.

Jeff Pierce  That are hard to get long lead items, generators and stuff. And pricing hasn't really came down that much. What has happened is we have adjusted our estimation to account for it to be more conservative, to account for that.

Dave Blanks I'm not sure they want to come down on the price to be totally honest.

Jeff Pierce  No. They don't and it never does. It's amazing. Once you get a rise it will drop down a little bit and then it will level off but it will never go back to where it was before.

Dave Blanks Sad but true.

Jeff Pierce  It’s the nature of the business.

Dave Blanks Anything else broad overview you want to you want to mention before we get into, the post office?

Jeff Pierce  No, we'll go ahead and dive into that.

Dave Blanks Sounds good. Jacki, tell us what'