Summer Construction and Maintenance Projects are Underway

Although another academic year has come to a close, campus is already buzzing with various summer construction, upgrades and maintenance projects.

The various work projects include:

  • Ongoing upgrades will continue below Academic Walk to the steam tunnel, a subterranean conduit containing heating and communications infrastructure. Also, the paving above will get a crown—a slight elevation to better drain water toward the walkway’s edge into new catch basins.
  • The Off Ramp will be remodeled, and plans for the redesigned eatery include a brick oven for pizza.
  • The foundation and structural steel of the new multipurpose theater, The Genesius Project, is expected to be in place by summer’s end.
  • Piping will be extended from an underground vault near the corner of Seitz Street and upper Magee Street up to Vickroy Hall in order to provide chilled water for cooling residence halls in the eastern portion of campus. Seitz Street will remain closed for the summer.
  • The traffic control kiosk and the island on which it sits at the intersection of McAnulty Drive and Locust Street will be removed and replaced by a crosswalk of bricks and concrete.
  • The masonry joints will be fixed and new pipes added to supply and drain water in the fountain in front of Canevin Hall.
  • The law school’s Tribone Center for Clinical Legal Education will get a new façade.
  • The second floor of Rockwell Hall is being renovated to make a new home for the Psychology Clinic and psychology department offices, and classroom and lavatory upgrades are taking place on the third and fifth floors of Rockwell as well.
  • Libermann Hall is undergoing the next phase of a multi-year project to upgrade alarm, sprinkler and emergency lighting systems. In addition, the building’s fourth floor will have a new classroom and laboratory for the Biomedical Engineering program. The lab will feature enhanced ventilation and other safety features for mixing chemicals as well as an area that provides a sterile environment.
  • Mellon Hall will get a new diesel-powered emergency generator.
  • St. Martin Hall will add new LED lighting in each residence room.
  • Duquesne Towers will have bathroom renovations on three floors as well as general renovations to another three floors. By the fall, all Towers bathrooms will have been updated with new tile and fixtures, making them ADA compliant.
  • Bathroom renovations will take place on the fourth floor of St. Ann Hall, also a multi-year renovation project.
  • Four new locker rooms will be added in Towers—one each for the women’s swimming, lacrosse and soccer teams, and one for the men’s soccer team.
  • The first phase of a complex project to move the campus cooling towers from their current location atop the Energy Center to the upper level of Forbes Garage is also under way. The move will provide added capacity for the Energy Center and create a quieter Gumberg Library plaza as well as improve the view for those looking toward the north. The new cooling tower location will be ready for testing in the fall, prior to the old cooling towers being taken off line.
  • Across campus, there will be elevator, safety and alarm system upgrades; roof and masonry repairs; door, window and lighting fixture replacement; and plastering, caulking and painting.