Capitol Hill Day School Building Addition

Through the upcoming renovation of the Dent building, the School will realize a long term strategic goal of supporting and strengthening our programs by improving and updating our facility.


The School has established this blog to inform parents, friends, neighbors, and students of the status of the project. Please check the site often or subscribe to the RSS feed for notification of when new items are posted.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Project Meeting -- December 15, 2011

Lots of progress to note at this week's Project Meeting. Monarc Construction has much responsibility to keep the momentum going as we enter the holiday season.


The fire pump. This iconic piece of equipment, subject of hours of discussion, evaluation, review, revision, and eventual purchase, is now installed in a portion of the former PE Storage Room. This pump takes ordinary tap water and pressurizes it to operate the sprinkler system that is being installed on all four floors of the Dent Building.


The subcontractors installing the ceiling grid. The contractors have quite the array of equipment and measures to make sure the grids are level.


Kyle, Ronnie and Alan discuss the proper ratio of water to cement that Kyle is preparing for what will be the floor of a closet on Level 2.


Probably one of the most anticipated improvements to the Dent Building is underway by the School's contractor, Disconnect Reconnect. This firm is installing the wiring for our computer system.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

West Chimney -- December 8, 2011


Following the removal of the West Chimney both above the roof line and in the Library the contractor was able to demo the south wall of the chimney in the 6th grade classroom. In this shot you see what was the chimney flue and have a good angle on how much space will be added to the classroom. The contractor is working on sprinkler system hookups.



Rebuilding the chimney is well underway. The open side of the chimneys on level 4 are on the library and the art room, or north, side of the chimneys, opposite the openings on all three lower levels.


Workmen bring the cement blocks by hand, either one or two blocks per trip, walking up all four floors via the rear stairwell. They sure do wish the Koné Elevator guys would pick up the pace!

Site Visit -- December 8, 2011


Mark Bellingham, Project Manager, Monarc Construction, at today's Project Meeting.


Ceiling in the foyer area. the shiny pipes are for heating and air conditioning, the small diameter black pipes are for the sprinkler system and the hanging wires, which are difficult to spot, will support the ceiling grid. An arduous task to get everything to fit in the very small spaces that have been allowed for these backbone items.


Level 3 electric panels. One of the very well appreciated amenities in this project -- from the Business Office's perspective for sure!



Level 4 Great Space subflooring. This was unexpected; once we pulled up the wall-to-wall carpet and the old linoleum tiles in the Loft we found an odd, spongy subflooring; a fun-house experience walking around. In addition the floor joists were structurally enhanced at the time of the loft renovation in a piecemeal fashion giving less support than was needed. Understandable as the Loft was at one time just an attic. Well, not to worry; now everything has been redone and sealed with solid plywood subflooring.


The former computer room looking towards the former Loft area incorporating what was the clay room. This room will be the 7th Grade Homeroom and Foreign Language Classroom in the renovated building.

Site Visit -- December 8, 2011


A construction site is sometimes more difficult to coordinate than conducting an orchestra or perhaps herding cats. The drywall men and mud ladies certainly had a hazy memory of the drawings in the Pre-Kindergarten classroom where as you can see they have "finished off" the strand of temporary lights and a dangling electrical cable.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Progress Report -- December 1, 2011

Coordination issues are at the forefront at this stage of the renovation project. Subcontractors are working throughout the building and the inevitiable overlap occurs. Project managers, the architect, and even sometimes the owner are drawn in to help navagate a solution.



This azure blue insulation material coats the exterior walls of the Level One classrooms. Nice, bright color!


One of three electrical panels in a newly created Level 3 corridor that provides access to new bathrooms.


From the vantage point of the library you can now look down into the 6th grade classroom since the chimney has been removed. You can see that concrete block is being delivered to begin the reconstruction process.


Our project looks really high-tech in this picture -- taken from the Art Room looking toward the front stairwell. The contractors are installing roof supports and duct work in this area.


The sprinkler install crew and the equipment they use to custom cut sections of pipe.


A view of the Level 2 foyer area. The stairs on the left lead to Jason and Antoinette's Office; the office right behind the stairwell is for Field Education and the doorway with the light streaming in and the visible insulation is the former 1st Grade soon-to-be music room.