Over on the Engineering Quad of Cornell’s campus, work continues on the gut renovation of Upson Hall. Gone are the original Terra-cotta panels that banded the facade, and the bluestone that faced the building will be removed as the project progresses. Plastic sheeting covers the exterior, working as a vapor and weather barrier. Exterior metal studs, which form the walls, have started to show up on the third floor, with spaces indicating future window openings. These studs will be sheathed (probably with glass-mat gypsum sheet-rock) and later the facade will be put up after the windows have been installed and the building is fully closed in.
Inside the plastic sheets, new telecom rooms are being framed out on the first and second floors, and new drywall is being hung up. Wall framing for new classrooms and offices is underway on the third floor, as well as duct and pipe hanger installation (utilities rough-in). Floors four and five are still undergoing interior demolition – walls are being sandblasted to remove paint, worn-out mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are being removed, and the old interior walls are being deconstructed so that the space can be re-purposed. New vertical shafts are being cur through the floors, and these will house state-of-the-art electrical and telecom infrastructure.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks (target date October 21st), the steel angle installation will begin for the northeast and northwest corners, which will be expanded outward as part of the renovation (the net gain in space will be about 4,000 SF). Steel clips will be attached to the existing structural steel, and then the new steel beams will follow. The entire project is expected to be completed by September 2017, with landscaping work in the second phase.
Upson Hall houses the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, and previously housed labs and offices for computer science until the completion of Gates Hall last year. Built in 1956, the 160,000 SF building is being renovated and modernized at a cost of $63 million.The building will be seeking LEED Gold certification.
The New York office of Perkins + Will, who designed the original building during the height of modern architecture 60 years ago, are also working on the new design, in conjunction with New York-based LTL Architects and engineering firm Thornton-Tomasetti. The Pike Company out of Rochester has been hired on as the general contractor for the multi-million dollar project.
An interview with Robert Goodwin, the design director for Perkins + Will’s role in the project, can be found on the Voice here.
On a personal note, I walked through a spider web while getting photos, and once I got back to my car, found a fingernail-sized sandy-brown spider on my cheek. I quickly grabbed it and flung it onto my umbrella, and shook it out a moment later. Spiders don’t freak me out much, but if that had been a bee on my face, you’d be reading on the Voice that I either died of a heart attack, or drove into a wall.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
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