Continuity Update for June 27

No OSHA rules were violated in the changing of these light bulbs.

Hey folks!

I love it when brilliant summer weather parks itself smack on a weekend, and storms hold off till the weekdays. Perfect timing, meteorology!

Here is your weekly dose of Continuity and Construction news:

An important notice about Front Door locks:
During most of our time here in the new building, the front entrance doors have been unlocked during business hours because construction workers were constantly coming and going through the lobby. Starting now, the interior front door will remain locked always. This was the plan all along, but till now it was impractical. A new regime is in now in place, and her name is Sarah:

• Interior front door will always be locked
• Staff should always carry key fobs with them, so Sarah does not spend her entire day buzzing in staff (I'm looking at you, Chris Albertine)
• Sarah will spend her day buzzing in guests instead
• Exterior front door will be unlocked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• The 8 a.m. exterior unlock is triggered by the first swipe of a fob; it will stay locked until an employee enters through that door

All other doors to the building will always be locked and will always require a fob to enter.

"Random Acts of Construction"
There have been a few interruptions with noise and smells recently, and we anticipate a few more to come. The construction team will try to give us a heads up, often over email, when anything disruptive is on the horizon. If you are encountering construction-related issues that are seriously impeding your work, please alert Laurie, Joe or Brian. 

For instance, Green Room renovation:
They've  done as much work as they can around the edges, and now the next step is coming: the Green Room will be offline for renovation and some of the work will be noisy. The Continuity team will map out a plan to make sure folks who use Master, Talk and the Term Room can still function, and also to temporarily move stuff like mailboxes and required HR postings out of the Green Room. The work begins July 11; look for a work plan from Continuity soon.
 
Studio One:
Interior walls are nearly finished, and next up is installation of the acoustic door at the lobby entrance to Studio One. The specially made door was shipped on Thursday, and will be installed beginning next Tuesday, July 5. Installation will take approximately a week and will involve hammers and screw guns. None of that seems like it will be quiet.

Also! Tomorrow afternoon's staff meeting is in Studio One! The retractable seating - all 78 chairs! - will get an inaugural run, and we get a window into everyone's psyche by observing who chooses the front row seats and who beelines it to the back row. (I'm looking at you, Chris Albertine.)

The Great Outdoors:

• The sidewalk at the new employee entrance is being redone because the angle of incline to the door threshold doesn't meet ADA compliance. 
• The parking lots we've been using all this time are getting their long-planned second layer of pavement in mid-July. This will take care of some of the unevenness at the edges, and make the pavement match the walkways perfectly. This will also require us not to use the parking lot for a few days.... We will get one week's notice from Neagley & Chase, and give you a plan for managing the parking lot -- and we'll make sure this doesn't overlap with a Friday, when the Islamic Center is also pressed for parking.
• Landscaping is scheduled to begin around the second week in July!
• The patio out front will eventually have railings installed, at which point it will be wide open for us to use. Till then, we have special dispensation to use it on July 15 for an employee BBQ. Laurie says no one is allowed to fall off the patio. (I'm looking at you, Chris Albertine.)
• Installation of ice guards by the TOE entrance is beginning, and you might hear this in the Term Room
• The black temporary fence that you can see at the edge of the property behind the building is just that - temporary. It has to stay in place until construction finishes.

What's this thing?

This concrete portal opens to reveal endless stretches of electrical conduit that run through the parking lot into the building. You might think, that's strange to place this access point right at the door of the employee entrance - what's up with that?

Before construction began, this was actually located a few yards closer to the original brick wall. The choice was to relocate it completely, or just move it out a wee bit from the wall to its current location. The former option had a price tag of $200,000-$300,000, and the latter gives us a conversation piece. Good choice!