By Tim Badgley
Framing of second-floor exterior walls of the Lincoln Academy dormitory began Aug. 14 in Newcastle. Adjacent to the athletic fields behind the school building, the new dormitory will provide housing for 54 students. (Tim Badgley photo) |
The side-by-side construction projects, a dormitory and a technology center, on the Lincoln Academy campus in Newcastle are on schedule to open in early 2015.
Lincoln Academy Associate Head of School for Advancement Matt Goetting said framing of the second floor of the dormitory is currently underway with plans to have a
weather-tight shell by early October and complete the building by mid-February 2015. The new dormitory will house 54 resident students.
“Construction of the Cable-Burns Applied Technology and Engineering Center started a few weeks later than expected,” Goetting said. “The lost time has since been
made up and foundations are due to be finished by the end of August 2014.”
Goetting said completion of the technology center construction is expected toward the end of January 2015.
Margot Riley, associate head of school for finance and strategic planning, meets weekly with the contractors, Peachey Builders and Wright-Ryan Construction Inc.,
and other school officials on the progress of the two construction projects.
The school does not expect the construction to affect parking capacity.
“With construction beginning in April, we worked out all of our challenges with parking then,” Riley said. “Teachers and staff found off-site parking and we used the
overflow parking lot by the tennis courts for students and the construction workers.”
Riley said fewer cars will be on campus as school begins because sophomores will not yet have their driver’s licenses, as many did in the spring.
“I don’t anticipate any parking problems as we go into the new school year,” Riley said.
Riley said the new dormitory will be in the shape of a capital “H.” The crossbar serves as a corridor connecting the two vertical bars, which serve as housing
“neighborhoods,” Riley said.
The first and second floors hold two neighborhoods each for a total of four. A fifth neighborhood is on the third floor, along with housing for Director of Resident
Life Ken Stevenson.
A resident faculty member will live in each of the five student neighborhoods, which will be separated by gender.
The basement of the dormitory will serve as storage space for the school and house individual storage lockers for resident students and faculty.
“So far there have been no cost overrun surprises,” Riley said. “Most of those occur when you’re digging in the ground and constructing foundations and footings.”
That stage has passed for both the dormitory and the technology center, Riley said.
“The technology center will now start to rise quickly,” Riley said. “I expect that both buildings will be completed on time.”
