New Building is Complete!

review the building process here

January 5, 2024

The project is looking nice and a little more touch up is going to shine well as we move toward placing furniture. We will continue with touch up work next week and work to address some of the exterior as we are able, including building signage. Next week we go for final inspections and the week after furniture moves. Move in is scheduled for Jan. 27!

December 22, 2023

The building continues to progress and transform daily. Major accomplishments achieved included placing the last of the paving! We are finally in the dry and starting next week can start parking and accessing the building from the parking lot. 

Our second milestone is the main switchgear arrived and after an electrical shutdown yesterday to install, is fully operational! The kitchen equipment delivered this week and plumbing/electrical crews are at work installing utilities to the equipment. There is an impressive amount of freezer and refrigerator space now! Ceiling tile is dropped in all areas except the kitchen and flooring is down throughout except for the inlay pattern in the dining room.  

Crews have set out all the wardrobe cabinets (those look really nice) and are working on final accessory items and corner guards. Painting crew continues to final paint walls in the middle area and paint remaining doors. We are transitioning into punch list/completion items next week and continue to empty the building of materials with the plan to final clean late next week.  A lot of cleaning and wrapping up items as well.

December 1, 2023

We are now into December, but the end of November greeted us with a 111” snowfall event that really set things backward for exterior work efforts this week. Paving crews were delayed all week, but we have areas formed up and as soon as the weather allows will be placing paving. We were able to continue with the cement siding and that crew is close to wrapping up their work on site. 

On the interior, it’s been full steam ahead everywhere! The north wing has started to receive flooring with LVT down in all bedrooms and we’ve even carpeted the office. Restrooms have received FRP wall panels and accent paint colors. Clear floor sealer in the restrooms has also been applied.  All this work has allowed us to begin setting vanity cabinets. In the hallways, lights have been dropped into the ceiling grid and we took delivery of ceiling tile today. 

Flooring installers have moved to the south wing and are beginning prep work for laying LVT in the bedrooms. In the middle dining room area, the walls have received prime paint and 1st coat is being applied today. Ceiling tech crews are running grid in the kitchen area.  

I think we’ve had enough wet weather for now so if the farmers would allow it we’d love a couple of weeks of dry weather so we can complete paving. 

November 10, 2023

We have successfully graded for the parking lot, laid down base rock and geogrid fabric and are ready to start paving operations. The concrete crews actually moved in a little early and are forming up sidewalks and patios and will make their first placements on Monday. We still anticipate the start of coping caps and cement siding wall panels next week as we put the final pieces on the exterior of the building.

Interior work continues to focus on tape and finish and painting operations. Painters have primed all walls in the north wing, sprayed hollow metal frames and are now painting down 1st finish coat in the hallways. We anticipate ceiling grid starting soon. Glass is starting to go in the large hollow metal frames at the north end as well.

Electrical crews have started piping in conduits from box to box above the ceiling grid locations to be ready for grid and to pull wire to device out spaces.

At the south wing, tape and finish operations continue and we have received the final sign off to rock the last restroom from the fire marshal. As rooms complete tape and finish, painters will move in to coat walls.

Monday is a big day as we receive our first delivery of casework which will be window sills, vanities and coffee bar materials. We will also begin hanging doors in the north wing so painters can fall back and paint. Window sills will also likely get installed towards the later part of the week.

November 3, 2023

Another new milestone was achieved this week, we have heat! Rooftop units are operating and conditioning the building. This is very helpful as the temperatures start to dip and will allow us to push forward with all finish work related to drywall, paint and upcoming flooring.

We’ve made a strong push on hanging remaining drywall this week and are nearing completion. The family bedrooms have received drywall along with the kitchen and hallways.  We have just a bit more to go in the remaining restrooms but are just about done. The offices now have drywall and you can get a nice feel for these spaces.

The painters have been back this week working on the double occupancy bedrooms and have started painting down door frames in the men’s wing. Our goal remains to begin flooring right after Thanksgiving.

Earthwork equipment has moved back in and we expect them to start soon with the final work to cut in parking and access roads so we can begin running paving. We have also set the trash enclosure steel for the screen wall. Roof access ladders also were put on this week to allow movement between the lower and higher roof areas.

October 20, 2023

A few milestones to discuss this week.

1. We have power into the building! This has been a long time coming but it’s great to see as we get steadily closer to conditioning the spaces. 

2. We completed brick work. They will be washing down walls this weekend and will finish work up early next week. 

3. We are ready to start paint…right on schedule. Painters will begin priming and first coat in the north wing and will start spraying down door frames.   

Other work was wall framing of the offices at the main entry. Doors were installed both on the exterior (more security) and the storm shelter. All of the hard lid ceilings are framed in restrooms and all hardlid rock on in the south bedrooms.

October 17, 2023

Another busy week on site with a lot of different but critical operations. The most important milestone is the building electrical transformer has been set and wire installed. We are doing the last of the internal wiring and should be good to bring power into the building.  This will time out perfectly as the rooftop units will go in place next along with the gas service piping.

Brick work continued along the south side and they have also started washing down brick. It’s time to get conditioning of the spaces going because we are actively applying drywall finish over much of the building. Rooms are starting to get finished out and we need to encourage the drying out process. Sheetrock installers have also been working on hanging the upper rock in the dining room and back of house areas. The front offices will frame out soon. Misc window and door installation of exterior storefronts has also occurred over the week.

Finally, as most are aware, the solar array was installed.  That’s an impressive feature to the building and one that I think you will all enjoy for years to come. 

October 6, 2023

We were pleased to be able to host community members for a tour Wednesday afternoon. It was especially nice to see the excitement on some faces from those who have been involved with the shelter since the start and for several to say they couldn’t believe the facility that was being built from such a humble beginning. I want to say thanks to Gary Garrett for making sure the parking lot was touched up and as much mud as possible from the morning rain was out of the way for visitors.

We continue with work throughout the building. Brick is rapidly coming to an end and the masons are now on the high scaffold working the last sections of brick on the south side. With the brick done on the east side, the electrician is setting exterior junction boxes and preparing to bring permanent power into the building.

Fence posts and gravel were installed at the solar array earlier this week. Weddle and Sons has already been on site and started to trench in some secondary power lines within he array field. Fence fabric is going in place today. 

Interior work continues to focus on hanging sheetrock. Sheetrock is about halfway on the south wing. Tape and finish with some base coats have started on the north wing and this effort will increase with additional finishers coming on board next week. The rooftop units are arriving in Wichita next week and will be set in place on the roof.

September 22, 2023

We’re seeing the progress on the exterior brick - crews have the back side of the north wing all the way up and have moved the hydro scaffold over to the front side and will start bring that side up starting today. The crew is also working on the east wall of the south wing and will move back and forth between the two areas to let mortar set up.

Electrical crews trenched in underground conduit this week for primary power, light poles, data and solar arrays. Next week the transformer pad and trash enclosure concrete goes in.

Plumbing crews are working on the gas piping to the roof top units and are fishing up shower valve piping at the north restrooms and continuing with rough in work in the south wing.  Insulation crews are going to be fully out of the walls today on the north wing and have started insulating lines running down the north hallway.

Drywall and framing crews have been very busy this week. The hardlids are framed in at the north resident rooms which has allowed final electrical, mechanical and fire sprinkler drops to complete. Drywall is 100% up on the south wing exterior walls and the crew has drywall on the very south resident rooms and are starting to frame in hard lid ceilings. With the completion of all plumbing and insulation work in the north end this week, they will install the hard lid ceilings soon and push all the drywall work south that week.

September 8, 2023

The fire line main was successfully bored under Meridian this morning and they are working on the tap and tie in to the city main. Our masons set up their mortar tower and begin the prep work for full on brick laying on Monday.

Window installations started with sill pans and end dams. They just about have all their products lined up for installation of the actual frame units next week.  For this weekend and some anticipated rain we have plastic over the windows to protect drywall.

We achieved successful sign off of all wall rough-ins for the entirety of the north wing and have 5 of the resident rooms fully sheetrocked. The crew has stareted to sheetrock the hallways. They will have a crew begin the hardlid framing for resident room ceilings so rough-in can complete and we can run the ceiling drywall as well.

Plumbing crews are now fully occupying the kitchen area and running service drops for sinks and other items. Electrical continues with box installations in available walls.  

Next week the electrical site crew will be here to run the primary electrical conduits for the building power which frees us up to set the transformer and continue to work towards full power into the building. We were also able to achieve Evergy approval to use the collection panel disconnects in a temporary manner as we await the man disconnect panels so we should have no issues with getting rooftop units powered up to provide us some temporary conditioning in October as planned.

Exciting times, brick and windows next week and a lot more drywall as the interior takes shape!

August 25, 2023

This week the focus of work on site has been with mechanical and electrical rough-ins and blocking. Plumbing and HVAC crews continue to have a large manpower presence on site and are working in multiple areas in the north and south wings. The ductwork is far enough along that portions are starting to receive insulation.  

Framing crews have been working on filling in some interior partitions where needed and are wrapping up the walls in the kitchen area today. They took a large load of drywall earlier this week and are transitioning to the top rock in corridors as planned. Electricians continue with box rough-ins at both resident wings and now, with the mechanical room getting framed, will soon be working on home run wiring. The fireline work has started and they have laid out of the building and are heading south towards the road. 

Hutton crews have been installing wall blocking for restrooms and misc cabinets in the resident rooms. We are focusing on barricading and closing up exterior openings to try to reduce the potential for theft over the weekend. We have also put a request into the Newton PD to increase patrolling around the area as an extra deterrent to anyone who might be snooping around the building after hours.

August 18, 2023

The majority of the interior framing is done in both resident wings and is now focused on the kitchen and office areas. It won’t be long before those walls are all framed up to.  Mechanical, plumbing, electrical and fire protection trades are making steady progress with their in wall rough ins. Plumbers are focusing on the restrooms and the electrician is working to get out of walls on the north end before moving south. Duct installation is mostly complete for the large trunk lines and is now working to branch out into the individual rooms. Fire protection trades are starting to glue up pipe as they work behind the duct installation.

The exterior continues to change color. We are about 70% done with air barrier work with the north wing and higher areas done, and the south wing is prepped for spray next week. This leaves us ready to run brick.

August 11, 2023

If you have not had a chance to stop by the project, you should sometime next week because the interior spaces are really starting to take shape!

Framing has been a big focus of the week and the majority of walls are up in the Women’s Wing on the north end, and we are nearing halfway at the Men’s Wing on the south end.  Electrical boxes continue to go in right behind the wall framing effort, and the duct crews continue to hang duct throughout. The air barrier crew has started filling in screw holes, detailing strip along the bottom of walls and preparing further detailing around window openings.  

August 4, 2023

Crews are to be thanked for their efforts on site during this heat wave. A special shout out goes to the roofers who stayed at it all week even during the extreme temperatures! 

Since we last sent an update, the build is really starting to take shape. If you drive past you’ll see yellow boards on the exterior which are a special water resistant drywall product called Dens Glass. This is the sheathing which closes up the stud framework and provides us a surface for the final exterior finishes. Following up the sheathing will be air barrier work to close up small penetrations and provide an air- and water-tight surface to further protect the building. 

We are dry overhead!  A huge thank you to the Wray Roofing crew for their work this week.  In just over a week’s timeframe we went from no roof to being completely done overhead.  Tremendous!

Below in the interior, the work is starting to pick up. The framing crew has been at work on the North women’s wing with wall layout and setting studs. The corridor walls are taking place and the crew is moving south with dividing walls between rooms. The HVAC ductwork crews are on site now and busily hanging duct from the rooftop units into the spaces. 

With more walls in place, we also expect plumbing and electrical wall rough-ins to take off and continue moving towards the south following the framing crew.

June 30, 2023

We continue with steel installation this week. Decking has started, and the east side over the kitchen and storage area is decked. Joists were set on the south wing and welded off. We anticipate delivery of exterior metal studs, with that crew starting Monday on wall layouts and possibly some initial stud installations. This crew will simply chase the steel crew around the building setting studs and quickly transitioning to sheathing and then air barrier operations.

June 23, 2023

Concrete crews placed the lid for the storm shelter and removed the falsework supporting the wet concrete during the pour. Steel crews continue to place beams and columns. All columns and main beams are installed in the three wings. They have been working on anchoring joists in the center wing and setting roof frames for mechanical equipment. They will be increasing crew size with the goal of running decking over this weekend and into early next week so we have an area ready to go with exterior framing by mid week next.

June 7, 2023

Steel erection started this week. The last slab was placed at the north wing. There is now an 100% open road for follow up crews and are far less dependent on weather.

The shoring system for the storm shelter cast in place roof deck arrived, so that work will begin next. Door frames arrived as well, which will become important once stud framing begins.

June 2, 2023

The masonry crew started on the storm shelter/conference room this week. Edge forms around the slab placements were stripped. Plumbers have pretty well wrapped up all under slab work on the north wing and are working to get an inspection from the city to backfill and wrap their work up. We also have taken delivery of bar joists and roof decking. Building structural steel will start arriving soon. Our next focus will be the start of steel erection, placement of edge forms for the remaining slab pour, completion of electrical under slab for the pour and final vapor barrier and reinforcing preparations to make a slab placement.

May 26, 2023

We are pouring floor slabs! This week’s efforts have been focused on final underslab rough in for electrical and plumbing at the south and center wings. We then turned those areas over to concrete crews for slab preparation, which was successfully laid down. Plumbing crews have moved over to the north wing to finish rough ins. The mason has materials on site and will start laying block work for the conference room/storm shelter soon. We are finishing up work on steel fabrications and are on pace to take deliveries and start putting up building steel a week from Monday.

May 19, 2023

We are just about wrapped up with plumbing underslab work. We are in position to start floor slab placements next week.  The electrician will be here to run their underslab conduits and then we will turn over the first portions of the building to the concrete crews for slab prep and placement. We will quickly move into the final floor preps as well as masonry for the safe room. Structural steel delivery is firmed up for the beginning of June, so we can start setting out the building the following week.

May 5, 2023

What a difference a week makes! We went from having a building pad with no concrete to a fully outlined building with all exterior footings placed! The concrete crews really worked at it this week to race the potential weather and get the footings poured. Three crews worked to get the footing pour done with just over 200 yards placed. Each concrete truck carries about 9 yards fully loaded so there were about 23 trucks tied up to make that placement!

April 27, 2003

The project has reached a good point - the earthwork is completed for the building construction. Crews have completed the building pad and cut out the parking lot and access roads. Site utility crews have placed the grease tank and laid the sewer line. The concrete crews have worked this week at pre-tying the rebar cages for the footings.