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A New Office in Downtown Medford
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| May 7, 2007: Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University are building a joint education building in downtown Medford, Oregon. This building is primarily designed for many new classrooms needed by both educational institutions. There are also many faculty and staff offices in the building. Currently my office is scheduled to be on the ground floor in the new business center. The photo above shows the forms for the foundation of the building and it is this corner where my office is scheduled. Even though the college is building new classroom space, the college is coming under increasing financial pressure for operating funds. Because of this, 44 faculty and staff have been laid off beginning July 1. I expect the financial pressure to continue. Additionally, I'm continuing to wish for retirement from a fulltime position. For these two reasons my position may not reach the fall, 2008 date for opening of the new building. Assuming that it does, I'll continue to post photos here of my new potential office as it is being built. For planning photos, click here. |
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May 25, 2007: Same corner of the new building as pictured above. The foundation has been prepared for the concrete floor. I'm photographing this corner because my office is scheduled to be on this floor, just on the other side of this foundation with a window facing to the left of the photo. It is amazing watching the foundation taking form. |
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| June 7, 2007: The construction has begun on the framing of the new classroom/office building. The guys are walking all over the I beams without a net or straps. They don't seem to worry. You can't believe how fast these fellows work and how fast this end of the building is beginning to take shape. After taking this photo, the iron workers wanted to know if I was from the newspaper. My answer was, "that fellow is standing over my future office". Click the photo to see a larger view. |
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June 20, 2007: Only two weeks since the last photo, this one taken from the opposite side as the first photos. You can see the foundation extending toward us in the bottom left. This is only a small portion of the building but the framework for all three stories has been started. Click the photo for a larger view. |
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| July 12, 2007: Concrete floors are added to the second and third stories of the new classroom building. The temporary support columns are for added support while the concrete is hardening. The contractor poured the concrete on the second story, waited a couple of days for it to harden, added the third story support beams then poured the third story floor. My office is to the left of the red tool chest on the ground floor. Click the photo to enlarge. |
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July 20, 2007: Note the floor of this ground floor room. It is graduated in levels. This is the auditorium of the business center. The auditorium is designed to hold 105 people with the floor graduated where the people in the back of the room are higher than those in the front. Excellent for business seminars and demonstrations. Click the photo to enlarge. |
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| August 9, 2007: Today was the day the framing was installed to frame the windows in my new office. It won't be long before the walls are installed and I won't be able to observe the interior progress. Click the photo to enlarge. |
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August 28, 2007: My office is beginning to take shape. The interior studs are in place and the entry door way is framed. The outside sheeting is being installed. Soon, I'll not be able to see the interior progress. This office has the potential of being the very best office on campus. It's a corner office with windows on two sides. My current office has NO windows. |
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| October 2, 2007: Much work has been done on the interior of the building this last month. The exterior has been sealed and looks to be ready for another layer or windows to be installed. This is my corner office, the electric lines have been added to the office and heating/air conditioning ducts spread to this end of the building. |
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October 16, 2007: Window frames were added today to my corner office. It won't be long and windows will be added. I won't be able to see the interior progress once the windows are added. A sealer has also been added to the exterior walls, hence the black color. |
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| October 30, 2007: Today the glass is installed into the window frames. I was thinking this was early because there is much to do and installing the glass gives the workers a bigger chance to accidentally break the glass. On the other hand, the interior sheet rock needs to be protected from the elements so I guess it's a trade-off. |
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November 8, 2007: Scaffolding is installed around this end of the new office building. The scaffolding will be for the brick layers. Most of the first floor is covered with plastic so the bricks must be planned for the second and third floors. |
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| November 26, 2007: The bricks have nearly made it to the top of the building over my new corner office. Click to enlarge the photo and check out the scaffolding. I just don't see that the base is wide enough to support such a tall walkway. |
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January 9, 2008: It seems like slow progress on the new classroom and office building. My new office will be the corner office with windows on two sides. My office is the only office on campus with two windows. It's strange watching the bricks go on the building. The masons add them one at a time ... just as was done a hundred years ago. |
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| January 18, 2008: Today was very special. We were taken on a tour of the interior of the new classroom/office building. Can you imagine how excited we all were. This is the best photo I could get of my new office. Windows on two walls because it's the corner office. The painters have already painted the walls. It looks like my office will be the first to be completed in the building. You can click the photo to enlarge. |
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January 31, 2008: Across the street from the new classroom-office building is a two story classroom-office building which will be abandoned once the college occupies the new building. Currently, my office is located in the "basement" of the "D" building (note the "D" to the left of the door. My current office has no windows and is about 6 x 8 feet. The desk takes up 2/3 of the room. This view of the "D" building is from the 2nd floor of the new building. |
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| February 21, 2008: The contractors have begun adding the metal exterior trim where there is no brick. Under the trim is styrofoam insulation. I'm sure it will also act as sound deadening which will be needed since this corner office is on two busy streets. My name is still on this office but more of the staff is learning that this is the best office on the campus and may try an "end run". |
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March 6, 2008: The heating and air conditioning unit is hoisted to the roof top today by the biggest crane I've ever seen. The side of the unit says 210 ton but I'm sure that's the output size of the unit rather than the weight. 210 ton would be 420,000 lbs. The crane looks like it could lift that much but the truck which brought the unit was a standard flat bed semi-truck trailer. They don't carry anything more than about 65,000 lbs. It took about a day to set up the crane, 1 hour to put the unit on the roof, then they began breaking down the crane. You can see another view of the unit by clicking on photo. |
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| April 7, 2008: This is a giant something they are building right in front of my office window. My window is at the far corner. This is about 6 feet deep and the top is at ground level. It's pretty big for a planter box. I asked a worker what it was and was told he didn't know ... he just follows the lines. I'll keep an eye on it. |
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April 29, 2008: The frame work for the stairs has been built. My office is the far corner of the building. This will be the main student entrance to the building. The room above this entrance (all glass) is a small forum room for staff and student meetings. |
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| May 9, 2008: My current office is on the left in the light green building, the new office building is on the right. The street between is 8th Street. The city is in the process of making part of 8th Street and the cross street into a combination walking and driving commons project. For now, it means the street is a mess with equipment, rough road, cones, fences and locked doors separating the students from easy access to one of the main classroom buildings. I'm sure it will be pretty when it's done. |
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| May 10, 2008: Gwen and I went to the Art in Bloom street fair today in downtown Medford. This is Bartlett Street which will be torn up and improved as I discussed yesterday. The ugly telephone poles on the left will be removed and utilities put underground. The new Rogue Community College office and classroom building is the three story building on the left in the distance. The two story brick building on the right in the distance is the new Jackson County Library building. The street where people are walking is currently asphault but will be torn up and replaced with a combination of pavers and asphault. Eighth Street shown above is in the distance. It crosses Bartlett just before the portable potty in the distance. |
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