Cameras popped and people chatted as a group of students, faculty, staff, construction workers and construction management gathered near the Peter and Clara Scott Lab construction site yesterday for the ceremonial raising of the building’s final beam.
The lab, which is set to partially open in fall 2006, will be the new home of the mechanical engineering department.
Richard Jones, Vice President for Ruscilli Construction Co. Inc. said that the signing and raising of the final beam is a tradition in the construction industry. It unites the crew and showcases the work that has been done. Then, he said, they go have pizza.
The beam was signed by students, staff, faculty and members of the construction company.
This is an opportunity to thank all those involved with the construction and financing of Scott lab, said Dr. K. “Cheena” Srinivasan, chair of and professor in the department of mechanical engineering, to the crowd.
Construction crews broke ground at Scott Lab on Oct. 17, 2003 and hope to have the building completed in its entirety by winter 2007, Srinivasan said.
The building will house department laboratories as well as classrooms, he said. The labs will open in the fall of 2006 and the classrooms in the winter of 2007.
Robinson Laboratory formerly housed mechanical engineering and was demolished in early 2004. Scott laboratory is being built on the same site.
For some, the beam raising was a bitter-sweet ceremony.
“It’s a shame that we’ll miss it (Scott lab),” said Brett Longendelpher, a senior in mechanical engineering, “I’m a little bitter but at the same time I’m glad for the younger guys.”
Robinson lab was starting to show its age, and this new building is good for the school, said Dave Harrold, a junior in mechanical engineering, who is uncertain if he’ll see the inside of Scott lab.
Both Longendelpher and Harrold are student research assistants, and both had to work at the department’s temporary home, located on Ackerman Road.
The two men, who both signed the beam, expressed their feelings towards having to work so far away, but both understand why.
“It stinks,” Harrold said, “but it will be nice for the students to get their labs back.”
