Suzzallo green belt goes blacktop til 2002

Staffers returning to campus from vacation might be shocked to discover that the south side of Suzzallo Library has been transformed from a green space with benches to what looks like a parking lot. The area is actually serving as a delivery, staging and “laydown” area for the seismic upgrade work now taking place at the library.

The site was chosen, according to Campus Landscape Architect Bill Talley, because it is at the lowest point of the building and because it provided the best access for construction crews and equipment. And although some trees had to be removed in the process of preparing the site, Talley says all of them had either root or branching problems. A particularly large Elm that was removed, for example, had had several branches cabled together 10 years ago and its condition was deteriorating. Even without the construction, it would have had to come down for safety reasons.

This photo shows the construction laydown area on the south side of Suzzallo Library before many of the construction trailers and equipment moved in. The site, which used to be a green space with plantings, will be restored to its former beauty after construction is complete sometime in 2002.

“The Landscape Advisory Committee - a group of 15 faculty, staff and students who serve because they care about the campus landscape - made the decisions about what would happen to the trees,” Talley said. He pointed out that the Hisakura Japanese Cherry trees near Rainier Vista, which are very rare, were carefully prepared to reduce the impact of construction on them. Also protected were an Incense Cedar at the juncture of the 1935 and 1963 wings of Suzzallo and the Elm and the Deodar Cedar near the Allen portal.

The Suzzallo work is much larger in scope than the seismic upgrade that was done on Gerberding Hall a few years ago. In that case, construction workers were able to confine themselves to the small parking lot at the rear of the building. For Suzzallo a larger area was needed, and no parking lot existed in close enough proximity. The area was paved, Talley said, to prevent mud in the winter and dust in the summer.

“The mobilization/laydown area is really extremely small for a project of this size and complexity,” said Construction Manager David Marberg. “A great deal of thought and planning went into exactly how and where the hundreds of tons of steel, concrete, electrical switchgear, mechanical elements and finish materials would be fabricated, trucked, staged, unloaded and moved into the several Suzzallo buildings. There simply wasn’t a better option than the site chosen.”

A fence has also been installed at the east end of Red Square to contain the trailers of several subcontractors who are involved in the work.

The good news is that the benches will be returned and the whole area replanted - including some new trees - after the seismic work is complete. That should be sometime in the first half of 2002. ¶

Nancy Wick