UMD Edward St John Learning and Teaching Center - College Park, MD

The Edward St John Learning and Teaching Center is an educational facility built into the main stretch of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. The building is named after Mr. St John who donated a sum of money to help develop the building and have it constructed. The project began in June 2014 and is ongoing with an anticipated completion date in January of 2017. The original building was intended to build out from Holzapfel and occupy the space where Shriver was. However, in the design phase, the University acquired additional funding and decided to add the East wing of the building, which is dedicated chemistry lab space. This addition doubled the size of the project.

There are three phases to this project; Demolition, New Construction, and Renovation. Where the new Edward St John center currently sits, Shriver Hall used to be standing. The first phase of construction took us through demolition of the existing Shriver Hall, and abatement and partial demolition of the adjacent building, Holzapfel. Phase two was a complete overhaul of site utilities, mass excavation, and foundation work. For support of excavation, steel piled were driven into the ground. The buildings foundation system is made up of auger cast piles. With the foundation supports in place, the new construction and renovation could begin.

The Edward St John Learning and Teaching Center is comprised of slab on grade, concrete foundation walls, and a steel structure. The steel structure allows for high ceilings and expansive open spaces. The facade of the Edward St John center is curtainwall windows, marble, brick, and metal panels. The watertight system sits back in line with the windows, which allows the brick, marble and metal panels to simply act as a rain screen. The project is nearly fully watertight and interior trades have begun to ramp up manpower and production work.

I was involved in this project since June 2014 when the fences to barricade the site were first put up. My responsibilities grew and changed over the course of the work. I worked from day one to get the project set up and organized; to get all our systems online and functioning for the project. Once we were up and running, I was responsible for demolition, abatement, excavation and site utilities. As the project progressed, I moved into managing the supportive excavation, concrete, and steel structure and then onto the skin/facade of the building. Throughout the duration of the project, I was also responsible for all RFIs, submittals, change orders, and other paperwork necessary to get the project up and running, and to ensure our subcontractors were providing the correct material on time. I was also responsible for the finances of the project. From collecting subcontractor requisitions, reviewing and submitting the owner requisitions, to ensuring subcontractors are paid in a timely manner and guarantee that change orders are executed. I was given a lot of responsibility on this project and have gained an immense amount of knowledge being involved in all the facets of the job.