Field House Blog

On Saturday, October 10, 2009, The Putney School held a ribbon cutting celebration and dedication of its net-zero energy field house, the first net-zero secondary school building in the nation. The building was dedicated to three generations of the Caldwell family, who contributed to the fiscal management, teaching, and cross-country skiing legacies of The Putney School. Elena ‘13, the youngest member of the student body, did the ribbon cutting honors. Several basketball games ensued on the yet unfinished gym floor within 30 seconds of the cutting, and Brett ‘10 was the first belayed to the top of the climbing wall, despite a hand fractured in a resent cycling mishap. The floor is currently sealed and will be finished well before the basketball team needs it in November. Although well on track, the field house campaign still needs your support as we wrap up the final bit needed to make sure the new field house doesn’t become a burden on the operating budget. Photovoltaic and other energy monitoring via this website should be available in the next two weeks as well.

Check out some of the festivities in the galleries below:

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Gallery 3

On Saturday, we’ll cut the ribbon on the field house, although it will probably be another few weeks before we’re actually playing in it. The floor is still not dry enough to accept the playing surface. We’ll just have to wait. The rest is ready to go, though. The sun-tracking photovoltaics are in place and workers are putting the finishing cosmetic touches on the entryways and the back of the KDU. And the cows seem unimpressed as usual, but happy to be grazing on a spectacular autumn day.

The Holstein-colored scoreboard was installed yesterday and crews are working literally elbow-to-elbow to finish the the field house in time for the ribbon cutting. Work on the courtyard and back of the KDU is keeping pace with the interior changes. The business end of the composting toilets is in place while a giant dehumidifier races the clock to pull as much moisture out of the concrete flooring before the gym floor surface is bonded to it. Please resist the urge to wander into the site unescorted and without proper safety gear. There’s a lot going on.

With 45 days to go until the ribbon cutting ceremony on Harvest Festival weekend, many of the details are being added. A stone mason is creating rock walls for the courtyard area, the main ceiling has been painted, the skylights installed, the lift for those who can’t climb stairs is being installed, the climbing wall infrastructure is nearly done, and the first basketball hoop will be hung by the time you read this. This summer has been a constant juggling act for DEW Construction Corp as the weather has delayed some processes involving adhesives and paint, while others have continued on around them. The race is on, but the quality is what’s most important. Despite the “Pacific Northeast” weather, it’s looking like we’ll have it done right and on time.

For more images of the building, have a look at this gallery.

Our ultra-green field house is finally turning green!  There was great debate about what color to paint this building.  Some wanted a neutral color to match the Currier Center, but there were more in favor of something bolder.  There were even those lobbying to paint it in black and white Holstein spots.  In the end green won out because it makes a good metaphor and because it will blend into the hillside and minimize the apparent size of the structure.  We are calling the color “Heller Green”, in honor of trustee, architect and building committee member George Heller, who can see the building from his house.

The air-to-air heat exchangers have arrived and been installed on concrete piers at the northwest corner of the exterior. Inside, work continues on the ducts that will move the heated air. The walls surrounding playing floor area has been sheetrocked and the masonry finish is going up along the baseboards. Work on the two catch basins at the bottom of the field by West Hill Road is complete except for the plant life that will regrow. The catch basins are the final stop for water draining from the main campus, down through the curtain drains on the playing field by the KDU, under the field house, then into the field. Rather than cascading out onto the road, the catch basins will collect the water to drain slowly or evaporate and thereby mitigate soil erosion.

At the end of the following photo gallery you can see the new loading dock for the relocated post office in the former boys’ day student room in Old Boys dormitory. Clapboard on the field house facade has made it around the corner and onto the south face. Exterior doors have arrived and await installation. Wiring, plumbing and other systems infrastructure work is on schedule so that interior finish work crews can proceed.

Although the building will be in use sooner, the ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled during Harvest Festival on Sunday, October 11. We hope to see you there!

Here are this week’s photos.

Pictured here is a handful of the cellulose insulation that is an integral part of making the Field House a zero energy building (ZEB). It’s made from recycled newspaper and treated so it won’t act like tinder. In the photo gallery (link below) you can see it in various stages of application in the deep framing of the exterior walls.

The weather has finally permitted installation of the Sarnafil roof, though it still hasn’t been dry enough to give the exterior clapboard it’s final finish. Work inside the building continues in the areas of wiring, systems installation (heating, lights, fire suppression, air circulation), and framing of interior features including office space, locker rooms, and storage closets. As wiring and insulation steps are completed, the studs are being covered by mold and moisture-resistant sheetrock.

The traffic flow through the adjacent Kitchen Dining Unit (KDU), both pedestrian and delivery truck, is disrupted by the addition of the Field House, so the former boys’ day student room in the Old Boys dormitory is being refitted as the new bookstore and student post office. Blasting took place last week to facilitate construction of a loading dock on the truck road side of the dorm, so U.S. Postal and package delivery trucks don’t have to cross the courtyard being formed between the KDU and Field House.

For visual details of this update, look here.

Vermont is not supposed to have a summer monsoon, but it sure seems like we’re having one these past two weeks. That hasn’t been helpful in the roofing and painting departments. Despite days of threatening skies, the roofing crew was a able to lay the insulating layers. Once the weather clears, they’ll cover them with Sarnafil, the same product covering the non-vegetative areas of our last major construction, the Michael S. Currier Center. Battens will be installed to simulate the look of a metal roof.

Choosing the roof color was easy: to meet our LEED platinum-level criteria for sustainable architecture, the roof has to be white. The exterior walls, however, were up to us. The final, final, final decision on the shade of exterior green is “evergreen.” You can see the final four swatches in the photo gallery link (evergreen is 2nd from the left). We’d be painting by now, but for the rainy spell. Siding covers nearly three sides at this writing.

Machinery to heat water, circulate air and so forth continues to arrive and be installed. The floor polishers have been literally grinding away at the upper deck concrete to make a durable, eco-friendly floor surface for the social room, offices, and locker/bathroom areas. Outside, work is nearly done installing the catch basins and other structures to direct rain water from the curtain drains recently finished in the adjacent playing field to a place where it can filter naturally.

Look here for this week’s photos.

Alumni from classes as far back as 1943 gathered last weekend and a few opted to tour the Field House on Friday afternoon with Clerk of the Works Randy Smith (also known as The Putney School’s business manager and CFO). The first stop was the wood-fired bread oven that’s being built into the former waiters’ dining room of the KDU, which should be finished some time in late July.

At this juncture, siding is going on the exterior of the Field House, the upper deck concrete has been poured, and internal framing belies the thickness of the eventual wall insulation. Color swatches on the north elevation are helping the building committee zero in on just exactly the right shade of green (human eyes can detect upwards of 40,000 variations, so it’s a daunting task) for the exterior. The curtain drain in the playing field has been installed and the bare ground will be seeded this week. Machines to grind and polish the upper deck concrete floor will arrive soon.

Have a look here to see the progress so far.