Field House Blog

The first concrete for the Field House’s footings (base of the foundation) arrived just before lunch the day before Thanksgiving. It was perfect pouring weather, considering the time of year, and nearly three truckloads of mix made it into the molds. More of the foundation excavation has happened since then and forms are being built for the rest of the footings. The next load of concrete is slated for next Wednesday. The webcam bugs are nearly worked out, so you’ll soon be able to not only watch the Field House grow hour by hour, you’ll also be able to replay all of the progress with a time-lapse feature. Look here for a gallery of photos from the event. Below is a video link that explains the pouring process.

Building has its own lexicon. “Digging for footings” means excavating a trench to prepare for forms that will be constructed to contain poured concrete that will make up the “footings,” or base, of the field house foundation. It’s critical that this linear hole be exactly as deep as it needs to be, which used to require a surveyors transit and a whole lot of shouting among the surveyor, the person holding the stake, and the shovel operator. Now it’s done with a tripod-mounted laser that emits a tone that can be heard above the diesel motor of the shovel, so it’s quite simple to know if the bottom of the hole is on the mark. Watching the process is fascinating. The shovel operator is so skilled you might believe he could tie your shoes with the bucket. And the laser sighting system allows the digging to proceed at a rapid pace. The trench is then covered with black construction blankets, using geothermal heat to prevent the surface from freezing. We need to build on earth, not ice.

The steel reinforcing rod (around which the concrete is poured) has arrived and we may even see the first mixer truck before Thanksgiving. Soon, you’ll be able to watch along with us when our construction site webcam comes online.

The DEW construction site trailer has arrived with it’s ever-important cargo: Construction Manager Tony Papa. Tony was the boss on both the Huseby House and Currier Center projects and knows a thing or two about putting up big buildings while keeping the students, faculty, and other supporters involved. And that’s only part of why we really like him. You’ll get to know him over the coming months as we post weekly video footage of “This New Fieldhouse.” And soon you’ll also be able to catch a glimpse of real-time progress on our web cam.

As for this week, progress includes scraping the top soil to one side so we don’t lose it for the finish work and putting up the fence that describes the actual construction area. Don’t be alarmed at the size of the work area. It’s much bigger than the finished product. There needs to be room to store materials, park large machines and pile dirt, snow and anything else that we don’t want to juggle on the actual building site. Here’ what it looks like so far:

The Putney School Breaks Ground for an Environmentally Sustainable Field House

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas joined The Putney School in turning the first spadefuls of earth to launch construction of The Putney School’s net-zero field house at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 11. The 15,000 sq. ft. structure will house a basketball court, weight room, yoga studio, ski waxing room, equipment storage, locker rooms and a social space designed and finished by The Putney School’s current students. A solar summer hot water heater, super insulation, automatic light controls, and a state-of-the-art air-to-air heat exchange pump powered by sun-tracking photovoltaic cells will make the energy requirements of the new structure “net-zero” over the course of a year. In other words, energy demands to heat and light the building in the colder/darker months will be offset by photovoltaic solar energy returned to the electric power grid during the warmer/brighter months to bring the total energy cost of the building to zero or better. When completed, this will be the first net-zero educational building in New England. It will also be the largest and first non-residential structure of its kind in Vermont. The new field house will feature composting toilets, rain water management, and other environmentally friendly construction choices to qualify for a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Rating.

The Putney School, which has always been invested in sustainability and outdoor sports, has considered adding a field house to its campus for over 30 years. Snowless winters and admission demands for indoor winter sports options have helped bring the concept to fruition this year. In the current strategic plan, The Putney School Board of Trustees voted for “A committment by the board and administration to the highest environmental standards for all new construction.” So when Waitsfield, Vermont’s William Maclay Architects and Planners proposed three versions of the new building—micro-load, carbon neutral, and net-zero—the choice for top environmental efficiency had, in essence, already been made. Although the most expensive to construct of the three options at an estimated total project cost of $6.6 million, savings in energy costs with the net-zero option will more than offset the $100,000-$500,000 difference over time. Maclay’s firm is no stranger to this sort of design, having won a LEED Gold Rating and the Vermont Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence & Pollution Prevention, among others, for their work designing the NRG manufacturing facility in Hinesburg, Vermont.

Williston, Vermont’s DEW Construction Corp., which also built the Huseby House dormitory and Michael S. Currier Center buildings for The Putney School, will partner with Maclay to build the field house. It is The Putney School Board of Trustees hopes that this building will serve as a working example of what can be done to mitigate pollution and energy waste in new and, as the building evolves, existing structures everywhere.

The Putney School Board of Trustees approved the construction of the Field House at the meeting last weekend as a “net zero” building. This means that it will produce as much or more energy as it consumes on an annual basis. Those of you who were following the conversations during the year realize that this seemed like a very ambitious goal in September. It means a more expensive building to construct, but a much less expensive one to run, and one which emits almost no CO2. The board believes that it would be irresponsible to add to the school’s dependence on fossil fuels, and that construction of this unusual building is consistent with Putney’s mission of sustainable living. The Field House will be heated with an air source heat pump system, which is a technology that has only become efficient enough for a building like this in the last few years. The electricity to run the pump will be provided by photovoltaic panels.  Groundbreaking will be in the fall, when all the needed permits are in. In the meantime, we are still raising money for the building, so those of you who were waiting to see if we were going to create a net zero building before you contributed need wait no longer! Many thanks to all of you who have already helped this project move from dream to reality.

William Maclay and Associates visited the campus for a fourth charrette on May 21. Since the variables of siting, programming and exterior shape have been presented, discussed and decided, this charrette addressed the details of interior and exterior finishing and the design of the social room. The finishing of the social room will be largely student driven and much has already been discussed on a special email forum and during school council meetings. Several students were on hand for the Wednesday afternoon charrette and contributed ideas to the designers to begin working into their drawings. Most of what occurs between now and ground breaking is the refinement of drawings for the various permitting entities who have to be satisfied before we put shovels in the dirt. We’ll let you know as soon as we can when that will be. 

The boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams posed within the snowy confines of the proposed field house site upon returning from March break, most likely wishing they had a dry spot in which to practice. The poles mark the corners of the building and their lengths correspond to the building height at each of these points. With this framework in place, the school community is better able to envision how the field house will appear once it is completed.

 Bill Maclay and his merry band of architects, environmental experts and assistants visited again today to meet with the building committee and conduct another charrette. The topic of today’s charrette was elevation options. We looked at four possibilities and agreed that the fourth was the most aesthetically pleasing while retaining the option of adding solar panels to the south facing slope. There was also some discussion about traffic flow and trying to keep muddy cleats from the basketball court, while keeping the equipment rooms accessible to coaches and team captains. And on cold, blowing February days such as this one, the idea of an enclosed walkway from the KDU lobby was looking like a winner. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest field house news, so keep checking back. 

William Maclay Architects met with students and members of The Putney School community for a second charrette (the first was to work on siting and energy efficiency considerations) on Wednesday. The field house site is just northwest of the KDU and the program space has been roughly determined. This exercise was to figure out how all the pieces of the program space puzzle go together. Break out groups of students, faculty and staff used scaled paper fragments on a site map to make suggestions of where the locker space should be with regard to the weight room, waxing room, composting toilets, social space and so on. It’s a simple exercise, but not easy. The Maclay crew took ample notes as each group presented its solution and will return to us on February 20 for another opportunity for the community to weigh in on the design process.

To see more images from the day, have a look here: Charrette #2

To Putney Board of Directors and Building Committee members

Friends,

We would like to report on the progress of the field house for the record and for those of you who were not at the board meeting in Putney this past weekend.

The Committee:

The Field House Committee has evolved into a Building Committee that will be co-chaired by Bob Raynolds and Pete Stickney. Pete will provide the day-to-day interface between the committee and the project. Lies Pasterkamp will continue to be the key link to the faculty. Student members of the committee will help tie the students to the project. The present committee membership is listed at the bottom of this memo.

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