Dryers Off

This week, when the stucco finish work takes place around the dryer vents (outside), we will need to shut those dryers off for the day (7am-7pm).

We will be on different floors on different days; but I will post a sign by the laundry doors the day prior to when those machines will be down.

Project Completion, Courtyard, and Demolition

Since we are getting closer to the end of this project (hooray!), I wanted to update you on what the following months will look like...

1. We are currently doing demo on the last part of the building to be demo'd (hooray again!)

2. After the hoist joints are repaired, all new windows will receive child protective stops, screens, and inspection.

3. Floors 1-3 will have caulk joints replaced around the windows. These floors will also have its brick joints ground down and fixed in preparation for the brick on these floors to be cleaned and sealed.

4. Soon after the ReCladding Project is complete (our intent is to be done by the end of January, keep praying...), we will again have access to the courtyard porch area, the grills, the courtyard side-walks, pool, and side gate.

5. Also, after the ReCladding Project is complete, DTS will be working on renovating and fixing the damaged landscape and sod in the courtyard and around the building. Some of the work will have to wait until later in the Spring. For this reason, there will be times when portions of the courtyard will be off limits; but we should still have access to the porch area, grills, pool, and side gate. I will give more details at that time.

In the meantime...

1. Continue to stay out of the courtyard unless there is an emergency (see signs on doors)

2. Continue to pray for the safety of the workers and to give thanks for the progress that we have made.

No Parking on St. Joseph

Please do not park by Swiss Tower on St. Joseph until the ReCladding Project is complete.

Saturdays

Mid-Con will be working on Saturdays from here on to maintain their schedule (weather permitting).

Protect Your Property

Please be aware that the ReCladding Project does involve vibrations that could potentially cause a valuable item to fall off a wall or shelf.

If you are concerned about the possibility of your personal belongings falling and becoming damaged due to the vibrations caused by the project then please put your valuables in a safer place.

New Screens

If you have new windows, you will get new screens once the scaffolding in your area of the building is removed and the hoist joints in that area are repaired by workers on swing stages.

After the scaffolding is removed and hoist joints are repaired, the new windows in that area will receive screens, safety stops, and an inspection.

Please do not ever lean out of yourself or let a visitor or family member lean out of a window (this is extremely dangerous, for most of you that goes without saying....).

Next Demo Phase

It looks like the next demo phase should start as early as tomorrow. The units most affected during this phase will be the '10's, '11's and '12's.

Contractors scheduled to work this Saturday

Extended Time for WH Use

As indicated during the construction meeting on Monday evening, I have been assured that the residents of Washington Hall will be pleased to share their pool and grills with you while the Swiss Tower courtyard is closed to maintain construction safety.

In order to provide access, a Courtesy Officer will remain on duty for an additional two hours each weekday evening, from 4:30 - 6:30 PM. Simply ring the Courtesy Officer as directed at the front door of Washington Hall in order to enter the building. Please be prepared to display your Swiss Tower fob to the Courtesy Officer upon entry into the building or he/she will not allow you into the lobby.

PLEASE REMEMBER that any time you or your children exit the pool area, you will be locked out and must re-enter through the front doors of Washington Hall.

Please share your appreciation with the Washington residents for sharing the space and at the same time be courteous to them while using the grills and pool.

Rain Today, No Pool Tomorrow...

Additional labor was brought in from out of town to get the needed scaffolding erected this week to take Friday off; but the rain today is forcing them to have to work tomorrow to stay on schedule.

For this reason, the ST pool will now NOT be open tomorrow (Friday, Sept 3rd). The ST pool WILL be open Sat-Mon (Sept. 4th-6th).

I have been assured that even if it does rain tomorrow, we will still have the pool Saturday-Monday.

ReCladding Meeting Summary

I would like to thank all who attended the ReCladding Meeting last night for your presence and participation. I would also like to thank all of you for your continued patience and endurance as we push forward through this very grueling but very necessary project.

For those who were unable to make it, I have listed below some of the important points that were made at the meeting:

• Through the process of already completing most of what needs to be done on the St. Joseph elevation, MCR and Childress have learned much concerning what the situation is behind the brick and have been able to hone their processes so that they now are able to accomplish more in less time. For this reason, we are currently on schedule to finish the courtyard around the end of November and the project as a whole around the end of December.
• This weekend (starting SATURDAY morning and ending Monday evening), the ST pool will be open. MCR has been working overtime to be able to take this time off and they are currently preparing the pool area and courtyard to make the pool (not the courtyard) available to us during their time off.
• It has been decided that ST residents will have access to the Washington Hall Pool and Grills, Monday-Friday, 9am-6:30pm. Here's how it works:
• You will need to hold up your ST fob so that front desk person can see it and buzz you in.
• You will need to tell the front desk person that you are from ST and would like to use the pool and/or grills
• The front desk person will then buzz you into the door leading to the hall which will take you to the pool and grill area.
• Once you are out in the pool and grill area, you will not be able to get back into the building from that door.
• You will only be able to leave Washington Hall by using the side gate which leads out of the pool area and then out the pedestrian gate to St. Joseph.
• Maintenance is also looking into the possibility of getting a grill up and running by Mitchell. I will update you once I have more information.
• Please continue to contact me with any issues or concerns that you have with the ReCladding Project.

Contractors will be working on Swiss Tower this Saturday on the Floyd St stucco installation.

Ctyrd & Pool Shut Down and Plyrm Refurbishment

The ST Courtyard and Pool is scheduled to be shut down for the ReCladding Project from Monday, August 16th until the work on the courtyard facing portion of the building is complete.

You will only be allowed to use the doors leading into the courtyard for emergencies during the time the Courtyard is shut down.

In response and in conjunction with the courtyard shutting down, Housing has decided to freshen up the playroom in hopes of alleviating some of the pressure that losing the courtyard will have on young children.

DEMO and PRAYER

If all goes well, demo is scheduled to begin on the Floyd side of the building by the end of next week.

Continue to keep the ReCladding Project in your prayers (patience and grace for us enduring the noise, safety for the workers, and impact through DTS's witness with the contractors).

Contractors scheduled to work this Saturday

Power Outage, Water Reports, & This Sat

1. Weather permitting with the present storms, ONCOR may have to shut down electrical power to Swiss Tower for 1-3hrs this Friday morning (July 2) after 9am. This will be for part of the process of relocating the power lines on Floyd St. We may experience this same procedure when/if the lines are placed back in their existing location.

2. Please continue to report any water intrusion to me so that we can keep good records of where water is coming in and so we can take the appropriate immediate action when necessary.

3. Contractors will be working on the outside of Swiss Tower this Saturday, 7/3.

Floors 1-3 on St. Joseph

The brick demo is complete on the St. Joseph elevation!

Starting next week they will begin working on floors 1-3 (on St. Joseph) replacing the caulk joints around the window while grinding and fixing the brick joints in preparation to seal the bottom 3 floors.

Suspicious Persons

If you see any suspicious persons lurking around the reconstruction materials at Swiss Tower after 7pm and before 7am, please contact Campus Police immediately (214.841.3590). Campus Police works 24/7 so there is no need to wait.

Window Installation Processes Separated

For those living on floors 4-10, please be aware that contractors and/or DTS personnel will eventually need to get into your apartment several times for window, trim, paint, and window stop installations (outside contractors will be accompanied by DTS personnel). These processes have by necessity been separated out with reference to their scheduling (there was an attempt made to lump some of these processes together but that effort proved to be impossible).

I will be given 48 hours notice for each of these processes before they are done. I will pass this information to you as soon as possible by posting a memo on your door clip. If you are in town when you receive this information, please clear out the area around the windows that are to be replaced so that the workers can work and so that your items are protected. For the safety and well-being of your window treatments, you should also take those down as well. If you are aware that you will likely be out of town for any of these processes, please follow the procedures given above before you go.

Work on Floyd

Over the next several weeks ONCOR will set two poles on the south side of Floyd St. to temporarily re-route power to the south. One pole will be at the corner of St. Joseph and Floyd St and the other will be at the NE end of Swiss Tower on Floyd St. ONCOR will also install breakers at these poles which will allow them to de-energize the lines on the north side of Floyd allowing Mid-Continental Restoration (MCR) to continue the ReCladding Project at Swiss Tower without delays. The lines on the north side of Floyd St. will remain in place permanently. Electrical service should not be interrupted to Swiss Tower.

While this is going on, they will probably begin putting up scaffolding (at least part way up). They will go up all the way to the tenth floor once the power is re-routed. Fencing will go up today on Floyd Street to mark off the next area that scaffolding will go up on the Floyd Street side of the building.

After the Floyd St elevation is complete, ONCOR will remove temporary lines/poles and re-energize the lines on the north side of the street.

No work or interruption of service will take place on the video cable feeding the Swiss Tower.

Protect your Privacy

If you are inside your apartment and need privacy when there are workers outside, make sure to close your blinds fully. The glare of the sun on the window makes it hard to see in anyway; but no need to take the risk=)

Apology and Tarps

First, Mid-Continental Restoration would like to extend an apology for working past 7pm this past Tuesday without notifying us about why they needed to. They had received a report of inclement weather late in the day (weather that did not actually make it this far in the end). Before this report, they had intended to leave that portion of the building without tarp; but because they received the report late in the day, it took them until 9pm or so to get the tarps in place to protect the building. The head person on-site failed to call his supervisor who would have called us had he known that they would work past our agreed time. They did not inform us; and for this they are very sorry.

I also have further clarification on how the tarps work. As you know, after attempting a different method of protection, it was then decided that we will often have to cover exposed areas (areas without brick) with tarps until new windows are installed and the area around the windows are fixed so that they keep water out. Here are the three conditions which have to be present for a tarp to be put up:

• Threat of Inclement Weather
• Area without brick or stucco
• Old windows still in place (or new windows when the walls around the window have not yet been adequately waterproofed)
  

As I understand the process, they will not put up tarp until they hear that there is a threat of inclement weather; however once the tarp is up they will leave the tarp up until you have new windows (this is because they found that it is a four hour process to properly secure tarps to the building). Once a new window(s) is/are in and the walls around the window(s) are adequately waterproofed there will no longer be the need to have a tarp covering your new window(s). The amount of time for a tarp being up is becoming shorter and shorter as we get into a rhythm of taking off brick and replacing windows.

Please see the email sent out to the building for more information concern the process of replacing windows.

Sat, May 22nd

Contractors will be working this Saturday, May 22, to make up for lost time.

They will be removing brick as well as starting the base sections of the scaffolding along Floyd St.

Tarps, Debris, and Window Replacement

After attempting a different method of protection, it has been decided (as some of you know) that we will have to cover exposed areas (areas without brick) with tarps until new windows are installed and the area around the windows are fixed so that they keep water out. My understanding is that the tarp will be pulled off during the day when they work, as long as the weather is good. This will keep water intrusion at bay when an area is exposed.

Also, the contractors have asked us to stay away from the fenced-in areas where they work. Please be sure to stay on the opposite side of the street. They are taking necessary precautions; but they want us to be extra cautious since debris can sometimes fall in the street.

For those living on floors 4-10, please be aware that contractors will eventually need to get into your apartment when it comes time to replace your windows (they will be accompanied by DTS personnel). I will be given 48 hours notice before any window is taken out. I will pass this information to you as soon as possible. If you are in town when you receive this information, please clear out the area around the windows that are to be replaced so that the workers can work and so that your items are protected(they have requested at least 3 feet of clearance). For the safety and well-being of your window treatments, you should also take those down as well. If you are aware that your windows will likely be pulled out while you are out of town, please follow the procedures given above before you leave. I will give more details concerning the process of window installation in the coming days.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the project. If I am not able to answer adequately, I will find the right person who can.

Please continue to pray for your fellow residents who are closest to the noise and the safety of the workers.

Bricks and Water

As some of you have noticed, the Contractor has begun to take brick off of the building!

They are also taking steps to prevent water from getting into exposed areas without brick.

They do not expect water intrusion; but please inform me as soon as possible if your experience any water intrusion through out this project.

Wind and Bricks

Because of wind delays, workers will continue to work on scaffolding tomorrow (Sat, May 8th).

They hope to begin to take off the brick from the St. Joseph side of the building next week(once they cover the windows on that side with Plexiglas).

Windows and Demos

For those of you who have scaffolding outside your open windows, please be aware that you run the risk of hearing something you might not want you or your kids to hear (for example: "THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!," said the worker who just hit his thumb with a hammer...uh, actually that would probably be OK, but he might say something else=).

Brick is scheduled to begin to come off the St. Joseph side of the building next week once the scaffolding is up and the windows on that side are covered with Plexiglas.

St. Joseph to be Blocked Off

The plan right now is to block off St. Joseph tomorrow (Wed, Apr 21) and begin putting up scaffolding on Thursday (Apr 22).

If you are parked by Swiss Tower on St. Joseph, please remove your vehicle by the end of the day today.

Permit Released! Work to Begin Monday!

We have been notified that the permit to begin work on the ReCladding Project at Swiss Tower has been released by the City of Dallas this morning.

We are now scheduled to put up scaffolding this coming Monday (April 19th) and to start taking off brick around Monday, May 3rd.

Thank you for your prayers!

Premits, Staging, and Starting on St. Joseph

Bad News: We are still waiting on permits to begin work on re-cladding Swiss Tower. Please continue to pray that the city will get us these permits quickly.

Good News: We will be starting the work on the St. Joseph side of the building instead of the courtyard. This means we will have the courtyard for longer this summer!! They project that they will begin working on the courtyard side in the middle of August or later.

Also, you will notice more activity around the building as Contractors prepare to begin work. You will also notice an enclosed staging area being built across the street on Floyd.