Work on Lewis Library restarts after glitches

Construction of the Lewis Science Library appears to be keeping pace with a newly revised timetable, University officials said yesterday.

The 87,000 sq. ft. structure, designed by architect Frank Gehry, was set to open to the University community this spring. The opening date was delayed, however, after the University fired its original contractor, Skanska USA, in November and replaced the company with Barr and Barr, Inc.

The University has not yet proposed a definite completion date for the building, located at the corner of Washington Road and Ivy Lane. "We hope to see the construction completed next academic year," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said in an email. "This is a complex project, and we hesitate to speculate about a specific opening date."

Cliatt declined to comment on the delay's financial costs, citing contractual obligations.

The move to replace Skanska with a new contractor drew skepticism from some who said that introducing a new team during the project would add unpredictable difficulties.

At the time of the change, Mok Wai Wan, a Gehry Partners architect working on the library, predicted that Barr and Barr would face an uphill learning curve. "If you put a new player into the playing field, it will take a substantial amount of time for those individuals to get back to speed," Wan said in an interview in November. He declined to comment further when contacted yesterday.

Cliatt said that it was "difficult to measure" whether the pace of construction on-site has quickened since Barr and Barr took control of the project. Visits to the site in past weeks have revealed a marked increase in activity compared to the pace of construction before Skanska's dismissal.

Barr and Barr has had a longstanding relationship with the University. Most recently, the company completed work on the Carl Icahn Laboratory, located only a few hundred yards from the site of the Lewis Library project.

The Lewis Library is named for Peter Lewis '55, a University trustee and chairman of the Progressive Corporation insurance company who donated $60 million to support the library construction and programs. He is a member of the trustee Grounds and Buildings Committee, which oversees University building projects.

Cliatt said that Lewis "has been kept informed throughout every step of the project." She declined to say whether Lewis had expressed any frustration with the slow pace of the library's construction.

When completed, the Lewis Library will host a comprehensive collection of science resources. "The new science library will combine the collections of about six or so science branches," Patty Gaspari-Bridges, head of the science and technologies libraries, said. The library is expected to house the chemistry, biology, geosciences, physics and statistics collections, as well as the digital map and geospatial information center.

With the exception of the engineering and plasma-physics libraries, the existing science and technology branch libraries will be converted into various new spaces depending on departmental need, Gaspari-Bridges said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The Lewis Library project will consolidate the collections in a mid-campus location, which soon will become the science "neighborhood" envisioned by President Tilghman.

"We'll be able to offer services each of the libraries has now," Gaspari-Bridges said. "I think it will be easier [for] the undergraduates and faculty to be able to use the library and its resources without having to think; 'Is the chemistry library open, is [the] geosciences library open?' "

Cliatt said the existing science libraries have not been adversely affected by the delay in the Lewis Library's construction. "There actually has not been an effect," she said, "because the science collections for the most part continue to use the spaces they have occupied since before the science library construction began."

Though Gaspari-Bridges said library staffers were eager to settle into their new home, she noted that the project's delay has helped them by providing additional time to organize.

Gaspari-Bridges added that she remains hopeful that the library will be completed "by next year this time," but she acknowledged she cannot pinpoint a specific date.