All campus construction projects are on schedule and running smoothly, according to University Vice President of Operations John Roberto.
"Everything's on track," he said, adding that he expected all current projects to be completed by Dec. 2006.
The most anticipated current construction project, Sophia Gordon Hall, is on target and set to open in September for housing next semester.
"The building is starting to take great shape inside," Roberto said.
"Everyone jokes about, 'What happens if they don't finish?'" junior and future resident Shanti Sattler said. "[But] they made a lot of progress this year so I'm not worried about it."
The completion of Sophia Gordon Hall will accompany the repaving and opening of a stretch of Talbot Avenue that has been closed for the entire year.
The basement of Cohen Auditorium, which Roberto said "will be completely gutted and renovated," is slated to be finished by September. "It's going to be a stretch, but we're confident," he said. "We've just begun that work."
The new music building addition will be finished by December, and Roberto plans to move the music department into the building in January, 2007. The Linbeck Company was responsible for the construction of the new addition and the Cohen basement, as well as Sophia Gordon Hall.
The parking spaces lost as a result of the completed music building will be recouped when an underground parking structure is finished beneath the former site of the South Hall tennis and basketball courts this July.
Shawmut Design and Construction is currently working on the South and East sides of the Cabot Tower of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The building is receiving Tufts' version of a facelift, consisting of "mason repair and window replacement," according to Roberto.
Off campus, the new Tufts boathouse was completed in the beginning of May. The boathouse is located on the Malden River near the Wellington Station T station on the Orange Line and is "about 10,000 gross square feet," Roberto said. "[It's] a two-story boathouse with a spectator deck" for watching crew regattas.
According to Roberto, Sophia Gordon's construction process has set the eco-friendly bar high for future Tufts projects.
"We've learned a number of things throughout the process, so it's very safe to say that awareness has been raised," he said, noting that there was an increased effort to dispose of and recycle building materials in an environmentally efficient fashion.
"[Sophia Gordon] is an environmentally friendly building, with the carpeting and other materials," Roberto said.
"Sophia Gordon is being built under the LEED guidelines," Roberto said. According to the United States Green Building Council website, "the LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable
buildings."
The rating system not only intends to create a set of environmentally aware standards that take into account water savings, energy efficiency, and materials selection, but it also seeks to identify environmental leaders in the building community.
According to Roberto, Sophia Gordon is "the first building where we are going to seek LEED certification."
"We're certainly going forward with [the environmental concepts in] future renovation projects," he said.
