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Monday, July 6th, 2009
KMC construction reached new heights as steel arrived on site for the first time. During July and August, we’ll see the steel frames emerge for the Arguello Way building, followed by the three Serra Street buildings....See updated video below.
May 2009
Walters & Wolf, a wall system manufacturer based in Fremont, California, is fabricating the exterior walls for the Knight Management Center buildings as well as providing doors and windows for the project. In late May 2009, we visited their production yard to see the wall and window mock-up.
May 2009
Turner Construction: In late May 2009, we spent some time at the construction site with John deRuiter, Operations Manager for Turner Construction. John gave us an overview of what we’re seeing on site and what’s coming by early July.
February 18, 2009
Update on the Knight Management Center – 
HARD HATS REQUIRED!
Last time you heard from me it was early December 2008. The construction team was nearing the bottom of the hole for the parking garage. Well, that part of the project finished without finding any fossils, building remnants, or hazardous soil—which is all good news for our project and schedule.
The month of January passed with little rain and lots of progress on the foundations for the underground parking garage. Construction crews began pouring cement for the garage at the end of January. When they are finished pouring about $3 million worth of cement for the new campus, roughly 3,600 cubic yards of concrete for foundations will be in the ground. The garage and building foundations alone will weigh about 86 million pounds when completed. If you thought there were a lot of trucks hauling dirt off the site in 2008, imagine the number of concrete trucks that are needed to install roughly 9.4 million pounds of concrete per month—now that’s a lot of trucks!
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT CONCRETE FOR THE KNIGHT MANAGEMENT CENTER:
Fly ash is being incorporated into all the concrete used at the Knight Management Center. Using fly ash (a residual by-product from the combustion of coal that is now required to be trapped, rather than released) reduces the greenhouse gas footprint of producing concrete.
In addition, those sky-high dirt piles that you see on our site will begin to decrease next month (mid-March or so). Much of that stockpile will be used to finish the re-grading of the west side of the site (where we took over the last remnant of parking lot early this year) as well as to create the GSB Bowl (our informal, outdoor amphitheater).
It will take many months to complete all four levels of the parking garage. For those who are eager to witness more progress, expect to see the first steel going up for our Arguello way building by May.
While the much-needed rain is with us for now, our project is on track.
Look for more updates or take a look at the webcam at: www.gsb.stanford.edu/knightcenter
December 8, 2008
Well, I am certainly overdue in updating everyone on our construction progress. Here’s the latest:
Garage work continues in earnest.
In October, the team completed the installation of about 140 soldier piles (shoring beams to hold back the soil), and has been digging at a rate of approximately 6 feet/week since early November to create the big hole for our four-level, below-ground parking garage.(We will be going down about 30 feet; digging is anticipated to be completed in mid-December.) We used approximately 660 cubic yards of grout in the soldier pile process, and the total steel weight of the piles is roughly 342,000 lbs. As the excavation continues, work halts every 8 feet or so in order to put in additional “tie-backs” to shore up the soil. With three sets of tie-backs in place, we are closing in on the bottom of the hole.
If you’re on campus and paying attention, there has been a lot of truck traffic near and around our site. While we are keeping much of the excavated dirt on site to create the building pads (the structural fill—or dirt—that marks the place where the buildings will go) for the new campus, we still need to off-haul excess dirt, which makes for about 240 large trucks per day entering and leaving our site.
The building pads for the new buildings are really emerging. (Click on the Web cam to see a live image of the dirt piles for the building pads to the west and south of the hole: www.gsb.stanford.edu/knightcenter) As of Thanksgiving we have loaded approximately 1,400 loads (16,200 bank cubic yards) of soil onto the site in order to create these. You can really get a sense of how reserving the dirt on site will make a difference in the stature of our campus. The Knight Management Center campus will really have impressive views to the Stanford hills and the university beyond.
Simultaneous to the garage excavation work, other related projects are beginning and ending at a rapid pace. For example, in November storm drain lines were installed under Arguello Way; these pipes will take rainwater runoff from the site throughout construction. During the December holiday break, sewer and water pipe work will disrupt Serra Street traffic for a couple weeks-–good thing the university is officially closed during this time so we won’t get in the way of the students biking along Serra.
In early January 2009, the parking lot that has remained on the west end of our site will be closed permanently. Our construction team will take over that parcel and again stockpile excavated dirt as well as establish the building pad for our Arguello Way building. It won’t be long after that when we’ll see a large crane come onto the site to begin the process of framing our garage.
More updates in the new year!
October 13, 2008
Excavation has begun! The hole for our almost 900-car underground parking structure is beginning to be dug. In addition, utility and grading work is proceeding in order to get the site ready for construction of new buildings—for example, before we really get started we have to get our construction storm water drainage system in place.
During excavation, we will dig up about 20,000 cubic yards of soil, all of which will remain on site in order to re-grade the ground from its current elevation.
Another interesting fact is that our current estimates tell us that the amount of steel we’ll need to erect all the buildings for the new campus will exceed 8 million pounds (more than 4100 tons).
Keep checking back for more updates and facts!
September 19, 2008
The “mashers” arrived on site Monday, September 8. By Friday, September 12, the 651-655 Serra Street buildings were demolished.
During these next weeks, the debris will be cleared and the asphalt and concrete will be crushed and removed. Before the end of September, excavation for the four-level underground parking structure will begin.
During excavation, about 20,000 cubic yards of soil will be dug up. We will keep roughly 30,000 cubic yards on our site in order to re-grade the ground from its current elevation.
Another interesting fact is that our estimates currently tell us is that the amount of steel we’ll need to erect all the buildings for the new campus will exceed 8 million pounds (more than 4100 tons).
Keep checking back for more updates and facts!
August 15, 2008
We are getting ready for construction!
There has been much activity recently on the project site:
- Trees have been boxed for storage.
- Red tiles are being removed from the existing buildings to reuse on the new building for SIEPR.
- A construction fence is being erected.
- Construction trailers will soon appear on the site.
For those who are interested in closely following our progress, the Web cam is “live”: www.gsb.stanford.edu/knightcenter
Demolition of the existing buildings is expected to begin just after the Labor Day holiday. (I’ll be sure to let everyone know about the kind of heavy equipment we’ll use--fun for the whole family to come watch!).
Excavation for the parking structure should begin by the end of September.
More updates soon!
June 13, 2008
We did it! We received design approval from the Stanford University Board of Trustees this week; we are officially one step closer to starting our project. In addition, last week we also received our Architectural Site Approval from Santa Clara County. Things are moving now.
We have been busy these past few months advancing the design—both on the interior and exterior—for the entire project. Many people at the GSB (faculty, staff and students), along with BOORA Architects and the rest of the design team, have been providing detailed input about what we really want for the new campus. We’re beginning to see interior views of the spaces we will use every day—classrooms, office spaces, dining pavilion. And, we’ve started discussing identity issues, such as colors and materials we may use. It’s getting very real.
We are also counting down the days until construction begins in August—we’re under 60 now. This weekend is Stanford’s graduation ceremonies—for the Business School as well as the undergraduate and graduate populations. Next week, Turner Construction can begin to get themselves and the site ready—doing whatever they can to ready the site for construction.
Our webcam is being tested and will be live as soon as August 1. Stay tuned. There will be much more to show very soon!
April 3, 2008
How time flies. The project team has been hard at work finalizing the exterior design to prepare for our June 2008 Board of Trustees meeting, where we’ll ask for design approval as well as approval to begin the demolition, grading, relocation of site utilities, and excavation for the 900-car underground garage.
In addition to exterior design, BOORA Architects have begun preparing drawings of the interior spaces as we begin our design development phase. Many GSB participants will help define the interior requirements: furniture, finish standards, signage, and more. We are also actively engaging in work sessions related to how to design the exterior spaces—our many courtyards and gardens.
This is the part of the project we’ve all been waiting for—we’re beginning to actually see and understand how we’ll move into the Knight Management Center.
In another month or so we’ll have new images to share of the interior spaces. Stay tuned.
January 22, 2008
Welcome to our updated Knight Management Center web site. This is a very exciting time for the GSB. It’s not often that faculty, students, staff, and alumni get to be involved in developing a whole new campus for their school; this is our opportunity to do something great. The work the team has been doing over the past year is really “behind the scenes”—but the project will become more real to everyone once construction starts later this year.
In brief, the Knight Management Center will sit on the 12-acre site between the Schwab Residential Center and Maples Pavilion. With the new buildings, the 900-car underground parking structure, and the outdoor spaces, we will be building in excess of 750,000 square feet on the site. Yet, there is more room to build in the future. The new campus is registered with the US Green Building Council’s LEED® certification program, and our design team is aiming to reach Platinum for the project!
This is the intent of the newsletter: to keep everyone current with progress on the project. I anticipate posting regular entries (think of it as the Knight Management Center blog), providing interesting facts or challenges encountered along the way. We will also have a web cam that will provide real-time images of the construction site if you want to bookmark that to keep tabs on our progress. Look for that this summer when we break ground.
So where are we in the project? We are just completing Schematic Design (which is one of the five phases of a project: programming, schematic design, design development, construction, and move-in/commissioning). We expect to break ground this summer with excavation of the underground parking structure, which will take about a year to complete.
Work on the Student Center buildings should begin by Fall 2008, with steel for the classroom and administration buildings on Serra and Arguello beginning to be erected in early 2009.
The team welcomes your comments so feel free to send email. Keep in touch. I’ll do the same!