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Hale Library Blog

Wide open spaces

The walls came tumbling down on Hale Library’s first floor last week! We have even more great shots of the demolition and the dramatic progress going on behind that purple construction fence.

A light shines in a partially visible room at left, lighting up a concrete room filled with construction debris.
A light in the old vending machine alcove shines through a newly created opening in that space’s north wall.
A man and a woman wearing hard hats walk through a room with concrete floors. Three large square windows are visible at their left.
The wall at left featuring a large bank of windows blocked off the sunflower entryway from the rest of the first floor.
A man with a gray mustache wearing glasses and a white hard hat knocks a hole in a wall with a yellow-handled sledgehammer.
Associate Dean Mike Haddock did his best Wreck-It Ralph impersonation on the wall that separated the sunflower entrance from the rest of the first floor.
A petite dark-haired woman wearing glasses and a white hardhat knocks a small chunk of plaster out of the wall with a hammer.
Associate Dean Sheila Yeh takes a whack at the wall.
Four men, two on the ground and two elevated on scaffolding, are seen from behind pieces of metal framing lowering a piece of drywall to the floor.
Construction workers lower a large section of drywall and metal framing to the ground after creating an opening between the sunflower entrance doors and the rest of the first floor.
A construction worker wearing a florescent yellow shirt and white hard hat throws a crumpled chunk of metal framing on a pile.
A construction worker throws a section of metal framing on a pile of debris. They are recycling all of the materials that they can.
Two men wearing white hardhats and gloves push a cart with a large square piece of glass on it.
Two construction workers wheel out a window pane that allowed visitors at the sunflower entrance to look into the first floor but prevented them from walking into the space.
A large concrete entryway with metal and concrete pillars.
As of this week, the entire wall is gone and the sunflower entrance opens directly into the first floor. This will be the main entryway for the Dave & Ellie Everitt Learning Commons, which will open fall 2019.
In the distance, sun shines in wood and glass entryway, lighting up a dusty room filled with concrete floors and pillars
A view of the sunflower entrance from inside the first floor. Note that the alcove where the vending machines were has also been removed.

A construction worker uses a remote-controlled mini excavator to pull down duct work in front of the first floor elevators. 

The entire first floor has been opened up, and the walls that separated Einstein Bros. Bagels from the rest of the space are gone. A new cafe area named for the Hale Family will be constructed closer to the Learning Commons entrance. 
A rough yellow and gray painting of Hale Library about five feet high stretches the length of a yellow concrete block wall. A pile of bent and broken wiring conduit sits in the foreground.
When crews removed drywall from a wall behind the first floor librarian offices, they discovered a mural of Hale Library painted on the concrete block.

Three construction workers stand in a concrete room surrounded by debris on the floor in and several large trashcans.

As the space opens up, we can more clearly envision what the Dave & Ellie Everitt Learning Commons will look like. Stay tuned! Next week we’ll share drawings from the architects at PGAV so you, too, can get a glimpse of Hale Library’s first floor in its fall 2019 state!