The 4,575-square foot pool is located in a campus building on Harrison Street and the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan. “We performed extensive aesthetic and infrastructure renovations to the 10,500-square foot facility, including work on the steampipe network and the concrete structural system underneath the pool,” stated Kevin G. Harney, Stalco’s Principal and CFO.

While the pool was taken out of service during construction, the team was working during the school year (as well as over holidays) in an occupied building on a busy college campus within a crowded city. Thus, security of access and construction safety were of the utmost importance. “First, we completely fenced off the entire construction area, making sure students and faculty could not enter the site. The next step was to remove two large 5’x12′ windowpanes from the pool area on the Harrison Street side. With this, we created independent access to the construction area,” said Stalco’s Christopher Caulfield, a superintendent on the project. The Stalco team was careful to ensure that this independent access did not interfere with foot traffic.

In addition to Stalco, the project team included construction manager AECOM; the architect and engineer of record was MP Engineers & Architects; Genesys Engineering P.C. was the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineer; Eldor Contracting Corporation was the electrical contractor; Premier Mechanical Services, Inc. served as mechanical contractor; ARA Plumbing Corporation was the plumbing contractor; Norberto Pools served as the pool contractor; and the waterproofing and tile work subcontractor was Baybrent Tile Corporation.

The scope of work also included building a new staff office, mounting all-new diving platforms, renovating a storage room, and installing two new ADA-compliant S.R. Smith’s handicapped lifts to accommodate swimmers in wheelchairs. The lifts are individually operated with a system of button controls. The team installed a competition-level timing system with touchpads, by Colorado Time.

For the most part, the lighting above the pool remains the same. “We cleaned and, where necessary, repaired the existing fixtures, which are long tubular lights designed for installation over difficult-to-access areas,” said Adele Todisco, Stalco’s assistant project manager. The lighting sources are located on both ends of the long tubes, while a series of mirrors and diffusers in the middle portion of the tube serve to spread the light throughout. Maintenance workers simply access the lighting sources at each end from the walkways around the pool when bulbs need to be changed. However, the team did install a new array of emergency lights.

Headquartered in Islandia, N.Y., with a regional office in New York City, Stalco Construction, Inc. is a full-service general contracting and construction management firm active in the Greater New York area and on Long Island. Building Design & Construction magazine recently ranked Stalco as the 101st largest general contractor and the 59th largest construction manager in the United States.

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Established in 1912, the college is now the largest tech school within the SUNY system, boasting more than 9,400 students. “Creating a spacious and attractive new home for our student organizations and clubs is the new chapter for this historic and beloved campus landmark,” said Farmingdale State College President John Nader in a statement.

The $12 million project consisted of a total gut and renovation with partial structural redevelopment of the brick, masonry, concrete and steel building. Likewise, the complete mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems were replaced, and ADA-compliant modernizations and energy-efficiency upgrades were also implemented. The project was overseen by general contractor Stalco Construction and BRB Architects (both based in New York).

Originally used as a power plant, the college wanted to preserve the structure’s early 20th century industrial aesthetic. “We set out to create a design that would have an industrial look, in recognition of the structure’s original purpose, while updating it to create modern and attractive interiors. To do this, we included partially exposed brick walls and structural steel, and we maximized the natural light coming in by adding clerestory windows,” said Joseph Zappulla, the architect-in-charge at BRB, in a statement.

The radio station now has an office and a broadcasting studio, with a DJ room installed inside of an acoustical box. The studio is equipped with an acoustically rated door and windows, five layers of sheetrock with acoustical clips between the wall layers and acoustical ceiling tiles on acoustical springs and additional Guilford of Maine FR701 2100 acoustic wall panels.

There is also a new architectural stairway, connecting the building’s two floors, over which Stalco installed polyethylene, fluorescent, globular-shaped pendant lamps, suspended at different levels. Festooning the top of the stairs are arty portraits of rock ‘n’ roll grandsires John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix.

“The functional program for the interiors was developed by a committee of college employees and students, and was finalized in the early stages of the project,” said Zappulla. “The team wanted to create a vibrant and exciting environment that would incorporate all student activities and unite them in one place.”

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The community college currently educates more than 50,000 New Yorkers through degree, certificate and continuing education programs, and the library is the most heavily used space on campus.

“Our student population is largely low-income, new immigrant, or otherwise disadvantaged — many face numerous challenges on their way to a college degree, from financial burdens, juggling work (often more than one job), raising children, and other responsibilities — and they deserve and need a convenient, comfortable, modern space where they can grab time to study and reflect,” said La LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow in a statement.

The library expansion has been long overdue, Mellow added, and included converting the second floor of the college’s E-Building into an additional space for the existing library on the first floor. Making the library 58 percent larger and doubling its capacity to 732 seats, the expansion added 312 workstations with powered Internet connections at each, media rooms, 11 new group study rooms, new reading rooms, a new media lab, faculty suites, archive space and 50 new offices. It also included upgrading the first-floor library space and connecting the two spaces with a large staircase and enhanced elevator service.

The building’s previous second-floor space previously housed faculty offices and classrooms and has been converted to feature glazed divider walls, carpet flooring and fabric-wrapped wall panels for visual interest and acoustical control. A reference desk and computer desks mixed in with lounge-type tables and reading tables and chairs complete the space and allow for a flexible learning environment.

The new staircase is the highlight of the project. To create a seamless connection between both floors, the construction team removed the original stair from the main floor and cut an opening into the concrete slab of the new second-floor space to create a larger, more transparent staircase. It features wooden handrails and glazed sides as well as an all-glass opening on the second floor.

The biggest challenge for the project was that construction took place while the first-floor library was fully operational. In order to avoid disrupting student focus in the library, the construction team had to build its own scaffolding with stairs, a ramp and sidewalk bridge on the outside of the building in order to access the construction site. Materials were delivered either through the ramp or with a hoist through the second-floor opening. Even the new stair was delivered in sections through the exterior wall opening and assembled on site, according to a statement. Other aspects of the project — bathroom plumbing and air-conditioning, for example — were installed during school breaks and on weekends.

The library will now undergo a second phase of renovations that focus on the first floor and are based on input from students, faculty and staff.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer will now be helping students raise their test scores in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as he has been named California’s After-School STEM Ambassador by state superintendent of public instruction Tom Torlakson.

Abdul-Jabbar is invested in the learning and advancement of the youth in this country. He has been actively promoting STEM before the official announcement of his new position. He started the Skyhook Foundation in 2009 that promotes the importance of STEM education and STEM-related careers.

“If America is to maintain our high standard of living, we must continue to innovate,” said Abdul-Jabbar in a statement. “We are competing with nations many times our size, and STEM learning represents the engines of innovation. With these engines, we can lead the world, because knowledge is real power.”

Abdul-Jabbar is not unfamiliar with the ambassador role, in January 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appointed him as a U.S. Global Cultural Ambassador. In that role, which will commence at the end of the year, he travels throughout the country to discuss the importance of education and cultural tolerance.

He looks to extend his influence on children — not necessarily to become a professional athlete, like himself, but to receive an education that will make a child successful, no matter what their dream may be.

Abdul-Jabbar pointed out that while there are only 450 NBA jobs available at any one time (30 teams with 15 players on each, not counting the Developmental League), there are “thousands upon thousands of engineering jobs” available.

In his role as the California After-School Ambassador, Abdul-Jabbar will make appearances at after-school programs around the state over the next year to promote STEM education.

His role is especially important in California, as a November 2011 report from WestEd found that a majority of elementary students in the state were not being exposed to high-quality science instruction, according to Erik Robelen from Curriculum Matters.

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