With gray skies and bitter weather, the energy at the Career Center hasn’t felt abundant lately. But although energy may be low for us, the construction has been on a high. The five-story Grace Hopper building has left two bright yellow cranes and a whole lot of dirt on our doorstep. The cornerstone has been laid and walls are getting built. Dozens of construction workers have kept themselves very busy for the last few months and it seems to be paying off. While we were relaxing over winter break, they were working, and we came back to some serious progress. 

The company in charge of construction is the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, a name which is plastered across the cranes. These workers have been moving fast and what looks like nothing but mounds of dirt is actually the beginning of our first floor. Dirt has been dug out of the ground, presumably for a ground floor or basement, and cement columns have been put up all over the place. These are the support beams for the first level of our future school. You may see (or smell) the hot cement they have been mixing and laying for the last couple of weeks. Not only are they laying the foundation for the front half of our new building, they have nearly two stories done on the northern wing! If you look closely, it is hiding behind its grey cement walls in the back of the construction site. 

This company has done quite a lot, and they’re also making sure to clean up after themselves. They have dust control means to keep our community clean, using two fire hoses on both the north and south side to maintain dust spread.​​ This company has also been mindful about the noise they make. Working through weekend after weekend must be hard, but keeping the noise down is even harder. Noise constraints keep them from using certain machinery, which can slow down work on the weekends. Right now it feels like a race but soon the anticipation will die down and excitement will bubble up. Hopefully we can stay on schedule and have our building up and running in the next couple of years.