Author Archives: uomatters

While UO can’t find room to house its new students, classrooms to teach them in, or offices for the faculty, UO’s VP for Finance Frances Dyke recently made the tough call to spend $2.4 million renovating and remodeling administrative suites in Johnson Hall. Where do you think her office is?

Money quote: “Funding was set aside from the Capital Repair budget that I manage for these repairs.” So where did the rest of the $2.4 million come from?

From: Frances Dyke
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 3:43 PM
Subject: Johnson Hall Projects

Here is the information you requested on the Johnson Hall renovations as summarized by the project managers. Just a few notes to help you decipher this: Suite 3 is on the west side of the ground floor. Suite 7 is on the east side of the ground floor. One thing that is not mentioned in the narrative below is that the bathroom renovation on the south side of the second floor upgraded a bathroom to meet accessibility standards. Until this project was finished the only accessible bathroom was on the ground level.

We have been working on 7 different projects in Johnson Hall over the last year.

The initial project was a heating system renovation, as the system in the building was failing, terribly inefficient, and ineffective. A study was done regarding this project 4 years ago. Funding was set aside from the Capital Repair budget that I manage for these repairs.

The project was defined as a two-phase project. The first being the basement, the second phase included the top two floors. These were set up as two separate contracts as initially the timing for these projects was conceived to be a year apart. They ended up being separated by less time as the second-floor renovation occurred which made it far more cost-effective to incorporate the timing of the HVAC upgrade at the same time as the second-floor renovation so no newly replaced finishes would be damaged with the addition of a new heating system which will now be enrolled in a UHVAC services program to prevent long-term maintenance issues. It took a major coordination effort on the part of a couple of my project managers, but it worked out very well.

The second floor renovation project was driven by a need to more efficiently layout the second floor, and re-organize it to fit the structure of the departments that were located on that floor. This project incorporated all of our current sustainable practices in lighting, finishes, HVAC controls, etc.

The Suite 3 and Suite 7 renovations were requested by different departments to better organize their spaces, which enabled the creation of new work stations. These new work stations are more private as well and a step forward in our attempt to stop identity theft in the workplace. This work was undertaken while the space was empty for the HVAC renovation. Again this created the opportunity for efficiency based upon the fact that there was not an additional loss of productivity for another departmental move. As well, we had put significant effort into coordinating multiple commercial contractors in this space to create the most cost effective renovation effort possible. Some of the work in this area ended up being completed slower than was desired due to some delays in the design and permitting process.

While we had a large portion of the building affected by the construction we installed a fire sprinkler system in the building. Johnson Hall has been high on the priority list for a long time. As it holds many critical records for the campus, it has long needed this system installed. We were able to install this system within the building without creating a significant increased impact to the users.

We also made a modification to the telecommunication closet within the building. This was an issue that was partially brought on by a necessary relocation driven by the second floor project, the other was that the existing closet was far below the standards of other campus systems so the opportunity was taken by the telecommunication department to upgrade the system to current standards.

The funding for the projects is as indicated below.

Basement HVAC Replacement Project (Cap Repair)

Project Budget $ 800,000
Current Expenditures $ 694,489
Projected Costs $ 716,111

1st and 2nd Floor HVAC Replacement Project (Cap Repair)

Project Budget $ 511,000
Current Expenditures $ 431,438
Projected Costs $ 445,098

2nd Floor Renovation Project

Project Budget $ 799,015
Current Expenditures $ 623,885
Projected Costs $ 704,265

Suite 3 Renovation

Project Budget $ 134,280
Current Expenditures $ 92,934
Projected Costs $ 115,477

Suite 7 Renovation

Project Budget $ 98,645
Current Expenditures $ 70,244
Projected Costs $ 90,957

Fire Sprinkler Installation/Alarm Upgrade (Cap Repair)

Project Budget $ 310,000
Current Expenditures $ 170,504
Projected Costs $ 218,952

Telecommunication Closet Upgrade

Project Budget $ 135,000
Current Expenditures $ 116,100
Projected Costs $ 128,691

Best,

Frances

Frances L. Dyke
CFO and Vice President for Finance and Administration