Our next milestone, which should begin on the southernmost building (we call Building C) before the end of June, is a major step in the construction process that is beginning to give homeowners and passersby a good sense of what the first residences (we call Canopy) of Mill District will look like. When exterior and interior framing are done by late August, Canopy will come to life.
“Every day we get a little closer to what we’ve envisioned from the beginning,” said Doug Harrington, director of design and construction. “Framing is a big accomplishment because once that’s in you really get a sense of what it’s going to be like to be in the home and where things like windows and doors and lights will go.”
As Harrington explained it, crews from a contractor named BCI will start framing exteriors from the ground level and work their way up to the fourth floor. Once they’re done, they’ll move on to framing interiors, and work their way back down to the ground floor.
He referred to this as crews “working their way out of the building,” and said it’s a standard operating procedure in the framing business. “Working efficiently is important,” he said. Harrington noted that Building C currently is covered in screening, which is part of the process of fireproofing the steel.
Steel is a theme for Canopy, which is composed primarily of concrete and steel, and all frames are all metal, including metal studs. Harrington noted that one benefit to this approach is true measurements—while the measurements on wood framing always tend to be a little off, metal frames themselves are cut with precision, so every measurement is spot-on.
Another benefit of metal framing: The opportunity to create a totally accurate mock-up before replicating homes across all three buildings. Harrington said Mill District crews likely will build this model residence in Building C so they can utilize it for quality assurance and quality control as they build out the rest of the Canopy. Once they nail all the measurements and specifics, they will use the model as a template. Of course, none of this can happen until all the steel is up and all the floor decks are in place.
Most of that work on Building C is finished; steel and floor deck work continues in Buildings B and A with an anticipated completion date of sometime around the beginning of July. All framing work should be complete sometime in October.
“There’ll be no shortage of activity at the site through the summer,” Harrington said. “Canopy is really coming along.”
