Workers prepare to remove trees around Mechanical Engineering

July 1, 2008

Workers prepare to remove trees around Mechanical Engineering

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue official in the Office of the University Architect said people should be careful around the Mechanical Engineering Building as contractors prepare to remove trees for the new Roger B. Gatewood Wing of the building.

Eight trees will be removed today (July 1) to make room for the installation of chilled water lines that will refeed the Mechanical Engineering Building, said Jeffrey A. Rhodes, project manager in the architect's office. The trees are located along the sidewalk that runs north of the Mechanical Engineering Building.

Rhodes said 11 more trees must be removed around the Student Services Annex One Building. That building will be removed this fall to make room for the construction of the Gatewood Wing. Rhodes said those trees could be taken down as early as this week, as well, by Mid-States General and Mechanical Contracting Corp. out of Lafayette.

He said the 19 trees were too mature to be removed and taken to another part of campus. Five trees near the Student Services Annex One Building were transplanted to other campus sites earlier.

The $34.5 million state-of-the-art Gatewood wing will add approximately 41,000 assignable square feet to the Mechanical Engineering Building, increasing its space by 55 percent. The building will be the first constructed on campus by standards established by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu

Source: Jeffrey A. Rhodes, (765) 494-9648, jarodes@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

To the News Service home page