If you ask Superintendent, Rod Shaeffer, what ranks high on his list of favorite Smoot Construction jobs, he’ll mention the installation of the Columbus Zoo’s Dinosaur Island exhibit. Why? Because it’s different from a typical day in the field of construction and the work is relaxing.
For approximately the past six years, Rod has been leading a crew of about four people to install more than 30 animatronic dinosaurs each spring on the shore side near the Australian and Islands section of the Zoo. His team does all the rigging and placement of the creatures that are made of steel and covered in urethane waterproof skin.
This season’s dinosaurs were acquired from Dino Don Incorporated, in which its owner, Dino Don Lessem, was adviser to Stephen Spielberg’s, Jurassic Park. Due to the tight sight constraints and the use of large equipment, careful planning was involved to avoid damaging the reconstructed prehistoric animals and the surrounding Zoo environment.
Installation takes about a month to complete, and the exhibit typically opens over Memorial Day weekend and runs until the end of October, when The Smoot Team takes it down. Keep an eye out next spring when this exciting attraction comes back from extinction!
On the evening of Friday, October 29, Kenyon College celebrated its Grand Opening ceremony of the new Kenyon College Chalmers Library with many of our Smoot Construction team members in attendance at the event. Kenyon College gave high accolades and made a point to recognize all key stakeholders for their successful delivery of the new Chalmers Library. This included Kenyon College’s project management team, GUND Partnership (design team), and our Smoot Construction Team.
Smoot Construction would like to recognize ALL the individuals who have been a part of making the Library a success. We also want to say “Thank you” to the Smoot Team members for continuing the never-ending drive, commitment, and the failure-is-not-an-option attitude they put forth every day as we continue construction on the remaining facilities of the overall West Quad Development project.
Smoot has been engaged as a partner with Kenyon College on the West Quad Development project dating back to early logistics studies and the pre-construction stage in 2016. Since then, the Smoot Team has worked side by side with Kenyon College, the design team, and many other stakeholders to provide Kenyon College with their new state-of-the-art, LEED® Gold certified 98,000-sf Library. The Chalmers Library is only one component of the Kenyon West Quad Development project. Other facilities include an Admissions and Financial Aid Building, Academic Building, and a 238,000-sf underground parking garage.
It’s been about three months since the ground-breaking ceremony for the highly anticipated $32 million STEM Center that is currently under construction on the shared campus of The Ohio State University at Newark and Central Ohio Technical College.
According to Kim Manno, the director of advancement for COTC and Ohio State Newark, the campus has waited about 20 years for The John and Mary Alford Center for Science and Technology project.
As the Construction Manager at Risk for the STEM Center, Smoot Construction is currently leading the site work to prep for the 60,000-sf structure. An article written by Cindy Riley, CEG Correspondent, explains students pursuing a major in life or physical science can look forward to ample learning space, including new instructional science and research labs and a 3,500-sf health science simulation center.
The new building is expected to open in 2021.
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