Crews have reached a turning point in the Auburn Hall construction project.
By Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

AUBURN – Work on Auburn Hall is on schedule and is slated to wrap up next June, even though some tasks proved more complex than first expected, city officials said.

First, crews had to gut the interior of the old building and erect a new steel frame inside its old brick walls. Then they began building new floors in the old building.

“In the old building, they had to hoist the beams by hand with pulley,” said Assistant City Manager Mark Adams. “There’s a roof over the old building, so it wasn’t like we could use a crane. Over in the new building, we could use a crane.”

At times, it seemed as if work on the new building was moving faster than work on the old, he said.

“We should be past most of the parts that gave us concerns,” Adams said. “The structure is up and and it should be like working with a new building now.”

On Monday, crews poured the concrete floors for the second and fourth floors of the new building. They poured the first- and third-floor floors on Friday, he said.

Adams said workers should begin putting the exterior walls of the new building in place, build the roof and start work inside both buildings. Once that happens, progress on the buildings should be about even.

The new building is designed to mirror the neighboring historic building. It’s the same size and the same shape and it uses the same color brick. Features such as the granite window arches are updated with more modern, brushed aluminum frames, however.

A grand entrance will connect the two buildings in the front, and a second story bridge to the new Mechanics Row parking garage will link them in the back.

High-traffic city services – such as the City Clerk’s office, tax paying, planning and permitting, and the city engineer’s office – will go on the first floor. Council chambers and office space for city and school administrators will go on the second floor. Personnel offices, general assistance and city finance staff will be on the third floor.

Tiles along the walls of one of the old building’s first-floor storefronts couldn’t be saved, Adams said. The tiles decorated the walls of old Auburn Kitchen and depicted Auburn landmarks such as the Auburn YMCA building, the Edward Little High School and North Bridge.

The tiles were glued directly to the walls and couldn’t be removed without destroying them. The walls were torn down in the spring to make room for the new construction.

“The workers came up with four or five different plans to get them off in one piece, but nothing worked,” Adams said.

Officials took pictures of the tiles and plan to use the photos to decorate the new building, he said. “I think it’s important we have some record of what was there.”

staylor@sunjournal.com