Construction Updates

Despite the many days of rain during the month of December, the construction crew was going full speed ahead—outfitting the interior spaces of Casti Village’s 240+ modular units with electricity, plumbing, AC/heating, and fire safety features, including fire alarms, sprinklers, smoke detectors, and pipes. They are also moving through the last elements on the punchlist for the underground garage, including installing the fence by the Emerson underground garage ramp.

Casti Village is unique among temporary campuses for many reasons, one being the fact that we’re creating an ambitious two-floor school structure, in contrast to the typical one-story layouts..Another feature is the network of wooden walkways that will connect the classrooms, offices, and program and community hubs. This wooden decking will be covered by a roof and protected from the elements, just as the outdoor walkways between classrooms are on our current campus.

The second-floor patio in Casti Village is now installed, complete with the railing! The crew is continuing to work on the wooden decking between the building units, which will consist of baseplates with grout, 6x12 supporting beams, and the eventual walkway. In other news, the crew has dug up and removed the asphalt that used to cover the “Admin Lot.” They are now beginning to regrade and resurface that space to connect it to the entrance to the garage to Bryant Street and accommodate new surface-level visitor parking spots. Meanwhile, right on schedule, the underground parking garage is close to completion. With the interior and ramp lights in place, the elevator team is now preparing to install the elevator. This week, we also reached another milestone: a “punch list,” or a final inspection with the builder, the architect, and other Casti Village stakeholders to identify the remaining items on the contract before Casti Village is completed.

The crew is now setting the modular units and tying them down. The crane has been demobilized and removed from the construction site, with the boom retracted and the counterweights taken off and offhauled on a separate truck. The team is also connecting our new underground garage’s storm line—the piping and pumps to collect any potential storm water—to the City’s utility storm main line. They are also preparing to install the wooden decking for the walkway in between the modular unit sections. The crew has put in base plates into the concrete and secured them with grout. These base plates will support 6x12 beams, upon which the walkway will ultimately rest. 

The crew is going strong with getting them into their designated spots. They covered up the seams between the modular units and started working on the interior finishes. The spaces that will become Upper School art, physics, and biology classrooms, as well as Middle School chemistry and science classrooms and dozens of others, are now ready to be outfitted with electricity, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and plumbing. And the library, made up of 16 components, is nearly complete, too! All of the 240+ components are slated to be installed before the winter break.

More than half of the 240 components of the modular classroom structures have already been delivered, offloaded with a forklift, lifted with a crane into place, and welded to the supporting metal beams. Once installed, the components are then equipped with electricity, plumbing, and mechanical features such as AC, and outfitted with fire safety features. The remaining sections, as well as the elevator, walkways, an outdoor deck, and gathering spaces, will be installed in the coming weeks. This is just the beginning!

Last week, 12 temporary classroom components of Casti Village arrived at Castilleja, and this week, the crew is continuing to move them with a forklift and a crane to their Casti Village locations. Once the components are in place, the crew secures them to the sleepers—long metal beams on top of the garage cap that provide support and fastening features. For the larger classrooms, the crew also assembles those components together. Ultimately, the construction team will aim to put in 10 to 15 portable classroom components per day. 

The remaining first-floor classroom components will be arriving in the coming weeks, followed by the second-floor components, for a total of approximately 240 parts. The team is also continuing to work on the elevator shaft for the garage and has filled the Emerson ramp with soil to form the exit. 

We have some very exciting news: The temporary classroom structures for Casti Village have begun arriving! On Wednesday, 12 of the more than 240 components that will create Casti Village were labeled and sorted based on their function and location. Then, yesterday, the crew began moving these structures with forklifts out of the staging area. Next, they were hoisted up to the crane and carefully lowered into place and assembled to form science classrooms. The remaining first-floor classroom components are anticipated to be delivered to Castilleja in the coming weeks, followed by the second-floor components.

The electrical conduits and the plumbing system for drainage, waste, and water have now been installed and routed to the area where the temporary classrooms will stand. The crew has dug trenches for the conduits around the perimeter of the garage, and they’ll be connected once the temporary campus is in place. The hundreds of sleeper beams that will support the temporary campus on top of the garage are now fully installed, inspected, welded, and set to dimensions. Meanwhile, the garage itself is now outfitted with electrical rooms, storage areas, and a sprinkler system for fire protection (also tested and passed), and the crew is completing the metal staircase in addition to the elevator.