Construction Updates

But take your time getting there. If you enter Casti Village through the Emerson Street gate, now flanked by brick pilasters, you can walk down the wooden walkways treated with stain. If you’re the first one there, the motion-sensitive lights may wake up as you go. There are classrooms on either side, along with those turfed spaces to relax, and they are now ready for us to move in! You’ll also pass by the lift, now fully operational and inspected, along with an access ramp. You’ll also see the elevator leading down to the parking garage. Then, as you make your way up to the second floor, you’ll pass by more classrooms and a large outdoor deck, also covered with green turf. And there you have it, a brief tour of Casti Village! All that remains are a few more paint strokes and a punch list inspection, and we’re almost there!

Have you noticed the big news from this week? The fencing around the corner of Bryant Street and Embarcadero Road has been taken down for good! This is the first stage of opening  our new entrance to campus and Casti Village. Driving around the block and looking from the Circle, we can see elements of the extensive walkway system, which is now complete with all of the lights installed both upstairs and downstairs. 

Project managers and the City of Palo Alto are visiting to inspect the site as its construction draws closer to completion. Other finishing touches are falling into place: the lift between the first and second floor is now fully functional and the crew is evening out the asphalt road between the gym and Casti Village.

The crew is continuing to put the finishing touches on Casti Village. They’ve added four water stations with eight drinking fountains total and installed glass paneling around the lift, which will travel between the first and the second floors. The exit signs have also been put up throughout Casti Village, as well as fire extinguishers. The wooden ramp leading to Casti Village is now in place, and green artificial grass has been added to the turf area next to the ramp.

We’ve reached so many construction milestones this week! The first and second-floor wooded walkways and the roof of Casti Village are nearly complete. Next, the crew will polish and paint the wood of the walkways, waterproof the roof, and add adjustable rainflaps on the second floor. The roof above the walkways is slightly tilted, to further protect the wood from the elements and prevent standing water. And speaking of water, 36 sinks have been installed in various labs and classrooms, plus most of the classroom lights, fire sprinklers, and electrical and plumbing components. 

Meanwhile, the garage is fully equipped with nine EV charging stations, functional arms at the entrance gate, and overhead grille doors by the exit and the entrance. The painters have demarcated every one of the 52 parking spots inside and completed the painting job with designated handicap parking signs and arrows on the ground (there will be three parallel lanes in the garage for easy drop off/pickup).

The wooden walkways in Casti Village now have a staircase between the first and the second floors, and the lift is in the process of being installed. The elevator for the underground parking garage is already installed and the crew is finalizing the mechanical aspects. Also, the team is working on the turf area between Casti Village and the gym: they paved the area and added a layer of rock in preparation for the turf. The team is also continuing to run conduits for electricity, internet, and more throughout Casti Village.

The crew has installed electrical cabinets in Casti Village: metal enclosures that house switchgear, circuit breakers, and control systems for the campus. They are now connecting and “feeding” electrical conduits through the cabinets to branch out across the entire campus. 

The lift between the first and the second floors of Casti Village is almost complete. 

 Now that the electrical shaft for the underground garage elevator is in the process of being completed, the crew is painting, caulking, and sealing the shaft, as well as adding utility lines. 

The team is continuing to work on the ADA-compliant ramp for access. They’ve installed metal grating below ground level. The underground enclosure was then filled with concrete in preparation for the ramp installation.

The Casti Village construction is going at full speed! Members of the crew are preparing to install an ADA-compliant ramp, which will connect the paved road between the gym and the Casti Village to the sidewalk and the first-floor classrooms. The elevator between the first and the second floors is also in the works. 

Meanwhile, the crew is also waterproofing the mechanical well: the structure responsible for moving any water condensation and exhaust from the underground parking garage up to the surface. The garage already has approximately five fans to circulate the air and move it up as part of this ventilation system. The waterproofing material is stucco; it will later be covered up with metal panels. 

The stairs from the underground parking garage near the Admin building now have a roof above them, held up by metal beams. 

The crew is almost done installing the first-floor wooden walkways and are working on the second-floor walkways and the roof above them. After the wooden layer of the roofing is complete, they will cover it with roofing material to protect the wood from the elements.

The Casti Village site is now equipped with two bioswales: shallow ditches measuring several feet deep that are backfilled with soil, dirt, and rock, and then covered by vegetation. To an untrained eye, a bioswale may look like a simple patch of grass. But bioswales serve an important purpose: they collect stormwater and drain it offsite through drainage pipes installed in the ground. It’s an aesthetically pleasing alternative to gutters and sewers. 

The crew is also continuing to build the second floor of the wooden decking between the classrooms of the Casti Village. The pad for the Casti Village elevator has been poured with concrete ahead of the elevator installation. 

Meanwhile, deeper underground, the garage now has multiple EV charging stations and two gate bases at the entrance of the garage.

They’re also finalizing earthquake proofing plans for the bookshelves that will go into the library. The wooden walkway on the first floor is nearly complete, and the crew has begun installing the second-floor walkway. They are also continuing to put in electrical, fireproofing, and plumbing fixtures inside the classrooms.

This week, the crew paved the Emergency Vehicle Access road located between Casti Village and the gym with asphalt. They are continuing to work on the paths near the garage and build the wooden walkways for the first and second floors. They’re also adding finishes to the classroom structures: outdoor light fixtures are now affixed to many of the buildings, and window blinds adorn the windows inside the classrooms. 

The emergency vehicle access road, located between the classroom structures and the gym, has been leveled and graded and is now ready for paving with asphalt. 

Meanwhile, the wooden walkways we reported about last week continue to take shape on the first level. The structural walls that will support the stairs for the second-floor wooden walkways of Casti Village, also known as shear walls, are going up quickly. These second-floor walkways will also be covered.

The underground parking structure is now outfitted with an elevator! The walls inside the parking garage have also been painted with primer and the first coat of paint, the color of “cotton ball white.” Meanwhile, outside the garage, the crew has added street-level pathways from the garage to the Admin Building and to Embarcadero Road. The team has graded these walkways and added wooden boards on all sides, known as forms, in preparation for concrete pouring and paving.

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 school's who are planning for construction 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 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 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 classrooms will stand. The crew has dug trenches for the conduits around the perimeter of the garage, and they’ll be connected once Casti Village is in place. The hundreds of sleeper beams that will support Casti Village 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.