 |
Marquette 's Cramer Hall gets new life under old name.
The 2002 move of Marquette University 's School of Dentistry to a new building opened up the campus's Schroeder Complex North facility on North 16 th Street to new uses and, since this past summer, a new name.
The north complex portion of the Walter Schroeder Health Sciences and Education Complex is now |
|
known as Harriett Barker Cramer Hall, honoring a generous benefactor in Marquette 's early years.
Marquette received a $1 million bequest from Harriet Barker Cramer in 1932 an amount equivalent to $40 million in today's dollars. Cramer, who was born the year Wisconsin became a state 1848, took a job as a typesetter at the former Evening Wisconsin newspaper in Milwaukee . She married the newspaper's editor, William E. Cramer, and succeeded her husband as editor and publisher after his death in 1905. She retained ownership of the company until 1918, and died in 1922.
Harriet Barker Cramer's donation allowed construction of a building that became known as the Harriett Barker Cramer Memorial that, until 1967, housed the School of Medicine . (The School of Medicine moved west to Wauwatosa , where it is now known as the Medical College of Wisconsin.)
Now, a new series of renovations is under way, with KBS Construction of Madison serving as the general contractor, with the Milwaukee office of HGA as the architectural firm.
The interior renovations, being done in phases, are making Harriett Barker Cramer Hall suitable for the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, as well as the Speech and Hearing Clinic.
Exterior work would also be needed, as Marquette determined it needed to address some issues with the roofing on the various structures of Cramer Hall. FJA Christiansen Roofing, which has a long history of Marquette University projects, won the bid for the work, which involved a number of phases for different areas of the building complex.
The roofing project involved a number of situations, including work on saw-tooth monitors that originally provided skylight for one of the buildings, but which were later covered up. Other areas required complete tear-off of existing roofing, and fabrication of a considerable amount of architectural sheet metal, which FJA Christiansen handles in-house.
That interior work also meant the presence of additional companies their equipment at the job site, which, at times, made site access challenging. With a number of other trades working on the project, site access for our cranes, materials staging and other needs, had to be closely coordinated with KBS and with Marquette, Jeffrey Reisinger, FJAC project manager, said.
An additional challenge on the project was the tight schedule related to the start of the fall semester for Marquette classes. All trades were encouraged to do whatever was necessary to complete their work scope, said Reisinger.
One of the most interesting aspects of the multi-phased project involved a roof section that has three saw-tooth-shaped monitors. The monitors originally brought light into one of the complex buildings, but the glass windows were later covered with a smooth roofing material, but were not insulated.
Following the HGA design plans, half of one of the monitors was restored by KBS Construction with new glass windows that again are allowing natural light to stream into the building. FJA Christiansen crews handled the sheet metal trim for the new windows.
The remaining sloped areas of the monitor were covered insulated with a substantial base layer of polyisocyanurate roof insulation, while the valley areas were covered with a tapered polyisocyanurate insulation system slope to drain.
Combined with other roofing materials, a higher R-value was achieved, significantly improving the insulation, which was a concern for Marquette in these times of rising energy costs.
In the areas around the monitors, the flat roof was replaced, removing existing materials down to the structural book tile deck in sloped portions and down to concrete in the valley areas. The replacement system included insulation and a roof system including Performance Roof System's Derbigum modified bitument membrane.
Sheet metal work involved custom-fabricated closure, fascia and trim work for the monitors.
The flat-roofed area for this portion of the project involved removal of the existing gravel-surfaced, built-up membrane, flashings and insulation down to the structural book tile and concrete. The primed surface was then covered with a base layer of polyisocyanurate roof insulation, covered with a layer of recover type board insulation which, combined with other materials, provides a significant improvement in R-value. A fiberglass base sheet covers the insulation, with a 160-mil Derbicolor granular surfaced roof membrane and flashing system over that.
Additional tapered insulation panels were added at the roof drain area to sump the drain areas and accelerate water flow.
FJA Christiansen was also engaged to re-roof three other sections of the building complex, the lower north roof, the upper northwest roof and the upper center roof, with the later two involving penthouse areas.
Work on those sections involved removal of existing roofing and the installation of a new gravel-surfaced four-ply built-up roof. Polyisocyanurate and perlite insulation were added to achieve an increased R-value. Those sections also required drainage improvements and architectural sheet metal work for counter-flashings, expansion joints, flange and rain skirts, vent hoods, and for coping cap sections along parapets.
FJA Christiansen Roofing Co., Inc.'s work on this complex of buildings offered Marquette University much more than new, watertight roofs. The Company's solutions will also bring long-term value to Marquette in the insulation-related savings it will realize in its energy costs for the Cramer buildings, and from the brightened interior environment made possible by the exposure of the once-covered saw-tooth monitor windows.
While Harriet Cramer's donation to Marquette was made possible by the money she and her husband earned from the Evening Wisconsin newspaper, her original vocation was teaching, starting at age 15 as an elementary school teacher. That interest in education makes it even more fitting that her name be restored to the building she helped make possible.
|
