By Miles Harleston and Andrew Park

The canopy linking Seaver to the Seeley G. Mudd Library was demolished, a construction fence was erected in front of the adminstrative offices and around Zanuck Pool and the turf on Ted Slavin field was stripped off and replaced within the past two weeks in construction on the upper school campus.

“Our field had been down for eight years which is a good, long, healthy life [for a field],” said Athletic Director Terry Barnum. After eight years of use, the field needed to be replaced. The turf was thinning and shedding plastic. The project started on June 13 and is scheduled to end on Aug. 1.

Re-laying the field is a long process. Once the old field was removed, the new field had to be laid. The new field is bare carpet. The carpet had no lines or in-field, which is the rubber pellets inserted to give the turf the feel of dirt.

The workers dodged a bullet this time because the draining system was already in place from the previous field, Barnum said. 

“Underneath this is a very complex and intricate draining system,” Barnum explained. That is the reason that the there is no water on the field and it doesn’t stay on the turf.

Instead of painting in the lines and numbers, they are sewn in by hand.

“When you have them sewn in [they become] zero maintenance,” Barnum said. If the lines were painted in, the colors would fade quickly and would require much repainting.

To sew in the numbers, the workers shave out the numbers and lines with a razor. Then they lay down different colored carpet for the numbers and lines. The numbers are then sewn in.

As the final process, in-field is poured onto field.

“They’ll take rubber and they’ll lay it in here and kinda smooth it out,” Barnum said.

Construction on the Kutler Center is in the beginning stages.
A construction fence was erected, eliminating the parking in front of the administrative offices, and the roof that linked Seaver to the library was torn down.

The new center will connect third floor Seaver and the mezzanine level of library.

The library is also being remodeled as part of the construction of the Kutler Center.

“If you went to the library now it’s fully gutted,” DeMatte said. The school is planning to add 2,500 square feet to the library.

“It’s a whole ton of work,” DeMatte said.

This story was written by students in the Print Journalism and New Media summer school class.