The Braille Monitor
February 2003
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This is the way our National Research and Training Institute for the Blind looked in mid-January of 2003. Both the south face (right), on Wells Street, and the west face, on Byrd Street, are visible. On the Wells Street side the crew is beginning to construct the outer walls, which have been framed, clad with plywood, and covered with Tyvek�, an opaque plastic sheeting to prevent air penetration. These areas will later be covered with red brick in a design similar to that visible on the Byrd Street side of the building (left).
The fourth floor (left) and the mechanical equipment room (right) on the
top of the building show the various stages of EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finishing
System). This is a four-step process with glasboard on the inside, followed
by two inches of Styrofoam-like outsulation, a troweled ground coat of cement-like
material, and finally a troweled finish coat, which is green.
Some of the columns and beams visible along Wells Street are white instead
of red steel like the rest. These have already been fireproofed. Roofing was
well underway when the winter weather interrupted that part of the construction.