Millers Blog : Construction

Almost Done

Jason Becking — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:02:00 GMT

Our new space is nearly complete. Finishing touches are underway today and we’ll begin using the storage portion of this new addition later today. Today also marked the end of our temporary wall of plastic. It is very nice to see the production floor as one big room again.

The following photos were taken from the northwest corner of the production floor, looking over the existing production and then into the new space.

Construction - The End is Nigh

Jason Becking — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:38:00 GMT

We’re rapidly approaching the completion of our new addition. After some delays due to weather and then holding off on parts of the project to avoid inconvenience during our busy season, they addition is nearly finished. The electricians and plumbers are working diligently this week to complete their work, with the flooring crew scheduled to begin later this week.

We’ll install the raised flooring that we have elsewhere in the production floor in this new area as well. That should be complete within the next few days, at which point we will begin to have use of that new room! We desperately need the space, so are happy to have this nearly behind us. After complete, we’ll rearrange a little and then the crew will begin work converting some storage space into offices and enlarging our server room.

All told, the Columbia facility is now approximately 44,000 square feet, still just over half the size of our Pittsburg facility.

Here's the view from upstairs in the back looking into the (crowded) existing space:

And here's the nice big empty space waiting to be filled:

Bricks & Drywall

Jason Becking — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:39:00 GMT

Construction is moving along, with hopes of getting the big windows installed before the first winter storm hits. Won't affect any of our staff, but the construction crew would certainly appreciate that happening, I know.

They've started the masonry work on the exterior and some of the interior finishing. We should be in the new portion completely by mid- to late-January.... more room for more stuff!

October Construction

Jason Becking — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:48:00 GMT

We have holes in the building now, both downstairs and up. Just a small hole downstairs for access to electrical, but a door-sized hole upstairs where the old & new come together. I know it's door-sized because I walked back there to a take a picture of the hole to post here. Except they now have a door (locked) closing it up. A picture of a locked door just didn't seem as exciting as a picture of a hole in the wall.

They've pretty much finished framing the exterior of the building, the roof is on, and brick work is scheduled to begin next week. Here's a photo from the southeast corner.

This is the view from inside the dock door visible above, looking to the North.

Building Construction

Jason Becking — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:25:00 GMT

I was out of the office most of last week attending a convention in Virginia. I came in last night, but it was raining like crazy so I just dashed through the raindrops so as not to melt.

This morning on my drive in I looked in amazement at the progress made on a new hotel going up between my house and the lab. Was fairly impressive what they'd done in 2-3 working days. That paled in comparison to our progress, however. A new building has gone up!

Not really, but I was shocked to see the progress. View our steel:

Columbia Happenings

Jason Becking — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:11:00 GMT

I’d planned on giving everyone another construction update, but we’re awaiting most of the steel delivery before the next phase can begin.

Some steel made it this week, but the bulk should arrive soon.

The remainder of the steel and the trusses are scheduled to arrive early next week (read: two weeks ago), so hopefully I’ll have some better pictures of progress by then. The construction has required us to move some things around, particularly in the mount area, so that group is even cozier than normal at the moment.

In other news, if you tried to reach anyone in the Columbia lab mid-afternoon today, we apologize as most everyone was out in the parking lot for a minute or two. It turns out that if you use a heat gun to remove glue, it can create enough smoke to set the fire alarm off even if you’re working in a room with a venting system. (And we apologize especially to the few customers that were lucky enough to hear our fire alarm screech across the phone lines.)

Construction Update -- Sept 5

Jason Becking — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:23:00 GMT

My experience with construction projects tends to be: Wow, they're moving fast. Ugh, things have really slowed down. Man, that looks small. Holy cow, that's a lot bigger than it looked before. They're moving really fast again! Yuck, seems to be going slow again. Hooray, they're done! Oh no, now I have to move boxes. Maybe it's just me, but every construction I've ever watched daily follows that pattern.

With our Columbia expansion, we're now complete with such exciting touches as a new sewer line. As for more visible work, below is a picture from the entrance to our new dock which also shows most of the foundation work for the new addition. (And a little rain!). This new dock will serve a storage room that will be used almost exclusively for Mount supplies. This will undoubtedly help the Mount crew, but their happiness will pale in comparison to the programmers'. (Try to imagine what it sounds like to have 20+ pallets of mount boards unloaded and stacked next to your office and you'll understand their point of view.)

Construction Update

Jason Becking — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:08:00 GMT

Nema mentioned in her Digital Beginnings post recently about the temperature and our recent (minor) air conditioning trouble. The A/C issue has long since been resolved, but it's been even hotter since then. When I left the lab last night around 5:30, my local radio guy was nice enough to tell me that it was 104 degrees. Yuck.

I bring this up because I just walked outside to take a few snap shots of our ongoing construction. I simply can't say enough about the work-ethic of the crew working out there, every day, during the hottest time of the year.

Foundations have been poured and the architects are continuing to work diligently to make sure that the new and "old" construction all matches seamlessly. The level of detail they have to consider is slightly different than my "remodeling" projects at home!

Here's a photo from the Break Room patio area, on the north side of the addition.

And here's looking back from the southeast corner.

Columbia Construction

Jason Becking — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:00:00 GMT

Miller’s Columbia facility opened in March 2001 and we’ve quickly filled up the 40,000 square feet. If you’ve taken a tour of the facility late in the year, you probably walked around pallets of cardboard in the upstairs hallway, Kodak paper stored in every corner, and mount board in every empty place that was left.

Just a few days ago we started a project that will help. We’re going to gain some storage, office space, and production area by going East. The same groups that built the facility are involved again, so we expect it to blend seamlessly with the beautiful building we already have.

We don’t expect the project to be complete until after the first of the year, mainly because we won’t have time to move storage around in November & December so the new office areas can be added. I have a strong feeling, however, that we’ll take advantage of any clean new space we can find in November and December!

Below is a picture of the beginning of construction. We’ll post more updates as the project continues.