Catalyst Commons is past the halfway mark of the construction schedule. If you come for a tour now you begin to experience what the space will look and feel like. The offices are framed in , drywall is being taped, electricians are hard at work. Everyday there are small challenges, everyday there are solutions.
During any project there are things that go right, and things that inevitably don’t go quite as planned. We’ve been hard at work launching Catalyst Commons, amongst global pandemic. No biggie, right? Beyond Covid, beyond permit delays and scheduling issues or conflicts, there are always the “Oopsies”. We are pretty proud of the “oopsies”we’ve been through, and learned from. So much that we believe they help create our story, and we want to celebrate a few of them with you.
Oopsie # 1 – Mezzanines’ are expensive… and we’ve built one now that is the safest place to be!
We learned the hard way, that building up, albeit cool, also presented a few setbacks we needed to work through. Did you know that building a second story also means a hefty price tag on development charges? Beyond that, we had our fair share of safety and egress issues to work through. Little did we know, our steel structure also required a messy (and pricey) application of fire spray. Apparently, this fire spray provides an extra hour of structural integrity in the event of fire.
We also found out how messy fire spray is – yuck. Weeks later it’s “almost” dry enough to drywall in.
When you come for a tour of Commons, be sure to take in the view atop the mezzanine and celebrate with us. We know, without a doubt, our Mezzanine is one of the safest places to find yourself 🙂
The view is hard to beat, and that beats any challenge we faced along the way.
Oopsie #2 – When a PM likes to change her mind ( yes, that’s me – shocking…) Heavy sliding doors appreciate proper structural support.
Sometimes, even the most brilliant professional teams miss details when things get hectic. And wow, Covid added a layer here. In this case, we uncovered an oopsie before it was too late, and provided the opportunity to go back to the drawing board to properly support 500 pound doors in our Flex meeting rooms that adjoin to a glass wall structure without design flaws. Box beams were added, mullion glazing amended, and windows and walls all adjusted to provide a thoughtfully crafted opening, just as if it always was meant to be. The offset to change almost always involves time & money. When you are working on fixed timelines and budgets, these are never just small offsets. We managed to adjust, pivot, and jump back into progress without issue. Phew, another hurdle passed.
Oopsie #3 – Cutting open a roof has a lot of dependencies, and Mother nature has a sense of humour.
Catalyst Commons will be home to a beautiful and open courtyard, and we can’t wait to share this with you. This architectural showpiece is designed to bring Earth, Air, Wind & Fire inside to this spectacular workspace. Cool, right? To do so, that means we need to cut open the roof and bring the outside in. We’ve experienced many delays with product and resources during the extraordinary dry months of June and July. And, now that our materials are onsite and ready, the month of August brings compounding delays due to rain. The good news is that we are only a week away, so stay tuned to some amazing progress pictures as the team creates an epic courtyard.
Every entrepreneur has a story built on oopsies along the way, and Commons is no different. We’ve embraced the challenges and we learn something with every “oops” along the way. The path may never be a straight line, but it’s a great climb!
All “oopsies” aside, it’s hard to contain my excitement every time I step into Commons. Catalyst Commons now has its own heartbeat, and is taking on its own identity. We are only a few short weeks away from evolving from a construction site to a full grown workspace that will be ready to be home to an ambitious community of hardworking self starters.
Entrepreneurs take notice, you will want to experience life @ Catalyst Commons.