And a truck came today to bring away all of the metal shelving that was clogging up the garden of Andea's Bar. We bought new furniture for the bar garden which should arrive soon. Should be nice.

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They are also preparing the mezzanine for the connection to the Library's new air-conditioning unit (which should arrive in late September).

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They have finished placing the beams for the mezzanine balcony, and are now laying the sheet metal. Later today they will pour concrete into the sheet metal to lay the floor. Very interesting process.

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As I was taking pictures in the "quiet area" of the mezzanine, I heard animated discussion about some issue related to air circulation. Nicola and Chiara looked on as Landi tore into his subcontractors. I'm sure they'll work it out.

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These are the drop ceiling tiles, up close. Strangely enough, they are manufactured and sold by a company out of Chicago, Illinois.

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The new computer lab is almost finished. Note the drop ceilings.

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Once all of the cross beams are put in, sheet metal will be placed in each "chess square", and concrete will be poured in.

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As followers of the blog will recall, the beams rest on a platform that is anchored fifteen meters under the basement of the library. They run up through the basement to support the cross beams of the mezzanine balcony.

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The beams for the mezzanine balcony extension have finally gone up, they are putting the finishing touches on it this week. Quite an amazing process.

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We will obviously be filing a claim against both of these crews, but it is unbelievable that our marble withstood three months of hardcore construction, then in less than 24 hours are damaged twice, by two different work crews.

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As if that wasn't bad enough, this morning the movers were taking old shelving out of the bar garden, and a giant metal hunk of shelving dropped on the steps and did some MAJOR damage.

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This is what the work crew did.

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Now the bad news. While loading up the equipment for the beams, the work crew scratched up our marble steps pretty badly.

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The area where the fire escape is to be placed is largely finished, so the major drilling noises on the floors should be coming to an end.

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Two of the supporting beams (they run down into the library basement) have already been placed.

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The beams for the library mezzanine finally arrived (they had to undergo some last minute modifications, as the structural engineer apparently had some last minute reservations).

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Yesterday and today have been "good news, bad news" kinds of days. The good news is as follows:

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And in the midst of all of this, the Police came and sequestered all of our computers. Something about a ring of disgruntled faculty members smuggling contraband Paul Krugman economics texts into Italy. Actually--we donated our old PC lab computers to the local police station. They are much appreciative, and Paolo is hoping they will give him a break the next time he gets a traffic stop on his Harley.

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And a side view.

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Here are a few extra pictures of the penthouse, to get a sense of what was done there.

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The 2nd floor area is being painted an prepped. The water fountain will be there from now on.

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Every day I look out my office window, there's more weird stuff going on over the library roof.

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And yes, we finally got wise to the dust problem, and covered the couches. Better late than never.

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The upstairs of the library is mostly undergoing installation of systems (air circulation, electrical, data, etc.). They say I will be able to control the temperature of every square meter of the library from my laptop at home. Dangerous.

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The placement of the books in the library basement is about 95% done. This is the old computer lab.

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The fire-escape work is also well under way. They have knocked out the windows at the end of the floors, and then broke out all of the reinforced concrete ledges. I've never experienced noise like that in my career!

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Work on the library roof is progressing. We're not quite sure how it's going to turn out, or what those holes are for.

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In between the bathrooms, the construction planners have already run the necessary electrical conduits, so that when we upgrade the floors next summer much of the prep work is already in place.

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And this is the portion of the penthouse that was taken. We plan on covering it later with red brick, to match the fireplace (still needs to be worked out). All this because the original architect wouldn't let us run the pipes on the outside of the building. Have I mentioned that already?

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This is the third floor.

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The 3X4' areas on each floor that houses the air-conditioning pipes are now being covered up and painted. Each has an access door for maintenance. This is the second floor.

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Most of the piping for the new air-conditioning system has now been run through the building. Alas, one of our visiting faculty offices now looks like the Pompidou in Paris. I call it Industrial Chic.

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Old skylights are gone!

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The skylights are gone! Note the square windows in the lower section of the picture (in the shade)

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The facchini are working around the clock!

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The other side of the library basement collection is about 80% shelved, today they will have finished all but the last room (old computer lab).

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This is the ante-room of the basement fire-escape entrance.

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Work in the basement is truly nearing completion. This was the old computer lab.

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The air ducts for the computer lab and mezzanine "quiet study" area have arrived.

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This picture shows the progress they are making on the roof of the library. They have sealed three of the old skylights, and are working on the rest. This week has been characterized by mind-numbing, deafening noise on the third floor. Yesterday we had two jackhammers going most of the day, one on the library roof, and another in the penthouse. Stereo.

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This morning they began sealing off the ends of the hallways, so that they can begin to knock out the walls for the fire escape.

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And of course Paolo had to clean the dust off the server...again.

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The old skylights are already disappearing.

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Scaffolding has now appeared around the outside ledge of the library, as the last major demolition work begins; the removal and replacement of the sky-lights.

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This is the area by the photocopier on the 2nd floor, where the a/c pipes will run. More holes, more dust.

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Since we weren't allowed by the original architect to run air-conditioning pipes and ducts on the outside of the building, we had to break into one of the 2nd floor offices and run the pipes into the hallway, then up and down the inside of the building. Not the ideal solution, but the only feasible one at this point.

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Just a day later, and the fire-escape area has been completely transformed.

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Now that the foundations of the fire escape have been built, they are ready to open up the basement.

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The new book elevator shaft in the library is ready, the elevator itself is scheduled for delivery and installation towards the end of September.

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The main floor of the mezzanine. The balcony will be extended toward the end of next week, we're told.

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