Entry No. 8
Late in 2019, The War Memorial embarked on a journey to build a more inspired future. With our construction project officially underway, we remain committed to building a permanent home for art, culture, and the humanities right here in Grosse Pointe.
Each month, we’ll provide a brief snapshot of where our project stands: a behind-the-scenes look at the people, ideas, and processes driving this vision. We look forward to keeping our community, stakeholders, supporters, and professional staff apprised of our progress: a touchpoint for all involved to see the creation of our new space, start to finish.
Construction forges ahead at The War Memorial! Significant progress continues to be made to The Fred M. Alger Center for Arts, Culture, and Humanities. Apart from the giant crane and new colonnade (both very visible from the street), interior construction is underway. Many small and important changes have been made to the new space. We chatted with our Owner’s Representative Wesley Lawrence, to give us a full breakdown of the progress. See his list of updates below!
All the precast has officially been installed! For a full breakdown of what precast is, view our previous construction update here.
The colonnade, which is what is visible from the street, has been completed. The glass vestibule is still in progress. We've also added the new terrace off the back of the ballroom. Wood flooring installation has begun in the ballroom.
All CMU (concrete masonry unit) has been installed. This includes both the egress to the stairs and the new addition to the Fries building. Cement flatwork to complete the stairwells is in progress.
The new footprint of the addition, especially the new foyer, community room, and reflection space, is beginning to take shape. All rooms including the loggia and lower-level theater pre-function spaces have been built out. Drywall, initial painting, and lighting is done. The spaces are clearly defined and looking great.
The reflection pool construction will be completed in July.
These new spaces will also include storage, the dishwashing tank, and the new kitchen. These areas are built out. Flooring for these spaces is in progress. Kitchen equipment will start arriving as soon as the end of this month and continue through next month.
The parapet roof has been installed, which means installation of the glass curtain wall in both the new colonnade and ballroom will begin.
The glass used for our project has arrived from Spain and is currently being installed.
The glass is energy efficient and bird friendly. There is a film that will be placed on the surface of the glass that allows birds to see it and thus prevent them from flying into the building.
Interior construction is underway, the team is in the “rough-in” stages of installing the following:
Coffered ceiling of the ballroom is completed.
Ceiling framing for the colonnade is complete. The venetian plaster has been completed on the ceiling of the colonnade. The fabric “lens” for the ceiling lights will be installed mid Fall ‘22.
Tile installation in the new restroom is in progress.
Reflection and Community room framing & drywall is complete.
Network cabling for Fire and Life Safety Systems are in progress.
As always, a picture (and a few videos!) can paint the whole picture. Check out the gallery of images from our site as of March 2022. Photos and video courtesy of Frank Rewold & Sons.
