As many of you may have noticed, the back porch of Cater Hall is undergoing renovations. This short-term project at Cater Hall will help bring our porch up to code and into better alignment with the early twentieth-century architectural design. Project lead Hank Moreman, an Auburn University alumnus, answered a few questions about this construction and how it will affect students and Cater Hall as a whole.

When is the completion date?

We are hoping to be completed by November 16th.

Why are you all doing this project?

We believed that the structure has begun to become compromised by water.  It has not rotted yet, but would have eventually. Aesthetically, it has been an eyesore where the trim pieces have already rotten.

Who is doing the work?

In-House Construction, which is part of the Maintenance Division of Facilities Management. Johnny Clark will be handling the project management and the field leadership will be done by Darrin Moody. I felt that this was the best team that I could have assigned to the project due to the historical elements that needed to be catered to.

What roughly are you doing?

We are completely removing the roof and columns of the back porch and rebuilding them.  Also, we are altering the window above the porch roof. These two things will enable us to slightly increase the pitch of the roof as we build it back, thus enabling it to look nice for another 100 years.

One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that we will be reclaiming parts of the structure (the ceiling boards and the heart pine framing) and reusing them for other projects within the university (these are yet to be determined). In my pre-Auburn faculty days, I was, among other things, a furniture maker and I’m glad to be able to use that skill set to make Auburn a better, greener and cooler place.

Posted onCategoriesNewsroom