Dedication Ceremony Held

Several hundred people attended a special dedication ceremony held yesterday to celebrate the completion of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library 5th and 6th floor buildback and hazard mitigation project.

The event was organized by Tulane's Office of Development and it began in the afternoon in front of the library building, where a stage had been set up for a series of commemorative speakers that included:

• Michael Fitts, Tulane President
• David Banush, Dean of Libraries and Academic Information Resources
• Darryl Berger, Chairman, Tulane Board of Trustees 
• Sarah Hostetler, ASB student government representative
• Mike Womak, Director of the FEMA Louisiana Recovery Office 

Students, faculty, library staff, and other interested parties had been invited to the dedication event in a general invitation, and written invitations had been sent to important university donors and individuals specially related to the project. These individuals included principals from the library's partners in the project including Tulane Capital Projects & Real Estate, which supplied project management with assistance from VR Management, a division of VergesRome Architects; Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, which was the project's architect; and Roy Anderson Corp., which was the construction contractor.

Among those on hand who managed the design, oversight, and completion of the project were:

Tulane project managers

• Brian O’Malley 
• David Schneider (VR Mgt)
• Chip Verges (VR Mgt)
• Andy Corrigan (Library)

Contractor project managers

• Brandon Skaff 
• John Milazzo 
• Chuck Dudenhefer 
• Jeff Fick 
• Bryan Hartley

Principal Architects (Eskew+Dumez+Ripple)

• Andy Redmon 
• Jason Richards

Tours of the library and a reception on the new 5th floor followed after the speakers concluded the speakers' remarks.

The 5th and 6th floors were opened for use by students and faculty in January near the start of of the spring 2016 semester and with some work still continuing.  Today the new spaces are fully functional, with only minor finishing touches remaining as punch list items in the construction.