Category: Building


Up on the Rooftop

Today, we took a field trip to the roof top of the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital!  We learned about the standing seam method of metal roof construction and the Simple Saver insulation liner that is so safe you can walk on it.  In fact, it is OSHA-approved for fall safety.  Brian […]

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We have walls!

Over the past week, the building skeleton has been filled in with exterior wall panels.  Crews from H&S Construction are working hard to finish so we can open our new marine animal hospital by October 31st for sea turtle stranding season.  It’s been wonderfully fun to see the building look more and more complete each […]

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There’s something mesmerizing about a caterpillar.

There is just something mesmerizing about a caterpillar. No, not that kind. Well yes, that kind also…. but I was actually thinking about this kind of caterpillar! I could watch these caterpillars for hours! It’s so exciting to watch all the activity around the construction site.  On any given day, there may be four or […]

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The first wall panel

Today, workers from H&S Construction installed the first wall panels on the National Marine Life Center’s new marine animal hospital.  The pre-engineered steel panels are being hung horizontally, in a pattern reminiscent of traditional “clapboard” siding.  The galvanized panels will weather into a shade similar to “Cape Cod Gray.”  Most importantly, these walls will provide […]

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We have doors!

Some of the construction work is wonderfully loud.  Our building shakes as heavy equipment pours concrete, dumps fill, drills through concrete, and places beams.  The air echoes with the rumble of trucks and cranes and backhoes.  Whenever we hear a particularly intriguing construction sound, we race outside to check out the progress.  It’s an exciting […]

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Rising Steel

With the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge standing sentry, the steel building that will make up NMLC’s rehab center gradually claims its own place along Buzzards Bay’s landscape. This is the final week that construction enthusiasts will be able to see “right through” the rapidly forming hospital building, because the insulating walls and metal and […]

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Knit one, purlin two.

We’re learning a whole new vocabulary as the building rises…. A “column” is a primary, vertical beam. A “girder” is a support beam. A “girt” is a horizontal structure in a wall. A “joist” is a horizontal structure that supports a ceiling, roof, or floor. And a “purlin” is a horizontal structure in a roof. […]

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You’re not the only one waiting for this building to open!

Thanks to the creative juices of Joe Higgins and Rattle Marketing, a new sign graces the front of our hospital construction project.  The sign features a photo of an endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle racing for its ocean home after having been rehabilitated, and cosestudi‘s conceptual design of NMLC’s new marine animal hospital.  One can […]

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Turtle Tanks Move to New NMLC Hospital

Four turtle tanks have been moved into the new NMLC marine animal hospital in downtown Buzzards Bay as the hospital takes shape around them.  Construction works moves quickly at the hospital that will open its doors for new patients on October 31st.  The NMLC marine animal hospital will rehabilitate sea turtles, seals, porpoises, dolphins and […]

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NMLC Turtle Ward Takes Shape

As steel workers continue to frame out the new NMLC marine animal hospital in Buzzards Bay, other workmen poured and spread concrete to shape out the hospital’s Turtle Ward.  The NMLC marine animal hospital will open on October 31 in time to accept the rarest and most endangered sea turtles in the world, Kemp’s ridleys, […]

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