Mike Queenan, Project Superintendent at FRANA Construction (http://www.frana.com/), discusses some major building milestones, his most exciting moment while working on the Ellipse, and why it was a tough winter season on-site.
“People may know this already,” says Mike when asked about an interesting piece of information about the Ellipse site, “but it used to be the home of Al’s Bar.” Al’s was a well-known neighborhood establishment that was around for about 80 years. “Shortly after the demolition, the owners of Al’s came to the site to check in on the construction,” says Mike. “They haven’t been back since, but it is nice to know they are supportive of the project.”  
As Spring approaches, Mike and his team are reaching some big construction milestones, with more on the horizon. “The framing portion of the building is pretty much complete now,” Mike explains. “We actually just finished final section of the roof today (March 30th). We’ll start the trim phase of the building next week, which will include interior work such as painting the units, installation of the cabinets, mill work, doors, interior wood working, wood floors, ceramic tiles – basically all the finishes.”
If you’ve driven by the Ellipse recently you may have also noticed that most of the windows have been installed. Mike says that was a big project, and that they are now ready to begin working on even more of the exterior touches. “We’ll begin putting brick on the building soon, and we’ll start the siding within the next week or so.”
 Mike notes that his favorite part of working on the Ellipse was watching the precast go down. Precast is a form of construction where concrete is cast in a reusable mold, which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and lifted into place. In contrast, standard concrete is poured into site specific forms and cured on site. “When the precast goes down, you actually get a sense of what the building is going to be. You can start the framing from there, and that’s when everything really takes off. It’s an exciting moment.”  
 As for the one part of the process Mike is happy to be finished with? Winter! “I’m so glad winter’s over!” He says with a laugh. “It was a really tough cold season because we were shoveling snow all the time. The Christmas storm was the worst – first snow, then rain, and then ice. This caused a lot of difficulty because the ice was so hard and it stuck to everything. It made working on the site tough! But in the end, we are exactly where we should be. The weather may have been bad, but our completion date for the building remains the same!”