Project Team (from left to right): Jen Robles (PME), Isaiah Holmes (Bulley & Andrews [B&A]), Brian Sanders (B&A), Marco Calderon (PME), Mary Pat McCullough (PME), Josh Berg (PME), Blair Archambeau (UChicago), Mikel Mays (B&A), and Suraj Desai (Facilities Services). Significant contributors not pictured: Leigh Breslau, AIA (UChicago), Brandon Hall, AIA (B&A), and college interns Sam Morin (LAB’18, AB’23) and Kamiell Leggit from University of Florida, and the many craftsman who brought their talents to the task. Photos by Roxsand King.
How Mary Pat McCullough sustainably transformed PME’s new space
By Maureen McMahon
A champion for University of Chicago sustainability has been working to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions from her corner of an uncommon space on campus: 18 modular units set on a parking lot across from Stagg Field.
Mary Pat McCullough leads a team that facilitates space, infrastructure, and facilities for the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, or PME. She advocates for reconstruction that exemplifies sustainability and recently turned a minimalist modular structure used by three dozen staff into a comfortable, modern workspace for 170 members of PME.
PME inherited the building on the corner of 56th and Drexel Ave., formerly known as TAAC or the Temporary Astronomy and Astrophysics Center, from the astrophysics group who originally used it as swing space while they waited out the construction of their new home in the William Eckhardt Research Center (ERC), completed in 2015.
Now, with reuse as a central tenet of the major facilities project, the space has undergone a full-scale remodel and extension and will again solve a space issue: housing PME members while they await the opening of a new engineering and science building (NESB).
Renamed the Molecular Engineering Modular Office, or MeMo, the project showcases the passion of the project team for rescuing furniture, modifying quality pieces, and enacting a vision for sustainability.
“Mary Pat epitomizes creative repurposing,” said Senior Associate Provost Blair Archambeau, a campus authority on space and furnishings. “Many items hold a historical narrative from the time they arrived on campus, and by finding ways to incorporate them into this project, Mary Pat gives them new life and adds to their story,” she said.
“Her passion, ingenuity, and skill for sharing this enthusiasm serve as a model for the entire University, demonstrating how we can embrace reuse, cut costs, and steer clear of contributing to landfills,” she said.
The Office of Sustainability toured PME’s new administrative home, upgraded with color and custom wood paneling, design features like window openings that emphasize natural light, and functional historical pieces.
After a decision to prioritize spending on reconstruction instead of interior furnishings, one would not guess walking through MeMo’s well-conceptualized spaces that most everything, from the carpet tiles to the fixtures, came from existing University assets. The result is a pleasing and bright updated space that can support the research programs and educational mission of PME.
We corresponded with Mary Pat McCullough about her approach to sustainability and why she believes making the effort is not only important but gratifying.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in facilities.
I am Mary Pat McCullough and my “title” here at UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering is currently: Executive Assistant and Coordinator for Space, Program Manager for Infrastructure and Facilities. On my email signature, you may have seen the title I gave myself: Solutions Implementer. That sums it up.
While I sometimes generate ideas, more often I’m sitting in meetings as we discuss challenges we need to address, and when we are down to an action plan, I begin to make it happen. I hope that doesn’t sound like I accomplish these things solo. I know how to get things done, and who can get things done around campus — that is my superpower and my kryptonite.
The MeMo project particularly necessitated a lot of help from many people in several divisions, and placed some heavy burdens on the contractors associated. I appreciated how they extended their time and resources to our project, but we really had to have everyone onboard to be successful.
PME has a significant number of students and staff, as well as functions like in-person meetings, that will need facilities accommodation when offices in the Accelerator building on Ellis Ave. are being decommissioned. What did you feel broadly was the opportunity for this request to set up a swing space for your division?
For several years, PME had space in TAAC, which had fewer than 40 occupants. We had used the offices as they were laid out for the astronomy faculty. The conversion of TAAC to the MeMo project had a relatively small budget considering the goal of housing approximately 170 people for the NESB construction period (5-7 years).
We started talking about how we could accommodate the staff and students about two years ago. Because we were planning for long-term use, and this time block will be the entire UChicago career of many of the graduate students assigned to MeMo, we had to make the space more functional, and more comfortable.
Early on it became evident that providing a functional layout would need plenty of budget dollars not only to extend its life for the NESB project but also to leave it available for future uses for other units needing swing spaces.
The project team decided that we would spend our budget on the structure, new architectural finishes, and the things that make the building comfortable to work in. We bought new bigger windows and all new heat and A/C units. We upgraded all the floor tiles in the building and took steps to make the building more accessible, with wider doorways and adaptive kitchen and restroom areas. Needless to say, this left the tiniest budget for furnishings. And here is where we went to the wide array of campus resources: starting with our own attic stock, searching on the campus reuse marketplace, and then fortunately looping into the resources in the warehouse disposition.
So you had your own stored pieces, you used the UChicago Rheaply campus online marketplace, and took advantage of the University’s August disposition event for which they re-homed assets stored in a nearby warehouse facility. By the way, making all those historic furnishings available on the marketplace diverted nearly 33,000 lbs. from landfill! There were over one hundred pieces of furniture that surfaced. I’m glad your project timing benefitted from that event!
There are some really beautiful pieces in the modular offices now that are tributes to the history of the University that you diverted from landfill. On the tour you showed me Regenstein study carrels, a framed cork and glass bulletin cabinet from physics, long blackboards, wood paneling, and boardroom tables. What are some of the assets that you are most happy found a reuse in the MeMo rebuild?
My favorites are the bulletin cabinet you mention and I like the carrels. I picked the bulletin cabinet out of a discard pile (with the help of Paul Julson, PME’s Director of Facilities) maybe eight years ago, and I had stored it in the basement of ERC.
When I was able to acquire the Judd Hall one-piece conference table from the warehouse, the conference room began to come together. It has that table, the directory case, some large maroon vinyl chairs out of the Law School, and soon will have a large wood-framed chalkboard from the ’60s that we are relocating from Accelerator (ACC). I also love the nine little Mondrian-inspired clocks that had once been installed in High Energy Physics (HEP). Recently PME rebuilt its student space at Marjorie B. Kovler Viral Oncology Laboratories and we were able to repurpose or rehouse almost every piece of furniture we took out of there.
I like my current office (my ninth since I joined the PME). The furniture in the office I share with Jen Robles, who is an engineer steering PME capital projects, was once cubicles on the 5th Floor in ERC. Jen, by the way, was an easy and early convert to the sustainability team.
Is there an aspect of this remodel that you are most proud of? Or that you weren’t sure would make sense but has been perfect for the project?
I think the things that stand out most for me in MeMo are the blackboards in the Student Space. This idea started as a way to save a green chalkboard that was 15-feet long (too long to get out of the building in one piece). I found some of the maple panels that had been a part of the Computation Institute (Searle Chemistry Laboratory) in storage in HEP. The architect on the MeMo project looked at the panels and had the idea to mount the chalkboard and surround it with the wood panels.
When it came down to it, we decided that the room needed deeper contrast and an echo of the black accents that were in the room. Instead of the green board, we used a blackboard that we had removed from the now empty HEP building. It looked terrific and we had enough materials to execute the same effect in three places in the room.
The takeaway is it was harder, and a little more work for everyone, but it’s beautiful and really adds a lot. Additionally, the general contractor (GC) on the project and his carpenters really bought into saving the wood panels, which are really beautiful. They did a good job on what could have been a crafty-looking project. In the end, we were able to divert about 75% of the total of that high-quality paneling out of landfill.
That 15-foot greenboard found a home. It’s in a hallway, and it is already proving to be a very popular think-it-through spot for the students. I don’t even think it’s possible to buy a 15-foot one piece chalkboard anymore, and can’t imagine what the shipping/delivery costs would be.
I am glad we used our budget dollars for the new large windows. They add so much to what the MeMo space was before, and we have new lighting.
The spacious, well-appointed kitchen is definitely one of Jen and my favorites. Two huge deli style fridges from the warehouse were resurrected with some mechanical fixes and should last another couple of decades. There is also terrific salvaged red furniture and artwork that really make it a great place to take a break.
From speaking with your peers in Facilities Services Capital Project Delivery and others, I have heard that standing up for sustainability as a team leader is a quality you have in spades. I’ve heard things like she just has a way of bringing a team along to adapt, to see the potential she sees, and join as a positive contributor to what can be accomplished, even if it’s a work around, something unconventional, and more financially prudent.
Can you comment on the value of bringing tenacity and positivity to projects like this, for instance taking the time for sustainable sourcing and making the effort to relocate or store items?
Sometimes it’s really hard for me to let things go. The GC, and my team, will attest to that. But if you get just one more advocate, it makes you so much stronger. You must be realistic, but you also need to be tenacious when things are a close call. Even if it’s harder keeping something out of the landfill, that has a value in itself. Think about the costs to get it to landfill, and add that to the purchase price of your replacement. Pick your battles, but remember that there are all kinds of costs that we need to measure as we make these decisions.
I am campaigning silently against disposable coffee cups and bottled beverages. To that end, we installed two water bottle filling stations in the building and I purchased coffee cups at the second-hand store for our new kitchen. This is the smallest step everyone can make, and it’s easy. I think more and more we will need to (and we should) make decisions like these.
You took advantage of the the warehouse event, adding a lot of pieces to your project for free. Tell us more about what it took to add reuse to the planning in a situation like that. What should other people who furnish spaces be on the lookout for?
The things that I am repurposing from the warehouse are either classics or pieces of big executive suites. There are some that were once part of cubicles.
For those considering getting rid of cubicles, you will need to think about redesigning them by purchasing legs and bases and just getting rid of the walls. People who want to move to something more cubicle-like can find all sorts of panel systems (including recycled sound-absorbing felt) that act as dividers in very flexible benching systems.
When people tell you their office doesn’t work for them, find out what the objection is. Could turning the furniture towards or away from the door work? Is there noise bleed-over that can be addressed? Rather than putting something else in, maybe taking something out is the answer. Or, putting something in a closet or cabinet so the occupant’s experience is different. Maybe they are working in a dual-monitor situation and would be better served with one larger screen and more flat workspace.
Furniture tastes change. Especially now, due to work culture changes since COVID, we are seeing a lot more smaller scale offices. We need to keep in mind that the scale of furniture we have gotten used to is not going to work in the future. Modularity and mixed pieces will be with us for a long, long time.
Was participating in the marketplace simple?
Using the marketplace is easier than hauling something to the trash. You take a couple of pictures, fill out the form and upload your pics — and then answer an email when there’s interest and arrange to stand by when they take your stuff away for you. For me, that’s a no brainer.
Who was on the team for this project and what made this team successful?
Suraj Desai is the Facilities Services project manager. Plus Blair Archambeau, Josh Berg, Leigh Breslau, Marco Calderon, Brandon Hall, Isaiah Holmes, Eugene Loving, Mikel Mays, Jen Robles, and Brian Sanders. We also had two college interns, Sam Morin, LAB’18, AB’23 (Spring 2023) and Kamiell Leggit (Summer 2023, from University of Florida).
I think what is making us successful (and we are only about halfway through the MeMo portion of this project) is experience. Jen Robles was on the team that had the modular units built for the ERC project about thirteen years ago. Facilities Services Project Manager Raj Desai is new to the University, but comes with great credentials and is a strong member of the team.
Who is moving in and when?
A few of us have been here through the construction, but we received our occupancy permit in early December 2023 and students started to move in just after that. More staff joined us in the last week of December and then we expect that Phase II of the project will be ready for move-in April 2024.
Basically, the entire administrative staff of PME and about 70 students and some academic appointments will join us as well.
Did you have a vision for creative reuse being a central to this project?
I have always been conscious of what we put in the waste stream. But it really wasn’t until my arrival at the University — when I became more a part of the Facilities side of the institution — that I came to realize not only the dollar cost but also the time and materials that were being landfilled.
Throwing out something big — a desk, a table, even a chair — costs a lot. Dumpsters are hired, permitted, and delivered. People take time to gather materials to fill the dumpster, and often times a crew is hired to do the labor. Then the dumpster is picked up and another fee is charged to landfill the dumpster’s contents.
Materials that are broken or damaged beyond repair are only the smallest part of the things we discard. So, many times, there is plenty of life in the items we are landfilling — it is just that they may not fit our current needs. But there are other alternatives.
I was an early adopter of the reuse marketplace on campus. So often I am unable to see measurable progress in my daily work. Using it to acquire or dispose of items with useful life makes me feel as though I have accomplished something — immediate personal reward — and I know that, long-term, everyone wins.
I don’t know that it takes creativity or vision to see these things. It does take more planning and more thoughtful ways of looking at items people are asking you to switch out and dispose of. My advantage is that my work takes me across campus and I am acquainted with so many of the staff in so many buildings on campus. I am good at this because I make the effort and because so many of the people I collaborate with buy into the same premise.
It is a little bit harder to recycle something, but the upside makes it so worthwhile.
For additional information on UChicago Rheaply, please contact Office of Sustainability, officeofsustainability@uchicago.edu. To utilize the marketplace to post, view, or request University assets, please visit https://app.rheaply.com and login with your UChicago credentials.