I had a little chat with Stacey tonight, who'd just gotten back from the Greenbuild Conference in Chicago. Although she wasn't at the office last week, she was somewhat dumbfoundingly able to give a terrific update the team's developments toward the Students Rebuild schools...

Wrapping up CDs
Volunteers launched on a campaign to finish Phase 1 Construction Documents (for Pele, Dignité & Montrouis–the design for Home of Knowledge is still fluctuating a bit, and the soils survey hasn't come back yet). The Rebuilding Center is observing a Winter Break from December 18-January 5, to give our crew a break and chance to visit an English-speaking country. As many of our volunteers are geared to head home, and then on to other things, it's a good time to wrap projects up as much as possible beforehand–and have a gift for the new volunteer crew in 2011!

Surveys in
Over the past couple weeks, some consultant crews have been conducting surveys for each of the school sites–site documentation necessary before finalization of design. Two surveying crews are conducting topographic documentation, while a geotech crew is inspecting soil quality, for each of the four round 1 schools.

Demolition for Pele
Pele, the 1100-student school in Port-au-Prince, will need to undergo some demolition before construction begins. This is a tricky task, as huge machinery will have to navigate the campus and reduce fallen buildings during the school year! The headmaster at Pele considers the downsides worth suffering to begin construction on the new school blocks. The team is looking into whether a demo team can do the task during Pele's winter break–and thereby reducing their presence as much as possible–but need to investigate and compare contractor price tags first.