The Mez

 

Here is your first peek at the mezzanine space above the image and data laboratories. It overlooks the storage space. This is where guests to the facilities, students and affiliated researchers will have some space to work on desks and layout tables. We'll have some book cases up here as well and some map and filing cabinets. 

The shelving company, SpaceSaver, is starting to lay out the track for the shelving. They'll fix it in place next week and a final concrete pour will set them on May 9th. Tonda, the general contractor, is seeing to some finishing touches to the HVAC and electrical systems and bricking in doorways and girders. The temperature has been slow to warm up this spring and it's been wet out there, but landscaping should start by next week.

Digital X-Ray

The Sustainable Archaeology facility at the University of Western Ontario is seeking bids from vendors for a Digital X-Ray Cabinet System for the Ancient Images Laboratory. The radiography system is required for non-destructive 2D examination, identification and reconstruction of archaeological artifacts and organic remains.  Examples of applications include the biomechanical and morphometrical analysis of bone, the deposition patterns of enamel, cementum and dentin in teeth, identification of rusted or corroded artifacts, the material composition of earthenware ceramics and mineral inclusions, and the characterization of source morphology and inclusions in stone tools. The Request for Proposals (RFP) has been published on the WEsternBUYs website,UWORFPAL-01105 and MERX. The Senior Buyer contact for this proposal is Andrew Lazarito - alazarit @ uwo.ca. Closing date for proposals is 13 May 2011.

Parking Lot Expanded

 

Looking east of the museum, towards the Lawson Village palisade, you can see where the parking lot is being expanded. This will provide several new parking spaces to accommodate the increased traffic at the new merged facilities (Sustainable Archaeology & the Museum of Ontario Archaeology).

Break through!

 

At last! There it is. We're looking west from within the Museum of Ontario Archaeology into the new Sustainable Archaeology Research and Curation facility (Roy, from Tonda Construction - who's spent the last day preparing the space for this event, is in the foreground).

Temperatures are rising slowly - it's been a cool spring with a lot of intermittent snow - but we're starting to move ahead with some of the landscaping. Tomorrow work gets started on the expansion of the parking lot.

Out with the old

 

Here's one last look at what was once a storage room on the west side of the Museum of Ontario Archaeology before it is transformed into the access hallway between the two facilities. On the other side of that insulated wall is the hallway that will access the Sustainable Archaeology research laboratories. Crews have started to take down the ceiling tiles and fixtures. Next week they'll take down the walls and prepare the access ramp.

In other news, we've received the last of our field equipment orders. We now have a brand new ground penetrating radar, a magnetic gradiometer and a resistivity meter ready for field season to begin. We are in the process of selecting a box vendor and a radio frequency identification tagging system. And we are fielding proposals for a microCT and digital x-ray scanner for the Ancient Images laboratory. We are also working with a Database Developer to design the digital relational database and are making arrangements for consultations with interested user-groups.

Museum facelift underway as well

 

This is no April Fool. There are some dramatic changes afoot in the Museum of Ontario Archaeology as well these days (the Sustainable Archaeology facility is being built adjacent to the Museum). In the back office area of the museum, two new offices have been partitioned off (seen on the left) and an old storage room has been converted into new laboratory space.