Construction Trades students build new home for AWC Foundation

The shrill buzz of power drills and the voices of workers in tool belts and safety goggles filled the future offices of the Arizona Western College Foundation on Tuesday morning as construction got under way.

But this was no ordinary job site. It was also a classroom for the students of AWC's Construction Trades program. They are putting their education into practice on a large-scale remodeling project on the foundation's new offices.

The job will encompass everything from demolition to building new walls, finished off with plumbing and electrical work.

The students will do it all themselves, although they will have oversight from Fowler Malone, a licensed private contractor, and their professors.

"It gets them out of the books and actually puts a hammer in their hands," said Dave Parrish, who teaches the night carpentry class.

This is the largest project the construction trades program has attempted since it was established one year ago. Students have done smaller work on handicap ramps, walls and greenhouses but nothing on the scale of the internal remodel of the 1,565-square-foot office suite at 281 W. 24th St.

The foundation - the college's endowment office - occupies a smaller suite in the same plaza, but director Ruth Kuntzelman said they'd outgrown that space.

The other suite had already been gifted to the foundation but required remodeling before they could move in.

The partnership with the Construction Trades program was both an opportunity to give the students experience and to save money, Kuntzelman said. She said the construction costs amount to about $50,000.

She added that they hope to sell the smaller, 1,085 square-foot suite once the remodel is finished.

Parrish said the carpentry work should take about two weeks. The entire project should be complete by the end of the year, before this semester's classes end.

For carpentry student Enrique Padilla, this job is ideal preparation for his post-graduation dreams.

"I want to get started on getting my own company," Padilla said, "maybe engineering construction."

For more information on the construction trades program, call 344-7510 or go to www.azwestern.edu.

----

Sarah Reynolds can be reached at

sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.