WESTFIELD – Carpentry students at Westfield Vocational Technical High School are readying their saws and hammers to begin constructing a pavilion in the downtown square, the foundation of which has been poured for over a year.
According to Brian Falcetti, a construction technology instructor at the school, his students have just finished a project in Southwick on Congamond Lake, and are awaiting the conclusion of the bid process before proceeding with finishing the pavilion.
“The seniors are listing off materials and have finished taking information on the blueprints,” Falcetti said Wednesday, before saying that his students will be forwarding their requests to City Engineer Mark Cressotti soon.
The octagon foundation for the pavilion, which is located on the northern section of the city’s downtown green, was poured a year ago around Christmas, and Falcetti is hoping to get the project off the ground “before the snow flies.”
The size of the project is what is driving the desire to get it off the blueprint and into steel and wood.
“It’s quite large,” he said of the structure. “It’s a 28-foot octagon that’s 30 feet high. It has a steel Simpson Strong-Wall frame.”
Along with eight supports, Falcetti said that roofing and siding materials will be needed to complete the project, which will have a group of 15 seniors and eight juniors working on it one week at a time each.
“One week seniors will work on it, the next week juniors will work on it,” he said. “They’ve been working on it right along for the past 18 months.”
Falcetti believes that the project’s true worth will be in the lasting impact it will have on his students as tradesmen.
“Already, it’s taught them about blueprints and stocklists,” he said. “but in the future they will be able to look at a structure that should last for a hundred years and say ‘I helped build that.'”
