Ethnic Cultural Center Renovation Update

Exciting progress continues to be made on the renovation project for the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity’s Ethnic Cultural Center.
On Friday, August 19, the walls containing the historic murals in the ECC were extracted from the building and transferred to a facility where they will be stored under archival conditions until being reinstalled in the new building.
Below is a quick look at the extraction process of the Native American Mural:
The process began with the mural being cut from the roof and surrounding walls. It was attached to metal beams that were connected to concrete blocks for support.

Here the braces and wall are being connected to a large crane.

Once a crew member gives the signal, the wall is slowly lifted from the building.

The wall is lifted higher and the inside of the building is exposed.

The crane continues to lift the wall into the sky, and moves it to the designated landing spot onto the street.

The wall is lowered to its “landing spot” on the street.

Construction workers continue to feed instructions to the crane operator.

The wall is covered with a special weather guard for protection during its transfer to the storage facility. The wall is then lifted onto a flatbed semi-truck for its transfer to the storage facility.

Visit the full photo gallery.
Learn more about OMA&D’s Ethnic Cultural Center.
Photos by Nataly Brockwell