Peter Merrill, deputy news editor
Hackberry Lab has been under construction in order to double the size of their lab. Construction workers are building the new installation, which stands directly behind the current trailer.
The Hackberry Lab now runs out of a trailer behind Deerfield and uses every inch of its square footage economically. John Grout, business administration chair and professor of technology, entrepreneurship and data analytics, says that with the higher ceilings and concrete floors of the new building, woodworking and metalworking will be safer and easier.
“That building was just jammed, and people would just spill out into the parking lot, building things and now we’ll have much more space to accommodate even more people to come and make cool stuff,” Grout said.
Construction began over winter break but conversations about acquiring new space for Hackberry began much earlier. During a prototyping open house in 2019, President Steve Briggs asked Zane Cochran, clinical assistant professor of creative technologies, about a new space.
“You know, we’ve certainly filled it up, and we’re starting to kind of bust from the seams,” Cochran said.
With the new space, students can leave their projects in the lab instead of having to commute with them, new woodworking classes will be offered and the faculty will have offices instead of desks in the corners.
Both buildings of the lab are open to any students between 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., and after the new building opens, a drive-in garage where students can work on their vehicles will be available. In the coming months, Hackberry staff will be hosting an open house to unveil the new building.
Other Hackberry events will utilize the new space as well. The Slackathon, which is hosted during finals week and revolves around food, poker and games of Mario Kart, and Hackathon, a timed event where students work on creative projects, will both benefit from the new building. Hackberry also holds a birthday party each year for the original building, which was put up around the beginning of 2016.
Senior Sarah Thompson, a creative technologies lab assistant that helps teach a class on welding, said she is excited to see those classes move out of the shipping container where they are currently held.
“With this new metal shop, you can weld whether it’s hot, you can weld whether it’s cold,” Thompson said. “Whereas in the shipping container, like during the cold winters, if you were working there, your hands would freeze up.”
Students can more easily follow COVID-19 precautions and work on their projects when spaced apart. The building was partially planned by community partner Mark Cochran, so the space is in the hands of someone who is familiar with Hackberry and the work done there.
Malynn Price, a sophomore lab assistant, says that the new space will allow for a recording studio, workspaces, places to relax, more 3-D printers and another laser cutter. In addition to the work done by the creative technology students, Price said that she wants Hackberry to be a welcoming space for students whether or not they are utilizing the lab equipment.
“Like we want you to be able to hang out there. It’s a good place for CRT people, but also for everyone else,” Price said.
This atmosphere will be produced in part by a 20×20 interactive LED mesh that consists of over 10,000 lights called Event Horizon. Zane Cochran originally created Event Horizon to be displayed in a museum, but by the end of March, it will be available to all Berry students for free.
Look at the online version of the article on http://www.vikingfusion.com to see a video reel of the Hackberry Lab construction.
