News

CCLD Update: work to start soon on enclosure, skylight

  • Published
  • By Ray Bowden
  • Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Construction on the Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development continues today as workers prepare to receive 72 heavy steel trusses needed to assemble what Academy architect Duane Boyle calls the facility's "iconic" skylight.

The first of these steel trusses arrived Monday morning weighing six tons, 54 feet in length, 7 ½ feet tall, and driven slowly through the south gate to the construction site just east of Arnold Hall via flatbed truck.

"It's the first of 72 pieces scheduled to be delivered here throughout the next six months," said senior project manager Tom Rackley. "Some will weigh as much as 20 tons. Altogether, more than 350 tons of steel and 110 tons of glass will comprise the CCLD enclosure and skylight."

The remaining trusses are scheduled to begin arriving in the next two weeks and skylight assembly will start," Boyle said.

"The scaffolding now being installed provides the ability to assemble the structural steel trusses and the glass will be installed once the steel structure is completed," he said.
The first two levels of trusses will be test-fitted and then removed.

"This is not a mistake -- it's the process required to ensure the proper alignment of the angled, 105 feet tall, 460 ton skylight," Boyle said. "While there are larger and much more complicated structures being constructed in the U.S. and abroad, none of them have to precisely align with one point in outer space - Polaris, the North Star. We must be 100 percent accurate when we tighten the first bolt so that higher trusses will fit correctly and the oculus at the top of the tower frames Polaris."

When complete, the CCLD will be the second tallest building on the Academy, second only to the Chapel. The top of the skylight will be half way between the roof of Arnold Hall and the top of the Chapel spires.

"It's the first time we'll see the CCLD rising above the level of the Honor Court," Boyle said.
According to Col. Joseph Sanders, CCLD Director and Permanent Professor, the CCLD is far more than a physical place.

"It exists to catalyze and support the work of all at the Academy: cadets, faculty and staff, for the purpose of graduating young men and women into the profession of arms to lead throughout their lives with integrity, a spirit of service, and excellence in a nonlinear world," he said.

When complete, the CCLD will be a force multiplier, an asset having positive ramifications for generations of cadets yet to be born, Sanders said.

"The center's direct value to the Air Force is in helping the Air Force's Academy and the Air Force study, understand, implement and improve character and leadership development approaches to graduate innovative Airmen who make a difference in surmounting complex security and fiscal challenges," he said. "We'll produce leaders of character - Airmen who can create a meaningful culture of respect and commitment, exercise ethical leadership in complex warfare domains, and bring intellectual and moral courage to their service."