Jeff Evers, the owner of the Fournet Building in downtown Crookston, had another big milestone on the remodeling of the building when they installed a massive skylight on the roof on Thursday morning.
“It was nerve-wracking for everybody, but they got it up there,” said Evers. “It went really well and it’s in place now. The crane left and won’t be back until Tuesday morning and they will crane up each piece of glass into the skylight. They will be craned into place. They will put heavy-duty reinforced plastic down over the weekend so when it rains it will be okay. It is exciting and it will be fun to get the glass in there and be done with that part of it.”
Evers said the company installing the glass is the same company that installed the glass over the Mall of America’s amusement park. We asked Evers what is next? “There is a little bit of stuff we have to do around the skylight. We will do some drywall up to it, but basically, the skylight is set in place,” said Evers. “We are on the final stages of drywall and the mudding is being done right now and when that is done it will be drop ceilings and carpet. We are getting towards the end finally.”
The skylight sits on eight steel posts that go all the way down to the basement and they sit on fairly large cement footers. “The eight posts go all the way up to the ring and the structure is totally independent of the building. It is now tied to the building,” said Evers. “We weren’t able to make the skylight as big as it is without doing the structure. It is engineered and safe. Nobody has to worry about the weight or anything on an old building if snow happens. It is the right way to do it.”
Evers said the renovation project hasn’t been easy, but it has turned the corner and they can get to work, especially in the atrium area. “It has been a couple of years working on the building and then today was one of those days with a lot of stress, but it is so fun to see it finally coming together on the last legs of the journey,” said Evers, who added with a smile. “This was a big milestone. Getting the steel was big, but this is definitely a big one. Now we can drywall, really fix the floor, and the railings around the atrium. We didn’t really want to do any of it because it could get water damage, so we’re really going to be able to go gangbusters now on finishing everything.”
We have a video and pictures below.
