At Osan Air Base, South Korea, construction continues on this four-story officers' dorm set to open this summer. The $8.6 million project includes the 69-room dorm, plus parking area and landscaping. Located 48 miles south of Korea's Demilitarized Zone, the base is home to the 51st Figher Wing, the most forward-based permanent wing in the U.S. Air Force. (Franklin Fisher / S&S)
At Osan Air Base, South Korea, construction continues on this four-story officers' dorm set to open this summer. The $8.6 million project includes the 69-room dorm, plus parking area and landscaping. Located 48 miles south of Korea's Demilitarized Zone, the base is home to the 51st Figher Wing, the most forward-based permanent wing in the U.S. Air Force. (Franklin Fisher / S&S)
At Osan Air Base, South Korea, workers are busy on the interior of a four-story officers' dorm set to open this summer. The $8.6 million project includes the 69-room dorm plus parking spaces and landscaping. (Franklin Fisher / S&S)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — When Capt. Tracy Hardison finishes her tour with the Air Force here this June, she’ll have an upbeat piece of news for her replacement: new dorms.
An officers’ dorm now going up on the base kept hard hats busy Thursday amid the smell of paint and wet cement, the metallic whine of electric grinders and power drills and the hiss of air compressors. Their workplace “decor” — plastic sheeting, brooms, buckets and stacks of bathroom tile and wooden stripping — all were part of an $8.6 million project designed to meet Air Force standards for officer housing.
“It’s good news,” said Hardison, chief of military equal opportunity at the 51st Fighter Wing. Her replacement is due in June, she said. “I look forward to telling her about the new facility. It’s a good first impression for coming to Osan … moving into something’s that’s new.”
The four-story structure, to open in June or July, will house “unaccompanied” officers serving at Osan.
Designated Building 918, it’ll have 69 apartments, 87 parking spaces, three common area lounges and a balcony. Eight rooms are set aside for lieutenants; the remaining 61 are for captains and above, said Capt. Jeff Lin, 51st Civil Engineering Squadron construction management chief.
The new building, near the base officers club, is about a block from the base exchange shopping complex and medical center.
Apartments will have a kitchen with refrigerator and gas range; a bathroom with medicine cabinet, bathtub and shower, and a walk-in closet, and will be fully furnished, Lin said.
Lieutenants’ rooms will measure 342 square feet; their bedroom and living space will be combined in a single area.
Rooms for captains and above will be 468 square feet and will have a separate bedroom and living room; between the kitchen and living room will be a counter with two stools, Lin said.
Construction began in March 2002 and is 79 percent completed, Lin said. “The exterior’s pretty much done,” he said.
The Pumyang Construction Co. Ltd. of Seoul is performing the work under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Workers now are mainly occupied with the “interior finishes” — putting in electrical lines, jacks for phones and cable TV, countertops, tiles, and similar work, Lin said.
And, he said, “the landscaping still needs to be complete, the grass, the parking area and whatnot.”
Osan has seven existing buildings that serve as officer quarters, Lin said. One is under renovation; a second is to be renovated later; three are to be torn down. No plans currently exist for the remaining two, Lin said.
