NORWICH ­– For this week’s edition of Punching the Clock, I sauntered over to the Eaton Center at 19 Eaton Avenue, enjoying the crisp spring morning air. I had opted to walk instead of driving, believing I would be consigned to the building’s interior for the duration of my stint at the center. I wasn’t quite right, however, but we’ll get to that.

Once on site, I met up with two of the 200,000 square foot building’s custodians, Matt Murphy and Jeff Steward. As luck would have it, the day I arrived was an important, transitional one for the Eaton Center, as the complex was switching over from its winter to its spring ventilation systems. Now, in most homes, this means adjusting a digital thermostat or – at most – dusting off window screens and throwing open doors recently soldered shut with frost. But in the Eaton Center, quite possibly the largest building in the city, making the transition from heating to cooling system is quite a bit more labor intensive.