Pre-Construction Chaos

This past week both studios have been preparing for Monday Ground-Break and Construction. Last Friday we hosted a very successful review/pin-up in the Health Care Alcove. Jori (our professor) sent out a school-wide email among faculty and students in the Architecture College. The result was a great turn out--especially from Graduate students and Professors. Most of the more constructive criticisms/discussion involved the Clemson group and their seemingly impossible canopy form. I presented the Keese Park project to Grant Cunningham (president of the Pendleton Foundation for Black History and Culture) and he seemed receptive to all of the major elements of our design...he did, of course, want more definites on cost...One of our main ideas is to light the site in order to make it safer for the community. The Keese Park site is a notoriously "bad part" of town and our strategy is to make the site safer overall for the community. The whole Friday event really seemed more like a social gathering and discussion rather than a formal review...a nice and unique change.

During the review I also got to talk to several graduate students that I have studied with in previous semesters and it's possible that a few wouldn't mind getting outside and helping us with the construction end.

Having the review obviously forced the groups to come together and start pushing a resolution on the design aspect of the project. On Monday, Jori announced our 1 week deadline: Monday March 3 all groups will begin construction. This deadline have pushed us to resolve the more technical side of our project(s).

James and I have been working intensly on drawing up construction documents for the porch...this involves much time in front of the computer, fighting CAD. The drawings are coming along nicely and by Monday at the latest we should be ready for an intense Red-Line, possibly with our on-call engineer Brad Putman. By my estimations, we need to begin constructing the porch in 1.5-2 weeks. That means obtaining materials, tools, donations, completing all CDs to the best of our ability (obviously changes will have to be made on-site), and starting construction by Wednesday March 12th or Saturday March 15th at the latest. When we return from Spring Break we should be setting in to heavy porch construction. We are going to be facing multiple phases of construction that will inevitably overlap: Signage Block, Porch Construction, Handrails inside Memory Block, Grading the Terraces, Planting + Landscaping.

As Project Manager I realize that much of the scheduling responsibilities rest on me (as do budget considerations). I have been expanding our Excel Sheet to include recent purchases and budget projections but we are still a looooong way from a workable estimation of costs...everyone keeps saying "We can probably get this for free" or "They said they might be able to cut us a break on that" but we need definites we need things to start setting into stone at this point.



We did manage to get $200 donated from Home Depot...this definitely helps but considering that Robbie estimated 60 sheets of 2" foam for the Signage Block (each sheet is $10), in the long run $200 will not get us very far...

On Friday I was suddenly overwhelmed by the need to organize and so I spent most of my morning updating the Excel Budget Sheets and following through on several e-mails. I came up with a sheet that I plotted out and hung up in studio. I realize that it is missing many elements but I think that we need to have a standard meeting each week in which we discuss where we are on each phase of project development.
(Having uploaded the image I see that it is too small to read on Blogger)

To sum up unfinished or unresolved issues that we need to follow through on for this upcoming week:

- contact Esther for renting a truck to transport gravel
- purchase materials to begin Signage Block
- thank you notes to Home Depot and other donators
- contact Home Depot in Anderson for donations
- electric and water on the site (awaiting Grant Cunningham)
- definite weekly (daily) schedule of the next 6 weeks (MONDAY)
- definite concept for Jori (MONDAY)
- text for signage block
- coordination of contacts and materials

We are planning to get out on the site this weekend and stake out the perimeter of the Signage Block...we also plan to start digging. Janis and Sara seem to be very concerned with the prospect of "intense" labor because we need to dig a hole 26' long and 8" deep. I do not foresee a problem. I DO however foresee a problem in casting our Signage Block with concrete...I've looked at the walls that the previous students attempted to write on (in the same manner) and I am not convinced that we will pull it off any better than they did. HOWEVER, I will go with the flow until this method is proven (after another mock-up attempt) that it will not work for us. And then I will resume my inquiries into etched or supplimated aluminum panels from Commercial Engraving.