Photo Round-Up: 2/19/07 - 2/23/07

Christmas Photos - December 20 - 26, 2006

December 16, 2006

One week until Christmas and you wouldn't know it from the weather. Just as AmerenUE had power restored to most of its half a million blacked out customers, temperatures soared into the 60's. If it wasn't for those dark drives home I'd think it was the first week of April. So much so that I've found myself looking at my garden every morning, quietly urging the daffodils to stay down until the end of February.

Back on the project, the ice and snow gave way to mud...again. But a little rock laid down under a balmy zephyr and the ground was quickly workable again. Our foundation contractor is now almost finished with their scope of work.
The foundation is now tied into the existing Nerinx Hall, and the flatwork concrete subcontractor has begun pouring out slabs in the main theater. Take a look now, because this week our mason will have a team of bricklayers building a CMU wall around the seating area of the theater.

Now as they build this wall, special concrete masonry units called SoundCell blocks will be incorporated into the walls. Anyone who's ever had to lug CMU around can see how the block below differs from your average garden variety cinder block. The special inserts and profiling are specially designed to deliver superior acoustic performance. The interior walls will be exposed, yet architecturally treated, CMU walls, so the SoundCell block is just what the Heagney needs. SoundCell will be laid into the theater walls in certain areas to help capture echo flutter and minimize annoying sound intensities. So now when the director reminds you to face the audience and project...yeah do that.

We'll be making a big push this week in the areas of masonry, plumbing, electrical, and maybe even a little demolition before we take a brief rest to celebrate the most beautiful of holidays. Photographs will become more frequent when the project begins to take on different appearances at a faster rate. Lots of block, concrete, and structural steel will help this happen. A huge load of structural steel is due for delivery this Wednesday, December 20.

SoundCell CMU wall being constructed in Heagney Theater where seats rise towards the back.

Some December Photos

I liked this one. I can see the student commons taking shape. The exterior brick wall (I believe that's Principal Kosash's office through the windows) will soon be on the inside. The black plastic covers the ADA ramp walls, and the forms in the foreground and to the right show the general shape of this lounge of sorts. This will be the connecting room between the old and the new, and where I envision students will find comfortable space to study and chat. Someday I hope a student remembers this, and where she lounges in her chair she can say this is right where it all began. This was where the first shovel was stuck in the ground at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Other photos:




Blogger's note: As it urns out Principal Kosash's office is on the other side of the office pictured above. What was I thinking?

Delicate Nerves

As we began the transformation of the athletic field to a temporary parking lot for our construction workers, two black wires were brought to my attention. There they were in the dirt, severed in two, copper laid bare by the gentle proddings of the machine tasked with stripping the field of its turf. Thin, light, low voltage...2 small lines connecting the school to the world, destroyed by an apologetic operator.

Why anyone thought burying these important lines just 3 inches below the surface of the field was an appropriate action given the importance of these lines was the mystery of the morning. We weren't entirely sure of what service, if any, we were interupting, but a call from a calm Dr. Coffey and we were pretty sure it was the internet service over a T-1 to Nerinx Hall. No amount of praying was going to splice these wires together, what was needed was SBC and a truck full of tools and wire. They came later in that afternoon, and by day's end students and faculty were back to full strength downloading and checking email.

My own internet service was alive and well in the little trailer. And thank God because I'm one of those people who doesn't have much use for a computer that isn't networked to at least something! And my printer doesn't count. I need information, I desire action. Even my important spreadsheets are stored on another drive, in a secure building through VPN over a network. If my wireless card is out of range and I don't have a bright green cord sticking in the back of my notebook, well I just turn the thing off. There's really nothing to do and nowhere to put my stuff. When I was a young boy with my feet up on the woodstove reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, did I have any idea I'd be emailing the author 37 years later? Of course not, but here I was just now asking Ms. George a question for my 10 year old daughter about that very book. Our big world just shrunk in size and time. And all because of that little black wire.

The exhumed wires, now repaired, were laid back to rest where they were found. We threw a little dirt over the top with a promise to find them again in the Spring after the thaw. That's when we'll move them for good to make way for the big green field. And if my own connections are intact, that's when Outlook will pop up to remind me.

Editor's note: My daughter found some erroors in punctuation, and our email to the author asked if these were intentional or not. Jean Craighead George answered my email almost immediately. She was not aware of the error and went on to write that she appreciated the note and Bella's attention and would inform the publishers of the error. Are you kidding me? It's moments like this which make me more appreciative and less rueful of the 21st century!