Very exciting, AP. It looks like a good-scaled job for you to be enjoying the thrill of constructin for the first time, small enough for you to know the intricacies (eccentric bracing, whew!) and big enough to be just a nice bit overwhelming - all that yummy structural steel, that is a huge education in itself drawing and working with the PE and reviewing the shops and then seeing it installed - wow, what fun, I'm a bit jealous!
What is the angled steel in the pic above: is it an angled brace for a projection, or is it a trick of the photography? I'm aving a hard time reading it.
(I will never forget my "first time" and it was just a little pseudo-architectural-historical niche in a museum exhibit but oh my god the thrill of seeing the drawing then walking in and seeing the built thing was the best rush ever.)
"relentless discomfort".....DCA, I love this phrase!!! It sums up my life and the lives of so many people I know who are pursuing a goal right now!
(And that's why I'll never be able to come home from work, get my kid to sleep, and sit my ass on the couch to watch reality TV ever in my life. Which when it comes right down to it is not a life I want anyway.)
At my old firm we used the phrase "baptism by fire" which is how I felt the entire ten years I worked there. I think Steven once posted here that he loved that architecture was a new problem every day, a new challenge to figure out. I hope he still feels that way at least a little bit!
Back to topic, I have some new jobsite pics I haven't uploaded yet and will do so soon - two jobs nearly done...
lb, if you're asking about the bottom image, the angled steel in the background is creating a braced frame for a 2 story locker room volume...no overhang. basically, there are 2 volumes (locker room vol. and fitness volume) seperated by some lobby infill. these 2 main volumes are braced independantly.
ok, the background. we have a construction manager, hired simultaneous with us to watch over the project and manage the subs.
BUT, he also bids - and gets - some of the bid packages. the issue was with one of the bid packages he got.
problem: we had an incorrect detail callout. 8/S2-1 instead of
9/S2-1. CM had brought it to our attention prior to bid, but we failed to get the structural engineer to fix it. CM (as subcontractor) says he bid it according to the wrong detail because that's what his competing bidders would do, even though he knew it was not only wrong, but unbuildable.
solution. problem explained to owner. owner understands.
owner: 'i guess we'll have to see which subs this affects.'
cm: 'it's me.'
owner: 'well then, i guess we don't have a problem then, do we?'
moral: sometimes we don't have to be the ones to fight things out, i.e., no pissing required. by us acting professionally and making sure that the conversations are open and fair, it becomes a negotiation between client and owner. or in this case, an owner with more work on the horizon talking to a contractor who like$ the$e project$ very much.
My current project is fast-track and now at the beginning of SD (only 9 weeks for $80m+ job), the steel, foundations, sitework, and prefab concrete packages have either already gone out or will be released next week- and I'm supposed to be designing stuff? how can I make the exposed steel trusses look better if they are already being welded up? I've been having fun with $$$ glass on the canopies - hope to have pics within a year of this monster.
we have finally finished excavating the unsuitable soils on my 26,000SF recreation center project (disclaimer: i'm the project manager for the city, not the architect)...
this picture shows the dewatering and excavation... we had to remove over 7,000 cubic yards of unsuitable organic materials and replace with structural fill at a cost of almost $340,000...
now we're finally actually building something... this is a 5'-0" wide footer that supports a 12" CMU wall for the gymnasium as well as the second story offices that cantilever out to form an entrance patio...
this is some of the underslab conduit work... the slab will be poured on this wing of the building next week...
the architect and i were talking this morning about this being an interesting phase in construction because all of the trenches for the footers and conduit is like a direct translation of the drawings onto the ground... i can't wait to really start going vertical...
architphil's client-like job seems like fun, doesn't it?
...especially after a day like today.
a quick caption to the middle image posted above (the 100' facade):
the 5 large openings on the 2nd level are for the fitness area (treadmills, bikes, machines etc. looking out to tennis courts and the forest beyond)...
the 1st level is two group exercise studios seperated by a storage closet. The the interior walls of the studios are covered with mirrors, so we placed the window's sill height at 7 feet.
Very, very fun image, emilyrides - how did I miss that when you posted it? Cool.
Here are two from this morning:
A good carpenter is endlessly inventive when it comes to getting things done right. The panels in the suspended shelf were in danger of bowing - some glue-n-screw and temporary supports solved that problem.
Remember, never judge the success of the tile until the grout is in place! We were all stressed about this installation until the grout showed up this morning - I literally gasped with pleasure when I saw it.
Thanks AP. I don't think I'll ever do horizontal grain again, unless it's in a limited application - too difficult to deal with misalignments! it is lvoely once they got it right, though.
emilyrides' pic is even better when you can see the whole thing!
nice cabs lb. i am glad it turned out after all the grain probs. looks beautiful.
from model to reality;
lady contractor left the job a while ago and turns out she had 29 different addresses to her name. now i have to write a letter to bond company to verify only 25% of the job was completed when she bolted. funny thing is, she was recommended to clients by their lawyer..!
anyway, needless to say i have to work with less.
liberty bell: I initally mistook the "temporary supports" between the shelf and ceiling as part of the design. The bowed pieces could serve as some sort of divider system for storage or display. Their shape mimics the organic quality of the wood grain (which turned out great, btw.)
aren't the bowed ones permanent? they look like nice clear lumber, possibly maple, or cherry with a clear coat. they add a nice bit of whimsy to the toughness of the rest. the supports are just the straight knotty ones under the suspended shelf, right?
where do the drawers go?
it's funny to see this slick beautiful thing and then notice the bentwood server and american flag centerpiece out the window in the background.
beautiful work, lb. looking forward to pix of orhan's project too. someday i might have pictures of a project. right now everything is just piles of dirt being pushed around.
Out Shopping Saturday before Christmas and came across these gems. This complex of building has been under construction for
nearly two years. The latest building which has yet to be occupied.[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/331223859_cff79d8bc0_m.jpg
[/img]
AP- Thanks for resizing that, I thought I had it right, but no. I'm glad, that photo looks much better now. I'm really happy with the way that turned out, it's a pretty cool place. The lower floor is even more amazing, but not quite completed yet.
My parent's house, under construction.... the "money wall" at one end of the gallery.... contractor installs the switces at varying distance from the bedrooms... and get this, the switches control the same light? My parents added the extra switch for a person to control the lights coming out of either of the two empty guest bedrooms.
Oh and it gets better. As this is the furthest public space from the master bedroom, my father thought it would be the perfect place for the thermostat. This way, by the time the thermostat reads the temperature, their bedroom will be warm.... who cares that my mom planned on hanging a big painting on this wall.... or that the whole house is organized around this central space for art..... seemed like the perfect place for the thermostat to him!!
curtclay or should I say 'cinnamon.stick'- the house looks good for a parental abode... curious about the white vinyl picket fence bordering a farm. what corner of the world do they live in? looks like that farm grows corn or wheat- which crop makes a difference to environmental quality...
there's a huge cancer cluster in long island where all the developments were built on old potato fields. all the pesticide/herbicide residues in the soil has done nasty things especially since they got into the drinking water - building on agricultural land is never a great idea...
lb, thanks... i think they're liking it more than they thought they wood..
treekiller, cinnamon.stick is my alias... ssshhhhhhh.... the white picket fence is a neighbor staking out thier territory.. that empty "farm" is all slotted to be filled with Mc Mansions by the end of 2007. it is Springfield, IL.
and hey, thanks for making me concerned about my parents health!!!
or does curtclay mean that the two switches that are 2'+/- from each other at either side at the end of the hall, adjacent to bedroom doors, are both controlling the same light?
Jobsite Pic of The Day
Very exciting, AP. It looks like a good-scaled job for you to be enjoying the thrill of constructin for the first time, small enough for you to know the intricacies (eccentric bracing, whew!) and big enough to be just a nice bit overwhelming - all that yummy structural steel, that is a huge education in itself drawing and working with the PE and reviewing the shops and then seeing it installed - wow, what fun, I'm a bit jealous!
What is the angled steel in the pic above: is it an angled brace for a projection, or is it a trick of the photography? I'm aving a hard time reading it.
(I will never forget my "first time" and it was just a little pseudo-architectural-historical niche in a museum exhibit but oh my god the thrill of seeing the drawing then walking in and seeing the built thing was the best rush ever.)
What optimism!
"Relentless discomfort" as one of my former CEO's called it.
"Never settle" as monster.com calls it.
("When is enough, enough?" as DCA calls it. :( ...Man I'm grumpy today.)
"relentless discomfort".....DCA, I love this phrase!!! It sums up my life and the lives of so many people I know who are pursuing a goal right now!
(And that's why I'll never be able to come home from work, get my kid to sleep, and sit my ass on the couch to watch reality TV ever in my life. Which when it comes right down to it is not a life I want anyway.)
At my old firm we used the phrase "baptism by fire" which is how I felt the entire ten years I worked there. I think Steven once posted here that he loved that architecture was a new problem every day, a new challenge to figure out. I hope he still feels that way at least a little bit!
Back to topic, I have some new jobsite pics I haven't uploaded yet and will do so soon - two jobs nearly done...
today my new problem is that i've started a pissing match with a contractor about RFI #1! drinking lots of coffee this morning so that i can win.
stress is chic, i read it on my computer...while not working and drinking coffee...
Oh jeepers, Steven, on RFI #1? That bodes badly for the rest of the project, eh? You MUST win this one to set a precedent...good luck.
lb, if you're asking about the bottom image, the angled steel in the background is creating a braced frame for a 2 story locker room volume...no overhang. basically, there are 2 volumes (locker room vol. and fitness volume) seperated by some lobby infill. these 2 main volumes are braced independantly.
OK, I see now - the corner column is hidden behind the column in the foreground. Thanks.
I want to hear how your RFI discussion went this morning, Steven!
well....
ok, the background. we have a construction manager, hired simultaneous with us to watch over the project and manage the subs.
BUT, he also bids - and gets - some of the bid packages. the issue was with one of the bid packages he got.
problem: we had an incorrect detail callout. 8/S2-1 instead of
9/S2-1. CM had brought it to our attention prior to bid, but we failed to get the structural engineer to fix it. CM (as subcontractor) says he bid it according to the wrong detail because that's what his competing bidders would do, even though he knew it was not only wrong, but unbuildable.
solution. problem explained to owner. owner understands.
owner: 'i guess we'll have to see which subs this affects.'
cm: 'it's me.'
owner: 'well then, i guess we don't have a problem then, do we?'
cm: '...'
moral: sometimes we don't have to be the ones to fight things out, i.e., no pissing required. by us acting professionally and making sure that the conversations are open and fair, it becomes a negotiation between client and owner. or in this case, an owner with more work on the horizon talking to a contractor who like$ the$e project$ very much.
Steve, did the cm swallow his tongue?
My current project is fast-track and now at the beginning of SD (only 9 weeks for $80m+ job), the steel, foundations, sitework, and prefab concrete packages have either already gone out or will be released next week- and I'm supposed to be designing stuff? how can I make the exposed steel trusses look better if they are already being welded up? I've been having fun with $$$ glass on the canopies - hope to have pics within a year of this monster.
have some expectations for this glass canopy mr. killer
this was a long time coming and very satisfying
I was curious to see the whole image, so I fixed it.
WOW!
is that what I think it is?
Cool. Mud, I command you to rise up and become textile block again!
08DEC2006 - walls and openings framed with light guage steel.
we have finally finished excavating the unsuitable soils on my 26,000SF recreation center project (disclaimer: i'm the project manager for the city, not the architect)...
this picture shows the dewatering and excavation... we had to remove over 7,000 cubic yards of unsuitable organic materials and replace with structural fill at a cost of almost $340,000...
now we're finally actually building something... this is a 5'-0" wide footer that supports a 12" CMU wall for the gymnasium as well as the second story offices that cantilever out to form an entrance patio...
this is some of the underslab conduit work... the slab will be poured on this wing of the building next week...
the architect and i were talking this morning about this being an interesting phase in construction because all of the trenches for the footers and conduit is like a direct translation of the drawings onto the ground... i can't wait to really start going vertical...
AP, you are right at a moment in the building that I love: it's all steely and reflective and hard and cold and skeletal.
architphil - So much for dewatering!!!!! But the "drawing on the ground" aspect is cool.
I have some to post, but so little time....
reflective and cold. i thought you were talking about me for a second.
architphil's client-like job seems like fun, doesn't it?
...especially after a day like today.
a quick caption to the middle image posted above (the 100' facade):
the 5 large openings on the 2nd level are for the fitness area (treadmills, bikes, machines etc. looking out to tennis courts and the forest beyond)...
the 1st level is two group exercise studios seperated by a storage closet. The the interior walls of the studios are covered with mirrors, so we placed the window's sill height at 7 feet.
Very, very fun image, emilyrides - how did I miss that when you posted it? Cool.
Here are two from this morning:
A good carpenter is endlessly inventive when it comes to getting things done right. The panels in the suspended shelf were in danger of bowing - some glue-n-screw and temporary supports solved that problem.
Remember, never judge the success of the tile until the grout is in place! We were all stressed about this installation until the grout showed up this morning - I literally gasped with pleasure when I saw it.
damn lb. that casework turned out great.
is it that the same stuff that had mis-aligned grain previously?
very cool emilyrides. to resize a large image, just add a single space and "width=400" after ".jpg"
(my resize better work, lest i look like an idiot)
¥€$!
Thanks AP. I don't think I'll ever do horizontal grain again, unless it's in a limited application - too difficult to deal with misalignments! it is lvoely once they got it right, though.
emilyrides' pic is even better when you can see the whole thing!
looks beautiful lb. some stress relief i hope!
nice cabs lb. i am glad it turned out after all the grain probs. looks beautiful.
from model to reality;
lady contractor left the job a while ago and turns out she had 29 different addresses to her name. now i have to write a letter to bond company to verify only 25% of the job was completed when she bolted. funny thing is, she was recommended to clients by their lawyer..!
anyway, needless to say i have to work with less.
today
orhan it is a painful road my friend....bond companies are like turnips....they have no blood....even after you pay them..
Orhan I'm so sorry to hear. Thank goodness she wasn't your recommendation! But now you have to clean up the mess, like we often have to.
I love that model - the visible corrugated makes me totally empathetic with it, as an object, and with it's maker, as another human.
Looking forward to seeing more of the "today" pictures, as it progresses!
liberty bell: I initally mistook the "temporary supports" between the shelf and ceiling as part of the design. The bowed pieces could serve as some sort of divider system for storage or display. Their shape mimics the organic quality of the wood grain (which turned out great, btw.)
aren't the bowed ones permanent? they look like nice clear lumber, possibly maple, or cherry with a clear coat. they add a nice bit of whimsy to the toughness of the rest. the supports are just the straight knotty ones under the suspended shelf, right?
where do the drawers go?
it's funny to see this slick beautiful thing and then notice the bentwood server and american flag centerpiece out the window in the background.
beautiful work, lb. looking forward to pix of orhan's project too. someday i might have pictures of a project. right now everything is just piles of dirt being pushed around.
My second project under construction...
The site is next to my primary school, it feels very weird, but building next to FLW must be even weirder : )
More in this flickr set.
Out Shopping Saturday before Christmas and came across these gems. This complex of building has been under construction for
nearly two years. The latest building which has yet to be occupied.[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/146/331223859_cff79d8bc0_m.jpg
[/img]
I am happy its XMAS!
AP- Thanks for resizing that, I thought I had it right, but no. I'm glad, that photo looks much better now. I'm really happy with the way that turned out, it's a pretty cool place. The lower floor is even more amazing, but not quite completed yet.
My parent's house, under construction.... the "money wall" at one end of the gallery.... contractor installs the switces at varying distance from the bedrooms... and get this, the switches control the same light? My parents added the extra switch for a person to control the lights coming out of either of the two empty guest bedrooms.
Oh and it gets better. As this is the furthest public space from the master bedroom, my father thought it would be the perfect place for the thermostat. This way, by the time the thermostat reads the temperature, their bedroom will be warm.... who cares that my mom planned on hanging a big painting on this wall.... or that the whole house is organized around this central space for art..... seemed like the perfect place for the thermostat to him!!
oh the joys of doing the parent's house...
lets see if this works..
gallery looking South
here is looking in the other direction with the kitchen off to the left..
gallery looking North
wanted to post the images... here ya go..
fu*k.. nevermind.. click the links..
curtclay, sorry about the electrical difficulties! The overall space - the gallery and it's openings - looks very cool, though.
curtclay or should I say 'cinnamon.stick'- the house looks good for a parental abode... curious about the white vinyl picket fence bordering a farm. what corner of the world do they live in? looks like that farm grows corn or wheat- which crop makes a difference to environmental quality...
there's a huge cancer cluster in long island where all the developments were built on old potato fields. all the pesticide/herbicide residues in the soil has done nasty things especially since they got into the drinking water - building on agricultural land is never a great idea...
lb, thanks... i think they're liking it more than they thought they wood..
treekiller, cinnamon.stick is my alias... ssshhhhhhh.... the white picket fence is a neighbor staking out thier territory.. that empty "farm" is all slotted to be filled with Mc Mansions by the end of 2007. it is Springfield, IL.
and hey, thanks for making me concerned about my parents health!!!
curtclay, those are called 3-way or 4-way switches...useful for coming and going...typical of circulation spaces...
or does curtclay mean that the two switches that are 2'+/- from each other at either side at the end of the hall, adjacent to bedroom doors, are both controlling the same light?
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