Our Building Project is finished and the time has come to step back and appreciate the amazing work we have done in the new Jefferson Courtyard. I like to begin by standing across the street in the Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens admiring the front of our Sanctuary. The building hasn’t changed but the view is decidedly different now. My eye is drawn to the left by a new, inviting entryway flanked on the right by a collection of ferns and white azaleas clustered beneath our grand old Olive tree and on the left by trio of magnificent Sago palms. I jay-walk across Santa Barbara St, walk through that beckoning entry and descend a broad stairway into our new courtyard. The first thing I see is two slightly mounded, lush grass areas separated by a brick patio with a splendid Magnolia tree in the center. I also notice Olive trees standing like sentinels at the four corners of the courtyard offering the promise of peace & shade in the years to come. I’m drawn to the central Magnolia. Once there I turn towards the Sanctuary. I see a long, stucco covered retaining wall punctuated by an understated, embossed UU symbol. Behind the symbol palm plants explode upward with yellow roses, agaves, jasmine and various ground covers extending outward to the left and right. Perhaps most striking are the two stairways that swoop down from each end of the Sanctuary wall like embracing arms.
To my left, towards the Blake Building, I ‘m drawn to a narrow passageway laced with Jacarandas and azaleas, that opens upon an earth-colored cobblestone labyrinth. This space always makes me pause as I imagine the sacred rituals, the laughter of children, the quite reveries that will add magic in the years ahead. I’m startled to see the green eyes of a centipede vegetable planter staring at me from the left. As I turn to my right I see a gateway to the playground and a curving amphitheater topped with another large Magnolia tree. Further to my right are two doorways. One goes to a new storage area but I take the second door which welcomes me into an elevator. I push the proper buttons and find myself lifted up to a surprising new terrace & gathering space. Once again I’m presented with a choice. I can enter a doorway to the Parish hall administrative offices or I can enter the Sanctuary through a heavy mahogany door. But I choose neither. Instead I walk to the edge of the Terrace and look down upon our wonderful creation . It’s beautiful.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
We're coming into the Homestretch
Hooray! We’re in the “homestretch” with our building project.
Parish Hall is essentially complete. The new stage curtain is in place. The new door hardware is working great. The Library is back in business. The new Reception Office is open and welcoming visitors. The bathrooms are marvelous. The finishes are very classy. And, the new A/V system will “knock your socks off”. Only very minor details remain unfinished.
In the Sanctuary, the chancel pews have been removed and the chancel tile floor will soon be refurbished. The new exterior doorway to the Terrace should be installed by the time you read this.
We can now walk onto the new Terrace and look over the work being done in the Jefferson Courtyard. After considerable excavation and infrastructure work, the pieces are falling together quickly. All concrete sidewalks, stairs & retaining walls have been poured and will soon be plastered. The central court around the new magnolia tree has been covered with bricks. And an extensive array of exterior lighting is near completion.
The new storage area below the Terrace is almost ready to be put into use. All we need is installation of ceiling lights and locks on the door. The elevator/lift, which can take you from the Terrace and Sanctuary down to the Jefferson Courtyard, has not been installed yet. Once it is installed everyone will be able to easily traverse our campus.
We still have some major concrete work going on in the area below the Terrace and next to the Starr King playground. This is where the Amphitheater and Labyrinth are being built. It is the last stage of our construction project and will create a very exotic and useful new area for the whole congregation. More on this work in a couple of weeks.
Parish Hall is essentially complete. The new stage curtain is in place. The new door hardware is working great. The Library is back in business. The new Reception Office is open and welcoming visitors. The bathrooms are marvelous. The finishes are very classy. And, the new A/V system will “knock your socks off”. Only very minor details remain unfinished.
In the Sanctuary, the chancel pews have been removed and the chancel tile floor will soon be refurbished. The new exterior doorway to the Terrace should be installed by the time you read this.
We can now walk onto the new Terrace and look over the work being done in the Jefferson Courtyard. After considerable excavation and infrastructure work, the pieces are falling together quickly. All concrete sidewalks, stairs & retaining walls have been poured and will soon be plastered. The central court around the new magnolia tree has been covered with bricks. And an extensive array of exterior lighting is near completion.
The new storage area below the Terrace is almost ready to be put into use. All we need is installation of ceiling lights and locks on the door. The elevator/lift, which can take you from the Terrace and Sanctuary down to the Jefferson Courtyard, has not been installed yet. Once it is installed everyone will be able to easily traverse our campus.
We still have some major concrete work going on in the area below the Terrace and next to the Starr King playground. This is where the Amphitheater and Labyrinth are being built. It is the last stage of our construction project and will create a very exotic and useful new area for the whole congregation. More on this work in a couple of weeks.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Wrapping Up Parish Hall
The “church year” is now in full swing and I hear the clamor of eager room-users at my door. Danceaway would love to move back into its real home…..Parish Hall. Starr King needs to hold its Annual Kick-Off Potluck….in Parish Hall. Our congregation plans to hold the first in a series of Dinner Potlucks….in Parish Hall. Our very patient Library Committee is “chomping at the bit” wanting to get back into the book & movie lending business. Congregational Meetings, Family Fun Nights, Adult RE, Toastmasters, Program Council, Board Meetings. All of these are scheduled for Parish Hall later this month, culminating with the USSB Services Auction November 8th. It looks like we better wrap this project up soon.
And that’s exactly what we plan to do.
The walls are painted. The floor is refinished. The bathrooms are almost complete. Stone thresholds will be installed in all the exterior doorways to the portico later this week. The Library cabinets should be arriving at the end of this week and could be complete as soon as Oct 19. The new music library is complete and ready to be stocked with choir sheet music. New door hardware & locksets are being installed everyday. The wonderful, Spanish Style hanging light fixtures for Parish Hall will arrive on Oct 8 and should be in place in time for our Congregational Potluck. The new stage curtain could be in place by that time as well. The fabulous new audio-visual system will be operational by Oct 24, in time for Danceaway’s return. I’ll talk more about this A/V system in my next blog. All I’ll say now is that you don’t want to miss Chuck Wolfe’s first movie night. It will definitely “knock your socks off”.
And that’s exactly what we plan to do.
The walls are painted. The floor is refinished. The bathrooms are almost complete. Stone thresholds will be installed in all the exterior doorways to the portico later this week. The Library cabinets should be arriving at the end of this week and could be complete as soon as Oct 19. The new music library is complete and ready to be stocked with choir sheet music. New door hardware & locksets are being installed everyday. The wonderful, Spanish Style hanging light fixtures for Parish Hall will arrive on Oct 8 and should be in place in time for our Congregational Potluck. The new stage curtain could be in place by that time as well. The fabulous new audio-visual system will be operational by Oct 24, in time for Danceaway’s return. I’ll talk more about this A/V system in my next blog. All I’ll say now is that you don’t want to miss Chuck Wolfe’s first movie night. It will definitely “knock your socks off”.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
It's not all roses
I’ve been re-reading my past blogs and realize that I’ve painted a pretty “rosy” picture of how our Building Project is progressing. Indeed things have been moving ahead quite well, but it hasn’t been all roses. I suppose I should provide a glimpse at some of the inevitable difficulties that we’ve had to grapple with.
Everyone involved feels that we were quite lucky during the excavation of the Jefferson Lawn area. Large hidden rocks were plentiful but nothing we couldn’t handle, except for two. These two rocks are monsters and they rest 6” under finished grade near Classrooms A & B of the Blake Building. So what’s the problem? Our symmetrical landscape plan calls for a tree above each of these rocks. Hmmmm….
I’m learning that pouring concrete can be a tricky business. A large portion of the new flatwork adjacent to the Jefferson Building and the Blake Building was poured weeks ago and nobody was happy with it. Both the color and the finish were wrong. Not horribly wrong but enough so that we did not want this continued throughout the project. So after much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth we rejected the work and demanded that it be removed and re-poured. This won’t cost us anything extra but it will dramatically inconvenience Starr King and The Orca School. It will also cut-off access to the Blake bathrooms for a week. And finally it will delay our project by at least a week. Groan…
No sooner did we resolve the flatwork snafu than another concrete mishap occurred. We had what is known as a “blow-out” while pouring the retaining wall adjacent to the sanctuary. Wet concrete is extremely heavy and sometimes, if the forms are not adequately braced, this weight will cause the forms to bulge outward (aka “blow-out”). So you end up with a giant bulge in the finished concrete wall. There’s nothing to do about this except let it dry then cut out the bulging section and re-pour. Unfortunately our “blow-out” occurred right where we had carefully placed a 3’ tall embossed UU logo. So all of that artwork had to re-fabricated as well. So guess what? Another delay. Rats!
Parish Hall has not been immune to some set-backs. The most serious was the discovery, during a pressure test, that our gas lines were riddled with leaks. It would have been virtually impossible to track-down and repair all of these leaks without creating a slew of new leaks in the process. So the old lines were abandoned and entirely new lines were installed. Of course this once again caused some delay but, worse still, it added $14,000 to the cost of our project. We have a contingency fund to cover these types of surprises but…. Egads!
.Small problems are daily events here and we solve them. Thank goodness the big problems are far less frequent. (We solve those problems too.) To be honest, it’s the problems that make my job and this project so fascinating. It’s not a rose garden. It’s a construction project and I like it that way.
Everyone involved feels that we were quite lucky during the excavation of the Jefferson Lawn area. Large hidden rocks were plentiful but nothing we couldn’t handle, except for two. These two rocks are monsters and they rest 6” under finished grade near Classrooms A & B of the Blake Building. So what’s the problem? Our symmetrical landscape plan calls for a tree above each of these rocks. Hmmmm….
I’m learning that pouring concrete can be a tricky business. A large portion of the new flatwork adjacent to the Jefferson Building and the Blake Building was poured weeks ago and nobody was happy with it. Both the color and the finish were wrong. Not horribly wrong but enough so that we did not want this continued throughout the project. So after much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth we rejected the work and demanded that it be removed and re-poured. This won’t cost us anything extra but it will dramatically inconvenience Starr King and The Orca School. It will also cut-off access to the Blake bathrooms for a week. And finally it will delay our project by at least a week. Groan…
No sooner did we resolve the flatwork snafu than another concrete mishap occurred. We had what is known as a “blow-out” while pouring the retaining wall adjacent to the sanctuary. Wet concrete is extremely heavy and sometimes, if the forms are not adequately braced, this weight will cause the forms to bulge outward (aka “blow-out”). So you end up with a giant bulge in the finished concrete wall. There’s nothing to do about this except let it dry then cut out the bulging section and re-pour. Unfortunately our “blow-out” occurred right where we had carefully placed a 3’ tall embossed UU logo. So all of that artwork had to re-fabricated as well. So guess what? Another delay. Rats!
Parish Hall has not been immune to some set-backs. The most serious was the discovery, during a pressure test, that our gas lines were riddled with leaks. It would have been virtually impossible to track-down and repair all of these leaks without creating a slew of new leaks in the process. So the old lines were abandoned and entirely new lines were installed. Of course this once again caused some delay but, worse still, it added $14,000 to the cost of our project. We have a contingency fund to cover these types of surprises but…. Egads!
.Small problems are daily events here and we solve them. Thank goodness the big problems are far less frequent. (We solve those problems too.) To be honest, it’s the problems that make my job and this project so fascinating. It’s not a rose garden. It’s a construction project and I like it that way.
Friday, September 12, 2008
It's becoming real
By the time you read this most of the construction projects that I’m going to describe will be finished and other aspects or our Building Project will have begun. Nonetheless, I simply have to tell you about what’s going on right now. It’s amazing! We are actually realizing what were only dreams and plans. I know this may sound ridiculous but, I can’t go to the bathroom here without grinning from ear to ear as I look at the wonderful tiles and stainless steel and fancy porcelain. Construction is a very satisfying endeavor. You dream up a beautiful new reality and in a short time, BINGO, there it is. I only wish World Peace, Health Care for All and Fair Labor Practices were as easily realized. But, that’s another discussion.
Parish Hall is getting its new coat of paint today. The crew of Pacific Painting Company ascended the scaffolding this morning and began applying Damariscotta Blue (a pale sky blue) to the acoustical ceiling coffers and Lincolnshire Olive (a medium toned olive-brown) to the boxed beams. I’ve been pretty nervous about how this would look over a large area. I shouldn’t have been. It looks fabulous! The walls are two-toned; Linen Sand (a light yellow-tan) above and Bronzed Beige (a deeper bronze-tan) below. With the application of these new colors the large stained-glass window at the end of the hall has suddenly come to life. I can’t wait to see the new library cabinets and the re-finished hardwood in this space.
While all of this designer work is being done inside, a huge concrete pour is under way outside. I’ve never seen such a big concrete pumping device. It sits in the middle of the Jefferson courtyard area with four giant outriggers to keep it steady. This device pumps concrete from a truck on Santa Barbara St almost all the way to the Starr King Playground area where the new terrace walls are being poured. This requires a boom that reaches as high as the top of our tower. It also requires about a dozen strong men directing the concrete into the forms and tamping it tight. It’s all quite impressive. On Monday the forms will be removed and we will get our first glimpse of what our new courtyard will really look like.
So after two years of planning and several months of extensive and invisible infrastructure improvements, our dream is actually becoming real. We can begin to see the finished product, and it’s spectacular!
Parish Hall is getting its new coat of paint today. The crew of Pacific Painting Company ascended the scaffolding this morning and began applying Damariscotta Blue (a pale sky blue) to the acoustical ceiling coffers and Lincolnshire Olive (a medium toned olive-brown) to the boxed beams. I’ve been pretty nervous about how this would look over a large area. I shouldn’t have been. It looks fabulous! The walls are two-toned; Linen Sand (a light yellow-tan) above and Bronzed Beige (a deeper bronze-tan) below. With the application of these new colors the large stained-glass window at the end of the hall has suddenly come to life. I can’t wait to see the new library cabinets and the re-finished hardwood in this space.
While all of this designer work is being done inside, a huge concrete pour is under way outside. I’ve never seen such a big concrete pumping device. It sits in the middle of the Jefferson courtyard area with four giant outriggers to keep it steady. This device pumps concrete from a truck on Santa Barbara St almost all the way to the Starr King Playground area where the new terrace walls are being poured. This requires a boom that reaches as high as the top of our tower. It also requires about a dozen strong men directing the concrete into the forms and tamping it tight. It’s all quite impressive. On Monday the forms will be removed and we will get our first glimpse of what our new courtyard will really look like.
So after two years of planning and several months of extensive and invisible infrastructure improvements, our dream is actually becoming real. We can begin to see the finished product, and it’s spectacular!
Friday, August 22, 2008
It's a Jigsaw Puzzle
A few weeks ago my wife, Anita, and I enjoyed a visit by the grandkids, Serena & Noah, and their mother Ricky. They stayed with us for a week. Most mornings I would walk into the living room and find Serena, age 8, on the floor huddled over a jigsaw puzzle of a “Fantasy World” filled with castles & towers & dolphins and boats.
I hate jigsaw puzzles but since this was Serena, and I love her so, I would flop-down and laboriously dig through the pile of indiscernible puzzle pieces. We made great progress during that week but the puzzle remained unfinished when it came time for Serena and her family to leave. We’ll finish the puzzle during a future visit.
This building project is a lot like that jigsaw puzzle. Our fifty-page roll of plans is like a jumbled box of pieces that must be carefully assembled. I’m happy to report that the pieces of our puzzle are coming together quite nicely. We’re not quite as far along as Serena and I got with the “Fantasy World” but I would say that we are well past halfway.
Here’s where we are with Parish Hall. The rough-in wiring is complete. The sheet metal ducting is complete. Rough-in plumbing is complete. All framing is complete. All walls & ceilings have been insulated. (The floors will be soon.) Almost all walls have been patched and plastered. The offices & workroom have been painted. The wood floors in the offices, hallways & workroom have been repaired and sanded and staining will begin on Monday. Interior colors for Parish Hall have been determined and painting will begin next week. Tile work in the bathrooms should begin in about one week. The A/V infrastructure is in place. I would say that the Parish hall is sort of like that easy part of a jigsaw puzzle with all of the distinctive features that are quickly recognizable.
The courtyard is another matter. It’s kind of like the ocean areas in Serena’s “Fantasy World”… large areas of indistinguishable blue. To complicate matters more, we’ve discovered that some pieces are missing and others simply do not quite fit together as they should. We are still determinedly moving ahead but with a lot more “head scratching” and searching for answers. There’s been lots of formwork this week. Formwork is the process of building wooden walls, supported by stakes pounded into the ground, which hold poured concrete in a particular shape or “form”. Once the liquid concrete hardens the wooden forms are removed and you are left with a concrete structure or pad. The big news this week is that the forms are up for the walls of the basement area below the Terrace. The reason this is big news is that finally we are seeing a structure emerge from the ever-moving mounds of dirt. Of course, the difficulty with pouring concrete is that once it hardens there is no going back. If some conduit or pipe or drain was missed, then you’ve got a whole lot of trouble on your hands. Added to this is the intermingling of several building disciplines and overlapping sets of plans. Sometimes it’s just darned hard to find the right piece to complete a certain section of our puzzle.
Did I mention that I hate jigsaw puzzles? I also really love this place.
I hate jigsaw puzzles but since this was Serena, and I love her so, I would flop-down and laboriously dig through the pile of indiscernible puzzle pieces. We made great progress during that week but the puzzle remained unfinished when it came time for Serena and her family to leave. We’ll finish the puzzle during a future visit.
This building project is a lot like that jigsaw puzzle. Our fifty-page roll of plans is like a jumbled box of pieces that must be carefully assembled. I’m happy to report that the pieces of our puzzle are coming together quite nicely. We’re not quite as far along as Serena and I got with the “Fantasy World” but I would say that we are well past halfway.
Here’s where we are with Parish Hall. The rough-in wiring is complete. The sheet metal ducting is complete. Rough-in plumbing is complete. All framing is complete. All walls & ceilings have been insulated. (The floors will be soon.) Almost all walls have been patched and plastered. The offices & workroom have been painted. The wood floors in the offices, hallways & workroom have been repaired and sanded and staining will begin on Monday. Interior colors for Parish Hall have been determined and painting will begin next week. Tile work in the bathrooms should begin in about one week. The A/V infrastructure is in place. I would say that the Parish hall is sort of like that easy part of a jigsaw puzzle with all of the distinctive features that are quickly recognizable.
The courtyard is another matter. It’s kind of like the ocean areas in Serena’s “Fantasy World”… large areas of indistinguishable blue. To complicate matters more, we’ve discovered that some pieces are missing and others simply do not quite fit together as they should. We are still determinedly moving ahead but with a lot more “head scratching” and searching for answers. There’s been lots of formwork this week. Formwork is the process of building wooden walls, supported by stakes pounded into the ground, which hold poured concrete in a particular shape or “form”. Once the liquid concrete hardens the wooden forms are removed and you are left with a concrete structure or pad. The big news this week is that the forms are up for the walls of the basement area below the Terrace. The reason this is big news is that finally we are seeing a structure emerge from the ever-moving mounds of dirt. Of course, the difficulty with pouring concrete is that once it hardens there is no going back. If some conduit or pipe or drain was missed, then you’ve got a whole lot of trouble on your hands. Added to this is the intermingling of several building disciplines and overlapping sets of plans. Sometimes it’s just darned hard to find the right piece to complete a certain section of our puzzle.
Did I mention that I hate jigsaw puzzles? I also really love this place.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Let's Talk Concrete
When I drove up to the Unitarian Society on Monday morning, four cement trucks were parked along Santa Barbara Street, diesel engines idling, waiting their turn to feed the foundation footing forms of our new terrace and storage area. 28 yards of concrete was poured that morning and from the street I couldn't see where it went. It was like it simply disappeared into a hole. Which essentially is was happened. We will be tending to those holes filled with concrete (footings) in the coming weeks and our structures should rise up like flowers in a garden, with the addition of much more re-bar, concrete and sweat.
Over the past few weeks Schipper Construction and Anacapa Concrete Co. have been strategically digging holes & trenches and filling them with re-bar and concrete all over the back corner of our future Jefferson Courtyard and Terrace. It began with a pretty technical process called "slotted underpinning". This process was required in order to extend one corner of the foundation of the Sanctuary down to the level of the basement below our new terrace....without causing the Sanctuary to "droop" downward. Instead of digging-out the entire area below that corner, only a few carefully spaced 6' wide holes were dug at one time. These were then surrounded by forms, filled with a maze of re-bar and filled with concrete. A few days later, after the concrete was hard, adjacent holes were dug, formed and filled with concrete. This process was repeated until one continuous wall of interconnected concrete sections "underpinned" the sanctuary foundation. Our sanctuary foundation is actually stronger than ever as a result.
In the coming weeks we should see walkways, stairways and retaining walls materializing throughout the lower campus. We are definitely building for the ages, with the help of a lot of concrete.
Over the past few weeks Schipper Construction and Anacapa Concrete Co. have been strategically digging holes & trenches and filling them with re-bar and concrete all over the back corner of our future Jefferson Courtyard and Terrace. It began with a pretty technical process called "slotted underpinning". This process was required in order to extend one corner of the foundation of the Sanctuary down to the level of the basement below our new terrace....without causing the Sanctuary to "droop" downward. Instead of digging-out the entire area below that corner, only a few carefully spaced 6' wide holes were dug at one time. These were then surrounded by forms, filled with a maze of re-bar and filled with concrete. A few days later, after the concrete was hard, adjacent holes were dug, formed and filled with concrete. This process was repeated until one continuous wall of interconnected concrete sections "underpinned" the sanctuary foundation. Our sanctuary foundation is actually stronger than ever as a result.
In the coming weeks we should see walkways, stairways and retaining walls materializing throughout the lower campus. We are definitely building for the ages, with the help of a lot of concrete.
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