Opening Celebration

Last Stretch

The night shift

First of the Panels

Hanging the netting

Plastic Panel Sweatshop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4rZQsjcsPM

Erecting the Poles

Poles Arive!

Second Concert

What a difference grass can make!

Pouring Concrete

Tie Details

Swimming Pools

Digging Holes

9 massive holes are now being dug for our footings.  Unfortunately this weekend the weather is not cooperating with us, and we now have 9 swimming pools to dig in.  We should have them ready, complete with gravel and rebar, and set for pouring concrete on Monday.  

First Concert

Unfortunately we did not make our deadline for finishing the park before the concert series, and the city had to put up the "funeral tent" again.  After several setbacks, it looks like we be several weeks behind schedule.  However, I hope we made a good impression to the community this week and we will be involved with future concerts.  Every Wednesday concert now makes us realize that we need to get this project finished.  After seeing the first concert it helps to get an understanding for what kind of audience we are designing for.  It should help us as we finish the project and further design decisions.  In the end, I feel like the design we've come up with will be pretty spectacular combined with the context and the audience we are dealing with.  It was a hot day and shade is definitely needed.  Our canopy design will help solve that problem.  The completed project will definitely change the whole atmosphere of the park.

Useless fibers

Unfortunately, the textiles department at Clemson didn't have fibers that we could use to make our panels for the canopy.  The kind they had were not UV protectant and we need that for it even to last 6 months.  We had to get them from a company they recommended to us in Sumter.  In order to speed up the process we decided to pick up the 1000 lb bail our selves and bring it to Clemson.  Leaving Clemson at 5:30 to get fibers was a ton of fun, not to mention the 6 hour drive.  ONLY in architecture do you get to experience such a thing.  (excuse the sarcasm)  To say the least, the trip to Sumter to and Color-fi did turn out to be an inspiring trip.  We met Wilber (a Clemson Grad, and plant manager) and got our own personal tour of the plant.   We saw the process that goes into making recycled bottles into a fiber that can then be woven into just about any material.  We saw examples of car interiors and even found out that most clothes that are made from polyester today are from recycled bottles or plastic.  

Unfortunately, when we got back to Clemson, the engineers we've been consulting with all semester told us the kind we picked up would not work.  The kind we had were 3 inches long instead of 2 (they look exactly the same to me).  This was a huge disappointment and at this point it pretty much destroyed our hopes for using this material.  It is to late to try and get another bail and Color-fi doesn't even make the kind Clemson needs unless its a custom order that could take weeks.  We've moved on to looking at other materials for the canopy.

Column Details

Spring Break 08!! Creek Restoration!