Things have been quiet inside the studio this past week; not so outside! A succession of machines has been transforming our landscape from this:
to this:
In the first photo you can see the passageway that was used by the concrete truck to make all the deliveries needed to finish up the patio. As of Wesnesday, all the pours were complete, with this fresh bit being the last two to be completed:
With that concrete in place, the North Patio meets the West Patio, and all that’s left to finish are the steps leading up to the field. The masons cleverly scavenged unused “V” blocks to fill in the base of the landing:
It was good to finally find a use for those blocks we could not use to make our bond beams! Here’s the front-side view:
The next step in this process will be to make the forms for making the risers.
We received steelwork for our drain covers. Following the Arts and Crafts tradition, the grates are patterned to express the theme of our overall design:
The grates will actually be flush with the concrete surface…they are not yet sitting on their 1/4″ steel shoes. But you can see how the grates match our design and match to each other. You do see two grates abutting at the gridline, no?
Finally, some photos from the Big Dig. This was one of the last photos taken from atop the large dirt pile that’s been facing the building these past 4 years:
Notice how the level of the camera is at about 8′, the height of the bottom of the exterior soffit. A 37,000 loader picks up huge buckets of earth:
And then smootly lays it down:
It keeps pushing it forward, making the grade as it does:
The loader makes quick work of the dirtpile. Here it is taking some of the last bites out of it:
In one day, the pile is gone and the rough grading is done:
Way in the distance you can see the dump truck that doubles as the tractor for the trailer and the loader:
Construction-wide, things really are finishing up! Landscaping-wise, things are only just starting…