Week 109 (Interior Framing Begins)

If we had decided to build Manifold Recording inside the shell of a commercial building, then we would have started the project at the point we have just now reached: the initial framing of the interior walls.  But since we are following the principles of Organic Architecture, we had to wait for the building to grow, from the inside out, until the the outer structure was sufficiently well developed to allow the inner structure to be expressed.  It has been a mind-expanding journey, and something that fills me with we and excitement.

The first wall to be framed is a solid wall between Booths C and B. CDM perimeter strip isolates the wall from the floor, and is placed under a pair of 2x6s that will function as bottom plates.  Here is the initial construction (alone with other activity related to trimming the Booth windows and preparing the ceiling for insulation to be blown in next week):

The following detail from the construction plans shows what we can expect to see as this wall grows up and becomes finished:

If you think that’s a lot of information…there are a total of nine details on that one page!  The control room gets its own special section pages, which we’ll get to when framing begins there.  But first, let’s take a step back and see how we got here…

Last week we received a large amount of snow for North Carolina, with about 5″-7″ falling in our neck of the woods.  Here’s what the site looked like on Monday with lots of snow and nobody working:

By the late afternoon the warmth of the sun really got the snow on the south side of the building melting.  Here you can see the trajectory of the water washing off our drip edge:

Notice how not even snow accumulated on the board closest to the building, and how dry it is compared with the moisture further out.  The drip edge on the north face of the building has a different effect.  It spawns icicles:

After the installation of the Booth Windows last week they were given a thorough caulking:

And here’s a view from the inside:

I believe that when it comes time to measure the STC of these windows, we will find that they exceed STC 70.

The bright white of the snow cover outside sent more light into the Music Room windows than I’ve ever seen.  You can see in this picture that no internal illumination is needed to get a well-lit interior environment:

After the snow drama, it was back to work.  Some of the carpentry team worked outside, cutting, ripping, and mitering the top plates that will attach to the Annex roof.  Here’s that production line between uses:

And here are those plates being installed:

I think it took a total of three days to prepare and place all those plates.  When they were done, our formerly large pile of material was greatly reduced:

Also outside, the masons began to make the Loggia columns.  The cut blocks are placed into a ready position:

Then cemented into position:

And a detail showing how the blocks are slightly stretched so as to be compatible with our storefront material.

For those of you who were wondering “when are they ever going to deliver the rest of the roof shingles so we can see a finished roof?”, the answer came today in the form of three more pallets of shingles.

Methinks these are more than enough for the main roof, and may also be an allocation for the Annex Roof.  We should be getting the steel in and up for that next week and be framing it shortly thereafter.

Heading back inside, we see the beginnings of the process of finishing.  Here booth trim and sills are being varnished prior to installation:

The more that get finished, the more space they need in order to dry:

Studio designer Wes Lachot also had a very busy past few weeks.  You might think that when a set of plans are submitted and approved for construction that that’s the end of the designers job, but not so with Wes.  In a very real sense, it’s the beginning of an even larger project.  In fact, this is such a large topic that I’m going to write a separate posting about it when I have more time.  But for now, here’s the result of weeks of discussions between Wes, Tony Brett, the general contractor, project foreman, and the carpentry crew leader: freshly updated plans in a life-sized workshop:

and up a bit closer:

I’ve seen PhD projects that required less work to complete!

And so the trim material gets built into the windows, both outside:

and inside:

And with all that trim out of the way, there’s now room for the wall framing material in the Music Room:

Here’s a last picture to leave you with:

If the weather cooperates next week, we’ll have steel up on the Annex!