A lot of blocks went up this week, and the final features of the structure known as the Music Room are beginning to take shape.
We began with work on the outer wythe of the East wall, laying up the start of the upper pattern of accent blocks:
The outer wythe of the North wall may look like the straggler, but the many pallets of graded blocks tells the story: progress is going to be swift in the coming days:
In the past few weeks we’ve been making a lot of visible vertical progress, which has been exciting to watch. This week began with a major grouting effort that consumed all of Monday and half of Tuesday. And it was totally invisible. I forgot to ask just how deep the grout had to be poured into the cores of the outer wythe, but let’s put it this way: it was at least one bucket of grout going into each core of the South Wall. Here the buckets are being moved up to 18′ in preparation for the pouring:
The focus of the past week has been on building up the inner wythe, which now reaches the 26th course all the way around, one course shy of the top of the 2nd diffusor pattern. Here’s what it looks like now:
And here’s the side you won’t see:
Well, I didn’t see that coming…we lost two full days to weather, and yet the West saw the placement of the first few blocks of the 31st course. Though the other main walls have a long way to go to catch up, seeing one wall attain this height makes for a real sense of progress. But to get there, first the scaffolding had to go up.
Last week we saw the scaffolding lying in the grass:
Continue reading “Week 76 (First blocks of the 31st course)”
This week was a major consolidation week, bringing the South and West walls all the way up to the 24th course (16′ above slab level). The East wall, which used to be our tallest wall, lags two courses below that, and our North Wall lags another two courses lower still. Here was our condition at the start of the week, with the West wall growing up from the 16th course:
This week we finished up the lower diffusion pattern on the South wall and then brought the North Wall even to that level. Compared to the average progress of the last month, the blocks are now positively flying up into position.
From 10′ up on the scaffolding, here’s the pattern on the South wall:
In addition to finishing the pattern, we also grouted up to the 18th course, adding another 24 sticks of #5 rebar:
Because of the Memorial Day holiday, work did not begin this week until Tuesday. And it started with a burst of progress: 112 blocks were laid on Tuesday, dramatically changing the view as one approaches the site:
This week features the most complex masonry task thus far in the project: the integration of the massive steel beam into the South wall so that when it’s finished, you’ll never know it was even there.
But you might be interested to know how this all came to be…
Because we are blessed with the best public radio station in the country (WUNC), we frequently receive the best that public radio has to offer, live and in person. Earlier this month, A Prairie Home Companion came to Durham, North Carolina to produce and broadcast a show at our new state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center (DPAC). As I settled into my fourth-row seat, I flipped through the program, it was a darned good thing I was sitting down when I read these words written by Garrison Keillor:
Continue reading “Garrison Keillor plays the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC)”
In the comic strip Doonesbury, the White House is an iconic representation of all that is wrong with America and American power, the ironic home of presidents who, one way or another, come to represent the very evil they have sworn and affirmed their duty to defeat.
Candidate Obama ran his campaign on a platform of change, and every day the Obamas surprise and delight with the changes they are bringing, not just to American politics, not just to Washington, but to the White House itself. Earlier this week, the Obamas hosted what the Washington Post believes to be the first-ever poetry jam at the White House. Somewhere from his living room in Heaven, Langston Hughes is nodding in approval as many gather to sing a new song. It is a joy to see what happens when we have a President who is willing to let America be America again.
And so we have a President who is willing to listen to both rhyme and reason, to both the arts and science. And we have a First Lady who is willing to bring people with something to say, something to listen to. What a change!
And so for one night at least, the East Room has become a Salon.
Continue reading “The Obamas transform the White House into a Salon”
Manifold Recording / The Miraverse 
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