Leader of Men

other women shop for shoes

I spent a lovely morning and afternoon in Squamish shopping for rocks. Specifically, visiting one of our suppliers' quarries to select focal boulders for a project under construction. We also visited what I have lovingly dubbed The Biggest &%$#@! Scariest Saw You Have Ever Seen.

This is what cuts the largest boulders on the site into slabs. I like the helpful arrows pointing out its killing edge. I am sure I will be encountering it again later in my nightmares.

We visited two different quarries (one charmingly named "The Boulder Patch") to select about a dozen specimens from among thousands. It had just rained and the entire quarry was oozing mud, and we had to scramble across huge piles of boulders trying to not break our ankles in the process. The foreman dropped his watch and lost a little piece of it down a crack. It was a lot of fun.

If you are still reading this post, which I fully admit is waxing poetic about piles of rocks, I commend you. They don't look like much in a big heap, but when you get up close and start examining their unique forms and textures and colours, and start envisioning how they will look in the finished project and express the intent of your design with their individual beauty, well, that's when you realize you're the sort of dork that writes blog posts about big piles of rocks.

Anyway, I found some beautiful jade Cheekeye river boulders for the project's water feature. This one in particular had gorgeous colour and texture. Isn't it cute the way they mark them, all tied up in a red ribbon like it's a present?

This is a pretty massive Cheekeye, about 5' across, and will be the main boulder in the water feature grouping. The bottoms of all of these will be sawn flat with the giant &%$#@! scary saw so they will be stable on a flat concrete pad, cored into the middle and dowelled in.

My coworker was scoping out some enormous chunks of granite for her project. The largest the foreman measured was over 7 feet across.

   

It's always exciting when you can find some boulders with pre-existing moss. Yes, I said exciting. Like finding a shirt with diamond buttons for normal people. I picked out these lovely mossy little basalt pieces for the project's meditation garden.

  

  

 

When these boulders are installed in the next month or two, I'll take some more pics and post them here for show-and-tell (if everyone hasn't passed out from boredom, that is).

 

now i'm going to disneyland

I am pleased to report that a project of mine is the recipient of of a 2008 CSLA Professional Award of Excellence. The project is located in Seattle and consists of two roofdecks for the downtown headquarters of a major insurance firm.

It was a unique challenge because the building is leased, so there could be no piercing of the roof membrane. In laymen's terms, that means nothing could be permanently affixed to the building. The end result is that all components are removable and can be dismantled like a giant jigsaw puzzle if the company moves.

The south end of the 2nd floor roof, which wraps the building in an L-shape.

 

The north end of the 2nd floor roof. The large earthen mound on the left side will eventually be covered in sedum and completely green - this photo was taken shortly after construction, before all planting had grown in.

 

The sitting area at the south end of the 2nd floor roof deck. The red bowl is a water feature - water fills up the bowl, spills down the sides and down through a grating in the deck below the cobble. The earth below the Japanese maples in the back will eventually be fully covered in sedum.

 

View from the south end of the 2nd floor roof, looking north.

 

Detail of the water feature, featuring polished black cobble and granite stonework set directly into the deck.

 

2nd floor roof, looking west towards the earth mound. Sedum seedlings are barely visible at this point. The granite bridge bisects the mound. The mound walls are sheathed in stainless steel. The raised viewing platform in the far corner has excellent views of Seattle harbour.

 

Details of the roof covering. Three mixtures of recycled tumbled glass, plus polished black cobble, divided by aluminum edging.

 

East end of the granite bridge on the 2nd floor roof, looking towards the fireplace and screen. The entire deck system is built on massive beams placed directly on the surface of the roof and is held in place by sheer weight.

 

Detail of the railing and steps to viewing deck at the corner of the 'L' on the 2nd floor roof. Ipe wood and stainless steel cables.

 

Granite-clad outdoor gas fireplace. The upper mantle is stainless steel, the hearth is solid granite. The overhead beam connects to the screen trellis to the right.

 

Details of the screen trellis with bench and planters on the 2nd floor roof. Ipe wood, stainless steel cable. The vines will eventually cover the screen for privacy and shade.

 

8th floor roof. Screen trellis and planters between two decks that are connected by a granite bridge like that on the second floor.

sneak peek: the 2008 Richmond Olympic Speed Skating Oval

Last Friday I was invited to the Construction Appreciation party for the 2008 Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Richmond, since I was part of the project team. It was a pretty snazzy event, with food and drinks, shaking the Premier's hand, and trying out the ice. Unfortunately I wasn't able to skate myself, having injured my knee a few weeks ago, so I busied myself taking pictures of the magnificent architecture.

The exterior and certain parts of the interior aren't quite finished yet, but remarkable nonetheless. You can see the exterior in progess here. It is the 3rd largest of its kind in the world, and capable of holding 4 DC-10 aircraft wingtip to wingtip - 33,000 square metres of space. The architect is Cannon Johnston.

Part of the entry lobby.

 

View from the centre to the west end of the ice

 

View from the west end of the ice.

 

These beams span 100m, and the roof itself is approximately 6.5 acres in size.

 

The ceiling is an incredible work of art. It contains over one million board feet of pine beetle kill wood from the B.C. interior.

 

The building rear exterior. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and too dark out to take any more photos than this.

 

Good advice for our star athletes.

As I mentioned above, the weather was atrocious and it was pitch black out, which was a pity, since the exterior of the building is fantastic, as is the landscape. Hopefully there will be a spot of sunny weather soon so I can get back and take more pics.

six more months without sun

The first year I moved to Vancouver, it poured rain nearly every single day in October. For a while I was afraid I made a terrible mistake. And then I just got used to being constantly wet. Umbrellas are for tourists, you know.

Fortunately this October has been a little better. I took this photo standing downtown waiting for Mei to pick me up to head for the Langley bead show. The city was beautifully cloudy and pastel. The pink building is Park Place, one of the largest buildings in downtown Vancouver at 35 storeys tall. It sits at 666 Burrard St, the devil's address. Just kidding! The number 666 is considered lucky in Chinese culture.

I'm quite enamoured with this building. It's big and it's pink. It's cheeky. It says, hey, I'm a big fat pink building with the address 666, wanna make something of it? I like a building with 'tude.