these pictures were taken on the morning of thursday june 4, 2009.

ok, live from the atlanta airport, i am awaiting a flight to austin to bookend my four day blitz build. today i contributed as much as i could to the completion of the framing of the full piece so that all that is left is the cladding. craig did a few of the slats that are on the beak side so he knows the score and will be able to do them without me. ill have to say that the thing is a lot bigger than i expected, but also the site was a lot more constrained than i pictured, so it feels pretty big. i dont know if you can tell but on day 1 we lost about 18″ of the design height. 12′ just felt really imposing back there, and the client was a bit nervous about getting blowback from their neighbors if it was visible over the top of their house. so the proportions are a bit squattier than the design.

one other thing that i left without building is the little wall spanning between the first and second floor next to the hole that connects them. i think this is really important and should be equipped with a climbing surface too because the 4′ level change is hard to negotiate via chin-up. i think i might sketch some over the photos to make sure the client and his skeleton crew have a clear sense of what is left and hopefully they will send us pictures of the finished product for our ‘dwell’ centerfold.

peep the final photos.

day 3 finds a new crew. the client and my father are back to work and cousin paul is now in town. we are about to head to the indoor lumber yard to fill the truck with one by sixes for the cladding. most of the framing went up yesterday and all of the floors and decking. we are just going to plow ahead with the skin now i think. pix for today and yesterday to follow.

today’s goal is to finish framing the floors and roof and hopefully start on the cladding.

i am thinking that the ladder rungs should maybe not all be identical straight line cuts. i am concerned about my jigsaw abilities and that it might look worse if it is supposed to be straight but aint. alternatives?

day one at the job site, updates to follow.

please see the 100% bid set attached as a pdf. as-builts will be posted at a later date.

FORT DOX

thanks to ckc!

key plan

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without touching the hive trapped over his head, he inferred a dynamism of the hollow nature of the vessel, measuring its range by the trembling of the walls as it seemingly gasped.

yet markings at the site were incongruous with the trajectory of the loosed material

it was as if the machine had encountered an existing condition of wreckage. the onlookers inspected the debris as the machine swung suspended from the tree in which its malfunctioning retrochute cables had become ensnared. the machine brushed languidly by the breeze against the debris risen around it yet was not cradled or supported by it; the machine floated like a magnet above a ceramic superconductor. stepping forth from the crowd, ezekiel indicated that the debris was in fact independent from the machine and that it was itself a vessel from another age. as the crowd dissipated, ezekiel sat upon a fallen limb to wonder at the coincidence. he began to recognize a relationship between the limp movements of the dangling machine and the seemingly chaotic armoured mess of the debris below; the clockwork rind of the debris was actually quivering slightly as the machine swung above it! ezekiel strode forth to lay his hand on the debris. he traced its lines with his fingers feeling for some entrée. — —– — ———- ——- – —— —– — — —- and the prongs of the debris splayed wide to admit him.

witnesses describe a box trailed by spikes or rigid tentacles that glowed like flame and extended like the multi-jointed legs of a spider. the machine seemed uncontrolled by sentient beings when encountered, yet markings at the site were incongruous with the trajectory of the loosed material.

† continue reading black boxes

“…when the living creatures wept, the boxes went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the boxes were lifted up . . . when those wept, these wept; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the boxes were lifted up over against them. A ‘miracle’? Of course not! When a helicopter -1_…- _Cr -1- L.__.I L-__ -. . -1…”

“in the beginning there was icarus, the nascent trickle of the great architect’s cosmic semen and a glitter in the eye of the sun. the sun, over crete, reclaimed him and united him with the father of the beast whom his father the architect had helped to slay. genesis was the might of progress reborn, the promise of the icarus archetype recurrent. he reached out to touch the sun and hold it in his coffers for the journey home. by his hubris he was once again defeated, and united with the sun-scorched earth of utah, who will bear life no more.”

in a less obtuse observation, this scenario smacks of ‘night of the living dead’.

“One scientist said based on his calculations, the mass of the space object headed for Earth in 1908 was nearly 1 billion tons. He believes the meteorite was blasted by the spaceship at an altitude of 10 kilometers to prevent the destruction of all humanity on the planet.”

crash site, 2005. through the pines and acrid smoke our intrepid nephew discovers a puzzling array of remnants from a dismembered object strewn across the forest floor; considering he has never seen x-files and the dia never quarantines the area, what will he build?

image removed at the request of eric goss, artist.

check out creative commons for info on how to foster creative growth on the internet.

the terms “pirate” and “space” were not meant to instigate moves that would facilitate role play; the intention was to posit some likely scenarios enjoyed by the client. should this anticipation, now that it is out there, inform the fort with allegorical portholes? i reckon that it should not; does this leave us with an anonymous box, a pre-fab from off the rack, or pile of lumber placed a clearing in the trees? if i were proposing, say, a federal courthouse, it is doubtful that i would cover it in chain link, á la guantanamo bay, to tell the story of the cases or to nudge the judges in the “right” direction. as a proponent of the perpetual conflict of ideas, should i look for a fort/courthouse/dwp station that means nothing, or for a fort that carries ideas that are mine now but will be counted/banned in the future? i hope the new side menus are drumming up some work.

should we resign ourselves to:?

are you seeing this as a scalar play on something like a space ship or a pirate ship in which the child feels that he has a personal pan pizza version of the real thing, or are you seeking a more thematic analogue in which the space / object is imbued with a character that evokes those sources yet becomes a new thing that the child can apply his whims to. i would prefer the latter, both from a concern about the effect of pedantic playtime situations and my own desires to investigate open works.

“do we have to play pirates again!?! i’m going home, pussy.” -your nephew’s friend

are you going to upload some images or what!

Developed Surface of a Take-out Box Found Beneath a Bed of Pinestraw

Feel free to print and assemble / alter.

do you mind if i ask what our scope of work / client / schedule is on this job?

the project includes a recreational facility, consisting of one structure, multiple structures, or a network. it is part of a complex that includes one (1) existing single family home. the home is not part of the scope, and should only be considered in terms of noise adjacency and views. the client would prefer the least interaction between the two facilities.

the primary client is a male, aged 2-8 years old; there are two (2) sponsors, a male and female both in their early 30′s, who will provide oversight concerning issues of security and safety. the client will likely use this facility both alone and with a few members of his peer group. the facility should not be used in the absence of the client.

construction would begin in the spring of 2005. the clients are unaware of this project at this time.

take out.

spaceship one?

do you mind if i ask what our scope of work / client / schedule is on this job?

the spaceship has landed.

i give up.

ingredients:
rungless ladder (evasive vertical circulation)
raised false floor (occupancy deception)
thicket flightnest (lookout and navigation)

‘landbarge’ with beaver dam entry sequence

proposal: fort for a nephew, aged 2-8.
initial considerations: safety, security (from adults), space ship, pirate ship.