Windmill Market, Fairhope AL

Seaside Florida

HOK, Dali Museum, Tampa

A wide angle lens helps create a surreal atmosphere in the museum.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Florida Southern College, Lakeland

A hot summer afternoon in Florida was spent under the low concrete walkway awnings of this campus of many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.

Paul Rudolph, Umbrella House, Sarasota

A beautiful seaside house being restored by its owners to its original early 50s character.

 

Frank Gehry, New World Symphony, Miami Beach

A great acoustical interior with many halls and rehearsal spaces whose expressed forms sit as a spatial scape inside a glass box. Turn it upside down and it will snow.

Margi Nothard, Girls' Club, Fort Lauterdale

Then on to Fort Lauterdale and the Girls Club shown to us by the architect, Margi Nothard (Glavovic Studio). http://girlsclubcollection.org/

Miami -- Bacardi Building, Heat game

Road trip begins . . . . with lunch at Le Sandwich alley-side counter.

Our first night is in Miami -- home of the Bacardi Building -- we're in the hotel opposite the Celtics vs. Heat Game 7. Heat's big come back.

Opening Day Pictures

one day to go

ah -- generators!!

Opening Day

Friday, June 8 -- celebrating Oceans Day
hosts: Cheverie Crossway Salt Marsh Society
         Coastal Studio, Dalhousie School of Architecture

Morning celebration -- with the children of Dr. Arthur Hines School

      between each station :: trail walk -- teachers, scavenger hunt

      station 1 :: salt marsh ecology -- Tony Bowron [trailhead]

      station 2 :: environmental theatre -- Two Planks and a Passion [patio blocks below camera obscura]
      station 3 :: sneak preview -- Coastal / Bowron [camera obscura]

      station 4 :: bricks and shell architecture -- Coastal Studio [high trail, behind camera obscura]

      station 5 :: environmental theatre -- Two Planks and a Passion [observatory]

      station 6 :: salt marsh ecology -- Don Aldous [boardwalk bridge]

      station 7 :: sketching observing -- Coastal Studio [trail at Acadian dyke]

      station 8 :: using/making shoebox pinhole cameras -- [bird box by trailhead]

      18 minutes each 7 minute rotation

      09:30 / 09:55 / 10:20 first rotation - 3 stations

      10:45 Low tide theatre (all convene on hillside to view the Bay) 

      celebration -- low tide  -- Two Planks and a Passion Theatre

      11:10 / 11:35 / 12:00 second rotation - 3 stations

      12:25 pm  lunch

Opening ceremony -- all invited

01:00 pm  ribbon cutting
      Rt. Hon. John MacDonell, Minister, Government of Nova Scotia
      Hon. / L'hon. Kelvin K. Ogilvie C.M., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.C.I.C., H.col., Senator, Government of Canada
      Hon. / L'hon. Scott Brison, Member of Parliament, Government of Canada
      Richard Dauphinee - Warden, Municipality of West Hants

      Reed W. Allen, Council, Municipality of West Hants

      Christine Macy, Dean, Dalhousie University

Afternoon celebration -- all invited

02:00 pm  High Tide High Tea
      High tea served at the Avon Emporium, Hwy 215, Summerville
      talks on tides, salt marsh ecology, timbrel vaults, camera obscuras

04:15 pm  High Tide at the Cheverie Salt Marsh
      guided tour

tides:

tides for opening day

two days until opening

What a team -- everyone is working at a different task and it is all coming together. Sam, Chris and Cale are back at school making the camera housing (we didn't mention that the lens arrived but the focal length was shorter than labelled). The rest of us are laying sod and laying terrazzo with the help of Alan McLean who is showing us how (and doing a lot of the work).

and there was that moment when we realized that the stones were not white and we started sorting them.

a new floor

Getting Close

Cleaning is almost done. Adding concrete topping with drainage in a reveal next to the shell. We have decided to terrazzo the floor. The lens arrives in a couple of days.

Coastal Studio 2012

 This is the crew: Chris Howard, Ben Angus, Jay Alkana, Lee Lourn, Max Schnugen, Nanxi Liu, Cale Ricci, Tyler Hall, Luke Ryalls, Nuala O'Donnell, Michelle McKenna, Rebecca Peters

timbrel vault -- details

The bricks are being cleaned of mortar spatter (some of the extra mortar shows our amateur status) with wire brush grinder attachments and acid concrete cleaner. There are details to ensure water control. At the exterior base of the vault, we are adding slope to the concrete, covering with flashing recessed into the brick wall, all buried under the ground. On the low side of the big and medium vault a masonry gutter directs water to the ground. The up hill slope will be planted in willow.

 

Timbrel Vault - removing the tarps

Back on the site, spending the wet first few days cleaning the interior to prepare for laying the brick floor.

Come to opening day Friday June 8 or any time before then. Click on aerial photo to the right for a map showing where we are.

Coastal Studio 2012

We return to construction April 16. We will start on brick tiling the floor and install the camera obscura.
As of May 7, there will be more of us revisiting old projects and starting on the design of two new projects: prototype construction for a winter camp building at Ross Creek Arts Centre and another prototype for treehouse accommodation at Fundy National Park.

Timbrel Vault - removing the scaffolds

Today we placed the last bricks for the year and took down the scaffold. we all stood back and looked. The shell will be protected for the winter, and next April will be cleaned, outfitted with the camera, floored and landscaped. The official opening will be Oceans Day, June 8 with some previews in May.

Timbrel Vault -- structure complete

The first week of November and there are still six of us - Ted, Max, Ryan, Ryan, Marc, and Brandon - working on the shell. The weather is holding with sun, above freezing at night, and warm days. The last of the interior guide work has been removed -- it is now a complete structure. We are trimming the exposed edges, filling the cracks in the mortar joints, and generally getting ready for winter.