SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1:  The wall between the kitchen and fellowship hall has risen above the top of the door; supports are now in place at the serving window for the blocks which will be above the window.   A walkover of the site reveals that a 3 inch copper tubing has been installed at the east side of the building about six feet south of the east entrance, elbowing up inside the building; this is obviously the water service line to the building.   It will probably connect to the existing water service line in or at the plumbing valve house built during an earlier renovation of the existing building.

Construction progress photograph taken Sept 1, 2001

IF A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS:
LABOR DAY 2001

Necessary construction equipment is stored on the lot formerly occupied by the Youth building
 
 
 
 

Barjoists and decking arrived during the last week of August


More barjoists (far side) and equipment stored at the site

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Two mockup walls were constructied using different brick lots to determine which would match the existing building.

A view of the elevator lobby (Shaft location is "well" left center) Elevator will open to platform on right.  Back door to existing building is straight ahead

A more general view of the crossover corridor area.  Rising floor corridor is at left, elevator straight ahead, elevator landing on right in front of sanctuary building door. This view is from just west of the north entrance.

The serving window as viewed from the fellowship hall.  Kitchen door left center. Dishwasher window is left off picture.
Door to equipment plaza far right.

THIS VIEW OF THE FRONT FOUNDATION WITH ITS CONTINUOUS STREAM OF WATER.
The flexible pipe shown is porus; eventually it will be covered by gravel and sand and (hopefully) will carry the water off to a drain at a lower location off left

View of the front equipment plaza from the walkway to the northwest entrance to the sanctuary. Pipe carries roof rainwater from the existing building downspouts until other arrangements are made.  New kitchen is behind block wall, center; old kitchen is behind brick wall right.  The mushroom fan is at the old kitchen stove window is to old kitchen. These air conditioning units are for the existing building.  More air conditning units will be added for the new building.  The door left of center is into the fellowship hall.  This is a 2-level plaza, about five feet between lower (left) and upper (right) areas. The front wall will rise above the existing level to sheild the area from view from the street.

VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE CONSTRUCTION.  Note about three courses of brick have been laid along the perimeter here.  Also note forms for a walkway around the curved portion of the building. Plumbing valve house and electric service transformer are immediately off picture to the right.

Intense rains Friday and Saturday left the site very Wet.  This is a view into the site from the Oak Street side
The area at the bottom of the picture is actually a paved city street, closed off during the period of the construction.
The brick pavers are still under there!

View of the church from Oak Street in the building site area.  Street closing gate is at left.  Transformer and valve house center behind cemet mixer.  Someone left the light on in the upstairs kitchenette.

FRIDAY (MORNING) SEPT 7:  The elevator shaft has reached the second floor level.  Columns and beam have been installed spanning the equipment room adjoining the elevator shaft.  One of these columns has reached the level of the second floor ceiling.
Columns have been erected at the outside wall of the stairwell on the north side of the building.  Bar-joists are being transported by front-end loader from the storage yard to the fellowship hall.

WHY NOT MORE PICTURES?  Briefly, picture files take much more disk space than text.  Over the weekend, we bumped the limit on available disk space. The website was expanded by 10mb.  Incidentally, on Tuesday evening, the church conference voted to purchase the Crow building, which includes all property fronting on the north side of Acadamy Street in this block, subject to certain conditions, which appear to be assured.  The vote was 29-0.  A conflict of events with the Museum caused some to arrive after the vote was taken; but they indicated that they supported the purchase as well.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8:  Several bar joists have been hoisted onto the walls of the fellowship hall.  The lintel over the serving window has been poured.  The elevator lobby wall has come up some.  The walkway around the southe side of the building has been completed. There will be an entrance into each of the classrooms on the south from this walkway.  The column at the corner of the fellowship hall, equipment room, and kitchen is held plumb by a hand hoist ("comealong") and the boom of the construction site fork lift while the concrete footing cures.  The elevator installer visited the site yesterday and proclaimed the elevator shaft good.  The block masons are scheduled to return Monday.  Their first tasks will be to enclose the stairwell, complete the elevator lobby walls, then close the construction equipment entrance on the Oak Street side.  Then the "complicated" part of the indoor flooring will be undertaken.  This part involves several levels which will be connected by ramps.  Brick should arrive this week; the choice of bricks was in favor of the darker colored offering (lefthand or first mockup wall).

MONDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 10:  Blockwork has risen to second floor floor level for most of the building.  The north entrance stairwell outside wall has been put up.  The only exception is the gap on the east side, and the curved portion of the south wall.  A row of columns appears to be the eastward extension of the wall between the fellowship hall and the kitchen.  These support I-beams spanning the equipment room, the north-south corridor approach to the elevator lobby, and another at the east where the south wall curve begins.  This, apparently, is the primary support perimeter line.  At least three of these columns rise to the second story ceiling, and have beam attachment flanges at both first story ceiling and second story ceiling.  Fourteen bar-joists have been set upon the walls of the fellowship hall, at what appears to be 2-foot centers.  The fellowship hall is a full-span room (no internal columns).

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11: The east wall of the ramped corridor to the elevator foyer is up to second floor level; there are three windows in this wall.  The west and center portions of the curved south wall are up to eye level.  The east portion of this wall is not quite that high.  There are two openings in the curved portion, presumably locations of doors opening to the walkway and the yard beyond.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12: Barjoists went up over the kitchen, pantry area, dishwasher area and elevator lobby.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13:  The remaining barjoists went up over the fellowship hall.  There are a total of 28.  There are now a total of 11 columns standing, some single story, some 2-story, and footings for at least five more are evident. A 24" x 24" drain grate has been installed in the courtyard between the corridor to the elevator lobby and the south wing.  This drops into the 12" culvert extending from the front equipment plaza to the storm sewer system at Oak Street.  It is not yet evident whether there will be a concrete floor in this area.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15:  Barjoists are now up to the west side of the north-south corridor, all the way across the building.  The center I-beam has reached a point about 12 feet east of the north-south corridor.  Minor details:  four pass-thru tubes have been inserted high in the west side of the kitchen wall, presumably to facilitate installation of refrigerant piping between the indoor and outdoor sections of the air conditioning equipment.  The location, however, indicates that the piping will run exposed outside the building around the perimeter of the equipment plaza, or the equipment will be located between the building door and the mop wash area.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17:  In the fellowship hall, small (1" x 1") angle iron runners are being welded in place at the 25% and 75% of span locations. These are prependicular to the barjoists.  At center span, x-members are being bolted in place between the barjoists.  These runners and braces prevent flexing of the barjoists and ensure rigidity of the barjoist system, which must support the concrete floor above.  In the east end of the building, Additional columns and I-beams are in place, extending the main support structure to the east wall of the building.  The beams in place are a direct extension of the south wall of the fellowship hall.  The small courtyard between the north-south corridor and the south wing extension of the building has been paved.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18:  The wall surrounding the small courtyard has reached one course above the top of the single window.  The south third of the east wall of the building has gone from floor level to three courses above eye level.  The east and west portions of the south wall which are not curved have both reached window-top level.
Inside, the center beam has reached about half-way from the north-south corridor toward the east end or the building.  One additional column footing has become apparent; there will probably be one more at the east wall.  The columns on the inside corners of the stairwell have been erected.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19:  The south wall has reached the second floor level except in the curved portion, which is above the window level.  Inside, the north-south wall which is the partition between the fellowship hall and the storage room has reached full height, just below the bottom of the barjoists.  The partition between the equipment room and the fellowship hall has reached several courses.  Both of these walls include double-width doors.  These walls deliniate the east end of the fellowship hall. More concrete blocks arrived at the site late in the afternoon.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20:  The South wall is up to second floor level!  The curved portion has been completed.  There are two doors in the wall.  The east wall of the fellowship hall has been completed to full height.  The columns and beams defining the stairwall are in place.  The elevator lobby has been swept.  Note: at this point, the walls are only concrete block.  Eventually brick will be laid on the outside of the building.  It is not evident whether the interior walls will be plastered or left as concrete block finish.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22:  The barjoists hang from the walls by the extended top members, which are 1 1/2" angle iron.  This places the top of the barjoists above the level of the supporting walls. A course of brick has been or will be placed between the joists and along parallel walls to provide a smooth footing for the block wall to rise above. This has been accomplished around most of the fellowship hall.  Otherwise, the most apparent work has been the continued installation of x-members and lower stabilization struts in the barjoist system.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 4:00 PM:  The barjoists are in place on the north side as far east as the east side of the stairwell.  Barjoists are also up, but not in place in the straight portions of the south wing.  All of the barjoists run north and south.  The trench for the foundation on the east side of the building, including the entry-way is about half complete.  There is a square about three feet on each side drawn in concrete dust on the dirt along beam center beam line several feet east of the stairwell.  Is this a location for another column footing?  There is a footing already poured east of this location.  A very light drizzle is falling.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25:  Footings for two additional interior columns have been poured.  One is at the location mentioned Monday, the other directly in line with it supporting the end of the center beam at the east side of the building.  Footings have been poured for about two thirds of the east wall.  The only gap in the perimeter foundation is from the center of the building on the east end, south for about twenty feet.  Barjoists in the straight sections of the south wing have been put in place.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1:00 PM:  Barjoists have been raised for the remainder of the north side of the building; those nearest the east end of the building are not yet in final position, as masons are completing the north half of the east wall.  This wall should reach full height today.  At shortly after noon, the wood frame support for the line of blocks over the east foyer door was being constructed.  This will support the lintel blocks until the concrete cures.  Masons working on the scaffolds can look over the top of the barjoists, an indication of the height of the wall.  There still remains about 1/4 of the east wall which has not yet been blocked up this is the portion from the corridor south to the first column.  Presumably this is being left open to allow access by equipment during the pouring of floors.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1:00 PM:  Brickwork has begun at the southeast corner, where the new building joins the existing building.  Before the brick goes up, a 1" thick layer of polystyrene ("SYTROFOAM") board is tacked to the concrete block wall.  This board has a thermal r-factor of 4, approximately the insulation value of 4" of fibreglas.  Between the insulation and the brick veneer there is another 1" of air space. The small air conditioning unit will be relocated on the floor of the concrete courtyard, and a retaining wall built to prevent erosion.  The area will then be contoured to divert water away from the buildings.  On the front side of the site, the wall in front of the equipment plaza has reached its full height, about a foot below the church floor level.  This hides the equipment from the street.  There is an opening in this wall where a stairway will be constructed to the lower level.

Discussion with the superintendent reveals that the west section of the upstairs floor will be poured before any more barjoists are installed. This allows the concrete pumping truck access to the west side of the building from the back.

The contractor will erect a column at the street corner which will allow the Utility department to secure guy wires and remove its live power lines from the south side of Acadamy Street in this block.  Cranes can then safely be used at the site if necessary.

Construction progress photograph taken September 30