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31 January 2009
30 January 2009
28 January 2009
27 January 2009
26 January 2009
25 January 2009
24 January 2009
23 January 2009
22 January 2009
I have finally returned to Brown after a very long break. I regret that I was unable to witness the pouring of concrete on the first level of Rhode Island Hall, but I certainly needed a break to spend time with family. I have a lot of catching up to do now, though!
During the weeks leading up to winter break, I was able to get some great footage of Rhode Island Hall before the actual construction (as opposed to demolition) of the interior began. We will never see Rhode Island Hall in this state again. Seeing the Rhode Island Hall's skeleton provided a glimpse of almost two centuries of change. Stone to bricks to wood to concrete. All these materials reflect their times and the people who put them in their places so that we could later benefit from the space they created.
I will post the footage as soon as I get access to the proper cable (which proves to remain the hardest aspect of this project!). The footage consists of me walking 90-degree transects throughout both sides of the building. Chris Witmore suggested that I begin on one side of the building (the east, for example) and proceed west. I would do this a total of six times, twice with the camera facing ahead (east to west, then west to east), twice with the camera at an oblique upward angle, and twice with the camera at a downward angle. I then did the same walking north to south and back six more times. I filmed these transects in the original west side of the building, as well as in the later addition on the Main Green side -- a total of 24 transects.
I did the same again today to document the hall before the decking is installed tomorrow and Saturday (yes, they are working 6 days a week now!). I plan to film such transects once every week or so. Bill Mueller helped catch me up on some of what I've missed over break. He showed me a section of wall near the elevator shaft that almost appeared to be suspended in midair. Obviously it wasn't, but two feet or so of the wall had been entirely removed so that there was a large space. The wall would collapse if not for two large pipes that were installed. It's hard to visualize, but I will post the video. I wish I could have seen the workers install the massive pipe into the wall at that spot.
I also attended two meetings yesterday. First, the weekly project update meetings, which I have been unable to attend recently due to conflicts with classes and finals. However, this semester I do not have class scheduled during the meetings, so I will get much more out of them.
The other meeting I attended was regarding the LEED point system. Ginger Gritzo, Brown's Energy and Environmental Programs Coordinator asked me to attend the EEAC monthly meeting on Monday, where they will discuss the Educational Outreach ID point.
I also have two 360-degree gigapan shots that Chris Witmore and I took in December that I will upload as soon as possible.
20 January 2009
16 January 2009
15 January 2009
11 January 2009
8 January 2009
The webcam has been troublesome lately (first it didn't seem to be updating the picture since early December, and recently the camera was aimed towards the ceiling). But the problem seems to be fixed, and we can now see that the concrete floor has been poured! Unfortunately, I was unable to stay in Providence over Brown's winter break to document this crucial stage of restoration, so when I get back I'll have a lot of catching up to do!
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