mcnair is coming right along

We started construction on McNair Park last fall. Here are a few highlights to date.

The soil quality was really bad onsite. Apparently the building that was there previously was torn down and mostly left under a thin cover of soil. We can't trust that kind of subgrade to hold up our new park, so we had to replace quite a lot of soil and also do other trickery to keep it from collapsing.




















We dug a deep trench to see how bad the soil really was... along the way we uncovered part of a brick wall or foundation, or something. We also found lots of other interesting things, like a large boiler (we think), and many other interesting and unidentifiable objects.




















After the soil was stabilized, the first element to be constructed were the perimeter curbs and utilities. One challenge we encountered with this process involved a neighbor, who dug an illegal basement right up next to our property line. We had to bump out the curb around it to compensate.















After a long time, the curbs and pavements finally started coming together, and the structure of the site started to be revealed. In the foreground here is our resident engineer Charles Tesler, basically our liasion with the contractor. He's onsite frequently to make sure things are going as they should.















Things started looking really nice once the plants were mostly installed. This building here with the graffitti on it used to be a live chicken store. Very stinky. Since we started working on the park they cleaned it all up and are apparently turning it into apartments. If I had some capital, I could probably make a killing on properties next to parks that are about to be reconstructed.















We were able to get on the roof of a neighboring building and get some shots of the progress. This is the south side, with the concrete wall in place where the lawn will go.















This is the center of the site, with the spray shower area showing. It'll be one of the last major pieces to go in.















And the north end, where the play equipment will be. The holes are all precisely placed (or are supposed to be) so the play equipment can drop right in when it comes.















We started installing the play equipment a few weeks ago. Here you can see Nancy doublechecking the contractor's placement of the play pieces. They have to be precisely placed according to safety standards, so if some kid goes flying off he won't hit anything hard. The piece she's checking on here is called the Spica. It spins quickly, with speed dependent on whether the user is leaning into or away from the piece. I tried it and almost lost my lunch.















The big units are in! They fit well, as far as I can tell.
















Another important piece of play equipment -- the moon phase climber. From the outside, you see the moons as you would from a long distance from earth, with all the light hemispheres facing one direction (toward the sun)...















... and from the inside, you see what effect that has as viewed from earth: the phases of the moon. And then you can climb on it too.















That gets us caught up to the present. Presently the contractor is fixing up site furnishings, like lamp posts, and we hope to have that spray shower in soon. Stay tuned!

369th just underway

Here are some photos from a week ago... they are making good progress. The tree has been transplanted and appears to have survived the move (it was a little iffy for awhile, we were late in the season). In these photos you can see contractor Eddie's crew have set up the concrete forms for the foundations.

The layout and elevation of these forms has to be precise, or the whole thing will be messed up. After they set it all up I personally doublechecked the measurements and elevations -- not much room for error here. They had everything right on the money, which was great. Eddie (from Moscow) confided in me, "With Russians, everything exact right place."
















a closeup of the form they are using for the granite curb foundation. you can see the middle piece there with the yellow string on it -- the piece is removable, they move it down the line to check for correct width and elevation.
















the view from above... notice the tree on the left has moved from its original location.

the silver truck there is Eddie's entire construction fleet. He's just starting out, this is his first project as his own company. so far so good! but we have a long way to go.

369th plan

After a lot of wrangling, the final plan for the 369th Infantry Memorial is pretty simple.

The monument sits slightly south-of-center, with a path leading to it that aligns axially with the armory across the street. The path will be made of a dark gray textured granite, as will the curbs.

There will be two small benches on either side of the monument, as requested by the Art Commission (and not shown on this plan).

Surrounding the hardware on all sides is a bed of Euonymus fortunei, a low-growing groundcover that turns purpleish in the winter. A few bollards will be placed at strategic points to prevent those crazy livery drivers from hitting the monument when they jump the curb (and I do mean when, not if).

The trees are the existing Sophora japonica that you can see in the previous post's pictures. One of them was transplanted to make the composition more symmetrical, and they were both limbed up to provide more visibility for the monument.

So that's it. Here are some other images shown to the Art Commission:


Exisiting conditions photo (top) and proposed plan sketch (bottom).


Below: some of the proposed materials.