As we work through each piece of the large project, we take great delight in addling layer after layer of detail. I'm quite sure that most guests will not see it all, not even after repeat visits. Even so the detail is important. Detail does two things. It helps tell the story and it makes the story believeable, no matter how fanciful the story may be. It is important that the detail be consistent. Guests may not purposefully take notice but they will feel the difference.

We are building six operator booths for the park. We could have built them all the same of course but that would have been a shortcut and would have short-changed the story in the process. Instead we looked at the story we were telling and then designed the ticket booths around it. The booths are all to be the same size, and constructed in similar styles with subtle differences. The roof shapes and styles are the largest difference, along with the colors of paint we will apply to each of them.

One of them has a 'pieced tin roof' held together with oversized rivets. It is timber framed with heavy planks for walls. Like the rest of our pieces for the park it is slightly cartoon and actually built from hand sculpted concrete. Look close at the picture and you will see thick planks, cut of different lengths. This kind of detail does not come easy. The welding takes more time, as does the wiring. The concrete work and carving is also much more labor intensive. Painting too will take more time I'm sure. But the end result is pure magic!

The second style of operator's booth features a steep pitched roof. It too is made from sculpted concrete. The thick shakes are all hand carved and each one is different from it's neighbors.

Even though the detail comes difficult it is well worth the effort!

-grampa dan