Each day I spend time up at the park, seemingly wandering around and looking thngs over. But my mind is racing as I am really planning what will happen days or weeks from now. It is one thing to do a fancy concept drawing of what the park may look like, while quite another to actually build it. I could have easiy spent many months planning, drawing sketches and building detailed models to work out each area but it is far easier and quicker to instead work out the broad strokes on the plans and then worry about the details as we go. The key to this approach is to stay ahead of the crew so nothing has to be torn out. To do otherwise would cost time and money, both of which are never in great enough supply.
Today I spent some time thinking about the winding walkway down into the Wilderness Adventure area. The concrete and blockwork are now largely complete and the fill is mostly in place. As I wander through the physical space I can easily imagine how it will look when my team finishes with the space. I can imagine the small mountain to the right and see in my mind's eye the thre rope bridges that will magically connect this area's features. I can hear the water running over the waterfall and hear the excited kids playing. I can smell the brightly colored flowers too. Everyone else who looked saw this...
The other area I am working on in my head is the giant slab of a wall on the very tall building. In a fw weeks we start in on the welding and fabricating to make it look like a faciful giant mountain. I grabbed a spray bomb and did some quick art on the wall that to most looks more like graffitti than anything else but in reality it is the guildeines for the structural steelwork that will be cut and fit in the coming week.
It's all going to be so cool! I can see it now!
-grampa dan