The highs and the lows

Today we began the concrete work on the upper reaches of the building on the east side. This included sculpting the facia, beams and upper half of the siding on the building. Peter and I had that mud in place by noon. The crew jumped in behind us and began the sculpting.

Peter and I then headed down into Bucky's Bumper Boat pool and pathway to begin the concrete work there. We managed about fifty feet of bank and posts before it was time to begin carving there. The mountain painting crew and everyone else were called in to help carve as it was a bit of a push to sculpt everything we had mudded.

The view from the pool is pretty spectacular with the building/mountain looming overhead. It is more than fifty-five feet from the bottom of the pool to the top of the tree.

It was another very productive day at the site thanks to everyone's hard work.

-grampa dan

Last of the Trinidad concept drawings!

After many months of drawing more than a hundred concept drawings for the Trinidad project, the last was completed tonight. Over about eight months as the project was revised, cut, added to and adjusted, I did drawing after drawing for the project working out every detail. This is a normal process but because this is our largest and most complex project to date and I wanted to get every detail right. The last drawings were for small but important pieces. It is all in the details - as always.

With the concept design now complete we move into the next phase of the project...  real building plans and engineering. My job through this phase is to consult and revise as necessary. It won't be long until the fun part begins...  making all these cool ideas real.

-grampa dan

Little grass shack(s)

I think we have all dreamed of building a little grass shack on a tropical island at some time or other. With the Trinidad project we get to do just that - times four - sort of. We are buidling what will appear to be four little bamboo and grass shacks to function as operator booths for the attractions. Only these will not be built from real bamboo or grass. Instead we will fashion them with heavy welded structural steel frames. Around this we will sculpt fiberglass reinforced concrete to form the 'boards and bamboo posts'. The roof will be synthetic grass thatch. As always things will be a little off kilter and cartoonized just enough to be real happy and fun. These little shacks will be built to withstand many years of theme park wear and tear and still look like they were built yesterday.

Just thinking about this project makes me want to sing that old Don Ho Hawiian song - only with Trinidad steel drums instead of a ukelele. My little grass shack...

-grampa dan