The Foundation and the Greet

For the past 2 1/2 months, the most important work of the building has been going on, but work no one will see again. The Foundation. Like a warm, sincere "greet" at your favorite restaurant, the foundation sets the tone for the rest of the building (or experience).

As all have agreed - we've got a lot of building on a little lot. Infill construction in an urban atmosphere around historic structures requires a lot of sensitivity and more complicated building practices, largely in the footers and foundation. Instead of going wide for stability, we had to go deep...very deep, with lots of rock and steel filled concrete to keep the building up. 100,000+ pounds of each.

The Team -

That's Russ (with a white hat to the left of the excavator)- he run's the site and, as you can see, is the first guy on the job and always before 7am.

The massive hole they were pouring rock into 2 weeks ago turned into a sea of steel rebar carefully constructed by the guys from EC Concrete - the subcontractor. After weeks of digging, pounds of rock, and yards of rebar the hole was filled last week with "The Big Pour."

After the structural engineering firm signed off on the work and Russ made the arrangements, truck after truck of concrete came Friday to fill up the massive hole.

Having been there since 7am or earlier, these guys were still waiting for concrete at 5:30pm Friday. They got a late start to their weekend.

But they waited and poured so now we have what looks kind of like a little skating rink. Concrete smooth as ice that no one will ever see, but holding up the building and setting the tone for things to come.