Withdrawal, But Not Quite Yet

I was not at the site today, but I was there twice yesterday. In the morning I was to meet someone at 10:00. He was not in the building, so I wandered instead. Ended up on level 3 where I found the "Overheard' wall entirely covered with yellow plastic tubs - emptied and ready to go back to the movers. Must be that employees on level 3 are settling into their new quarters.

The level 3 lobby was filled with people, many of them looking out the window, which I found interesting. I ended up having a chat with one of those folks as each of us moved toward the elevators. I asked if he liked the new building. He said that yes, he did. A big improvement, he added.

I took that as an opening for conversation and introduced myself to John Rodriquez, Pearl Classic Homes. He was there to run plans by a plan reviewer. However, I think he was leaving with the thought of returning another day when things are more settled. The delay didn't seem to phase him or dampen his enthusiasm for the facility.

We talked about the new wood floors in the elevator - which I was seeing for the first time. I remembered that Texas Timbers was to install those floors. They're made of salvaged Texas wood, much of it from Hurricane Ike.

The elevator flooring led into talk about the main lobby's reception area which includes a lowered ceiling made of salvaged wood, also by Texas Timber. The wood beams that make up the lowered ceiling over the reception area and the race track are all words in 'bar code'. You can read them if you're lying down on the floor. We might need a plaque that speaks to that.

Mr. Rodriguez and I talked some more about the art. Talked about Metalab's piece in the lobby and I showed him the CO2 monitors that reflect people movements on the big wall screen by the north entry.

Talked about Jesse Sifuentes' coffee mural, the montage of vintage maps and blue prints on the cashier's wall and Serena Lin Bush's sky monitors in the basement stairwell. This man is one patron who is pleased to see how well this new facility turned out.

At 6:00 p.m., I was back at the site and met with Robynn Sanders until nearly 8:00 p.m. to discuss the 88 ft. long basement corridor wall that she'll begin painting on later this week. For some time now, we've had the concept, the paint colors and translations of recycling words in five languages.

The timing for painting this very long wall is now upon us and we needed to confirm the particulars. Robynn is terrific to work with. We can think things through in tandem with one another, putting ideas out there and knowing when we've hit on the right one. This wall will be a really good one.

The low western sun was golden when we came out of the building, so I took a few photos of Dick Wray's tower, but still don't have the one I want. The photo that says it all. No, I don't have that one.

Still, Dick's tower is the asterisk, the frosting, the building identifier. Call it what you will. It looks pretty good right now and there are just a few more small pieces of powdered coated metal that need to be added.

Dead tired last night. Too tired to read or watch a Netflix or gather together all those emails from the artists so I have the proper verbiage for aluminum plaques that will be made for each work in the building.

Didn't get to that task today either, because I spent a lot of time at the Memorial City APPLE store where I was then referred to the APPLE help hot-line to obtain the serial number for some of my software. Seems that having a new motherboard installed last week obliterated the entryway to Aperture. Stuff like this eats up a day.

Enough. Enjoy the photos. Know that there are more to come.