A multitude of things went on in the building today. Agnes Welsh Eyster's etched metal panels on the 'meet and greet' reception center were uncovered. Makes for an impressive welcoming area. Folks were focused on final punch lists. There was lots of vacuuming and dusting, hundreds more yellow boxes moved in and mountains of folded up corrugated boxes left the site.
City folks with badges kept arriving to check on their new space, many of them marveling at everything they saw. They were a real treat to watch.
Here are the decision makers, managing the punch lists, the furniture move-in and all the tasks that must be completed before Manhattan turns the facility over the the city.
By the way, this was the first day that some of us didn't wear hard hats every single moment. I can hardly wait to get out of my closed toed winter shoes and wear summer sandals in this building. I'll do that on Monday.
Channel 45 interviewed Mark McAvoy, the building's administrator, and I heard him giving 'green' facts and figures - surely THE STORY of this facility.
Kaneem Smith was installing more of her burlap coffee bag columns this morning and 45 interviewed her too. I also did a sound bite saying that the civic art in this building mirrored the city's green goals and Houston's energy and diversity.
A&E Graphics came to install two of my text walls. We began on Level 3, but soon found that the wallpaper was too short for the wall space. A miscommunication of measurements, so we moved to the cashier's wall in the lobby.
That installation worked really well and the wall is terrific looking. Months ago I went to the Houston Public Library to look at old blueprints and maps. Selected almost two dozen and asked S.O. Creatives to design a layered wall montage.
Images include a blueprint of the Astrodome that shows home base, a Houston survey map from 1886, a portion of a page from Hines Interests' Galleria drawings, a blueprint of the original Houston airport (that would be before Hobby Airport), a snippet of a drawing from St. Paul's Methodist Church, this one I selected because the building committee included Mr. Jones and Mr. Fondren.
When the cashier's wall installation was complete, I moved one of three printers back against the wall where it belongs. Thought if I positioned it, it would stay put. I wanted to make sure that 'Hines Interests' showed at the bottom of the montage. After all, it was Jerry Hines who brought my former husband and me to Houston way back in 1967, just about they broke ground for One Shell Plaza. That was when you could still see the Esperson Building as a part of the downtown skyline. But I digress.
Left the building after 3:00 to run over to A&E to talk about resizing the wallpaper for level 3. On the way home, I stopped at Goode Company Taqueria for two catfish dinners to go. Place was empty at 5:00.
OK, this post is done. Done for the day. Next? A couple of episodes of The Closer. And then back to the building tomorrow morning. It isn't done until it's done.
