Moving the Meter

In another life, when I was president of the Greater East End Management District, my program director would review each day's efforts and ask if we'd 'moved the meter.' I began to pick up on that theme and now the phrase is part of my vocabulary, part of my way of evaluating the day or a job. Did we move the meter?

Well, today, we moved the meter on several different fronts. Charles Masterson is hard at work fabricating the panels for Dick Wray's tower and they should be complete early next week and delivered to the site for installation. It should be amazing to watch Dick Wray's four story design take shape. If one were to film the process and rerun at high speed, the process might almost be like one of those picture flip books. Behold, the tower rises!

We did postpone two installations until next week. May seem like a step backward, but not really. Simply made sense as there is still a lot of work going on in the lobby.

We postponed Kaneem Smith's installation until next Wednesday. With the new date, I also know that all her paint and fire retardant application will be totally dry, bells will be affixed and wire strung. We'll be able to complete her installation all in one day and I'm thinking that surely the dust in the lobby may have settled by next Wednesday. That will be a real plus. The dust is pretty intense this week. There's a lot of 'finishing' going on.

We also postponed my two A & E wallpaper installations and a good thing we did. The cashier's area was carpeted today, wall paint was touched up and the door to the space was being installed when I left late this afternoon. There was no way we could have hung wallpaper there today.

Good news. Jesse Sifuentes and his helper Juan Jimenez got that second enormous canvas mural up this afternoon on the first try. All the hardware worked and the piece is level in its inset. It's still under wraps - because of the dust and activity in the area. But there it hangs, right next to what will be a coffee shop for employees and the public.

Jesse and Juan were jubilant. Manhattan's Charlie Genella stopped by on his rounds and there was lots of hand shaking and smiles.

Tomorrow, I'll pick up more Studio Red hard hats for Serena Lin Bush and her crew. They will arrive at 9:00 to install her monitors in the stairwell pit and hook them up to cameras on the roof. I can hardly wait to see her artwork in action.

While Serena is at work in the stairwell, another crew will be arriving at 10:00 to install three plexi sign language text walls on levels 2 and 3.

At the very end of tomorrow, I meet with Robynn Sanders and we will walk the upper floors and spot specific locations for her painted text interventions. She return next week to paint those small interventions. We hope they make folks smile. A chuckle or two might be nice.

Am I tired? Most certainly. And I look it too. Am I pleased with the installations, thus far?Absolutely.

The meter moved today. And I suspect it will move tomorrow too. Thanks to all who are making all the pieces of this project happen.

East End Magnolias

Jesse's first mural is up and looks terrific in the level 4 reception area, a space that has two big windows, one facing north and the second overlooking downtown Houston. The north light is great for the painting and highlights the portion of his mural where he's painted in a couple of Houston icons - Minute Maid Park's train and Pennzoil Place.

We are delaying the installation of two of my text walls from this morning until next Monday. One was to have been wallpapered in the cashier's area on the main level, but the carpeting is going in this morning and the space is still filled with workers and dust.

The second text wall we're delaying is on level 3 and comprises dozens of the phrases and words I heard as I listened to plan reviewers and inspectors earlier this year. I spent hours at a time sitting in on their conversations with contractors, engineers, architects and covered a stack of yellow legal pads with transcriptions. Then I weeded through all the words and found key phrases that were used over and over. Put them all together like a monologue. Ran it by key folks like Earl Greer, Sheila Blake, Mark McAvoy and Susan McMillian. Made several revisions based on their comments. Also heard several chuckles as they read it, so I know we have it right.

S.O. Creatives designed both of these text walls. Both walls are real collaborations. A & E Graphics is producing and installing the wallpapers. Hope the dust has settled by next Monday when they install. Here's an image of the sample produced for the level 3 reception area. It's actually going to be about 14 feet long and 9 feet tall. Those colored conversation clouds are plexi and will be bolted on over the words.

Time to shower and get on with the day. That means get to the site. Jesse is installing his second mural in the lobby this morning.

Jesse Sifuentes Installs

Jesse and his helper Juan spent most of the day constructing the L-shaped stretcher and getting the hardware up in the inset. In the afternoon, they unrolled the canvas and Jesse began stapling it the stretcher. Had to leave before they actually got it hung, so I get to see it tomorrow morning with the eastern sun shining in on it.

I see workmen lifting the plastic sheeting covering the artwork that is already installed just to see what's there. People are also beginning to say things about the art. A security guard looked at Geoff Winningham's photo mural of a reflection of UH Downtown's main building in Buffalo Bayou and said he recognized it as the building where he'd gone to college. "I saw it in the reflection," he said.

Another worker in the building said to me on the central staircase this afternoon, "Well, another day in paradise. I've been at work in this building for over a year. Can hardly wait until it's done."

Nice that he said, "Another day in paradise." I used that phrase on my text wall on level 3, among many other phrases that I heard when I spent time with plan reviewers and inspectors.

That wall will be installed on Wednesday.

The Great God Pan is Dead Posts Info On Winningham's Installation

The Great God Pan is Dead just posted a few thoughts about Geoff Winningham's photo murals we installed last week at the new Houston Permitting Center. The blog writer, Robert Boyd, was a student of Geoff's at Rice U back in the day. As was I, much, much further back in the day.

You might log on to his blog from time to time. Lots of stuff about art in Houston and it's a good blog to follow.

It's Friday and Gonzo 24/7 Finished Installing

This was definitely a "Thank heaven its' Friday' kind of day. Because Thursday was a weird day. Gonzo 24/7 and his helpers tried valiantly to install two murals in the insets made especially for his canvases on levels 2 and 3 of the new Houston Permitting Center. He'd measure and use a very long level that showed all was well. Then he'd get the canvas in the inset and it was not at all level and even stuck out on one side. Seems there was a 1/4 inch difference in the measurements on each end of the inset. That would be from the ceiling to the top of the inset. You couldn't tell there was a discrepancy until the canvas was hanging and looking very lopsided. Gonzo remeasured and rehung that mural three times until he gave up for the day.

In addition to that 1/4 inch difference that quadrupled the time he intended to spend installing, the fire alarm was being tested repeatedly. It went off every few minutes the entire four hours that we were in the building. I finally got some ear plugs from Charlie Genella after uttering a few profanities, or perhaps they were just vulgarities, every time the alarm went off. It was truly ear splitting and I am old enough to be worried that I may already be going deaf. Yes, folks, the alarm system works. If there is a fire in the building, you will hear about it.

There was plenty to overcome on Thursday. Not only were there 1/4 inch differences in each side of both of Gonzo's insets. The fire alarm testing went on and on. In addition to the odd measurements and the piercing sounds was the work going on in front of each of Gonzo's mural insets. On level 2, a guy was smoothing sheet rock mud by the elevators. Very deliberately and thoroughly. His mud was in a bucket on a wheeled contraption immediately in front of the mural wall. When we got to level 3, two workmen were cutting great sheets of what looked like vinyl on the floor immediately in front of the mural inset. Gonzo is terrific. He asked if he could work in the area and everyone shared the space.

After Gonzo had hung and rehung without success, he left signs on each of his mural that announced his return to level these enormous pieces.

Ever upbeat, he returned today to rehang them both. We decided yesterday that eyeballing the measurement would be better than using the level which wasn't working well at all. Not sure how he actually made these painting level today, but the results are there to see. His two murals, painted with aerosol paint and I am sure, countless different tips, are going to knock folks out of their socks when they step off the elevators. Note that this mural is a huge graphic of Houston's freeways. It's terrific.

Jesse was on hand yesterday for a while watching Gonzo's efforts. Gave him some time to figure out how to hang his two murals. He has a carpenter working on the 90 degree turn of his L-shaped stretcher today and on Saturday morning, they'll get the canvas on the new stretcher and will hang it in the inset on level 4.

I went to A&E mid-afternoon to see the proofs for two of my walls which will be installed on June 8. They were designed by S.O. Creatives.

Working with S.O. Creatives turned into a real collaboration, turning text into a graphic image in one case, and using vintage blueprints and maps and rubber stamp in the other.

They're both looking good. Much more graphic than the work that's been installed in the building thus far. Not painterly and certainly not anything like Dean and Dan's baroque assemblage in the Green Building Resource Center. I had to tell myself over and over as I watched them reassemble their recycled metal piece that my walls were OK. Simply very different than theirs.

At the end of today, I returned to the site for one last look and this is what I saw.

Parking Ticket

Well, I got a parking ticket in a bright green envelope this afternoon. I've been parking in a metered spot on the street, but last month, someone installed a shrouded meter money taker half way down the block, so I assumed that as it was covered, I didn't have to dump quarters into the individual meters any more.
WRONG. $30 ticket. I photographed the newly installed shrouded meter and the lack of signage telling us to keep those quarters cycling into the old meters. I am going to traffic court with photos and see if I can talk my way out of paying this fee. I had no idea I was making a wrong assumption as I looked at that shroud.

Up and Down the Central Staircase

Quite a wonderful day at the building. Was up and down five flights of stairs as many as a dozen times. Good for the heart and certainly replaces a walk around the neighborhood. May not be the necessary 10,000 steps, but perhaps stairs get counted twice? Here's a photo of the window at the top of the building . I show this image because you can see blue sky and clouds at the top of this central stairwell. Serena Lin Bush has already installed three cameras on the roof that will photograph the Houston sky. At the bottom of the five story staircase, she'll install as many as a half dozen flat screen monitors that will show real time photos of the sky. No one will in the basement will be without daylight and blue skies. I love the concept. She'll install the monitors next Wednesday

In any case, lots of art installing today, and tomorrow too.

This morning Geoff Winningham beat me to the site. I wasn't late. He was early. I'd also stopped by Studio Red for a bag of hard hats for artists to wear while they install. Thanks, Chelsea for leaving them by the front reception desk.

Geoff has three pieces in the building, each a photograph of Buffalo Bayou printed on aluminum. They are beautifully processed and the images change as you move toward them for a close up look or stand back to see the entire image. We hung a photo mural in the basement reception area first. I noticed that a lighting fixture has been installed above the inset, but it wasn't on, so the area is still dark and the image doesn't show well. We need the light on.

We moved up to level 4 to hang the second mural which is a beautiful image of two folks fishing along Buffalo Bayou. The main UH Downtown building is reflected in the rippling water. It's a perfectly beautiful subtle image.

Geoff's third piece is a triptych - a soft image of trees along the bayou, misty, quiet and perfect for the space we chose in the staircase of the Green Building Resource Center.

The staircase has two large windows that look out over downtown Houston and Geoff's piece almost looks like a third window. By the way, the staircase is great looking.

We are covering all the artwork with plastic until the move-in is complete, so none should get bumped, scrapped or too dusty. I noticed that there is a cleaning crew up on level four dusting the sprinkling system pipes, washing the windows, retouching walls. The installation of many, many cubicles on level 4 appears to be complete and the workers have moved down to level 3 and are assembling hundreds more. At least it seems like hundreds. I am told that 700 people will work in this building, though over a hundred will be in the field most the day inspecting. Still, there will be a lot of employees in this one space.

I have to say, it's been fun preparing for the folks who will work in this facility. In a way, my job has been like getting ready for a party. Hoping you've got things people will like or at least talk about or be surprised by. I continue to say that there will be no other public building like this one in all of Houston or perhaps the country.

Houston bought an 80+ year old building that was the first Houston Infirmary and then a rice warehouse and now a sustainable, green building for city employees. Just the fact that the city bought an old structure, saw the possibilities of building green and over time, saving tax dollars by doing so, is a story. The building 'walks the walk', so to speak.

Bob Card and his assistant Daniel Adame finished installing the first of my walls today. The piece is a bar code that reads GREEN if you can read bar code.

Bob used salvaged and recycled woods for the bar code and on the side of each piece, he labelled the type of wood and from where it came. The piece is elegant and spare and I like it in the lobby where the building's admin offices will be.

Back in the lobby all the benches in the waiting areas are being installed. And Metalab Studio's piece is taking shape near the north entrance. Finally sheet rocked so their glass installer can add in the sheet of glass upon which images will be projected. The images will come from a series of CO2 monitors. The monitors will be installed along the lobby columns. Breathe into them and see the effect of your very own CO2 on the big screen.

It's our hope that folks entering the lobby will have a good time with this piece, once they understand that they can affect the light patterns on the glass.

Jesse Sifuentes moved his two canvases into the building yesterday and was back today to begin work on the L-shaped stretcher for the mural on level 4. The 'coffee' mural is in temporary storage near Dean and Dan's work until they finish with the terrazzo at the other end of the lobby. Jesse and his brother and nephew carried four sections of stretcher and a huge rolled camvas up four flights of the exterior staircase. There is a lot going on in this building. Mark McAvoy, the new facility's administrator, if that is the correct title, is leading walk through tours for employees. I'm seeing some of the folks I've talked with about text. Hope they like the results. Hope they love the entire building. There's been such care and thought put into every part of it. Stair railings, carpet, terrazzo colors, wayfaring signage, lighting, counter surfaces. And then there's the art. Happened on these two chairs at the north entrance yesterday. Saw a bunch of lunch boxes scattered around them mid day. I think they are the same two chairs I saw on the roof over a year ago when I first visited the building. When I didn't yet have the job of coordinating this civic art effort. Kind of a nice touch that they are still on the site being used every day. Plastic does last forever.