Measurements - Do I Believe Them?

Visited the site yesterday afternoon with Beth Collins Wray. She and I measured the wall segments along the basement corridor with a very long tape measure. Guess such measurements are called 'field measurements'? I personally do not trust measurements or anything at all with numbers.

This tendency goes back as far as the days right out of college when I made $90/week at Bloomingdale's as an executive trainee. Every month I'd spend an entire evening reconciling my bank account and always had to round off to the nearest dollar. I could go back further to high school when I had a job that I loved selling tickets at the movie theater. How many times was I not able to make the number of tickets sold reconcile with the money taken in? I have no realistic answer, or number.

All of this is to say, numbers elude me. I don't retain them. So Beth and I measured those basement walls, some of which do not have door frames affixed to doors yet, so that will throw the measurements off a bit. As for these measurements? I've sent them on to S.O. Creatives so they have a canvas to put all the 'recycle' words I've written or collected in five languages. Then their file will go to a fabricator who will create a very, very long artwork from many strips of powder coated metal with cut out words.

It is my hope that when a person walks the length of this basement corridor, he or she will get a linear and inspiring or interminable, as the case may be, series of recycling messages in languages spoken throughout this city. The extended length of the piece along should drive the message, "Recycling is inevitable and good for us. Get on with it."

Suffice it to say, I can think of words to write far better than I can count numbers.

Beth and I weren't done after measuring the basement corridor. We went to each of floor in the building where reveals/insets were built in for Jesse, Gonzo and Geoff. All of their work will be 'inset' in a sheet rock frame-of-sorts to protect from daily wear and tear.

When I returned home, I put our reveal/inset measurements against measurements given me by the artists for their artwork. I think - the operative word is 'think' - that their work will fit into these spaces. I 'think' everything will be OK. But I won't be sure until Jesse, Gonzo and Geoff have hung their work successfully. That won't be for another month and at that time, I'll experience delayed gratification or total dismay.

One thing I can say is that I am not only in awe, but am completely mystified by the talent and skill sets it takes to draw architectural plans and then have folks in the field translate them into walls, rooms, lobbies, offices, entire buildings.

Mindy, you smile patiently at me when I ask for the twentieth time if the measurements for anything at all, are going to be OK. I never really believe it. But I thank you for your patience, for that extra reassuring email that doesn't really reassure. It'll all work out. If it doesn't, sheet rock is easy to reconstruct?