The Crothers Clock Tower at the Roberts Wesleyan College is complete!
Yeah!!
Here is the whole construction Phase in about 4 minutes....very fun.
I was pretty pumped about doing this little project because it was truly a functional piece of sculpture. I doubt it's something we get to do again as most of our other University clients already have these things...RIT, Nazereth, UofR....
However it was a battle to keep the designs I wanted...I was coerced into showing them a tradtional scheme to go along with my curvy , cantilevered suggestions so of course they wanted a traditional tower. I had to then work the design within those confines to hopefully still be something that was attractive, at least in my mind. So we explored 20 different variations on what you see now...ultimately we worked with the scheme that had cast stone panels, brick and light with a metal roof...all of which were already present in the campus architecture. I used a more modern massing to give it a less tradtional beaux arts feel. Thankfully the art professor, Scott, was able to appreciate the design gestures I was making and he then convinced the President and the Board to build this.
Many mistakes and problems during construction were encountered because the facilities guy used his "pal" to do the work. The mason was asking me how to set the reinforcing pins...not good. He asked me to order his anchors for him...not good. In the end I told the Owner we had a serious problem and then things got better...if you get close you can see many issues with joints that are uneven but overall it came out pretty close to the design intent. The concept was to make this a place of discovery and reflection. Hopefully it will take on a sense of PLACE and become an iconic campus symbol.
It looks great at night and the plaza redo and new landscaping are going to have a huge impact on the everyday life on the campus. Scott is going to track the "collisions
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
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