Vitra Visit

The Vitra company outside Basel Switzerland produces famous furniture by well-known designers, both classic and contemporary.  Vitra welcomes visitors to the campus to a display of the most important chairs of the last century, a museum of temporary exhibitions, and a gallery of the Vitra products. Here is link to Vitra website. 

 Buckminster Fuller dome, factory warehouses and storm clouds above.
VitraHaus shops by Herzog & de Meuron, 2010, below.

 Vitra Slide Clock Tower by Carsten Holler, 2014, above.
Fire Station by Zaha Hadid, 1993, below.

Roof Coating Project

The first step was to replace and widen the fascia and flashing at the roof line.
Chuck and Chris cut pieces to install; second photo shows the clean finished look.
Fascia is wider, flashing is fabricated steel and comes coated with color on.

Chris, Alan and Chuck confab about roof section repair.

Yellow base coat has to be applied by hand at the edge.

Interior was rolled on.

Final coat is silver polyurethane epoxy.

8400 Hull, South Planting along Drive

After spending a month preparing the soil and clearing, the site looked like this,
(note the old turquoise flashing below the roof line):

Plugs of baby plants were ordered from North Creek Nurseries and New Moon Nursery:

The site was about 400 square feet so about 400 plants were installed, 10-12 inches apart.
Floating row cover was put on to protect from deer and give the plants a little extra support.

Rochester, 2016

 The Rochester skyline to the west above.    Times Square building on the left from 1930 has four metal wings that weigh 12,000 pounds each.
Quote on the Rochester Main Library below to right.

Dinosaur B-B-Que

 George Eastman Museum (of Film), where we attended the Nitrate Picture Show.

Bike Ride: Rochester east

Main Street in Medina, NY.
Above left is Bent's Opera House, 1864, made of Medina sandstone.  To the left is Main Street just off the Erie Canal, trying for a revival.

 The highway south from Lockport to the NY Thruway looks like this:







But, sunset transforms it into the scene below.

In Niagara Falls on the American side, near Love Canal.

The Falls

Going, roughly, north to south upstream.
We biked from Niagara Falls on American side to Niagara side on Canadian side and then down the river on Canadian side south toward Buffalo.

Buffalo Buildings

Buffalo City Hall, 1931.

City Court Building, 1974, next to the City Hall.

Both buildings front on Lafayette Square, below, with memorial of Pres. McKinley.

Preparing Sun Garden for Planting; March 2016

This 20 x 20 foot area had not been weeded and maintained for quite a while.
The plan is to put in grasses and native plants that can tolerate dry sun, while creating a screen, habitat and visual interest.
First, the old Boxwood and Korean Holly came out.
Perennial weeds and stuff was dug out.
Soil raked and sifted for rocks:
150 buckets of rocks came out of this little area - about 4,500 pounds!
(Luckily, they found a willing home protecting a stream bank from erosion)
Stay tuned for planting next month.

 Norman Jake and Alan successfully hauling off the trophy stump.
Below, mostly finished grading.  Waiting for plant delivery.

Beginning Roof Work

Before recoating the roof:
  the fascia boards were taken off,
  the outer 2 inches of yucky roof junk was cut off with a Sawzall,
  insulation was carefully put in the outer part of the eaves,
  protection boards were put up to seal off the eaves, 
  beefy fascia boards were screwed up over the protection boards,
  all were primed to get ready for flashing on top.

Above, Alan on ladder cutting the outer edge of roof.

To right, edge fascia boards have come off and the edge of roof trimmed off.

Above, Alan has put in insulation and then protection boards on back.

To left, the same is happening on the front of the house, at the same time as the garden prep.

 Here, Alan works with Norman Jake installing the fascia on top of the protection boards.  Garden prep still happening!Finally, in the twilight, garden prep is done, some of the fascia boards are up and primed.

March 2016 New York AD Show

Architectural Digest holds an annual show at the Convention Center in New York.

It attracts all ages and craftsman as well as bigger vendors:  http://addesignshow.com


Abandoned piers below Riverside Park on the Hudson, walking to the Javits Center.

Via 57 West, a new residential building of rental apartments near the Convention Ctr.

Hand crafted glassware, strikingly displayed.