However, I think that we have now got a much more concrete design down, and since then we have made some serious efforts to show our work. We have been focused on the idea of layering in the site, and have thus far been concentrating on the porch and how it can be the main focus of the site and its landscape; with the help of Robbie's digital skills, we have been designing a porch experience that will transition visitors from the formal porch area through a dynamic, organic porch area which can accommodate bodies in the laying, sitting, and standing positions. The porch layer will occasionally be perforated to reveal the old foundation, the old footprint of the Keese Barn, and where the major structural elements were. These elements will be lit from underneath to make them more powerful at night and to lend some light to the area. We are using regulating lines pulled from the porch area and viewpoints (both to the Clemson site and existing viewpoints to the town square and the Community Center) to inform the rest of the site's design.
Last week I cut and co-assembled the site model that I got from the group in digital form, and this week I have been working with a couple of the other group members to assemble the various parts of the existing site as well as our proposed ideas. We have been looking into materials and have been asking around to see if we could find anyone who has been known to give donations/a cut in price for students in the past. So far, we are planning on hitting up Home Depot and the companies that manufacture the recycled plastic lumber for donations and price assistance as soon as everyone agrees on what materials to use. We also want to purchase some LEDs that Dustin found offline to test out, but we need a "studio credit card" or something because no one has the funds to just outright buy the lights. Yesterday, four of the group members and myself attended the clean-up morning at the site with the mayor and the United Way group to clean up the glass, computers, weaves, and perm boxes underneath and around the memory block. We had hoped to be able to take down the "Ron" box beforehand so that the broken pieces of rotting lumber could be picked up by the clean-up crew, but unfortunately this did not occur; however, there are still members of the group that are arguing against taking the block down. I think that most of the group agrees, however, that the block should be de-constructed, and then should be re-constructed as an element that informs visitors of both what the site was, what it is now, and why the students chose the design that they did, while also serving as a night-lit sign to catch the attention of the community. Many of us also believe that a formal historic marker is also very important and something that the community would like in the site.
In addition to the design arguments in the Pendleton group, the Clemson group came into situations where they needed our help in the past week. Myself and a couple of others donated some of our time to help a few of their group members survey their site and perform several other tasks when many of their group members were nowhere to be found. I really think that this is a good thing, however, because I foresee that working together as a studio rather than solely in the two site groups to get the projects done will be crucial in the final stages to ensure that both sites get finished (hopefully) on time. We have also managed to recruit several of our fourth-year studio friends to come out and help us if we need the extra labor.
Even though we have made progress, the first real waves of panic are starting to set in as we realize that we really have to get moving if this project is to be realized. With that said, time to get to work!
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