c o m i n gx i n t ox b e i n g |
part four of eight - the fourth week |
| I had expected the beginning of this week to see a look of more completion emerging. While the pace continues and progress is being made everywhere, this is not yet so. In fact, we now have one more trade engaged, the sprinkler installer. Somehow they managed to get a vast scaffold in place over half the space - an amazing feet that took the better part of the day. This makes the space extremely tight yet solves a problem for us as it provides a platform from which to set our Armature Masts. The sprinkler company is working one side at a time and will move the scaffold to the other when complete so will will follow them with our work. With good timing, the shipment with our spar will come and we will be able to get it all done (maybe even the wire rope set) before the scaffold has to go away. |
| At least 20 percent of my effort this week will be on planning the set up of the NavCenter, the coming opening meeting, and the transfer process. Lisa is working with a team in nashville, I will be meeting Anna and Maurizio - who is finishing his last event of the year this week - this Friday before going home. |
| I will not be able to see the suspension system going up but I hope to see the process at it begins. |
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...Sunday - 17/Dec/ 06
1 month and 3 days to Opening |
| A busy day: Forcellini started mocking up the Monitor trees with Massimo, the POD was started, the scaffolding set for the sprinkler system, more access holes cut for electrical with the last small amounts of plastering continuing. The Garden Area is ready, the track lighting at about 40 percent and the beginnings of clean up evident. The wood floor is 90 percent finished however there are some issues with the pattern that have just revealed themselves. My design was altered without my knowing - for some good reasons I am told - but the gave rise to some design issues that are not well thought out. |
The POD base and outer threshold was cut down and readied for leveling and attachment to the floor.
The floor across the entire space is generally within a few mm of level. As luck would have it, it was over a cm off at one side of the POD and the area that we have designated as the formal door. This will make the threshold a bit more difficult to set right.
The turntable pieces are fitting well. Once we are above the turntable, the POD will erect quickly. We have all the components we require except the outer screens and top sails which will come in January just a few days before opening. This will be the last delivery that we will be biting our nails about. The end of Monday will see the POD taking shape - one day late than expected.
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| Paola and I had a couple of hours to discuss a variety of issues related to finishing the project and getting the NavCenter opening. A luxury for this is the first time we have had time together to do this in a couple of weeks. |
The scaffolding for the installation of the sprinkler system is now in. A spectacular piece of work getting this set in a space this full of objects and activities.
I do not know if I have been out of construction too long or if the italians are especially good at this but I have been impressed with how fast these crews are and how carefully they work in difficult situations.
This will give us a good platform to erect our Masts and spars (if they get here in time).
The concentration of complexity and effort in this space of about 5,000 square feet is high - unusually so. This makes the work both interesting and a challenge for everyone. |
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| Construction is interesting in that there are days when things go up so fast that it looks like a weed growing. There are other days when, after a full 12 hours of effort, it looks just like it did in the morning. It is sometimes difficult knowing if you are moving backwards, forward or standing still. It is these days where the progress cannot be seen that set up for the “sudden” spurts of growth. As I looked around the project tonight before leaving, my sense is that the next few days will be spectacular. Permasteelisa started last week saying they would be “out” this last Friday. It simply could not happen. They are close, however. In a week, the project will look like one usually is when we normally start our work. Normally - which means once in awhile! |
...Monday - 18/Dec/ 06
1 month and 2 days to Opening |
| A slow start today with another challenge that wasted time and focus and amounted to nothing. I discuss this in more detail in my hand notebooks. We also had some bolt holes in the Masts to re drill - apparently a template was turned upside down in the shop - the simple consequence of too much to do in too short a time and over 45 days of constant overtime. As happens, however, by noon the tempo and momentum built not just for our work but for the entire project. Monday arrived about 1300 hours. Still, I now have doubts that we will be able to get to the desired point before the break. In the first place, we lose Saturday and that is likely to be the margin. I never thought, given the conditions and the shipping schedule, that we could get rigged without this time even free of all other constraints and interferences. |
| Building this way is a lot of fun and very productive. With all the trades on sight, integration and coordination is easy; incongruities can be found and fixed nearly instantly - solutions that would take days doing it by paper. In this case, the schedule is just a bit too tight, the pressure a bit too much and the number of people in one space a bit too many. The dust and time wasted moving material, the extra care required to move a scaffold, the consequence of a tool being dropped - all a little over the top. Still, I rather have it this way than a tradition site with one trade working at a time in a vacuum. |
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The light weight drainage gravel going into the garden area. I am impatient to see how this turns out. I discovered, a few days back, that there is a very sketchy plan of a revision of the revision of my revision of Permasteelisa’s original version. Will this be better - or not? Hopefully, this is in the hands of an artist who understands the reason for why it is here and does not bring a traditional view of what an environment for bank executives must be.
The POD column merging with the Lolly Pop column of the Armature. Both this POD and the garden POD have an intimate relationship with the Armature being, in effect an extension of it. These become private work (the Center Master’s) and refuge areas (the Garden) for individual and small team study and work off of the 60 foot diameter Radiant Room. The PODs offer a different kind of prospect and refuge than that of the balconies.
Mile and miles of wiring are in place with most of this work to be finished by the end of this week. The power switch over is this coming Saturday. In effect, the NavCenter will have basic functionality the first week in January after the Christmas holidays. With the stepped up wattage to the 8 hanging disks and by moving the track lighting from the octagon to the under the beams, the Armature will deliver sufficient, controllable lighting to the center of the Radiant Room and will support numerous small team area setups. Getting the light right has been a blend of office design and engineering and hands on field collaboration. This will be, by a wide margin, the best lighted NavCenter.
This process of iterative design up to the actual installation is the essence of FasTracking as I developed it in the early 60s and have practiced it since. This is the first time when I have do so, with one of my designs, when I am not the on site System Integrator and there are considerable language and cultural barriers. Unnerving at times, exciting always and the results, perhaps, spectacular. |
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| Counting the Permasteelisa, UniCredit and MG Taylor teams that have a high degree of design freedom on this project, about 15 people have the ability to make unilateral design decisions. Drawings have been changing every week since August when the project really powered up. The willingness to collaborate and also take independent action is the essence of FasTracking. On site we have been able to accommodate each other’s requirements right down to the making of every hole for a wire. Off site has been far more difficult. Drawings in different formats and language, not always getting to the right person in time, changing end-user requirement as recent as 60 days ago, regulatory interpretations that were settled only 10 days back, the different lead times of supplies and manufactured items, shipping cycles which in our case has required nine just-in-time shipments from the US to Italy and through customs to the job site. How well all of this has been done - or not - is not revealed until the very end when all the pieces assemble - as this narrative documents - in 30 days. This is not easy with any project. With one a complex and tightly integrated as this, it is a massive challenge. The head of the permasteelisa team said that this was the most complex room he had ever built. This is how architecture is created. Of all the ARTS, it is the most demanding of true collaboration. There have been some mistakes and there no doubt will be some disappointments. Given a little more time and even these could have been eliminated. What is remarkable is not how many things did not go perfectly or times that tempers flared a bit - what is remarkable is how few mistakes there are and how smoothly it all has gone. |
...Tuesady - 19/Dec/ 06
1 month and 1 day to Opening |
| Today was as good as it gets in all ways. Materials arrived. The last big - and necessary - shipment will be in our hands tomorrow, or latest, Thursday early. All of the trades were productive. Although as many different trades are still working at once, there are fewer numbers on site now. Everyone is aware of each other’s requirements and way of doing things. Most of the problems have been worked through and now the work is predominately the volume of repeating patterns. The energy is good despite many long 7 day weeks of 12 hours plus duration. |
Can we reach our goal of getting the suspension system in? I have my doubts - I think we will be one or two days short. Mike is passionate that we can do it. He is prepared to start setting the Armature Masts tomorrow early. How tomorrow goes will tell us a great deal. This is the final play of the year and we will know, soon, what cards we have in our hand. He may be right, it is too close to call yet a worthy and achievable goal. If it can be done, we enter next year just were we want to be and with a little margin in hand. This being finished will also make it a great deal easier for those doing any other finish work early in the year. It certainly will ease the strain on the teams setting up the Center and planning the first events.
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| The highlight of the week was this afternoon, when I went up to the 3rd floor to the temporary NavCenter we are setting up - seeking some quite and a wing to work on - I found the entire Permasteelisa project management team happily working in the space. “We want to see how this works” they said. So, the first use on site of the WorkFurniture was by the Permasteelisa team who made it all possible. |
| Personally, I have to leave the site Friday morning to meet in Milano with the team designing the opening event. This begins the shift in focus from building to using. I have several pieces to get designed before going and also have to work through the electrical and lighting of the PODs. There is also the flooring detail and the Garden layout to understand and adjust if necessary. It is going to be a busy 48 hours. |
| Saturday, I fly home to Northern California my first return home to Elsewhere since early July. Mike leaves for home Saturday, also. This will end the fourth week - the half way point - of our “coming into being.” We will be back to Torino on the 3rd for the final work. |
...Wednesday - 20/Dec/ 06
1 month to Opening |
| This was the first day, on this trip, where the work proceeded at the rate typical of an MGT install. The AI-AE team did an extraordinary job erecting the Masts at both ends of the Armature. With this effort, and the shipments confirmed to arrive, tomorrow; and, with the notice that there will be some power for us Saturday; it is now feasible we will achieve our main objective of finishing the Armature so that the floor can be finished as scheduled and we can have a clean shot at finishing the first week in January. |
...Thursday - 21/Dec/ 06
less than 1 month to Opening |
| This is how Walter De Faveri, Permasteelisa Project Manager, described it as our prior optimism was blown away this morning about 1000 hours. Two things conspired to rob us of our day and anticipated satisfaction. The time lost was not total time as we redirected effort to other tasks. But it was time lost on the path to completing this years work as we desired. It was the classic condition of a relatively small problem having a great impact because we were up against a time limit with no margin. The ability for Permasteelisa to do the floor is not at risk, the work in January will be more intense than we wanted and we will have to put a scaffold back up for a few days. |
| The promised scaffolding did not arrive this morning so we were unable to proceed in many areas of the Armature. We might have been able to work around this but the first Bracket Mast mast ran into the soffit of the ceiling just below the dome. We became concerned about this yesterday and called Jerry and he said we should have 3 and 13/32 inches clearance. This morning just as I was arriving to the sight expecting to see on of the four pieces up, Mike called me with the news. |
| We called Jerry and got him out of bed and he came up with a solution. We will proof this out Friday morning and also test dropping the spar 3 more inches than his solution so we do not have to build up the Bracket Mast. This will also provide greater visual clarity to the spar. This will change the angle of the wire rope slightly - something havein no structural consequence. |
The Radiant Room is a space of focused intensely. It is surrounded on all sides by open tranquil areas: the two baloneys, the Entry, Center master POD area, and the Garden. The Garden has two section, the “outside” area covered with glass and the “inside” area shown here. The entire Garden is raised above the main floor level and will have paths, low plantings, trees, fountains, running water and benches. The transition between the Radiant Room and its surrounding areas is made by Wings suspended from the columns which will be installed in February 07 [leonardo wings].
The variety of these kinds of spaces is unusual in a corporate learning-planning environment which are often bland and nondescript - a deliberate attempt to remove “distractions.” |
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| Plastering continued on the side entry side of the Elevators. The glass sliding doors were installed at the Entry and Rotunda. Tile original tile restored in the Rotunda. The Garden installation began to take shape. Forcellini brought the compression struts for the four key triangles between the two circular Airfoils - and the AI-AE team stared installation - as well as the prototype Media Tree. The center compression ring and suspension brackets were in stalled. Media bracket installation continued on the Armature. In all, a fruitful day despite our setback. Progress was also made on the suspended sprinkler system above us all. |
| Falling short of the goal, after four weeks of effort, is naturally disappointing. The mistake was small. Had something like this happened earlier along the way it could have been easily dealt with. Even this error is easy to fix once understood. It became known at the end of a week, at the end of a work cycle, up against a holiday period which provided the only period in which the wood flooring could be sanded, sealed and allowed to cure. As it is, next Saturday is a marginal workday because the power will be off for several hours so as to switch over to the permanent system. Another deadline driven by the dynamics of holiday because most people are expected to be gone at this time. In the last period of our design process had we the time to develop an integrated set of drawings with a plan review process, this error would have be caught. We did not have this time. What is remarkable, is not this error, it is that there were so few of them on a project with so many making unilateral changes in repose to immediate conditions. We kept the “whole in mind” extraordinarily well. We were bit by a procedural oversight that we knew existed. I will discourse on the significance and consequence of this elsewhere in my hand project notebook and this electronic Notebook. Taking on the task left us vulnerable. I predicted, back in early October at a review meeting with the client, the conditions of the site and why a couple of weeks, extra time would greatly reduce risk, stress and costs. We can and must always make our processes better. Yet, that is not the real issue here. The real question to be pondered is if we should accept work, in the future, under conditions like this. |
| If we should or not is a question not easily answered. Had we withdrawn from this project what would stand in place of what now is in the process of becoming? We could have avoided this risk, but what are the greater risks of not pushing the envelope? I have observed many errors, by others, made and fixed during the course of this last month. I have seen their ups and downs as they have worked to make perfection out of chaos. The final result will be worthy and will largely overcome the conditions under which the work had to be done - which are so prevalent now to almost be a social norm. Everyone here faced the same dilemma as soon so will the client as we move to the first-use phase of the project. I will ponder these things on my way home this Saturday and during my time off prior to returning on January third. One thing is sure, this error was the consequence of a policy level decision far more than that of a tactical-operational flaw. This error is mine not the design-build team’s who preformed remarkable well under near impossible deadlines. |
...Friday - 22/Dec/ 06
27 days to Opening |
| For Mike, Friday and Saturday are days for finishing details, getting off the floor and setting up for the work to beginning on the 3rd of January. Below one of the spars is being assembled to check the revised layout of the Bracket Masts. |
| After a brief job visit, I traveled to Milano for a meeting on the January meeting - the shift of my focus to Nav Center use and Method transfer begins. This process will be in full swing by next January 7th. |
...Saturday - 23/Dec/ 06
26 days to Opening |
| I called Mike from the air port, all is progressing well and he is cleaning up for the floor work on the 27th. He is storing our material on the balcony as the basement area and elevator is not yet ready. Permasteelisa has not installed the so he will leave the shores in place until they do. We assume the will do so when the scaffold comes down, while the floor is being sanded and before the floor finish is applied. |
| He will send pictures tonight. |
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| I am writing these final comments regarding week four as I am flying back to California. How do I feel about the outcome? Disappointment that we missed by one day and that this will require setting the scaffolding back up, doing the work and ten taking the scaffolding back down again in early January. I also believe I would have caught this error soon enough for it not to matter in my earlier days in construction. I raised the question in time but accepted the answer without further checking. Not a good field practice. Also, had we reasoned our way to the final solution sooner we could have cut the bracket ends off and set them Thursday as we planned. Even so, the delay in the scaffolding adjustment, until Friday, would have prevented us from finishing and in getting the Spars completed. We would have ended up better off but not by far - maybe as much as a day, saved. Our fate was sealed Thursday morning. I am concerned that, with vacations there may be a lack of coordination and the brackets will not be set before the shores are removed. This can cause great damage as the outer Airfoil ring is supported in only in 6 places over over 166 running feet. The column brackets provide 6 more supports and the suspension system the rest. |
| Closure is important and in this case we did not get it. In any case, we would have had a great deal of already scheduled work to finish at the first of the year. Now we do not have peace of mind and an extra effort to put in without the momentum we had built up before Thursday. Little things can so easily become big things. I know that Permasteelisa and the media team are similarly crowded. The doors will open and the show will go on as scheduled it is just that there will be more pressure and distractions than desired. This also will fall on the KnowledgeWorkers preparing the event. This circumstance is the consequence of the margin being traded off at the beginning of a project. The upside is that, if properly managed, we can use this last work to “involve” everyone in the process of finishing, setting up and taking possession of their environment. The energy from this can flow right into the and through first use. We yet will have a celebration. |
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GoT0: part one of eight - the first week
GoT0: part five of eight - the fifth week |
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| GoTo: UniCredit Handwritten Notebook |
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Matt Taylor
Tornio
December 17, 2006
SolutionBox
voice of this document:
BUILD • TACTICS •
EVALUATION
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posted:
December 17, 2006
revised:
December 23, 2006
• 200612017.918909.mt • 20061218.333300.mt •
• 20061219.7678901.mt • 20061220.409100.mt •
• 20061221.566510.mt • 20061223.708110.mt •
(note:
this document is about 80% finished)
Copyright© Matt
Taylor 2006
Leonado Images copyright© Leonardo3 2006 |
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