The permit has arrived!

The stars have aligned and four months later the Roosevelt Bike Shelter Project is now permitted. For several months we went back and forth with the city plan reviewer, working out the issues of allowable floor area, set backs and engineering. Now that the permit has been approved we are asking for students and community volunteers to help us get underway ASAP. Classes at Roosevelt start on September 9th, and we want to have the footings installed before the kids show up.
When we began this project it seemed that the engineering would be a breeze, since it was a simple shed roof bike shelter. The truth of the matter is that today's seismic and wind load requirements are just not simple. No matter the size of a project the design specifications must be carefully calculated to ensure that the roof won't fall down even under the worst conditions (especially for schools). Without the help of Jok Ang and Kevin Stoner from Ang Engineering there is no way we would have been able to complete the engineering calc package. While the calculations remained the sole responsibility of designBridge, Kevin and Jok offered mentoring on several occasions to help us understand the codes and standards.
Our first scheduled build day is August 29th, one week from today. We will be disassembling the existing bike shelter and excavating footings for the new shelter. The University Fellowship Church that meets at Roosevelt on Sundays has offered to help round up volunteer hands and expertise.
The one big item we still need help with is fabricating steel columns. If you're a structural welder and can help us assemble the 8 columns in time to install them on September 4th, please contact our build-lead, Andrew Brose, via email abrose@uoregon.edu
Stay tuned for photos and updates as we crank this project out in the next six weeks.

It's been a while since we updated, which is mostly due to the seemingly endless iterations we've been through to get this project permitted. The latest news is that we've found a way to get far enough away from the existing building to be considered a separate structure. We're doing the calcs on a new structural system that will allow us to fit within a small triangle of space in the center of the courtyard. Submittal for permitting is happening tomorrow!

Hollywood Debut

Look out Pixar here we come!  April and her fiance Jason put together this great movie showing how our structure can easily relocate to a new location if need be.  

Perhaps better known as 'Design for Deconstruction' this short animation shows how we've taken that to the extreme.  

Thanks for the awesome work guys.

A 

Latin Day

Jessie decided to 'spice things up in studio last friday and make it a latin day theme.  She made (yes made) a pinata and the whole studio went outside to give it a whack.  We got some interesting looks.  I think they were just waiting for the candy to come out.  

FULL SCALE MOCK UP

Well we wanted to see how this thing would look, not just some little model but the real thing.  A good team effort and some creative thinking lead to a great model and and some valuable learning.  

In other news, our review is tomorrow.  Please come by and check out the project and enjoy some breakfast.  8:30 in Lawrence Hall, room 206.  

Enjoy the photos . . .

A

Final Review Quickly Approaches

Hi all,

We've been  working hard all term and the time for our final review is now at hand.  For those of you who don't know, all of the architecture studios have a final review where we present our work to students and faculty for them to critique.  

We will be presenting our work on THURSDAY, MARCH 14 from 8:30 - 12:30 IN LAWRENCE HALL RM. 206.  

Please come and join us.  We'll have coffee and food and would love to show you what we've been up to.  

See you there,

Team Green Wheel

Green Wheels Keep On Turning..

Happy Monday all,

We had quite a constructive weekend (pun intended for April):

Saturday evening Sylvan brought some materials over to the model shop to construct a mock-up of what the benches might look like. The team experimented with three different options for a corner detail including rounded, ninety degree, and forty-five degree cuts. A variety of angle iron and metal trims were applied to the surfaces of the bench to enhance functionality as well as contribute to its overall aesthetics. The final task will be treating the wood, which will occur later this week. (Pictures to follow)


Today in studio the team was presented with a 98.2% completed Construction Document set that Sylvan had compiled and annotated. The drawings are looking sharp and the effort is really showing. There are a few more red-lined items to take care of before the set is submitted to the city for permitting at the end of the week.

The "final push to permitting" continues... stay strong dB'ers.

Cheers.

The final push to permitting

The final weeks of the term are here! And so is the final push for finishing all the details on the construction documents. We have made some good contacts (finally!) at the city and some leads on engineers thanks to Andrew Brose. We hope to have the final construction set to the city by the end of next week. Come by the studio to see the latest iteration. Shane Rhodes made a great display of our posters to get feedback on the design and get students and parents excited about the project. 

Weekend Update....

The Green Wheel team has been busy building models to represent the beautiful islands of awesomeness that we are proposing. We had a 50% drawing set due today and last week and this weekend have been spent compiling the beginnings of our first set of Construction Drawings.



In studio today we spent a few hours going over the CD's and editing the drawings. They are coming together very nicely and we will be using them in our meetings with the District Architect, 4J and the maintenance crew at Roosevelt.




We took a number of our models and our newest drawings to a meeting we had with University Fellowship this Sunday. UF who meets in the Roosevelt MS gym has been very helpful in gathering professionals in the congregation to meet with us. We gave a brief explanation of the project and showed some pictures and then asked for advice from the group. We had some great feedback from a number of contractors, welders, and architects who were attending the meeting and we had a number of volunteers willling to donate time and materials. Some of our best offers were for roofing materials, enough lumber to complete the whole first phase, and professional expertise in excevation and welding.



Take a look at the images and feel free to offer any insight!

Construction Narrative

We put a construction narrative together as part of starting construction drawings. The narrative describes phase 1.             

The project will begin with an assessment of the site for safety and security. Because school will be in session during construction a fence will be rented to secure the construction area. A space inside the adjacent utility room will be set aside for storing tools that will be left on site. A dumpster will be delivered for construction waste. An as yet to be determined number of existing bike racks will be donated for recycling or refabrication in order to clear the construction site.

            Next, the site will be surveyed and the footings located and marked. An asphalt saw will be rented and the asphalt cut for the five column footings and planter areas. Each excavated area will be 18” x 18” x 30” deep. 6” of gravel will be placed at the bottom of each footing.  A truck will deliver 3-4 yards of concrete. After having poured and screed the concrete the j-bolts will be placed. Once the concrete has cured the leveling nuts are placed and 4” diameter steel columns with shop-welded base plates are placed, bolted, and plumbed. Grout is poured around the connection after leveling.

            The columns will be marked in order to place the steel collars for proper roof pitch. Shop-welded steel collars with 1/4” thick blade plates are bolted through the columns.  Two 2x10 douglas fir members are bolted, on either side of the plate, to form each girder. Four girder assemblies are necessary for the 3-module system. Five 2 x 6 douglas fir purlins will be fastened, 24” o.c., using Simpson hangers, to the girders of each module.

            18-gauge corrugated steel roofing will be cut to size on site. The roofing will be attached to the purlins on the outer two modules. The center module, that is higher, will be attached next. Roof flashing and detailing will be put in place. Gutters will be connected to the outer purlin directly or by using spacers. The gutters from all three modules will drain to a single planter box/swale.

            The planter boxes will be built next – of dry stacked “seconds” from Willamette Greystone. The box will be built to approximately 24” above grade. The excavation will go below grade 24” and be filled with 6” of gravel covered by sandy loam.

            Steel loop bike rakes will be bolted directly into the asphalt 36” o.c. Five racks will be anchored under each module in a configuration to meet code requirements. Benches, artistic bike part details, fascia finishing, and translucent panels are of yet to be determined materials. These will be bolted in place just before the final plantings are done. The Freiker meter will be repositioned if necessary and a target painted on the ground. 

Walking and Biking Summit, Construction Drawings , Shop Training . . . Phew!

Well things have been busy in the studio this week!

Last Saturday the team attended the Eugene Walk and Bike Summit at South Eugene High. Thanks to April, Jen, Tim, Andrew B., Lawrence, Poppy, Eric and Sylvan for coming to represent our project and dB to the community (sorry if I missed anyone). Big thank you's to the studio team for this event. Everyone rallied to produce a great poster and Tim printed these sweet project post cards. We looked like rock stars. Here's a few shots from the event.

Tomorrow, we'll be bringing our poster and project brochure to Roosevelt for the admin there. Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet with them soon and hear what they have to say. If you haven't already seen Brose's project brochure, come and take a look; it's hot.

We are really trying to button things down now in the project with the beginning of construction documents. It is an exciting and stressful time but the team is meeting the challenge with grace and aplomb.

Safety training is tomorrow too. This is so cool! I can't believe how far dB has come in less than a year. It seems crazy. Just goes to show what can happen when alot of passionate people get together for a meaningful project. Anyways, the shop is ready, the tools are in our new tool cage, Juli has the curriculum set, everything is go speed racer.

Guess I've droned on long enough. Look for lots of cool new model shots coming soon.

Cheers,

A

P.S. We had to nail down our approach to phase I, and we all agreed on an 'Island of Awesomeness' (-Brose), that would be located on the south-east end of the parking area. The 'Island of Awesomeness' will include all the aspects of our master plan - shelter, new racks, seating and plants.

Lots of Presentations!

On Monday, we had a scheduled presentation for the principal, janitorial staff, Shane, & Claire at Roosevelt. However, only Shane & Claire were able to make it because there was a small fire earlier that day in the boy's bathroom. Nonetheless, we got a lot of good feedback from the meeting. We presented both schemes and told them that we were leaning toward starting with an island scheme and "growing" it together in stages to a connecting-module scheme (what we've been calling the organic scheme). 

They helped us think about the strong possibility of kids climbing on the structures, and ways to prevent this. (Wide overhangs? Tall roofs?) They overturned our assumption about avoiding blocking light from the east wall of the site: it gets harsh sunlight in the afternoon, and shading would be welcome. They liked the idea of decorative panels, but emphasized that they should be easily seen through. 

On Wednesday, we gave the same presentation to Tom & Brett from the University Fellowship (www.university-fellowship.org), who had offered to help us find contractors (if not also help pay for materials and construction)! At the same time, we presented to the rest of our studio so we could get feedback from them. 

Tom & Brett were excited about the design. They invited us to their service the Sunday after next so that if they ask their congregation for donations, they'll have some smiling faces to associate their lighter wallets with. Actually, the way Tom put it, they'd like to give back to their school in exchange for letting them have their Sunday services there. They're going to arrange to have us talk with some contractors from their church afterwards.

When we met up with our studiomates afterwards, they gave us great advice on both schematic design and design development. They suggested we try some larger-sized modules to make 

the columns less dense. We talked about widening the courtyard, or maybe making two courtyards. Along those lines, we also talked about having two entrances, or a separate entrance and exit. 

For those of you not in dB studio, we printed out some 1/8 site plans so you can play with some layouts. Come by the studio anytime to pick one up, they will be sitting on my desk (the one with the bike wheel). An easy way to make triangles/diamonds is to make an 8.5" x 11" rectangle in Sketchup, then draw the triangle sizes you want converted to 1/8" scale. When exporting as an EPS file, click "options." Under "Image scale", enter 1"  for both 'In Image' and 'In Model." You should now be able to print it from Illustrator without having to scale it. (Sorry for boring all you Sketchup whizzes out there...)

Of course, if it's easier for you to just make your triangles/diamonds on graph paper or something, that's a good way to do it too. 

Continuing with design development feedback in studio, our classmates suggested we could use material other than chain link, such as hogwire. We also talked about how we were going to simplify construction by making a "kit of parts:" repeatable footings, columns, collar connections, and roof forms. They suggested we look into playground construction, which sounds like it would be really helpful.

In all of our meetings, we got lots of compliments on our site model. Good job everybody! 

--April

Site Survey

On Sunday, Sylvan, April and Andrew C. did another site survey in preparation for more detailed design development. The results are being compiled into CAD and tomorrow we will use the laser cutter to print pieces for a new 1/4" site model.

While we were taking measurements at Roosevelt, a very friendly gentleman approached us to inquire about our activities. It turns out that he is the associate pastor for a local congregation that meets at Roosevelt. If I remember correctly his name is Tim. His excitement about our project, and eagerness to offer any help he could, gave us a healthy boost of enthusiasm. We're hoping to have him come visit the dB studio space this Friday so he can get a better sense of what we're all about, and how he and his congregation can help us.

This evening we had a brief meeting to discuss our latest schematic ideas, and work out any kinks with the site survey and model. Jennifer showed us a beautiful 1/2" scale module that combines many of the ideas we looked at last Wednesday. I'm going to post pictures ASAP. She also brought in some photos of creative ways to improve a chain link fence - again photos pending.
April had a provocative site plan that also combined many of the ideas from last Wednesday. It's a south facing U shape, with curved roof forms and staggered overlapping modules. I think we were all very pleased with how our concepts are melding into a more cohesive design.

At tomorrow's general team meeting (5pm, db office) we will have a repeat of last weeks design crit. - a chance to look at some models and drawings and offer feedback. Snacks will be provided to keep our wheels turning.

Revisiting the Site

Today we made a group visit to Roosevelt while school was getting out. It was our first group observation of how the area was used. We also had a chance to chat with Shane. Melinda had mentioned that the schemes were not acknowledging the site in the design - as we moved to a module design, due to budget, we lost sight of this specific project. We took this opportunity to remind ourselves of the specific needs at Roosevelt. 

We noticed that the entry was an area where the kids liked to hang out. They liked using the half-pipe despite it's location. The area was chaotic because of the non-existent circulation. Shane seemed to like the idea of removing the fence and having an open bike area despite losing some of the security. Many of the ideas we have discussed such as plantings, a sense of entry, and benches were reconfirmed. We are looking at how to organize the site and how to best use the budget to create a module or modules that work well now but can grow efficiently.

Sylvan brought his truck to take one of the wheel bender racks back to the shop. It was a lot bigger than we remembered! But the 20' rack made it back here and everyone survived!  The rack will be torn apart and the rebar and pipe experimented with for reuse.

Then we assembled our latest models and drawings for the group meeting review. 

Green Wheel Studio and Progress

Sylvan and I just had a great meeting and here are some of the more prescient thoughts...

We'd really like to make sure that everyone on the team feels plugged in to the project and think of ways to facilitate communication and teamwork between those in the studio and the rest of the team. Please make sure to come to this week's team meeting (wed. @ 5pm), we'll be seeking input for our latest round of schematic design models and take a team picture for the blog.

For those of you who'd like to actively get involved in some of the schematic design development talk to Andrew Brose, Tim Kuzma, Jennifer Knapp, April Bradshaw (Welcome to the team April!), Sylvan or myself, or better yet, come by the studio and see what's up.

Stay tuned for more changes to the blog and feel free to comment and post.

Cheers,

A

Module models

Looking back at the last couple of days...
Our haiku of the spirit of the Roosevelt Bike Shelter:
Riding bikes to school.
Strong, fast, healthy kids
Safely sheltering

The second line, 'strong, fast, healthy kids' got us thinking about how we can make our design feel fast. Or, expanding on that thought, how can we make our design have a feeling of movement through time (not just space). One example of a design that gives a sense of movement is the red monofilament in the Laverne Krause gallery (hope you got a chance to check it out!). Horizontal lines can give a sense of fast movement.

We also talked about making our design more fun. The last module scheme we had was simple, perhaps elegant, but lacked playfulness. So we made a handful of 1/4" models to explore some more playful concepts.








One of the first comments from Melinda was that they all look like they could be anywhere, and weren't specific to our site. I think she was right, we did set aside the constraint of 'site' for a moment so we could focus on the logistics of just sheltering and parking bikes in a fun and modular fashion. The next step is to deploy our ideas in the site, creating positive and negative space, and informing our designs of the individual modules.

Tasks for next week are to work on a master plan layout of modules in the site and develop fundraising material. Claire, a parent volunteer at Roosevelt, is working on a grant from Lowe's for $5,000. She needs some budget info, letters of support showing that dB is an awesome organization, and some hot graphics to go in the appendix and spice up her grant application.

Welcome to the Roosevelt Bike Shelter blog!

Follow up on the most recent activity and take a look at the images that have inspired us in our design.

I myself enjoy riding, fixing, and generally discussing bicycles. I have posted a few cartoons that I found enjoyable ,and I believe, pertain to this project.








Sincerely,

Andrew Brose