Bricks, Flowers and Charles Eastlake

This is either a picture of the forms for the planter on the north side, or a picture of our sunrise this morning.
 You decide.

Based on the amount of work going on with the forms, I don't think we've missed the concrete pour yet.

I'm happy we'll be able to watch this take shape from the construction cam.

Distance aids the deception in how much work is actually happening on the north side.

If you know where to look, you can see slate rising on the west side of the north gable, visible from the cam.

It's also being nailed in place on the east side of the gable.

The orange mesh is still blocking what would be a fun view of the arch construction.

Last week some representatives from Provo City visited Eugene, Oregon and checked out their rapid bus system.  During a short break, they visited this historic home.  Two of the men quickly recognized the Eastlake design and sent me a few pictures which I'm going to share with you.  The home was built in 1888, during the time our tabernacle was under construction.  Notice the turret roof and the gables.

Even with all the scaffolding, it's still easy to tell that these two buildings follow a similar design.

This model of the home has been fun for me to compare with the tabernacle.  Notice the foundation and the ornamental designs.

Charles Eastlake wrote a book which he titled Hints on Household Taste.  I've been reading it.  He believed that architecture should be "traced to a constructive purpose."  While he did not design furniture, he had a lot to say about it, and also about fashion and trends.  He wrote, "The latest novelty from Paris is recommended, not because it has any special merit on the score of artistic beauty, but simply because it is a novelty."  It's clear he knew all about pop-culture, although he never used those words.  He openly wondered why the gentlewomen of Victorian England chose to wear bone corsets instead of following the graceful and functional lines the British were seeing from Greek statues being recovered and brought to the British museum during his lifetime. I looked for pictures of corsets and Greek statues so you could compare them for yourselves, but I decided none were family-friendly enough for this blog.

Many of the pioneers who built the tabernacle were British emigrants.  As they were very familiar with the Eastlake style, they incorporated some of his concepts into our beautiful building.

The Victorian theme was throughout the home in Oregon, and although Charles Eastlake did not design furniture, this is still known as an Eastlake bed.  I haven't read far enough into the book to determine if he gets credit for our gablets.

Alberta Shelton was one of the women who lived in the home.  She was Eugene's first female cyclist, a trend which caught on throughout the United States around the turn of the 20th century.  Many in Provo are hoping that BRT will soon become a lasting trend here.

I walked along the east side, from the right of this picture to the left, trying to peek through the scaffolding to see what was happening.

The fascia on the gable is under construction.

I saw some tricky repair-work happening.

Not all the brick has new mortar yet.  The mortar lightens the color of the surface until it is cleaned off.

Parts of the sandstone belt course are being replaced.

Mr. Eastlake said something clever about arches.  In context with mixing religion and architecture, he wrote, "Time has proved that the revival of Gothic architecture is due no more to the teaching of Rome than that of Geneva, and at the present day the pointed arch is almost as much in vogue among Dissenters [Protestants] as it is with Ritualists [Catholics]."  Apparently the arch is acceptable for an LDS building, also.

The south face is now covered with scaffolding.  Brick repair will start here soon.

This dandelion caught my eye, just inside the fence.

This tidy row of conduit is just behind the flowers.  My tutors tell me grey is for electrical, so that's all I can say.

Work continues on the forms.  How many times can I say that phrase without numbering it (a habit I developed as a mother of teenagers)?  All these forms had been stored on the west lot, but they are now being put in place here.

Rebar and cable are both going in the trenches.

Behind this rebar is the top of the elevator shaft in the pavilion.

From the cam you can see that the concrete around the shaft has been poured.

Do you remember last fall when the base of the elevator was a big hole?

It won't be too long before the forms will cover the top of the pavilion base.

These two walls mark the north end of the patron parking garage.

Those forms are at the right.  A two-lane drive will be in this area to facilitate patrons coming and going.

The work is moving south at a rapid pace.

Green rebar leads the way.

What used to be a sidewalk along University Avenue, on the right, is now a delivery area.

Some of the green plastic around the construction fence is gone, so today I was able to easily see the sump in the southeast corner of the lot.

We will park in this area, someday.

The big crane is getting squished out of the lot, but I'm not sure how he's going to leave.  The south entrance is being destroyed.

I haven't seen Daddy Track Hoe at the site for a long time, but there he was, working as though he knew what he was doing.

Seriously, no one is coming or going here.

I walked down to the underground entrance, thinking maybe this was going to be a substitute, but until the concrete is poured over the forms, this is not a useful entrance, either.

While I was going through the pictures, I realized that this sidewalk area is the new entrance.  The poles on the right are where the construction fence used to be.  The chain link fence four feet farther to the right, running along the side of University, appears to be how wide this area will be.  I don't know what to say about the light poles.  Mr. Engineer-husband says they aren't easy to move.  The trucks are more graceful than you might imagine, though.

While I stood at the garage entrance, I noticed the base of the emergency stairwell in the west lot.

The concrete box on the right is the above-ground part of the stairwell.  Notice the mechanical building along the north side of this lot.  There are surface openings to this building.

The opening in the center of this photo leads to the underground part of the mechanical shop.

Beautiful sandstone is being placed around the mechanical building.  If they make it too pretty, it won't subtly fade into the background as promised.

With the concrete forms moved from this area, I could see the tabernacle again through the fence.

I keep checking on the new openings in the west gable wall.

Currently there are two windows open at ground level, but you can see where the third will be. The plans show that the temple president's office will be on the other side of this wall.  Remnants of the former back entrance to the tabernacle which led to a waiting room under the choir loft can still be seen.

My camera tried to figure out what this workman was doing but came up blank.

It was a perfect morning to work on brick.

It was a perfect morning to look at flowers, too.

I did have to dodge a sprinkler.

Sometimes it's worth the effort to live a little dangerously.

And it's always worth the effort to look up, too.