An Appreciation of Stone 5

The two photos are from a job of mine installed back in the mid-90's in South Carolina. The stone is from Briar Hill a Stoneyard/Quarry in Central, Ohio.

I have always liked Briar Hill, and will always continue to try and find ways to use it on work I design. The wall stone comes in several different heights which allow for this kind of artistic feel when putting a wall together.

When I personally did this work I always rock-faced the bottom edge a little deeper to create a more interesting shadow line. Try that with modular concrete retaining wall block.


A comment on these steps; they are shipper 48" wide, 16" deep, and 6" high. Just about perfect for outdoor steps in just about any application. Now here's the great part . . . they lay up faster and easier than pouring concrete steps. I cannot think of any reason why these steps would ever be more expensive to install than concrete, and as for the look; well . . . you decide.

Theres one wall stone out of place in this photo, which did get fixed by the way. My other comment is the landing pad stone is a piece of whats called 3" offset.

The backside of these walls is typical construction, gravel, fabric, and pipe. Remembering the enemy of every wall ever made is water, and water pressure.

An Appreciation of Stone 4

This is on the last day of a hands-on seminar at The Stone Foundation conference in Charleston, South Carolina in November, 2004.

The joinery of the work is superb and great technique in the stone work is on display here. a truly great example of dry stone work. How could you not appreciate that. It gets bigger if you click on it.

Ascension, more images.

 
I posted about this project on Wednesday the 19th, and mentioned something about putting more photos online-well then go here if you have some time to kill.

There are images for the drawings I completed for the proposal and many shots of the job in action, including a traffic jam and the Fire Dept. hosing off quartzite.

What I wish I had were some night shots-someday. 

Trac-hoes, 100 Ton Cranes, and VERY large Boulders.

 
I have just put up what I am going to call a "project page" on my website. It concerns this sculptural piece that I named Ascension It is on a hillside going into a large city in South Carolina, and I had hoped it would look like whitewater tumbling off the hillside.

In the above photo you are looking at the quarry where the stone came from. A mica-schist for the outcroppings, big boulders, banks, etc. and a quartzite to represent the whitewater (lots of mineral deposits and flakes to make it shine --especially at night with lights).
 
Right now I just have a lot of images up and am going to add a narrative in a day or two. Two things will always stand out from this project for me. One---it took 3 times as long to prep as it did to execute the installation of the project. Two--- it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. I'd do it again, given the opportunity.

The above shot is the crane in action. We spent 2 full days just preparing the correct base for the crane and it's outriggers to stabilize on. It's good to be careful when moving boulders weighing as much as 13/14 ton.
 
Placing boulders-this one probably weighs in under 2 and a half ton -- a mere lightweight. So safety at all times - which is really about being alert. While those guys are doing the final prep, the crane operator and I did a strange dance to communicate where and how I wanted the boulders placed.

The other nice thing about this was that it was not a pedestrian area so I had some latitude in placement. After all, my primary viewer was going by in cars at 40-55 mph making detail in placement a non-issue.

The city did a little bit of planting around the edges to soften the area, I would have liked to put in several hundred grasses but there was no budget for that sort of planting.

Final thoughts, it was a great challenge - especially logistically, but it was a lot of fun. I hope it brings a little bit of enjoyment to those that drive by everyday.
Ascension