Got Graffiti?

We did – and we still do.

Our building flanks one of Bremerton’s downtown alleys and graffiti is part of the alley scene.  Last summer, when demolition was going on inside, some kids found their way from the alley into our building.  Armed with a couple cans of fluorescent orange spray paint, they left some colorful messages across a concrete wall where our new kitchen was going to end up.  We thought about leaving the messages exposed where they were but, well, they weren’t all that complimentary.  So, instead, we photographed the nicer parts and turned them over to our design team. 

Jeremy Southerland and Jennifer Paige got together with our firm’s graphic designer, Shao-Lin Cheng, and she produced an 18’ tall graphic for our kitchen, and one for the studio. Shao-Lin’s graphic blends the inherited graffiti with several photos of the building as we found it – which was pretty raw itself.  The graphic yields an appropriate “back alley” feeling and offers a reminder of a piece of the building’s life prior to our renovation.

Beams into Boards

Our design called for the removal of a portion of the upper floor, to visually connect the two main working areas of the office.  Yesterday, the big upper floor beams came out, opening an 18’ x 25’ hole.  Now, the light is pouring down into the forum area, as we expected it would, and it looks great.  The 3x15 floor beams, all vintage 1948 Douglas Fir, were hauled off to a home sawmill in Indianola and sawn into 1x15 boards. We’re going to bring the boards back and use them to clad a 35’ long “feature wall” that runs from our main entry to the middle of the office.  It’s a nice way to take some beautiful old wood and reuse it in a totally different way.  The feature wall will hold a 30’ long graphic timeline of our firm’s 24-year history.

Less than Two More Months

We gathered in our new space this past Thursday! Amid freshly sheet-rocked walls and a newly poured floor, the partners announced firm promotions. Seeing the space almost complete was exciting and helped us to imagine working in the building in less than two months.

Got Lockers?

We have staff who like to run or walk at lunchtime, and we have staff who ride bicycles and row boats to work.  So, at the new building, we’re providing a pair of staff locker rooms, with showers, to make it more attractive and convenient for us to use alternate methods of transportation to and from work.  The cool part of the story is we’ve saved a load of workable lockers from the landfill in the process.  Bremerton School District allowed us access to the former Bremerton Junior High School, scheduled for demolition soon, and for a small fee we were able to pull student lockers from the hallways for reuse at our place. It’s another part to the story of preserving and recycling pieces of community heritage in our project downtown.  (And -- just think what’s been in those lockers?!!!!!!)

Got Stripes?

The nicer weather allowed the contractor to paint the building’s exterior.  We decided our paint scheme should highlight the simple nature of our inherited concrete box.  Finally, there is some exterior expression -- but still it only hints at the incredible amount of work that has taken place inside.  Those watching from City Hall across the street will have to go inside to appreciate the transformation this old retail building has undergone on its way to a new life as a professional office building. 

A Thoughtful Gift, and More Reuse

A Tim Ryan Construction crewmember, Nathan Stuart, built this table as a gift for Steve Rice. The table is made from reclaimed car decking from the old skybridge which used to connect our building to the long since gone Sears department store on 4th Street.

Thank you Nathan!

To see photos of the old skybridge, click here.

The Feature Wall

The crews have framed one of the more prominent pieces in the new office design – what we call The Feature Wall.  It’s a 30 foot long wall that acts as an organizing element, reaching from the front door past reception and into our central forum area.  The wall (unfinished in this photo) will be clad in 1x15 boards that we think are, well, special.  The boards will be sawn from a supply of huge 3x15 beams that now hold up a portion of the old building’s upper floor.  We’re removing some of those beams to make an open section in the upper floor, and this is one of the ways we’re planning to reuse them.  They should be real nice to look at, as they were cut from old growth Douglas Fir back in the 40’s.  The recessed slot in the feature wall will hold a graphic timeline of important events in the firm’s nearly 24-year history.