Page for dialogue and comments about building our Flat Home.

ward:

The vinyl delivery is scheduled for Thursday, which I may miss, but Doug will attend to. I built drying racks in the studio so we can begin off-gassing the material right away.

alex 18.03.07

Here are the pictures of the aluminum plank ladders I promised. only $132 per ladder.

i think we should treat ourselves.

ward 19.03.07

Hey dere. I am in kassel with Manuela who says sweet hugs to you. I have a surreal amount os solitude here, basically from 9 in the morning to 9:30 at night. I am pressing ahead on two lapsed deadlines and our benefit drawing for the Sculpture Center.

Vinyl delivery was a snafu but Doug is on the case, as he is on webcams and website.

The ladders are definitely a luxury we can almost afford -if we do sell the 3 models. I will reconnect with my patron when you feel secure they are coming along. What do you anticipate as a timeframe?

I am more convinced than ever that a long-swing ladder will be a drag in our narrow confines, but a good solid reliable ladder will be the way to begin in any case. At 24" they will rub against or sides and probably bind. And they will be too wide to adapt to any other style inovation we may want to try, eg the door-swing version we talked about.

As for the ones you found, can we source them in New York locally, or by mail, or what? maybe we can get 20 or 18 inch variety?

doug 20.3.07

vinyl gas-off setup is a one-person nightmare.... but i've got backup on the way.

by the way ward, i found a ticket on your door for failing to clean the ice off the sidewalk, and a leak coming from the ceiling about the water heater. i put a bucket under the leak, but i'm not going to pay the ticket.

http://flatland.pbwiki.com/f/DSC_0275.JPG

http://flatland.pbwiki.com/f/DSC_0276.JPG

Dear Alex,

I am down in Florida with my Dad for a few days, which is all good. I had a meeting with Sarina and just reviewed our actual site placement, and she mentioned that, for insurance reasons, Sculpture Center has an engineer look-over and sign off on larger projects, such as ours.

So, in the next week or so, we need to communicate with this fellow and put his mind at ease that we are constructing a safe, non-tipping, well attached unit. I am pasting in the correspondence flown to date:

To:

Ed Reilly

Hi Ed,

Just wanted to introduce you to Ward Shelley who will be making a super big structure in our space for our upcoming show : Happiness of Objects.

Ward is working with and architect named Alex Schweder - so the structure should be sound - but we would be a little comforted by the idea that you had a quick look at the info Ward or Alex will send you.

Plus, I think you might find it intriguing and amusing as a project.

Huge thanks - and have a great week-end,

Sarina

Hi Sarina,

I look forward to seeing the plans for the piece. I am currently in

Key West and committed to facilitating the annual Board retreat for

Sculpture Key West in mid-April. Thereafter I will be back in NYC and

will call you to discuss this project. What are the installation

dates ? Should you need any assistance on site before then please

contact my assistant Mike Ross.

Ciao,

Ed

Dear Ed,

RE: Flatland at Sculpture Center

Nice to meet you. Besides artists, Alex is an architect and I have bee a carpenter for the last 20 years. Our pice is basically a very narrow balloon-frame construction, like a wooden house. We have elevations that show our configuration, but not drawings of fastening details and such. Mostly it will be pretty standard, but with a number of strategic guy-wires to the girder-works overhead.

I think I can get alex to e-mail you some drawings pretty soon. We are intending to assemble our materials at the Sculpture Center beginning April 17.

Yours, Ward Shelley

So, Alex, what do you think we may need to generate for this guy? It might be easiest just to ask him.

XX, W

ward 070411

From: Ward Shelley

Subject: Flatland at Sculpture Center

Date: 13 April 2007 13:00:44 GMT-04:00

To: Ed Reilly

Cc: Alexander Schweder , Ward Shelley

Dear Ed,

Ward Shelley here, regarding the floor-standing structure we hope to erect at Sculpture Center beginning April 17. We got back our last e-mails to you undeliverable... hope you get this one.

Attached are two sketches, elevation and plan, of the structure.

Here are some descriptions of the construction details:

The structure stands on the floor. It is 40 ft high, 24 ft wide and 24 inches deep. It has cable connections to overhead beams to prevent lateral movement only. All weight is on the floor.

It has four floors, the first is 4 feet off the ground, and then they are spaced at 8 foot intervals. The floors are 2 ft X 24 ft. made of 3/4" plywood with 2x4 joists. The bottom 4 feet are sheathed in 1/2" plywood.

40 ft studs are at 24" intervals, 13 on a side. They are made of 2x4's of varying lengths (to disperse joints) attached with fish plates on both 4" faces. They are also lapped with furring strips on the narrow face. All construction is done so as to place a solid stud next to a jointed one. The studs run floor to top, with the floors hung inside on joist runners.

Metal strapping is used for X bracing in the 12 extreme locations.

There is a vinyl skin attached with the full length furring strips applied to the face of the studs and safety railings at 2 heights, waste and knee, on each floor. Ladders and trap-doors.

Sarina has (carefully) selected a placement of the piece that will determine our points of connection for the guys. I normally would go for intersections rather than spans. Perhaps you or someone from your office would like to meet us on the site to make determinations.

I know this is squeezing you pretty tight, timewise. We are also in a squeeze. I wanted to get delivery of materials on April 18, so if you see any radical issues that need to really change my design, it will effect my materials order and budget, so it would be great to know as soon as possible. You can reach me by my cell nearly anytime to make comments or plans.

Thank you,

ward 070413

Dear Sarina and Mary,

We are going to be doing some of the preliminary work for Flatland this weekend and I wanted to apprise you of it.

I hired a Real Plumber and we did a site visit on Wednesday. He revised some of my plans: no garden hose now. We will tap into the roof-drain riser as before for our waste water, and he found a place to bring water up from the basement in the same location. It will be done to code: copper pipe. Anyway, the connection is near one of Christoph's wall, which he will close up in a few days, so we need to do that immediately to be out of his way (we all met and agreed about this). So, we start tomorrow, Saturday, morning.

We also will do some internet testing near the front desk.

Expecting to get hear-back from Ed Reilly soon. We plan to get material load-in Wednesday morning and get right to work.

Is it possible for me to get a key, and entry/exit instructions?

Thanks,

Ward Shelley