Into the Sunset

The crane came today to hoist up the satellite dish and it's base to the roof. The base, without the ballast looks like a satellite in the sky as it flies up to the roof. How appropriate.

Look what the punks did to our new window up front. The first night that we had all the glass in, someone thought it would be a major improvement to throw a rock at the 1" double paned glass and took out a 5'x10' section.-

---Karma will catch up with these hoods.

The Z Systems boys hard at work in CAMTOC.

Dish and AC units on roof

Another view Dishiepie

Chris and Scott getting dangerous with the tools

Max, getting even more dangerous with a power drill to the side door.

Rocket Crane Guy giving out of this world service to the satellite boys

Hey what's all the fuss with the crane?

Satellite up, please.

Sadly, the construction portion of this blog has come to an official end: November 16, 2007.

Sunset from the roof tonight

View of the park at sunset from roof




The new satellite dish is up finally
Front view with dish. Entry is finally done

View of the SE corner, and the new sign, cool.


Time to move in and actually WORK HERE. Time to make some cash to pay for this baby.

Happy Halloween

This building project has come to an anticlimactic end. It's sort of the end that just won't happen...like a sneeze lost 2 or 3 times only to come back in a big way.

So, the building is DONE. That's right. EVERYTHING is done, built, finito, finale, spinozi.
EXCEPT the glass panes for the front vestibule and kitchen cafe. They say by the end of this week or early next week--and even if it takes that long, 2 weeks beyond the highly optimistc end date of October 19, this was one hell of an on-time performance by the team.

Since we started on June 1, the 5 month schedule is only behind by 2 weeks. A 22 week schedule is 24 weeks. It's a teensy 9% time over run.

OK, OK, here are some pictures with the signature Chief Scientist remarks:



A couple more shots of my new favorite staircase. Solid steel all the way around bartender!

Oooh, aaah, those gallery track lights on the wall in the lobby sure make this look like an art gallery. CaptionMax is just SO hip.

Check out these fat cables that lead into our super high tech 007 Security System. Just try to break in to our building abd you will be zapped big time. CaptionMax is such a safe place to work.

Remember the opening scene in Get Smart? They filmed it at CaptionMax. Everyone is super smart at CaptionMax.
Gotta love those fresh new maple doors.

A view of the cafe area

Everything but the kitchen sink has been put into this new building...Oh wait a minute, here's the kitchen sink. So I guess it DOES have everything. - - Check out the Swedish Dishwasher. CaptionMax is SO diverse.

October 23

These maple doors sure make everything look really sharp. I wish my camera lens was sharp. Use your imagination. These rooms are totally 100% done and signed off.

Once again I was having camera issues, now the exposure is messed up but you get the picture. Here's the reception area. The yellow tape now has a really nice metal railing but youll have to wait a day to see that.

Door into the scheduling zone
Today was the nicest day of the year, and a perfect day to roll up the kitchen cafe glass doors to the outside world.
Even the bike room and recycling room get fresh coats of paint and a really shiny cement sealer to top it all off.

All Done

The ladder rack in CAMTOC--just gobs of blue wire with nowhere to go.

Carpet down against a blue, green and neutral wall

The mysterious fiber optic terminal box
The not-so mysterious new phone terminal--nicer than the old brass box.

The grand entry stairwell is finally in!

Painter Paul just wondering what to paint next.

How manyguys does it take to make a conduit turn a corner?
The white roof of the atrium
Putting together the vestibule roof.
Y'all are gonna have to wait a day to see the glass front. I've been saving it for the end :)

Gettin There

This is the glass door that rolls up for fresh air to the cafe. Indoor outdoor sidewalk cafe included with purchase.



And a longer shot of same. The doors with the plywood will be outfitted with the same style glass as the one in the middle.

Roll, roll, roll, your paint, gently down the hallway...Merrily

Merrilly Merrily merrily

Life is but a dream

Way cool. A new blinding white roof and the new roof for the majestic atrium up front.
The sandman cometh.
The tiles are in the bathrooms. YAY.
A corner of CAMTOC. floors and walls all done. Gerald thinks we need electricity before calling it done. I say just run extension cords to the tech center.

A palette full of light fixtures awaits their installation.
Scissor Jack Harry making the atrium come alive.

A man selling ice cream

A guy fitting ductwork

da da da da da da

Wires wires everywhere.
Spaghetti junction

Gerald's Here

This guy is sanding the mud down with this cool gizmo that has a circular sanding disk and a vacuum hose so all the drywall joint dust is sucked up. No incredibly dusty work environment.
Here is one of the fast working expert mudders. Gerald and Chris are just getting in the way, or wanted to be in the shot more likely.
John the roofing man. That safety vest is so bright even he has to wear sunglasses while waiting for the elevator. Dude!
This kind cement smoother outer guy is making the floor for the vestibule and front entryway nice and smooth--with great pride. Later the corner in the lower left was handprinted by the owners.
EverGuard PRO. Not Everguard Amateur, baby. We use only the PRO grades here.

Hey Suzy, can you check the drawings. I'm not sure the nut on that bolt is exactly where it's supposed to be, I think the detail for that is on page NB-017
Hey, I know when I use a Sawzall on a brand new building I usually have to look at what I'm doing, but these guys are SO GOOD that he can watch TV, listen to an iPod and saw holes all at the same time. And the damn holes are always perfect.
Chris smiles, and Gerald looks away, like the model in the ads do. Note the sunglasses and the Steelers sweatshirt. I think Gerald wants a job on the roof.
Wow, a new window cut and installed in the Finance room. Let there be MORE light.

Happily Rolling Along

The roofers between layers--The layers are explained in an earlier post. This is hard work. I'm impressed with all the craftspeople on this job.

On this part of the roof a couple of guys are tacking the rubber membrane up.

The guy with the hammer in his right hand makes sure that the guy with the safety vest does everything correctly...OR ELSE!

Some part of the AC units.. Lot sof shiny new sheet metal and Roof top units coming.
Hey look! The rubber membrane roof over the kitchen held water after a big 'ol rainstorm. It better!
Realtime. Look at the colors: Tan, white and orange. Very cool.
And this is looking into realtime from the hallway. See the big ol 4" conduit in the corner.. Those are everywhere, but RT has its own 4" pipe going up to the roof.
And here is the Chief Scientist's Office where the orange and green converge. And I think this is the ONLY spot in the whole building where these two colors come together...as it should be. The buck stops here buddy.
And just so you can see the view the Chief Scientist has, I shot it at the exposure for the view, bu..so can someone photoshop these two together and I will put it up as a correction, and give you a personal credit. Here's your sot at fame....

EMMALEE KLUGE WINS THE CONTEST!!!! Photo Below courtesy E. Kluge (c) 2007
And here is the montage of the 2 photos put together by none other than our own Multimedia Expert: Emmalee Kluge, who wins the most responsive graphic artist of the year award!! Way to meet the Challenge, Emma.
A little bit difficult to discern the color as the lights are not in yet in the coffee room but here the blue wall intersects with the tan wall the white roof and the red beam. Kolorful Koffee Korner!
Oh yeah baby. The top of the newly poured 8 foot foundation for the atrium and door stoop. The big 30 foot I beam gets bolted to that plate which has 8 feet of solid concrete under it
A wide shot of the atrium/entryway foundation
Cabinets are all done, and they named them after ME!
There are tons and tons of cabinetry all waiting to be hung in next few days.
My 6th grader daughter saw me workin on the computer as I am right now, and she said, "Hey Dad, did you know that you are starting to go bald? I mean really Dad, your hair is really getting thin." She then took a picture to prove it to me....

Just a Day Later

These are the pebbles from the old roof. They will be recycled and either used on another roof or in aggregate or millions of other uses. The good part is they were swept off the roof to make way for the new white rubber membrane roof.
These are the chunks of tar....
That go into this melting machine and gets pumped up to the roof. The roof is stripped down to the bare metal or concrete, and the old crap is recycled. Then tar is mopped directly on the metal decking, then fiberboard on top of the tar, then 4" of high density foam insulation (not the Styrofoam found on typical roofs) is placed on top of the fiberboard and another layer of fiberboard on top of the foam, then another layer of tar and then 1/4" thick vinyl, or rubber membrane is glued down on top of that. It's a 7 layer salad for energy efficiency.
And after all the layers you have a really cool smooth WHITE roof top that will reflect most of the rays in the summer and the black underside and insulation will keep most of the cold out and heat in during the winter. Was this expensive? Yes. But what it saves in energy and what it does to reduce the amount of heat trapping gasses out of the atmosphere is worth it. Green is White is Good.
Here's the big hole in front of the building with the rebar and molds ready for the first layer of foundation cement. The soil engineering firm used sophisticated equipment to test the soil to make sure it would support the concrete. We have to go really deep iin the Midwest to prevent the heaving effect of ice--The outcropping to the left is for the concrete that the door swings out to which has to move exactly the same way the door itself moves--or else you could get into a situation where the door slams into cement because the slab heaved up--It's all one big foundation. I am learning a lot about architectural engineering on this job.

Here's the cement pouring out of the back of the truck and the guys are getting it in place.
And this is a few minutes later after the pour, the initial pour is done. Then a steel cage of rebar is built for the next 5 feet, a mold is made and the final pour goes on top of this, Then on top of the final pour the steel beams will attach to hold the glass and steel vestibule together. There is no sparing of over-engineering on this Project.
And the cement truck looking for another foundation to pour.
One last look at the hole with the water main, some cut communication and gas conduits. This is really cool stuff.

There's Light at the End of the Tunnel

Digging a 10 foot hole for the foundation and footings needed for the 3 story atrium up front. This is really cool stuff. I am SO jealous of the backhoe operator. I want that job.

OK, Check this out. We are standing in the captioning area, just off the elevator looking at the scheduling room. Look at the windows and notice the daylight coming in that did not used to be there. Yeah, schedulers and PMs have daylight too!

Another view of scheduling to point out the glass block.

THIS is really cool. Here is the building's co-owner standing and waiting to get into the scheduler's office, but check it! There are glass windows behind her with daylight coming in from the North and daylight coming on from the window in Realtime office which in turn goes through the window by the door (sidelight) and then enters the copy room and enters scheduling through that new window--which is hard to see here. But the point is you can see from North to South standing in any one spot for that half of the floor. And I didn't even plan it that way. Bitchin!
Women's room. Sinks on other side of wall and toilets will bolt to those bolts.

Big-assed mast for new phone and fiber optic and cable TV to enter our building
Tape and mud guy on stilts in IT office #1
Audio description room--ready to paint and carpet
The main corridor of the "office' side of the floor looking West from Multimedia #1 down the hall to CAMTOC and all the way to the back door and stairwell.

Here's superman putting up Sheetrock along the conference room wall that faces the atrium. Big windows bring in tons of natural light into conference room. Everyone will just want to conference all the time.

The Big Stuff is Happening

I still can't get the pix in the right order but screw it. Here's a bunch of crap on the roof including the machine to brush all the pebbles off. The piles are piles of 4" thick insulation, fiberboard and a mess of other material that somehow justifies the $85,000 roof job.

Oh...This may be why it's so expensive. This is the WHITE rubber membrane that is the final layer of the roof. The white roof makes it a GREEN roof because it is so energy efficient by reflecting the nasty heat away from the roof and putting much less stress on the AC, which is the biggest consumer of electricity during our long hot summers here in the Tundra.

More roofing material and frames for the new AC roof top units. Note the decorative used-car sales flags around the perimeter of the building. I wonder if the roof will double as a lot for the subs?

Looking out the new windows in Scheduling
Hoisting expensive roofing materials to the roof--very close to the skytop used car lot flags

They finally poured cement into those deep holed footings holding up the new beams
And here is looking UP at the new floor for accounting clerk office. This used to be the main front stairwell...gross!

Here's the guy enjoying his job on the Bobcat scooping up the bricks that were cut out of the front of the building for the new vestibule.

Like Open Heart surgery, The building has been split open. You can see where the atrium will be on floor 2 and how the glass tower will fit onto the building. The guy sitting on the left is making sure everything is done to perfection.
Another awesome view of the hole in the wall, and the plywood barriers put up on the second floor to keep the construction workers from falling through during construction.

Hey lookie, It's a fresh coat of paint! Starting to look like something real here!
These are the chunks of concrete slab that were cut out of the 2nd floor to make room for the stairwell in the vestibule.
And here is the hole, still being supported while the cement holding the new main I-Beam dries
And here it is again.
Here is but a fraction of the paint. Painting Party day after Thanksgiving. Surprise CaptionMax employees!!!

Almost Forgot the Sprinkler valves

How cool is this? TOTALLY worth the $70,000 for the sprinklers to have a piece of mechanical beauty like this in the basement, don;t you think?
Now a bit on the less expensive side, the floor drain for the bike room. Cement will fill in the gap and the floor will angle in to the drain for your dripping bikes and sweaty palms.
More hollow metal door frames. Can;t EVER have enough 3 hour fire rated steel door frames around. I tell you it just makes me tingle with joy.
These two pictures of the only (currently) working toilet in the basement of the building is especially for Jay who is having toilet remorse because I cancelled the porta potty for next Friday night. I said I would clean this toilet so it will look good as new. When? I don't know. Maybe before Friday's party, or maybe it's best to clean it AFTER the party. It's just gonna get dirt again from the party after all. I'll just hang a sheet of BOUNCE from the ceiling and spray paint the floor white, maybe light a candle for ambiance. Jay can you sign off on this now? Please.

End of August

One of these days I will figure out that this program adds pictures from the bottom up, and I always put them on in chrono order--which essentially makes everything in backwards chrono order by posting--Oh well, things could be worse.
This here is this gigantic cutting wheel that cut cleanly through two stories of brick and block clean through to the inside. The cutting is all about removing a HUGE portion of the front of the building to start the structural work for the steel and glass vestibule. That will make a HUGE difference in the look of the building and the feel up on second floor. You will see ow the floor is shored up getting ready to cut the hole out of the floor in next few days.
The same little turds that shot out our glass window shot out this Tetrex Lull TH644C--This is the machine that has that blade used for cutting a piece of the building. It is an awesome tool. I wish I had one.
Here's the boyz chipping away block from the brick to ensure that when they topple the wall that was just cut it drops nice and smooth without taking out any brick that is going to stay on the facade.
Here is painter Paul, wrapping up his high pressure hose after a tough day power washing the exterior which he will start to paint after Labor Day
This huge piece of cast iron with 4 gigantic bolts are the toilet mount and drains that feed directly into floor drains. These are for those wall mounted toilets. Nothing gets under-engineered at Green Duck. these puppies are just huge and heavy. They should hold just about anything up, except maybe a couple of Senators from Idaho. Tap tap, anyone home?

Here's those turds again that pellet gunned our rear window, and I'm not talking about the Hitchcock version either.
Here's Superman cutting out my new office window. Look how careful they are. No nasty chunks like what happened in Burbank when they cut from the inside instead of the outside.
Here's that cool building cutting machine. They put up a guide rail and the machine just goes up and down on this lift, computer controlled and cuts perfectly straight vertical cuts. Look at the cut on right. Seems as though they are doing this in sections since that window on the right will disappear with the new vestibule.
Today we moved into a NEW conference room because they need to cut the hole near the big conference room. We now use Realtime office. Look how big the office is. 12 of us fit comfortably in there
Here's how they shore up the floor, so that when they cut the perimeter of the atrium, the floor won't just drop out in one big boom, but rather several smaller boomlets.

August 17, a day at the office

Look at this cool color combo as an accent some walls will be green--Looks snappy, eh?

This was the first mishap of construction. In cutting out some of the ultra thick slab for the trench needed to drain the kitchen sink, the 100 pairs of phone lines were severed.

Now we get to replace it with new phone lines and equipment that's not 50 years old--which is important when you're a high tech company like us. It's also important to spend way more money than you anticipated on things that will be covered with sand and reburied and never seen again for 100 years. Yeah, that's awesome.

These WERE the stairs to the basement. The steel guys came today and welded a bunch of metal, then put this on it and soon it will be covered with concrete and be part of a corridor.

And here is a wall with some blue in it. Rock-a-bye baby.

August 15 Progress

Second floor- A pile of spiral ductwork protected to preserve its new car shininess ready to go up




Above is a pile of some really cool pipe clamps/joints/elbows used in the sprinkler system for fire. Thus they are red. Super cool!

The City of Minneapolis came by today to pave around the new manhole for our fire sprinkler main water line. They also repoured the sidewalk and part of the driveway. Everyone's involved with this project.

What used to be an extremely ugly 4" vent has been expanded to a beautiful new glass block window on the first floor--Even the bike locker room has two of these block windows before this there was no natural light in this area at all.

This shows the new white ceiling with the metal joists and deck exposed and painted, along with the red beams and posts, and even some new sprinklers hung. Look close and you can see the big beam over in scheduling area. This color is the exact color used on San Francisco's Golden gate bridge. This was my obsessive request. The architects had to research it and, I can say that it is a perfect match, having grown up looking at that bridge daily, I am the expert.

These guys are so good--if you blow the picture up you will note the pipe wrench in the left hand and a cell phone in his right, all while installing sprinkler lines.

Here's Harry, cutting some 6" metal framing for the restrooms on 2nd floor. Sparks are just so cool.

On first floor, a lot of the silver ductwork is already up. This piece runs into block wall, which will need to be cut as indicated by the precise drawing on the wall.

These posts and ceiling look so good, I just had to show it one more time.

This is just a fraction of the trenching we had to do just to get our kitchen drain hooked into the main drain in our deluxe cafe/kitchen. You may notice how thick the slab is--about 10"--Way overkill, but that's just the way we do things at CaptionMax too. Over the top in quality!

UPDATE ON AUGUST 15, 2007--See where that guy is jackammering?? Guess what we found out this morning? That's right where the saw cut through the slab and our main telephone trunk line is--200 pairs of copper severed. Why would the phone company ever pour slab right on a phone conduit is CRAZY. It's supposed to be at LEAST 24" below the slab in the earth...So Qwest is coming out to fix this on Friday. Stay posted for the telephone line severance package.

The men lifted this 700 pound lintel over a 5 foot doorway by hand. It's more massive than it looks. This piece of steel alone will hold the whole damn building up.

Here's what some of the spiral ductwork and sprinkler lines look like against the cement ceilings of first floor.

Fire sprinklers and all the joints and connections look sharp against the new white ceilings, no?

August 11 Progress

Ceilings have been painted!
These are lintels to go above all the new door openings we created in the masonry wall. They hold up the block above the wall. There's quite a sophisticated way that these are anchored into the building, which I would be foolish to try and explain.
These are the sprinkler pipes for the 2nd floor

This is in the basement and is the water line specifically for the fire sprinklers. It connects to the manhole I showed you. Or you could use this for a high pressure shower. This is 6". the water pipe coming into your home is likely only 1"

White cement ceilings on first floor

More Stuff

Above is a beam whose supporting wall was removed and is being temporarily shored up with wood.

Here is a scupper. Test later.

To the left are the guys doing the manhole work. How manly can you get?

Next to that is a snapshot of one of our weekly meetings with contractors, subs, owners, tenants, etc.

There is so much steelwork going into this project--something like $35,000 in steel. These guys have something to do with sealing one of the stairwells down to the basement. AUGUST 14 CORRECTION. Dave explained these to me today. They are part of the lintel installation. If you can tell me how they are used (and architects and contractors you are disqualified) you win a $5 gift certificate for free captioning.

Stay cool (or warm)

This here is a series of pictures from Tuesday when the big Rocket Crane, with its 165 foot boom arm came to lift all the old AC units off the roof and put them in 3 dumpsters. the roof is now completely barren and ready for the roofers to start in next day or two.

Sprinklers are Awesome

What is all THIS about, you ask?
Fire sprinklers. You think it's easy, think again. First, a crew has to com in and dig an 8 foot ole in the middle of the street to attach a 6" water line to the City water main. Then the line goes through a trench and through a core drilled through the basement foundation. Then valves are put in the street which need to be accessible to City workers via manhole. So guess who gets to pay to put in TWO manholes with ladders and steel manhole covers? Yep, that's right. It's the Green Ducklers. Can we paint those green and orange? You can also see the internal valves and the core drill here. Because I suck at using this software, the pix are a bit out of order, but you get the idea. I;m proud of the new sprinklers and how fast they got them in. The Basement is DONE, and the 1st and second floor are on hold till later in the week when the ceilings will be painted since I want the cool black, red and silver sprinkler pipes to show just the way they are.

More First Floor Progress

This expert craftsman is working on one of the 4 NEW glass block windows on the North side of the first floor. Here, let me show you from the outside:

The sheetrock matches the old and goes right up to the ceiling. Very meticulous work that these guys are experts at. This is the back of the first floor lobby.

Movin' on Up

Warning and danger Will Robinson, there are no cute pictures in this blog.

We had our first "all hands on deck" fully documented meeting on site in the new conference room at the ungodly 8AM hour. Suzanne says I was quite chatty at 7:30 A.M. maybe that will be my new wake up time.

We had 2 architects, 2 mechanical engineers, the contractor, his foreman, Suzy and I, the head of the HVAC company.

• We opted to go for the brand new white roof (highly eficient and reflective)
• The most beautiful vestibule and mezzanine in the world
• A full cafe and kitchen on first floor
• Fresh parking stripes
• New non-water using garden
• All new efficient HVAC system
• Low flow toilets and flushless urinals--Toilets with 2 speeds for flushing. COOL!
• NO SMOKING within 25 feet of entrance or in the building.. You smokers will have plenty of lovely paces to smoke no need to worry
• Proximity to Midtown Greenway
• Proximity to downtown
• Not too many parking spots
• Bike Racks
• Parking for alternative energy cars up close
• Light pollution reduction through new exterior lights
• Water use reduction by 50%
• Buying Green Power from Xcel
• Reusing 98% of the existing shell
• Recycling 75% of our demo (2 points)
• Using Low emitting VOC's in all materials: paint, glue, carpets, etc.
• Individual control of lighting
• Motion sensors for lights in bathrooms
• AND MORE.....Can you dig it???

They Shoot, They Score.

Today we scored our first of 30 actual LEED "points' We are shooting for 30 or 32, but will also be thrilled to get 26, which certifies us as GREEN more than Orange...So get out the tie-dye. We'll supply the rubber bands a RIT Green #35. Hey I remember this stuff..and drip candles too. Don't think I just fell off the turnip truck yesterday...well, on the other had, I may have.

So we got the point for this: Our building is at the intersection of 2 major buslines, the #7 and the #24. Bus Stops on all 4 corners. We will shoot for a similar alternative transportation credit for the Greenway being so close and us providing showers, bike lockers and changing room. This LEED game is fun--and yes you can click on he map and see it bigger I actually stepped back from Green to be more rosemary sage and uploaded the fully huge carbon footprint sized image--CLICK AWAY.

July shows Major Progress

The last few weeks has seen mega-progress except that I have been mega-busy, traveling and doing stuff to prevent me from adequately documenting the progress. Here's the deal: The 2nd floor, where CaptionMax will live is all framed out and all the electrical is roughed in. The first floor's corridors, common areas, bathrooms are also framed out. The big cafe and kitchen on the first floor are framed and ready for next steps, and lastly the City of Minneapolis blessed all our plans including the grand vestibule entrance way. We are now full-steam ahead with all the details worked out in pricing, materials, what we're going for and what we're not, etc.

It's been a heck of a time making the numbers work for the budget but still staying green. Being responsible to the environment costs a lot of money up front, but pays back in the long term. It's easy to see why people opt for the cheap building techniques. but in the end they pay for it and the earth suffers. I can be all righteous now since I'm spending buckets of my life's savings on this environmental stuff, so I'll take all the credit I can get.

So, enough of the boring stuff, here's something we think you'll all enjoy:

Yes, that's right, you have been very observant to notice that in fact the gas meter has moved about 30 feet to the North to make way for the grand entry way that was planned right smack dab where the gas meter was. This will make a great thing to look out at from our new lobby. Let's not even ask why I didn't move it somewhere less conspicuous. Let's just say that Max wants to keep an eye on expenses, and being able to watch the gas meter is just another way of monitoring my business.

O.K. Big deal. What's the deal with this. A friggin box with some wires in it? Yeah but look at those wires dude! Those are each like 1" thick and there's millions of them and they go everywhere and we cut the bastards to move the electrical panels. It was so sad to see such healthy wires cut in the prime of their life. Then, seeing 1000's of feet of copper on the ground made me ache with the price of copper at $4/pound. Ouch-o-rama. The electricians needed to justify the $180,000 I'm being charged to re-wire the building I guess, so they started by just ripping out the "old" worn out wire. Amazing, it looks perfectly good to me.

Here's another painful picture. This guy who didn't want his face or name in the picture, went around with a damn monkey wrench and a pail and drained the ozone-depleting freon from all 28 of our AC units both on the roof and in the basement. Then, he says, OK all set there, buddy...I'll be back on Monday with the crane to hoist all the old roof top AC units off your roof--which by the way is ALSO being replaced. I guess the HVAC people needed to justify the $330,000 they are charging to redo all our clean air needs.

And this picture proves that there are real electricians with real electrician tools and supplies at the time I snapped this they were adding outlets to the captioning area. This is just a plug for Fraser Morris electricians. Oh man I'm getting wired on this coffee. Somebody switch me off or throw me a line, my puns are shockingly bad.

And lastly, we have opted to go for a brand spanking new roof--The WHOLE damn building gets a new roof. I'm not even sure why, but they tell me it needs one, and at $80,000, it's a bargain I just couldn't refuse. It will be white though...so it will be like snow all year, which it practically is anyway. And the roofers are throwing in new scuppers as part of the deal. And if you don't know what scupper means, look it up in your Funk & Wagnall. ---ADIOS for now. I promise more exciting photos in my next posting.-max-

Some Color Please.

These are some samples of the laminate that will be used for accents and some cabinets along with some color palette of possible use of color to accent certain walls/areas
This palette represents the Golden Gate Bridge red that the I-beams will be painted against the off-white of the ceilings and joists. Most of the walls will be a warm variation of the desert sand color above with accents all over from the palette above. Also there are samples of the vinyl composite flooring for areas such as the server room and CAMTOC where carpet would not be a good idea.
More flooring and laminate possibilities--with some fun accents colors to use selectively throughout
This is a really inexpensive way to light the Grand Stairway up front--We can use any color tubes, or just change the color of the tubes with theatrical gels. Many possibilities for cheap. I like that. Faster, Better, Nicer, Cheaper, Greener.
Examples of plain old $2 fluorescent tubes that can be turned into art with some creative thinking and colored gel.

Some Design Possibilities

Both of these samples TOP (above) and BOTTOM (below) are carpet squares. These are pieces of carpet that can be arranged in any pattern and mixed or randomly placed. The squares are made of 100% recycled materials, and include the soft backing, eliminating the need to lay padding underneath. Also, because they are like tiles, repairs are a snap. And the other advantage is that because they are tiles, design ideas are infinite.

This is what our kitchen area will look like from the inside. You can see that one door is open. That's just how we are going to do it. Whoever works here is lucky!

This is what our loading dock kitchen Cafe area will look like from the outside. See how much light will be let in? And imagine that this door can OPEN in the spring and summer...and I guess the winter, but WHY?

This is what part of our roof may look like. These are solar panels for generating electricity and solatubes which we will use in select areas like the back stairwell and possibly the men's and women's restrooms. LET THERE BE LIGHT!! Y'hee Or.

Saturday in the Park...I think it was the 4th of July

Suzanne pretends to trim a bush in front of the building, because we just spent 5 hours actually trimming bushes when I had the brilliant idea of documenting the labor with my camera. Thanks, Suze!

Below is a great product called Goof Off. The brick facade of the building was tagged with a large graffiti. We sprayed this product on and power washed it right off along with the spray paint that someone else tagged us with. "Yo My Man, this building is MINE"... I don't think so. Not with Goof Off at our disposal. Just go ahead and try tagging us again. Next time, I won;t be so nice and I'll spray this Goof Off right in your face, you big goof off, whoever you are. I do not appreciate your stupid, inartistic spray painting on such a fine building.

We held an open house today, but only a handful of people showed up to look at the progress. That was AOK with Suzanne and I because we were at the building today to relax and do some chores like mega-gardening. Man some of those bushes were so overgrown that we discovered windows behind them. BONUS POINTS! We collected 3 wheelbarrows of disgusting garbage. Why is it that people who smoke, people who drink cheap beer and liquor and eat Doritos all just throw the wrappers of such items on the ground. We picked up so much crap like that, that it was literally sickening.

At least it's all clean now, and we created a 3 foot security zone between all the shrubbery and the building to discourage anyone from hiding in there or throwing more garbage in there.

How Do they Do that?

Between sessions at the MADC conference where I had to give a 2 hour presentation, we stopped at the building to check on progress. Dave the carpenter taught Jay how to use the .22 caliber rivet gun that uses a bullet-like thingie and a really cool gun that shoots a fastener through the metal framework into the cement floors and ceiling. Yes, you could kill someone with this gun, but you have to put pressure on it to work. When he demonstrated how it worked to us, the report from the gun, was as real as it gets. Gunsmoke wafted in the air, and I said "Dude, you better wear your earplugs, or you'll end up like this guy"...pointing at Jay. Luckily Jay had a sense of humor with my comment, and completely agreed anyway.

Framing Begins

This is the area in the front that include an office for guests and a marketing and sales office and a marketing supply closet--That red beam will be half exposed and half behind Sheetrock. Very cool look.The is the framing for the scheduling area. Note the door in the middle and how it is framed for a HUGE window on both sides of the door to extend up from that line to 7 feet. Schedulers and Captioners can keep a close eye on each other.

Here's the area where IT, Multimedia and Camtoc lives. Once again, CAMTOC will have a large window, so that as you pass by it in the corridor, you can look in and say: "Oh that is some cool stuff in there...I wish I had that in MY living room"

Metal framing started to go in Tuesday and continued through Friday to the point where most of the rooms/areas on the second floor can be recognized through the outlines provided by the skeleton of the metal framing. It's starting to look like an office!

Another new Loading Dock Door

So this big garage door went in on Tuesday to replace the old crusty one. The one next to it will be replaced with a glass garage door that opens into the kitchen for those Bar-B-Q days--and the other 2 loading dock doors will be fixed as glass doors--Our kitchen will sure have a LOT of natural light.
The big new operating door is for the recycling and garbage areas--A common area that CaptionMax and any other building tenants will use to sort garbage.

Week 3

Then on Tuesday the framing was delivered. A pivotal point in the process. No longer is the focus on Deconstruction. The focus is now on construction to the master plan. How cool!!

Week 3 started with the completion of demolition, mostly on the first floor, including removing a large concrete block wall that blocked the largest source of light into the building!

Progress into Week 2

Today, most of the first floors interior walls have been demo'ed. It's HUGE. the cement columns holding up the precast floors/ceiling look like freeway pillars, tempting me to start driving around on the 2nd floor. For sure there's enough room to whizz around the first floor on my motorcycle, but I don't think my insurance guy would want to read this post--Hey, just kidding Tom.

The "Stairs" was sprayed on the wall to help direct people through the maze. One of the construction workers has a sense of humor here. They all do actually. Great group over 'dere at MP Johnson, don't ya know?
Remember that dumpster from last week? Well it has moved INSIDE the building. We believe in securing our waste. Kate, you were smart in marking your name on the brick wall because that big wall that everyone signed got trashed today. Oh well.

The weird sinks and stuff are gone, so it doesn't look so much like a coroners office anymore.

And finally, a shot of Jim and Tom. These guys are with the real estate company that will help us rent out the first floor to some other green-conscious tenants. You must wear a crisp white shirt or nobody will buy or rent real estate from you. It's one of the unwritten laws of physics. No white shirt, no contract. I am going out to WalMart tonight to re-wardrobe myself in fine white shirts. Thanks for the tip, guys.

More Demo Progress

Universal Camo Tape Services--Better than getting robbed.

It's really cleared out clean now. Note the I-Beams that will stay exposed.

Did I tell you we were getting all-new HVAC? We are getting all-new ductwork? Our air will be clean and green. This is what the former occupants breathed out of. YUCK!

Here's the Audio Description and Multimedia. There's a lot more space, but the important thing here is that there are 10" concrete block walls on all sides and top and bottom of the audio description area--great location for sound isolation.

Check out the neatly rolled pieces of carpet that were formerly glued to the floor. These demo guys are keep the area cleaner and more organized while knocking down a building's interior than I am in my own office...every day.

_________________________________________________________________

What a week. What started as a building for rehabbing hospital equipment is very quickly become CaptionMax-ized, which of course starts with total deconstruction. Today I power washed the garage where most of the dust and dirt were stuck to the walls and ceiling. I also dressed the cables to the new openers and put light bulbs in. It only took one Max to screw it in.

Otherwise, it was a tiring week having to pay attention to business while trying to enjoy this new project at the same time. I got paid a visit from Mel and Shawn later in the afternoon. They caught me putting camo duct tape over the word "Hospital" on all the outside signage. Last week a guy tied up two employees at the New UHS headquarters--where the former tenants of this building went--and ransacked the place looking for drugs. Apparently the word "Hospital" makes people crazy with fantasies of little bottles of morphine stashed away. Only thing is, this Hospital Supply company only had stuff like bedpans, incubators, and zipper bed compartments for the the psych wards. Maybe they will end up in one of those very beds. Enjoy the pix.

The Clicquot Club

The home of the old famous Ginger Ale, Cliquot is now a really awesome diner with an outdoor patio and waterfall, complete with sculpture garden. It is right down the street on 24th Street. It is bound to be a CaptionMax lunch favorite. We ate dinner there tonight. It was delicious and good service. A Seward institution.

Soddenly Green

For those of you following this blog, you may have noticed this is the same shot I took yesterday out the same window where the guy from the City was prepping the soil. Look how green it turned overnight. The magic of sod. --UPDATE Aug 14 2007. This grass is all dead as the result of 2 months of no rain in Minneapolis. Bummer Dude!

Ceilings Exposed for What They Are!

This looks cooler than the old cardboard ceiling tile. Hopefully we can re-use some of these neat-o cable boxes/troughs. Probably all the ductwork will get replaced, but we'll see tomorrow what the mechanical people have to say about that.

Note how this cable box opens and closes, and runs the perimeter of the floor for IT cables. Sweet.

Cold Drinks for sale

Sure hope we can find a new home for this old Oasis Water fountain.

The walls come tumbling Down

Today marked big progress in demolition of walls on the second floor including much of the concrete block wall. You can see how spacious it is starting to get. It's really a LOT of space. this floor has 11,000 square feet--That's about 1/4 an acre!

Here's the ladder up to the roof. It was in the Men's room, which is being expanded.

Here is Suzanne at about the half way point on the width of the building. There used to be about 3 or 4 walls between where I took the picture and her. Makes a big difference.

Just can't get enough of Super Sugar Crisp!

New Garage Doors-Big Day!

Today, the new garage doors were installed. Previously these were decrepit and falling apart pieces of lumber that did not lock or have a motor. NOW, we have dual matching vinyl clad, ready-to-paint spanking new doors. This is my office during the build-out, and hopefully my metal sculpture studio once the building is complete. It also makes a great place to store our (green) cordless electric lawnmower and other environmentally-friendly items.

Recycling Building Debris

And off it all goes to be re-used.

The proud driver of the dumpster truck explained to me the whole process.

All the debris from the day's demo is hauled off to a sorting facility in NE Minneapolis. Everything is dumped onto a conveyor belt and picked through and sorted for recycling. Then whatever is left is put on the conveyor belt again for a second pass. This company, which is new in Minneapolis http://www.atomicwaste.com/Recycling_C.html is one of the only contractors who can fully document that all the materials were put back into use.

CaptionMax estimates that 80% of all the debris in the dumpster gets re-used. That is above the 50% minimum for LEED projects and above the bonus 75% minimum for being super-green. Besides the things in the dumpster being recycled, there were countless doors, hardware, lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures and copper that will all be re-used, donated to charitable organizations or sold as scrap metal. When it comes to recycling, CaptionMax rocks!

Looks fine the way it is.

Hey now that's what I call Multi Media. Turn THAT into a DVD!

This will be the sales and marketing department--Just a load of ----

A folding table, metal chairs and a can of sprite and voila, a major corporate Conference Room

Kitchen, Smitchen. All you need is a stainless steel hospital scrub sink, some PhisoHex, and a microwave.

Just have a seat on this comfy pile of old dusty insulation, Max will be right with you.

Green on the outside too

Max has taken the garage as his worksite office, and painted the door green.

Coincidentally, the City of Minneapolis rebuilt the street and the infrastructure in 2006. Here we see a City Worker prepping the planting bed for new sod along the boulevard.

And here is the SE corner of the property where in one picture you can see bikers, 2 bus lines and bus stops, the green lawn and shade trees surround the building, and The Twin Cities' major East-West bicycle artery--The Midtown Greenway--is right in front of this biker.

Early Demolition Scenes

Note how neatly stacked all the aluminum framing is. It will all be recycled.

Wow, look at all the wire they are pulling from the walls and ceiling. There is tons of it, and it will all be recycled.

All the ceiling tiles are pulled, stacked up neatly. They will be recycled into cardboard products. We may even ship you a box of tapes made of these very ceiling tiles.

See how neat and organized the demolition activity is? This is all part of the LEED certification process. The building is re-used, and kept clean, even during the dirt phases.

Cool. What a difference ripping out those ceiling tiles and electrical fixtures

Demolition Finally Starts

A few shots of the second floor on Monday June 4

Eva takes a whack

CaptionMax's youngest Employee, Eva Jack, set to graduate 5th grade this week takes a swing at the first wall slated for demolition. Note that even the sounds of the demolition are captioned.

Ceiling tiles to Solar Panels

All these hideous ceiling tiles will be coming out in 48 hours, but makes takes advantage of the open pallette to paint exactly where stuff will be going. In this case the area where the photovoltaic cells will be placed on the roof above is noted with some non toxic latex spray paint.

Pre-Demo Party

Eric Lagerquist, of SmithGroup Architects, looks on as people sign a big wall in the lunch room. This wall, along with every other non load bearing wall in the building is slated for demolition starting Monday morning at 6 AM.

Front of building

This is the front of the existing building. 2438 27th Avenue S. Minneapolis, MN. Formerly home of Universal Hospital Services, Note that there were 4 additions over the years. See if you can detect them.