Tasha does it all, carpentry, concrete,
heavy lifting, etc. and when the resort
reopens he'll be back doing security
and general maintenance.
Jabuddha is our lead carpenter.
Peace Jabuddha.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
October 8, 2009 Staff Photos
Tasha does it all, carpentry, concrete,
heavy lifting, etc. and when the resort
reopens he'll be back doing security
and general maintenance.
Jabuddha is our lead carpenter.
Peace Jabuddha.
October 6, 2009
Roof going up on building 2
Floor going down on building 1
click on any image to enlarge
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
October 2, 2009 2
Alfredo Segundo and Lennox working on entry deck and the steps to the lower floor units.
October 2, 2009
Now that the adjoining decks, entrance boardwalks and stairs are complete the crew has returned to the wall panels and is completing installation of the entire second floor today. We've now caught up with the progress to date.
Going forward we'll be posting every few days and will send links to all of our suppliers for this project.
September 30, 2009 2
View from lower floor unit, building 2. We are pleased to report that the panels are doing their job.
The afternoon sun heats the outside of the panels hot to the touch while the interiors are cool and breezy. The weather has been gorgeous but hot and it's great the guys can work increasingly inside and in the shade. The units are proving to be an ideal retreat during work breaks.
September 30, 2009
Trex deck boards are now installed on the lower decks, the floor eco-panels are installed on building 2 and the floor beams and joists are set for building 1.
September 10, 2009
Lower floor decks complete on both buildings. Upper floor beam on the building one underway.
September 1, 2009 3
Walls are up on first floor of each building.
The walls are the fast part. Framing perfectly, decks, boardwalks and stairs take much more time.
Note the black fabric on the top of bldg 1. We are giving the panels an extra bit of waterproofing as we prepare for Tropical Storm Erika.
September 1, 2009 2
As the panels are lined up to be set in place the edges are lined with foam sealant, placed then camlocked. Very solid.
It took us almost one year to get these plans approved by the local building department. Not having worked with these before there were the plan reviewers were extremely careful that we complied with their rating guidelines for maximum fire, seismic and wind risks. While the panels are rated by a number of agencies they were not rated by the specific agencies accepted by the USVI. We persevered and now have a fully permitted, very secure structure going up.
September 1, 2009
Mike Sides from Eco-Panels flew down to give us some expert installation advise, such as getting the corners in first. Thanks Mike.
August 29, 2009
The panels have metal edges and are camlocked together so the framing has to be absolutely exact or the locks won't line up properly. And these babies are heavy. No fun shifting them into place,
so it's great when they set in perfectly.
August 29, 2009
The Eco-Panels crew set the entire building together in NC then disassembled it and loaded it in perfect order so we can unload and place. Unfortunately we were not as ready as they so we unloaded the 40ft container and are storing the panels in the proper order until ready for install.
August 28, 2009
The walls are going up! So now a few words about our amazing walls, floors and roofs. They are Eco-Panels from a NC company by the same name, see eco-panels.com. They are made of two sheets of plywood with 6" foam insulation. Using refrigeration construction technology, these panels have exceptionally high insulation capability and allow us to build these units in an area of the property too hot for eco-tents. The panels are pre-cut in NC eliminating the large amount of construction waste usually generated by projects in St. John which would need to be trucked to the local transfer station then trucked again to the barge to be shipped to the St. Thomas landfill.
August 17, 2009
Here's the hillside view of what will become our new Eco-Studio units. Scaffolding and railings in place. We're pleased with the minimal site disturbance. The beautiful VI National Park hillsides surround the site.
August 10, 2009
Our brilliant and indefatigable architect Mr. Glen Speer is on site! He is joined by exceptionally talented carpenter Jabudha and long time Glen co-worker Cesario. They are finishing out the column brackets and have built a scaffold around the site so they can start working on the floor and will have a platform for the installation of the eco-panels (more about that in later posts). Note the beautiful Salt Pond Bay and Ram Head Point in the VI National Park in the background. We are senstive to the fact we adjoin the park and want the finished units to be something the Park Service will be proud to neighbor.
July 27, 2009
FootingsThis year we are building one pod, consisting of two buildings with a lower floor studio and and upper floor (wheelchair accessible) studio in each.
Next step was to dig and form the 13 footings per building. Note the minimal site damage as our hand-digging allows us to keep vegetation right up to the building site.
Amazing work, as always, by the Jimmy Oyola Concrete Crew.
July 15, 2009
Lay Out Units Set Batter Boards on SiteWe started the construction by figuring out the location and elevation of each of the six two building pods over the hillside. This process took about a week and achieved our goal to retain maximum vegetation while giving each unit a great view and maximum exposure for cooling breezes. We have some amazing pipe organ cactus on this site that we wanted to keep intact no-matter-what so it took some ingenious siting work. Thanks Dave and Segundo.
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