Countdown to Opening

The Garden is a buzz with activity! It's hard to believe the Garden's expansion project will be complete in just a few short weeks. Above is a photo I took from the roof of our current visitor center last week. The circular feature will have a ring of trees inside it. Technically it's called Alston Overlook, but I prefer The Druid Circle. The building toward the back is the new visitor center. From a bird's eye view, you can really appreciate the creativity and planning involved in the design. The new buildings and hardscaping blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape. It's unbelieveably exciting!

Over on the "other side", in the "old" part of the Garden, we broke ground on the footings for the Moore sculptures on March 16th. The process began months ago when we sited the locations of the sculptures with the Henry Moore Foundation. Then we called in Long Engineering and Hardin Construction to design and build the footings and pedestals. The dimensions and weights of these works are so extreme, it takes an engineer to determine the size and depth of the concrete footings and pedestals that will support the sculptures.

I am forever grateful that this show dovetails with the expansion project as all the equipment and resources required to build the foundations are pretty much already on site. Hardin construction is the GC on the expansion project, and I was thrilled they agreed to take on my tiny-by-comparison sculpture project. Their team began by staking the locations, digging out holes, laying reinforcing steel, then pouring the concrete footings.

To the delight of our feathered friends, the excavation process left all kinds of wriggling dirt dwellers exposed.

Steel rebar laid out for reinforcement.

Sidewalks, concrete trucks, and visitors don't mix particularly well. Each load of cement therefore had to be brought in with a Georgia buggy, which is basically a motor driven wheelbarrow.

The Hardin crew says this project is a bit unusual for them, particularly the interruptions by our younger visitors: "Can I get up there and ride with you?" "Are you digging graves?" Not a bad question given the size of some of the footings, like this 10' long, 5000 pound behemoth...

So by now you must be wondering how we're going to get these out once the show closes, right? We should be able to pull some of them out with a crane. As for the pedestals and remaining footings, I'm eager to see what that blog entry says as well.