Letters to the Architect
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Monday, 4 October 2004
Fun With Joints




Does anybody remember Lincoln Logs? Before Legos you could build a toy version of Honest Abe's log cabin, or, if you had enough sets, an Adirondack Great Camp worthy of the Vanderbilts.

Our camp porch roof will be held up by a girder and collar tie system of 6"x6" Douglas fir. There are only two collar ties to hold against snow load deflection, so I used dovetails to lock the lap joints together since dovetails resist tensional forces. The fir is stiff enough to carry the 8 foot span between the 6x6 cedar posts that are tenoned up into the bottom of the scarf joint.

Chris is coming up with us next weekend and we will finally get the two towers cross braced together with these sticks. Stay tuned....or not....love to all BSB





Posted by Bennett at 6:48 AM EDT
Tuesday, 21 September 2004
Abstract Expressionist Plumbing




Hi Everybody.

Three days on the Mountain. Woke up to torrential rain on Saturday after arriving past midnight on Friday. We were able to locate a few leaks where the roof is only Ice and Snow Membrane. Water getting in the joint between the sidewall sheathing and the roof. An easy band-aid once the rain stopped.

I did my famous abstract expressionist plumbing for the shower and toilet....I just love (ugh) the purple plastic pipe primer and cleaner, the fumes it makes and the stupid head it puts one in. Perhaps the reports of Jackson Pollock's alcoholism were exagerated....He was a glue sniffer.

Put up some walls and 1/4 luan ply left over from closing up the windows for winter a year ago, Louise hung a tablecloth as a curtain, and presto a sanitary facility!

My brother Waring and his wife Audrey came Saturday and when the rain let up, Waring set out gathering stone for the trench around the tower foundation so it would drain ground water away. We had filled the ditch under the deck before we built the deck framing, but Waring finished the back ditch which was the deepest into the bank of dirt. Thankless work accomplished with a Zen spirit of willingness. Thanks Waring. Audrey brought an awesome Crock-Potted pork roast and we had a feast, Louise adding blueberry/peach cobbler done in a Dutch Oven...an inspiration remembered from River Rafting with Andy Glantz....thanks Andy.

The 6x6 beams for the porch roof girders were delivered, and structural Douglas fir is gorgeous stuff. I didn't even attempt to start cutting the joints, but got careful site verified dimensions and will do it in the studio in Peconic, where one doesn't have to start a generator to make a cut. We loaded the fir and cedar posts into the truck, but did a smudge blessing on the again overloaded vehicle before braving the roads to visit Jenn and Baeden on the way to the ferry and home. Having not yet heeded Bob Harper's admonishment to get the porch roof done to buttress the tower to the main house before the hurricanes hit Vermont, I installed 2x6 diagonals from the second floor double plate to the deck girders where they are supported on the concrete piers. Used Timberlock screw fasteners with a shear strength of 2995 lbs. Ought to help. Not that Hurricanes make to Vermont that often. We will return Columbus Day weekend, with a truckload of mortise and tenoned and dovetailed beam joints.

Best to all, BSB

p.s. Beware of Internet Art Transactions that offer to send you a six thousand dollar overpayment, beyond the asking price, with the demand that you immediately send the overpayment back via Western Union. Duh!






Posted by Bennett at 6:05 PM EDT
Monday, 13 September 2004
Personal Hygiene and Stuff




Dear Friends

With no word from Taconic Lumber on the arrival of the Douglas fir 6x6 beams that are the main support for the porch roof, I was at a loss planing the weekends activity...... but there is the discomfort of showering outside in Vermont after the sun has set in the Autumn and the temperature drops like a stone. Time for a Thursday night Home Depot Date. If they had a cafe like the big bookstores it could be a complete romantic evening.

We picked out an acceptable linoleum and plywood for the sub floor for the downstairs of the guest tower and a shower stall and then drove the plumbing department salesman to the edge (like our troops in Iraq, Home Depot is short staffed and he had been there for 11 hours) helping us find all the parts necessary to hook up drain lines for toilet, shower and sink.

On Friday we stopped to pick up The Child of the Fire, from the People of the Fire Suite of bronzes, which had been on extended loan for five years or so. This photo is the first appearance in cyber space of this piece. I didn't have a chance to photograph it when it was completed.

My building efforts got a trap door built to the plumbing crawl space (cellar?), the sub floor plywood and linoleum fitted and installed. Ran into layout confusion with the shower drain falling outside the cellar due to the cantilever of the floor. The shower also intruded on the windows centered on the elevation. Louise suggested a different shower location, and then the toilet found a new location and the interest in mazes that lead to the mosaic spiral also reconfigured the whole bath area as an exercise in "just big enough." I couldn't get the door to the shower/toilet area and the window to share a common centerline. Richard Gluckman would be horrified ( but I doubt he'll visit). Scouted all the 2x4's lying around and built the shower enclosure by the end of the weekend. Didn't have enough to build the privacy wall for the toilet.

Sunday we got in the blocking on the eve wall of the tower (keep out bugs and cold) and built a railing over the stairwell. Last weekend Louise had built a ladder to the loft. Saturday we had a visit from Katherine and Bill Montgomery, our landlords in North Adams during last summers framing of the main camp. They had a new tenant for the student apartment and were getting rid of mattresses, and brought us up the double we had slept on last year. So we now have inhabitable guest space. We are taking reservations......Love to all...BSB








Posted by Bennett at 9:07 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 13 September 2004 9:19 PM EDT
Monday, 6 September 2004
Report from the Mountain





Greetings Survivors of Letters to the Architect

Barak maintains that Letters to the Architect should live on even if we have to change the name since the loss of Bob Harper. In the two weeks before his death Bob called me twice with answers to unresolved questions, and practically his last words to me were,"I hope you get the porch roof built before the hurricanes hit Vermont.The tower needs to be cross braced to the main house." I have the materials for the porch posts on hand, and main beams are ordered, and we will do our best.

We had a hiatus in Vermont building that lasted a month, while Louise was in the hospital for a week with a 1-2-3 knock-out of Lyme disease, a second tick born disease I can neither pronounce nor spell, and pancreatitus, which left her unable to keep down food, liquid. or medicine. It was a couple of weeks before she could even imagine holding a skill saw or hammer.

Last weekend we returned and finished the plywood on the gables of the guest tower, and got the door in . This weekend we had a visit on Saturday from Barak, Jenn and Baeden, as well as a driveby visit from Daina and Eric, so with much help and an eleven hour day we got the tyvek on and the nine windows installed in the tower. We had to cut the long weekend short to fetch Chris at JFK on his return from Alaska and Seattle. Tomorrow, being Labor Day, will be appropriately named for packing the truck to return him to Nork University and the second year of his Masters. Tuesday we return to work. I am working on a house renovation in Orient for the sculptor Richard Serra with the design work coming out of the office of Richard Gluckman. It doesnt replace the loss of Bob Harper's friendship and guidance, but I do love the lucidity a good architect brings to a project.


We love the prospect from the sleeping loft of the guest tower. Four pieces of blocking at the eves over the bed and the screens installed in the windows, and it would be inhabitable....well until the frost and snow anyway.

Best to all of you, BSB











Posted by Bennett at 8:05 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 6 September 2004 8:11 AM EDT
Tuesday, 3 August 2004
The Architect: Robert Lewis Harper FAIA



Dear Friends,

I can no longer send Reports or Letters to the Architect. Bob Harper passed away this past saturday. I shared with him a love for three dimensional form that has been rare in my life experience. Its been an honor to have him as a friend and collaborator, I am thankful for the vision and kind guidance he has supplied our Vermont building project. His imagination resonates in the structures he envisioned. Words stumble, and tears fall, but friendship is a blessing that endures. My best to Patty...love BSB


Posted by Bennett at 10:06 AM EDT
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Tuesday, 27 July 2004
The Two Towers




Dear Bob, Patty, et al.

Perhaps I should start to make these missives brief, as there are those who only look at the pictures, but then again........ We had nearly a week in Vermont....the stuff of epics! Well the stuff of tiny towers at the end of screened porch wannabes. Got the queen-sized matress upstairs by pulling the plywood off from over the stairwell, and the light into the livingroom from the stairwell clerestory balances out the light in the whole first floor. Still dont have a clue on how far we want to compromise an opportuinity for an 18 foot high wall of windows in order to increase the space in the second floor. Perhaps we will convince the architect to visit while we pull up the east ply on the second floor and do what back at Environment East we called a mockery (mockup, Jason).

Rain in Vermont on Monday, and no delivery from Taconic Lumber in the morning, so we did tarp magic over the porch for a cutting startion and gave the camp the distinct air of Appalachia, which the lack of a dumpster also helps create. Got all the ply on the first floor of the framing, by which time the lumber truck arrived. Nailed off the 3/4 ply in the second floor and got out the drawing with my trig calculatioins and the cutting list, and Louise cut the whole of the second floor walls. While she started the weeks kitchen duties, I nailed together the South wall. That was monday.

Tuesday we had Barak, Jenn and Baeden arriving in the afternoon, so Louise and I framed like people driven to a frenzy. Barak arrived in time to assemble and hoist the trusses into place. I had the pieces cut before they arrived, and the trig calculations were right on the money.

The rest of the week blurrs into a trance of construction monomania (for me at least, Louise kept us fueled with culinary delights, retreating into the kitchen as a place of cooking joy). Wednesday I put in cats at four foot intervals on the roof, and got most of the bumpout done. Thursday was glorious weather, and we decided we would be fools not to get the roof on, so we hoisted the 7 sheets of ply and managed to get ice and snow membrane on. Louise would like some music suitable for a Wagnerian epic opera to be playing in your mind as you reread the last sentance. Friday we had torrential rain again and used the day to put on the wall ply. Its nice to change into dry clothes and sit in a dry living room once in awhile in the midst of such monomania.

Our friends Ken and Espe arrived in Saturday, and we packed up the tools on their arrival (a promise I made to Louise) Went for a hike to the top of the mountain (the first time this year) and into town for a concert at Mass MoCA in the evening....a six hour marathon with Bang On A Can, special guest Terry Riley, minimalist. Interesting show. Today we packed out, and employed the witchcraft of Esperanza to bless the whole structure with a smudge ritual of burning herbs. Swung by the Vermont Country store, and Yankee Candle and made a cell phone reservation for the 6:00 pm ferry, which was just in time to watch the Tall Ships leave the New London harbor.`

Was it a week of epics......dunno, but it feels like a full week. It makes a difference to have shelter. Once the ply goes on the gables and the windows and door are in, we have another dry structure!!!!!

Was I going to make this shorter??????
love to all of you...BSB














Posted by Bennett at 8:26 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 29 July 2004 12:32 PM EDT
Monday, 12 July 2004
Framing the tower



Dear Bob and Patty

Things change on the mountain in three days. We arrived thursday night, and spent the morning friday setting up scaffolding and installing the four windows on the north elevation over the stairwell.

Barak Jenn and Baeden arrived in the afternoon, and Barak helped me get the tyvek and windows on the sidewalls of the bumpout. We had our first impromptu party Friday night with the arrival of Chris, Erin, Oscar and Theo Young, and another family of Barak's friends from the Tripod/Williamstown days. Amid swarms of children roaming the meadow, I got the plates and sills for the guest tower laid out, and did a cutting list of stud lengths that corrected the 5/16 inch variation in first floor platform levelness. The deck of the porch served very well for a crowd of 14 humans and proto humans. The whole camp design begins to resonate with viability as a location for family gatherings. My sibs can take note that by fall three couples could no doubt be accomodated for a weekend!

Saturday, Louise assumed her station as skillsaw adept, and cut the studs while I did the marking and started nailing. Flipped up the walls, and got the LVLs (okay......laminated veneer lumber.......and Jason....smoo is construction adhesive) cut, sistered and installed. I love the engineering of the cantilevers going three directions. Everything just looks like a little box untill you look at what it is doing to generate its little boxness...

Sunday I finished the framing for the second floor platform, and we found a full sheet of 3/4 cdx ply and nailed it off in the observatory corner of the little tower, and took a picture of the view up the meadow toward the brook. Love it! Louise prepared the camp for our return for a full week, starting next Sunday.....I have a few hours to spend with the drawings, doing a shopping list for Taconic Lumber before then.

Louise did all the photography as I spent my weekend as a hammerin' fool..... Love to all....BSB








Posted by Bennett at 9:06 AM EDT
Monday, 28 June 2004
Deck Framing



Dear Bob and Patty

Barak and Jenn and Baeden stayed in a motel in Pownal, next town to the West. We tandem drove after a ferry crossing together with my niece Sara and her husband Steve who had visited Peconic from California. We arrived early enough friday to set up for 2nd floor East windows. Barak solved the second floor window installation methodology for the second window, while I nailed off the first, less planned, and the more difficult of the two. Smart is good.

Built the porch deck on Saturday after moving four wheelbarrow loads of rock into the drainage trench. Barak came by and helped lift the girders. They went to a wedding further up into Vermont. Sunday we got out the plans and built the double cantilever 8'x12' 7" to specs. Tecos are not always pretty.

Sara and Steve called from Dunkin Donuts as we were getting in the loaded truck to leave, so we stayed to show them the camp and water spigot. As we were leaving we found a couple of local inhabitants already celebrating the porch deck with a party of two. The butterflies. The natural life up there is a treat.

Back to work tomorrow....love to all, BSB











Posted by Bennett at 8:17 AM EDT
Wednesday, 23 June 2004
The Architect's Accomplishment


The architect has completed both form and structure. Even with a tiny and simple appearing form, the load paths are indirect when the structure cantilevers in two directions, utilizing a pre-set foundation loction. I am immensely happy with the end product, and am honored to have been part of the process that generates this elegance of form and scale. Thanks Bob

Love to all BSB





Posted by Bennett at 9:54 AM EDT
Sunday, 20 June 2004
Storage Silo. Father's Day


Hi Everyone.

The architect has been at his desk, sissors and pencils and scales and copiers at the ready. Are we ready. The storage silo, a place to store your guests. Same footprint as the shed/privy approved by the town.

Oh yes, we stopped by Centerbrook, Bob is Centerbrook. I joined him for a single malt, Louise was designated, Discussed the balance of the double ended cantilever and the structural hardpoints.

We arrived at the mountain at the witching hour exactly. If the true forms of prayer are blessing and thanksgiving, I fell asleep in sacred space.

Sixteen hours on the mountain got the three east windows in. The natural light in the kitchen is awesome. We decided ice and snow membrane should be an olympic sport, for some HGTV reality contest. We are not contestants. We are the winners. Well, maybe, sorta. The ISM doesnt stick to the powdery surface of the concrete tank, but it hangs like an apron over the edge of the tank top by 3"-6".

It is my fathers day awareness that the inclusion of a second, tiny, perfectly scaled, private space is the finest gift that could be made to this project. A gift to my children and family and friends. I know my father, who's will empowers this project approves the use of his estate . As the witchs would say....."blessed be"....BSB







Posted by Bennett at 5:48 PM EDT

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