Completion of the NIH Green Roof
Tuesday April, 21 2009 marks the day of completion of the National Institute of Health Green Roof - the final project I managed with Furbish Company. I received many lessons from the deconstruction and construction of this roof. Some of the greatest lessons I received was captured in my blog Nobody Needs a Super Hero. In this blog entry, I’m highlighting the lesson about developing others around us. I realized during this job that I can’t be in five places at once; talking with the General Contractor, installing metal edging, fastening anchors into a brick wall, overseeing the installation of our project, and answering phone calls - impossible! What I learned I needed to do was to invest the time and teach my team members to see what I see and give them the information I have, watch over them until I know they got it, and BAM I have another me on the roof.
Piggy backing these lessons was the lesson of discernment. I applied lesson one, and gave one of my team members a task. I invested time and taught him, gave him everything I knew about the task, and I watch over him until I felt confident he could do the task well. Little did I know, he would get cocky, saw an opportunity to increase his speed of installation, and he decided to forgo his guide and eyeball the install process - that was a disaster. Another 45 man hours and an extra $300.00 in materials later, we installed the Jacobs Trellis correctly. I learned knowing my team mates well is really important. Skills and abilities are one thing, and temperament is another. I need to really be conscious of and thinking about:
- How do they learn best
- How can I make a connection for them
- How will they handle responsibility
- How do they handle mistakes
- How will they work under pressure
These are some of the questions I must keep asking myself when I am hoping to create another well developed team member who can assume responsibility on the work site or project.
The final lesson I will speak about is; Take Your Time! Moving at a moderate pace to ensure our tasks are done right the first time is the quintessential focus we all must have when doing anything. The speed at which we perform something can never take the place of quality of work. When a task is done repetitively and we know what our actions will produce, then we can accurately increase our speed of production. When I was young I used to stand in awe of pizza makers pressing the dough and tossing it up in the air to make perfect circular pies, and when I went home and tried to do it exactly the same way I was extremely disappointed by my lumpy, irregularly shaped, piece of dough with holes in it. At that time I didn’t understand, if I took my time and pressed the dough gently on the counter, I would have achieved my desired result. Sure, it would have taken me ten times longer to make a pizza but, I would have had my perfect pie. I know now that speed and technique is developed over time and after making 10,000 pizza’s. Now, I stand in awe of the speed and accuracy of professional plasterers. Their effortless motions creating a beautiful piece of architectural art work. What I have learned is that accuracy supersedes speed at every stage of the game. Accuracy to a novice is as important as accuracy is to a master. Speed of production is the differing factor. Never let speed over take accuracy.
Enjoy the slide show of pictures my wife has streamed together for the commemoration of the National Institute of Health’s first Green Roof.
Lucky’s warehouse Natural Clay Plaster Project
I love plaster! I love the fluid motion of the application process and I love the dance that is created when I trowel the mud on the wall. I view a large open wall as a giant canvas screaming for the warming and softening plaster material.
During the Lucky’s warehouse project, Furbish company worked to incorporate as many natural products, green technologies, and recycled materials into the renovation of this historic building for the creation of environmental office spaces.
I was in charge of the application of the natural clay plaster on the lobby dry wall and the exterior of the cement block elevator shafts on the three floors of the building. The clay plaster we used is called Alleeze Plaster, and we made the plaster from:
- Water
- Pulverized Kaolin Clay
- Mica Dust
- Fine Silica Sand
- Wheat Gluten
- Borax
When fine masonry sand is omitted a fine porcelain material is made and can be applied as the last coat and burnished.
Alleeze plaster has a similar consistency to dry wall mud compound, and It can be applied to dry wall after a primer coat of low/no VOC paint with fine sand is applied. It adheres to cement block beautifully. You can create wetter or dryer mixes depending on the application needed and experience no weakening or lessened functionality of the material. When this plaster dries and sets up, it is as hard as a rock and sticks to the under lying material like a doberman pincer. The porcelain finish can be troweled, sponged, brushed on, or any other creative way to achieve a unique finish. This material is very forgiving, and can be washed and blended, being easily manipulated.
I have enjoyed working with this material from start to finish, and to repair damage when it has occurred. Here is a slide presentation of the patch work and refinishing after the solar tank on the roof over flowed and spilled water down the elevator shaft.
