Most of the work at the construction site in the past few weeks was about completing what had been started earlier in the summer: the external stairway on the east side of the building went up, along with the east and the south walls of the new café; the concrete was poured in the rehearsal hall and our future offices downstairs and along the western side of the building – creating a brand new, beautiful base for our new café-lobby and the accessible ramp.
All in all, there was a lot of concrete! It took about a week for the concrete to be cured – an important process that allows concrete to achieve best strength and harden fully.
The next major development happened just recently – the structural steel has arrived and we could watch the frame of the café-lobby go up literally in a few hours. Much easier to imagine how things would look now! As always, here are some photos from the site:
A whole lotta concrete – the pouring took a whole day and then some!
The freshly poured ramp along the west side of the building (view from the outside of the site perimeter, because we can’t walk on wet concrete, obviously!)
Some important manipulations on the newly poured floors in the rehearsal hall:
Let the curing begin! Franco got to walk on the curing concrete in the café and imagine where the espresso maker will be:
The curing process requires constant hydration for the new concrete – here is how it’s done in the rehearsal hall downstairs (hint – you need a long water hose):
The walls of the external stairwell on the east side of the theatre are up and looking quite monumental:
And finally, the steel frame of the café is going up and she is a beauty!