CRANE IN SEARCH OF MAN @craneinsearchofman - Tumblr Blog

(via)

#cranes #dynamite #demolition #neworleans #hardrock

Seattle is a city undergoing change, and nowhere is that clearer than our skyline, which remains speckled with cranes. And now the city has notched another peak according to the latest report by Rider Levett Bucknall, who counts cranes in big cities across the world: more construction cranes than any other U.S. city. Again.

Crane envy

#construction cranes seattle riderlevettbucknall

#culver city #ivy station #construction #crane #cranes #concrete #workers #hard hat area

By the numbers

It takes three minutes and fifteen seconds to lay ten cubic yards of concrete.

#concrete #construction

#concrete #construction #expo line #culver city #transit oriented development #hard hat area

Different bird, same row

#crane #snowcapped #cranes #construction #construction site #expo line #expoline #ivystation #notducks

Mike, a carpenter on the Ivy Station construction site

I met Mike, a carpenter who’s working on the colossal mixed-use project that the Culver City light rail platform overlooks, on the eastbound Expo Line in November. (Most of the photos on this blog are of that construction site, which is called Ivy Station.) Like everyone else on the site, Mike’s a union guy. He’s been a carpenter for about five years. He commutes from South Central, sometimes by Metro, sometimes by car.

I edited and condensed our conversation.

It’s supposed to be residence, hotel, retail store, and a hub. It’s going five floors up. We already got three floors down, the parking. It’s gonna be really nice.

It’s something to be proud of.

We should be finished here around April, no later than June. We pour two times a week. By the end of next week, see that floor over there will be covered up. There’s amazing guys over there. We got guys out there that bust their ass. We got the best superintendent in the world. A guy named Matt O’Malley. He’s a good guy. He’s an extremely good guy. He know his shit. He know his shit. He been doing it 25, 27 years.

You gotta have somebody know what the hell they’re doing. That’s what makes them effective, knowing the work. Everybody that works for him, their attitude is smooth. He knows what he’s doing.

Ivy Station, that’s what it’s called. Everybody tells me they remember when it was a hole. Or a parking lot. Now it’s going to be a bigger parking lot.

Plywood is just for the form. It comes from different vendors, we bring it by the truckload. Sometimes it’ll be even bigger than [20x20]. One table, then another table, then another table, put the plywood in between there, then put concrete on there, and it’s smooth - like a floor. Put the REBAR, put everything else -- plumbing, electrical, concrete.

[How’d you get into the business?] School. Or you can get on the job training. As a carpenter, you gotta go to school full time first.

We start at 5 and go to 12:45, but recently they make us work an extra hour, til 1:20. 4:50 to 1. We used to take lunch. Now we take lunch when we go home.

Construction is booming right now. It’s going to be booming all the way til the Olympics are here.

I’m going back to class to be a safety inspector. That’s where the money is. And you don’t have to work hard. Make sure they doing right. Six figures a year. Class starts in February. Cal State Dominguez, in Carson.

Fifty or so [carpenters on the site]. Concrete workers. Laborers—they sweep, make sure the concrete is clean. Everybody’s job is important. Laborers are important - you got to have somebody, when you have too much concrete you have someone who can make it look good, even it out. Their job is just as important as the next man.