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| disregard the law |
We visited a couple more buildings before we broke for lunch. We went shopping yesterday and bought food for the week, so that was our lunch plan. We laid out (more or less) our eating schedule, so we shouldn't go hungry.
After lunch, we traveled to Magnolia, MS to visit our penultimate site. The AMTRAC passes through there (and McComb) and we got to experience how amazingly fast those trains travel. It was insane. We were standing maybe 30' away from the track and it still got my blood pumping. After that, we came back to McComb and visited our last site- the old post office. Everyone's pretty tired of walking in the heat. Tonight's MEATBALL MONDAY at the Mission House (where we're staying), so stay tuned for more updates from that!
Peace, Love, and Rock'n'roll,
Team Palace Theater
Jeremy Bunner
Royce DeLord
Carolina Rodriguez
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Day 2 - Tuesday
Today we went to visit the palace theater to do some measuring. The structure is pretty big so we borrowed a laser ruler that was very helpful. We got to discover more about the inside after exploring for a while. There’s an underground tunnel that used to be used to push air inside. We came up with a similar idea based upon this method, which is to level the floor, but to leave space for a plenum under the floor that the A/C and other wiring will run through. After meeting with Roger we explored some ideas based on the program we came up with. It was exciting to finally start the design process. We sat together and discussed about our ideas with Marsha and Frank and they told us to perform a more thorough analysis of the site. We are looking forward to exploring the many possibilities that the Palace Theater holds in order to bring the Theater and the community back to life.
Carolina Rodriguez
Royce DeLord
Jeremy Bunner
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Day 3 - Wednesday
ATTENTION: Team Palace Theater will now be called the P.T. Cruisers in reference of course to the Palace Theater and to the beautiful automobile that our client, Dr. Roger Nickerson, drives.
Today the P.T. Cruisers made a lot of progress. Jeremy and I (Royce) went back to the Palace to take some final measurements for the section drawing, while Carolina worked on the plan. Then, we took an early lunch and went to eat in Magnolia at La Mariposa. I got the Southern California burger, which consisted of avocados and a fried green tomato with a side of chips. SO GOOD! With our belly’s full to the brim, we walked as a class to look at the Dr. Lampton Residence. The brickwork on the new part of the house was really interesting and creative. Shortly after arriving back in McComb, I witnessed my first building fire. Not going to lie, I was afraid it would be the Palace, but I was relieved to find out that it was not. Whew! Around 3:00pm the Palace Team met with Marsha and Frank to go over the program. There are so many options for the Palace that it is a little overwhelming. On one hand, we want to take advantage of the enormous volume of the building, but on the other hand we don’t want to remove the enchantment of the large space. Also, there is a conflict between staying within the small budget of our client and the urge to take full advantage of the spaces that the Palace Theater affords. One thing is for sure, we have lots to do!
This is Rolls Royce from the P.T. Cruisers signing out.
Have a magical night McComb and Happy Weenie Wednesday!
Jeremy Bunner
Royce DeLord
Carolina Rodriguez
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Day 4 - Thursday
Attention cruisers, this is your captain speaking. Yesterday was a roller-coaster day. We started the day finishing up our program. We all had great ideas as to what could be done with our building, so each member of our team took a section and several floor plans and programmed out our space into its best use. We each did a few of these and then brought them together with Frank and Marsha. We analyzed them based on a few criteria (number of floors, access to Main Street, access to Front Street, etc) and combined the best aspects of all of our designs into one amazing concept. We were all super pumped for our 2:00 meeting with Lyba Offort & Roger. Going into the meeting, we had all of our stuff prepared- we were on the ball.
However, our brilliant plan was foiled- too expensive. Looking back, we should have seen that coming. We had a given budget, but we set that aside and designed for what should be there.
With our sails slacking, we went back to square one. We sat with Marsha and she pointed out that our meeting wasn't a complete failure. There were actually several things that we achieved and we need to work from there. Royce, Carolina and I decided to make a trip across the way to the theater for some vision-casting and boy was that a great idea. Once we knew exactly what we wanted to put in the space, we were pregnant with possibilities. We all got really excited again and we are currently buzzing with excitement! Check back later this evening for an update!
Jeremy Bunner
Carolina Rodriguez
"Rolls" Royce DeLord
Today we started laying out some of the basics ideas we had after our meeting with Lyba and Roger. After presenting a very complex plan to our client we learned that the more complex the project is the more expensive it will be. So this time we are trying to stay as simple as possible and still get a wow factor out of nothing. Complexity doesn't necessarily mean better. We’ll stay simple and it’ll be great. After having an awesome lunch listening to music from the 70’s and hanging out by the train station we came back to studio (except Jeremy who’s going to a wedding) and worked on the site plan. The next step will be to make a better study of our floor plans and see how these will influence the appearance of the facade.
Monday, May 30th. Today was interesting. We came into "studio" this morning knowing that we had a client meeting at 2pm. Over the weekend, Royce and Carolina informed me that we were changing the scope of our project a little bit, so I was a little nervous about the meeting. Bottom line, we need to sell our building. Problem is, we didn't know who we're selling to, and therefore, didn't know exactly what we were designing for. So we has plans A, B, and C. Plan A was the simplest design possible. We were keeping all existing structures, adding a few walls for bathrooms, and messing with the slope of the floor. Essentially, it was an auditorium that could be turned into practically anything, all very cheap. We were working on other plans (a gym, a restaurant/farmer's market). We weren't going to bring those designs to the client meeting, but we wanted them to be able to show potential buyers what could happen in this space. So, 2:00 came around and we met with Lybba, Roger and Frank. We gave them our presentation and come to find out, they didn't want a general auditorium space after all. So, what I learned from the meeting was that we need to communicate better with our client and ask specifically what they want to happen in our building. Now what would be cool or what is happening around town. All in all, we weren't thrown too far off track at all, but we just got a more detailed program. After the hour and a half meeting, we went down to the middle of nowhere (almost) to a very nice bed and breakfast for some play time in the creek and Mediterranean food! It was all very fun and delicious! All in all, it was a glorious day!
Yesterday in our meeting, Frank said something that was very significant to all of us; that we should prove that this building can be very flexible instead of just doing the most inflexible thing in order to sell it. After a long talk we decided that the best thing would be to develop different floor plans with different programs included, in order to show that this building can really be anything and that it would be worth it for future developers to invest money on the Palace Theater. We have four different plans that we are going to fully develop:
PLAN I
- Restaurant (wine and chesse and Ruins)
- Small performance
- Lease Space
- (upstairs?)
*CORE IDEA*
PLAN II
-Gym- weights/ machine
-Basketball court
-Showers/lockers
-Running track
-Retail/lease (possibly smoothie king or something like that)
PLAN III
-Farmers Market
-Restaurant
-Kitchen
*CORE IDEA*
PLAN IV
-Open Space
-Lease offices
-Restrooms
-Classrooms upstairs
Today we focused mainly on PLAN I, II, and IV.
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Day 5 - Friday
Today we started laying out some of the basics ideas we had after our meeting with Lyba and Roger. After presenting a very complex plan to our client we learned that the more complex the project is the more expensive it will be. So this time we are trying to stay as simple as possible and still get a wow factor out of nothing. Complexity doesn't necessarily mean better. We’ll stay simple and it’ll be great. After having an awesome lunch listening to music from the 70’s and hanging out by the train station we came back to studio (except Jeremy who’s going to a wedding) and worked on the site plan. The next step will be to make a better study of our floor plans and see how these will influence the appearance of the facade.
Jeremy Bunner
Carolina Rodriguez
"Rolls" Royce DeLord
______________________________________________________________
Day 6 - Saturday
Today was an interesting day. Jeremy was not here, so it was just Carolina and I. Carolina spent the day on the plan, while I finished the site plan. That afternoon we met with Frank and Marsha to go over how we were doing. We expressed that there were some frustrations stemming from us wanting to take more advantage of the space and our clients wanting us to make minimal changes. Our solution was to do a series of plans, one showing the minimalist approach to the plan and two or three others that show a more holistic approach, such as a gym or a multiuse facility. I think overall we are excited about this new approach. It is our thinking that these holistic approaches will be more beneficial to downtown McComb because they will bring more people downtown, more often, rather than a church service, which is only on Sunday, or the occasional wedding reception.
P.T. Cruisers
Jeremy Bunner
Royce DeLord
Carolina Rodriguez
P.T. Cruisers
Jeremy Bunner
Royce DeLord
Carolina Rodriguez
______________________________________________________________
Day 7 - Monday
Monday, May 30th. Today was interesting. We came into "studio" this morning knowing that we had a client meeting at 2pm. Over the weekend, Royce and Carolina informed me that we were changing the scope of our project a little bit, so I was a little nervous about the meeting. Bottom line, we need to sell our building. Problem is, we didn't know who we're selling to, and therefore, didn't know exactly what we were designing for. So we has plans A, B, and C. Plan A was the simplest design possible. We were keeping all existing structures, adding a few walls for bathrooms, and messing with the slope of the floor. Essentially, it was an auditorium that could be turned into practically anything, all very cheap. We were working on other plans (a gym, a restaurant/farmer's market). We weren't going to bring those designs to the client meeting, but we wanted them to be able to show potential buyers what could happen in this space. So, 2:00 came around and we met with Lybba, Roger and Frank. We gave them our presentation and come to find out, they didn't want a general auditorium space after all. So, what I learned from the meeting was that we need to communicate better with our client and ask specifically what they want to happen in our building. Now what would be cool or what is happening around town. All in all, we weren't thrown too far off track at all, but we just got a more detailed program. After the hour and a half meeting, we went down to the middle of nowhere (almost) to a very nice bed and breakfast for some play time in the creek and Mediterranean food! It was all very fun and delicious! All in all, it was a glorious day!______________________________________________________________
Day 8 - Tuesday
PLAN I
- Restaurant (wine and chesse and Ruins)
- Small performance
- Lease Space
- (upstairs?)
*CORE IDEA*
PLAN II
-Gym- weights/ machine
-Basketball court
-Showers/lockers
-Running track
-Retail/lease (possibly smoothie king or something like that)
PLAN III
-Farmers Market
-Restaurant
-Kitchen
*CORE IDEA*
PLAN IV
-Open Space
-Lease offices
-Restrooms
-Classrooms upstairs
Today we focused mainly on PLAN I, II, and IV.
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Day 9 - Wednesday
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| preview of the time-lapse |
Today was a busy day for team P.T. Cruisers. We have four plans that we have to finish by Friday (as in one more day of work) and we still have soooo much to do. I, Royce DeLord, am working on the Restaurant/Theater Scheme, Jeremy is working on the Market Scheme, and Carolina is working on the Gym Scheme. We have finished the Multipurpose scheme, but still have a ways to go for the rest of the plans (at least I do). Our goal is to be done, for the most part, by our meeting tomorrow at three. Its gonna be close. Just in case you don’t believe how hard we
have been working, Jeremy caught it all on tape (the photo to the left is a preview). Tonight we have a dinner at our client’s house, Libba Alford, which we are all excited about. Libba told us that she invited a potential buyer of the Palace Theater property as well as the owner of the
Ruins, which we are thinking about expanding into for the restaurant scheme, so we
are pretty excited to see what they have to say.
P.T. Cruisers
Royce DeLord
Jeremy Bunner
Carolina Rodriguez
As promised, here's the video!
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Day 10 - Thursday
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| another preview of the NEXT time-lapse |
Wow, what a day! We started feeling the pressure today. We knew we had a client meeting at 3pm today, so we had to spend as much time today preparing for that. We are showing four different layouts of our building so it's almost like we're doing 4x the work. So, Royce and I went and grabbed lunch at the busiest Sonic ever..we got the last parking space. Before we could get our plans printed, we had a presentation from Chris Chain, a developer from Columbus, MS. He had a lot of good things to say- mainly about how development works and how he got started. It was good for me because I'm considering that career path and everything he said was very insightful. After that meeting, we rushed to get our plans printed for our meeting with Libba. Everything went well- she was impressed with our plans. We have some clear front-runners, and some that need work. After our meeting, myself and Steve Cox played a few tunes down at our building, the Palace Theater! It was a lot of fun! Satin Pierce and our very own James Coate and Susan Naquin joined us a little bit later for some jams! Later, we watched the spelling bee on ESPN and then the Mavs have a miraculous comeback and beat the Heat! Finally, we went to Dixie Springs! It was a really long day, but it was super fun! Wahoo!
