measure... and measure... and measure more.. and more

Today we went to the King's Head Pub to measure. We split into groups and spent all day measuring every possible nook and cranny of the building. We will now attempt to construct an "as-built" drawing of the structure. To be honest, we thought measuring the building would be an easy feat, but we quickly saw how wrong we were. Every door, door frame, window, base trim... EVERYTHING had to be measured! Things ran pretty smoothly, but certain aspects, such as the HVAC system, were difficult to measure accurately. Any vertical measurements required the use of a ladder, and we were lucky that Amanda supplied the one-and-only ladder.

Other tools we used were:

1) a laser level : this came in EXTREMELY handy. When measuring the HVAC system, we were able to climb the ladder and use the laser level to mark on the floor where a duct ended. We repeated this exercise on the opposite end of the duct; this allowed us to measure duct lengths on the floor rather than trying (and most likely failing) to measure the duct at ceiling height.

2) a vinyl tape measure (?) : I can't remember if this is the exact name of the device, but it is basically a soft tape measure that can be used to measure pipe circumferences etc. This became useful when trying to find the diameter of pipes throughout the pub. By measuring the circumference and using the C(circumference)= pi x d(diameter) equation, we were able to determine the diameter.

Measuring the building forced us to take a closer look at the intricacies of the interior, and we found some really cool details in the pub. For example, while measuring the basement, we discovered an antique lighting fixture. The fixture was comprised of two twin lamps, both with decorative frilly shades, connected to an ornamental painted metal plate which was attached to the wall. Even cooler was that the part that the incandescent bulb screwed into was made to look like a melting candle; it looked obviously fake but was a cool detail.

The building is extremely rich in history, and different details reference the different functions the structure has served. After measuring ALL day, I wondered : "who else DOES this?" I surfed the web a little bit and found this : http://graphics.stanford.edu/~levoy/habs-drawings/. The web page is essentially someone else's (Marc Levoy) quick documentation of what they have done in terms of recording historical buildings. Take a look at the site, you will be impressed with the detail at which the drawings are done. Team, I expect our drawings to look like this! Hopefully...

Anyone looking to take measurements from a structure can also visit this site : http://history.utah.gov/historic_buildings/information_and_research/measure.html. It provides you with the basic tools and techniques needed to measure a building.


Thinking back to studio once again, I began to wonder how and what I should/ could change about this historic building. In my research I stumbled across an interesting article on "Sustainable Historic Preservation". The article examines the inherent sustainability of historic buildings and discusses things to consider when one is looking at adaptive reuse or preservation of a heritage site. It is a very interesting notion that old buildings are sustainable, and I recommend reading the article.