The Scolari Wing

One of my staff members mentioned that the Yale School of Architecture was preparing an exhibit of Massimo Scolari's work, and asked if I was interested in bidding on the project. I very quickly walked into my office and called the Director of exhibitions Brian Butterfield to discuss the project. Brian andI discussed the overall project and I presented to Brian my plan on fabricating the wing as a torsion box with the final ash skin being applied as a veneer. Brian accepted my plan and asked us to start preparing samples and start fabrication.

Massimo Scalari giving our sample one last look prior to his departure from our shop

Prior to starting the project in our shop Massimo flew to CT to review all of the preparations for the gallery show. One stop was to our shop so that he could review our samples and discuss with me how I planned to build and finish the wing. To prepare for Massimo's arrival at my shop, Dan and I made up a sample of the wing skin along with a few other samples for Massimo Scolari's review. On the day of the job review I was lucky to have Dan & Jim out installing other work as we spent many hours reviewing the construction, grain direction screw size and many other details.

Dan working one the wing frame.

The next time that Massimo Scolari would see the wing would be when he returns for the gallery opening on February 9th. We could only hope that I got the image and concept right. Dan Kirkstead was the main cabinet maker on the fabrication of the actual wings. We all were involved on different aspects as the project allowed. After many hours of building we finally got the opportunity to assemble both halves for the wing a few hours prior to delivery. It went together beautifully. All told the wing weights about 700lbs, there are 240 brass screws, 32 oak pegs, 320 square feet of ash plywood for the skin and more screws and glue holding everything together. We delivered the wing to the Yale gallery and their riggers hoisted the wing into place.

After the delivery I was given a tour of the previous models of the wing. There was one model made for the installation at Yale, there is one yellow high gloss model, two models for the real wing and I believe that may have been one other. You will have to go to the exhibition and count all the models your self. The show opens this coming Thursday February 9th at 6pm.

The final product delivered and assembled at the Yale school of Architecture Gallery

If you would like to see more of Massimo Scolari's work his web site is below:

http://www.massimoscolari.it/

For the gallery hours and upcoming shows please follow this link to the Yale School of Architecture. 

http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/events/architecture_gallery

It is never Just

So often we find ourselves saying well we can just do this, or a designer will ask can you just add a detail here. That little word makes so much work. It is after all a four letter word. It should join those other four letter words. I am trying to remove Just from my vocabulary. I tend not to use the other 4 letter words that we all know and lover so why should not his one be added to the list?

I was recently working on a work island made of translucent material called Chroma by 3-Form. The unit has 2 doors on the main base cabinet. The architect asked me to install two small pulls made out of the same material. I believe that he may have said something along the lines of " could you just add a piece like this? Well those 2 pieces ended up taking me a full morning to complete and install. How often do we find ourselves saying I'll just... cet'e jamis juste!