Challenge: Construction site -- it's a jungle out there!

[scott kirkpatrick]

I've been photographing the construction of a new building for our department since it was just a hole in the ground. There's an interesting tension between what the "customer" (our department representatives) want to see, which is more or less how we are progressing towards the ultimate finished building, and what I see when I borrow a hard hat and walk the site. The customer was delighted when I gave them a studio shot of the architect's model, suitable for use on a 5 m wide billboard at the entrance gate. But what delights me is the profusion of stuff that litters the site, the roughness of the concrete, the cables, conduits and holes everywhere. And it is all in view at once, at varying depths. It's a constant challenge to see if I can put into practice what I learn from Lee Friedlander (composing at many depths) and Carl Weese (filling the frame with interesting colors, shapes and textures, edge to edge).

Here's the setting:

with some threatening passages, which I won't recognize when finished:



and some of the elements of the Erector set:

There's a very loosely edited PBase gallery with lots more of these
here.


To frame this as a challenge, let's see what others see when buildings have their guts exposed, whether going up or coming down...

scott

PS -- technical data: M9, 21 Summilux, usually at f/5.6 and ISO 160 if there is lots of light. Full res originals available on PBase for now -- they make good screensavers.

[Asher Kelman]

Scott,

"Challenge:"? Certainly it's a challenge for the site foremen to see that the building stuff is delivered, not pilfered, put in the right place, not in the way of where things will need to go and in the right sequence and also not get lost or buried.

Do you seek edited interpretations to better elicit the geological esthetics of all the layers? Can we edit and repost?

Or are you just saying it's a challenge for you to do this?

Asher

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Scott,

"Challenge:"? Certainly it's a challenge for the site foremen to see that the building stuff is delivered, not pilfered, put in the right place, not in the way of where things will need to go and in the right sequence and also not get lost or buried.

Do you seek edited interpretations to better elicit the geological esthetics of all the layers? Can we edit and repost?

Or are you just saying it's a challenge for you to do this?

Asher

It's not much of a challenge for me to get access to the site. As long as I put a hard hat on and don't wear sandals, they don't seem to mind. (Cf. Danny Lyon's self-assigned project on the destruction of lower Manhattan -- the wrecking crew boss threatened to drop a wall on him.) But it is a very anomalous world -- how do you organize it into pictures? Do you see familiar shapes, or does this world have its own natural patterns?

As for pilferage or even souvenir hunting, most of the stuff takes a crane to lift, a truck to remove. And they lock up at night.

Anyway, construction is all around us and brings some really strange sights. This summer I saw night road-paving crews all through Maine, riding huge machines with gigantic Japanese lanterns suspended off to each side -- fabulous portrait light sources. Who would have thought that stimulus funding could bring us this?

scott

[Ken Tanaka]

Nice, Scott!

Construction has been a major photographic theme of mine for six years. At last count I have over 1200 images in my "best" set. I planned to bring the work to some degree of completion this year but I've had a recent surge of new material that has necessitated postponing "completion" until 2011, probably in book form and perhaps in exhibition form, too.

My own angle on the subject is not primarily documentary in nature. Rather, it's to capture ephemeral images that are unique to construction and, often, even unique to the specific project. Geometric relationships, forms, gestures, absurdities that will never be seen again.

A few samples of my project.

For the past two weeks I've been shooting A LOT of concrete work. ("Cement masons".)

- Continued in next post -

[Ken Tanaka]

- Continued from previous post -

This barely begins to scratch the surface of the project, but it provides a good fly-over of the types of images I'm collecting.

I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for starting this "challenge" thread, Scott.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Ken, I like the colors, and am amazed at the precision and regularities that you find. What happened to the mess, the pieces that didn't quite fit? Compare the neatly trimmed hedge of green painted rebar uprights waiting for the next concrete forms in one of your pictures with the tangle of steel weeds we leave behind here when a job for some reason doesn't complete:



This is the exposed roof of a highway tunnel. I think something happened after the air rights were sold and before the subsequent project got government approval. It has looked like this for about ten years.

scott

[Ken Tanaka]

Scott,

Your image of foundation wall rebars waiting for mates that will never come is an excellent catch.

It also teases one's lens toward yet another project doesn't it; aborted construction sites. Here in Chicago we have mercifully few. But there are two in the downtown area that are quite large. One is the site of what would have become the tallest structure in the world; Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire. The cavernous circular foundation hole, which is all that remains of this project, looks like the oral site of molar extraction.

The other is the Waterview Tower. The hulky bottom 26 floors have stood dark and abandoned in a prominent Chicago River-front location for two years, with no life in sight. Here again, to use a dental analogy, at night it, too, looks like the site of a broken tooth in a hapless smile.

I'm sure some eager beaver has already hunted-down such sites world-wide, but I've not seen such a project yet. I wonder whether or not such a project would really be interesting?

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Scott,

Your image of foundation wall rebars waiting for mates that will never come is an excellent catch.

It also teases one's lens toward yet another project doesn't it; aborted construction sites. Here in Chicago we have mercifully few. But there are two in the downtown area that are quite large. One is the site of what would have become the tallest structure in the world; Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire. The cavernous circular foundation hole, which is all that remains of this project, looks like the oral site of molar extraction.

The other is the Waterview Tower. The hulky bottom 26 floors have stood dark and abandoned in a prominent Chicago River-front location for two years, with no life in sight. Here again, to use a dental analogy, at night it, too, looks like the site of a broken tooth in a hapless smile.

I'm sure some eager beaver has already hunted-down such sites world-wide, but I've not seen such a project yet. I wonder whether or not such a project would really be interesting?

Interesting links. We have no shortage of unfinished or dragged-out projects in Israel. Our economy has been a bit more stable than the US's, but we need to import the bulk of our construction labor from other countries (in Africa and Asia -- local projects now have created a population of Hebrew-speaking Chinese), and dealing with the government on this issue introduces politics, all sorts of costs, and great uncertainty. We also have a Calatrava. It's a light rail bridge, which crosses above the main highway entrance to the city. It has opened for pedestrians, but the rail portion is years from completion. At the bottom of my little one-lane street is a large project on hold. The developer got permission to dig his two acre hole in place of a perfectly useful hillside vacant lot, but he has yet to explain where all the traffic will go. So he put up his fence, dug his hole, and is spending the subsequent years in court. Not particularly photogenic.

scott

[Jean Henderson]

Ken,

Your eye always amazes me. Is this equivalent to what David duChemin refers to as vision, that is, to apply the trained eye to whatever the subject matter is? I've only read one of his books, Within the Frame, so I'm just trying to expand the concept from his subject matter. I love the fascination with the geometric in these shots of yours.

Jean

[Ken Tanaka]

Jean,
I've not read David duChenin's book but I like the spirit that it reportedly advocates.

The possibilities for photographing darn near anything in interesting ways are only limited by one's own inhibitions. "Imagination" is, after all, principally reflects the influences of one's inhibitions, doesn't it?

Back to the topic....Large construction projects are generally too large and complex to simply swallow whole (with the excepetion of aerials). Using photography's intrinsic selective / exclusive nature is the way I deal with such complexity. (Rather like the old joke: "How do you eat an elephant? One fork-full at a time.".)

Cranes, for example, occupy a special niche for me. Their unique visual possibilities become apparent if you forget the word "crane" and simply imagine the following proposition: What if someone erected an enormous thing that could slice visual space in nearly infinite ways for a year or more at a particular spot? Sound like it has photographic possibilities? You betcha. The fact that those possibilities will never again occur in that location lends, at least for me, a certain urgency for capturing them.

I could go on and on about photographing construction sites. But I'm already hogging this thread. My own advice to others is to look for details. Look for form and spacial relationships that will never happen again. Look for colors, look for gestures. Most of all, be patient. Go there to photograph, don't photograph just because you're there.

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

.............

I could go on and on about photographing construction sites. But I'm already hogging this thread. My own advice to others is to look for details. Look for form and spacial relationships that will never happen again. Look for colors, look for gestures. Most of all, be patient. Go there to photograph, don't photograph just because you're there.

Ken,

Your careful way is compelling and pays off! Now the longer version.

You must have patrolled more than a leader of the pride scours his territory for intruders. Needless to say, your work is coherent, governed as it is by a clear motive and controlling esthetics. I like what you offer as advice. It's awfully generous. I would find that, together with your splendid work, as a perfect example of photography that externalizes the thoughts and discovered delight of one person's choice of positions to view the surprises that other's, (so oblivious), walk by.

I would challenge others to try to do what you have done. Then to sit down and ask what do I, me, myself, want to do. Is it to continue to make such pictures? Alternatively, "Do I need a somewhat, (or entirely), different set of instructions to my eyes, for my own needs to be met?"

I myself will likely be influenced by your pictures. The benefits are so well demonstrated. Still, I'd like to see additional ways of looking at the ever-changng disorder. There are layers of opportunity.

Asher

[Ken Tanaka]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Ken,

Still, I'd like to see additional ways of looking at the ever-changng disorder. There are layers of opportunity.

Asher

Indeed there are many other dimensions of potential coverage. The aspect of group and personal endeavor, for example.

Not to mention the occasional potential for some humor:

Yes, the possibilities for coverage from the macro to the micro scopes are numerous.

[Asher Kelman]

Ken,

You are marvelous with possibilities and humor. I am enjoying this so much!

Asher

[Jean Henderson]

Ken,

Based on the advice you have given us, YOU LOOK GOOD!! Put another way, as I might to my granddaughter, YOU'RE A GOOD LOOKER... (though I have no idea what you look like :-) ).

Jean

[Winston Mitchell]

Wonderful thread...bookmarked.

[Asher Kelman]

Now, back to Scott!

Asher

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

Now, back to Scott!

Asher

Actually, I'd like to see this move on to still other ways of looking at construction. Ken and I obviously have very different approaches, and there must be others. I don't usually simplify and look for design to the extent he does, although there are exceptions:

Jerusalem's Calatrava spire (much smaller than the one planned for Chicago)

I'm more interested in the juxtaposition of old and new elements in the city's scene, and a feeling of immersion in the new environment:

And as an old news-junkie, I'm stimulated by the back-stories, such as this monstrosity that has been growing on our skyline for the past 5 years:

This looks like sci-fi "transformer" creatures marching over the hilltop, doesn't it? It cost the developers so much in bribes at all levels that it seems to have ended the career of one of our prime ministers. There's a gallery with more of these, pretty and ugly, at http://www.pbase.com/skirkp/new_jerusalem

scott

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Indeed there are many other dimensions of potential coverage. The aspect of group and personal endeavor, for example.

I love the crowd of cement-pushers and smoothers. Do you suppose they ever get stuck in it as it hardens? It looks as if they are stepping about 4-6 inches in. And the guys in the scaffolding -- are they watching a ballgame at a nearby park?

Scott

[Jean Henderson]

Scott,

The gallery you link us to has several examples that clearly adhere to Ken's suggestions! Post some. They are great. YOU ARE A GOOD LOOKER, too!!!!!

Jean

[Jean Henderson]

Scott,

Your different objective is well taken and well informed. Especially the "transformer" image as an example. They are about to begin construction down the street from me and now I can't wait to get down there to spend some time looking for whatever I can find.

Jean

[Ken Tanaka]

Scott,
It's impossible to be near a Calatrava building without somehow engaging with its geometry, as you have, above. In those first two frames you seem to be trying to capture incongruousness, the first with regard to the building's figurative relationship to nature and in the second with respect to the structure's surroundings.

I don't know what to say about that mega-project in the 3rd frame. It looks very much like what many of my fellow architectural students thought they'd eventually be doing (circa 1977).

Originally Posted by scott kirkpatrick

I love the crowd of cement-pushers and smoothers. Do you suppose they ever get stuck in it as it hardens? It looks as if they are stepping about 4-6 inches in. Scott

Actually, it's remarkable that in all the years I've watched cement masons laying concrete I've never seen one fall. This is particularly remarkable when you realize that inside that concrete is a tight web of steel reinforcing rods that they must somehow avoid with those big boots.

Originally Posted by scott kirkpatrick

And the guys in the scaffolding -- are they watching a ballgame at a nearby park?
Scott

Actually, the fellows in that very first image I posted are applying a cement-like undercoat facing much like stucco. But your remark is music to my ears (eyes) because it's just that type of ambiguous momentary gesture that the camera can capture that I find so interesting and such a challenge.

One last image and I promise I'm done. The vast, but actually extremely organized, clutter of a large construction site. This is a hint at the third aspect of photographing construction sites that I find so attractive; the possibilities they offer for abstraction. The image below side-swipes abstraction by presenting such a large menagerie that your eye begins to treat is as a contiguous collage after a while.

"Some Assembly Required"

[Ken Tanaka]

Originally Posted by Jean Henderson

Scott,

... They are about to begin construction down the street from me and now I can't wait to get down there to spend some time looking for whatever I can find.

Jean

Absolutely! Any site,big or small, offers rich pickin's. I'm eager to see what you catch.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Ken Tanaka

Scott,

Actually, it's remarkable that in all the years I've watched cement masons laying concrete I've never seen one fall. This is particularly remarkable when you realize that inside that concrete is a tight web of steel reinforcing rods that they must somehow avoid with those big boots.
....

One last image and I promise I'm done. The vast, but actually extremely organized, clutter of a large construction site. This is a hint at the third aspect of photographing construction sites that I find so attractive; the possibilities they offer for abstraction. The image below side-swipes abstraction by presenting such a large menagerie that your eye begins to treat is as a contiguous collage after a while.

"Some Assembly Required"

Here's the guts of a reinforced concrete stairway before it is poured. The rebar that makes up the mesh is tied together with little twists of wire, and the mesh size is small enough so that boots don't fall in, and strong enough to stand on even without the concrete. In this picture you can see the depth to which the concrete will be poured from the reusable steel forms on the side.

But the question that bothers me is how do Chicago construction sites stay so neat and organized. Does the company hire the workers' mothers to be forepersons? Here's how we make sure that everything is ready when needed:

scott

[Ken Tanaka]

Materials Staging
Nearly all of what you see here are materials that will be used in constructing the platforms to pour a concrete floor plate. The golden yellow bundles are temporary jacks, the bright yellow things are temporary joists, the red and gold-yellow panels are forms.


Floor Plate Pour
Here a large high-rise concrete floor plate is being poured using a crane-like boom pump called a Putzmeister. The pour is moving slowly from the bottom of the image frame up to the top. The reinforcing mesh and embedded conduit can be seen as green lines in the un-poured areas.

I think the answer to the question regarding why Chicago construction sites (and most American large project sites) are so neat lies in the labor unions and contractors, and also the relatively strict Federal workplace safety regulations that govern the sites.

The various unions involved in any project have strict rules and a very rigid hierarchy of pecking order. The bottom echelons are often tasked with making sure that stuff is organized. On top of that, the top general contractors are very well-organized and keep tight control on their sites' organization and conditions, ostensibly to keep their insurance and liability costs down.

Above all that, however, is America's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which governs most workplace safety matters, but particularly contruction sites. Inspectors will cite and fine contractors for even small infractions, which can include having a sloppy site. (Sloppy = dangerous) Such infractions can raise insurance premiums. One of the persistent challenges I face when photographing sites is the suspicion that I'm actually an OSHA inspector trying to document infractions. Workers will often shy away from my lens. Sometimes a contractor will send someone to just stand near me with a radio to keep an eye on what I appear to be shooting, perhaps even trying to take the same shots with a p&s camera. If I have the opportunity to introduce myself and my interests I'm generally treated warmly.

So there is a complex of reasons why Chicago (and American) building sites are so much neater and well-organized than sites in most other countries. I've never visited Isreal, Scott, but I have to say that the site you're photographing looks like simething in an underdeveloped country. It's a dump! A concrete bucket dumped in the middle of scaffold staging. Litter everywhere. The reinforcing for that concrete stairway would never pass muster here, particularly in a fire enclosure stairwell. Yikes! ;-)

[scott kirkpatrick]

Well, yes. We clearly don't rinse our concrete forms as well as your folks do (those are what are in the foreground in the picture above), and our scaffolding does give me pause. I tend to shoot from the solid concrete floor, not from the rickety boards just outside the walls. But we use the same basic tools. Here's a forest of yellow poles to support pouring a floor above a two-story open area:

and we squirt concrete up to modest heights using the same boom truck. It is also called an Elefant, a name I prefer to The Putzmeister. I think they are all German-made.

Our labor situation involves importing workers for different trades from different countries. Currently the concrete workers are Chinese, and I am told that the Romanians do drywall. The integrating trades, ducting, electrical, etc. seem to be Israeli. We don't have a strong OSHA, and every few years something falls down, killing people, causing cries for reform, and sometimes proving that our building inspectors can be made to overlook things for surprisingly little money. Third world, ... I guess so. But here's a German construction project that I passed by a few weeks back. Not entirely different:

scott
www.pbase.com/skirkp/new_huji_cs_building

[Ken Tanaka]

Hey, I like that forest of temporary bracing, Scott. It suggests some excellent possibilities.

In fairness, many small project sites here also look like they're being built with migrant help, Scott. In fact, they often are. Labor forces on small, low-budget projects are often contracted by night-flying outfits that often hire non-union crews predominantly manned by Eastern European immigrants who sometimes bring absolutely terrible practices with them. Routine safety inspections and permitting checks generally insure that the buildings are at least habitable but many of these projects during the past decade never reached completion, at least with the same crews. You often see these sites just rot away in mid-completion, the owners having run out of funds and the contractors' crews evaporating back to Europe.

It's fascinating to see projects from around the world.

p.s. Yes, I like the name "Elefant" better, too. Much more descriptive of how the gadgets actually appear.

[scott kirkpatrick]

In our multi-cultural, non-OSHA construction environment, even luxury housing goes through a phase of looking pretty rough. (warning -- unpretty pictures)

Another characteristic is the not-quite English advertising slogans. (There's another in not-quite French.):

but the vision of the ultimate result still looks pretty nice, if you ignore the present appearance:

These are going up in an area recently cleared by the Israeli Foreign Office, which moved out of 50+ year old temporary offices, extending a park near the entrance to the city. Maybe in a few years, with trees...

scott

[John Angulat]

Hi Scott,
That's some pretty scary stuff.
There are at least 12 OSHA "serious" violations that could prove to be deadly and would certainly result in huge fines and a site shut-down here in the U.S.
That's only the scaffolding and building. The tower crane is another issue altogether!

[scott kirkpatrick]

The scaffolding and the general mess, reuse of old wall panels I understand, but what's scary about the tower cranes? We have those all over the city.

scott

[Ken Tanaka]

Originally Posted by scott kirkpatrick

The scaffolding and the general mess, reuse of old wall panels I understand, but what's scary about the tower cranes? We have those all over the city.

scott

Offhand it looks to me like the upright structure of the crane is far too slender for the size of that boom. Cranes here in the U.S. would be built from standardized upright sections at least twice that size to better stabilize the crane against the very powerful moment arm of such a long boom.

And, yes, that scaffolding is a nightmare.