Site Visit and Open House

Last week was very busy and exciting, with the site visit from Eldorado, and the first open house in the new space.

Jason Plumb (the Climbing Wall Designer) and Jason Thomas (the Production Manager) came up from Eldorado Climbing Walls in Boulder, Colorado, and spent the last half of the week with me in the space, taking measurements, and working in the space to start the detailed design of the climbing structures. I rented a 32' scissor lift and we went up into the high spaces of the building to explore. It will be a real thrill to be able to climb up there in a few months!

Jason and Jason were clearly excited about the building, especially its character and history, and the challenges and opportunities presented by its varying roof lines. They had seen drawings and photographs, but getting to spend a few days living in the space made it real, and helped them come up with some amazing ideas. Jason is an amazing designer, and the other Jason knows the construction process and logistics inside out. They worked well together as a team, and it was an absolute blast working with them.

We had some meetings with the architects, landlord and engineers while they were here, figuring out details of demising walls, assessing the load-bearing structures for some of the inspiring ideas that Jason Plumb came up with, and sorting out the routing for the ventilation ducts. And on Friday I got up on the roof to explore. I've added a few photos to the Picasa album with some of the views from up there.

The highlight of the visit was the Open House on Thursday evening. The initial intent was simply to give a few friends & family a chance to see the space, before construction begins. But with Jason & Jason here, it was also an opportunity for people to learn a bit about Eldorado's work, see some of their previous designs, and get a peek at what we're planning for True North Climbing.

More than 20 people showed up for the event, which was quite a few more than I had guessed would bother coming to see an empty building. We started with pizza (provided by Eldorado!), and I gave informal tours of the space. I had drawn the floor plan for the reception area, locker rooms, the edge of the climbing area, and the far demising wall, in chalk on the ground, to help people visualize how the space would be arranged. Lionel Michaluk, my banker from TD Canada Trust, was kind enough to lend us a projector (in addition to being kind enough to lend me the money I needed to build the gym!). We had some technical difficulties getting Jason's laptop (indeed, any laptop) to properly connect, but finally we had some pictures on the loading bay door, and Jason began his presentation. He showed us some pictures of other projects Eldorado has done, and some 3D models in Google Sketchup of the climbing structures. Jason is passionate about what he does, and his energy took over, as he talked about the forms, and how they fit into and adapt to the various spaces they were given to work with. And he managed to tie many of the points he was making back to what we are thinking for the walls in the new gym. Jason is very excited about the building we have to work with, and after listening to me tell him what my goals are for the gym, and the kinds of things I want included, he has come up with some great ideas for spectacular terrain. He showed a little sneak preview of some of this, including the big archway that will sit at the middle of the southern half of the gym, and the immense pillar that we are going to try to suspend in the south-east area, near the lead walls.

I think Jason got people pretty excited about what we're about to build, and really helped to communicate the vision we're turning into reality over the next several months. As the design gets refined in the coming days, I will try to post a few screen shots of what the climbing walls will look like!