A couple folks asked about whether that tshirt with my dudleya photo would be available via mail order. The answer is YES, but our local native plant society isn’t set up up for any fancy online transactions and things will have to managed the old-fashioned way, by check. If you’re interested drop me a line at james999@999soenyun.com (removing every instance of “999” in the address) and I’ll put you in touch with the person handling the transactions.
The cost shipped to your door is $18, US sales only. All proceeds go to a worthy cause, the San Diego chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Last I heard the extra larges were close to all gone, but small, medium and large were still in fairly good supply.
I’ve been posting on the progress on the Fallen Star piece that Do ho Suh has designed for the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego. November 15 was the big day for it to get hoisted from the ground, where it was being built, to the rooftop, where it’ll spend the next many decades. Here are some pictures from before, during and after. Unfortunately life intruded and I was having to attend a meeting during the most dramatic part of the process, when the house first left the ground. But I at least got a few shots of the house dangling over its eventual perch.
The morning of the hoist: The exterior has just been complete, the clapboarding nailed, the chimney set.
The worksite around the Fallen Star. Yes, those are trees with autumn-colored leaves.
The house and the big hydraulic crane that will launch it.
One of the film crews settles into place
The worksite with the extended crane
The audience
The house 80+ feet in the air, being lowered onto its finale perch
And we have contact…
A closer view of the landed house
And here’s a Youtube video of the big hoist from the Jacobs School of Engineering, the school that is housed in the structure that the house landed on:
And another from a different viewpoint, more dramatic than the first. The first two minutes are the best:
And for you total junkies, yet another vantage point. Once again the first part is the most dramatic.
The piece a couple mornings later, after the removal of the cranes…
There’s still more work to do before the grand unveiling, a TV and fireplace to install inside, a garden to plant outside. But this was definitely a big milestone. I’ll post more once I get up on the roof and have some closeup views.
