Delayed gratification #1: What's the Mather?

[muckefuck]

I'm really fascinated with the work being done right now at Mather Pavilion. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures, but the building used to have a charming terrace surrounded by greensward and shrubs where I would see seniors lounging in the afternoons. A couple months ago, high chain-link fences appeared from nowhere, encircling it completely. At the time I couldn't tell if construction work was on its way or if they got sued for letting a fogey wander off and this was a temporary solution until they could get their designer iron-wrought barricades installed.

But when the construction arrived, it was with a vengeance: The crew parked a skip outside and preceded to strip the yard completely bare. I mean completely: Paving stones, planters, shrubs, turf, soil, gravel--everything was scraped up and carted off. Even though intellectually I know it must be more efficient overall to trash everything even if you are replanting the exact same plants, it pains me a bit to see healthy plants consigned to a trash heap.

I was wondering how deep they would go and soon realised there was only so deep they could: Under all that soil was, to my surprised, a layer of tar paper. But the real surprise was yet to come: The concrete that was laid on rested not, as one might expect, on the subsoil, but concealed a basement underlying the entire lot. Right now, they're using the a Bobcat with a jackhammer attachment to break apart the slabs and remove them in roughly 4 m x 1 m sections.

It's a crazy mess right now: The Pavilion itself, looking as attractively prim as it always has, surrounded by a wide moat over 3 metres deep and filling up with rubble. No idea what's eventually going to happen. The basement looks unfinished, so are they breaking into it so they can create more storage space? Are they going to construct more structures on top of it? Their website tells you nothing, and there are none of the signs you often see at construction sites with illustrations of coming results.

I guess I have no choice but chat up one of the burly labourers taking a break outside. Woe is me!

Comments

[grunter.livejournal.com]

For consistency's sake, I think your opening line to said burly labourer should be: "Where do you get your buns?"

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Today one of them was talking to his friend in the idle Bobcat and leaning on the door with one foot on the running board (or rough equivalent) and the other on the ground. The result was that his jeans were stretched as taut as could be. Very much a "HERE WERE ARE!" moment for those of us leaving the train station.