March 26, 2008 Site Meeting

The Houndstooth building is coming along at a good pace. The nice weather has definitely been a positive.

The block work has begun at the back left corner of the building if you are looking at the Houndstooth from University Blvd.

This is a shot of the bar area. The bar top will go on top of the block support.

This is a close up of the steel connections. They all look real good.

As you can see, all the steel structue is now in place.

March 12, 2008 Update

Houndstooth Update

The slab has now been poured. The contractor will be cutting the expansion joints in the slab over the next several days. The concrete that you see is basically what the finished floor will be and look like. It is a colored concrete, it will be very durable with little maintenance. The next steps will include laying the block for the walls and putting up the structural steel. The fourth picture below shows one of the building footings that the steel will be bolted to. This is what will support the structure and roof system of the building. Scott, with K&A, says that the project is still a couple of weeks behind due to the dirt work and weather. However, Scott is confident that these two weeks will be made up over the course of the project.

March 5, 2008

The pictures below are from todays site meeting. the retaining wall has been completely poured. The first pictures shows the wall from the back property line all the way to the corner. The concreted subcontractors are currently adding a finish to all exposed surfaces of the wall in order to fill in the holes and give it an even look.

The next three pictures show the footings and first 2 to 3 rows of block for the building walls. Also, you can see that all the underslab plumbing has been roughed. The electrical contractor is on site at the time of the pictures working on the underslab electrical conduit. Once all the plumbing and electical is done, the slab floor will be poured. This should take place later this week.

Houndstooth Update

Pictures from February 20, 2008 site meeting.

As you can see, the footings have been dug and they are beginning to pour the concrete into the footings. The rebar adds strength and stability.

February 13, 2008

The meeting was moved to Evans' office because of the below freezing tempature. However, the work continued on. All the dirt from under the building pad has been removed and the new dirt has been put in place. The old dirt was removed down to 6 feet under the building pad area. The new dirt is a light brown color in the pictures. The rest of the lot has been lowered and gravel has been put down. All this has been done since last Thursday. Visually, the progress seemed to be the greatest this past week as compared to earlier weeks. The other pictures below show the retaining wall footing being dug. You can also get an idea of how much the lot was brought down on the north side, west side and the northwest corner.

February 7, 2007

The Houndstooth development is moving along. The pictures below show the progress of the site work. There was a slight delay due to bad soil at the spot where the building is going to sit. You can see that about 6-8 feet of soil must be removed and replaced with a sandy clay soil. This new layer of soil will be under the building foot print. The new soil will be put in one foot at a time. The soil will then be compacted and tested for proper compaction. This should all be completed by the beginning of next week. K&A is saying that this is about a two week delay. Hopefully, this delay can be made up somewhere else along the way.

As you can see in second picture below, the building permit has been secured. The health department signed off on the plans without any issues. The site meeting today included the mechanical & plumbing engineer, Evans Fitts, Al Cabanis, Doug Nelson, Doug's contractor(Peter), and Jon. We reviewed different issues that need to be coordinated between all the involved parties. Many of the details of construction need to be worked out during the construction process. The plans are modified and added to as the construction progresses.

The Houndstooth Redevelopment, Tuscaloosa, AL

Construction began January 16, 2008. The last date the old building was open was January 7, 2008. The planned re-open is August 1, 2008. The first Alabama home football game is September 6, 2008. I will plan on keeping weekly or every other week updates on the progress as well as photos. Feel free to ask questions or send me other information and pictures. Thanks, Todd Sitton

January 23, 2008

The Houndstooth building was taken down last Wednesday, January 16. A lot of the debris has been hauled off. A local charity has asked us to give them the bricks from the old building. They are planning on using the bricks to raise money for the charity.

K&A builders is currently clearing off the rest of the debris from the old building and scrapping the old paving of the lot. The lot will be lowered and a retaining wall will go on the two sides of the lot that are not bordered by a road. The engineer has placed 3 foot offsets for the retaining wall placement and has stacked the corners of the building. As of today, the building permit has not been issued. We are waiting for the Tuscaloosa health department to sign off on the plans. The soil well be tested by TTL once all the asphault has been removed from the site. K&A says the soil looks good so far.