This week was a bit different for us, as we spent time building a stage for the Green River Music Festival to promote the DesignBuild program. The gang took a small vacation from the Paper House, but we’ll be back at it next week!
Monday was Juneteenth, and the day off offered a much needed rejuvenation. While most of us were relaxing with friends and family, a couple of students finalized our design plans for the festival, a music and arts event held annually in Greenfield, Massachusetts. We feel honored to have had the opportunity to promote DesignBuild at the Green River Festival. Their commitment to community and sustainability resonates with the core values of the UMass DesignBuild program.
On Tuesday, we finished preparing the parts of the stage to be assembled on site. Our finalized design was a pastiche of a Three Quarter Cape Cod House front elevation for a backdrop with a canvas awning that covered a 24 x 8 foot gray-stained deck. Albeit simple, the Cape Cod design is a New England Staple reminiscent of a back-porch concert. Preparing the stage parts consisted of staining the wooden boards of the deck, sanding down the antique six lite window sash, constructing and painting the “front door”, painting the awning structure, and organizing the items to be driven to Greenfield.
On Wednesday, we set to work building our stage design at the festival grounds. After packing our supplies at the Amherst build site, we caravaned over to Greenfield, pulling over from time to time to wait for our trailing vehicles to catch up.
In Greenfield, we:
- Assembled the frame of the stage using mahogany stained 2×4 and 2×6 pieces of wood
- Attaching 2×4 wooden braces to the vertical and diagonal members for stability
- Screwed in the floorboards of the deck
- Screwed in a red barn door with a with an ornate cast iron handle
- Hung window sashes down from the house shaped frame
- Painted the footings black so they would disappear
On Thursday, we continued the build process for our stage in Greenfield. This involved:
- Screwing in the 2×4 and 2×6 boards to connect the front and back house frames. This ensures stability and creates a bed for the canvas roof cover
- Using staple guns to adhere the white canvas backdrop onto the house frame
- Using staple guns to adhere a white canvas sheet and a plastic sheet over the roof frame
- Eating pizza! (thanks Kent!)
On Friday, we spent the morning working on the Paper House in Amherst. We tied up loose ends before the weekend, working on some interior walls, window sills, and eave details. The festival kicked off on Friday, meaning that the day ended early for the students at the Amherst site, and those who were working the information tent at Green River Festival headed over to present the stage. Our instructors Kent and Rob –as well as three students– were featured on the radio waves of NEPM’s the Fabulous 413, explaining our stage and the DesignBuild’s Paper House project. Listen here!
Last year the students were building during the winter months, meaning by the time GRF rolled around, the house was completed, and it was used as the stage for the performances. This year however, we are building in the summertime, and are only halfway through the build. Because of this, we developed the aforementioned stage design, which, while reminiscent of the Paper House, is a departure from the delivered home last year. Nonetheless, this stage was the perfect backdrop for various musicians throughout the weekend.
As mentioned in a previous blog post, speaking about the project is part of the fun, and it is really rewarding to present what the group has worked so hard to produce, along with all we have learned during the process. This weekend the team had plenty of opportunities to do this, as they were stationed at a tent next to the stage to answer questions about high performance design, building physics, green materials, and design equity. People came by to ask about cost effective upgrades to their homes, the intricacies of off site building, and the UMass DesignBuild program in general. Students also got to enjoy the music, food, drink, and art community the festival had to offer.
In all, this whirlwind week proved how much the team has advanced in our building and designing skills and knowledge around the building process. From quickly putting together parts of the stage at our Amherst build site to talking about everything and anything DesignBuild to a diverse group of interested people, it is wonderful to see the team is becoming more independent and confident in what we know and can do.
