The Kingdome Comes Down...
October 2000
Sunday,
October 1, 3 p.m. - Another month. Wow.
Six full months since the implosion. I ran into a
friend I had not seen in a while the other day. He
told me he's still asked about his friend who refused to
leave her condo during the implosion. Glad to hear
I'm a legend. Nothing going on at the site today -
guess they are waiting for the puddles to dry up. |
Monday,
October 2, 4 p.m. - Remember those long concrete
things I've been wondering about for a while?
(Circled at the bottom of today's photo) Well, I
finally can see where at least some of them are
going! They are being placed on the top of the top
cross bars. (Circled in about the middle of the
photo) Having seen this, I'm sure they are also
being used to reinforce and probably top off most of the
flat bar thingies sprinkled around the site. |
Tuesday,
October 3, 4 p.m. - It is a beautiful day out and
there is not a thing moving on the site. I'm
thinking everyone is hiding out somewhere glued to a TV
watching the playoff game. That's actually what
I've been doing and it's been one heck of a game. |
Wednesday,
October 4, 4 p.m. - I know it's my imagination but I
swear there was precious little work going on during
today's game. The game was over (or rather, our
victory was secure) about 2 p.m. and work started up
again... I don't blame them a bit. Just now
there are a couple of guys I can see working in each of
the north towers. |
Thursday,
October 5, 6 p.m. - I was in a company meeting all
afternoon and barely got home in time to get a picture
in the daylight! Interesting shadows, eh?
Looks like they did a bit of work on the Mariners day
off. |
Friday,
October 6, 1:30 p.m. - We're in the 3rd inning and I
can see workers working BUT, the ones I see are high on
the towers where they have a clear view of the game at
Safeco Field... |
Saturday,
October 7, 3:15 p.m. - Well, yesterday, during the game,
they removed the wooden forms from the northeast
tower. I was too involved in the game to notice or
get a photo. Sorry. But, I'd like to point
out my new arrow tool! I upgraded my picture
software and now have real arrows instead of my old
crappy ones. Also, there's a circle. They
filled in one of the areas under the seat holders on the
east side... interesting. |
Sunday,
October 8, 1 p.m. -
In
my photo today, I've circled some things that were added
a while back but I just noticed them... vomitoriums at
the south end of the field. In today's paper they
had the photo at the right. Notice how the east
side of the room swoops down? It's going to swoop
down right on that northeast post we've been watching
being finished. It's really taking shape.
But, this photo also shows that it is unlikely I'll be
able to see much, if any of the field. The arrow I
put there shows my building. |
Monday,
October 9, 4 p.m. - Today's arrow points to the
northwest tower where they really didn't do that much
work, I just love these new arrows that I had to use
another one. It's been raining all day - at times
really raining hard - so the site is just soggy.
But, there is a lot of movement of trucks and people and
cranes. They seem to be working hard. |
Tuesday,
October 10, 4:15 p.m. - Check it out! We got
seats! They are filling in the seats in the south
end of the stadium (see nifty arrow). And, boy,
has the weather turned. It's your typical Seattle
day. Gray and chilly. My favorite weather -
seriously. Gotta go get ready for THE game. |
Wednesday,
October 11, 1:30 p.m. - Two of you - Greg and Rikketyrik,
noticed in yesterday's photo, that a truck was loaded
with the new seats. So, I just happened to be home
at game time, er lunch, and caught yet
another truck moving more seats to their new home.
There are several trucks of seats on the other side of
the rock pile (off to the left of the photo)... Looks
like it is definitely 'seat week' at the new stadium. |
Thursday,
October 12, 4 p.m. - They are slapping those seats
in like nobody's business!! Remember the rusty
thingies that used to all be (and some still are) in the
lower left hand part of the photo? Well, they have
one set up near the seats now - see circle. Still
no clue what they are for but at least they are using
one. |
Friday,
October 13, 8:30 a.m. - Much news today and it's
early because I have a friend coming in from out of town
to entertain today and, then, there's the little matter
of a baseball game this afternoon. I was afraid
this would be my only daylight opportunity today.
Yesterday, I got my
hands on the logo for the new stadium. I hadn't
seen it before and thought maybe you hadn't
either. But, the big news is the rusty
thingies. You regular readers are wonderful.
Ken Eriksen wrote from the other Washington that he
though they might be temporary supports for the roof
(see logo above). His note was quickly followed by
Sean Watts who said he say on TV that, in fact, they
were exactly what Ken suspected. This morning I
woke to notes from Rikketyrik, Craig Paulsen and John
Schweers with the same guess. (Frankly, I still
don't see it but clearly, it's obvious!) And, then
John Noakes wrote to say that those rusty thingies have
a past! They were used as part of the temporary
work platform used to build the Safeco Field retractable
roof. You guys are the absolute best and I love
hearing from you. Thanks for making these pages so
much better than I could do by myself. (As I type this,
my site is experiencing some problems with some images -
I think the server where they live is temporarily (I
hope) down. Sorry.) |
Saturday,
October 14, 12:15 p.m. - There's some work going on
today but doesn't seem to be the full load.
And they've delivered a lot more seats which are mostly
stacked up outside of the photo. They are
apparently hard at work on coming up for a name for the
new stadium. The public and private partners in
the project have hired a consultant to 'establish a
partner for naming rights'. Bottom line, who's
going to pony up the big bucks. Also, in
consideration, apparently is naming of the Exhibition
Hall that's just south of the stadium (between it and
Safeco Field). Personally, I think SusanDennis
Field has a lovely ring to it. |
Sunday,
October 15, 1:30 p.m. - I can't see any change on
site from yesterday and it's still as can be
today. Last week, I was looking for a Kingdome
logo to sit next to the stadium one and discovered that
while six months ago, the logo was everywhere... it's no
where to be found now. I used every search engine I
could find and could not turn up anything.
Kind of sad. If anyone happens across one,
would you let me know where it is so I can snag it for
posterity? |
Monday,
October 16, 4 p.m. - Today is the kind of day that
people who have only heard about Seattle think we have
every day. Rainy. They are hard at work,
however on the site. They filled in - with
concrete - one of the bottom sections of the seats (see
circle) and the western wall - most of which is out of
the photo - is taking shape. |
Tuesday,
October 17, 4 p.m. - Today's red circle comes to you
courtesy of Tony Hentges. On the way to work this
morning he noticed they had put up some metal of some
kind around the southeast tower and he sent me an email
alert! You can't see it too well in the photo but
it's two kind of ring things that look like working
platforms. Must be the start of the eastern half
of the roof truss. |
Wednesday,
October 18, 4 p.m. - Well, the story today is
seats. There are more in place and many, many more
by the rock pile getting ready and even some on the
truck on the way (see arrow). I get the feeling
that there's some seat riser shop somewhere just dancing
with joy over the big accounts receivable and the voluminous
storage room they now have! |
Thursday,
October 19, 4 p.m. - Well, they put in all the seats
they have and there are a whole lot of blank spaces and
no more seats on the site... Wonder if that seat store
ran out?! |
Friday,
October 20, 4 p.m. - A circle, an arrow and a report
from the other side... It's a big day. The
northwest tower got a new ring of metal today.
Preparation for the roof truss??!! The arrow
points to the seats on the far south side. I can't
tell for sure, but it looks like they are covered with
plastic. It's been raining a lot so I suspect it's
protection from the rain but what are they protecting?
What have they done to those seats? The seats on
the east side apparently don't need protecting.
But, the big news comes from Tony Hentges, my new Roving
Reporter. Tony says he drives by the east side of
the construction site a couple of times a week and sees
stuff that I can't see from here. Today he reports
that it looks like they are testing paint! Here's
exactly what he said: "They have painted 3 to
4 10x10 sections with different shades of red...I
believe they are painting most of the exposed cement
surfaces with a brick-like color to help the stadium
blend into the neighborhood better. I can't help
but assume they are testing the look of various colors
to see what looks the best. " |
Saturday,
October 21, 1:45 p.m. - Before you click on
the picture, warning: it's a big one.
Generally, I take the shot and then reduce it by
half. But, yesterday Rikketyrik wrote and asked
that I post a 'big one' again. As it turned out
it's the first non-gray day we've had in some time so a
perfect day for a big shot. If you are on a slow
connection, it may take a while, for the whole thing to
load in, but it's pretty cool and worth the wait.
There is a lot of activity going on - cranes moving
around, cement trucks moving and spinning and guys
working on top of nearly all the surfaces. A bee
hive. |
Sunday,
October 22, 1:30 p.m. - Not much action today at
all. Rikketyrik discovered that the First
and Goal site has added some new photos. Some
of them are really interesting. But, what I like
the best is what they call that little piece of roof
they installed on the southeast (and southwest) towers a
couple of months ago... they call it a lump!
Seriously. This cracks me up. |
Monday,
October 23, 4:15 p.m. - There was a whole lot of
work going on today. But, I can't really point my
finger (or the famous arrow) at any particular new
thing. I am a bit astounded that we are nearly
done with October. This time next week, I'm going
to have to start taking the photos at lunch to make sure
I get daylight. |
Tuesday,
October 24, 4:15 p.m. - Some more seats were
delivered today but I can't see where any more were
installed yet. They are pouring concrete (see
green crane) at the far north edge. Otherwise, it
appears to be just general work stuff. |
Wednesday,
October 25, 4 p.m. - Well, we're absolutely back in
the seat business today. They installed some more and
there are way more than a handful of trucks with seats
on them scattered around the site waiting to be put into
their places. |
Thursday,
October 26, 4:15 p.m. - More seats... but, I should
be more specific. Of course, these aren't the real
seats but the seats for the real seats. (Work with
me here.) Tony Hentges found a press release about
the real seats on Paul
Allen's website. I was taking a good look at
the site today trying to visualize what it will look
like a year from now. I can't quite get there
yet. |
Friday,
October 27, 4:30 p.m. - Hey, big news on the
northwest tower! They added the next layer between
yesterday's photo and today's. On Channel 4 last
night, they had a story about the seats. And,
there was a story in today's Seattle Times but they seem
to be having terrible access problems and I can't even
get to them right now. But, they story they ran
said that the seats were just like the ones used in the
Sydney Olympics except with bigger cup holders.
They noted that Seahawks fans don't necessarily drink
from bigger cups but bigger holders give them better
advertising real estate! |
Saturday,
October 28, 3 p.m. - It's a very cold and blistery
day out there today and not a lot of people on the site
but there is something going on that's creating a lot of
noise. I just can't pinpoint what it is.
Sean Watts noticed in yesterday's photo that the
northwest wall got a new section added to the top of
it. I circled it in today's photo. |
Sunday,
October 29, 12:30 p.m. - I drove by the
stadium today and got a better look at those south end
seats and they are all covered in plastic. Just
the ones on the south end, none of the others. Quite
curious. But, then I got home and took the picture
and went to circle said seats only to realize that they
are no longer in my view!! That northern wall has
blocked them out. This is not good. Now I
guess I'll need to get a Superman camera that can see
through walls. |
Monday,
October 30, 2:30 p.m. - The time listed on these
entries is the time that I took the photograph. It
has been generally, also, the time I post the entry but
the end of daylight savings time has put an end to
that. I usually post the entry between 4 and 5
regardless of when the photo was snapped.
Today we have a couple of points of interest and a
link... The Seattle
Post Intelligencer had an article about soccer in
the new stadium this morning - it includes some stadium
nuts and bolts. The photo on the left shows what
they did to the northwest tower today. But, the
photo on the right is the big news. They moved so
much of the big rock pile today that I can now see the
Turner Construction buildings again. They haven't
been visible from my terrace since last April.
They had a huge chain of trucks moving those rocks out
at a good clip this afternoon. |
Tuesday,
October 31, 4:15 p.m. - I came home at lunch to take
a photo and it was dark and dreary and the photo was the
same. But, when I got home from work, it was
beautiful out and I got an even better photo - check out
that beautiful sky! My roving reporter says that
in the south section of seats (the ones that I can't see
any more because of the wall) they are starting to
install some pretty substantial structural steel (on the
south end of the stadium between the southeast and
southwest towers). He says that it appears to be a
tier of second level seating and a concourse (probably
club seating). |
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