Art Village Pond

Buildings, Landscaping and Animals, Oh My!

CEO Sam examines a Bald Cypress destined for the Drop Off Circle.

Hanging out near the Health and Aquatics Center.

Lynn and Sam check out the Aquatics Center. JR heads to the outdoor pool showers (the two blue poles in the center). The Aquatics Center is going to be a very colorful and fun space.

Lynn and I are amazed at the amount of light streaming through the Solatube in the ceiling of the Aquatics Center!

These will allow us to cut WAY down on electricity consumption!

Program shelter, cabin and new dormers on the main house at the Fishing Village. Once the decking is built the Fishing Village will feel like the Ewok Village!

Two different kinds of tracks follow the same path through the Arts Village. Can you name the animals?

Cabin (far left), program shelter (left) and Activity building (right) in the Arts Village.

Quick Hello From Samantha S.

Hey hey - Sammi here. Exciting new details regarding the sandals resort (Arts Village). One of the cabins are built up with siding included! The bathhouse/kitchen is HUGE. Plus, it'll get bigger because I believe they're adding a wrap around porch to the exterior.

JR dug up Kaylee's mom's flip flop (she lost it in the mud a couple months ago). I heard he still has it in his office.
There's a roof on one of the buildings in the health and aquatics center. We got to choose the pool side awnings too! Fun colors there.

Okey dokie then, next meeting brings more deets so keep track of us.

-Samantha S.

Arts Village Taking Shape!

Things are changing fast at North Fork -

The sleeping quarters for the Arts Village are all up. The construction workers are putting on the roofs and walls. Soon there will just be a little building with nothing inside of them except light switches and outlets.

The beds that were chosen are bunk beds. The beds’ design is still being planned out. Four bunk beds per cabin so eight people can sleep in each.

There are going to be two doors and two really big windows followed by 4 smaller windows over the main door and the back wall from when you first walk into the bunk house.

These pictures are the same building within 10min during our visit.

Here is one of the ten cabins - with walls, doors and the first layer of the roof.

The next picture is the same cabin, but it looks different.

The building is made to withstand 150 mile winds. The designers are making everything handicap accessible and thinking of every safety precaution.

While we were at camp this building was wrapped in Tyvek – a vapor barrier to help keep moisture out.

If you look really close you will see the whole side is covered with the Tyvek, and then the door is cut out again.

The man in the blue hard hat is starting to cut the door out.

- More later - The Drama Queens - Troop 853

Milestone: Phase I Construction 50% Complete!

We've all got reason to celebrate! Construction of Phase I at North Fork reached the halfway point this past week. Here are some updated pics of the areas currently under construction at your new camp!

Some of the Walls are Up

Drama Queens here with another progress report
on the Arts Village at North Fork.

Recently we revisited the Arts Village - and were we surprised at the progress! Last time we were here the slabs were being poured, the cement was settling and the pipes were sticking out of the ground.

Now the stone walls are up. The stone used for the walls is a split face block – the inside is smooth and the outside is burnished and rough. Also - see those metal strips sticking up? Those are hurricane ties. Each has 29 smaller and 2 larger holes for nails that help strengthen the wood posts that will hold the roof in place.

The wood and screen portions have to wait until the camp redistributes its water supply. Each site must have access to water to guarantee safety in case of fire. Once the water from the front pond has been pumped to the various construction sites, the 4x4 posts will be added and the screens put in.

We also observed on the now much larger concrete slabs that provide the floor for the showers and bathrooms that there are 8x8x8 joints to allow for the concrete to crack along these expansion joints.

There are three buildings walled in – one has the beginnings of a wash house with toilets and showers and the other two are unit houses. One of these two buildings will be equipped with utility sinks in the back to help facilitate art projects.

Here where we are standing will be a sink area – the pipes are already in place.

The pic on the right is outside the wash house - it is a handicap accessible shower.

So, as you can see the Arts Village is taking shape! We can now see the inside of buildings. The sleeping quarters will have wood and screen walls and so were still only concrete slabs during this visit.

Please check back for another update soon!

The Drama Queens!

Trees, Bricks and GREAT Weather!

Hey Everyone,

WE SAVED A TREE THIS WEEK !!!! YAY (: (: (:

The A-Frame is TOTALLY gone, and they are staring to shape the dirt and pour the concrete for the cabins that are going in. In the Arts Village the concrete slabs have been put in and the FABULOUS brick is going in. The drip irrigation field is almost complete. For all of you that don't know what that is, It is where all of the water will be stored until the ponds are complete, just in case there is an emergency. There were a couple of tanks put in about a month ago. Now you can barely see that there is anything there!

Construction has been going REALLY fast, due to the weather. Let's all hope it stays this way(: NO MORE RAIN PLEASE?(:

Much More to come ,

Kaylee(:

North Fork Taking Shape in Clay County

Aerial View of Construction at North Fork 
August 2009

It's all about the Infrastructure!  

While the girls are busy at school, the crew at Dana B. Kenyon and their many subcontractors have been busy getting North Fork ready to enjoy for generations to come!

Infrastructure - the roads, ponds, parking areas, plumbing, foundations, etc. are being put into place as we get ready to "go vertical" with buildings!  

Work continues on the main entrance - it's going to be a beautiful drive into camp! 

The pool gutters are in place.  The area around the pool is cleared - as you look at the aerial photo you can almost see where the buildings will be! It's such an exciting time for all of us watching your new camp take shape out here! 

The drip irrigation field is done - you'd never guess all that is under the ground there. The water treatment area is taking shape - all cleared and ready for the foundation to be poured.

The storm drainage system is being built out too - and ponds are being dug throughout the property. They may not look like much now, but when they are in place they will be breathtakingly beautiful spaces where generations of girls will learn to fish and skim stones.

At the Fishing Village, the foundation footers for the restroom and are about ready to be poured.  The A-Frame is gone and crews are ready to pour concrete slabs where the cabins will be. Renovations are taking place at the main house too, getting it ready to be part of the Fishing Village unit.

The Arts Village is starting to take shape! They have starting laying brick and pouring concrete for the activity centers there.

Want to help? Individuals and troops can still purchase a commemorative Brick Paver or have your name engraved on a bench at the Amphitheater - contact Linda Hull for details. Engrave your name in history at North Fork!

Thanks to everyone involved in helping North Fork blossom and grow into the camp we envisioned years ago when the Master Site Plan was developed with the help of girls, volunteers and staff. Stay tuned to this blog for more notes and pics!

Our First Look at the Future Arts Village

Mud Mud Everywhere!

Walking through the future arts village at North Fork can be treacherous! One person was stuck in the mud already and lost a shoe! With all of the unavoidable Florida rain showers, there's nothing to do but keep going, even though it makes laying down the foundations of unit houses, bunkhouses, and the main house a bit difficult.

Despite the mud, we were able to gain some fun facts about the emerging arts village. Two different types of wiring are used inside the concrete - First re-barb is used to help maintain the shape of the concrete and steel wiring goes inside the concrete. This is primarily used to provide uniform heat throughout the concrete. Because metal acts as a conductor, if one part of the concrete was warmer than the other, the heat would travel through the metal inside and spread the heat to other parts. This does not mean that the floors will be heated during the winter, just that the floors will feel the same no matter where you stand on it.

There are a lot of pipes sticking out of the ground right now, all around the concrete foundation. The gray pipes are going to be used for electricity while the blue ones are used for water. There is one red pipe for the emergency sprinkler in the ceiling, used in case of fire.

All the concrete floors are split into a pattern of 4 pieces. This is because concrete hardens and will also expand in heat, and will always crack in some way. By controlling where the cracks are, the construction crew helps prevent other unwanted cracks and also allows for the concrete to expand without ruining the concrete. The cracks put in by the construction range in depth and can be anywhere from a quarter of an inch to five eighths of an inch.

All foundations must be sprayed for termites, even though there is very little wood used in the construction so far. The ground has been compacted to ensure that it will not shift after the building is constructed on top of it. After it has been firmly packed, it is sprayed for bugs and then covered by plastic. By treating the soil beforehand any existing bug populations are eliminated from underneath the future building sites.

There are many old trees in our camp, and the crew has carefully worked with a civil engineer to make paths and building around our most precious and oldest trees. Though many have had to be cut down, there is a big effort made to save as many as possible.

We met an artist who was involved with making our arts village! The architect, Ms Holly Gramble, was visiting the camp while we were on our tour. She had come to North Fork to attend some meetings. Her field has a lot to do with combining art with the practical needs of people. She told us about how they had met with girls to plan out the camp and that they made most of the plans on a CAD program.