Construction Update –
01 October 2000
The
wall is done!
Although Gorilla Haven has been making
steady progress for the past several years, recently the progress is clearly
visible, as the "Great Wall of Morganton" is completed.
Since photos are worth a 1,000 words, here are some recent snaps
showing the wall from its inception at the end of June to its completion. (click
on the photo thumbnail for a larger version of the photo):
(Left
to right) Quinton Morris, the GH construction manager, with
Allen Garrett and
Daryl Hovden of Daryl Hovden Construction.
This photo was taken in late June, when the Wall was just beginning.
While GH hires locally whenever possible and practical, we went with
Hovden – from nearby Cumming, GA – since he was one of the few companies
with a large enough crew, enough forms and materials, etc. to handle such a
big job! Still, even Hovden had to admit this was the first
"gorilla farm" he'd ever worked on!
The
Hovden and Gorilla Haven Crew – or a good number of them – posed for a photo on
Steuart’s birthday at the end of July. The higher part of the wall at the
far left will be the Group Building, of Phase II. Holes in the walls will be
for gorillas to go in and out of the building to the 8+ acre habitat, at
various levels. The Gorilla Haven wall will take around seventy
thousand cubic feet of concrete and more than twenty-five miles of steel rebar.
If you took all that concrete and poured a column 3" square, going
straight up, it would, at over 280 miles high, stretch into outer space and the
international space
station would bump into it :)
The
Great Wall of Morganton – 29Jul00 – View from bottom Group Building area,
going up Silverback Ridge on right. Compare
height of wall and people to the above photo to the height of the trees inside
the gorilla habitat! The Gorilla Haven containment wall is designed to
withstand 100+Mph wind with no damage even though no wind higher than 72Mph
has ever been recorded in Fannin County, Georgia.
“Headquarters”
will be the entrance to the restricted area of Gorilla Haven … It’s a
small yet functional office with bathroom for Quinton and the GH crew to begin
their day and/or for meetings. Note
the poles in the foreground – used for the perimeter fencing around the
restricted area of GH. This photo was taken 21Jun00 and since then Judy, our
gardener, has planted lovely flowers and shrubs around the area, enhancing the
entrance to GH.
The
Maintenance Building and Vet/Locker Room Building are built by a combination
of the GH Crew and Chad Bower’s Better Building Systems, a local builder
specializing in modular steel buildings. The buildings are all designed to blend in with the scenery, and
provide sturdy yet inexpensive functions for a variety of our needs.
Left:
Silverback
Villa is the first villa to be built, starting with the concrete work being
done by Hovden’s crew. This
photo shows the lovely views gorillas will have – and might explain why
developers were so anxious to try to get this property! The footers
leading down to Bonz's Villa are shown to the right of this photo.
Right:
Just
one week later, the concrete walls for Silverback villa and the wall down to
Bonz are finished. This view is from inside the habitat. The tractor is grading
the area for the outside cages and you can see the wall apertures that lead to
the inside quarters in Silverback villa which is attached to the outside of
the wall.
This
view of silverback villa shows the wall leading down to
Bonz's villa with Paris Mountain (the ridge line of which marks the North
border of Gorilla Haven) at the top. As of mid-August,
the containment wall is half-complete and progressing right on schedule,
thanks to the excellent work done by the Daryl Hovden Construction Company.
Left:
Pete Halliday, Gorilla Haven Project Director, stands in front of Bonz Villa as the
forms are set for the villa concrete work and the final section of wall from
Silverback villa. Footings in the foreground lead up from Bonz villa to Emma
Villa - which we refer to as the 'stretch' villa since it includes an
extra cage and would be suitable for housing a small family group. Right:
And just two days after that photo was taken, Bonz villa and the wall down from Silverback are
poured - Hovden's crew are FAST workers!!
This
view is from inside the enclosure standing next to Pitchou
Villa's wall that
has just been poured, looking over towards Emma Villa. The wall up from Bonz
(off the right edge of photo) to Emma villa's is done as is Emma's villa.
Photo
left is a rather crudely stitched together panorama of the North side of the
habitat wall with Bonz villa at the left, Emma's villa center and
Pitchou's villa off to the right. The jeep at the right provides some scale.
What you can't see in this photograph is that the wall stretches ALL the way
behind the trees from the left, past Silverback villa, down the ridge back to
the main group building wall. Photo right
shows the footings heading down from Pitchou's villa back down towards the
group building.
For
Steuart’s birthday the end of July, we had the crew gather for some cake and
ice cream (at 10 a.m., but no one complained!). The local Food Lion had a “construction cake” complete with toy
bulldozers, cement mixers, trucks, etc., pushing up mounds of chocolate icing.
I brought it home and added graham cracker “walls” and went through
several boxes of animal crackers to find “gorilla crackers” to place
inside the wall, making the cake the silliest of Steuart’s gifts!
(Left
to right) Quinton Morris, the GH construction manager, with
Allen Garrett and
Daryl Hovden of Daryl Hovden Construction.
This photo was taken in late June, when the Wall was just beginning.
While GH hires locally whenever possible and practical, we went with
Hovden – from nearby Cumming, GA – since he was one of the few companies
with a large enough crew, enough forms and materials, etc. to handle such a
big job! Still, even Hovden had to admit this was the first
"gorilla farm" he'd ever worked on!
