Kingdome Cam

July 2000

Saturday, July 1, 4:45 p.m. - I think the workers might have gotten this weekend off. I haven't seen any action today at all! The newsletter said that the two south towers will be topped off in June but I don't think they are quite there yet. The north towers (the ones closest to me) will be topped off in October. Sean Watts noted the other day that they were quite kind to do the north towers last so that they don't cut off my view prematurely. I think he's right.

Sunday, July 2, 2:30 p.m. - Not a creature is stirring on the site today. So while I'm looking at the non-action, I noticed something. In the newsletter, they talked about topping off the north and south towers. I realized that I can actually see, from my terrace, six towers... The one I marked B in the photo has a counterpart on the west side of the site. Are these the south towers? The one I marked A has counterparts on the other three corners of the site. Is this the southeast tower? Will they be building two more like B in the north end of the site? hmmmmmm

Monday, July 3, 4 p.m. - There has only been a bit of action today. None of the big machines were running, no pile driving, but some of the cement trucks were wandering around. It's been very quiet. And, speaking of quiet, the newsletter had an interesting note. I'll just quote. "Construction hours on the project are: 5:30 a.m. to ll:30 p.m. on non-holiday weekdays, and 7:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. on non-holiday Saturdays. In the early morning and late evening hours, the Project is limited to low-impact activities such as construction staging, material off loading, and concrete pouring." Interesting, I think.

Tuesday, July 4, 1 p.m. - Traditionally, it rains on July 4 here. But, it looks like tradition may suffer this year. It's cool and cloudy but dry. On the site, there's no sign of life at all. Things should ramp up tomorrow. There is some kind of "bird's beak" structure due to be completed in a couple of weeks as part of the eastern roof truss. Maybe this is what's going on the two stanchions that I pointed out in June 28's photo.

Wednesday, July 5, 4:15 p.m. - There is action on the site today but it's really quiet. The pile drivers must be recovering from the long weekend. Howard Frisk has posted some great implosion and rubble photos on his website. Almost hard to believe that the Kingdome was standing here a little over three months ago!

Thursday, July 6, 4:15 p.m. - There's a fair amount of incremental progress going on. The arrow in today's photo points to what I think are going to be the stadium seats facing north. And, I must remark on the beautiful sky in today's photo. Sometimes it just takes my breath away.

Friday, July 7, 4:15 p.m. - I realized today that it's been several days since I've heard pile driving... I still see some of the piles stacked up around but I can't see that there are any pile driving machines on site! Wonder if they are done? It sure is quiet. Today we have a new thing and we've lost an old thing. The new thing is a big box (marked with the arrow) in the middle. I can't tell if it's like a giant dumpster or something that will be part of the structure. Time will tell, I'm sure. And they removed all of the coil making things that were lined up on the west edge closest to my terrace. Guess they have all the coils they need.

Saturday, July 8, 4 p.m. - I used a bit of a different shot today to show you some stuff. You can see the rock pile better and see the rock crusher machine right in the middle between the pile of bigger rocks and the ever growing piles of crushed rocks. The stadium isn't the only construction in the neighborhood. See the building on the far left? That building is one of two (the first one is out of the picture) recently finished and opened. The one to the right of it was an iron frame at the time of the implosion and is now taking on its skin. Just to the right (and behind it) is the headquarters of Amazon.Com. It used to be a veteran's hospital. A commercial real estate friend of mine tells me that Amazon has also leased most of the office space in the three new buildings.

Sunday, July 9, 12:30 p.m. - Today's shot is yet again another angle. You can see the crowds making their way to the ballpark a full hour before game time. It's a sell out. No action on the site but a lot of these baseball fans brought their camera to capture the new stadium.

Monday, July 10, 4 p.m. - There's lots of little action going on today... cranes craning, dump trucks dumping, rock crushers crushing... you get the picture. No big stuff. Just busy, busy, busy. I did get a call from my

friends at Q13 Reports asking to use my terrace to get some construction shots. This time I did not screw up their picture. From the left are: Camera guy - Keith Bubach, Intern - Tim Martin and Reporter - John Yeager.

Tuesday, July 11, 4 p.m. - Late yesterday afternoon my eye caught two major trucks leaving the site with heavy machinery. It sure looks to me like they carted off the rock crushers. There is still a relatively sincere pile of uncrushed rock. Wonder if they are going to use it uncrushed or recycle it uncrushed. Or if the rock crushers just got tired of working and left for vacation. Wonder where rock crushers go on vacation.

Wednesday, July 12, 4:30 p.m. - Not a whole lot of really visible change in the site today. I will say that without those pile drivers, the construction is a very quiet neighbor. I have to actually go look to make sure they are working!

Thursday, July 13, 4:30 p.m. - How about the sky in today's photo?! Interestingly, while it's pretty spectacular to look at in person, it looks even better in the photo. Strange. The site news today is missing rocks. See the rock pile? There's a bunch missing. No sign of where they went. Q13 ran their story last night and the head guy that they interviewed said that the east side of the seating part of the stadium will go up first. This is very nice of them. It means we'll get a good view of it without the west side blocking us.

Friday, July 14, 4:30 p.m. - Again, no substantial change in the site today. Just more of this and that. We haven't had any rain in a long time and the site is looking a bit dusty. But, I can see no discernable difference in the amount of dust climbing up to my terrace. No noise, no dirt... this stadium is so far a very good neighbor!

Saturday, July 15, 11:15 a.m. - I caught them in the act! They are hauling away the pile of bigger rocks, truck by truck by truck. This is going to leave a big blank space in the rock pile part of the site. Can't wait to see what goes there. I think where the rock piles are will be stadium parking, but I'm not sure.

Sunday, July 16, 2:30 p.m. - They hauled an enormous amount of rock yesterday. It's amazing to see it gone. Rikketyrik found a link on the First and Goal site that shows another view of the rock piles - http://www.firstandgoal.com/webcam/default.asp. Looks like the way they are going, I will have to pick a new topic of discussion as the rocks will be history!

Monday, July 17, 4:15 p.m. - More rocks left today and dumping them into the trucks is fairly loud. Not pile driving loud but you definitely know they are out there working without having to get up and look. They are also doing a lot of wetting down of the site. We haven't had any rain in a while.

Tuesday, July 18, 4:15 p.m. - Enough about rocks. Let's get back to construction. I've sent the tripod for this shot and unless something comes up that you just must see, I'll take this shot for several days in a row so you can compare. We have precious few trees in this neighborhood so I hate to complain about one. But the one in the way of my view of the construction is beginning to annoy me. At least the leaves will be gone when we get to the serious work.

Wednesday, July 19, 4 p.m. - Doesn't look a whole lot different than yesterday, but that's the point of incremental pictures, isn't it? Next month, we'll wander back through this month and be able to do a major 'remember when'. There is virtually no noise over there today. They must be doing quiet work.

Thursday, July 20, 4 p.m. - More invisible changes to the site. And, it's still quiet. Am I repeating myself? We still haven't had rain and the site is getting dustier and dustier. I suspect the watering machines will be put to use soon.

Friday, July 21, 4:30 p.m. - Three numbers in today's photo. 1) is the newest corner of the stadium which is growing like crazy. It will be the northwest corner of the stadium. The other three corners are already pretty much done. 2) are some interesting stanchions that are also growing. I'm thinking they might be the supports for the seats that will face west. 3) points out a barely visible thing way in the back of the site. I can see that it has an odd shape and a sign on it announcing First & Goal. This looks like something they may be ready to put up somewhere for some drive by advertising.

Saturday, July 22, 8:30 a.m. - Hey! They are taking that barely visible thing from yesterday and mounting it on one of the stadium corners! I thought I was quite clever to catch it mid-install. However, that was about an hour and a half ago and it's still in the same position. System note: I think I'm going to upgrade to Windows 2000 this weekend. Hopefully, I won't lose any capabilities, but who knows. So if you don't see any entry tomorrow, you'll know I hit a snag. On Monday, I'll find an expert and be back in the saddle.

Sunday, July 23, 9 a.m. - Today's picture is kind of fuzzy. BUT, I did get Windows 2000 up and running and it's fabulous. I'll work on the picture quality next. The new thing appears to be the start of the roof. Interesting. It looks like it's as in place as it's going to be. We had a nice couple of rains yesterday which sure cut down on the dust.

Monday, July 24, 4:30 p.m. - Today's photo is much clearer. There are two items noted by arrows. They aren't new, but I haven't mentioned them before - one (the down arrow) is an extra long stanchion that looks interesting. And the other is a structure being built in the center of the site. It looks like a top of something. And, speaking of tops of something... A short article on the MSNBC web site says that the first structural steel will go up on Saturday morning. I'll be here - camera ready! Edited at 6:45: Ok, my VP of Quality Control, Sean Watts, had me fix a couple of typos and pointed out that the MSNBC link is from last Friday so that structural steel was this past Saturday... must have been that thing that I circled in Saturday's photo. I hope they plan more structural steel. And... Thanks, Sean.

Tuesday, July 25, 4:30 p.m. - The corner of the stadium nearest me - the northwest corner - is growing and threatening my view! This is not going to be good for any of us. I guess I should have gotten to them earlier and convinced them to make that particular corner transparent. Sigh.

Wednesday, July 26, 4:15 p.m. - I can't see any dramatic change today but there is definitely a lot of work going on or a lot of going on anyway. Machines are moving around and new things are coming in. In the bottom left of the photo you can see some flat bed truck loads of big concrete slabs. These have been coming and going for a week or so. These particular ones have been right there for several days. I think they go on the four corners so these must be for the last corner they are working on now - the one that will block my view.

Thursday, July 27, 3:45 p.m. - They are moving around those concrete slabs again. Still don't know what they are for. There seems to be much more activity on the site today but I can't quit pinpoint any big changes.

Friday, July 28, 4 p.m. - Check out the pile of rocks. They've dumped a bunch of strange looking things on the top of it. Quite curious. Again, a lot of activity today.

Saturday, July 29, 3 p.m. - Well, Sean Watts wins again. He correctly identified the rock pile fodder. They are discarded platforms. I circled where one is still attached to the corner section. They look like platforms that workers stand on. I still think it's a strange place to toss them.

Sunday, July 30, 8:30 p.m. - We've had some really beautiful evening skies recently and I thought I'd try and capture one. Sadly, although I can see it with my eyes, my camera is just not getting it. Trust me, though, there's a little pink with some pretty wispy clouds. No action on the site. A regular Sunday.

Monday, July 31, 4:15 p.m. - There are a lot of workers out there today and although I can't see for sure, I'm betting a lot of them are sweaty. This is our 8th day of 80 or nearly 80 degrees with full sun. It is hot and a lot of us have lost any ability we had to handle hot. We had a bit of rain a week ago Sunday but since then the water trucks on the site have been spewing regularly.