Yankee Stadium Frieze Update - A little nonsense Now and Then, Is Cherished by the Wisest Men.

A frieze, in architecture, is a horizontally painted or chiseled strip with serial ornaments for division or adornment of walls.

 

 

Through thick, thin, hot, cold and after nearly a year of on again, off again work, I've finally got the Yankee Stadium inspired frieze on the top of my workbench "done". I put done in quotes because I plan on adding to it. I still have more than 18 feet of frieze to go. This little section here, which will serve as a template for future freize (what's the plural of frieze?) is only three feet long. I'm ok with leaving this as is for now because the original Yankee Stadium, the one that "Ruth built" and opened in 1923, went through many expansions and changes before it was torn apart during the well intentioned, "engineeringly" successful but architecturally flawed 1970's renovation. Y'see, Yankee Stadium was never really completed.

I'll start with expanding the "left field" side. When the original stadium was first expanded in 1928 they started with building out the left field grand stand. Something the Yankees had planned on doing since the ball park opened in 1923. Right field was extended in 1936-1937.

The Great Frieze Project also included a quadrupling of the size of my work bench. This expansion  so large that my wife now refers to the area in the east side of our garage now as my "work shop". Nice. She also thinks the frieze makes my work shop look like a doll house. That's not so nice.

Why did this take me nearly a year to complete? My impulsivity, lack of free time and my proclivity to make mistakes (did I mention that I have no idea what I was doing here) helped drag this project out way, waaaay longer than it should have. I didn't plan on the expansion at first but it made sense. It was something I had been planning on doing in the first place and a build out that I should've done when I first built my original when we moved here three years ago.

 

 

 

Lets get back to my inspiration for this in the first place. It stars with the frieze on the original Yankee Stadium and its demise during the 1973-1976 renovation. That renovation of Yankee Stadium, while an engineering marvel, was, in my opinion, a questionable architectural exercise that almost resulted in the updated stadium having no frieze at all. 

The most significant part of the remodel was the removal of the posts holding up the mezzanine,  upper deck and the roof that supported a copper (some say it was turned metal with a heavy copper content) frieze. You can see some of the posts still standing in this July 1974 picture of Joe DiMaggio standing near the 161st Street subway platform.

With the posts gone, the mezzanine and upper deck were, to over simplify things,  hinged on the outer walls of the stadium, balanced by huge counter weights and held in place by suspension bridge cabling. Pretty slick although there was no frieze on the roof of the new stadium. In fact, original plans for the remodel had the ball park without any frieze. To make matters worse, for what the city paid to have this work done, they could've built an entirely brand new ball park with a frieze.

 

  

Rumor had it that George Steinbrenner insisted on a frieze on the renovated ballpark.  The much smaller roof on the new stadium could not support a frieze so designers and engineers put one atop the outfield walls. Truth was, it was then Yankee President Mike Burke who insisted and ultimately lobbied successfully for it. That's ironic. A man who couldn't get anything done on the field for the ball club was able to get something as significant as the frieze on the renovated Stadium done. The Yankees were dreadful during his tenure.
 

 

What I'll call the "1976" frieze was a composite facsimile of the 1923 original and was much more intricate than the steel frieze on the "2009" Stadium. A section of  the '76 frieze is on display across the street from the 2009 Stadium in McCombs Dam Park. Sadly, there is no display of the iconic "1923" copper original. Legend has it that it was melted down for scrap after it was removed from the ball park right after the 1973 season.

 

  

At first, the "1976" Stadium looked contemporary. We are talking the mid '70's, though and many contemporary Stadiums  of that time, like Shea Stadium were the Mets played, were built during the "cookie cutter", multi purpose days of the 1960's. Indeed the renovated ball park was contemporary but it looked as though something was missing from it. Sorely missing.

 

When I was a kid, the Yankees were in a decade plus decline and the old ballpark made the Yankees  all the more old, musty and uncool to me. George Steinbrenner referred to Yankee Stadium as a dump. In fairness, it was. I can still smell the stale beer stench of the place. Why couldn't the Yanks play in a cool, modern ball park like the Mets played in? Careful what you wish for, son. Prime example of not knowing what you have until it's gone.  

 

 

I'm not one to brag but I think my frieze came out pretty good. I'm not a carpenter and I blame my myriad mistakes not so much on my lack of ability but on a lack of experience and proper tools. I cut this using a hand held jig saw. I also lack training; I don't know what I don't know. Knowledge is power. I have a little more knowledge on how to do things after spending so much time on this so I guess that means I have a little more power. Right? Riiiiight. Help. I'm drunk with power. Or is that just a power...saw?

 

 

My frieze is spiritually closer to the 2009 Stadium's frieze than either the Frieze from the original Stadium or the 1976 Stadium. That's too bad...as nice as the new Stadium is, it lacks...something.

   

I know what it is. The "2009 Stadium" is more like something you'd find in an amusement park. It's a theme park attraction that emulates a Yankee Stadium as opposed to being Yankee Stadium. While the exterior magnificent, the interior, while functional in ways the previous two stadiums could never be, is antiseptic. 

 

Much like my frieze, the 2009 frieze on Yankee Stadium lacks the intricate details of its previous incarnations. I have a good excuse for that, though; I have no idea what I'm doing. For the new stadium, however, the Yankees cheapened out. They spent lavishly on upholstered seats and luxury boxes and while the frieze was no doubt expensive, they cut corners on it. It lacks the rich detail of the first two. 

 

Making my frieze was a grueling process. From using a bicycle wheel as the template for the arches to the cutting of the frieze to the cutting of the dowels, this three foot section took upwards of six plus hours to complete. That's thirty minutes here, sixty there. I'd work on it until I got sick, tired and bored with it. I'd put it to the side and come back to it finally finishing it this past weekend. I think that process ultimately worked well. I hope you feel the same way. I have more than 18 more feet of it to complete. My plan is to finish my New York Jets man cave logo first.

 

 

Remember, as the great Willie Wonka said, "A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."

 

I couldn't agree more.

Freize Update - 2 Out Rally

 

 

More like a 2 out, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded and down by 4 rally.

I had all but abandoned building the actual Frieze deciding to use cast away door trim as, "The Frieze". That was kind of sad considering my impetus for this endless project in the first place was the construction of a frivolous, purely decorative façade of sorts. Of course, I couldn't leave that alone. Somehow, I became, inexplicably, inspired to build one small frieze over "home plate". This fit of inspiration coming while I was adding the moulding to the top of my work bench.

 

Well, that bit of impulse led to this charming disaster. It looks ok from a distance and even in pictures. In the flesh, though, or wood, it's hardly something for me to be proud of. The same creative drive that drove me to make this in the first place are the same that had me rush its construction. Gotta love my Yankee loving 16 year old. He thought it looked swell. So swell in fact that he bristled at my suggestion that I redo this whole thing. Sweet kid.

 

I was, however, rather impressed with my jig sawing. At least to some degree. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty fair. My mistake with this was using dowels inside the frieze.  

 

 



Pictures don't do this justice to how horrible this actually looks. Glob on several coats of impossibly thick exterior paint and you have yourself a good old fashioned, white hot mess. Onward to the rally!

 

  

The biggest challenge I had with the first frieze (which actually was the second frieze) was being able to carve concentric arches with a hand held jig saw. I had no template. What was I to do? Where was I going to find concentric circles that I could use as a template?

 

 

Ah, ha! A bicycle wheel. Of course! Actually, the first Frieze I built was arched from my bicycle's front tire, fully inflated. On the wheel. The side arches made from a quart sized paint can. I saw my bike wheel and I saw my Frieze. Yankee Stadium Frieze here I come!

 

 

As I think I pointed out during the work bench  expansion, I prefer to engineer and leave the actual construction work to others. The construction process is tedious to me, boring. I loose my focus and details get blurry. I make mistakes. Time consuming mistakes. Oh, so many mistakes.

 

 

This was a lot of cutting. A. Lot of cutting. A lot of time consuming, boring, tedious cutting.

 

The wood filler fills in a section of the Frieze that I thought I could drill out to give more of a real, Yankee Stadium Frieze. Fail. I got about a little more than one section done and I wasn't satisfied with it so I punted it. Time wasted but at least I tried it. There's a drill press at the radio station. Perhaps I can finagle a way to use it.

 

 

The dowels will go behind the structure as opposed to inside it like the first time. I'm liking this. A lot. Very exciting.
 

Stay tuned! 

 



Frieze Update - I Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

After about a week, actually, it took less time than that, I've decided this is not good enough to keep up. So, back to the drawing board. Of course.

How many times have a I mentioned I'm not a carpenter? One thing I will tell you though, after nearly a year of off again, on again work on "The Great Frieze Project", being a carpenter depends greatly on experience and the tools you have to work with. Really? Like most things in my life, I have to learn things the hard way.

 



I should have known this was going to happen. This board cracked in half on me while was futzing with getting the little pieces making up the inside of the Frieze. The iphone takes a very, very forgiving photo. This is not nearly as good looking in person as it is in these photos.

 



So, my plan is now to use the bike tire rim from my bicycle as the template for the inner arch just like I did here. Challenge is to find a smaller, corresponding arch for a template for the outer or lower arch. For that, I will use the smaller rim from Janet's bike. Genius. The inner arch will also be the lower part of the inside arch that will be the opening for the "pillars" (I don't know what else to call them).

 



Finally, I will put "pillars" behind the openings and attach them to the back of the cut out "Frieze" structure. Very similar to what I did here with our Yankees sign pin striping. These pin stripes are not cut to size; they run completely top to bottom under the NY.

 

It's a lot of work with the jig saw, but I'm confident I can get it done. Let's get at it!

WGAR Demolition Derby Car - We're Number Two...AGAIN!

 

At this year's Cuyahoga County Fair, once again, we entered a vehicle into the annual demolition derby. Like last year, we entered a Saab 9-5 from our friends at Bedford Mazda. Bedford Mazda buys commercial time on WGAR, by the way.

 

 

The only difference, this year's 9-5 was a sedan while last year we entered a wagon. Actually, that wagon from last year was our entry from 2011. Y'see, friends, back in 2011, a torrential downpour fried the electrical system in the wagon and we couldn't get it fixed in time for the "race". Yelp, this gave us a car for the next year. By the way, in Europe, they refer to demo derbies as "Banger Racing". When in Rome...

 

 

Our driver, Tom, did most of the prep work on our Saab (he works for Bedford Mazda) including swapping out the "light pressure turbo" V-6 from our entry and replacing it with the 2.0 liter 4 cylinder turbo engine from our entry from last year. Tom even used the hood from last year's car too. Pretty impressive, Tom. Tom's a big fan of Saabs and insisted that the 2.0 turbo engine was a better mill than the V-6. We trust Tom. You have to trust a man who loves cars where the ignition switch is on the floor.

 

 

With all the glass and really, anything that could fly off the car in the heat of the crashing removed, Tom got at it last Sunday and once again, did very well. This was Tom's second year of "Banger Racing" and braced with a year of experience and additional research on demo derbies, attempted to ram the rear of the Saab 9-5 into the front of his competitors. Demo Derby 101--ram the front with your back in hopes of knocking out the radiator. Knock out the radiator and its just a matter of time before overheating overwhelms the engine. I love the smell of leaking antifreeze in the morning. It smells like...victory.

 

 

You can see here that the stoutly constructed rear of our car rolled up like an accordion giving us additional ramming strength. Only issue, everyone in a "Banger Race" is attempting to do the same thing as our man Tom was doing. Several, unfortunate, knocks to the front end of our Saabie and our radiator lost its juice.

 

 

But not before we knocked out just about everyone else and finished second.

 

 

Nice job, Tom!

Frieze Update - Almost Finished

 

 

My wife has always been impressed with my ambition. I have always been humbled by it.

 

This Frieze Project has been one long, humbling, experience. 11 months ago I first blogged about doing it and after much trial and tribulation, I'm finally nearing completion of it. Still, it continues to beat me senseless.

 

 

Things went south when my initial frieze plans, which seemed perfectly "do-able" on paper, in reality, were impossible to finish considering my skill and experience levels and the resources available to me.

 

 

So, I moved on to recycled trim from the bathroom remodel. Good thing I rarely throw anything out. I thought this made a suitable substitute. Work smart!

 

 

But I couldn't leave well enough alone. Nope. No sooner do I start tacking the trim up that I realized that expanding the upper shelving AGAIN, would make for an attractive "roof" for the whole center of the workbench centered over my handsome, NY logo. That new "roof" would be the focal point for ONE frieze as opposed to a series.

 

 

 

The middle arch I traced from a bike tire. The outer arches are from a quart can of paint. The columns inside the smaller arches from my original plans for the frieze series.

 

 It's not what I originally planned nor am I completely happy with it but I'm "in the ballpark". Rim shot. Boom. I'm here all week.