On Friday the Forest Park team (Staci Knighton and myself) completed our first Spring Cleaning task. We were tasked to touch up the handrails on the Forest Park bridge project by sanding it and applying a coat of varnish. When working on Wednesday Staci and I only had one sander between the two of us so we took turns sanding and were able to finish the left handrail through the day.
On Friday however, we were able to acquire two sanders from the CDCC woodshop so we got the second handrail done in half the time, which gave us the opportunity to finish the coat of varnish before the day was through. When the handrails were first installed, they had a beautiful gloss finish, but as with all the things, over time the rails weathered and cracked, but after a good touch up the handrails have been restored back to their original glory with a nice glossy finish!
Over the two days we worked on the bridge we noticed how many people were using it. Lots of folks crossed the bridge with their dogs to get to the walking path for their evening or afternoon walks. Several people stopped and were curious what we were up to and were very excited to see that the bridge was getting spiffed up and treated right. It was great to see the amount of impact a studio build project had on this community, and hopefully our studio can create the same impact this semester.
We applied the marine grade varnish with some paintbrushes, which gave it a nice dark hue. The varnish was very sticky so we were careful not to drip it everywhere, but since we noticed how many people used the bridge, we didn’t want people to get their hands sticky by using the handrail as it dried. We improvised as best we could be drawing up some signs for either side of the bridge that we held down with rocks so people would know not to touch the varnish.
Going out and taking care of the old design build projects makes me excited to design our own project that will help and impact a whole other group of people, one that will make a lasting impression.