Why is there paranoia about fire on construction sites in the UK, whereas it is not a problem in California?  I have a feeling it is because large construction sites in urban areas in California have security on the job site 24 hours a day. It is very common for large buildings to be constructed on tight urban sites up to five stories tall entirely out of timber. While arson may be more common in the UK, it seems that with proper alarm systems and supervision it is entirely possible to prevent these sort of incidents from happening. The benefits of timber construction seem too great to rule out the method due to poor implementation so far.The biggest part of the problem seems to be that timber is unfamiliar to many contractors, and proper precautions are not taken because the disconnect between timber frame contractors and the general contractor (on many jobs in the US, the lead contractor is responsible for the timber frame).

7 acres of Timber Frame construction at Tassafaronga Village, Oakland CA

Hopefully, many of these problems can be worked out. Interest in this type of construction in the UK is high in light of the desire to reduce CO2 in construction- it seemed that innovative methods of timber construction were everywhere at last week’s Ecobuild conference here in London.

Timber frame under construction in Oakland

Abandoned Lot in Oakland, part of my visit this morning

I had to go take measurements at an abandoned building today. It’s been vacant for years, and as a result people go in and out of the building to tag the walls and steal anything that isn’t bolted down (and most of the stuff that was bolted down has been stolen too). It is also damp and it looks like some dogs have been inside relieving themselves.

It was so dirty in there, my hands smelled for the rest of the day no matter how many times I washed them. I tried several different types of soap, ranging from institutional to floral, and nothing could totally eradicate it. It reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where the valet with B.O. contaminated Jerry’s car and he ended up having to sell it, except I can’t sell my hands.

I spent part of yesterday afternoon in East Oakland touring a vacant pasta factory. It is part of the project I am working on at my office- eventually it is going to be renovated in to low-income studio apartments and art studios.

When I arrived at the site yesterday with two other people from my office, we were met by a woman from the Oakland Housing Authority at the chain link fence that is around the building. She informed us that the alarm had been deactivated and it was pretty obvious that the building had been occupied in the recent past. There were gang tags painted on the outside and all of the (formerly closed and latched) upstairs windows were open.

To make a long story short, the housing authority police never showed up so eventually we just went inside anyway and found the scene below. Thanks to Daniel Simons for the photographs (oops, I forgot my camera).