After weeks of long days working under the summer sun, we had only the chimney left. The entire team was exhausted, but we all knew that the chimney would be the crown jewel of the concrete structure. The contoured geometry which consisted of about 15 precisely printed shells had to be manually lifted and carefully threaded over long runs of rebar like beads on a necklace. Once we had the perfect fit, we painstakingly lifted hundreds of pounds of concrete, bucket by bucket over 30’ in the air and filled the cavity between shell and metal. The height and weight of the concrete required creativity, at one point borrowing an old pulley from a rustic barn on the property. After the last piece was placed and rain started to fall, we each took turns hiking the site to find new vantage points of the structure. To see the concrete object in the tranquil landscape was quite impressive. Thousands of pounds of printed and cast-in-place concrete appeared light and delicate.

Today the chimney rises high above the vegetation on site and anchors the building to its place. Like the large trees that surround it, the chimney acts as a beacon; a trail marker that orients me every time I visit.

— Justin Hazelwood [Concrete Team Member , M.Arch ‘17 at Cornell AAP]