Freelance 2015-1

[Mr Fixit]

The Purina plant in Jefferson, Wi has outside mounted handrails on top of most buildings at the north (river) side. That is a unique feature at "shoe box" industry structures and quite nice to model.

Those handrails are there so that the poor sods like me who have to get up on the roof to clean gutters, fetch balls, adjust tv antennas, and check for leaks, dont fall off and get killed or injured and try to sue.

Architects are slowly coming to the realisation that they are responsible for designing buildings that are safe to maintain. In the meantime they do like to whinge about unsightly handrails, ladders and safety lines ruining the look of "their" buildings. A reminder about OH&S legislation and duty of care for people tasked with maintaining "their" building usually shuts them up.

Nice to see that Reinhard is taking his Oh&S responsibilities at this plant seriously.

Just one request Reinhard, with the access ladders please make them inclined at 1:4 not vertical, as vertical ladders are an absolute bitch to climb, they are so much more difficult and tiring than a standard ladder especially when carrying tools and equipment. Dont forget the cages around the ladders as well.

Sorry about the rant, but when your life depends upon these things it does get rather personal.

I must admit that I always enjoy seeing the latest work by Reinhard.
When I think back about all the incarnations that this layout has gone through it never ceases to amaze me.

There was one particular detail in the previous layout that I didnt get round to commenting on. It was at the bottom of a set of fire escape stairs, which would be enough of an added detail for most people, but no, Reinhard added safety bollards to stop idiots parking underneath the escape ladder. No only did he add bollards but he had detailed them like they had suffered numerous bumps from lousy drivers. I thought that was a particularly observant detail to add to the scene and it made me chuckle.
Mark