Masonry Magazine April 2000 Page. 38
Famed New York Yankee all-star pitcher and author of "Ball Four" Jim Bouton, lent a hand during the construction of the Habitat Home. He later addressed MASONRY SHOW attendees.
The MCAA would like to thank the following people and companies who worked together to make the Habitat House a reality:
PyroTherm/Orco Block for donating the block for the house
Spec Mix and Tri Delta for donating the Mortar
Rick Sellers, the local architect who dedicated numerous complimentary hours of design work
Scott Zemp of Scott Zemp Masonry and Ron Allyn from Bob Allyn Masonry for spearheading the project
Steven Fechino from WASCO for representing the MCAA during the construction process
Jim Bouton for donating his time for the project
MCA of Southern Nevada for supplying labor the day of the project
Jim Evans from Habitat for Humanity
The project could not have been completed without everyone's assistance. A special thank you to all the Masonry Skills Challenge contestants, their sponsors, and the Architects' Masonry Symposium participants for providing the labor.
The project needed to be slowed down in order to give the local television stations time to get to the job-site to cover the event and give the industry the fullest media coverage. So in order to slow the project sufficiently without completely stopping construction, the apprentices were asked to stop work and instead, partner individually with each architect and assist with their experience as a mason. They were taught how to lay block to the line, how to score joints, and how to check if their wall was level. The experience was momentous for the architects that gained a valuable insight into the complexities of constructing the projects that they design. In addition, they gained a greater appreciation of the design capabilities of masonry and the quality of the workforce to make those designs a reality. One architect said, "The project gave me a new respect for what it takes to bring the design together in the field. The project was for a great cause and was a terrific idea."
By 2:30 p.m., the last block was ready to be laid. Jim Evans from Habitat for Humanity laid the last ceremonial block in the house. In just under six hours, all of the walls for the masonry home were complete. Jim Evans from Habitat for Humanity said it was amazing to see how fast the project was completed. In a time when masonry has been tagged with a stigma of taking to long to install, this project proved how quickly our products can be installed. When designers work together with contractors and suppliers, and when masons are permitted to work freely on a job-site, what is considered to be amazing speed of construction becomes standard and ordinary. From the shuttle bus driver, to neighbors on the street, and police driving through the neighborhood, all were amazed at what little time it took to erect an all masonry building. All this amazement was not reserved for the average person on the street. The news media in Las Vegas was very interested in following the progress of this event.
The NBC affiliate from Las Vegas had a news truck on-site all day providing live feeds to the newsroom. They had been playing teasers on the radio stations in Las Vegas about the Habitat House being built and the reporting of its progress on the five o'clock news. The CBS affiliate had a camera crew out early in the day interviewing participants, and conducted a live interview with MCAA Executive Director Michael Adelizzi on the six o'clock news. There were numerous paper reporters and photographers on site also interviewing and taking picture of the participants. Executive Director Michael Adelizzi said "The media exposure coupled with the opportunity to have our customers build a house with our product for such a worthwhile cause, created one of the greatest one-day marketing events the MCAA has been affiliated with." He also said that this relationship created with Habitat for Humanity is one that will most likely continue at future MASONRY SHOW conventions.
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38 MASONRY-MARCH/APRIL, 2000