MouradZeynalovHawkenProjects2021

Mourad Zeynalov Tue, June 8 Hawken Project Blog Today we finished placing the final touches and have officially completed the project. On Monday we delivered and spread all of the sand (all during a heavy rainstorm) with shovels and landscaping rakes. Standing over the finished pit I was quite surprised at how easy it was to actually build compared to the lengths necessary to get approval. Nevertheless, the final product was perfect. The amount of sand we ordered was the perfect amount, the barriers folded into a clean circle and the sand was spread evenly with little spilling out of the circle. We even spotted a group of underclassmen playing on its first day. With the pit out of the way, we wanted to leave a mark to remind the school of what Spikeball is and to instruct future players on the rules. So we set up designing and laser cutting a sign that would have a short description of the rules as well as our names and clean-up instructions, all replete with the bold text:  HAWKEN...

 Mourad Zeynalov Tue, June 5 Hawken Project Blog At the end of our first week of construction, we have made considerable progress. After weeks spent designing and prototyping and presenting, the actual creation of the project was a lot easier than expected. By Tuesday we had used a special machine called an edge cutter to remove all of the grass and dirt in a 26.5 ft. diameter circle in less than 3 hours. We revised the radius from the approved 12 ft. to 13.5 ft. in order to ensure the borders of the circle were as smooth as possible. After clearing the dirt we spent the remainder of the week designing and building the base of the pit. After consulting with the Hawken groundskeepers, Mr. Bleminschid, and Mrs. Zelinski, we decided on using weed barrier tarp as the base to prevent undergrowth from growing through the pick and also to allow water to drain. We also elected garden edging as the side material. We also went to Sidley's Sand and Gravel on Thursday in order to place an orde...

 Mourad Zeynalov Tue, June 1 Hawken Project Blog In a bout of good news today we finally received approval for the entirety of our project from all interested parties. From our presentation to Mr. Lucas on Friday, we were directed to present to Mrs. Dyer who proceeded to give the same presentation to Mr. Looney just today. He gave his final stamp approval this afternoon. With that, we can actually break ground for the first time tomorrow. We have also contacted and received guidance from the school's equipment director Jim Baker on materials and machinery necessary to excavate and fill the pit. They are able to cover the cost of materials and provide a rototiller to easily excavate the hole.  In the meantime, the three of us have been busy researching alternative barriers (the final choice - rubber garden barrier - is seen below). We also measured out the proposed dimensions for the court onsite in two forms, a 9 ft. and 12 ft. option for the school to choose (see below). The ...

Mourad Zeynalov  Wed, May 28 Hawken Project Blog As we enter the second week of our project, we've set upon finalizing the design and planning sections of our project. As the last week demonstrated, receiving approval will be the most challenging poart of the process, so we have focused this week on refining and finalizing our proposal to present to Mr. Lucas and Mrs. Dyer on Friday. This week we embarked upon building scaled-accurate 3D models of the proposed location and estimating the distances from the road, parking lot, and sidewalk to maximize safety, efficiency, and fair play (see below). We decided on a location 85 ft. away from the sidewalk adjacent to the loop (see below).  We also spoke with Scott Bleminschid, the school's construction coordinator, about effective materials for the edges of the pit. He recommended using rubber garden edging instead of lumber for safety reasons. We will consider this and include it in our next project proposal to Mr. Lucas and Mrs. D...