The Process of Making the Front Porch at Old Mill Tasty Shop 3

 

A Coring company checking the place to install the metal poles.

Farha Construction installed large elements such as the miniature Dutch mill paddles and top blue disc.  The miniature Dutch mill paddles were crafted by NMW Crafts in the town of Perrinton, MI. 

The view from the Naftzger Park

At The Yard Store, Wichita's famous hardware & tools store, you can often find hidden treasures.  We found red webbings that seem to go well with the ridges of the chairs and color of the sun shade sails.

Painting chairs and adding webbings to them

Transporting the chairs and installing them in the front porch.

Old Mill's root beer floats and strawberry malts.  They were heavenly in hot weather!

To be continued...

The Process of Making the Front Porch at Old Mill Tasty Shop 2

 Meanwhile, the deck and the furniture were constructed by Farha Construction.

Photo: Farha Construction

The porch was built so fast and nicely!

Drilling the art pieces to the deck.

Photo: Emily Brookover at Downtown Wichita

Croix and James helped us with adding pieces especially the ones that are at higher positions.

Lunch at Old Mill

To be continued

The Process of Making the Front Porch at Old Mill Tasty Shop 1

     Here are some photos of the process of creating our front porch for the Old Mill Tasty Shop with my daughter Sarah.  This "Front Porch Project" is a placemaking project founded by Downtown Wichita.  It was inspired by the midwestern front porch where people meet and hang out. This idea of the front porch has been brought out to the downtown Wichita with an emphasis on creating safe spaces and bringing visitors to the downtown.  The project has been funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Knight Foundation Fund at the Wichita Community Foundation.  Here is the link to this project.  Sarah and I are so excited to be chosen as one of the six creatives to create a porch.  

     These photos were mostly taken by me unless otherwise mentioned. 

Working on the design

     We planned our design according to the Old Mill Tasty Shop's request and needs.  They requested us to create a deck on the parking lot in front of the restaurant as their front porch for the purpose of extending their seating and eating space.  After several brainstorming meetings with Old Mill's staff, we landed to an overall design as below.  The design was inspired by their 90th anniversary, and celebration of the city of Wichita as a good "home."  The front porch is designed to stay there for one year.

Created the cutting plywood plan

We got help from Nam Le with CNC machine cutting. 

Bob helped us with constructing the top disc.

Sealing

Priming

The planned design

Painting

Tina helping us with painting.

To be continued