Summer Jam Closes on a High Note

If you follow Settlement on Twitter, or like us on Facebook, then you already know that Summer Jam went out with a bang this year. Held at the Germantown branch from June 21-July 2, and at the Mary Louise Curtis Branch from July 6-16, the two camps helped nearly 40 young musicians hone their songcraft, improve their playing and learn how professional musicians prepare for studio recording and live shows.
All eight bands formed at Summer Jam got the chance to lay down an original tune in a professional studio. The Germantown musicians headed to The Studio, where performers such as Will Smith, AC/DC and Al Green have recorded. The bands from the Mary Louise Curtis branch headed to Sine Studios, and worked with studio owners Matt Teacher and Mike Lawson (who regularly work with local Philly bands, and have done work for Bon Jovi).
Both camps ended in a finale performance held at Urban Outfitters corporate campus at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The bands played original tunes written at Summer Jam, as well as covers ranging from Nirvana and Green Day to Bill Withers and Miles Davis.
Photos from both camps are available on Facebook, and we've posted tons of great video to YouTube. Subscribe to our channel to get the latest performance videos. Summer Guitar Camp and Summer Music Theatre Camp both give final performances this week, so keep watching this space for more info.

Settlement Music School gratefully acknowledges goods and services donated for the benefit of our students received from:

Audio Technica/Tracy Brefka
Sine Studios/Matt Teacher
The Studio/Larry Gold
Urban Outfitters
The Fender Foundation

A Month of Updates

Both a little and a lot has happened at the Willow Grove construction site over the past month. A small snag with connecting our water and sewer pipes to the main lines in the middle of Davisville road slowed things down for a few days. Turns out when the road was widened a few years back, a few diagrams detailing where the lines were located weren't properly updated. It took a few days of poking around, but that pesky water main couldn't hide for long.

In more interesting visual news, nearly all of the building has been covered on the outside, with just the doors and windows letting in any light from the outside world. The covering, which we just started seeing applied in our last post, is a type of gypsum wall board. Basically, it's drywall. This isn't your father's drywall, though. This exterior gypsum is both harder and hardier.

Things get even more interesting when you look a little more closely at what happened after the gypsum board was fastened to the metal studs. While the contractors are very good at making the boards fit snugly against one another, there will always be very small gaps. Which brings us to the blue tape you see in the last photo. All of the gaps are covered with this blue tape, then a special sealant is applied over the tape. This weatherproofing goo then needs a full two days to cure before the next step.

After the sealant in the gaps is fully cured, the whole building gets covered in the same blue stuff. Makes for a pretty sight. Vaguely purple drywall, slowing converted to a bright blue. Even the concrete foundations get painted.

And while the blue is certainly a very attractive color, and would garner the School no small amount of attention, rest assured that a much more traditional facade will soon present itself.

And remember, more photos are posted on our Facebook page. You don't need a Facebook account to see the photos, but if you do have one, be sure to hit the Like button while you're there. Be sure to check out the pictures of the music studios, recital hall, bathrooms and elevator shaft.

Lastly, we leave you with this parting image. Last week, our new executive director, Helen Eaton, had the chance to visit the Philadelphia area. She spent most of last Thursday on a whirlwind tour of all six current branches, but was also able to check out the construction site, along with Settlement Music School President Barrie Trimingham and Jenkintown Branch Director Marsha Hogan. For those of you unfamiliar with the faces of Settlement, from left to right, it's Barrie, Helen and Marsha.

An Open House

The Willow Grove Branch draws ever closer to being a real building, with not only a roof, but also fully enclosed walls nearly ready to keep out the elements.

Not all of the elements, mind you, as you can see below. Of course at this point, the water is little more than a nuisance, and it looks much deeper than it is, given the extraordinarily smooth surface on which it sits. It almost seems like a reflecting pool.

As you can see, earlier this month aluminum studs were affixed to the frame, followed shortly by a layer of insulated sheathing.

If you live in the Willow Grove or Jenkintown area, be sure to stop by the Jenkintown Branch of the School on June 5 between 10am-1pm. As part of the School-wide Open House, we'll have on display a timeline of pictures from the Willow Grove construction project.

Of course, all six branches will be hosting Open Houses that weekend, and we encourage you to visit your local branch to check out the festivities. If you're already attending regular lessons that day, bring along a friend who's interested in music lessons. It's a great way to share your love of music. Contact your local branch to learn more about specific activities.

And as always, an expanded gallery of Willow Grove images is posted at Facebook. Head over there now to see photos of the under-construction stairwells.

The Beginnings Stages of a Stage

In late April, workers poured the concrete that will form the basis of the Monroe Levin & Cameron McGraw stage in the Leonard Mellman Recital Hall. Of course, it's far from finished, and it will certainly get steps, layers of subflooring and wood to complete the job.

In fact, the entire first floor received a layer of cement shortly after the stage dried.

You'll notice layers of gravel, plastic sheeting and mesh that create a base for the cement to adhere to.

On the second and third floors, you can see that the base looked a bit more complicated because it was built on a platform, rather than the solid ground.



The cement truck that makes all this possible actually pulls up just outside the wall of the building, but a small trolley is used to bring the cement inside.

As always, click over to Facebook to see an expanded gallery of photos from this phase of contstruction.

A View from the Top (and the Bottom)

One of the unfortunate realities of building a large structure is that from a certain angle, not much changes from day to day. We could post daily photos from across the street from 318 Davisville Road, and it wouldn't look like much is changing.

Look a little closer, though, and you'll see there's a lot going on. The photo on the left, taken last month shortly after the building frame was complete, shows the decking being added to the third floor.

The photo to the right shows the current view from the ground floor, where the School's offices and recital hall will be located. As a matter of fact, the photo was taken from about the position of the Branch Director's office looking toward the lobby. The entrance to the branch will be to the right at the rear of the building, and recital hall will be to the left.

Head up two flights on a construction ladder in the elevator shaft, and you're standing on smoothed, finished concrete that's been poured on the decking you see above. The recessed area in the center will be the dance studio, which will have a special floor inlaid.

Wondering how poured concrete gets so smooth? Picture for a moment some sort of mutant cross between a Zamboni(TM), an air boat and a riding lawnmower. You know what, you don't need to picture it. Just click on the next photo for a better view of these fantastic looking machines.

Click over to our Facebook fan page for an expanded gallery of photos, including the elevator shaft, the decking before concrete has been poured, and a view from the top floor looking down.

Keeping a Large Retainer

One of the challenges of the lot on which the Willow Grove Branch sits is that it initially sloped down to railroad tracks at the rear of the property. We noted the beginnings of the retaining wall necessary to level the property in an earlier post. In addition to that purpose, it also creates a separation between our parking lot and the railroad tracks.

In the photo that opens this post, you can see the entire length of the wall along the back of the property. And we're still not done. The wall currently stands about 19 feet, and when it's completed, it should be around 25 feet tall.

The thing about a wall is that it's not nearly as simple as it might first appear. For instance, you can't just stack a bunch of cinder blocks on top of one another and expect it to hold against even a small weight, nevermind the tons of dirt that are pressing against this wall. Each semi-hollow block is carefully placed then filled with material. After a line of blocks is placed, a layer of geofabric is laid on top, and the next layer begins anew. This fabric (which you can see to the right) prevents the water that trickles down the interior of the bricks from displacing the fill material (stone, dirt, etc.) within each brick. The water travels freely, the fill material stays where it is instead of getting washed away. Then after a certain number of layers of brick are placed, dirt is filled in against the wall. That's essentially what the wall is retaining: a whole lot of dirt on which a parking lot will be built.

This last photo gives a sense of how the wall wraps around the rear of the property, and shows just how high it is.

As a reminder, all of these photos and more are featured on our Facebook fan page. Check them out here.

The Gala: After the Fact

Saturday's 102nd Anniversary Gala held at the Hyatt at the Bellevue was a great success. With more than 400 guests in attendance, both the cocktail hour and dinner were comfortably cozy without feeling overcrowded.

Glamorous ladies and dapper gentlemen enjoyed the sounds of Settlement students and alumni alike. From the solo student guitarist who greeted guests at the entrance to the Grand Ballroom, to the Kardon-Northeast Jazz Band who played during the cocktail hour, to the Gail W. Snitzer Advanced Study String Quartet (see the group onstage in the above photo), Settlement students acquitted themselves well throughout the evening's festivities.

And following those stellar performances, guests danced the night away to the orchestra of Settlement alumnus and Settlement 100 honoree Joe Sudler.

For a full gallery of photos from the event, visit Settlement's Facebook Fan Page. Have story from the Gala to share? Let us know in the comments.

The Gala Approaches

Settlement's 102nd Anniversary arrives this Saturday, April 10, but the first signs of celebration occurred in early March at the Gala Benefactor Party. Held at Jacobs Music of Philadelphia, this year's party featured three floors of gorgeous pianos, great wine, and thrilling music.

On hand providing that music were the Myer Schwartz Advanced Study Piano Trio, coached by Sandra Carlock, Arthur Judson Distinguished Faculty Chair. The trio is comprised of Kathleen Sun, violin; Samuel Soltoff, cello; and Christianna Bates, piano.

Co-chairs Don & Lynn Haskin, Konnie & Paul Stark (pictured left to right) joined Central Board Chair Joseph W. Waz, Jr. (back center) in "tickling the ivories."

And as always, Moore Brothers Wine Company was on hand to provide some truly spectacular wines. Greg Moore played bartender for the evening, and the guests couldn't have been happier.

To see more pictures from the event, and to keep up-to-date on the latest Settlement news and events, visit our Facebook Fan Page. Be sure to become a fan, and you'll get alerts when we post new info.

Just like an Erector Set

Things are really heating up now at the Willow Grove Construction Site. The picture to the right was taken two weeks ago, just as the steel was first delivered to the work site.

Not more than a day later, the frame of the building is taking a very definite shape. If we think of the building as a body, we've got a skeleton (steel frame), a couple layers of skin (exterior concrete walls), and a few pieces of circulatory system (exterior drains).

Interior walls (which, if we're stretching our body metaphor, are what, cell walls or muscle fibers?) are still a few months away, but we're well on our way to something that actually resembles a building.

The pictures in this post all were taken within the space of a week, which our construction guru tells us is about perfect for a structure like ours.

More updates as we get new pictures. In the meantime, take a few seconds to become a fan of Settlement on Facebook. Then check out the fan page and let us know what you think.

Snow and more Walls

So there was the matter of a little snow in the middle of February. Okay, a lot of snow. But we've got a lot full of construction equipment -- the kind of equipment that moves giant piles of dirt without a problem.

So a little bit of snow didn't slow construction much at all. The bulldozer just shoved the most inconvenient mounds out of the way.

Then workers got started on a retaining wall that will run the length of the rear of the property along the railroad track. Importantly, the parking lot for the new branch will be between the building and the railroad tracks, so the retaining wall serves the important purpose of building up the ground back there so it brings the parking lot to a reasonable level. The shot to the left is just the first level or two of that wall.

A few days later, not only is the wall a good bit larger, but we're already packing dirt behind it tightly enough that the construction equipment is rolling across it without a problem. You'll notice that the snow on that dirt mound didn't last long, either.

While the snow itself didn't slow down work that much, the after effects did cause a few issues.
Remember that picture of the elevator pylon from a few posts ago? Well, they had recently dug out the area around the pylon to fit the sleeve that will become the base of the elevator.

Melting snow flooded that newly dug hole, and as it turns out, it's a lot easier to move snow than water.

Rest assured, though, work continues. Stay tuned next week when we'll post photos of a whole lot of steel.