Here’s a link to the webcam tracking construction of our new building. This week we anticipate that the foundation will be completed, and steel structure will start going up.
Woot!
edit/ Next day: first bit of steel structure is up, connecting the new slab to the existing building at our shop door.
Nice! We’re currently in the design and budgeting phase for our new space. Do you have any details on square footage, construction style, and cost?
70’ x 100’, concrete slab, steel frame with steel siding. Sloping roof sheds water away from the main building. Interior has restrooms, meeting rooms, overhead-door trailer entrance, and mezzanine for viewing the field. Will house FRC practice, and build/practice for FTC and FLL. Connector walkway to main school building.
Not sure about the all-in cost. Here’s an artist’s concept of the front elevation.
Was this taken with a potato or a camera?
I kid but the resolution is awful. That being said… still really exciting. Pictures like this have helped me with making the case for a bigger facility to our school and we should be getting some additional space with our western campus expansion project… it will likely end up being the home base to a second Zebracorns team in the future… no idea what that will entail yet.
Keep it up!
You’re not wrong. That image is just a screenshot from the webcam. Not a potato, but …
There is another camera mounted on the light pole that can be seen in the artist concept. We are using that one to capture construction as a time lapse sequence — will post video when things get more interesting.
Are they shooting to have it done for 2019 build season or 2020?
Sounds like it will be a nice space. I’ll be interested to see how this progresses. Very interested in the cost if there was any number that you might be able to access through someone closely involved with it.
Richard,
Do you possibly have a formal proposal for this space available that you would be allowed to share with outside parties? I would be very interested if you do 
Hi Akash,
Replying in the open because you asked, and because you’re not the only one.
I am not the proposal author, and I only consulted technically on some of the details. The full proposal might not be made public; I think that would require consent of our school district. It is possible that the team could release a white paper outlining more than what I have posted here already. That would be consistent with our outreach and culture-change goals.
The Innovation Center is not just an FRC resource, although it will house our team’s practice field. We will be making that available to FRC teams in our area; however, there will be times when other FIRST program activities have priority. The progression of programs that we use here in Michigan is important to us. For example, our FRC students mentor FTC teams, and we also scout those teams for future FRC drivers and other roles. Parents and mentors also move between programs, alternately following and leading particular students. The proposal was based heavily on the idea that FIRST and STEM need infrastructure support at all levels.
From the thread title, I thought you had a new fundraising source.
What they lack in quality, they make up for in quantity. You can’t escape the eyes of the Great Potato.
