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Trades help put educational house at home in Hands-On Museum

Date Posted: October 1 2004

ANN ARBOR – The hands of the building trades and their contractors are all over the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

Providing money, materials and time, the Washtenaw County Building Trades and their contractors are finishing up construction of “The Building in a Building,” a 600-square-foot frame house located in the museum that teaches visitors about how a house is constructed, and what how its various components work.

“This just would not have happened without the help of the construction workers, contractors and architects,” said Jim Frenza, president and CEO of the museum. “We knew we wanted to do it, but from the beginning, they helped shape and conceptualize the project. They’ve done a great job.”

The entire 40,000-square-foot Hands-On Museum is designed to appeal to kids and adults with nine galleries and more than 250 interactive exhibits. The museum said its goal is to promote “science literacy through experimentation, exploration and education.”

The museum opened in 1982 in a portion of an old firehouse, and the new house will be the latest and largest exhibit in the museum. Work began on the house in May and is expected to be complete Oct. 1.

“We’re going to have lots of cutaways so visitors can see what’s going on inside the walls and mechanical fixtures,” said Jason Stevens, an exhibit designer and fabricator for the museum. “The goal is for the house to demystify everyday items.” Exposed sections of the house show the placement of the studs, the Tyvek house wrap, insulation, plumbing and wiring.

Stevens said the construction phase has also been part of the education process for visitors, as kids and adults often interrupt their work and ask questions.

“Taking the questions is part of the process; it’s part of the exhibit,” Stevens said.

No doubt one of the major areas of interest will be a cutaway of a toilet, and visitors will be able to see and smell why a straight drain pipe would bring about a stinky toilet or sink basin, and how installing a trap stops the smells. An interesting visual element inside the house is a wall of ceramic tile that are cut to create an optical illusion of being crooked – but they’re not. Also on display will be the tools of various trades and an interactive computerized demonstration of careers in construction.

The concept of building the “Building in a Building” came from a collaboration of the Washtenaw County Building Trades Council and the county’s Workforce Development Board. Frenza, who chairs the workforce board, approached the board’s labor representative, Steve Gulick of Iron Workers Local 25, and inquired about getting such a house constructed.

Seeing a natural and relatively easy opportunity to promote the construction industry, the Washtenaw County Building Trades Council approached contractors and contractor associations for contributions of money and materials. Nearly $50,000 later, the house is a reality.

“All the trades have been supportive of the project,” said Greg Stephens, business manager of IBEW Local 252 and secretary-treasurer of the building trades council. “We feel when you have a world-class facility like this, and you have the opportunity to use it to show off the construction industry and help teach people a little bit about the construction process, that’s a good thing.”


A HOUSE INSIDE the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum displays a number of facets of the work of the building trades. Construction trades unions and their contractors played a vital role in getting the house built. Jason Stevens, left, has worked on the house, and he's standing with representatives of some of the contributing unions on behalf of the Ann Arbor Building Trades Council. They include (l-r) Steve Gulick (Iron Workers 25), Greg Stephens (IBEW 252) and Clay Hawthorne (Tile, Marble and Terrazzzo Workers Local 32).