drones and architecture
Yes, we’re in Colorado, no, we’re not talking about weed. We’re talking about drones! And architecture. Two of Ivan‘s favorite things (besides muscle cars, but that’s another blog for another day). A few weeks ago, when we were anticipating the opening of the Aerie, we were talking about how OUTRAGEOUSLY COOL it would be to have a drone video the plaza area of that building while the party was going on. We were getting all excited and geeking out about the potential to see the space activated and enlivened with a ton of real live people. We had this grand idea pretty last minute, so we threw out some ideas that included hiring a couple of college kids, duct taping Marcel’s GoPro to something (not a parrot or anything, although Brandy and Joseph do have a couple of pet birds), and other, worse ideas. Then Ivan admitted that he had been wanting to get a drone for a long time, and he had already researched them and, lo and behold, BestBuy had the very one he wanted on sale.
The next morning (the day of the grand opening party), Ivan showed up with a big, fancy new whirligig contraption. He and Marcel took it across the street from the office, and came back with tales of almost landing the drone in Boulder Creek and with a video of Marcel operating the controls, accidentally directing the drone directly at himself, then frantically ducking out of the way. If Marcel had any hair, he’d have gotten a haircut right then, I’m almost sure of it. I’m quite sad we don’t have that video to share with you. After hearing those stories, Emily, Chelsea, and I made Ivan promise to spend his lunch outside practicing some more safe drone maneuvers.
Marcel takes mental notes before his attempted haircut.
Soon it was time to leave for the party, so we loaded up two cars (we believe in carpooling and saving resources whenever possible) and headed to the Mariposa neighborhood. Ivan was cool and collected as he carried the drone in. He set it down in the middle of the plaza, on the edge of the party, and the drone took off. About five seconds later, it was three feet off the ground, on edge, trimming the side clean off a large bush before crashing into the bed of rocks and ground cover below the freshly shorn shrubbery.
Fortunately, someone had the great idea to get Ivan access to the roof so he could show off his cinematographic skills from afar, away from all of his coworkers, who were now saying they had no idea who he came with and no, he did not work for WORKSHOP8. This is the result.
Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of his control, (the drone kept getting a mind of its own and inconveniently losing connection with the controls, and Ivan’s wife wasn’t too big a fan of the whole drone idea) this was its only excursion with Ivan. Hopefully Ivan’s next drone acquisition (yes, he’s already planning it) will be a lasting one. We recommend maybe not taking it for its first test drive in your living room the night before.
