Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lee Browning and Philip Vaught, private contractors from Greensboro, N.C., had spent all day hanging fabric wallpaper in the conference-level room at Hotel Roanoke.
The cumbersome cloth, delicately woven in a tan-and-white floral pattern, took four times longer to hang than regular wallpaper.
"At least the electrician got here to install the light switches," Browning said, ``'cause we'll be here for a while.''
Down the hall, 46 feet of scaffolding and a 6-foot ladder wiggled a bit under the weight of Jay Schmolitz, a worker for electrical contractor G.J. Hopkins.
Schmolitz had placed the ladder on top of a wooden scaffolding plank to install a smoke detector at the top of an atrium skylight - 52 feet off the ground.
Schmolitz had put in more than 50 hours in the past five days - but he was proud of what had been accomplished.
"It looks good, I think," he said, looking down the almost-completed hallway.
That effort and patience, along with excitement and relief to be nearing the end, were visible in the electricians, landscapers ... even the cooks.
David van Blaricom, an architect for developer Faison & Associates of Charlotte, said he watched eight chefs - in their double-breasted white coats - help carry the 5,000-pound limestone fountain to its place in the Palm Court.
Outside, where the ballroom once stood, Mike Perkins and Taha Bullock hacked the dirt and rock with pickaxes to plant the final ash sapling in its row.
The Creative Nursery and Landscapes Inc. employees say they've been averaging 10-hour days recently.
In the Washington Lecture Hall, workers for Long Communications Group, an audiovisual company out of Winston-Salem, N.C., prepared for a long, tedious night.
"But it always comes down to the crunch," Ron Michaux said.
The equipment, including two 10-foot-wide viewing screens and top-of-the-line projectors and video devices, are sensitive to dust and dirt. So, less than a day before their official deadline, Michaux and four others wait.
"We're adjusting the lighting now," Michaux said, "but the software to run the program doesn't come until midnight."
But for him, like most of the other 400 or so workers who have committed to opening the renovated hotel by April 3 - this Monday - it'll be close enough.
by CNB