ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996               TAG: 9604230022
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: VIRGINIA JORDAN SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES

SPECIAL DELIVERY STUDENT-BUILT GAZEBO IS MOVED TO PARK

There was a crowd just outside the building-trades shop behind Blacksburg High School this week. There were also two front-end loaders and a big truck. After all, they were moving a house.

Well, a small house - a gazebo. But at 10 feet by 16 feet, getting it to its new home was no small matter.

If you've ever watched for the delivery truck approaching your house, you know how the gang at Nellies Cave Park felt as the flat-bed truck, courtesy of the Blacksburg Public Works Department, moved slowly up the hill, past the ball park and into the park's arboretum.

William E. Winfrey, the town's director of parks and recreation, had ordered the gazebo. Dean Crane, the department's outdoor supervisor, said he'd dreamed about it "for a whole year."

Twenty-two high school students, however, built the gazebo in less than five days.

Paul Bowyer, director of the building-trades division at the high school, drew up the gazebo plans and directed the work of three classes.

The structure has a hip roof in a shade of off-red with an underside in a beautifully matched pattern of interlocking boards. There are 24 decorative brackets, arranged in pairs, around the roof.

Bowyer first saw one of the brackets in Heavener Hardware. It was love at first sight. He asked for pencil and paper that minute. The brackets were soon being turned out on the band saw at the school shop.

Anyone can order a small building from the school, said Bowyer. There is a fee, plus the cost of the materials.

For the students, the gazebo didn't seem like work at all. "Actually, it was fun," said Travis Wall.

Bowyer likes for his students to build a structure that will last rather than a practice project that must be dismantled. "Later on in life, they can even take their children to the park to see what they created."

For those watching at the park, there was plenty to see as the gazebo was lowered carefully into place in its home in a central spot. Because the arboretum's layout is designed to represent the terrain of Virginia, with native trees and bushes growing in their usual habitat, you could almost call this gazebo, by way of its location, the Capitol.

Not far from the gazebo, another piece of furniture is scheduled to be in place by today - Earth Day. Justin Whittier, with the help of members of his Scout Troop 142, two scoutmasters, Dave Trout and Jonathan Blotter, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has built a two-level platform deck complete with steps. The project is part of Whittier's effort to become an Eagle Scout. From either level, the visitor can survey the arboretum.

There will be a lot to see in the park today. At 9 a.m., volunteers will be hard at work giving the arboretum its quota of trees and bushes, which will have it blooming in May.

A rain date is Sunday. Lunch will be served to all who come help.

LENGTH: Medium:   65 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Alan Kim. A Blacksburg public works crew moves a gazebo 
          constructed by Blacksburg High School students along South Main 
          Street en route to Nellies Cave Park. Following the truck are two 
          front-end loaders equipped with fork-lifts that were required to 
          handle the large structure. color.