Summary: The system will handle about 45 percent of the electricity needs for the refurbished Lafayette Hotel, whose guests once included stars such as Ava Gardner and Bob Hope.

The Lafayette Hotel, a historic site in San Diego whose swimming pool was designed by Tarzan star Johnny Weismuller, has installed a 40-kilowatt ClearEdge Power fuel cell as part of a massive remodeling.

The cell should help the property save up to $30,000 annually in energy costs, according to the partnership that operates the Lafayette. It will handle approximately 45 percent of the electricity that the property needs to operate, according to ClearEdge Power. There are seven buildings on the site, hosting 131 guest rooms.

The ClearEdge Power fuel cell uses natural gas to produce its energy; the electrochemical process that takes place along the way generates enough heat to keep the Olympic-sized swimming pools temperature between 76 degrees and 79 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.

One of the key challenges in this renovation was finding an alternative energy solution that would preserve the buildings historic value, said Tara Hamacher, president and owner of Historic Consultants, in the press materials about the project. With ClearEdge Powers fuel cell system, we were able to comply with strict guidelines and qualify for energy upgrade rebates and tax credit incentives that help make this renovation a reality in one of the toughest real estate and hospitality recessions.

The energy efficiency measures embraced by the hotel, which should save $70,000 annually, helped the property managers qualify for tax credits that helped fund installation of the ClearEdge Power fuel cell system, which is housed in the basement of the main building.

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

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Hollywood hotel casts ClearEdge fuel cell in supporting role

POSTED: 10:46 pm CDT May 17, 2012UPDATED: 10:47 pm CDT May 17, 2012 The St. Joseph Board of Education met in special session Thursday evening and selected two local architects to build two new schools.The board unanimously approved Ellison-Auxier Architects to build an approximately 75,000-square-foot elementary school at Cook and Bishop roads. The board also selected River Bluff Architects to construct a similar-sized structure at 16th and Duncan streets.We are excited about Carden Park, said Reed Graves of River Bluffs Architects. Obviously it serves a need in the community and it fits perfectly between Hall and Neely. Its going to fill a need in that neighborhood.Ron Auxier of Ellison-Auxier Architects said it was exciting to be part of the history of the school district. He looked forward to getting the contracts signed to begin the process soon. He said the basic design work is under way.Its a wonderful site to work with, Mr. Auxier said. Were looking forward to coming up with a unique and exciting design to introduce to the school district.Stephen Briggs, the school districts attorney, said contracts for the two firms will be signed no later than Monday.Once theyre actually signed and finalized, well release them to the public, he said.The new schools come by way of a $42 million bond issue that voters passed in April. Part of the money will go to provide air conditioning to the districts elementary schools.The district earlier estimated the total cost to build the school at 16th and Duncan streets at $17.9 million, and the school at Bishop and Cook roads at $15.3 million.Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzo.weston@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @SJNPWeston. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.blog comments powered by

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School board announces architects

JOPLIN, MO (KCTV) -

In an effort to help the city rebuild after last year's devastating tornado, one Kansas City firm is lending its hand to help design Joplin's new schools.

It's a huge undertaking with the schools covering 223,000-square-feet and a price tag of nearly $50 million.

Hollis + Miller Architects said in a release it is excited about the opportunity to merge architectural design with 21st century educational teaching and learning concepts.

One successful example of the collaborative design process to date features the conjoining of the elementary and middle schools. This solution will not only save the community financially in relation to operation and construction costs, but, most importantly, it will leverage educational benefits for the Joplin community for many generations to come.

The new Joplin Elementary School is designed to house more than 450 elementary students, grades kindergarten through five, and the new Joplin East Middle School is designed to house more than 750 middle school student, grades six through eight.

Hollis + Miller Architects designed the new elementary and middle schools on a 36-acre site.

One of the features of the school is called a "learning park."

"Each one of those rooms have walls. They're glass walls, so you have good visibility and transparency," architect John Brown said. "These walls can open up and create larger areas for big groups, and you can open them up in a variety of ways to regroup and look at students. You can even work where you have all the teachers teaching the same subject at one time in a large group and even breaking out and studying in these individual areas, as opposed to working with English, math and history at different times."

Significant effort and time was spent soliciting input from school district patrons through a series of community forums and work sessions.

Excerpt from:
Architects participate in rebuilding Joplin schools

Two hundred and fifty years ago, brewer Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease for his St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. To commemorate this event, the Guinness company could have rolled out a stretch limousine, but it decided to go one better by launching a deep-sea bar in the chilly waters of the Baltic off Stockholm, Sweden. Designed by London-based Jump Studios, the modified tourist submarine was commissioned as part of the Guinness Sea Experience competition, that included an underwater trip inside the Guinness sub as a prize.

Jump Studios was given the brief of redesigning the interior of the submarine to reflect the Guinness slogan Alive Inside, and with the help of carpentry and engineering specialist Nicholas Alexander created a GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) shell that fits inside the passenger compartment of the submarine. This required taking precise measurements of the complicated interior of the craft, which were then used to fabricate the shell in Britain before shipping it to Sweden for assembly.

The submarine posed a number challenges for the team. The shell not only had to fit inside, but it had to conform to the vessels operational parameters, fit around structural members, not block safety equipment or access to machinery spaces, and meet ventilation and fire safety standards. They also faced the universal problem of working inside a submarine everything had to fit through a small hatch.

So, the shell was built out of six types of modular components that could be fitted inside the cabin to form bars, tables, and seating for five people. The surfaces of these components consisted of bubble-like rubber discs. Some of these were hollowed out to serve as glass holders while others were wired with LED lights to give the sub an appropriately night-clubish atmosphere. The exterior of the submarine has the Guinness 250 logo on the side for the benefit of any passing flounders.

Press releases by Jump Studios dont give any details about the submarine itself, but the photographs show a typical tourist boat of the sort used around the world to take visitors on short trips down to depths of about 330 feet (100 m). The cabin of the vessel remains at surface pressure at all times, which is fortunate. Otherwise, the partygoers would have found their Guinness quite flat and then foaming alarmingly (and dangerously) in their stomachs on returning to the surface.

Among the first passengers were competition winner Evelyne Gridelet and two guests. They were flown from Belgium to the island of Hgmars in the Stockholm Archipelago for their undersea party.

Source: Jump Studios via Arch Daily

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Architects transform submarine into a bar

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds (CJUF) and McCaffery Interests (McCaffery) closed on a senior loan from Prime Finance to fund the repositioning of the retail component of the Roosevelt Collection, a transit-oriented mixed-use project in Chicagos South Loop submarket.

The CJUF and McCaffery team is in the process of transforming the propertys 400,000 square-foot retail component into a vibrant shopping destination. Demolition of the interior shop space is already complete and construction has begun on a new public plaza that will include green landscaped areas, water features and childrens play areas. The improvements are scheduled for completion by the end of the summer, by which time CJUF and McCaffery are aiming to have the project 65% leased to an impressive roster of retailers.

CJUF and McCaffery partnered in June 2011 to acquire the Roosevelt Collection and soon after announced plans to enhance the property.

The Roosevelt Collection fits squarely with CJUFs investing goals to create value in dense urban communities, said CJUF Managing Partner Bobby Turner. We are following through on our promise to reposition the property to better serve this vibrant neighborhood.

The South Loop has emerged as a most desired retail location in Chicago, second only to North Michigan Avenue, commented Dan McCaffery, Chairman and CEO of McCaffery Interests. Along with its strong and fast-growing residential base, we will deliver a family oriented retail and dining destination for the community.

We are excited to work with Prime Finance as our lender on Roosevelt Collection. Our improvements to the property are well underway, and it is shaping up to be one of the premier retail and residential venues in all of Chicago, said CJUF Managing Director Rich Holly.

In addition to the retail component, the property is also comprised of 342 residential units that are more than 90% occupied, a 1,500-stall parking garage and land for a public park. The CJUF and McCaffery development team has also secured approvals to construct another residential tower on site.

We are thrilled to be involved in a project with such strong sponsorship, said Prime Finance Principal Jon Brayshaw. CJUF and McCaffery Interests are uniquely qualified to execute the vision for Roosevelt Collection, as each firm has a history of development in the Chicago region and a strong track record of revitalizing communities and projects, he added.

About Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds

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Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds and McCaffery Interests Close Senior Loan with Prime Finance for the Roosevelt Collection ...

After 11 years of grueling talks, a $93.9 million payment yesterday finally clinched a deal between the Port Authority and Westfield Group for control of the World Trade Centers retail space.

Global shopping mall developer Westfield wired the Port Authority a check, sources told The Post the first installment of $612.5 million Westfield will pay the PA for a 50 percent, joint-venture stake in the sites eventual 460,000 square feet of retail.

Although a tentative agreement was struck last year and the PA board approved it in February, like many other concrete-sounding deals at the WTC, it had no teeth until now.

Remember, the PA board also approved Vornados office tower over the bus terminal years ago. Have you noticed an office building over the bus terminal? an insider cracked.

Westfield will lend its skills in developing, leasing and operating an initial 365,000 square feet inside under-construction 4 WTC, the WTC Transportation Hub, above-ground along Church and Dey Streets and inside 3 WTC in the planning stage.

It will also include 90,000 square feet more when 2 WTC is developed in the future.

Westfield, whose US operations are led by co-CEO Peter S. Lowy, had, three years ago when the office towers seemed stalled, proposed to develop free-standing shopping malls that could support towers on top of them later an initiative that went nowhere.

scuozzo@nypost.com

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Westfield inks WTC retail deal

by Joe Marusak / The Charlotte Observer

WCNC.com

Posted on May 18, 2012 at 4:11 PM

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- The long-planned $2 billion Langtree at the Lake mixed-use community on Lake Norman will immediately begin construction of its first 300 luxury apartments and 47,000 square feet of retail space, Ohio developer R.L. West Properties announced Friday.

The announcement came after R.L. Wests Langtree Development Co. secured $41 million in financing to start the project at Interstate 77 Exit 31 in southern Iredell County.

Barry Rigby, vice president of development for R.L. West and Langtree Development, said the company closed on the financing through M&T Bank, using a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program that insures mortgage loans for multi-family rental housing construction. Focustar Capital Group, based in Charlotte and Wilmington, arranged the financing.

Langtree at the Lake was originally envisioned to incorporate high-end lakefront condominiums surrounded by mid-rise office towers, Carl Duvel of Focustar Capital said. A major bank had committed to finance the project when the 2008 global financial meltdown forced the bank to withdraw, he said.

Focustar Capital was introduced to the project in November 2008 and was retained as financial advisors in March 2009, when its proposal to restructure the project from a for sale community to a for rent community was accepted, Focustar said in a news release Friday.

Langtrees original partners included local developers Rick Howard and his son, Brad, and local lawyer David Parker, chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party.

The closing on the Langtree financing is the largest of its kind in North Carolina, Focustar Capital and Langtree Development announced.

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Huge Lake Norman development wins financing

A new report has provided evidence to back up what brokers have been saying: it is harder for stores to find retail space in the prominent shopping corridors, with rents jumping as much as 75 percent on Fifth Avenue from 42nd to 49th streets since just one year ago.

Ground floor asking rents have reached an average of $900 per square foot up 75 percent from last spring on the key Midtown stretch of Fifth Avenue, according to the Real Estate Board of New Yorks Spring 2012 Retail Report.

The advisory group attributed this growth in asking rents both to the lack of space on Upper Fifth Avenue, causing a trickle-down effect, and the high degree of pedestrian traffic everywhere along the avenue including crosstown walkers from Grand Central Terminal.

Average asking rents on Upper Fifth Avenue between 50th and 59th Streets have edged up 22 percent to $2,750 per square foot for ground spaces since last spring.

In other locations:

* Despite increases in all the prime East Side corridors, average asking rents for all space on the East Side declined 13 percent since a year ago. This is partly due to a falling off of aggressive bank leasing and the ongoing Second Ave. subway construction.

* Rents are down 13 percent in Times Square but they still average $1,400 a square foot and there are only two availabilities.

* West Village rents are down 7 percent although asking rents are still averaging $452 a square foot.

* SoHo and Herald Square are once again getting squeezed with rents up 11 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

* Average asking rents for ground floor space on Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd streets increased 31 percent to $1,203 a square foot.

Continued here:
Fifth Avenue retail rents up 75% over past year: report

COLUMBIA, S.C., May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --CMARK International, Inc., (OTC Pink Sheets: CMIT) a global provider of facility and logistic support services for government and commercial institutions is continuing to make considerable efforts with a larger portion of its product offering into alternative energy production as well as energy conservation.

Following up on initial efforts last fall with researching and developing geothermal energy applications, the company was invited and attended the U.S Navy Geothermal Program Office'sIndustry Conference on Geothermal energy in Reno, Nevada, this past December. After further study and research the company developed and recently proposed through one its affiliate joint ventures, a geothermal energy option package during the construction of an Army Reserve center in South Carolina.

According to publication on Geothermal Resource Estimates for the United States by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the total resource base in the United States, both renewable and non-renewable, is very large, nearly 50,000 times the annual current rate of national energy consumption. In addition to being a consumer, the United States Department of Defense is now exploring the potential to be a supplier of geothermal energy.

In another energy related area - energy conservation - CMARK International, Inc. has a full and continually expanding line of private label food service equipment - Columbia Food Equipment. This line has been gradually developed for the last four years.

The Columbia Food Equipment brand includes over 4,000 individual products with a substantial amount being cooking and refrigeration equipment. The vast majority of this equipment carries the ENERGY STAR certification for energy conservation features. Since the majority of the applications for this equipment are on U.S. Government projects, the company's effort to continue to develop and offer ENERGY STAR products is an ongoing commitment.

"The increasing involvement and enthusiasm of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration in the usage of alternative energy as well as energy conservation programs and requirements, indicates the vast potential of such initiatives and is a clear sign of CMARK moving in the right direction," said Charles Jones, president of CMARK.

About CMARK International, Inc.:

CMARK International is a licensed architectural firm with a history since June of 2000, of providing products and services for construction and design projects for U.S. government facilities worldwide.

CMARK International provides a wide array of facility and logistic support services including construction, architectural design, food service, furnishings and maintenance and operation services with a primary focus on U.S. federal facilities. The company operates out of its headquarters in Columbia, SC with other field support locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

For more information, visit http://www.cmark.org.

Link:
CMARK continues development in Energy Sector

NEW YORK, May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Architectural Record (http://www.ArchitecturalRecord.com), McGraw-Hill Construction's prestigious publication, has presented its 16th Annual Excellence in Advertising Awards to 66 companies and agencies. The awards breakfast hosted more than 250 manufacturers, agencies, and architects in Washington, D.C. today during the AIA 2012 National Convention & Design Exposition.

More than 170 advertisements were judged. Advertisements were considered from the first quarter of 2012 in Architectural Record (in print and online) and in the January/February issue of GreenSource. Winners were judged for content and graphic presentation by a jury of 10 esteemed architects from across the country, representing the breadth of the profession.

"There is no single ad type that appeals to every architect. Our audience is highly visual and attractive images are an important characteristic of an effective ad. I'm thrilled for our winners and wish them, and all of our advertisers, continued success," said Laura Viscusi, vice president, McGraw-Hill Construction Media and publisher, Architectural Record.

This year's winners included:

Best in Class:

Campaign:

Single Page:

Winners:

Honorable Mention:

Online Ad Awards:

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Architectural Record Announces 2012 Excellence in Advertising Awards