Troy

A crane lifted drywall into the historic Quackenbush building on Tuesday, as workers were busy transforming the four-story structure into a high-tech workshop and office space.

Construction crews are working toward a June ribbon-cutting at the Third Street building, which will house the Tech Valley Center of Gravity and several other private tenants, building owner David Bryce said during a tour.

The 55,000-square-foot building, which had been vacant for more than a dozen years, is about 80 percent leased, Bryce said, pointing out the 1850s-era cast-iron columns from the building's beginning as Quackenbush Department Store.

Bryce said workers found a portrait of store founder Gerrit Van Schaick Quackenbush tucked inside a wall of a 1930s addition to the building, likely done as the store was being changed over to W.T. Grant. He said he has had the portrait restored at Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.

Another oddity surfaced during the renovation, Bryce said a U.S. flag with 39 stars, a version that never became an official flag. The banner was created by some flag makers in 1889 who gambled that the Dakota territory now the states of North and South Dakota would be admitted to the U.S. as a single state. That gamble failed: The territory was divided in two, and Montana, Washington and Idaho were granted statehood at the same time. Such flags are now collectors' items.

For all its history, the venerable building which Bryce said was the first steel-framed structure in the state north of Manhattan at the time is being reborn from its Victorian heyday as a 21st-century technology hub.

The building became, after it was a W.T. Grant store, a Rite Aid drugstore. But it has been vacant since 2001.

As workers put up framing for interior walls, Bryce showed off floors being rewired to carry high-speed Internet connections.

Views from the upper floors, which now have insulated 10-foot glass windows, are dramatic and look out on downtown, the Hudson River and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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June reopening possible for revived Quackenbush building in Troy

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -

An aged state building on prime real estate just a block away from the State Capitol that's been vacant for 12 years is finally getting renovated.

The Princess Victoria Kamamalu Building, at the corner of King and Richards streets, was built in 1957 and needed renovations in 2003 when 300 state employees moved out.

It's been empty so long a tree has grown in front of its main sign and another tree has sprouted on the roof.

"I think we've been working to get this building up and operational for over 12 years and we're excited to finally start construction," said Doug Murdock, the state comptroller who is director of the state's Department of Accounting and General Services, which oversees state facilities and purchasing.

In 2005, the state set aside $12.6 million for renovations to the building but when it discovered pervasive asbestos and deteriorated building systems, repair estimates more than doubled.

Removal of asbestos, as well as old air conditioning, plumbing and electrical systems cost about $1.4 million.

"The original funding that we had was good for removing asbestos and doing some other remediation work that we had to do to turn it into an empty shell as it is now," Murdock said.

But during the recession, the project languished without the money to complete it while the state explored selling or swapping the property.

"We've just within the past few years, gotten the full funding to rebuild the entire building," Murdock said.

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EXCLUSIVE: State office building vacant for 12 years finally getting fixed

BALTIMORE If you shot a lacrosse ball downhill from the home of the sport's most decorated family, within a mile it would pass the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and then reach the nation's oldest lacrosse stadium where the eight Stanwick kids who lived up the street would go to practice and spare their house's sunroom windows.

If one of the Stanwicks shot the ball with the accuracy that has produced more than 1,000 Division I goals over nearly two decades, it likely would wind up in an appropriate place: Johns Hopkins University's Cordish Lacrosse Center (what other university has a lacrosse center?), where nine NCAA lacrosse championship trophies are displayed in a two-story-high case, with the Blue Jays' 35 other national titles carved into a stair wall.

The windows atop the staircase provide a panoramic view of 8,500-seat Homewood Field, built in 1906 for a lacrosse program started in 1883. That was 13 years before the founding of the college conference whose logo has been displayed on the Homewood turf since the start of this season, marking one of the most dramatic changes ever in the sport's history.

"When we heard we were joining the Big Ten, it was kind of crazy, because when you hear Big Ten, you think of football and basketball," said Wells Stanwick, a Hopkins senior attackman. "To be in a big-time conference like this is something pretty special."

It also is a bit incongruous: a university with Division III status in every other sport not only going up against the Monsters of the Midwest but becoming the preseason pick to win the title in the inaugural season of Big Ten lacrosse. Fittingly, the league scheduled Saturday's meeting at Homewood Field against another Big Ten debutant, Rutgers, as the conference's first men's lacrosse game.

That it happened reflects the seismic changes in the landscape of big-time college sports, with conferences like the Big Ten spreading far beyond their natural geographic base.

In this case, it was the 2012 addition to the Big Ten of Maryland, partner to Johns Hopkins in lacrosse's oldest and fiercest rivalry, that motivated Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to call JHU athletic director Tom Calder about two years ago.

"It came out of the blue, so I initially was thinking maybe this is a joke," Calder said. "Then I realized it really was Jim Delany, and he said, 'What are your thoughts about joining a conference in lacrosse? Why don't you consider us?'''

The conference switching involving men's lacrosse powers like Syracuse (11 NCAA titles) and Maryland (two) had Johns Hopkins concerned about how long it could continue as an independent.

Johns Hopkins' seemingly natural lacrosse home, the Atlantic Coast Conference, expressed no interest in adding the Blue Jays.

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Johns Hopkins makes Big Ten, lacrosse history

A rendering of a proposed "Thank You America'' statue in the north plaza of the Santa Clara County building. (Photo courtesy Santa Clara County)

Jim McEntee came about as close to sainthood as our current political life in Santa Clara County permits. As a former priest and the director of the county's human relations for 27 years, he was a passionate advocate for social justice, civil rights and economic fairness.

Above all, McEntee was a man of peace. After county officials named the north plaza at 70 W. Hedding St. after McEntee, they dedicated a glass mural and a "gathering place for peace'' in his honor -- eight benches surrounding tilework of a dove.

Now, a dozen years after McEntee's death, the county is about to muddy that message. A group of Vietnamese-Americans has proposed a "Thank You America'' monument a few yards away, highlighted by a bronze American and a Vietnamese soldier, each carrying a gun.

A rendering of a proposed "Thank You America'' statue in the north plaza of the Santa Clara County building. (Photo courtesy Santa Clara County)

On their agenda Tuesday, (see goo.gl/rx6ZdU), the supervisors will consider designating the site for a work expected to be funded primarily by the Vietnamese-American community, which hopes to raise $300,000. A sketch shows the statue displaying the American flag and the old South Vietnam flag.

To be fair, the "Thank You America Monument'' is proposed for a landscaped area between the old county building -- now the DA's office -- and Hedding Street. As you face the county complex from the north, it's about 40 yards to the right of the McEntee tile work and 25 feet or so from the edge of the plaza itself.

Too close

But let's not tiptoe around the truth. This monument doesn't work next to the McEntee Plaza. I doubt it works on any public property, but certainly not here. McEntee dedicated his life to nonviolence. For all the gratitude behind it, this monument undercuts what he stood for.

To use a crass comparison, it's like the Yankees opening an adjunct area in center field to honor Boston Red Sox players. It's like a vegan place expanding the menu to offer steak and kidney pie. It's like Apple embracing Android. Tired of peace? We've got war a few yards away.

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Herhold: A monument to the Vietnam War that raises questions

March 25, 2015, 4 a.m.

Landscaping work at Bathursts city entrances has come to an unplanned pause, but mayor Gary Rush says it will still be completed by proclamation day.

ABADSIGN:Landscaping work has stalled at the intersection of Bradwardine Road and the Mitchell Highway. 031815clscape

Landscaping work at Bathursts city entrances has come to an unplanned pause, but mayor Gary Rush says it will still be completed by proclamation day.

The work to revamp the citys entrances on the Mitchell and Mid Western highways has been designed to incorporate the citys history and heritage.

Motorists have been watching the project progress over the past few months, but it has now paused while contractors seek bluestone.

We thought we could buy it in tile form, Cr Rush said.

He said contractors are now searching for alternatives to the planned bluestone tiles.

There are design issues that sometimes present themselves in any construction, small or large, that need to be revised, he said.

Once found, the bluestone will be added to the brick wall already in place at both sites.

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Making a late entrance

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VIEW GALLERY

Quick work by firefighters prevented a shed fire from becoming hazardous and forcing the evacuation of neighbours.

Crews from Guildford were called to a blaze in Barton Road, Bramley at around 1.20pm where they found two sheds well alight

A gas container was inside one of the sheds but firefighters managed to cool it before it became a hazard.

Paul Monkhouse, watch commander, said: It was a large fire in the garden involving two sheds and a closed LPG (liquid petroleum gas) cylinder. We managed to cool it down, if not we would have had to evacuate the local area.

The fire destroyed the two sheds and caused damage to nearby wheelie bins, fence, garden shrubbery and pipe work.

Adrian Knight, who lives in the property next door and had his fence ruined said: I was coming back from Godalming, when I got here I saw the fire engines.

"I am going to wait for the fire brigade to investigate [before clearing up].

There is damage to plastic pipe work, cracking of windows and damage to the doors. They had put it out by 1.50pm.

Mr Knight explained the heat of the fire was high enough to damage his metal bench, along with the fence at the side of his property.

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Blaze causes damage to sheds as fire crews cool gas cylinder