Obesity on the Rise

Obesity in younger people has been on the rise over the past 50 years.

In the U.S., the percentage of children and adolescents with obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of obesity in those aged 12 to 19 is now 20 percent.

It's a problem Gina L. Posner, MD, a pediatrician in Fountain Valley, California, says is only getting worse.

"In my patient population, it's really significant. We have a lot of obese teens," she told Healthline. "We have a very sedentary lifestyle at this point. A lot of teenagers are just playing on their phone, playing on their iPad, watching TV. They're really not getting up and out and moving as much as they used to in the past. That's definitely creating more of a problem because we're just a lazier culture."

The health effects of teen obesity have posed a new set of challenges for clinicians like Dr. Posner.

"We're seeing a lot more type 2 diabetes in younger people," she said. "It used to be type 2 was more in obese adults and now we're seeing it a lot in obese children as well. We're seeing obese teenagers with diabetes, with high blood pressure, with high cholesterol. As a pediatrician, I didn't used to have to deal with medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and now I'm seeing it more and more."

"I'm still not comfortable prescribing those medications because most of them are actually meant for people who are older and they're not really studied well in the younger kids," she added.

What the Research Showed

Researchers on the MRI study compared the brains of 59 adolescents with obesity to 61 healthy adolescents.

They found damage to the brain that was connected with inflammatory markers that included leptin, a hormone created by fat cells that helps regulate fat stores and energy levels.

In some people with obesity, the brain fails to respond to this hormone, so the person keeps eating despite having adequate or at times excessive amounts of fat stores.

"When functioning properly, leptin is a satiety hormone, meaning that our fat cells will produce leptin so that we don't feel as hungry and eat less. In a perfect world, the more fat we have, the more leptin we would create and the less we would eat, leading us to lose weight," Dana Hunnes, Ph.D., MPH, a senior dietitian at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, told Healthline.

"Unfortunately, however, we don't live in a perfect world," she added, "and according to this study, it sounds like the brain changes caused by inflammation, associated with obesity, led the brains to not properly respond to leptin and did not appropriately lower appetite."

Bertolazzi says the researchers hope to repeat the study, after the participants have undergone a multidisciplinary treatment for weight loss, to see if the damage in the brain is reversible.

Treating Obesity Early

Experts agree it's important to treat obesity in adolescence as soon as possible to limit the amount of damage done both physically and mentally to the teenager.

If left unaddressed, the effects of obesity can be significant.

"Impacts are seen physically as well as emotionally," Sophia Yen, MD, clinical associate professor at Stanford Children's Health's Weight Clinic in California, told Healthline. "It can definitely impact self-esteem and cause depression. It can cause breast enlargement in boys and girls. In young women, it can cause polycystic ovary syndrome, irregular menses, hair growth, and acne. It can cause joint problems, heart problems, breathing problems, obstructive sleep apnea, liver problems, and diabetes."

Dr. Yen says weight loss is 90 percent what you eat and 10 percent exercise. She advises that at every meal, 50 percent of the plate should include fruits and vegetables, a minimum of 25 percent should be protein, and no more than 25 percent should be carbohydrates.

Posner says it's much easier to reverse obesity as a teenager rather than waiting until adulthood to make positive changes.

"If you're an obese teen, the likelihood that you're going to be an obese adult is very high, it's hard to break that cycle," she said.

Katie Page, MD, co-director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the USC Keck School of Medicine, said now that researchers have established a link between obesity and brain function, efforts should turn to ways to prevent or reverse damage.

"The results from the new study are consistent with prior reports and are a major public health concern because they suggest that obesity not only increases risk of metabolic diseases, like diabetes, but it may also be linked to worse brain function," she told Healthline.

"What we need to do now is study ways in which the damage caused by obesity could be reversed and/or prevented," Dr. Page added. "Potential strategies could include changes in diet, increases in physical activity, reductions in sedentary behavior, and reductions in stress, all of which play an important role in brain development and cognitive function."

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Parks Are Goodbut They Can (and Should) Be Better - EcoWatch

The history books we loved most in 2019 span centuries, nations and wars. From womanhood to nationhood, they challenge the construction of identity and mythology. They tell the stories of celebrity weddings, bootlegging trials, and people, places and things we thought we knew but prove, upon closer inspection, to be far more complex.

When Consuelo Vanderbilt of the wealthy American Vanderbilt family married the Duke of Marlborough in 1895, she was one of the most famous debutantes in the world, at a time when interest in the doings of the rich had never been more scrutinized. Consuelo had spent her whole life training to marry a royal, and the event itself was covered in major newspapers across the globe. In The Season: A Social History of the Debutante, author Kristen Richardson contextualizes Consuelo and her weddingand those of other famous debutantes, or young women making their societal debut, from the 1600s to today. The book is a centuries-spanning look at how debutantes and their rituals, from the antebellum South to modern-day Russia, have shaped marriage and womanhood in America and abroad.

For a time, George Remus had it all. The most successful bootlegger in America, Cincinnatis Remus controlled nearly 30 percent of illegal liquor in the United States in the early 1920s. Historian and bestselling author Karen Abbott traces the rise of Remushe was a pharmacist and a defense attorneyand the inevitable fall as he found himself on trial not just for bootlegging, but for the murder of his own wife. In an interview with Smithsonian, Abbott talked about the connection between Remus and F. Scott Fitzgeralds Jay Gatsby: I think Gatsby and Remus both had these longings of belonging to a world that didn't wholly accept them or fully understand them. Even if Fitzgerald never met Remus, everybody knew who George Remus was by the time Fitzgerald started to draft The Great Gatsby.

Many Americans know the names of Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, key figures in North American Indigenous history. In his new book, Oxford history professor Pekka Hmlinen (his previous book, The Comanche Empire, won the prestigious Bancroft Prize in 2009) looks at the history of the Lakota Nation as other historians have looked at ancient Romea massive (and massively adaptive) empire that shaped the literal landscape of the Western United States as well as the fates of Indigenous groups for centuries.

Civil Rights, free love and anti-war protests have become synonymous with the 1960s, but in American Radicals, Holly Jackson, an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, traces these movements back a century in a reconsideration of radical protest and social upheaval in the mid-19th century. While some of the names that appear in Jacksons story, like famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, will be familiar to American history buffs, she also revives forgotten figures like Frances Wright, an heiress whose protests against the institution of marriage inspired Walt Whitman to call her one of the best [characters] in history, though also one of the least understood.

Only six people attended Thomas Paines funeral. Once the most famous writer in the American colonies (and, later, the United States of America), the corsetmaker-turned-pamphleteer had been virtually expelled from public life for his radical beliefs and writings, like the ones that suggested a tax on landowners could be used to fund basic income for everyone else. Harlow Giles Unger, a renowned biographer of the Founding Fathers, looks at the Paine we know and the one we dont, in his telling of the story of a man who pursued Enlightenment ideals even when those ideals ran afoul of what was socially acceptable.

As every day a new story about the dangers of vapingor the fervent support of vape fansappears, historian Sarah Milovs The Cigarette looks at the history of smoking in the United States and reminds us that once upon a time, the government was more concerned with the rights of tobacco companies than the rights of non-smokers. The book deftly connects the rise in organized opponents to smoking to food safety, car safety and other consumer rights movements of the 20th century. Kirkus says Milov mixes big-picture academic theory with fascinating, specific details to illuminate the rise and fall of tobacco production.

In Policing the Open Road, legal historian Sarah A. Seo argues that while cars (and highways, for that matter) have long been associated with freedom in the eyes of American drivers, their advent and rapid domination of travel is the basis for a radical increase in policing and criminalization. From traffic stops to parking tickets, Seo traces the history of cars alongside the history of crime and discovers that the two are inextricably linked. At times, says Hua Hsu in The New Yorker, Seos work feels like an underground historyof closeted gay men testing the limits of privacy; of African-Americans, like Jack Johnson or Martin Luther King, Jr., simply trying to get from one place to another.

Using the oral histories of formerly enslaved people, financial records and property history, Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, associate professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, makes a clear case that in the American South, many white women werent just complicit in the system of chattel slaverythey actively encouraged and benefited from it. Jones-Rogerss work dismantles the notion that white women in slaveholding families were silent actorsinstead, she argues, they used the institution of slavery to build a specific concept of womanhood that shaped the history of the nation before and after the Civil War.

In 1856, the United States passed a law that entitled citizens to take possession of any unclaimed island containing guano depositsguano, of course, being the excrement of bats. Guano is an excellent fertilizer, and over the course of the 20th century, the U.S. claimed dozens of small islands in remote parts of the world, turning them into territories with few rights of their own. The story of guano is one of many that touch upon the empire forged by the U.S. from Puerto Rico to the Philippines. Daniel Immerwahr, an associate professor of history at Northwestern University, tells the often brutal, often tragic stories of these territories in an attempt to make the Greater United States truly part of U.S. history.

In 1998, Tony Horwitzs Confederates in the Attic changed the way we talk about the Civil War and the American South by making the point that for many, even 150 years after the wars end, the conflict continued. In Spying on the South, published after Horwitzs death this year, the author returned to the Southern states, this time following the trail of the young Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect whose work defined northern cities like New York and Boston. Jill Lepore, writing in the New Yorker, called Horwitz the rare historianthe only historian I can think ofequally at home in the archive and in an interview, a dedicated scholar, a devoted journalist."

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The Ten Best History Books of 2019 | History - Smithsonian.com

OMAs first building in Manhattan is made of black concrete and glass, towering over Lexington Avenue with sides facing onto 22nd and 23rd Streets, thanks to its L-shaped lot.OMAs project fits into New Yorks urban fabric with an unusual vocabulary for a skyscraper, staying conveniently flat without attempting to distinguish itself too much from its surroundings. Yet the entire building manages to stand out from its urban context and express something new, even while maintaining the continuity of Manhattans highly varied urban faades.The first thing worth noting is the choice of materials, in that black-coloured concrete, used with glass, a classic material found everywhere in the Big Apple, creates an unexpected combination that gives the corner of 22nd and Lexington a new look. All this is amplified by the decision not to emphasise the sharpness of the corner that the two planes on two streets could easily have generated; the architects proceed in an entirely different formal direction, giving the walls a multi-faceted appearance by breaking them up into triangles, all different, at the point where the two walls come together. In this way they have made the corner seductive enough to draw the observers eye upward with fascinating slowness, rather than at the rapid pace typical of the city that never sleeps.In this project, concrete takes the place of steel, which might have been a more appropriate choice for such a bold faade; here, against all expectations, the frames around the square windows are rigid, to the point that the buildings skeleton and the faade are both heavy enough to bear wind load. This design expedient ensures that the levels beyond the skyline of the faade sway as little as possible in the wind.

Fabrizio Orsini

CreditsClient: Toll Brothers City Living May 2019 CompletionProgram: 275,387 GSF 242,157 SF Residential 10,605 SF Amenities Pool, Gym, Courtyard, Bicycle Room, Lounge, Outdoor Terrace, Dining Room and Kitchen, Childrens Room, Screening Room, Roof Terrace with Outdoor Kitchen 6,066 SF Automated Parking Garage 17,111 SF RetailTeamLead Architect: OMA New York Partner in Charge: Shohei ShigematsuConcept to Design DevelopmentYolanda do Campo, Lawrence Siu, Sunggi Park, Daniel Quesada Lombo, Jackie Woon Bae, Juan Lopez, Jorge Simelio, Andrea Zalewski, Nathalie Camacho, Leen Katrib, Nils Sanderson, Carly Dean, Nicholas SolakianConstruction Documentation to Construction Administration: Christine Yoon, Yolanda do Campo, Darby Foreman, Marki Becker, Nils Sanderson, Andrea ZalewskiExecutive Architect: SLCE Architects, LLPInterior Architect: Incorporated Architecture & Design, PLLCConstruction Management: CM&AStructural Engineer: WSPMEP/ FP Engineer: StantecFacade Engineer: Gilsanz, Murray, Steficek, LLPZoning: Development Consulting ServicesPool Consultant: Bradford ProductsAcoustic Engineer: AKRF, Inc Landscape: LDGNLandscape Architects Lighting Consultant: Ventresca DesignParking Consultant: Klaus Parking

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OMA's black concrete and glass building in Manhattan - Floornature.com

The Hilton Athens was the Greek capitals first international brand hotel. It was also the citys largest hotel building and when it opened in April 1963 (described as the most beautiful Hilton hotel in the world by its owner Conrad Hilton) it quickly became a hub for the local and international glitterati.

From stars like Frank Sinatra, Igmar Bergman and Anthony Quinn in the golden age of cinema to scintillating personalities such as Mikhail Barishnikov, Placido Domingo and Willem Dafoe in more recent times, the hotel has consistently proven its expertise in graciously hosting the most demanding of guests.

Today, the hotel retains an aura of cosmopolitan glamour and understated luxury blended with a relaxed, culturally-vibrant and contemporary flair. Apart from the impressive hieroglyphic-style reliefs created by artist Yiannis Moralis on the exterior wall which make the hotel stand out from any other structure in Athens the Hilton is decorated with artworks by Eleni Vernardaki, George Zongolopoulos, Chryssa, George Lappas, Aphrodite Liti, Pavlos and Theodore Stamos.

With the statue of The Runner (O Dromeas) by Costas Varotsos right across it on Vas. Sophias Ave, these two landmarks mark a characteristic key point of Athens.

I recently stayed at the Hilton Athens, choosing this historic hotel as the first of GCTs guide to presenting some of Greeces best places to stay.

Authentic Politeness

From the moment I stepped up to the desk to check in to the moment I checked out, I was made to feel welcome and at home. But ironically the kind of pampered, special at home that one can only feel in a hotel of this kind. The staff was polite, friendly, warm, professional, accommodating, efficient and non-intrusive throughout my 24 hours.

Understated Luxury

Upon entering the modern, minimally decorated lobby area that features light and neutral colours, plenty of natural light, wood, and glass, I instantly felt relaxed. Not too much opulence, no overload of artworks or furniture; an optimal and refreshing sense of openness and spaciousness.

Easy Location

Between Pangrati, Kolonaki, and Syntagma, the hotel (around five minutes walk to Evangelismos metro, which goes directly to the airport) is excellently located. Especially if you like to walk and explore the above-mentioned neighbourhoods in detail. Right across the hotel is the National Gallery, sadly still under construction, but once opened, an additional plus for guests.

Beautiful Views of the Acropolis

The hotels 506 rooms, each with a private balcony, face either the city or the Acropolis. I stayed in an Executive room on the 12th floor with a view of the Parthenon that just got better as the day wore on and was especially lovely at night.

Elegant Lunch

Guests can head to the Byzantino restaurant for classic-modern Mediterranean food or the Milos restaurant for upscale Greek cuisine. From May-October when the swimming pool (the largest in Athens) is open one can also order brunch or snacks from the Oasis Pool Bar-Grill while for a quick snack or light lunch guests can stop at the Aethrion Lobby Bar.

Architectural Character

Designed by Emmanouil Vourekas, Prokopis Vassiliadis, Spyros Staikos and Antonis Georgiades, the Hilton seriously stood out when it first appeared in the citys urban landscape. Architect Ioannis Vikelas, who briefly worked on its construction, has said: It was a project of great magnitude and quality There is an obvious sense of nobility and elegance to be seen in the details as well as in more general forms. However, he added: Athenians saw the Hilton as something of a weird alien object. It wasnt a matter of taste so much as bewilderment.

Lovely Pampering

One of the things the Hilton has become well known for apart from its architecture and views is its top-notch Hiltonia spa. It has a large internal pool with several pockets offering ideal jacuzzi bubble therapy, and sauna and steam booths in the mens and womens changing rooms. Excellently-trained therapists use the luxurious Germaine de Capuccini product range for innovative beauty treatments and relaxing therapies, such as the deeply-relaxing aroma-massage.

Glittering Dinner

On the hotels 13th floor is the Galaxy Bar and Restaurant, with a long balcony looking out to a glittering cityscape crowned by the Acropolis. There are two choices for dining here. One is a menu offering refined modern Mediterranean/Greek cuisine, with dishes such as Black Angus steak with truffle-seasoned potato chips, or risotto with crayfish, pickled asparagus, rose-petals and basil oil. The other is the Sushi Bar, serving classic maki, nigiri and sashimi platters plus new additions like Scallop Tobiko roll with lime as well as Surf N Turf with panko shrimps and beef fillet. The flavours from both menus are sophisticated and gratifying, and the view simply enchanting.

Cool DJ Vibes

The Galaxy Bar has been a busy nighttime hotspot ever since the hotel opened not bad for a bar thats been around for 55 years! The hotels grandiose reputation, its central location, and stunning views have made it a popular go-to place for a fancy outing. Over the last few decades, the addition of leading mixologists serving exciting cocktails and DJs hosting all-night parties has only served to add to the bars year-round appeal.

In-Room Tranquility

In between a delicious lunch, a reviving dip in the pool, spa pampering, starry-eyed dinner, and cocktails I loved retreating to my room. Elegant, modern and minimalist in style, with its view of the Parthenon, crisp white sheets and thick duvet and pillows, a walk-in marble shower and bathtub, it offered me a luxuriant sense of peace. After my breakfast, I had a few hours to kill before checkout and considered a swim in the spa pool. But the comfort of my room won. So I lay in bed reading a magazine and relaxing, just as I would at home.

Alexia Amvrazi enjoys the thrill of discovering beauty in the world around her. With a passionately hands-on approach to Greece's travel, gastronomy, holistic living, culture, innovation and creativity, for 20 years she has explored and shared her findings with the world on all aspects of the country and its people via writing, radio, blogs and videos. Although her childhood and early youth in Italy, Egypt and England left her feeling somewhat root-less, she is by now firmly connected to her native land, bravely weathering the hurricane known as the Greek crisis!

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10 Things to Love About the Hilton Athens - Greek City Times

A Brutalist school, an Art Deco church and soaring grain silos are among the diverse array of buildings featured in the new tome, Midwest Architecture Journeys. Book editor Zach Mortice discusses five highlights.

Released in October, Midwest Architecture Journeys is a 287-page, hardcover book from Belt Publishing that explores under-recognised buildings, places and spaces in the American Heartland.

The book primarily focuses on work in the following states Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Buildings by famed architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan and Bertrand Goldberg are included, as are projects by lesser-known figures such as Walter Bailey and Lillian Leenhouts.

Some of the featured projects linger just outside of the architectural canon, while others are simple, everyday structures that are not designed by architects.

"It's a book that's a testament to the wild diversity of architectural experimentation here, that also points to an essential character of humble utopian optimism earned through hard work," said the book's Chicago-based editor, Zach Mortice.

The book is divided into four sections journeys, places, people, and vernacular each with a collection of essays and accompanying images.

In addition to an abundance of photographs, the tome contains 31 individual essays by writers from around the US, including an introduction by architecture critic Alexandra Lange.

The first chapter discusses road trips, while the second spotlights work by well-known Midwestern architects. The third section looks at specific buildings and spaces, while the final chapter examines new types of vernacular architecture.

Read on as Mortice spotlights five highlights from the book:

Williamson Hall in Minneapolis-St Paul

Located at the University of Minnesota, Williamson Hall is a Brutalist, subterranean building that was envisioned by architect David Bennett and completed in 1977. Mortice said the building is notable for two key reasons.

"It's an example of architects in the Midwest taking on bold experiments to deal with climate change, which were already well understood in the 1970s," he told Dezeen. "And it's perhaps the apotheosis of the Midwestern Prairie School idea of buildings that are responsive to and shaped by the land."

The building's design was influenced by the 1970s energy crisis, when architects were imagining underground buildings with temperatures that would remain comfortable and stable year-round.

"The desire to conserve energy and build underground was largely forgotten in the go-go 1980s, when profit was the only goal worth innovating for," said Mortice. "Today, these subterranean structures call to mind a queasy nostalgia for futures that never quite happened."

The asymmetrical Williamson Hall is organised around a sunken, open-air courtyard. The concrete structure has numerous plant-filled terraces, which Bennett designed in collaboration with landscape architect Clinton Hewitt.

"Vines were planted to grow in the summer, hanging down to block out excess light," said Mortice. "During the winter, the vines would dissipate, letting in more light, and subsequently, heat. It was an integrated climate system that depended equally on the architecture, landscape, and earth itself."

The book's essay about Williamson Hall was written by Andy Sturdevant.

Wright College by Bertrand Goldberg

This building complex at a Chicago community college was designed by local architect Bertrand Goldberg. It consists of several Brutalist-style, concrete blocks punctured with relatively small, square windows. A tubular walkway connects to a 130-foot (40-metre) steel pyramid, which houses offices and a library.

The complex has a 1960s aura, said Mortice, yet it was completed in 1992.

"Wright College is the most amazing and wonderfully bizarre building in Chicago no one knows about," said Mortice. "This is as close as you can get to Archigram or Alphaville in the Midwest."

Mortice, who authored the book's essay on Wright College, is particularly intrigued by the pyramidal structure, which he described as "complex and otherworldly".

The exterior has a cybernetic quality, while the interior is "a wild matrix of offset stairs, platforms and catwalks actual Piranesian complexity".

"You'll fine study nooks placed under the space tube skyways, and quiet corners at the pyramid's edges, good for a nap between class," he said. "The idiosyncrasy of the space encourages you to keep exploring, to find your secret place in Goldberg's intricate machine."

The First Church of Deliverance by Walter Bailey

Between 1916 and 1970, millions of African-American residents in the rural South packed up and moved to northern cities such as New York and Chicago a historical event known as the Great Migration. The influx of new residents had a significant impact on the built environment.

"Looking back over the last 100-plus years of Midwestern history, it's impossible to assess the cultural and architectural landscape of this place without focusing on the Great Migration," said Mortice.

Among the buildings featured in Mortice's book is The First Church of Deliverance, located in the Bronzeville neighbourhood on Chicago's Southside. The church was started by Reverend Clarence Cobbs, a charismatic man who initially held services in a vacant hat factory.

Around 1939, Cobbs hired Walter Bailey the first licensed African-American architect in Illinois to transform the factory into a proper church.

"Bailey's design is a totally singular and exceptionally modern solution," said Mortice. "It's a modest, cream-coloured Streamline Art Moderne structure, and looks more like a movie theatre than a place of worship."

The exterior features green stripes, glass-brick windows and a pair of towers with rounded corners. Inside, the Art Deco building has an illuminated cross that stretches across the ceiling.

"It was a bracingly contemporary environment that must have been adept at transforming agrarian Southern migrants new to the shores of Lake Michigan into cosmopolitan urbanists," said Mortice.

The project took place long before adaptive reuse became trendy, said Mortice, noting that it was "a budget-conscious approach for people with few resources to create the spaces they needed".

The book's essay on The First Church of Deliverance was authored by Mark Clemens.

Boulder Buildings by Earl Young

When it comes to architecture that demonstrates a reverence for nature, buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright often come to mind. But Midwest Architecture Journeys looks beyond Wright to explore other examples of earth-inspired architecture such as a collection of "boulder buildings" created by Earl Young, a self-taught builder in Michigan.

Young lived in Charlevoix, a resort town along Lake Michigan. He became so enamoured with the "Paleolithic, glacier-formed boulders" in the area that he started using them to construct homes and small commercial buildings.

"Often called Hobbit Homes, their emphasis on local materials and organic forms are an obvious parallel to Frank Lloyd Wright," said Mortice. "Like much of Wright's work, these boulder homes seem to spring directly from the land, but this time, there's a sense of escapist whimsy that Wright would never have tolerated."

The buildings feature thick walls and large fireplaces that were "both primal and totemic, fit for powering a blacksmith's forge or a warming up a wizard's cauldron", said Mortice.

Young started his series of boulder buildings around 1918 and continued until his death in the 1970s. He was known to dig up boulders and then hide them in the woods stashing them away for future use.

"He would often revisit them decades later to use them in a building, never having written down their dimensions, or sketched out a blueprint for how it would all come together," said Mortice. "He kept this entire world in his head."

The book's essay on the boulder buildings was written by Jonathan Rinck.

Grain Silos

Given the prevalence of grain farms in the Midwest, the area is often referred to as America's breadbasket. Fittingly, Mortice's book spotlights the tall silos used to store wheat, corn, barley, and other grains that eventually get eaten by humans and livestock.

"Anywhere in the world, so much of the built infrastructure that defines a place is architecture made without architects and grain silos are definitive icons representing the agricultural heritage of the Midwest," Mortice told Dezeen.

Mortice spent a good portion of his childhood on an Iowa farm, and grain elevators were the first "monumental structures" he encountered.

"I would nervously watch my dad climb to the top of them, and cover my ears to shield myself from the roar of their augurs as they spewed grain into trucks," he said.

In the innumerable small towns that constitute the vast Midwest, the grain silo is a ubiquitous feature that carries symbolic meaning.

"Grain towers are something like secular church steeples vertical signifiers of the region's cultural and economic regime," Mortice said.

The book's essay on silos was written by Lynn Freehill-Maye.

Photography is courtesy of Zach Mortice. Main image is by David Schalliol/Mas Context.

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Unsung architecture in the American Midwest spotlighted in new book - Dezeen

So planners across the West of England region have been back at the drawing board for over a month now following the inspectors rejection of the hard fought Joint Spatial Plan (JSP).

They have a formidable task. The citys housing delivery plan outlines a need for 33,500 new homes for Bristol by 2036 over half of which need to be affordable. We also need space to support a big proportion of the 80,000+ new jobs expected across the JSP.

Whilst the citys housing and development community is now working much more creatively and collaboratively to maximise the use of space and the local authority is identifying major strategic sites for new homes, land remains in short supply.

There can be no doubt: we all need to get used to living closer together. We are facing a climate emergency and a growing need for more healthy lifestyles. Therefore, jobs and homes need to be close together, allowing active travel walking, jogging, cycling.

My colleague Yuli Cadney-Toh, who has spent much of her career working on liveable cities around the world, is a specialist in city densification and argues that when designed right, tall buildings can contribute to the solution.

But that doesnt mean the only way is up. Its not a binary choice. We can balance the move up with a move out - and we have to look beyond Bristols boundaries. We must be braver and far more creative in relation to the greenbelt in a way that respects its original purpose but helps to accommodate growth.

The Bristol-Bath greenbelt accounts for some 48 per cent of the land across the JSP area. Its primary goal was to prevent coalescence of the two cities and it has certainly been successful in that respect. In exceptional circumstances land can be taken out of the green belt. It is within the local planning authoritys gift to adjust its greenbelt. Indeed substantial tracts of land were taken out of the South Gloucestershire green belt to allow the development of Aztec West in the late 70s and early 80s.

Most of the employment within the plan area is in its cities and city fringes. Logic suggests that the long-term growth in housing and jobs needs to be near existing hubs or along sustainable mode transport corridors.

This is where we need to release the land. Naturally, we must target the areas with the least environmental impact and most sustainable location. As far back as the 70s, Ian L. McHarg (1920-2001), one of the most influential environmental planners and landscape architects of the century, defined the concept of landscape planning working with rather than against nature.

Using a sieve-mapping technique, he argued for an overlaid approach taking into account everything from topography and flood risk to agricultural assets and special or heritage interests. Building up this layered picture informs where the no go areas are whilst the white space illustrates areas with potential. A web, as opposed to a belt, emerges, a web which should also penetrate the city.

This will allow us to protect open space inside as well as outside the city. These are the green lungs and vital to the populations health and wellbeing. That is why we need an intelligent conversation about redefining the greenbelt to unlock sustainable growth.

Bristol can lead the way for the rest of the UK and we can start by defining the Green Web.

For the latest news in and around Bristol, visit and bookmark Bristol Live's homepage.

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OPINION: We need a green web rather than a greenbelt in the West of England - Bristol Post

This article originally appeared in the Friday Nov. 15, 2019 issue of the Progress Times.

Two popular staples in the city - the Mission Historical Museum and the Speer Memorial Library - will be getting some much-needed renovations.

During a regular meeting held on Tues. this week, the Mission city council authorized the Engineering Office to solicit bids for competitive proposals for the roof replacement of the library and musuem. Council attended a workshop on Oct. 29 to hear about the projects from the architect and engineering firms and the scope of work they would be doing.

Hinojosa Engineering, Inc. is handling the engineering aspects, and Jose Carlos (Charlie) Garcia III of ARKiiFORM, LLC is acting as the architect. Council liked what they heard from the presentation, so they approved the authorization in order to get the ball rolling.

I appreciate the time that the architects and the engineers took to present, Mayor Pro-Tem Norie Gonzalez Garza said. I was very pleased with the presentation, and Im looking forward to getting a new roof.

The proposals requested will be used to obtain the best value for the replacement of each roof and apply value engineering for cost savings so the city can remain within budget. The scope of work for the library includes a complete tear off and re-roofing. The museum projects include a tear off and re-roofing of the annex building, a canopy connected to the annex and a partial re-roofing of the main historical building.

While the final costs of the projects may change based on the proposals received, the city is estimating that the total budget for all the renovations will be $1.3 million. Roof replacements for the library are estimated at $1 million, and $300,000 for the museum.

The council also declared the municipality of Fortn de las Flores, Veracruz a sister city of Mission. Deputy City Manager Aida Lerma presented resolution #1629 to council, and introduced the delegates from Mexico to the mayor and council.

Weve had a delegation from the city of Fortn de las Flores arrive last Wednesday, they partook in the Veterans Day activities this weekend, Lerma said. They were very impressed by all the activities we had for the veterans.

Lerma said it was their desire to become a Mission sister city. City Manager Randy Perez read the resolution, noting that the sister city concept was started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 in order to establish greater friendships and understandings with international municipalities.

All succeeding U.S. presidents have endorsed this program, to be conducted for broad purposes of an exchange of ideas and people between the citizens of the United States of America and the people of other nations, Perez read. To implement this program, the city of Mission and other communities in the United States have been requested by Sister Cities International to affiliate with cities in other nations of similar characteristics and mutual interests.

Perez said they foster this concept with the hope that it will lead to lasting friendships between Missionites and the residents of Fortn de la Flores, Veracruz.

Read more:
Mission to solicit bids for roof replacement of MHM and Speer Memorial Library - Progresstimes

Hey, do you know what makes you seem really innocent? When you appear in front of the press with handwritten notes that remind you to say how innocent you are.

As the Trump impeachment inquiry rumbles along, delivering either damning evidence (according to the Democrats) or a look at the Deep State in action (yeah, the Republicans), the president continues to rant about how hard it is being him.

Witchhunt, total scam, and all the other greatest hits he trots out daily you know the drill.

Back to those handwritten notes, though, with Rolling Stone setting the scene:

While EU ambassador Gordon Sondland was testifying during Wednesdays impeachment hearings President Donald Trump attempted to defend himself to the media. The president held a pad of paper with words written in all-caps with a sharpie and read aloud in dramatic fashion.

Skip ahead to the 30-second mark below for the reading:

Another totally normal display of human behaviour, there.

Also, yes, Trump did spell the name of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, incorrectly.

His reading of the note lends itself very nicely towards memeification, and it wasnt long before they began to circulate.

Morrissey, anyone?

Decent, but that has nothing on the emo reading:

The Ramones remix is also a work of art:

Ruined.

If youre after a rather immature chuckle, fair enough, because its been a long week. This might do the trick:

You act like a giant toddler, and you get treated like one.

Expect more inane, and insane, ramblings over the weekend as the impeachment heat is cranked right up.

[source:rollingstone]

See more here:
Trump's Handwritten Note Gets The Meme Treatment [Videos] - 2oceansvibe News

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fourth quarter highlighted by strong residential roofing growth and robust operating cash performance

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Nowicki to depart later this fiscal year

Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. (BECN) (Beacon or the Company) announced results today for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 (2019). The Company also announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Nowicki will leave the Company later this fiscal year to shift focus to his family, charitable work and Board service. Mr. Nowicki will remain CFO during the Companys nationwide search for his successor and will support the transition of his duties until his departure.

Julian Francis, Beacons new President and Chief Executive Officer, stated: In joining Beacon, I recognize the great opportunity offered by this industry and the Companys demonstrated long-term growth, EBITDA margins and operating cash flow. We are now pivoting from a growth run via acquisitions to a focus on organic growth, gross margin expansion and operating expense rigor. Several positive elements are evident in our fourth quarter performance, including 11.5% organic daily sales growth in residential roofing, continued strong operating cash flow, and positive SG&A expense leverage. I see tremendous opportunities to substantially improve upon Beacons financial performance. Operationally, I am turning immediate focus to growing our customer base, differentiating e-commerce capabilities through our digital platform, and enhancing the productivity of our branch network. We are just getting started, and I am proud to lead Beacon forward into this exciting next stage of growth.

Fourth Quarter

Net sales increased 4.9% to $2.03 billion in 2019, from $1.94 billion in 2018. Consolidated residential roofing product sales increased 12.7%, consolidated non-residential roofing product sales increased 2.4%, and consolidated complementary product sales decreased 3.2% compared to the prior year. Existing markets net sales increased 4.8% compared to the prior year, driven mainly by 13.2% growth in residential roofing. The fourth quarter of fiscal years 2019 and 2018 had 64 and 63 business days, respectively.

Net income was $27.4 million, compared to $48.3 million in 2018. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $21.4 million, compared to $42.3 million in 2018. Diluted net income (loss) per share (EPS) was $0.27, compared to $0.54 in 2018. Fourth quarter results were negatively impacted by lower gross margins and higher acquisition-related costs compared to 2018. Fourth quarter results were positively impacted by existing market sales growth in residential roofing.

Adjusted Net Income (Loss) was $82.0 million, compared to $84.1 million in 2018. Adjusted EPS was $1.04, compared to $1.07 in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA was $169.1 million, compared to $178.3 million in 2018. (Please see the included financial tables for a reconciliation of Adjusted financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as well as further detail on the components driving the net changes over the comparative periods.)

Fiscal Year

Net sales increased 10.7% to $7.11 billion, from $6.42 billion in 2018. Consolidated residential roofing product sales increased 10.0%, consolidated non-residential roofing product sales increased 4.2%, and consolidated complementary product sales increased 17.0% compared to the prior year. Existing markets net sales increased 3.3% compared to the prior year, driven mainly by 7.0% growth in residential roofing and improved pricing. Fiscal years 2019 and 2018 had 253 and 252 business days, respectively.

Net income (loss) was $(10.6) million, compared to $98.6 million in 2018. Net income (loss) attributable to common shareholders was $(34.6) million, compared to $80.6 million in 2018. EPS was $(0.51), compared to $1.05 in 2018. Fiscal year 2019 results were negatively impacted by higher acquisition-related costs compared to 2018 as well as increase in interest expense directly tied to the financing of the Allied acquisition. In addition, 2018 results include a $48.8 million net tax benefit resulting from the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Fiscal year 2019 results were positively impacted by existing market sales growth in residential roofing.

Story continues

Adjusted Net Income (Loss) was $176.2 million, compared to $206.7 million in 2018. Adjusted EPS was $2.26, compared to $2.70 in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA was $476.0 million, compared to $483.6 million in 2018. (Please see the included financial tables for a reconciliation of Adjusted financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures as well as further detail on the components driving the net changes over the comparative periods).

The Company will host a webcast and conference call today at 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss these results. The webcast link and call-in details are as follows:

To assure timely access, conference call participants should dial in prior to the 5:00 p.m. ET start time.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains information about management's view of the Company's future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, but not limited to, those set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's latest Form 10-K. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, other than as required by federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

About Beacon Roofing Supply

Founded in 1928, Beacon Roofing Supply is the largest publicly traded distributor of residential and commercial roofing materials and complementary building products in North America, operating over 500 branches throughout all 50 states in the U.S. and 6 provinces in Canada. Beacon serves an extensive base of over 100,000 customers, utilizing its vast branch network and diverse service offerings to provide high-quality products and support throughout the entire business lifecycle. Beacon also offers its own private label brand, TRI-BUILT, and has a proprietary digital account management suite, Beacon Pro+, which allows customers to manage their businesses online. A Fortune 500 company, Beacons stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol BECN. To learn more about Beacon and its brands, please visit http://www.becn.com.

BEACON ROOFING SUPPLY, INC.

Consolidated Statements of Operations

(In thousands, except share and per share amounts)

Three Months Ended September 30,

Year Ended September 30,

2019

% of

Net

Sales

2018

% of

Net

Sales

2019

% of

Net

Sales

2018

% of

Net

Sales

Net sales

$

2,029,913

100.0

%

$

1,935,756

100.0

%

$

7,105,160

100.0

%

$

6,418,311

100.0

%

Cost of products sold

1,536,451

75.7

%

1,444,459

More:
Beacon Roofing Supply Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2019 Results - Yahoo Finance

Photo by Deb GauMembers of the Marshall School Board voted Monday to include the roof over the pool area at Marshall Middle School to an ongoing roofing project at the middle school and Park Side Elementary.

MARSHALL A roofing project at Marshall Middle School will be bigger than originally planned. Members of the Marshall School Board voted Monday night to add the middle school swimming pool area to roof replacement being done at the middle school and Park Side Elementary.

The move will help make the most of bid pricing the school district received for the project, and do needed roof maintenance ahead of schedule, district staff said.

In February, the school board approved a combined bid of $1.549 million to do partial re-roofing at the middle school and Park Side. The roof work was scheduled to be completed over the summer of 2019 and 2020.

The portion of the middle school roof that would be replaced didnt originally include the roof over the pool area. It was scheduled for replacement a couple years out, said Dion Caron, business services manager at MPS. However, adding it to the project would make good use of both bid pricing and resources since the roof contractors would already be at the middle school, he said.

We talked to the company doing the middle school and Park Side already, Caron said.

The total additional cost to replace the pool roof section is $169,470, Caron said. Of that amount, $57,998 could come from the interests and proceeds from a long-term facilities maintenance bond. The school district could adjust its long-term facilities maintenance budget to fund the remaining $111,472 for the project.

The pool area at the middle school is not currently being used by the school district. However, regular maintenance like the roof repairs is still necessary to keep the building in good shape. Caron said the school district eventually hopes to do something with that part of the school building.

Were not sure how far down the road, Caron said. However, he said its not in the districts plan to tear the structure down. Its a good space.

One part of the failed 2017 Marshall school referendum was a proposal to convert the unused pool area into multipurpose space.

At Mondays meeting, school board members voted unanimously to add the pool roof section to the current roofing project, and to adjust the long-term facilities maintenance budget to use an additional $111,472 for the project.

The roofing project would be completed in the summer of 2020.

MARSHALL Thanksgiving is a time to get together and share a meal, and several area towns are doing just that ...

See the article here:
Pool area added to MMS roofing project | News, Sports, Jobs - Marshall Independent