Radnor >> When Cathy Agnew heard a story on WHYY about musicians playing on front porches in West Philadelphia it resonated with her. She remembered a next door neighbor, Carol Inman, playing on her front porch in Ardmore with musician friends when home from Indiana University every summer.

I remembered how beautiful it sounded, said Agnew, who was sitting on her own porch in Wayne when she spoke with a reporter recently. We just loved it when they would playIt was such a beautiful memory.

The idea for musicians playing on porches for the community or PorchFests, began in 2006 in Ithaca, N.Y. and has since spread. Agnew is spearheading the First Annual South Wayne PorchFest set for Sept. 9 from noon to 5 p.m. With all the porches in Wayne, Agnew believed the town was a perfect location for PorchFest.

Joining with friends and neighbors Susan Stern and Sue Metzger, who set up the website, Agnew began organizing. She said everyone she approached about lending their porch was very enthusiastic.

She obtained a permit from Radnor Township and praised Commissioner Luke Clark and Radnor Police Deputy Superintendent Chris Flanagan who she said were extremely helpful. Charlotte Higgins designed the logo.

The South Wayne PorchFest musicians will play on 17 porches along St. Davids and Windermere avenues. Portions of those streets will be closed to allow families to walk safely from porch to porch. Maps will also be provided once scheduling for the various bands is completed, said Agnew. The South Wayne PorchFest will be a family-friendly environment, she said.

I think its an interesting concept for Wayne, said singer Jackie Covatta, who will participate with guitarist Joe DiStefano. Together they are the group JC Lauren. I think it will go over really well. The Wayne townspeople will really enjoy that and the businesses will benefit. I think it will be a good thing.

Covatta characterized her style as soulful, blues with a soft rock edge.

A King of Prussia resident, Covatta has been performing for about 20 years and has written more than 40 songs. Shes been performing with DiStefano for two years.

Singer John McKee is also looking forward to PorchFest.

A pastry chef who lives in Bryn Mawr, he moved to the area about seven years ago with his partner because the cost of living in the San Francisco area had become unaffordable.

McKee sings songs from the American canon, mostly standards from Sinatra, Michael Buble and Nat King Cole.

Im looking forward to it, said McKee about PorchFest. He has sung at weddings and at a nursing facility but also started going to open mic events at local clubs to perform and met Agnew, who was scouting for talent for the PorchFest. McKee will also perform at the Taste of Berwyn on Sept. 17.

Folk musician, Jerry Krantman, will play guitar and sing during PorchFest.

My range of folk music is unconventional, he said. It includes traditional songs as well as songs from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. These include political songs and humorous songs. I pride myself in having a far-reaching set of surprising acoustic tunes, many that youve never heard, some right on the edge of memory, some destined to become new favorites. Ive played music since I was a child, and played the guitar since what we then called junior high school.

Krantman grew up in Harrisburg and now lives in Plymouth Meeting. A Temple University graduate, hes lived in New Mexico and Georgia, and spent 30 years living in northern California. Hes worked as a family therapist, a computer consultant, and is currently a college instructor.

I always enjoy playing to a receptive audience, wherever they might be, said Krantman. Well see whether thats what actually happens. I am a big fan of building community, though, so I hope that this will bring people together with their neighbors, perhaps without the use of electronics.

PorchFest will also feature a porch for Rising Stars, said Agnew. These performers are teenage musicians from area high schools. The Archbishop Carroll High School Pep Band and the Radnor High School Pep Band are slated to play, too, she said.

Agnew also had help from the Eastern University music department. Sara Herman, office manager, and Sarah Shulman, a senior music education major, gave advice on how far apart the porches with performers should be sited and whether bushes and trees would dampen the sounds.

Agnew recommends that people bring blankets or lawn chairs. They can also picnic or walk into Wayne for restaurant fare. Each band will perform for about 45 minutes. St. Katharines parish will allow the PorchFest patrons to use their restrooms, said Agnew. The event is free and the performers are also volunteering their time, she said.

This is a low budget endeavor, said Agnew, a lawyer who is working from home in order to focus on writing her first novel, tentatively titled The Gravity of Regret. She described it as literary noir. Her husband, Brad Mortensen, is also an attorney at Kennedys CMK. The couple has two grown children, Anne Mortensen-Agnew, 26, a writer who lives in Los Angeles, and Colin Mortensen-Agnew, 22, a student at the University of Alabama.

Read the original:
First Annual South Wayne PorchFest slated - Main Line

Fliers believed to be sent on behalf of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were found this week in Gloversville, the third time this year that white supremacist activity has been reported in the area.

City residents on Monday and Tuesday found the fliers tossed on stoops, porches and in driveways. The fliers said in large letters save our nation! with an American flag design, and depicted what appeared to be an image of an open Bible and a headstone with a hypodermic needle next to it.

The anti-drug fliers had a phone number for the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations treatment referral service. The agency did not return an email and telephone request for comment.

Just say no to drugs ... Your family members, friends, and even your neighbors could be next, the fliers said. The fliers were contained in sandwich bags along with a small amount of cat litter, which was likely used to weigh the bags down so they could be tossed from a vehicle.

The flier also said, we care about you! and included an image of a burning cross.

The other phone number found on the flier belonged to the Loyal White Knights of the KKK. A reporter called the number but nobody answered. A recorded answering message included information on the groups [N-word] of the month award and ended with the signoff, white power.

Gloversville Mayor Dayton King said that while city leaders do not tolerate racism, it would be hard to charge the person or persons distributing the fliers with any crime as the speech contained within appears to be protected. Even under the citys anti-littering statute, other groups, such as Jehovahs Witnesses, regularly leave leaflets at peoples homes.

So where do you draw that line? King said.

He added that the Gloversville Police Department did investigate and interviewed a person of interest, but that person was not charged with any crime. King declined to say whether police believe the person to be responsible for distributing the fliers.

My fear is that theyre going to leave this on the wrong persons lawn or porch and theyre going to get beat up, King said. Not that I condone that either, but Im afraid thats what might happen.

King said its unclear if a serious racial element is operating in the area or if the fliers are the work of someone looking to provoke a response.

Its hard to say, its just crazy to me that people have the time to do this kind of stuff, King said. Im all for free speech/ ... I think its just really inappropriate and it certainly upsets people, and rightfully so. Unfortunately it could result in consequences worse than getting arrested.

He also questioned the tactic of tying drug dealing and use to race.

We arrest people of all races and economic status for selling and using drugs;weve arrested people who have tons of money and people who have no money, he said.

In June, similar fliers, complete with sandwich bags containing cat litter, were found in the Fulton County village of Northville. The fliers in that case were advertising a KKK rally. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said the cat litter is harmless and likely meant to make the bags easier to toss onto lawns. The sheriffs office advised people to simply throw the bags out.

Fliers from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan urging people to join the organization were found in FortPlainin Montgomery Countyin February. An official with the Southern Poverty Law Center told The Daily Gazette in February that the organization saw an uptick in so-called lit dropsby white supremacist groups throughout 2016.

A man who lives on Yale Street in Gloversville, who declined to give his name, said he found one of the latest fliers in his driveway Monday. He said he remembers hearing about the fliers in Northville in June and was sad to see that they reached his city.

Its nuts they showed up here in Gloversville, he said.

Asked if he believes a white supremacist is working in the area or if the fliers can be chalked up to someone looking to get a rise out of people, he said:I think its a little bit of both. As far as Im concerned no normal person thinking would do that, but if hes part way into his stupidity he probably would.

Another Gloversville resident, Kelly Nellis, said shes heard about the fliers but has not seen them around her First Avenue home. She added that she is surprised that there is KKK literature being distributed locally.

I guess everyone has the right to freedom of speech, as long as it doesnt infringe upon the rights of others, Nellis said. If theyre leaving it laying around like that, its kind of like littering littering litter.

Read the original post:
Racially charged fliers found on Gloversville porches, lawns | The ... - The Daily Gazette

WAYNE, PA South Wayne will turn into a veritable music festival in September, as the first ever South Wayne PorchFest is set for Sept. 9.

"What is PorchFest," you may ask. PorchFest is a community music event where musicians perform on residential porches during the daylong event.

For the first time ever, 17 Wayne porches from St. Davids Road through Windemere Avenue will turn into stages from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9.

Nealy 30 performers with a broad range of genres are on board for the festival so far. They include How To Trick A Bear, Death To Saul, Sunny Side Girls, Main Line Bluegrass Jam, local school bands, and much more.

Check out the full list of performers online here.

As the festival draws closer, organizers will release a map of participating porches and who is performing on those porches.

The festival is completely free and artists are performing free of charge.

Volunteers and more performers are sought by organizers. Anyone interested in helping out or performing during the festival should email Organizer@SouthWaynePorchFest.com.

PorchFest began in 2007 in Ithaca, New York and since then has spread across the country and Canada, organizers said.

Visit the South Wayne PorchFest website to learn more about the inaugural festival.

Image via Eric Haines, Flickr Commons

Thanks for your feedback! Now share it with your friends!

Thanks for your feedback.

Originally published July 26, 2017.

Read this article:
PorchFest Bringing Music To South Wayne Porches Sept. 9 - Patch.com

NORFOLK, Va. A man accused of stealing items off porches in Norfolk is scheduled to be in court Wednesday morning.

Since his arrest on April 11, Anthony Strickland has been behind bars without bond.

The thefts started in February and one was captured on surveillance videoFebruary 6 around 9:30 p.m.

It showed a couple getting out of a white Nissan sedan and stealing assorted lawn ornaments from Otzis Tattoo Agency.

A friend of the owners told News 3 he took down the license plate of the car and that was one of the pieces of evidence that helped police link Strickland to the crimes.

He was charged with petit larceny, among other charges.

According to a search warrants, Strickland is known to steal and be a heroin addict and wanted to sell the stolen goods to antique and metal shops.

Since February, there have been at least 19 reported cases where items have been stolen off porches in the West Ghent area.

Strickland will be in court at 9 a.m. Stay with News 3 for updates on his arraignment.

36.846225-76.285691

See the article here:
Man arrested for Norfolk porch theft now facing a judge for the crimes - wtkr.com

Screen Porches, Sunrooms, Decks, Pergolas, and Patio Covers for Homeowners Who Want to Enjoy the Finest in Outdoor Living

From decks to retractable awnings, pergolas, patio covers, and full sunroom units, Express Sunrooms does it all. We can create an idyllic backyard environment for barbequing, entertaining guests, or simply appreciating the natural scenery around your home. Because we offer a vast array of outdoor living solutions including awnings, screen rooms, and patio enclosures we can create an outdoor space that is perfect for your lifestyle. For instance, if you want an open-air space where you can relax with family and friends, we can build a custom deck that is specially designed for your home and preferences. Or, to block bugs and intense heat, we can install a screened in porch with a thermal roof, which will keep your patio 15-20 degrees cooler on a warm day so you can relax in comfort. For the ultimate protection against inclement weather, you can choose an insulated sunroom, which you will be able to enjoy year-round.

Rest assured, no matter which type of upgrade you choose for your home whether its a sun porch, pergola, paver patio, or other outdoor enhancement we will install top-quality products that are built to last. For example, our Express Porch Panels are highly versatile structures that can be opened to serve as a screen porch or closed to become an enclosed patio, so you can enjoy a fresh breeze when you want but also protect your porch from rain, wind, and pollen. Made from maintenance-free aluminum framing, these enclosures last through the years with minimal upkeep required. Like virtually all of our products, our Express Porch Panels come backed by a lifetime warranty for your peace of mind.

As a company that has always considered customer service the cornerstone of its business, Express Sunrooms is proud to make improving your home a positive experience. We treat customers the way they want to be treated. In fact, we promise exceptional customer service through our 10 Trust Points, which set Express Sunrooms apart from other companies and make us the perfect choice when you want to transform an outdoor area of your home. For instance, our No-Risk, No-Pay Guarantee states that you will not spend a dime for your project until our work is done. You will only need to pay for your new pergola, patio awning, or porch enclosure once we have earned your complete satisfaction.

To ensure that your sunroom or screen porch installation goes smoothly, a dedicated project manager will guide your home improvement process through to completion, keeping it on budget and on schedule. Because we complete a vast number of projects every year, we have perfected a systematic approach that ensures consistent results.

Contact Express Sunrooms today to make your dreams of transforming your outdoor space a reality. We are the premier source for screen enclosures, four seasons sunrooms, custom decks, pergolas, and more.

CLICK HERE to learn about LifeRoomwhere state-of-the-art technology meets total comfort!

We are proud to be Authorized Dealers of Rain-Out Under Deck Ceiling products and accessories. For more information about Rain-Out Products and Accessories, click here: Under Deck Ceiling

Read the original here:
Sunrooms | Screen Porches | Decks | Pergolas | Patio Covers

In an increasingly divisive American society, its become a common trope to say we need to reach out to each other and build bridges. But its not a bridge we should buildits a porch.

Front porches unite divisions: us and other, inside and outside, private and public. They encourage us to engage in trust-building and face-to-face conversations with our neighbors. They give us a sense of security, but they also increase our willingness to engage with others. The lessons from the front porch are waiting to be reinterpreted and scaled-up in the fabric of our increasingly dense suburban and urban futures.

Extending ourselves to understand the other is inherently challenging; being open to outside ideas means we also take on more uncertainty. Front porches (or verandahs, as they are called in some cultures) allow homeowners some sense of control over their environment while also being ready to entertain new circumstances. These sheltered spaces tap into our primal desire to reside at an elevated surveillance point in order to spot nearby threats or opportunities: This concept is called prospect and refuge, and its often cited within landscape-design theory.

The front porchs ability to encourage interaction from a position of physical and personal safety is explored by Richard Thomass article From Porch to Patio:

When a family member was on the porch, it was possible to invite the passerby to stop and come onto the porch for extended conversation. The person on the porch was very much in control of this interaction, as the porch was seen as an extension of the living quarters of the family. Often, a hedge or fence separated the porch from the street or board sidewalk, providing a physical barrier for privacy, yet low enough to permit conversation.

We need to apply this mode of thought to the task of rekindling civility and unity in our day-to-day discourse. Whether between neighbors at home, colleagues at work, or even between opposing political parties, we can make more progress by situating ourselves within a safe spot as we reach out to build relationships with others (pitchers of iced tea optional). In an article written for Front Porch Republic, author Patrick Deneen summarizes that a front porch is exactly what is needed for even the largest political bodies:

For those who would stand and defend the future of the republic, a good place to start would be to revive our tradition of building and owning homes with front porches, and to be upon them where we can both see our neighbors and be seen by them, speak and listen to one another, and, above all, be in a place between, but firmly in place.

Though porches are a simple, cost-effective solution for community building on the neighborhood level, the concepts they embody havent gained traction in the larger urban-design sphere. This is because they have questionable utility in our busy lives. The people on the sidewalk whom you might hope to chat with are now cruising in their cars instead of strolling with their kids. In the American South, porches as places to cool off have been supplanted by air conditioning in living rooms. Avi Friedman, who rethinks home and community design in his book A View From the Porch, writes, If the telephone reduced the need for face-to-face contact and contributed to the erosion of the front porch, computers and smart phones became the porch.

If the telephone reduced the need for face-to-face contact and contributed to the erosion of the front porch, computers and smart phones became the porch.But this lack of modern utility is surmountable. To reintroduce the front porchs importance into contemporary life, we need make it the most indispensable room in the house. Turn it into your front-yard office with a desk and an outdoors electrical cord. Weather-proof it with solar- or wind-powered heating and cooling equipment. Blur it with the edge of your garden using a green wall. And, of course, make sure theres a permanent place for a pitcher of tea to offer any passersby.

No room for a wrap-around? Urban dwellers can devise porch-like vistas of their own. Whether its a brick stoop in Brooklyn or a sidewalk bench in Chicago, the same principles of safety-within-vulnerability can be applied to existing structures. Or, you could redesign new ones. Apartment tenants could lobby for street-level parking spaces in front of their buildings to be re-zoned as parklets, as we have seen happen in San Francisco. These small spaces could be greenified and have porches added for both residential and public use. Yet-to-be-constructed buildings could also designate a section of their street-facing spaces for micro-porches for exploratory engagement with public. This is often seen with bar-height stools in the front windows of coffee shops that face out to pedestrians, allowing for spontaneous, eye-to-eye interactions.

We can build community from places of personal security. But its not just literal front porches we need more ofwe need metaphysical ones, too. Brene Brown is an author and expert on feeling secure from the inside out. She suggests that if we want to feel more self-assured and comfortable reaching out to connect with others, we need to find the courage to be imperfect and practice gratitude. She argues that our self-acceptance leads to empathy, which is the strongest vehicle to connect with others.

That seems very porch-like: a place or way of being where you can relax and enjoy what is, while turning strangers into friends whose differences we can celebrate.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

Continued here:
Building bridges has failed to unite us. America needs to embrace the front porch instead - Quartz

It is a common feature of dining out at restaurants to see a rather ironic scene. A significant number of people will, in the middle of a conversation, grab for their phones, either to snap a picture or to check what is going on out there.

It is not altogether strange to see the phones out as the cause of no conversation at all. The quiet stillness in a restaurant, or any other public venue, can be deceiving. This silence is an observable recognition that we are not talking and communicating with the persons right there in front of us.

In her book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, sociologist Sherry Turkle argues that modern men and women have excelled at the art of finding new ways around conversation. We talk a lot, Turkle observes, but too little in person. Social media streams put us into a kind of conversation with others, but not one that is a stable foundation for real community. Our modern technology has rendered opportunities and real places of sociality with others less likely.

A recent article in The New York Times draws much-needed attention to this question of sociality. The op-ed features a coffee shop in Toronto, HotBlack Coffee, that does not offer its customers Wi-Fi. According to the president of the cafe, Jimson Binenstock, this was to foster a public space for conservation. HotBlack Coffee is designed to be a setting for sociality and human interaction. Otherwise, he rightly argues, the cafe is simply a commodity.

The contemporary coffee shop has become, more often than not, a setting where we go to do our work, browse the Internet, listen to music, or carry out some kind of activity that entails little to no interaction with others. It can be an avenue for sociality, but typically this is not the case, nor the goal. Social relationships are thus conceived in a manner that more resembles our airports than a sphere of robust human interaction.

This lack of social interaction within the coffee shop can also be seen in other areas of contemporary American life. One can consider the issue of sociality even within the context of the architectural and cultural telos of our homes. Richard H. Thomas draws out these very implications in his 1975 essay, From Porch to Patio.

For Thomas, the design and purpose of a front porch was to connect families to the neighborhood, drawing them to see their fundamental relation to others besides themselves and immediate family members. The porch presents a vast array of opportunities to greet your neighbors or invite them in the house for continued conversation. It can also be the setting to watch children play in the street, which echoes Jane Jacobs insights regarding neighborhood safety and eyes on the street.

The unseemly porch, then, is a pretext for vibrancy and human community. As Thomas observes,

Part of the resistance toward abandoning the porch as an essential part of the home can be attributed to the primary group relationships that permeated both the large and small communities. It was important to know ones neighbors and be known by them. The porch was platform from which to observe the activities of others. It also facilitated and symbolized a set of social relationships and the strong bond of community feeling which people during the nineteenth century supposed was the way God intended life to be. (From Porch to Patio, 123).

In the early twentieth century, however, architectural design was becoming fixated on erecting homes with backyard patios. The transition was as much of an architectural change as it was cultural. Instead of the home and its inhabitants being ordered towards others, it gradually came to be understood as the sphere of the private.

Furthermore, the back patio was a context, a structural barrier for being protected from our neighbors. The consequences of such a social reconceptualization should not be understated. What something like the back patio has inculcated is a loss of the centrality of our social nature, and the need for community bolstered by strong feelings of connection.

In the opening book of his Politics, Aristotle argues that human beings are naturally social and political animals. The reasoning here is not that of instrumentality, but of essence. In other words, human beings are ontologically configured to be ordered towards sociality as essential to their flourishing, and to that of others. For Aristotle, human beings alone have the property of speech, enabling them to communicate what is just, good, or otherwise.

This truth reaffirms us being ordered towards, and in need of, others. Justice and charity are the fundamental social and political virtues, precisely because they are the only ones primarily concerned with other people. The self-sufficient man, in this context, the individual directed to no other but himself, is either a beast or a god.

Coffee shops, like front porches, are places set up to provide a partial yet real completion of human beings social yearning. Yet we must remember that our sociality is not simply given for us only to fulfill the demands of justice. Instead, we come together to talk, laugh, socialize, and commune with others in response to something more than need. It is ultimately in friendship that we come together, in speech, reveling in the goods of this life that can be shared among those we call friends.

Without this, we will remain individuals, with little attachment to our places, neighbors, and the community as such. Robert Nisbet, in his prophetic book The Quest for Community, rightly predicted that modern democracy cannot survive without a new laissez faire grounded in robust social groups and associations. This is all the more reason we need sociable coffee shops and front porches, places we can be refreshed by companionship and establish social relationships and the strong bond of community feeling.

Brian Jones graduated from the Franciscan University with a B.A. and M.A. in Theology. He is currently a PhD student in philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas . His works have been published in New Blackfriars, Crisis, Catholic World Report, The Imaginative Conservative, and Catholic Social Science Review. He is married with three daughters.

Read the original here:
When Socialization Shifts From Front Porches To Coffee Shops - The Federalist

Porches, pools and patios are a sure sign of summer, and five of the unique outdoor settings will be showcased at a Porch Party in Geneseo.

Porches, pools and patios are a sure sign of summer, and five of the unique outdoor settings will be showcased at a Porch Party in Geneseo.

The event, which includes more than porches, is co-sponsored by First United Methodist Church and the Geneseo Chamber of Commerce. It will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 8. Rain date is Saturday, July 15.

Tickets are available at the Geneseo Chamber office and at various local businesses.

Guests will be asked to present their tickets when they arrive for a salad luncheon featuring homemade salads and breads at First UnitedMethodist Church. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Gift bags containing coupons redeemable at local businesses will be distributed randomly at the luncheon.

Diana Holbrook, chairman of the event for the Geneseo Chamber, said, Guests are welcome to ask questions of the owners about their special outdoor oasis and enjoy a variety of activities at each location.

Lets help bring back the good ol days of sitting in your neighbor's porch and drinking lemonade and taking time to visit, Holbrook said. Visit like you used to back in the day and enjoy the company, you know, how you did before cell phones, and all the while enjoying the beautiful yards at your leisure that our gracious hosts have worked so hard on.

Holbrooks goal with the porch party is to bring residents, churches and the business community together.

Homes on the Porch Party Tour are:

Kathy and Mike Duda 920 Neptune St.

Tasha and John Moe 814 Virginia St.

Jackie and Mike Skiles 1011 Finch Dr.

Chris and Jim Stahl 13566 N. 2100 Ave.

Sandy and Gary Sturtewagen 919 Gooseberry Dr.

See the article here:
Celebrate summer at Geneseo's Porch Party - Geneseo Republic

A porch (from Old French porche, from Latin porticus "colonnade", from porta "passage") is a construction usually external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by latticework, broad windows, screen, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.

There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location. All porches will allow for sufficient space for a person to comfortably pause before entering or after exiting the building. However, they may be larger. Verandahs, for example, are usually quite large and may encompass the entire facade as well as the sides of a structure. An extreme example is the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, which has the longest porch in the world at 660 feet (200m) in length.

In northeastern North America, a porch is a small area, usually unenclosed, at the main-floor height and used as a sitting area or for the removal of working clothes so as not to get the home's interior dirty, when the entrance door is accessed via the porch. In the Southwestern United States, ranch-style homes often use a covered porch to provide shade for the entrance and southern wall of the residence.

In the Southern United States and Southern Ontario, Canada, a porch is often at least as broad as it is deep, and it may provide sufficient space for residents to entertain guests or gather on special occasions. Adobe-style homes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, often include large porches for entertainment called 'portals,' which are not usually seen in the more traditional adobe homes.

Older American homes, particularly those built during the era of Victorian architecture, or built in the Queen Anne style, often included a porch in both the front and the back of the home. The back porch is used as another sitting space. However, many American homes built with a porch since the 1940s have only a token one, usually too small for comfortable social use and adding only to the visual impression of the building.

The New Urbanism movement in architecture urges a reversal in this trend, recommending a large front porch, to help build community ties.

When spacious enough, a covered porch not only provides protection from sun or rain but comprises, in effect, extra living space for the home during pleasant weather accommodating chairs or benches, tables, plants, and traditional porch furnishings such as a porch swing, rocking chairs, or ceiling fans.

Some porches are screened in to exclude flying insects. Normally, the porch is architecturally unified with the rest of the house, using similar design elements. It may be integrated into the roof line or upper storey.

In Great Britain the projecting porch had come into common use in (Catholic) churches by early medieval times. They were usually built of stone but occasionally were of timber. Normally they were placed on the south side of the church, but also on the west and north sides, sometimes in multiple. The porches served to give cover to worshipers, but they also had a liturgical use. At a baptism, the priest would receive the sponsors, with the infant, in the porch and the service began there.

In later medieval times, the porch sometimes had two storeys, with a room above the entrance which was used as a local school, meeting room, storeroom, or even armoury. If the village or town possessed a collection of books, it would be housed there.

Sometimes the church custodian lived in the upper storey and a window into the church would allow supervision of the main church interior. Some British churches have highly ornamented porches, both externally and internally. The south porch at Northleach, Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds, built in 1480, is a well-known example, and there are several others in East Anglia and elsewhere in the UK.

In India porches and verandahs are popular elements of secular as well as religious architecture. In the Hindu temple the mandapa is a porch-like structure through the gopuram (ornate gateway) and leading to the temple. It is used for religious dancing and music and is part of the basic temple compound. Examples of Indian buildings with porches include:

Read this article:
Porch - Wikipedia

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche AG (German pronunciation: [p]( listen)), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans. Porsche AG is headquartered in Stuttgart, and is owned by Volkswagen AG, which is itself majority-owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Porsche's current lineup includes the 718 Boxster/Cayman, 911, Panamera, Macan and Cayenne.

Ferdinand Porsche founded the company called "Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931,[3] with main offices at Kronenstrae 24 in the centre of Stuttgart.[4] Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting,[3] but did not build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, that is a "Volkswagen".[3] This resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most successful car designs of all time.[5] The Porsche 64 was developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle.[3]

During World War II,[6]Volkswagen production turned to the military version of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Kbelwagen,[6] 52,000 produced, and Schwimmwagen,[6] 15,584 produced.[7] Porsche produced several designs for heavy tanks during the war, losing out to Henschel & Son in both contracts that ultimately led to the Tiger I and the Tiger II. However, not all this work was wasted, as the chassis Porsche designed for the Tiger I was used as the base for the Elefant tank destroyer. Porsche also developed the Maus super-heavy tank in the closing stages of the war, producing two prototypes.[8]

At the end of World War II in 1945, the Volkswagen factory at KdF-Stadt fell to the British. Ferdinand lost his position as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, and Ivan Hirst, a British Army Major, was put in charge of the factory. (In Wolfsburg, the Volkswagen company magazine dubbed him "The British Major who saved Volkswagen".)[9] On 15 December of that year, Ferdinand was arrested for war crimes, but not tried. During his 20-month imprisonment, Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car, because he could not find an existing one that he wanted to buy. He also had to steer the company through some of its most difficult days until his father's release in August 1947.[10] The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small sawmill in Gmnd, Austria.[10] The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders reached a set threshold, production (with aluminium body) was begun by Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH founded by Ferry and Louise. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model sold by the fledgling company. After the production of 356 was taken over by the father's Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in Stuttgart in 1950, Porsche commissioned a Zuffenhausen-based company, Reutter Karosserie, which had previously collaborated with the firm on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. In 1952, Porsche constructed an assembly plant (Werk 2) across the street from Reutter Karosserie; the main road in front of Werk 1, the oldest Porsche building, is now known as Porschestrasse.[11] The 356 was road certified in 1948.

Porsche's company logo was based on the coat of arms of the Free People's State of Wrttemberg of former Weimar Germany, which had Stuttgart as its capital. (The same arms were used by Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern from 1945-1952, while Stuttgart during these years was the capital of adjacent Wrttemberg-Baden.) The arms of Stuttgart was placed in the middle as an inescutcheon, since the cars were made in Stuttgart. The heraldic symbols were combined with the texts "Porsche" and "Stuttgart", which shows that it is not a coat of arms since heraldic achievements never spell out the name of the armiger nor the armigers home town in the shield.

Wrttemberg-Baden and Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern became part of the present land of Baden-Wrttemberg in 1952 after the political consolidation of West Germany in 1949, and the old design of the arms of Wrttemberg now only lives on in the Porsche logo. On 30 January 1951, not long before the creation of Baden-Wrttemberg, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke.

In post-war Germany, parts were generally in short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle, including the engine case from its internal combustion engine, transmission, and several parts used in the suspension. The 356, however, had several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production, and most Volkswagen-sourced parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts. Beginning in 1954 the 356s engines started utilizing engine cases designed specifically for the 356. The sleek bodywork was designed by Erwin Komenda, who also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs have, from the beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but producing automobiles that are very well balanced.

In 1964, after a fair amount of success in motor-racing with various models including the 550 Spyder, and with the 356 needing a major re-design, the company launched the Porsche 911: another air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, this time with a six-cylinder "boxer" engine. The team to lay out the body shell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda, who led the body design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made unauthorized changes to the design. Company leader Ferry Porsche took his son's drawings to neighbouring chassis manufacturer Reuter. Reuter's workshop was later acquired by Porsche (so-called Werk 2). Afterward Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today known as Keiper-Recaro.

The design office gave sequential numbers to every project (See Porsche type numbers), but the designated 901 nomenclature contravened Peugeot's trademarks on all 'x0x' names, so it was adjusted to 911. Racing models adhered to the "correct" numbering sequence: 904, 906, 908. The 911 has become Porsche's most well-known and iconic model successful on the race-track, in rallies, and in terms of road car sales. Far more than any other model, the Porsche brand is defined by the 911. It remains in production; however, after several generations of revision, current-model 911s share only the basic mechanical configuration of a rear-engined, six-cylinder coup, and basic styling cues with the original car. A cost-reduced model with the same body, but with 356-derived four-cylinder engine, was sold as the 912.

In 1972, the company's legal form was changed from Kommanditgesellschaft (KG), or limited partnership, to Aktiengesellschaft (AG), or public limited company, because Ferry Porsche came to believe the scale of the company outgrew a "family operation", after learning about Soichiro Honda's "no family members in the company" policy at Honda. This led to the establishment of an Executive Board with members from outside the Porsche family, and a Supervisory Board consisting largely of family members. With this change, most family members in the operation of the company, including F. A. Porsche and Ferdinand Pich, departed from the company.

F. A. Porsche founded his own design company, Porsche Design, which is renowned for exclusive sunglasses, watches, furniture, and many other luxury articles. Louise's son and Ferry's nephew Ferdinand Pich, who was responsible for mechanical development of Porsche's production and racing cars (including the very successful 911, 908 and 917 models), formed his own engineering bureau, and developed a five-cylinder-inline diesel engine for Mercedes-Benz. A short time later he moved to Audi (used to be a division, then a subsidiary, of Volkswagen), and pursued his career through the entire company, ultimately becoming the Chairman of Volkswagen Group.

The first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Porsche AG was Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann, who had been working in the company's engine development division. Fuhrmann was responsible for the so-called Fuhrmann-engine, used in the 356 Carrera models as well as the 550 Spyder, having four overhead camshafts instead of a central camshaft with pushrods, as in the Volkswagen-derived serial engines. He planned to cease the 911 during the 1970s and replace it with the V8-front engined grand sportswagon 928. As we know today, the 911 outlived the 928 by far. Fuhrmann was replaced in the early 1980s by Peter W. Schutz, an American manager and self-proclaimed 911 aficionado. He was then replaced in 1988 by the former manager of German computer company Nixdorf Computer AG, Arno Bohn, who made some costly miscalculations that led to his dismissal soon after, along with that of the development director, Dr. Ulrich Bez, who was formerly responsible for BMW's Z1 model, and is today the CEO of Aston Martin.

In 1990, Porsche drew up a memorandum of understanding with Toyota to learn and benefit from Japanese lean manufacturing methods. In 2004 it was reported that Toyota was assisting Porsche with hybrid technology.[12]

Following the dismissal of Bohn, Heinz Branitzki, a longtime Porsche employee, was appointed as interim CEO. Branitzki served in that position until Wendelin Wiedeking became CEO in 1993. Wiedeking took over the chairmanship of the board at a time when Porsche appeared vulnerable to a takeover by a larger company. During his long tenure, Wiedeking transformed Porsche into a very efficient and profitable company.

Ferdinand Porsche's nephew, Ferdinand Pich, was chairman and CEO of the Volkswagen Group from 1993 to 2002, and is chairman of the Volkswagen AG Supervisory Board since. With 12.8 percent of the Porsche SE voting shares, he also remains the second largest individual shareholder of Porsche SE after his cousin, F. A. Porsche, (13.6 percent).

Porsche's 2002 introduction of the Cayenne also marked the unveiling of a new production facility in Leipzig, Saxony, which once accounted for nearly half of Porsche's annual output. In 2004, production of the 456 kilowatts (620PS; 612bhp) Carrera GT commenced in Leipzig, and at EUR 450,000 ($440,000 in the United States) it was the most expensive production model Porsche ever built.

In mid-2006, after years of the Boxster (and later the Cayenne) as the best selling Porsche in North America, the 911 regained its position as Porsche's best-seller in the region. The Cayenne and 911 have cycled as the top-selling model since. In Germany, the 911 outsells the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne.[13]

In May 2011, Porsche Cars North America announced plans to spend $80$100 million, but will receive about $15 million in economic incentives to move their North American headquarters from Sandy Springs, a suburb of Atlanta, to Aerotropolis, Atlanta, a new mixed-use development on the site of the old Ford Hapeville plant adjacent to Atlanta's airport.[14] Designed by architectural firm HOK, the headquarters will include a new office building and test track.[15][16][17] The facility will be known by its new address, One Porsche Drive.

The company has always had a close relationship with, initially, the Volkswagen (VW) marque, and later, the Volkswagen Group (which also owns Audi AG), because the first Volkswagen Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and 914-6, whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine, and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine. Further collaboration in 1976 resulted in the Porsche 912E (USA only) and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi components, and was built at Audi's Neckarsulm factory. Porsche 944s were also built there,[18] although they used far fewer Volkswagen components. The Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its chassis with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7, which is built at the Volkswagen Group factory in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Porsche SE was created in June 2007 by renaming the old Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, and became a holding company for the families' stake in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH (50.1%) (which in turn held 100% of the old Porsche AG) and Volkswagen AG (50.7%).[19][20] At the same time, the new Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (Porsche AG) was created for the car manufacturing business.

In August 2009, Porsche SE and Volkswagen AG reached an agreement that the car manufacturing operations of the two companies would merge in 2011, to form an "Integrated Automotive Group".[21][22] The management of Volkswagen AG agreed to 50.76% of Volkswagen AG being owned by Porsche SE in return for Volkswagen AG management taking Porsche SE management positions (in order for Volkswagen management to remain in control), and for Volkswagen AG acquiring ownership of Porsche AG.

As of the end of 2015, the 52.2% control interest in VW AG is the predominant investment by Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, koda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche AG, Ducati, VW Commercial Vehicles, Scania, MAN, as well as Volkswagen Financial Services.[23]

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (which stands for Doktor Ingenieur honoris causa Ferdinand Porsche Aktiengesellschaft), as a 100% subsidiary of VW AG, is responsible for the actual production and manufacture of the Porsche automobile line. The company currently produces Porsche 911, Boxster and Cayman sports cars, the Cayenne and Macan sport utility vehicles and the four-door Panamera.

Porsche AG has a 29% share in German engineering and design consultancy Bertrandt AG[24][25] and 81.8% of Mieschke Hofmann und Partner.[26]

Wholly owned subsidiaries of Porsche AG include Porsche Consulting GmbH.

The headquarters and main factory are located in Zuffenhausen, a district in Stuttgart, but the Cayenne and Panamera models are manufactured in Leipzig, Germany, and parts for the SUV are also assembled in the Volkswagen Touareg factory in Bratislava, Slovakia.[27] Boxster and Cayman production was outsourced to Valmet Automotive in Finland from 1997 to 2011, and in 2012 production moved to Germany.[28]

In 2015, Porsche reported selling a total of 218,983 cars, 28,953 (13.22%) as domestic German sales, and 190,030 (86.78%) internationally. [29]

The company has been highly successful in recent times, and indeed claims to have the highest profit per unit sold of any car company in the world.[30] Table of profits (in millions of euros) and number of cars produced. Figures from 2008/9 onwards were not reported as part of Porsche SE.[31]

Of the 234,497 cars produced in the 2015 financial year, 31,373 (13.4%) were 911 models, 21,978 (9.4%) were Boxster and Cayman cars, 79,700 (34%) were Cayennes, 15,055 (6.4%) were Panameras and 86,016 (36,7%) were Macans. There were 375 918 Spyder models also reported.[37]

The current Porsche model range includes sports cars from the Boxster roadster to their most famous product, the 911. The Cayman is a coup otherwise similar to the Boxster. The Cayenne is Porsche's mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV). A high performance luxury saloon/sedan, the Panamera, was launched in 2009.

In 2010 Porsche launched the Cayenne S Hybrid and announced the Panamera S Hybrid, and launched the Porsche 918 hypercar in 2014, which also features a hybrid system. Also a plug-in hybrid model called the Panamera S E-Hybrid was released in October 2013 in the United States[55][56] and during the fourth quarter of 2013 in several European countries.

Porsche developed a prototype electric Porsche Boxster called the Boxster E in 2011[57] and a hybrid version of the 911 called the GT3 R Hybrid, developed with Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 2010.[58]

In July 2014 Porsche announced the launch by the end of 2014 of the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid a plug-in hybrid, which will displace the Cayenne S Hybrid from the line up. The S E-Hybrid will be the first plug-in hybrid in the premium SUV segment and will allow Porsche to become the first automaker with three production plug-in hybrid models.[59]

See Porsche PFM 3200.

Porsche is the most successful brand in motorsport, scoring a total of more than 28,000 victories, including a record 16 outright wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porsche is currently the world's largest race car manufacturer. In 2006, Porsche built 195 race cars for various international motor sports events. In 2007, Porsche is expected to construct no fewer than 275 dedicated race cars (7 RS Spyder LMP2 prototypes, 37 GT2 spec 911 GT3-RSRs, and 231 911 GT3 Cup vehicles).[60]

In keeping with the family name of founder Ferdinand Porsche, the company's name is pronounced [p] in German, which corresponds to PORSH- in English,[61]homophonous with the feminine name Portia. However, in English it is often erroneously pronounced as a single syllable PORSHwithout a final //. In German orthography, word-final e is not silent but is instead an unstressed schwa.

In a survey conducted by the Luxury Institute in New York, Porsche was awarded the title of "the most prestigious automobile brand". Five hundred households with a gross annual income of at least $200,000 and a net worth of at least $720,000 participated.[62]

Porsche won the J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS) in 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2014.[63]

A Canadian study in 2011 revealed that 97.4 percent of Porsches from the last 25 years are still on the road.[64]

In 2014, the Cayman and Boxster made the Consumer Reports list for most reliable vehicles on the road.[65]

Porsche's 911 has been officially named by the Technischer berwachungsverein (Technical Inspection Association) as Germany's most reliable car.[66]

According to CNBC, even an at-the-time questionable foray into the SUV market with the Cayenne in 2003 could not damage Porsche credibility.[67] In 2009, The Times journalist Andrew Frankel says on one level, it is the world's best 4x4; on another, it is the cynical exploitation of a glorious brand that risks long-term damage to that brand's very identity in the pursuit of easy money[68] with his verdict being "Great car, if only it wasn't a Porsche".[68]

In 2015, US News ranked the Macan as the best luxury compact SUV in its class.[69]

See the article here:
Porsche - Wikipedia