Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

A lot of beloved TV shows really need to remain firmly in the past. But there's an exception to that rule: the universally adored British makeover show, Changing Rooms.

BBC's Changing Rooms graced our screens from 1996 until 2003 and though its run was limited, its memory lives on in our minds. After the best part of two decades away, the iconic show is returning to our screens on Channel 4 and will be helmed by the ultra funky designer from the original show Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, alongside presenter Davina McCall.

For those who aren't familiar with this legendary British show, allow me to change your life. A DIY home improvement programme, designers would "transform" and I use that term loosely a member of the public's home. Some of the designs were really and truly out there, and garnered some very dramatic (sometimes painful-to-watch) reactions. And frankly, you couldn't look away from the catastrophic television you were watching.

Take Linda Barker's teapot disaster back in 2000. The designer decided to build a floating shelf unit to house an extensive collection of antique teapots the pride and joy of the owner of the flat. Well, you can probably guess where this is going. After positioning the teapots on the new floating shelves and adding a row of rather heavy books the designer and her team went home. The following morning, they returned to the flat to see an almighty mess all of the teapots were broken into smithereens and strewn across the floor. The shelves had buckled under the weight of the books, destroying the entire collection of teapots. Handy Andy, the show's handiman, walked through the broken mess of teapot pieces and yelled "Jesus Christ" in disappointment. 20 years later, journalist Amelia Tait recently revisited the devastating moment and interviewed Clodagh, the woman whose teapots were destroyed. Time, it would appear, does not always heal.

Keeping the same format as the original show, each episode will see two sets of homeowners in the same neighbourhood renovate each other's homes to whatever design they fancy. Anything goes and I really do mean anything. In the good ol' days, the finished renovations looked pretty, err, out there. We're talking trees suspended upside-down from ceilings, a floor-to-ceiling zebra print room (including zebra print painted ceiling, walls, and a zebra bedspread), and inflatable plastic chairs (which were having a bit of a moment back then).

"Theres no room for beige in our homes and, just as it was in the '90s, Changing Rooms is once more the homestyle antidote to Britains blues (and greys and taupes, and even Magnolia)," said Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen in a statement. "Its taken quite a lot of coaxing to get me under the Changing Rooms banner once more, but nothing like as much coaxing as its going to take for me to squeeze those leather trousers back on."

Naturally people on Twitter (myself included) couldn't contain their enthusiasm for the return of this exceptional show.

Changing Rooms is coming back and I can sincerely say I cannot wait. Will it top the DIRE redecorations of the past? Sad that Linda Barker isnt joining. Maybe she doesnt want to risk shattering thousands of worth of valuables again.

Abby Dorani (@Doranisaur) October 9, 2020

Beyond ecstatic that Changing Rooms is coming back

Ashley JD (@AshleyJD88) October 9, 2020

Only good news this year DAVINA MCCALL TO FRONT CHANGING ROOMS REBOOT ON CHANNEL 4

Olivia Alabaster (@OliviaAlabaster) October 9, 2020

THIS IS THE NEWS WE NEEDED

(also please release all the vintage changing rooms episodes to get us through lockdown 2.0) https://t.co/suRorGLTOP

Chloe Donohue (@Chloe_Dono) October 9, 2020

At present there's no confirmed air date. But for now, we can just revel in the excitement that Changing Rooms is back!

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This Iconic British '90s Home Makeover Show Is Making A Comeback And Twitter Is Wild For It! - Mashable India

The year 2020 has been both destructive and transformative. A roiling pandemic has isolated and divided us. The killings of a seemingly never-ending list of Black Americanskilled out in broad daylight or even sleeping in their own homeshave once more brought a reckoning over racism and racial justice into the forefront of the American consciousness. The toll it's taken has come in devastating ripples, first in human lives, then on our collective livelihoodthe blow it's dealt to commerce and art has been a cruel one-two punch. As night falls earlier and longer, and a contentious election looms, it can all feel sodark.

And yet, we've seen lightresilience and intergenerational collaboration in the name of fighting the good fight. (Or as the late Rep. John Lewis would have said, "Getting into good trouble.") If the moral arc of history bends towards justice, these are the people applying the pressure. We've seen grocers and delivery people and mail carriers become frontline workers; doctors and caregivers and scientists become our guiding stars. We've seen entrepreneurs and artists innovate to survive. (See: the latest offerings of a pared-down but no less creative Fashion Month.) There is still, amid our confusion and anxiety, joy.

Like all of us, musician and artist Solange Knowles has been trying to make sense of these strange and conflicting times. So we invited her to do so here, in her very own Harper's BAZAAR digital cover. She styled herself from a hand-selected roster of all-independent, majority-BIPOC designers; she tapped friend and collaborator Naima Green to help photograph her in isolation; and for her cover story, she shares a series of powerful personal essays and poems that lay bare the private challenges and collective pain, the hard-won triumphs, and, yes, the joy that propels us all ever-forward.

Stillness is goodness.

Ghost catch up. There's nowhere to run, and all the voices you've been hushing, soothing, and cooing yell at you like loud children demanding answers.

The ones you've been saying you'd tend to when the time is right tell you there is no other time.

Then your body follows.

And for a minute there, things can get hard.

And every day you make a choice. To honor, listen, and live.

I once drove across the country watching the landscape change as much as my thoughts.

The moving made me feel more at home than I had been feeling in a long while.

I grew up in tour buses watching flashing images out of tiny windows in my bunk, never still enough to memorize names or street signs. Then came the house in Idaho, Houston, back to Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans. Summers in Dakar, Thanksgivings in Jamaica. Movement has been my Holy Ghost.

For a while there was a Big Bang! I was floating and jumping and coasting and cartwheeling and cruising and gleaming, fingers and toes spread wide, palms facing the light, heart beating in cursive. I was jumping in rivers and dancing on tree trunks. It was the most glorious of all my days.

But again, Ghost catch up. And deep, old memories I had stored in hidden parts of myself for decades wouldnt just stay in my shoulders, or ribs, or chest breaths, or blood test anymore. They came out, and they came out swinging.

Most of the work Ive made has been about knowing where youve been to know where you're going. Knowing who youve been to know who you are becoming. Going homedeep home, past homes, mother's home, father's hometo define home. I had answered these questions for myself and that felt good, but I had omitted truths that I just couldnt stand to make a part of my home. They didnt belong in my kitchen, or closets, or even in a shoebox under my bed.

My stillness started with my body. It refused to be, to go. Id look to moss trees asking for answers as if they could talk back to me.

I heard a voice saying you deserve joy. Applause from my loved ones and heroes wasnt gonna do.

Another voice, a critical one, said you got a lot of nerve chasing joy and freedom when you already have so much, but I went for it anyway.

I honored, listened, and lived.

Some days were a real pain in the ass. Some were the most beautiful days of my life. This was a different kind of joy. I didnt need to skip in the sun to feel it. Joy was the sleep I got after releasing secrets from my bones. Joy was telling the truth. Joy was making a song that I didnt care ever saw the light of day. Joy was taking a trip alone, and just sitting and staring at the water and seeing my reflection and thinking to myself, Damn I'm fine. Joy was having nothing on my calendar, and choosing what to do with my time. Joy was having a friend who didnt care how ugly I cried, always inviting and encouraging me to just be, however that looked that day. Joy was discovery. Joy was having someone show me beautiful worlds of their own and trusting in the journey. Joy was letting go of control. Joy was just sitting. Joy was seeing how far I had come and waving at my shadows. Joy was accepting that the work is never done, but that every day is a choice.

Soon I began to feel things that I never felt before. I began to understand who I was becoming outside of all of the many names I had been given and given myself. I began to love differently. See differently. Seek differently. I began to surrender to the work never being done, but finding joy in that there was room for it all.

I cleared my schedule and took time off from everything else to continue this devotion to the work.

And then we all had to confront stillness. To collectively honor, to listen, to survive.

Some days I am on top of mountains. Some days I am weary. Some days I smile and laugh in ways I didnt know I could. Sometimes I grieve all of the loss, looking for pillars or anchors to hold on to. Some days I see so much promise in my future despite the chaos around me because I woke up a Black woman with this spirit in my heart. If I move, I am not running. If I move, it is by choice. I feel good knowing that I surrendered and found answers in my stillness.

When I see these two Harper's BAZAAR covers, I see the duality of me in these moments. I feel a lot of freedom in not having to chose to exist as one.

This past May, I jotted down a little jingle to sing when the going gets rough:

"Doing the work sure ain't pretty, it's like tearing down and rebuilding whole damn cities"

I never sing it, but knowing it exists is enough.

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.

...

This gathering of broken pieces is the care and pain of the Antilles, and if the pieces are disparate, ill-fitting, they contain more pain than their original sculpture, those icons and sacred vessels taken for granted in their ancestral places.

Derek Walcott

There is a lot of allure in the art of mystery. In the seductive power of the unknown. The whisper instead of the yell.

The shadow instead of the figure. The veil never quite lifting. But I am ready to be seen. My silhouette is not enough.

My body is not just a vessel, it is truth. It is living, breathing, alive and well. What will you do with her?

I've been hanging my clothes on clotheslines, wondering if they will tell me their secrets. If I can air out their demons. If the water from the ends of hemlines can give breath to the grass it arrives on. Making a ritual of hand washing my silks in cold water. I watched a movie about this very thing. How you shouldn't leave your sheets out overnight because spirits might jump into 'em and now u sleeping with a ghost who doesn't even belong to you.

I was raised by a beauty salon.

My mother loved me a million different ways. One of the ways my mother loved me was by surrounding me with many a tribe who could care for me; my mom's deliberate choice to make "the shop" my after school care.

All of the women had their own stories to tell. Women from every background, name, and face in Houston, Texas came to transform within the safety of themselves. Boyfriends and husbands waited in their cars or in the front reception, and women ran the show. They talked shit, cackled, shrieked, cried, or read and contemplated quietlythrilled to escape their lives as mothers, sisters, teachers, and healers. Regulars would greet me with a big hug and ask me how school was, to get them a glass of wine from the back, or ask me to show them the latest dances. I took dance classes weekly, but it was in that shot that performance really began. The theater of the shop and I. It was there that my storytelling became more vivid, elaborate, and exaggerated! It was there that my gestures became language. I watched and studied my favorite womenthe way they walked, dressed, moved their nails when they turned pages. They paid attention to me, celebrated me, and always made me feel safe. My dances soon turned into monologues, and soundtracks soon followed. It was there that performance thrived and became alive. It was there. The shop became my theater. I was raised by a beauty salon.

The hardest lessons to learn are the longest to learn

Are the ones that chew you up

Spit you out

Make you crawl

Eat you alive

Grit your teeth

Wrench your guts

And then make you repeat seven times for good luck and riddance.

Showed up to the Jill and Badu battle, red wine in hand

Friends on Zoom

Thinking 'bout the balm that is waking up in this Black woman body and clicking this Black woman's tongue on the roof of this Black woman's mouth

Wouldn't want it any other way.

Showed up to the Babyface joint

Thinking 'bout my mama's warm love and my mama's past pain, and all the ways I took both on, singing each one of those songs on car radios like they were my own stories to tell.

Showed up to the Brandy and Monica battle

Thinking 'bout what it means to sacrifice and devote so much of your life to your gifts and how much appreciation we pay forward to being on the receiving end.

A letter to an unnamed friend:

I have so much more I want to say, but I'll start with: I want to thank u for energetically holding me accountable. You have said nothing, but I feel it following me like a shadow.

This past few months it's been really important to me to go inward and recognize the ways I haven't always shown up as my best or most graceful self. To not point this finger of mine so much at others, but take those same fingers to grip a mirror up to myself.

Reflecting on the ways I could have shown more grace and compassion. Been more thoughtful.

I am thankful to have a friend like you.

Friends who say something and friends who say nothing, but even the thought of their presence makes me feel everything.

Something about your kindness, patience, and love for me makes me want to be a more kind, loving, and patient woman. Thank you. For the growth. For the stretching. For the remaining of the same. For the parts of me that were dormant that have now been awakened. For the joy. For the rain. For giving me seeds I want to water.

We planted the soil

the root and the pain

We lied in the bass of the earth

Went to the center

the core

like a pulp

Veena like a veinI'll never forget locking hands and fingers and nails and the lines in our palms trying to touch all the feelings like show and tell

feel and say

Everything and nothing at all

So many house sounds

Voices speaking through ice machines and faucets and air conditioners

Couches on curbs waiting for hugs

Saying pick me up, don't nobody want me no more.

i cry for our pain

for our protection

for every forgotten moment we feel robbed of in life

for the abuse we endure

for our sickness and loss of health

for the way the trauma kills us when our oppressors and our own men don't

for our healing journeys

for the way we rise for one another when we can't do the lifting on our own

Today

Today, I affirm, will be a beautiful day

I will look for the good in all things

I will look for the love in all corners of time

I will listen to myself and be okay with the discomfort, but never let fear lead me

I will be a loving and patient mom

I will replace feelings of doubt with feelings of love

I will breathe

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of honoring, uplifting, and preserving Black collections.

Like a collection of every Telfar Bag ever made, stored and left untouched.

In 30 years, what will they say about 2020? About us?

What will me granddaughters feel about them?

What does it mean to be a designer right now?

In a world that's barely making it, where the spirit of survival is all around us.

When the ritual of dressing up can literally shift how we see ourselves in the moment, and express beauty which in return makes us project more beauty into the world.

When we are living on survival, why would we reach for that beauty?

When we live in such an uncertain world, how do we reach for that beauty?

Original post:
Solange Knowles Reflects on the Year that Changed Everything - Solange Knowles Fall Digital Cover - HarpersBAZAAR.com

Steve Marcus

Nicole Bloom, left, division president for Richmond American Homes, and Kara Combs, senior department coordinator, pose in a model home in the Tessitura at Cadence community in Henderson Friday, Oct. 2, 2020.

As a teen, Carina Sowinski never considered a career in construction, let alone overseeing the safety program for a $2 billion project.

It wasnt until after she entered college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater that the idea of working in the construction industry entered her head.

I thought Id end up in insurance, doing risk management, Sowinski said. Working in this industry, its not something I think most girls dream of as they walk past job sites.

About five years into her career, Sowinski is a senior safety engineer for Mortenson Co., one of two lead contractors that built Allegiant Stadium.

Sowinski worked on the stadium project more than two years. Thats after she worked on a new ballpark for the Atlanta Braves and a new arena for the NBAs Milwaukee Bucks.

Sowinski is part of a new generation of women who have entered a construction industry dominated by men.

Nationwide, women make up about 10% of the construction workforce, said Nicole Bloom, an executive with Richmond American Homes and co-chair of the Professional Women in Building of Southern Nevada.

Hopefully, there will be more and more women looking to do it, because its a great industry with a lot of opportunity, said Bloom, who has more than two decades of experience in the industry. It doesnt have to be male dominated.

Each year, Blooms trade group gives scholarships to women for training in the construction field. It handed out $23,000 to 10 recipients this year.

One of the recipients was Kara Combs, who works in Richmond Americans permitting department. If something has to do with permitting, plot plans or invoicing, it probably will find its way to Combs.

Combs, 20, is also working toward an associate degree in business at the College of Southern Nevada.

Combs said she finds her job fast-moving and different all the time. I feel like I learn something new every day.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 1.1 million women were employed in various sectors of the construction industry as of Dec. 31, 2018.

That could be anything from an office job to something in the field that requires a hard hat and safety vest. But most women about 72% were in office or management jobs.

The number has been steadily rising since 2012, when it sat at a little more than 800,000.

Sowinski said she spends about 90% of her day at the job site.

You learn a lot and youre not stuck at an office in a cubicle looking at a screen for 10 hours per day. Youre outdoors a lot, on different sites, talking to people, helping them solve problems. I found it to be a great career path, she said.

Sowinski said shes happy she made an unexpected connection with Mortenson recruiters at a college career fair. If not for that chance meeting, she might not be doing something she loves.

I remember telling them that I didnt know anything about construction, Sowinski said. They said that was fine. Even though it was men recruiting me, they understood that women bring value to the industry. I appreciated that.

Sowinski said one of her favorite moments on the Allegiant Stadium project came when she and about 50 other female workers at the site posed for a group photo in March.

That was during Women in Construction week, a national event put on by the National Association of Women in Construction.

We brought girls from different schools all over Clark County to tour the job site, Sowinski said. These were all young women who had an interest in construction. The Raiders helped put that together, and I found it to be really awesome.

Melissa Jamvold, a designer and project manager for Las Vegas-based Grand Canyon Development Partners, splits her time between the office and the construction site.

Jamvold, who has about two decades of experience in the construction industry, said shes noticed an uptick in the number of women in the field in just the past two or three years.

Twenty years ago, I would have said I didnt think the construction side was a fit for me as a woman with a design background, Jamvold said. But you can really rise through the ranks. Things have changed.

Bloom said there is also a smaller gender pay gap in construction than in some other fields.

Across all industries, women make about 80% of what men make. In construction, its about 95%. I think thats a significant positive driver, she said.

A woman can make a good living in construction, Bloom said. If you look, its also predicted to be one of the strongest industries over the next five years. Theres opportunity.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry is expected to add about 750,000 jobs by 2026, making it one of the highest-growth sectors.

Construction managers, cost estimators and plumbers are expected to be in demand for at least the next several years, according to the bureau.

During the past two decades, the opportunities for women in construction have expanded, said Guy Martin, president of Martin-Harris Construction, general contractor for the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion project.

Our industry has become attractive for women who want a higher-paying, more rewarding and more stable lifestyle for themselves and their families, he said.

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Las Vegas women making inroads into the construction industry - Las Vegas Sun

Professor Peter Jacobs, AAPQ, FCSLA, FASLA, wins the 2020 Governor Generals Medal in Landscape Architecture from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA).Photo courtesy Peter Jacobs

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) has awarded professor Peter Jacobs, AAPQ, FCSLA, FASLA, with its 2020 Governor Generals Medal in Landscape Architecture (GGMLA).

The GGMLA is the highest honour bestowed on a landscape architect by CSLA. The medal is intended to honour exceptional landscape architects whose lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession have had a unique and lasting impact on Canadian society.

Professor Peter Jacobs is a true renaissance man: award-winning practitioner, published author, orator, educator, leader, trailblazer, consultant, and mentor. He is best described as having an insatiable curiosity, a clear vision, and an unfailing desire to contribute to a better world. Far from pursuing a predetermined path, professor Jacobs has, during his 50-year career, successfully navigated uncharted waters to mark our world through the practice of landscape architecture, said the jury, composed of Nastaran Moradinejad, BCSLA, AALA, CSLA, and Carol Craig, AALA, FCSLA, and chaired by Glenn OConnor, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA.

Jacobs is landscape architecture professor, cole darchitecture de paysage, Facult de lamnagement, Universit de Montral. He has served as professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and has lectured widely in North America, Europe, and Latin America. He is the recipient of the A.H. Tammsaare Environment Prize, the Presidents Prize of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, the Frederick Todd Prize of lAssociation des architectes paysagistes du Qubec, and the Governor Generals medal on the occasion of the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. Following his early practice in architecture, he has focused on landscape planning and urban design.

Jacobs has been a member of numerous design juries and acted as a consultant to the City of Montral for the development of urban open space systems, the restoration of Mount-Royal Park; the re-design of Parc Jean Drapeau, the former site of Expo 67; and the design of Place milie Gamlin. He continues to collaborate on planning and design projects, many of which have received professional awards. Click here to learn more.

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Landscape architect Peter Jacobs wins the 2020 Governor General's medal - Construction Canada

Audrey Wilke, Spring 2020 graduate in Landscape Architecture from the University of Maryland, Credit: Zandra Jia

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (PRWEB) October 13, 2020

In time for National Disability Awareness Month, the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) recently named Audrey Wilke of the University of Maryland Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture as an Olmsted Scholar, one of only eight students to receive this top national honor among students in landscape architecture. As a finalist of the Olmsted Scholars Program, Wilke is using her award funds to create a comprehensive guide for disability-inclusive landscape design in the industry. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has set minimum standards for accessibility, Wilke is fighting to change the designer mindset from accessibility to a truly inclusive user experience that considers the perspectives of all those using outdoor spaces. She has seen firsthand as a student with dyslexia how her disability can actually be an advantage as a designer, and how a better understanding of all disability types can help future designers produce more inclusive and welcoming work.

I want to have some part in creating landscapes that are more equitable, especially for people with disabilities, says Wilke. I think it is so forgotten because most designers havent had a firsthand experience with disabilities, so its easy to get lost in ADA code. Unless you have that experience of having to go around the side of a beautiful outdoor space to find a ramp and feeling forgotten, it wont be the first thing you think about. I want to draw that to designers' attention more broadly because I dont think it will change unless someone riles up some change - its not just going to happen on its own.

To help inspire this change, Wilke decided that when applying for the Olmsted Scholars Program, she would share her experiences as a dyslexic student to help shed additional light on the issue of inclusivity.

Even just to write about my experiences, it was very personal to me, says Wilke. To put myself out there so vulnerably and so authentically about the challenges I have faced and to have people acknowledge that is truly amazing. I was so overjoyed to receive this award. Disability is actually the largest minority group, but its often forgotten or not thought of that way.

At the same time, Wilke expressed the many strengths that being dyslexic has given her as a designer.

Landscape architecture is not only something I love for the impact on peoples lives and the time outdoors, but it actually works a lot better with my brain, explains Wilke. Dyslexics often struggle with memorization which is the basis of a lot of traditional education programs, but aside from memorizing plants and trees, LARC [the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Landscape Architecture program] teaches concepts and how to apply them, and thats what Im really good at. Another strength from my dyslexia is that I have an easier time with spatial reasoning and visualizing things in my head, and thats been really helpful for design. I remember doing exercises where they give you a shape and you have to rotate it in your mind and draw it, and I was so fast at it I was helping other people in the class. I would struggle in the lower level math classes, but once we get to more conceptual work, I can do it easier than some of my classmates, so its interesting to see that you have to put effort into the opposite areas.

Wilke laughs, I would have more trouble in third grade than in my last year of my undergraduate program. If you had me go back and do spelling tests again and memorize multiplication tables, Id fail that again without spending three times as long on memorization as most people. And I think that the education system doesnt really have a firm grasp on that either because a lot of people just dont even make it past those elementary and high school years to get into college because its so hard for them in the beginning, and dyslexics excel after that.

Wilke says that one in five people are actually dsylexic but may never be diagnosed or get the learning accommodations they need, but also that there needs to be a better understanding of what and why accommodations are needed for those with disabilities.

I think it comes down to lack of awareness, says Wilke. I think a lot of people dont understand disability or accommodations. Accommodation isnt an advantage Im getting, its bringing me up to an equal playing field.

Wilke says that the Social Theory of Disability really helped her reconceptualize her own dyslexia, as well as the disabilities of others. The theory states that disability is not a fault within a person, but is rather the result of a society not being built for everyone. So theres nothing wrong with the way I think or the way my brain functions, says Wilke, but the problem comes when everything is taught to a different way of learning or a different brain structure. That really flipped everything on its head for me outside of just my own disability story. The problem isnt someone using a wheelchair, the problem is the building that doesn't have stairs or the cobblestone paving that is difficult to navigate.

It is this revelation that motivated Wilke to become an advocate for others with disabilities the way she has had to advocate for herself.

Being dyslexic through my lifetime has really taught me that you have to advocate for yourself because no one else is going to, and that you have to put in the time, says Wilke. I dont have a physical disability, but I have the empathy from my own experiences. Its those moments when someone makes a joke about dyslexia and I think, Okay, well I know this is how people with physical disabilities feel when they are excluded as well. So Im going to apply my skills and my experiences to help.

Wilke says there are guides in landscape architecture for ecology and stormwater, so a guide for disability-inclusive design could make a difference in the industry. With her funds from the Olmsted Scholars award, she is currently interviewing people in the disability community to learn from their experiences so that designers can be better informed.

Unless youre experiencing it yourself, youre going to miss a lot, says Wilke. People talk about ADA compliance, but never about user experience. So I decided I was going to walk only non-stair routes for two months to see what the difference is. Ramp routes are so much longer, you cant easily tell if a sidewalk ends in stairs and youll have to backtrack, they often take you by the trash cans instead of the landscape, and a lot of older ramps have high barriers enclosing them to try to hide them, which makes you feel unsafe at night. And that was only one experience - there are so many more disabilities. For example, difference in texture is really good for people with visual impairments, but bumpy textures can be hard for people with knee scooters. And peoples experiences when they are on the autism spectrum are completely different. When plants are really fragrant, it can be overwhelming. Or if the water feature dominates the space, people cant find a less overwhelming spot to take a break. It goes against some of the design principles that youre taught in school because fragrance gardens or water features relax a lot of people, but for some it is their worst nightmare, so how are we accommodating them?

In addition to working as an apprentice landscape architect after graduating in Spring 2020 and working on her Olmsted guide for disability-inclusive design, Wilke is also still an active member of the Presidents Commission on Disability Issues (PCDI) Student Advisory Committee (SAC).

According to Paul Jaeger, professor in the College of Information Studies and a co-chair of the PCDI, PCDI is the primary advocacy organization for disabled people at UMD. It is an all-volunteer organization with about three dozen members representing most units on campus. We consult with campus leadership on disability issues and policies, and provide reports to campus leadership regarding campus needs related to disability. We also provide materials and events to educate the campus about disability. Together, the board is helping raise awareness for disability issues on campus and beyond to create a more inclusive environment for all.

Going from accessibility to inclusion requires a change in mindset from, Lets make things easier for people with disabilities to Lets make things easier for all people, says Adith Thummalapalli, a founding member of the PCDI SAC and recent graduate in Spring 2020 with a bachelors in mechanical engineering. Inclusion is associated with all people, and measures to achieve inclusion can oftentimes benefit those without disabilities as well. For example, installing a ramp doesnt just help people who use wheelchairs or have mobility impairments. It helps the elderly, people with small children in strollers, people who have suffered broken bones, and more. The events this month for Disability Awareness Month [October] all relate to changing the mindset by way of conversation and sharing many different perspectives.

As these issues gain more traction, Wilke and the others feel that things are truly on a path to change. People are genuinely very interested in the work that Im doing, and thats incredibly touching, says Wilke. Sometimes on the disability board, we are fighting this fight and it can feel like change comes so slowly. But to see people in the landscape architecture community taking notice with this award, and having the support of my professors in LARC for this work has been really touching. Its a genuine honor.

To learn more about the events coming up this month for National Disability Awareness Month, visit https://pcdi.umd.edu.

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Landscape Architecture Student Audrey Wilke Named One of Eight National Olmsted Scholars, With a Goal of Making Landscapes More Inclusive for Those...

A LOVERS DISCOURSEBy Xiaolu Guo

JUST LIKE YOUBy Nick Hornby

Not even the most starry-eyed Europhile would claim that the relationship between Britain and the European Union was ever a love match. But somehow, for over 40 years, they held it together, like a pair of bickering partners who fight bitterly but are still in it for the long haul. Brexit, of course, changed everything.

Two new novels reflect on the meaning of this still-unfolding breakup. They each dramatize a love affair set against the backdrop of Brexit, using the most universal and gratifying human experience to illuminate one of the most arcane and incomprehensible.

Helpfully, the unnamed narrator of Xiaolu Guos novel A Lovers Discourse is an anthropologist. Shes able to cast her ethnographic eye over the mystifying natives and try to make sense of their impenetrable customs in this case, the inhabitants of 21st-century Britain and their disagreements over Europe.

The book reverses the common theme of a perplexed Westerner baffled by the habits and rituals of an Asian country. Transplanted to London, the Chinese-born narrator struggles with the citys transport system, tries to find Brexit in her dictionary and wonders if London Wall is anything like the Great Wall of China. (In fact, its a largely notional vestige of the citys Roman boundary).

Our heroine meets a half-Australian, half-German landscape architect, and a love affair begins. They move passionately and possibly rashly through the early stages of romance to set up home in a very particular corner of London: its floating subculture of itinerant narrow-boat dwellers.

Guo is an unsparing noticer. She paints a vivid but unflattering portrait of her new dwelling in her adopted country: I stared at the canal. This was the English water, cold, gray and full of deadly discharge. Just a few ducks floating by, with their feet trapped in plastic shopping bags.

The truthfulness and accuracy of Guos language gives the book mischief and energy. There are shades of Lydia Davis in her carefully etched sentences as she details the ups and downs of the relationship without sentimentality. Once we got onto the bed, I no longer felt horny, Guo writes. The bed was cold, the duvet heavy. I was distracted by a patch of bird poo, dried on the bedside window. But we made love.

What propels the book forward is in part the sense of suspense that hangs over the nascent relationship: Has our heroine made an enormous mistake getting together with an itchy-footed boat lover? But theres also something compelling about the breadth of the world the narrator inhabits. The book moves briskly from the canals of North London to Scotland, Australia, Germany and China. Along the way, its capacious enough to touch on moments of real darkness, while somehow managing to be mordant, funny and, ultimately, life-affirming.

The English novelist Nick Hornbys best-selling books are rooted in an engaging and funny literary persona. Over the years, his writing has anatomized commitment and relationships with a sharp eye for foibles especially male ones. In his ninth work of fiction, Just Like You, he focuses on a pair of mismatched lovers: Lucy, a 42-year-old English teacher, and Joseph, the 22-year-old assistant in the butchers shop where she buys meat for her two young sons.

Stuck for child care and perhaps taken by Josephs good looks Lucy asks Joseph to babysit for her. This relationship deepens when he fends off her drunken ex-husband and forms a bond with her soccer-mad sons. It soon becomes clear that despite the age gap, theres a sexual spark between the two main characters.

Were in familiar territory for the author: a North London setting, amiable comedy and nebbishy internal monologues about the awkwardness of social interactions. He found himself wondering whether he would ever go to the cinema with Lucy, Hornby writes. It was completely possible, of course, in the sense that very small ambitions can be achieved quite easily, if one can be bothered. He could just ask her, maybe after a couple more babysitting sessions.

However, age is not the only obstacle. Theres another difference tiptoed around in the novels promotional copy in a way that suggests nervousness, at least on the part of the publisher: Josephs of a different class, a different culture and a different generation. Different culture here means that Joseph is Black and Lucy is white.

How do two people from such different backgrounds manage to transcend their differences? Without too much difficulty, it turns out. As we slip between their viewpoints, Lucy worries about meeting Josephs mother and Joseph frets about introducing Lucy to his friends, but the actual relationship progresses with enviable ease. Josephs smart, wise beyond his years, a natural with the kids. The sexual side of things gets underway smoothly: He learned quickly and within a few days or nights or dates or whatever they had entered a Golden Age. No bird poo or asynchronous libidos here. Even their inevitable setbacks are handled with dignity.

In fact, theres no great sense of jeopardy at all, beyond the readers vague anxiety over whether Britains most genial living novelist is going to get canceled by an indignant Twitter mob for straying out of his lane.

The charm of Hornbys previous books has been the way they balance middlebrow uplift with enough emotional truth to make the fantasy feel grounded. Here, theres something underimagined about the two main characters. Tackling the intractable subjects of race and Brexit, the author seems constrained to make Lucy and Joseph exemplary and consequently rather bland.

Though theres a lot of dialogue internal and external were not permitted to see much. It feels as if the leads have yet to be cast and the fictional world awaits the vision of a director. The characters thoughts linger on innocuous subjects and hurry past potentially awkward ones. The sex is obliquely described and the question of whether Lucy is fetishizing her handsome young Black partner is raised for an instant, then dashed. Shes able to recognize the tendency in her friend: Would Emma be licking her lips if he were a handsome young white butchers assistant? she wonders. But the thought an intriguing one is swiftly dispelled, too uncomfortable for the books PG-certificate world.

The novel saves its ridicule for cartoonish minor characters and predictable targets: pretentious art, middle-aged white novelists, elderly theatergoers, racist police officers, libidinous middle-aged women. While its never a disagreeable book, its hampered by a flatness that comes from our feeling that the author has deliberately wired things so the conflict will never rise above a certain voltage. And in the fraught times in which the novel has arrived, its bonhomie comes off as strained and false.

Both A Lovers Discourse and Just Like You suggest that in a time of struggle between seemingly irreconcilable opposites, who hold each others differences to be moral failings, it might be instructive to consider how humans overcome obstacles in other types of relationships.

Guo gives her characters scope to live and suffer, so her books final affirmation has a hard-won quality that carries weight. But, in the end, the child-proofed world of Just Like You cant tell us much about difficult negotiations. Conflict-averse, it seems to endorse Josephs approach to the Brexit referendum: Check all the boxes so no one has a reason to dislike you.

Link:
The Brexit Romance: Finding Love in Irreconcilable Times - The New York Times

Open to all creative professionals, students and those involved in the built environment the competition seeks bold visions for how urban public spaces could better serve people following the challenges and upheaval of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The call for concepts will identify a range of solutions for how pressures resulting from Covid-19 and other major challenges such as climate change could create a positive and long-lasting legacy in which streets, squares and other public spaces are radically improved for everyone.

According to the brief: COVID-19 has had a devastating and unprecedented effect on our lives, economies, the places where we live and our lifestyles. These effects are likely to be long lasting and profound. Yet in the midst of these dark times there have been some glimmers of hope city dwellers have heard birdsong for the first time; urban air is visibly cleaner; Venices water more clear and car use has reduced.

Many of the changes that are needed to help combat climate change were implemented rapidly to minimise the spread of the disease. This presents us with a unique opportunity to use the effects of the pandemic to create a positive and long-lasting legacy to the benefit of our communities, the places where we live, work and play and the environment.

The coronavirus pandemic started in January 2020 and has so far resulted in at least 37.5 million infections and 1.07 million deaths. The spread of the disease often via droplets in the air between people in close proximity has resulted in profound shifts in the organisation of societies around the world.

Temporary and potentially lasting requirements for social distancing have forced a rethink of many public spaces, centres of consumption, workspace, and homes severely impacting economies and increasing structural inequalities.

The latest contest divided into separate categories for students and professionals invites participants to select a place and explore how it could be adapted to respond to these new challenges.

Proposals should consider the benefits of a greener recovery, address the climate and biodiversity emergency, and help citizens to lead healthy and safe lives. Submissions must include two A3 sized digital display boards featuring illustrative images and a 250-word description.

Judges will include Ally Lu, lecturer at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield; Cathy Parker, co-chair of the Institute of Place Management; and Krystallia Kamvasinou, senior lecturer at University of Westminsters School of Architecture and Cities.

The overall winner of the professional category will receive a 2,000 prize and a student prize of 500 will also be awarded. All entries will feature in an online exhibition.

The deadline for applications is 5pm, 4 December.

How to apply

Visit the competition website for more information

Contact details

Landscape Institute85 Tottenham Court RoadLondon W1T 4TQ

Tel: 0330 808 2230

View original post here:
Transforming the urban landscape - Architect's Journal

Open International Architectural Competition: Territory of the Right Bank Embankment of the River Moskva From Moscow Ring Road to Stroginskoe Shosse

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The Open International Architectural Competition to develop the territory of the right bank embankment of the River Moskva from Moscow Ring Road to Stroginskoe Shosse (Highway) has started on October, 2.

The competitive territory with a total area of 105.5 hectares has a linear configuration: it is almost 5 km long with an average width of about 0.5 km.

The competition has been initiated by Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of Moscow (Moskomarkhitektura) and is organized by the State Research and Design Institute for Urban Development of the City of Moscow (GRADPLAN Moscow) as a singe municipal operator to implement the urban development concept to develop territories adjacent to the Moskva River and the Khimki Reservoir.

The main goal of the competition is to prepare architectural, planning, volumetric and landscape solutions for the embankment improvement that meet modern trends in the formation of a comfortable urban environment, taking into account the characteristics of the territory that is part of the protected areas.

The starting point for global changes was the International Competition for Urban Development of the Territories Adjacent to the Moskva River, announced in 2014. Based on its results, the further vector of development of the embankments and the need for a detailed study of each section were determined. Thanks to this approach, it is planned to transform tens of kilometers of river embankments in Moscow. They will become the centers of public life, where there will be significant territories for the city.

The organizers are waiting for proposals coming from participants on architectural and planning, spatial and landscape solutions for the improvement of the embankment to integrate into the environment, taking into account the requirements for a specially protected natural area. That is why landscape architects, professionals in the field of strategic development of territories and urban planning, architecture, design, creation and development of public spaces are invited to participate. Preference will be given to teams with proven experience working with natural areas.

The jury is headed by Sergei Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow. The jury consists of landscape architects, environmentalists, representatives of public authorities, experts in the field of architecture, economics, marketing, real estate and urban planning.

The Open International Competition will be held in two stages. The first one ends on October 21, when the jury will announce three finalists depending on the results of submitted applications. The winners will be determined based on their portfolios of completed projects that demonstrate relevant experience, as well as essays describing the main ideas to form the future concept base. The teams will start developing their concepts, and a winner will be determined at the final jury meeting on December 2. The total prize fund of the competition is 14,000,000 rubles. The Agency for Strategic Development CENTER is responsible for the competition procedure.

Open International Architectural Competition: Territory of the Right Bank Embankment of the River Moskva From Moscow Ring Road to Stroginskoe Shosse

Competition Announcement (Built Projects & Masterplans)

October 15, 2020 11:59 PM

October 15, 2020 11:59 PM

Moscow

Free

This competition was submitted by an ArchDaily user. If you'd like to submit a competition, call for submissions or other architectural 'opportunity' please use our "Submit a Competition" form. The views expressed in announcements submitted by ArchDaily users do not necessarily reflect the views of ArchDaily.

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Open International Architectural Competition: Territory of the Right Bank Embankment of the River Moskva From Moscow Ring Road to Stroginskoe Shosse -...

Girls and their dog in a field of daisies at Sunset Cliffs Park- OB Exposed submission, Ocean Beach Historical Society

By Kathy Blavatt

What do you think of when you think of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park: Daisies, Native Plants, and Eucalyptus Trees?

As I was writing San Diegos Sunset Cliffs: A History, over the last couple of years, I was surprised that the number one thing people were most passionate about was the parks plants.

Just telling people I was writing a book about Sunset Cliffs Parks history seemed to be a trigger to many people when it came to the parks plants. The impassioned comments I received included: Why are they taking out the daisies? Why did they cut down the eucalyptus trees? and The park should be native plants!

Native plants blooming in the spring at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park.

Sunset Cliffs Park and the surrounding community have a unique and extraordinary history of horticulture, landscape, the development of food crops, and the propagation of plants that grow in coastal zones. I hope people read the book to learn the history of the plants and habitat, which is fascinating.

The Point Loma peninsulas early human inhabitants included the native Kumeyaay. They migrated annually to the coast from inland. They brought many native plants to the Point Loma Peninsula to be used as food and for utilitarian uses.

At the turn of the 1900s, many changes came to the Point Loma Peninsula. Katheryn Tingley and the Theosophists formed Lomaland. Their properties included the (the now) Point Loma Nazarene University campus, properties to the east and north, other plots scattered throughout Point Loma, and the hillside section of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park south of Ladera Street.

The Early 1900s properties owned by Spalding and the Theosophists were planted by some of the United States of Americas most renowned names in landscaping. In 1901, Kate Sessions started the planting on the westerly slopes of the Theosophists properties. Others followed her.

Map of Lomaland documents trees planted, dated 1906- 1909.

Ninety-nine years later, the western hillside became part of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park.

Excerpt from San Diegos Sunset Cliffs Book: A History Another visitor attraction on the peninsula and Sunset cliffs was the beautiful vegetation. Over the years, several people worked on planting countless plants on the peninsula, which drew visitors worldwide. Among those involved were Katherine Tingley; landscape architect Kate Sessions; horticulturist Alfred D. Robinson; M.G. Gowell, formerly with the U.S. Geological Survey, who, in 1905, was placed in charge of Point Loma Forestry; and Fred G. Plummer of the U.S. Geological Survey and chief of geography in the U.S. Forestry Service.

Sessions designed the first stage of tree landscapes. Due to harsh conditions and little water, only part of the trees survived.

Under Plummer and Gowells team, the forestation went forward rapidly. Sunset Cliffs vegetation took hold when an ample windbreak of eucalyptus trees was planted along the bluff overlooking the ocean.

Eucalyptus trees used as early wind blocks to protect foliage seen in early postcard.

Other varieties of trees were planted that included the Point Lomas iconic pines, cypress, palms, pepper, acacias and other trees. By 1910, twenty-two thousand planted trees were thriving on the theological estate, and an unbroken forest of forty acres stretched up the slope from the oceanfront to the area of the Homestead buildings.

Also planted were colorful flowers and a variety of plants, ranging from ornamentals to blooming ice plants. Tingleys orchards of fruit trees, pines and olive groves covered much of the top of the hill and toward the east side.

Lomalands upland trees and greenery dotting the nearby hillsides could be seen from Sunset Cliffs Park. Torrey pines, Northfolk Island pines, and star pines shaded Lomalands Homestead and campus.

As the theosophists were creating a forested community, plans for the cliffs were being put into place by visionary Albert Spalding, who built the first in a series of Sunset Cliffs Parks in 1915. Spalding built his park toward the north bordering Ocean Beach, along the ocean side of Defoe Street (later changed to Sunset Cliffs Boulevard).

Albert Spaldings 1915 rustic Japanese style Sunset Cliffs Park was landscaped with pickleweed as seen in this early postcard. Notice they called the Sunset Cliffs Park area Ocean Beach.

Many people referred to the park as Spaldings Park, but he named it Sunset Cliffs Park. It was built in a Japanese style with rustic arched wood bridges, protected picnic areas, and benches. Sunset Cliffs Park was planted with low-water plants that grow well in harsh environments. These included a flowering ice plant called pickleweed and the purple flowering Status.

These were also used on the Lomaland sites.

Around 1969, my parents planted their front yard on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. A neighbor offered them mounds of with yellow and purple flowering pickleweed, that they were taking out. That low-water pickleweed saved my parents a fortune in water bills and has held up well over the decades. I feel very fortunate to have grown up at Sunset Cliffs.

As I was writing my latest book, I had a chance to immerse myself in the history of Sunset Cliffs Park, take photos and sort through historic postcards, maps, photos, and other materials. This project has brought a flood of beautiful childhood memories, such as playing in the daisies, building tree-forts in the Monterey Cypress Trees, and looking for butterflies among the spring blossoms. It has been fabulous to relive those childhood memories and expound upon the history of the cliffs. I hope readers enjoy the book as much as I loved writing it.

For San Diego Sunset Cliffs Park: A History information and book orders for go to: http://www.blavatt.wordpress.com

Photos from San Diegos Sunset Cliffs: A History

Related

Original post:
Love or Hate: The Daisies, Eucalyptus, and Native Plants of Sunset Cliffs It's All History! - OB Rag

By Eric Althoff

DOYLESTOWN, Pa.Architecture firm SLAM Collaborative and healthcare operator Doylestown Health have announced the completion of a 100,000-square-foot, three-story addition to Doylestown Hospital. The $54 million project, the Cardiovascular and Critical Care Pavilion, is being touted by the companies as a facility that will focus on patient-centered care in a setting that is modern and with technological capabilities that are up to the moment.

The exterior for the new area matches the red brick facade of the existing structures, but inside, the design emphasis is on a natural, open environment. Furthermore, the cafeteria that greets visitors offers only healthy dining options, keeping in line with the heart health mission the facility is promoting. (The cafe staff will also be offering cooking classes.) Beyond the cafeteria, visitors will be greeted by a family waiting area featuring a fireplace and furnishings to make it appear more like a home than a hospital setting.

The pavilions second floor hosts the Center for Heart and Vascular Care, which features 28 beds that can each be segregated for maximum privacy. Each bed is also designed to toggle between servicing patients in either interventional vascular or cardiovascular care. The center features patient pods to expedite the response time of clinicians for patient needs.

Completing the Center for Heart and Vascular Care was the first phase of the three-part project. Of primacy in the new construction was the desire for noise reduction, which can be a major detriment to both patients and staff. Dawn Thornton, SLAM architect and lead designer on the project, said that noise levels can actually elevate heart rate and increase patient stress levels.

Well-being is not only the absence of a disease or injury, it is also psychological, Thornton said in a recent statement, adding that a well-planned design can alleviate those very issues. As designers, we need to understand that, while the hospital is a healing environment, it is also a functioning one, she said.

SLAMs three-area layout entails a Clinical Zone, Patient Zone and Family Zone, the last of which is placed farther away from the entranceway to the clinic, and thus gives patients families a peaceful space next to large windows offering views of the natural splendor of eastern Pennsylvania. Also, the Family Zone offers a pull-out sofa for those who might need to stay overnight.

Earlier work that was part of the overall expansion included an endovascular hybrid surgical suite and a brand-new hybrid operating room. An expansion of the cardiac procedural suite on the second floor for 20 pre- and post-op bays is also nearly finished.

Moving forward, future phases of expansion at the Doylestown Hospital include an outpatient cardiac services suite on the first floor, as well as a 32-bed universal room intensive care/intermediate unit on the third floor.

The design firm SLAM has offices around the country and offers consulting on such design elements as landscape architecture, site planning, structural engineering and pre-construction. The company has also worked on other healthcare projects such as a redesign of the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Massachusetts and the Lighthouse Surgery Center at St. Francis Hospital Medical Center in Connecticut.

The contractor on the project was the Norwood Company, based in Malvern, Pa.

The rest is here:
Pennsylvania Hospital Adds $54M Addition - HCO News - Healthcare Construction and Operations News