Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

TALENT, Ore. Late morning on Sept. 8, forest scientist Dominick DellaSala sat at the desk in his home office to do a final edit on a newspaper opinion piece. The topic: The need to better prepare for catastrophic wildfires or "black swan events" that can rampage through neighborhoods.

His computer screen went dark. The power had gone out.

He went outside to investigate the outage. Looking south, he spotted a dense cloud of smoke.

"This was totally black. It was huge. And it was heading in our direction," DellaSala recalls.

DellaSala spent the next few hours up on his roof, cleaning out gutters and hosing down the asphalt shingles before evacuating. His home was spared as the fire veered away from his street, but more than 2,800 structures and three people were killed in one of the most destructive wildfires in Northwest history.

This one had nothing to do the management of thickly forested Northwest mountain slopes. It started in a patch of grass by a dog park in the north end of Ashland on a hot day with fierce, dry winds. The fire raced through a county greenway park, chewed through roadside brush and jumped into the heart of two communities Talent and Phoenix, with a combined population of more than 10,000. Then houses, trailers and commercial buildings became the fuel that fed its relentless advance.

In the immediate aftermath of the historic early September fires, people here and in other ravaged Pacific Northwest towns such as Malden, in Eastern Washington, are primarily focused on the need to find short-term shelter for those suddenly without homes. But already, amid a warming climate when wildfire is forecast to be a greater force, an urgent question arises: How to rebuild in a way that is more resistant to the flames.

"Thinning trees in the backcountry, that won't make the difference. We need to spend the money to fire-harden our communities," says DellaSala, who is chief scientist for Wild Heritage, a forest conservation project of the Earth Island Institute, an environmental nonprofit.

In Talent and Phoenix, the post-fire challenges include building a new generation of affordable and safer housing for those who lived in trailer parks decimated by the fire.

Many of these residents are lower-wage workers who pick fruit in nearby orchards, tend to vineyards and labor in service and other industries. Long before the fire, they struggled to find shelter in a southwest Oregon region that faced a severe housing crisis as prosperous retirees and other newer arrivals pushed up real estate prices.

Manufactured and mobile homes are often aging and sometimes rundown but have offered affordable alternatives to renting or owning a place in nearby Ashland, site of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a big tourist destination.

With entire mobile home parks leveled by fire, developers could try to move in and build upscale residences on that land. But there is plenty of support for helping lower-income residents find a way to return.

In Talent, city officials say they are considering a new ordinance to ensure that the mobile home and trailer parks are not replaced by high-priced housing. "Those are the most vulnerable communities, and we need to make sure that development doesn't displace them," said Zac Moody, Talent's community development director.

In a region of Oregon with plenty of out-of-the-box thinkers, some are working to develop a broader vision for rebuilding communities. A Southwest Oregon coalition group, My Valley, My Home, proposes to work with government agencies, foundations, builders and others to design more sustainable housing. The group also wants to find a way for more people to take an ownership stake in their homes and also provide more dwellings for the southwest Oregon's homeless.

"Just like COVID, this is shining a bright spotlight on existing inequities. So, this is a moment where we could potentially do something different," said Charlie Bauer, a Southern Oregon Education Service District employee who works with migrant children and has participated in some of the group's meetings.

Most of Talent and Phoenix did not burn. But the fire struck hard in downtown corridors of both towns. Those returning to see what's left of their homes found painfully few remains in neighborhoods that looked like they were bombed into oblivion.

Renee Durgin said she spent 32 years scrubbing floors in a nursing home to pay for her 1979 two-bedroom trailer that she found on her first return Sept. 18 to be reduced to ashes and twisted metal roofing.

"I lost everything," Durgin said as she searched for a pair of treasured earrings among the wreckage.

Julio Flores, a mobile automotive mechanic, said even his tools and stockpile of vehicle parts were wrecked by the fire, along with the cash savings he kept in his fire-destroyed trailer home in Phoenix.

"I have no insurance. And there is nothing left," said Flores, who has been able to resume some work with the aid of donated tools.

In such firestorms, many buildings are doomed by embers, which may be lofted for hundreds of yards then fall like snowflakes. These burning bits of debris find ways to penetrate interiors, which are typically filled with furniture, rugs, paneling and other volatile materials.

"Embers will exploit any vulnerability in a home and once they get inside and ignite, it is very unlikely to survive," said Kelly Pohl, a researcher at Headwater Economics, who co-authored a 2018 paper on fire-resistant homes.

California fire codes put into place in 2008 are designed to protect buildings from such assault. And a McClatchy News analysis of homes lost to the 2018 fire in Paradise, California, indicates such codes can make a big difference.

The analysis found that 51% of the 350 single-family homes built after 2008 in the path of the Camp fire were undamaged, according to Cal Fire data and Butte County property records. Only 18% of the 12,100 built before 2008 survived.

Other communities in the Northwest also are developing tougher codes to construct more fire-resistant homes.

In Southwest Oregon, Medford has adapted new standards, Ashland this fall is expected to update construction standards, and a push to enact similar measures is expected in Talent, Phoenix and other communities.

In Washington, east-of-the-Cascades Kittitas County has fire-resistant codes in place for new construction. Legislation passed in 2018 has set the stage for changes in building standards in other parts of the state. The law called on the Department of Natural Resources to map areas where homes and other development are built near or within lands at greater risk of wildfire. In those zones, which cover more than a third of the state's residences, local governments must now adapt building standards that require more fire-resistant roofs, siding and decks, and driveways able to accommodate emergency vehicles.

"We just completed the map this past month and have published it," said Ashley Blazina, who serves as community wildfire preparedness coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources.

The Almeda fire offers stark evidence of how flames can completely consume entire blocks of urban homes. But a walk through the Talent burn zone also offers clues on what can be done to protect buildings from fire.

A recently erected church, for example, emerged largely unscathed. Built on a concrete slab, it had a metal roof to fend off the embers, fiber-cement siding that can resist flames, and metal doors. There were double-paned, tempered windows less likely to shatter in the heat, and narrow recessed vents outfitted with fine mesh screens to keep out ash.

The church's architect, Ray Kistler, said it was one of three buildings designed in similar fashion that ended up in the path of the fire and did not burn. Kistler said they were built more with the goal of long-term durability than fire survival. Yet he was pleased with how they fared. One mistake, he said, was using bark chips in the landscaping, which smoldered the day after the fire as he drove by the church for an inspection.

"Flames were starting to lick up the walls, and I just happened to be there," Kistler said. "So, I drug my boots along the ground and put the fire out."

Trees also told a fire story.

When planted close to houses, they are typically viewed as a fire hazard. And some volatile pines and other trees did indeed get torched in the Almeda blaze. But some that were green and leafy survived. A few appeared to take the brunt of fiery embers, and thus helped shield nearby structures.

A child's treehouse, nestled inside a lush maple, was intact even as the homes around it were leveled. And an old wood-sided house shielded from oncoming flames by a scraggly border of deciduous trees made it through the fire.

"This house had every opportunity to burn, and it did not burn. I saw the fire go up these trees, and just disappear," said Scott Balcom, a builder who stayed in the burn zone for much of Sept. 8 in a losing effort to save his own home a short distance to the south.

The Almeda fire was caused by humans, but who started it and whether they did so intentionally or inadvertently remains under investigation, according to Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara. The destruction was boosted by a second fire started later that day in Phoenix, and a suspect in that fire, 41-year-old Michael Jarrod Bakkela, has been charged with two counts of arson, 15 counts of criminal mischief and 14 counts of reckless endangerment.

The main fire's route passed through portions of a 20-mile-long greenway and bike path that follows the tree-lined course of Bear Creek.

This year, the fire risk in the greenway had both county fire and law enforcement officials on edge. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with space in short supply at homeless shelters, some 150 people were asked to remain sheltering in place in the greenway, where handwashing stations and bathrooms were set up. Earlier this year, dozens of small fires had to be put out. Officials feared a bigger blaze, and four fire breaks were scraped down to bare earth this summer in hopes of helping to stop the advance of flames.

"The greenway has just been a nightmare," Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler said.

But it does not appear likely that the initial Almeda blaze, which started sometime before 11 a.m., originated from a campfire.

The ignition point was well outside the greenway, in an open area by the dog park that was not a typical camping spot for people experiencing homelessness. And Kernan Turner, a retired Associated Press reporter who lives nearby, said he saw no slow burn from a campfire. The fire came up suddenly, with big flames that torched a border of blackberry bushes by his house, then swept across a grass field to reach the greenway fuel.

"It just roared. The flames were 20 feet high," Turner said.

The fire, fed by more berry brambles in the greenway, rapidly moved north, overtaking a person who has yet to be identified and is likely to have been homeless. "They had nowhere to go," said Chris Chambers, chief of Ashland Fire and Rescue Wildfire Division.

As fire reached Talent, Balcom, the builder who lost his home, could hear a series of explosions as propane tanks next to many homes emptied and the fuel ignited. He could also make out the short, staccato sounds of ammunition stored in people's homes as it went off.

The winds brought embers to a single-story home across the street, and upwind, from Balcom's house.

Fire engine crews arrived to try to save the building. Then they shuttled off to deal with other emergencies on that frantic afternoon. Another structure an apartment complex caught fire. Balcom tried to use his own hose to save that building, but the stream from his would not reach a corner of the roof that began to burn.

"My heart sank when I saw that. The wind was blowing really hard my way, and I figured the chance of my house being saved was really remote," he said.

In the aftermath of the fire, DellaSala feels fortunate to live in a neighborhood untouched by the flames.

With his electrical power restored, he is now back at his desk and writing more emails.

Politicians in Congress and state legislatures are once again calling for more efforts to thin and conduct controlled burns for "fuel reduction" in forests.

This fire season has demonstrated, yet again, that many fires in the West burn largely in shrub and grasslands, which can easily and rapidly carry flames into housing developments. And, DellaSala is urging post-fire legislation be narrowly targeted. He wants more public funds spent and tax credits offered to build communities better able to survive such fire.

When he takes a break for walks, DellaSala heads four blocks east to the fire zone. He wrestles with his emotions a mix of grief and anger as he gazes again upon the bleak tableau of loss in the heart of his town.

"We've been warning about this for years," he said. "It's in my face every day."

(c)2020 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at http://www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

PHOTOS (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): WILDFIRES-URBAN

Go here to read the rest:
Urban wildfire: When homes are the fuel for a runaway blaze, how do you rebuild a safer community? - The Bakersfield Californian

By Pepper Trail

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.

In early September, the Almeda Fire ignited at the edge of my hometown of Ashland, Ore., and roared through the nearby towns of Talent and Phoenix, pushed by hot south winds.

More than 2,800 houses, mobile homes and apartment units were destroyed, representing much of the low-income housing in our increasingly expensive valley. Three people were killed. The story was repeated throughout Oregon this fire season, and at its peak, almost a million acres burned across the state. Some 500,000 people were forced to flee or were under evacuation warnings.

These fires became so widespread because strong, dry winds sent flames racing to devour fuel wherever it could be found. And fuel could be found everywhere this year: in mountain forests parched from a winter of drought and a summer of record-breaking heat, in eastern Oregons sagebrush country, and in mobile home parks and residential neighborhoods. Under these conditions, any fire seemed ready to explode into a major disaster.

As a member of the southern Oregon community, I felt stunned and heartbroken by the devastation these fires left behind. But, as a conservation biologist, I was not surprised. For many years, scientific modeling predicted a future of reduced snowpack, hotter summers and drastically increased fire danger in Oregon. The present we are now enduring is the climate-change future that we have been warned about for decades.

Tragically, a different kind of conflagration also smoldered in Oregon, one fanned by hatred and division.

Two weeks before the fires, my valley experienced an ugly racial confrontation. Like most of Oregon, the Rogue Valley is overwhelmingly white. Still, we have Black Lives Matter support groups, and one of them, the Southern Oregon Coalition for Racial Equity, planned a community forum in the tiny town of Rogue River. The purpose of the event was to invite local residents of color to share their experiences and educate the community on systemic racism. It was to be followed by a family-friendly barbecue, to which everyone was invited.

Unfortunately, in the toxic atmosphere of social and racial division that is daily fanned by President Donald Trump and right-wing media, this community event was seen as a threat by local patriot groups, which descended on the town heavily armed. For hours, these angry people screamed curses and threats at the small group of coalition supporters, while some tried to provoke physical confrontations. Coalition supporters, fortunately, had the discipline to remain calm while resisting.

Then, in the aftermath of the Rogue Valley fires, this social pathology flared again. Rumors began to fly on social media that the fires were deliberately set by antifa, which is not an organized group, feeding more fear and paranoia. These rumors tied up 911 lines and interfered with critical fire-response activities.

After forceful denials by local law enforcement, the antifa rumors died down, and the Rogue Valley seemed to unite in response to the tragic fires. A spontaneous brigade of bicycle riders ferried supplies to victims in the burn zone. Dozens of local organizations mobilized to offer shelter, food, water, clothing and emergency funds to displaced families.

But conspiracy theory-fueled paranoia is not so easily overcome. Its next target was a tent city that sprang up in a park in Medford, the valleys largest town. Residents of the tent city included low-income people burned out of their homes and homeless people who formerly camped along Bear Creek, another area consumed by the fire.

In short order, a Medford City Council meeting was packed with outraged citizens, with some spouting ugly theories that many of the tent-dwellers had been bused in from other towns with help from antifa, according to the Medford Mail-Tribune. Some of the protesters threatened vigilante action to take care of the problem. A week after the city council meeting, Medford police dismantled the encampment and evicted the residents.

Who benefits from this trumped-up rage? Only those whose grip on power is served by fomenting fear and chaos. The future will challenge us all. Those who work to divide us are simply fanning the flames.

Our valley has plenty of divisions, but also incredible strength and generosity. Community spirit is shining through as we begin the hard work of recovery. The only way to survive wildfire, to survive COVID, to survive climate change, and to survive vigilante hatred, is to work together for the common good. Let us hope that this terrible year teaches us that lesson at last.

Pepper Trail is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.com, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West.

The rest is here:
In Oregon, it's been a year of fanned flames both literal and figurative - Las Vegas Sun

Sorry, bikers and walkers, we dont know how long youll have to go around.

Denver Parks and Rec have known their timber retainers keeping dirt from collapsing onto the South Platte River Trail by Vanderbilt Park have been a problem. Deputy Executive Director Scott Gilmore said the department closed the bike and pedestrian trail south of the Santa Fe Drive overpass about a week ago to bore some holes and check on the soil stability there.

Clearly that is not very stable, because during the boring the soil shifted and pushed the wall out further, he told us.

Their attempt to see if the trail was safe made things worse, possibly doing what time and weather would do eventually. Right now, the wooden retaining wall curves over the trail like a Thanksgiving belly over a belt. It doesnt look like extreme danger, but the infrastructure is now in enough disrepair that Gilmore said he doesnt know when the trail will reopen.

Weve always known this was going to be an extensive section of the trail to improve, Gilmore said.

He said it could cost as much as $9 million to make a permanent fix, if not more. And doing work in that section of trail is tricky because CDOT has domain over Santa Fe Drive, which speeds by just past the bowing timbers.

Gilmore said the city will begin exploring temporary fixes, but Parks and Rec would really like to do something for the long haul. And its not just about a busted wall. The trail there is just 8 feet wide, and Gilmore said 12 feet is really the standard.

Parks, like every other city department, is wrestling with a recession-era budget. Gilmore said the city has about $3 million allocated to do something, but it could be challenging to shore up more cash to get it done.

For now, bikers and walkers will have to cruise Jason Street, on the west side of Vanderbilt Park, and reconnect with the trail where it meets Huron Street. There is no timetable for when theyll get to return to the rivers edge.

Read the original here:
There's an indefinite detour on the South Platte Trail by Vanderbilt Park - Denverite

The Journal

Colorado Department of Transportation and contractor Oldcastle SW Group Inc. have completed the project to repair and make safety improvements on Colorado Highway 145 and U.S. Highway 550 in Dolores, Montezuma and Ouray counties.

The project, completed ahead of schedule and under budget, has preserved the structural integrity of the highways with the repairs and reconstruction of retaining systems at the roadways shoulder edges. The work zones and work items included:

Colorado Highway 145, mile point 24.5, about 12 miles north of Dolores in Montezuma County. Work involved a deep patch repair of the roadway and installation of a new rock buttress that provides slope stability underneath the roadway.Guardrail replacement on Colorado Highway 145 about 3 miles north of Rico in Dolores County. Work involved removing the existing retaining wall material below the edge of the roadway, installing micropiling and concrete pile caps with new backfill material to secure the slope, and followup highway surface repair.Guardrail replacement on U.S. Highway 550, MP 90, 2 miles south of Ouray in Ouray County. Work involved retaining wall removal and replacement of two failing roadway sections with a crib wall system; follow-up highway surface repair and installation of new inlet and drainage culvert.For more information, visit http://www.codot.gov/projects/co145-us550-patchwallrepair.

Continued here:
Safety and drainage improvements on Colorado 145 completed early - The Journal

Land hurdles end, project resumesThe underpass project at the busy Kundalahalli junction, which is under construction currently, is expected to be ready by February next year. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has come up with a four-month action plan to complete the work which was halted due to land acquisition hurdles, including the acquisition of around 24 properties at a cost of Rs 42.51 crore.

BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad on Thursday inspected the work along with zonal engineers. He promised to take custody of around 33,654 square feet of land, required for building service roads on both sides of the underpass, in a weeks time. The junction will have a 10-metre wide service road. The work was taken up in February last year but the project suffered delays due to confusion over acquiring properties two or three times the guidance value.

The civic body conducted rate negotiation meeting with the land owners on January 3, 2020. The owners apparently did not agree to the offer of compensation of 1.63 times of the guidance value. A second meeting with owners was held on February 24. Both the parties agreed for two times the guidance value. This translates to Rs 42.51 crore for acquiring 33,654 square feet of land.

The service roads will be widened after the land acquisition is completed. The work requires about a weeks time

N Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner

Between October 15 and February 15, the main carriageway of Old Airport Road at the junction will be closed. Motorists, however, will have wide service road for commuting towards Marathalli or Whitefield. While the busy junction will soon go signal-free, Old Airport Road is unlikely to be eased any time soon as there are several intersections that clog the busy road.

Originally posted here:
Kundalahalli underpass is expected to be ready by February - Bangalore Mirror

The Pontoon Beach Police Chief Chris Modrusic and his officers, with some Illinois State Police assistance, apprehended and rescued three individuals after a stolen car chase at the Chain of Rocks Bridge area on Tuesday.

The driver of the vehicle earlier crashed into another vehicle at Gateway and Illinois Route 111 and left the scene of the accident with their hood up. The car fled the scene and Pontoon Beach was contacted to stage and await the vehicle. Once the vehicle was close to the Chain of Rocks Bridge, it caught fire in front and eventually stopped on the bridge. The three involved jumped out of the vehicle and attempted to flee from officers, and the two males appeared to scale a 30-foot retaining wall and were both injured. A woman also was injured after attempting to flee the vehicle.

One person was airlifted from the scene and the other two were transported to an area hospital for emergency care.

Modrusic said his department will prepare charges for the Madison County State's Attorney's Office from Tuesday's chase and series of events. He said a 45-caliber-gun holster was found, along with a bulletproof vest and narcotics. The handgun had not yet been located, Modrusic said. He wondered if the weapon had been tossed into the river.

The police chief praised the work of his department and law enforcement in handling this particular case.

Text @RB to 618-202-4618 to sign up for Text Alerts from RiverBender!

If you have a news, human interest or sports idea, e-mail [emailprotected] or call or text 618-623-5930. Follow Dan Brannan on Facebookandon Twitter.

Print Version Submit a News Tip

Read more:
Stolen Car Chase Ends At Chain Of Rocks Bridge: Pontoon Beach Police Apprehend, Rescue Three Individuals - RiverBender.com

HERE is a round-up of the most important planning applications put forward in the Stroud District this week.

All of the applications can be viewed via the planning section of Stroud District Councils website.

CONVERSION AND UPGRADE OF EXISTING OUTBUILDING TO ANNEXE FOR ELDERLY RELATIVE AT STARSMEAD FARMHOUSE, HARESFIELD, GL10 3EG.

Application number: S.20/2130/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

ERECTION OF TWO DWELLINGS AND ASSOCIATED WORKS ON LAND AT 331 WESTWARD ROAD, EBLEY.

Application number: S.20/2119/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

ERECTION OF POLY TUNNEL AT STROUD SLAD FARM, SLAD LANE, STROUD.

Application number: S.20/2106/AGR

Status: Awaiting decision

CONSTRUCTION OF RETAINING WALL TO CREATE TWO NEW PARKING BAYS (PRIVATE USE), INSTALL AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING POINT AND REBUILD THE COLLAPSING PARKING BAY OPPOSITE SOUTH VIEW COTTAGE, AT BOX COTTAGE, DOWNEND, HORSLEY.

Application number: S.20/2100/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

NEW DWELLING ON LAND AT 4 FOXES DELL, FOREST GREEN, NAILSWORTH.

Application number: S.20/2081/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

COVERED OUTDOOR SEATING AREA IN CONNECTION WITH AN EXISTING RESTAURANT, AT AMALFI RESTAURANT, 16 THE OLD CROWN, MARKET STREET, NAILSWORTH.

Application number: S.20/2064/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

ERECTION OF A SHIPLAP SUMMER HOUSE AT SPRING CORNER, ROCKNESS HILL, NAILSWORTH.

Application number: S.20/2061/CPL

Status: Awaiting decision

A FREESTANDING ADVERTISING SIGN MOUNTED ON STEEL POSTS AT STONE CRICKET CLUB, SWANLEY, ALKINGTON, BERKELEY.

Application number: S.20/2011/ADV

Status: Awaiting decision

PROPOSED ERECTION OF 6 X 15 METRE FLOODLIGHT MASTS AT HAMFIELDS LEISURE, HAMFIELD LANE, BERKELEY.

Application number: S.20/1907/FUL

Status: Awaiting decision

See original here:
PLANNING: A round-up of planning applications put forward in Stroud this week - Stroud News and Journal

Only if you were living under a rock in 2015 could you have missed then-Mayor Mitch Landrieus proposal which generated no shortage of headlines, discussion and, in some quarters, outrage to remove three prominent Confederate monuments and the White supremacist Liberty Monument from the New Orleans landscape.

And not even under-rock dwellers could have avoided the extended public kerfuffle when those monuments came tumbling down in 2017.

Reader Karen Plauche, however, is curious about another conspicuous but architecturally significant Confederate landmark spared by Landrieus efforts.

That would be the 129-year-old Memorial Hall, the castle-like structure at 929 Camp St. housing Louisianas oldest museum and home to one of the largest collections of Confederate artifacts in the country.

Plauches question: Was the unique building that houses the Confederate museum built for that purpose, or did it have another use originally? Whats its story?

The answer to the first question is easy: Yes, it was indeed built as a Confederate museum.

A portrait of Frank T. Howard as published Jan. 8, 1891, in The Daily Picayune. Howard provided the funding for Memorial Hall, an annex of the Howard Memorial Library on Camp Street, for use as a Confederate museum.

As for the rest of its story, that will take a little more time.

It starts with New Orleans philanthropist Frank T. Howard, who in 1881 had completed work on the Howard Library, built in memory of his father, businessman Charles T. Howard, on a parcel adjacent to the future site of Memorial Hall.

(That site, incidentally, is but a stones throw from Lee Circle, giving the museum a front-row seat to the 2017 removal of the citys once-iconic Robert E. Lee statue.)

Given his fathers fascination with the Civil War, the younger Howard invited Confederate veterans to house their personal artifacts uniforms, flags, guns, books, maps and the like in the Howard Library. The collection quickly grew, and plans were put in motion to build an annex next door to house them all.

That annex would be Memorial Hall, completed in 1890 25 years after the end of the Civil War and smack in the middle of the Lost Cause era, during which the Confederate struggle was held up as heroic and righteous.

Designed by prominent New Orleans architect Thomas Sully, the one-story brick building, which includes a basement, was constructed in the same Richardson Romanesque style as the Howard Library and originally consisted chiefly of one long main room, measuring about 96 feet long, 24 feet wide and with a 24-foot high ceiling.

Its outer walls are of pressed brick, ornamented with richly carved semi-glazed terracotta trimmings, while the retaining wall and steps are of Long Meadow brown stone, reads the successful 1975 application to have the building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some buildings are eye-catching because theyre so grand. Others are eye-catching because theyre unique. Still others stand out simply becaus

Also located on the buildings front is a two-story octagonal tower and an ornate entrance portico lined by columns and topped with a variation of a cross patte, a version of which would later become the model for the Southern Cross of Honor Medal awarded by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Inside, the buildings vaulted cathedral ceiling, highlighted by exposed trusses, was lined with various Confederate banners, according to a description published in The Times-Picayune upon the buildings opening. Its interior walls are still lined with panels of polished cypress.

Right away, the building became a magnet for meetings and reunions of Confederate veterans. Most notably, the remains of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis having been exhumed from Metairie Cemetery and headed for reburial in Richmond lay in state at Memorial Hall for a day in May 1893, drawing throngs of mourners and sightseers.

Meanwhile, the museums collection continued to grow. By 1887, it warranted construction of an upper gallery running the buildings length, according to the National Register application.

While it is recognized as architecturally significant, the building has been the subject of repeated ownership disputes over the years, most recently involving the University of New Orleans.

Upon its dedication on Jan. 8, 1891 not coincidentally the 75th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans it was donated by Howard to the Louisiana Historical Association, the group formed to operate the museum, for its perpetual use.

It was 1881, and cotton was king throughout the South and particularly in New Orleans.

But in the 1990s, UNO came into possession of the original Howard Library building after the library moved to Tulane Universitys campus. It claimed rights to the hall, because its an annex of the library building, and expressed its desire to evict the museum.

Complicating matters was the fact that Memorial Hall essentially bisected UNOs Ogden Museum of Southern Art, which occupies the former Howard Library building now the Patrick F. Taylor Library on Memorial Halls southernmost side and the Goldring building on Memorial Halls north side.

A bitter, back-and-forth legal battle has since thawed. Today, the bigger threat to Memorial Hall and its collection is probably perception, with many casting a jaundiced eye at what is often seen as a glorification of the Confederacy and its racist roots.

For now, however, the museum and the historic building housing it remains.

Know of a New Orleans building worth profiling in this column, or just curious about one? Contact Mike Scott at moviegoermike@gmail.com.

Sources: The Times-Picayune archives, National Register of Historic Places.

Its hard to imagine now with the cacophonous pageant that plays out there regularly pandemic or no pandemic, apparently but there was a t

Read the original post:
The history stored in Memorial Hall is controversial, but the building has a story of its own - NOLA.com

Derbyshire County Council usually spends around 23million a year on road maintenance and improvements.

This year extra money has been pledged by the government for road maintenance, including potholes, and the council has successfully bid for a further 5million for retaining wall and drainage works on the A6 between Matlock and Whatstandwell.

More than 3million will be spent on vital maintenance work on bridges and retaining walls, with 21 sets of traffic lights that are nearing the end of their working lives being replaced.

To prevent accidents more than 1million will be spent on road safety schemes, such as putting down skid resistant surfaces or changes to road junctions.

And two roads currently closed because of landslips will be repaired Lea Road near Cromford and Abney Clough in the High Peak.

Work by specialist contractors starts this month, with the roads expected to re-open by the end of the year.

Derbyshire County Councils cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, councillor Simon Spencer, said: This investment in our road network will make a significant difference to everyone who lives, works or travels through Derbyshire.

Im delighted that the government has recognised the need for additional funding and also that weve been successful in bidding for extra money for specific schemes.

It all adds up to a huge investment in our roads.

To help deliver the work the council are about to start a recruitment drive for civil engineers.

Skills in design, scheme delivery, maintenance and more are all needed at a variety of different level from managers to civil engineering technicians.

More information about becoming a civil engineer and the jobs available can be found by logging on to derbyshire.gov.uk/civilengineeringjobs.

The rest is here:
More than 40million to be spent on improving Derbyshire's roads - Ilkeston Advertiser

THE suburbs of Kenny Hills and Damansara Heights may share the same adjective prime but the similarities end there.

Kenny Hills and Damansara Height are vastly different. Beginning with the land, land price is determined by size, according to an agent who declined to be named, .

The land size in Damansara Heights is between 5,000 to 15,000 sq ft; the average is about 7,500 sq ft.

At an average price of about RM600 per sq ft, the average land price in Damansara Heights is about RM4.5mil, minus the building.

In Kenny Hills, the average land price is about RM300 per sq ft but the average land size is about 30,000 sq ft, which translates to RM10mil.

So, it is all a matter of averages, when you see the land price like that. The building price comes next. Building materials cost is the same, so that is a constant, whether you build in Kenny Hills or in Damansara Heights, on flat land or others. So we have to talk about the variables.

No two pieces of land, even in the same location, are the same. So there are different prices. The price of a house is determined by the buyer and seller, and this is affected by circumstances like market sentiments and Covid-19, as is the case today. Income levels and the confidence of the buyer/seller are other factors. But these are not important. What is important is what is the average price? And how much a buyer wants the house, he says.

The other difference is the look and feel of both locations.

To use an analogy, figuratively, a small house in a big garden is what sets Kenny Hills apart from Damansara Heights big house in a small garden.

There are about 120 freehold units in Kenny Hills, which is also known as Bukit Tunku. It is different from the adjacent Taman Duta, which is mainly leasehold. There are a lot more units in Damansara Heights, so the density is higher there than in Kenny Hills. An acre may have eight units in Damansara Heights versus two in Kenny Hills.

Anything coming from a developer will not give the Kenny Hills impression because the real Kenny Hills is 30,000 sq ft or more of land with an individual house with more than 20,000 sq ft of gentle rolling greens, or a slope of green vegetation with trees that may have been there for close to 100 years or more.

This vast gentle or slopping contours, and with a single house sitting on it, is what sets it apart from all other prime suburbs in the city.

So, if a developer comes along, bulldozes all the trees, and puts up a retaining wall to maximise land use, and carves the land into little plots, the spirit and feel of Kenny Hills will go missing.

In Damansara Heights, you can hear your neighbour. In Kenny Hills, the people dont want to see their neighbour, he says.

The infrastructure like width of roads are also affected by the slopes in Kenny Hills. So, the infrastructure there is unable to handle the density that is a familiar theme in Damansara Heights. This is a natural factor of Kenny Hills.

This explains why the average land price may be RM300 per sq ft because much of the land may be on slopes. But there are some plots that are able to command a higher price because of the land terrain. So, there is a big price range in terms of land prices; the variables go up and down from the average RM300 per sq ft.

Both Kenny Hills and Damansara Heights have empty nesters. Their children may be abroad and they want a modern new lifestyle. One may need thousands of ringgit in order to maintain the garden, the trees, have security or hire some guards and other outgoings to keep the place in order.

In a nutshell, both Kenny Hills and Damansara Heights have three issues empty nesters, security and culture. Culture is not definitive, class even less so.

Class is culture that takes years to build. You cannot have class without culture. You may have culture, but you may not have class.

See original here:
Hills and Heights, a difference in class - The Star Online