Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The aftermath of Hurricane Sally left countless blue tarps stretched over failed roofs in coastal Alabama, as the storms' 105 mile-per-hour winds ripped off shingles and separated plywood sheets, allowing torrents of wind and rain inside many homes as Sally inched its way inland.

But not at Matt Fetners house.

Fetners home in the Captains Cove neighborhood in Orange Beach is one of the 16,000 buildings in Alabama with a Fortified certification to withstand 130 mile per hour winds. And when Sally came ashore as a Category 2 hurricane, Fetners roof was up to the task. He said his roof sustained no damage in the storm and he felt secure riding it out at home.

His house even became a refuge for some of his neighbors who suffered storm damage or flooding as Sally rolled in during the early morning hours of Sept. 16.

Obviously Sally was a beast of a storm," Fetner said. It came on shore, and hit the land, and from the time it hit through the time it was over, [we had] no damage, no issues and everybody around us has a blue tarp on their roof.

It was definitely something that was good to have.

The Fortified roof certification was developed by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, and Alabama leads the country by a long shot in Fortified roof structures with more than 16,000.

Roy Wright, president and CEO of the Institute and former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agencys flood mapping program, said he toured several locations in Orange Beach, Fairhope and Daphne areas this week, and that all the Fortified roofs he had seen were intact after the storm, with so far only reports of what Wright called cosmetic damage" from flying debris.

There are 16,000 of them in Alabama, and in every instance that we came across, you saw that these homes survived, Wright said.

Wright said that in addition to places like Fetners neighborhood, where an upgraded home fared better than others around it, there are also entire neighborhoods with new homes that use the Fortified roofs located near older neighborhoods that didnt. The difference, he said, was striking.

And so you can go from one point where people have lost their roof cover, they had dealt with severe wind damage to their house," he said, "and then you would go to the next neighborhood that had been built as Fortified homes, and you would find the occasional cosmetic damage where debris is picked up and flown, a piece of siding, something come crashing into it. But all of that was a cosmetic type of damage.

A map of the 16,000 Fortified roofs in coastal Alabama as certified by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, along with the path of Hurricane Sally.IBHS

What makes a Fortified roof?

There are three main components to a Fortified roof.

First, said Wright, the roofers use ring shank nails which have a better hold under high wind conditions.

Second, the seams between plywood sheets on the roof are sealed to prevent water from entering the home if the shingles are lifted off during a wind event.

The third part involves aligning the edge pieces of the roof in a particular way to avoid rip-up, Wright said.

There is a particular way that the edge treatment is put in, the edge pieces, so that the wind is less likely to be able to start that rip-up, Wright said. The most vulnerable part of your roof from a wind perspective is right along the edge.

The IBHS also has standards for new construction homes that can be certified as Fortified Gold. Those include features such as storm-resistant windows, doors and other openings. Existing homes are not eligible for Fortified Gold but can have a Fortified roof installed.

Fortified roofs are a wind standard, and do not prevent damage from trees falling on roofs or prevent homes from flooding, a problem with the slow-moving Sally. But Wright said, IBHS with its Fortified program, is looking to change the trajectory of what hurricane damage looks like.

Were not going to stop Sally from coming ashore. Were not going to stop the storm surge," Wright said. "But as we look at those pieces, we do know how to construct residential homes as well as businesses to be able to withstand 130 mile an hour winds in ways that after the storm, even if it was evacuated, that people would have a place to come back to.

Why so many Fortified homes?

Alabama leads the nation in Fortified homes partly because many local building codes in coastal Alabama now require Fortified roofs for new homes and replacement roofs, and because in 2011 the state of Alabama created a program called Strengthen Alabama Homes to encourage homeowners to upgrade their existing roofs to Fortified certification.

That program, administered by the Alabama Department of Insurance, for a time provided grants of up to $10,000 to homeowners like Fetner to upgrade their existing roofs to Fortified standards.

Brian Powell, head of Strengthen Alabama Homes since 2011, said the program issued about 2,300 grants to homeowners to upgrade their existing roofs before freezing applications in 2017 due to overwhelming demand. He said the grant program is still paused, but could be reinstated within the next 18 months, or sooner if the program can get more funding.

Powell said the program started when insurance on buildings in coastal Alabama became increasingly difficult to insure.

Back in 2011, the state was having an issue with insurance companies insuring properties along the coast, Powell said. "There were so many recurring losses, and it was becoming so expensive for insurance companies, that a lot of insurance carriers just stopped writing business along the coast.

It was very difficult to get homeowners insurance, and when you did, it was very expensive.

Thats why Powell said the state passed the Strengthen Alabama Homes Act in 2011, granting the Department of Insurance the authority to create a program to reduce damages from the next hurricane and encourage insurance companies to issue policies on structures in coastal Alabama.

We needed to take an approach to fix that and the way to do it is to reduce the risk of loss, and at least reduce the amount of loss that happens, dollar wise, Powell said. We looked at several methods or several systems to figure out how to mitigate homes, and the one that seemed to be becoming the industry standard at the time was the IBHS Fortified program."

Funding for the program was taken from fees paid to the state by insurance companies, as well as from federal disaster relief efforts and other sources, but not from the states general fund budget.

We actually went to the [insurance] industry and talked to them about using some of the money that they pay to the state to fund this program, and they were on board, Powell said. Ultimately, its a good investment for them because it reduces their risk. So this [program] does not take money from our general fund, nor does it take it from any tax base.

At the moment, however, the program does not have enough funding to meet the demands of homeowners who want to participate.

Right now the Strengthen Alabama Homes program is receiving $10 million through the Department from the industry, but thats not enough to clear out our backlog of applications, Powell said.

As soon as we can get the backlog cleared out, then we are going to open it back up for applications.

Powell said most people in coastal Alabama who need new roofs after Hurricane Sally will have to get a Fortified roof as a replacement thanks to the local building codes, and that homeowners insurance should pay those costs. But, once the grant program resumes taking applications, the funding is designed to offset almost entirely the cost difference between a traditional roof and a Fortified roof.

On an average size home, it pretty much pays 100% of it, Powell said. Any expense above $10,000 is on the homeowner. We wanted to make sure we had a reasonable amount where we could get homes mitigated, because at the end of the day, the more homes we have mitigated, the lower the insurance rates will wind up being for everyone in the area.

Fetner, a vice president at Bryant Bank, said he chose to get the Fortified roof in 2017 after a smaller storm damaged his roofs ridge vent. He said he used Ben Murphy Company, a local construction firm licensed to install Fortified roofs, and received a $10,000 grant from Strengthen Alabama Homes that offset almost all of the extra cost associated with the Fortified roof.

Id been at my house over 10 years, and the roof had showed some age, Fetner said. One of the tropical events that came through blew off one of the ridge vents and so I knew it was probably something I needed to do. I went through the program, and that funded a portion of the costs and I paid the rest of it and I got a brand new roof.

Quicker recovery

Wright said that Hurricane Sally was the largest test yet for Fortified roofs.

I think that, whether its Fortified or other dimensions, the Alabama coast is better today, as Sally came through, given the leadership and investments that people made over the last 15 years, Wright said. And I think Sally really serves as the proof point for those resilient choices and those resilient investments that people made.

Powell said the state sees a number of benefits to keeping roofs attached to houses during tropical storms, from lower insurance rates to less debris to clean up.

More resilient buildings can also mean a faster reopening once the storm passes.

The sooner folks can return, the faster the economy can recover, people can get back to work, Powell said. So it actually has more benefit than just keeping your roof on your house. It has ancillary benefits too, reduction of costs, and the time that it takes to get economies back up and running."

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Alabamas nation-leading 16,000 Fortified roofs held up well to Hurricane Sally - AL.com

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Self-adhered Roofing Membranes Market : Industry Trends, Size, Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2020-2026 - SG Research Sphere

A total of 245,863 has been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in an investigation into a gang involved in guttering installation and roofing repairs, primarily in the greater Dublin area.

The CAB conducted a search operation of four residential addresses and one professional premises in Newbridge in Kildare on Tuesday (29 September) and seized funds totalling 138,511, which were restrained in three separate bank accounts, as well as 3,500 in cash.

This is on top of 103,852 in cash that had previously been seized as part of the investigation.

The operation on Tuesday targeted assets linked to a gang involved in guttering installation and roofing repairs, primarily in the greater Dublin area.

According to Garda, the individuals concerned target the vulnerable and the elderly and todays search operation has been hailed as a significant development in the ongoing CAB investigation.

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Just under 250,000 discovered in investigation into roofing and installation scam targeting elderly and vulnerable - JOE.ie

The following analysis estimates the cost to build a restaurant using US National Average costs from 2013 RSMeans cost data. Costs are derived from a building model that assumes basic components, using union labor for a 5000 square foot building.

Scope differences and market conditions can cause costs to vary significantly. To see an estimate of the costs to build a restaurant in a specific city or metropolitan area, go to our index of restaurant models by state .

NOTE: This cost estimate uses 2013 RSMeans data. A more accurate estimate using current RSMeans cost data is available on Construction Estimating Software

Restaurant Square Foot Cost Assuming Face Brick with Concrete Block Back-up / Steel Joists Restaurant Square Foot Cost Assuming Face Brick with Concrete Block Back-up / Wood Joists Restaurant Square Foot Cost Assuming Stucco on Concrete Block / Steel Joists Restaurant Square Foot Cost Assuming Stucco on Concrete Block / Wood Joists Restaurant Square Foot Cost Assuming Wood Siding / Wood Frame

Excerpt from:
Restaurant - Commercial Construction Costs Per Square Foot

We specialize in the planning and design of commercial kitchens, restaurants, bars and foodservice facilities of all types. Our projects span all areas of foodservice and hospitality, from resorts, schools and hotels to restaurants, nightclubs and more.

Kitchen, Restaurant + Bar Specialists offers comprehensive consulting from Schematic Design to 3-d models and Construction Administration. Our experience spans more than twenty years in foodservice operation, design and construction. For more information please get in touch.

His career began at age 14 as a busboy at a local Chinese-American restaurant, a position which comprised mixing hot mustard and setting out bowls of crisp fried won tons. A fascination with woks and BTUs was naturally instilled in the young man.

Later, engaged in undergraduate studies on Organic Agriculture and Fishery Science at Rutgers University, he began to realize that his future was indeed in food, or at least in the preparation thereof.

Before founding KRBS, Alec further developed his skill set with a kitchen equipment contractor where he managed the installation and construction of commercial kitchens including high-end restaurants, corporate cafeterias, schools, universities and more.

As designer, consultant, sub-contractor or construction manager, KRBS' clients and associates have included award winning chefs, iconic corporate entities and institutional operations.

We have been fortunate to collaborate with many Architects, Lighting Designers, Branding Consultants, Contractors and Tradespeople of all varieties. Foodservice outlets are rarely the work of one company, and the greatest projects are those born from the synergy of a team of professionals working together. Please get in touch if you would like to know more about any of our projects listed below.

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Kitchen Restaurant + Bar Specialists - Planning & Design ...

WEST LOOP After numerous delays, the long-awaited Nobu restaurant is finally set to open this week in the West Loop.

The luxury hotel will open the signature restaurant at 854 W. Randolph St. on Thursday the same day the city is relaxing its coronavirus restrictions for restaurants.

The restaurant, focused on Japanese cuisine with Peruvian influences, includes a lounge, dining room, 28-foot sushi bar and two private dining rooms. See the full menu here.

As part of Thursdays opening, the Nobu Hospitality group will also debut a 40-foot indoor tranquility pool, a fitness facility and meeting rooms for corporate and social events.

RELATED: Nobu Hotel, Rooftop Bar Debuts In West Loop After Years Of Delays

The restaurant opening comes three months after the hotel opened, bringing 115 new hotel rooms and a rooftop lounge to the West Loop.

Film star Robert De Niro, chef Nobu Matsuhisa and film producer Meir Teper founded the hotel and restaurant chain. Its opening in Chicago more than six years in the making plans for the hotel werefirst announced in April 2014.

The project held a ceremonial groundbreaking withDeNiro in June 2016, but work didnt start until months later. In December 2017, construction on the project was halted after M Development sought a $52.5 million loan to complete the project,according to a report by Crains.

West Loop is also home to the Ace Hotel, Soho House and the Hoxton Hotel. In December, the Standard Hotel received key city approval in the neighborhood.

Nobu will be open for dinner from 5-10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and 5-11 p.m. Friday to Saturday. The restaurant is also open for lunch from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Friday to Sunday.

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Nobu Restaurant Finally Opening This Week In The West Loop - Block Club Chicago

Following the recent success of its ongoing, community-wide fundraising effort, leaders of the Campaign for the New Bruce have announced that construction will begin in October on the centerpiece of the Bruce Museum's transformative renovation and expansion project:a three-story, 43,000-square-foot addition that will more than double the size of the Museum, adding state-of-the-art exhibition galleries for art and science and new education and community spaces, including a restaurant and auditorium.

"This is an incredibly exciting moment for Greenwich and its hometown Museum, and for the entire Fairfield-Westchester region," says Robert Wolterstorff, The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director. "I know I speak for our family of staff, members, volunteers, and Trustees in expressing our profound gratitude to the community for their support."

The new addition will feature the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Education Wing, as well as the William L. Richter Art Wing, including vastly expanded accommodations for changing art exhibitions and, for the first time, significant space to show the Museum's permanent art collection in four new galleries. The entire ground floor of the new addition will be free and open to the public during Museum operating hours and available for special-event use by local community groups, families, and businesses. In another first for the Museum, a welcoming restaurant will offer both indoor and outside dining. The popular Museum Store will greatly increase in size. An auditorium, equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual systems, will host audiences of 250 more than double the capacity of the Museum's current lecture gallery. The project also includes updated storage areas for its growing collection of 25,000 works of art, natural history specimens, and scientific objects and artifacts, and a new study room to welcome visiting researchers to explore the collections.

Designed by the award-winning New Orleans firm of EskewDumezRipple, the new building addition will open directly onto Bruce Park and feature a delicate striated faade of cast stone and glass inspired by the surfaces of Connecticut's quarries and the rock outcrops of Bruce Park. Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects is creating a natural environment around the New Bruce that includes a sculpture trail and places to stroll and play. Turner Construction Co. is the lead contractor for the renovation and construction project.

The Grand Opening of the New Bruce is anticipated for the fall of 2022. To learn more about the Campaign for the New Bruce and to participate, please visit NewBruce.org.

SOURCE Bruce Museum

https://www.newbruce.org

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Construction Begins on Transformative Expansion of the Bruce Museum - PRNewswire

Drew Butler| drew.butler@ardmoreite.com

Construction around Ardmore continues to boom. Many commercial and residential projects are well underway, and new ones are expected to begin within the coming weeks.

Community Development Director Jessica Scott pointed out that two of the largest commercial building projects are now either complete or opening soon. Burkes Outlet, a discount retail establishment recently opened its doors, and Atwoods, a 60,000-square foot farm and ranch supply store, will openOctober 21.

Scott said one new business coming to the city will be a Wingstop restaurant which will be located in Ardmore Commons in the same building as Sakura and McAlisters Deli. Scott said she plans to issue the permit this week. She expects the project to move quickly because the building is already finished, and the project will consist of them making the space ready to suit their needs.

Scott said in addition to the announced projects there are currently many other projects in the works that will likely be announced in the near future.

Ive been talking to a lot of people, and I feel like well be having a lot more construction this winter than we usually do, Scott said. I think people are getting more acclimated to the current business environment and now they are figuring out where they want to move forward.

Scott said there are also many residential projects both small and large happening across the city. As an example of the large, Scott pointed out the 223 unit Preserve at Ardmore apartment complex which recently broke ground. She said the smaller projects consist of both new builds and renovations to existing homes.

Theres a bunch of residential construction, she said. It seems like were doing a lot of new residential and theres still a lot of residential remodels. I think people in general are spending a lot more time at home now, and theyre wanting to improve things.

Scott views all of the new construction as a positive indicator for the citys future.

I think the new Wingstreet and all of the residential construction is a great sign for the future, Scott said. Its good for the city. Its good for the economy. Its good all the way around.

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Coming up: New commercial and residential construction in Ardmore - Daily Ardmoreite

Hours: Hofbrauhaus' initial hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The beer hall is not accepting reservations.

Where to sit: With continued construction inside the hall, patrons will be seated in the beer garden, which seats 125 at 50%, and on the raised patio, which seats 75 at the reduced capacity.

Drinks: Hofbrauhaus has three beers available to start, all imported from the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany, until the house brews are ready expected to be early-to-mid October. Scott Shuler, former head brewer at 12 Gates Brewing Co., leads the brewing program at Hofbrauhaus.

The three beers now available are The Original Lager, a malty, balanced lager; the Oktoberfest, a Festbier-style pale lager served at the Munich Oktoberfest, and the Hefe Weizen, a wheat beer. They are available in half-liters (17 ounces, $6 each) in plastic cups due to the outdoor seating. The Dunkel noted on the Facebook page is not yet available.

The sold-out Stein Club will go into effect at the November grand opening. Townsell said there's a waiting list for people to join the existing group of 500. Limited wine and liquor is available.

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5 things to know (and a timeline) about Hofbrauhaus' long-awaited opening - Buffalo News

The Denver dining scene has its fair share of Vietnamese, Thai, Mexican, American-Chinese, Ethiopian and Korean restaurants. But the cuisines of certain other countries and cultures are just now starting to appear, as waves of immigrants find their way to Colorado. Despite COVID-related restrictions, new restaurants catering to these groups (and sometimes owned by members of them) continue to open, introducing some foods to the metro area for the first time.

Here are five new eateries serving hard-to-find cuisines and dishes, both on site and for takeout.

If you can't get to the Gulf Coast, Clawful might be the next best thing.

Courtesy of Clawful

Clawful 1862 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Lakewood303-632-8079

Viet-Cajun seafood washed up in Denver several years ago, with a small wave of new restaurants prepping crawfish, shrimp and crab boils along with other finger-licking bar food. The Asian Cajun (2400 West Alameda Avenue) and the Crawling Crab (781 South Federal Boulevard) have survived and even thrived, each gaining a loyal customer base. Now there's a new player in the game: Clawful, which was just finishing up construction in March when the COVID-based restaurant lockdowns began, has opened with limited indoor seating. It's serving up peel-and-eat shrimp, lobster, clams, crawfish and other seafood in a number of sauce flavors and spice levels, plus sausage, corn, potatoes and other Cajun sides. The restaurant promises live crawfish from December to July (which is Gulf Coast crawfish season). Whatever you order promises to provide messy, delicious fun.

Hong Kong Station 6878 South Yosemite Street, Centennial720-592-0861

Hong Kong Station isn't a typical Chinese restaurant serving only the familiar stir-fried dishes and noodles. Nor can it be counted in the current cadre of popular dumpling shops. Instead, it's a very specific kind of eatery unique to Hong Kong called acha chaan teng, or tea restaurant. Hot and iced teas are the specialty, some brewed strong and served with sweetened condensed milk but there's plenty of food, too. Among the signature cha chaan teng dishes are the Hong Kong-style French toast and the baked rice dishes. For the former, two pieces of French toast are glued together with peanut butter (seriously; just keep reading), then fried and topped with condensed milk and a fat slab of butter. The latter tops baked rice with European influences: fried pork chops in tomato sauce, ribeye steak in black pepper sauce, seafood in cream sauce. As at the best tea houses in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Station's menu is huge, so you're sure to find something you like, whether it's crackly chicken wings, scallion pancakes, egg foo yong or mapo tofu. If that lineup sounds vaguely familiar, it's because Jenny Zhang, the owner of Hong Kong Cafe at 10890 East Dartmouth Avenue, sold that restaurant (it's now open under new owners) and reopened her place in Centennial with a slightly new name. At Hong Kong Station, she's created a welcoming, sophisticated atmosphere in the dining room but many of the dishes are perfect to grab on the go.

Thali platters are a great way to experience a wide range of flavors at MAdras Cafe.

Courtesy of Madras Cafe

Madras Cafe 5422 South Parker Road, Aurora720-541-7293

For years, Masalaa (at 3140 South Parker Road in Aurora) was the only completely vegetarian Indian restaurant in the metro area and one that specialized in such hard-to-find (in these parts, at least) South Indian street food as dosas, vada pav and uttapam. But now there's a new meatless restaurant in town, representing the cuisine of Tamil Nadu, on India's southeastern coast. Madras Cafe sits between Cherry Creek Reservoir and southeast Aurora's housing developments, offering folks in the suburbs a chance to try something new. Specialties include vadai, savory doughnuts made with lentil flour; bajji, fried snacks that get their superior crunch from chickpea flour (with a choice of plantain, chiles, potato or onion); and several styles of dosa, those crispy, paper-thin crepes served with various toppings. There are also Northern Indian curries in case you're looking for something familiar; the tikka masala, for example, comes with mushrooms, mixed veggies or paneer cheese instead of chicken. Much of the menu is vegan, but ask if you aren't sure, as dairy products are used in some of the dishes.

Noodles Express 703 South Colorado Boulevard303-736-8818

Regional Chinese cuisines have been on the rise in Denver lately, especially at restaurants serving the food of Sichuan, but dishes representing other provinces Yunnan, Shaanxi, Guangdong and Gansu, for example have become more accessible, too, if not exactly prevalent. Noodles Express offers a fairly large selection of Sichuan favorites, from spicy eggplant to dan dan noodles, but you'll also find a few things that are far less common in Denver, even if they're popular all over China. Order the noodles in soybean paste and you'll find yourself with a complex, satisfying bowl otherwise known as zhajiangmian, native to the Shandong province, or choose the Lanzhou beef noodle soup, one of China's most comforting meals.For a different kind of comfort, the menus section titled Americas Popular lists General Taos chicken, sesame chicken and beef and broccoli.

Taw Win Burmese 1120 Yosemite Street, Aurora303-953-8159

While we can't confirm it, there's a distinct possibility that metro Denver has never had two restaurants dedicated to Burmese cooking at the same time until now. Urban Burma opened in 2019 as one of several international food counters inside Mango House (at 10180 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora), and it was recently joined in Aurora by Taw Win Burmese, which took over a former Asian market. Traditional Burmese dishes such as mohinga (fish and rice noodle soup), ono kaw swe (chicken coconut curry noodles) and tea leaf salad, a refreshing counterpoint to the restaurant's spicy sauces, are all available; you can also order whole fried fish, curries and a few Thai dishes. The dining room has been set up with widely spaced tables, so the restaurant can only seat a few parties at a time, but the food packs up well for takeout as long as you're not driving all the way across town.

Mark Antonation is the Westword Food & Drink Editor. He got his start by eating at and writing about every restaurant on Federal Boulevard and continues to cover metro Denver's diverse international food scene, as well as the city's quickly changing restaurant landscape. Mark was awarded Outstanding Media Professional by the Colorado Restaurant Association in 2018.

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Five New Restaurants Bring International Cuisine Rare to Denver - Westword