Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

An office worker filmed a construction site blaze that shut down parts of the CBD

The fire in a building on the corner of William St and Little Collins St. Picture: Fiona Hamilton Source: Herald Sun

Workers near the site of the blaze in a building on the corner of William St and Little Collins St. Picture: Fiona Hamilton Source: Herald Sun

UPDATE: A BLAZE at a building under construction in Melbourne's CBD has sent toxic smoke billowing across town.

The fire broke out just after 10am on the top two levels of a seven-storey construction site at 121 William St.

Up to seven MFB fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze, which was understood to be burning through polystyrene materials.

The fire is thought to have started when sparks from a welder showered electrical wiring on the seventh floor of an office tower undergoing renovations.

But about 40 firefighters had the blaze under control within half an hour and stopped it from spreading to another floor.

Metropolitan Fire Brigade Commander Lou Mele says crews had to use extinguishers because water to the site had already been cut off during the renovation work.

"One workman required some treatment for smoke inhalation," he said at the scene.

See the rest here:
Fire erupts at CBD building site

LIZ MCDONALD

Construction of a 13-storey building to replace BNZ House in Cathedral Square could begin as early as this year.

Cristo Ltd, the family consortium that owns the site, has planned a building of a similar size and style to replace the one damaged in the earthquakes.

Construction will depend on securing tenant interest and insurance cover.

Marketing agents Jonathan Lyttle and Ryan Geddes said the rents would be "top end".

The BNZ had been the building's main tenant, but the bank had been looking for new premises for its Christchurch headquarters before the quakes. It now leases space in the Canterbury Technology Park in Burnside.

Demolition of the Cathedral Square building has started.

The new building, designed by Christchurch architects Warren and Mahoney, would be 50 metres high and feature glass walls and the same green Welsh slate as the existing structure. It will include 11,000 square metres of floor space, including a penthouse.

Cristo said construction could begin this year and finish by 2015.

Structural engineer John Hare, of Holmes Consulting, said the building might have deep piles and a steel frame, as well as seismic dampers left visible behind glass walls.

Continued here:
Office block signifies a fresh start for city

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY Architectural consultants have recommended more than $60 million worth of construction in the coming 10 years to help the Sheriff's Office keep up with population growth and increases in the crime rate but also get out of its existing headquarters into a modern building.

And that's not lost on County Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler, a former sheriff who worked in the now-27-year-old building, at 4055 41st St. in Gifford, from 1992 through 2000.

"That's a sick building," Wheeler said Friday. "There's a lot of mold. One time we removed a wall in my office and it was black (inside) with mold two inches thick."

When he left office in 2000, he said, following a defeat by Roy Raymond, he stopped going into the sheriff's building every day and his aching sinuses cleared up.

For current Sheriff Deryl Loar, who took office in 2008, the building is bursting under the strain of 500 employees. And it doesn't even have a fire-sprinkler system.

"There are a lot of things you've got to have (now)," he said Friday.

Vero Beach architect Anthony Donadio and David Crabtree, an associate with Architects Design Group of Winter Park, pitched their latest proposals to the commission in a recent meeting.

Crabtree, who couldn't be reached Friday for comment, gave estimates this month that combine to $61.4 million for the work to renovate a 13,000-square-foot warehouse for the new Crime Scene Unit, build a new 91,000-square-foot uniform patrol building and a 94,000-square-foot support-service building.

The county is tackling the first project now, but isn't expected to deal with the largest building until 2022 at the earliest.

"We'll assist you in seeking grants," Crabtree said. "It's not like $28 million (for the second building) is needed tomorrow. We have time to help you plan for that."

Excerpt from:
Sheriff's Office takes 10-year look at new construction to update facilities

Kendall Marshall had 20 points and 10 assists, and No. 6 North Carolina beat No. 4 Duke 88-70 on Saturday night to win the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.

Tyler Zeller had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Harrison Barnes added 16 points for the Tar Heels (14-2, 27-4). They never trailed, and for the second straight year they rolled in a winner-take-all season finale with the ACC tournament's top seed on the line.

North Carolina shot 54.5 percent, built a 45-28 rebounding advantage and sent Duke to its deepest halftime deficit ever at Cameron Indoor Stadium - 24 points - while winning its seventh straight since last month's loss to the Blue Devils.

Mason Plumlee had 17 points, brother Miles Plumlee added 16 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Austin Rivers - the hero of that last meeting - had 15 points for the Blue Devils (13-3. 26-5).

Syracuse (17-1, 30-1) matched the Big East record for victories - Connecticut also won 17 conference games in 1995-96 - and the Orange also finished the regular season with 30 wins for the first time in coach Jim Boeheim's 36-year tenure.

No. 7 Missouri 81, Texas Tech 59: Kim English scored 20 points, Marcus Denman added 17 and Missouri hit a season-best 16 3-pointers to beat Texas Tech.

Denmon scored all his points in the second half, going 5 of 8 from 3-point range in the half, and Ricardo Ratliffe finished with 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.

The Tigers (14-3 Big 12, 27-4) slowly pulled away in the second half with 12 of their 3s coming after halftime. The win gave Missouri a school record for wins in the regular season.

No. 8 Marquette 83, No. 11 Georgetown 69: Jae Crowder had 26 points and 14 rebounds in his final home game, helping Marquette beat Georgetown and clinch the No. 2 seed in the Big East tournament.

Fellow senior Darius Johnson-Odom added 17 points for the Golden Eagles (14-4, 25-6). Marquette was 33 of 45 from the free throw line.

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North Carolina decks Duke to win ACC title

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - The strong wind gusts have caused plenty of damage around western New York.

Look up as you drive the 198 west toward the 190 interchange, and you'll notice a very big hole in the sky. Fierce winds tore down a billboard and sent it smashing onto a walking path Saturday morning. By good fortune, no one was around.

The owner of a Niagara Falls home is less fortunate. Winds toppled a 40-foot tree onto the house, taking out half the porch and ripping the tree's substantial roots right out of the yard. The caller who alerted our newsroom to the damage told us the only way to get around the porch is by using a ladder. A neighbor's house, she said, also took a hit.

>> See more photos of storm damage caused by high winds from around western New York here

Niagara Falls Arborist Paul Dickinson said, "We've got a payloader, some empty tandems. We'll start trying to remove it, away from the house, and remove the wood. Probably a couple hours, for this one."

Highway and utility workers across western New York spent dozens of man-hours clearing roads, hauling away tree limbs, and repairing downed power lines.

"We started at five o'clock this morning; [that's when] we got the first call. Our first priority is to open up all the streets for emergency vehicles. We just took a couple of limbs off the top of cars, so people could get out of the driveway," explained Dickinson.

According to the National Weather Service, the strongest gust to hit the region since the winds' overnight onset clocked in at 69 miles-per-hour. It hit the Niagara Falls International Airport just after 4 a.m.

Lake Erie continues to churn and splash with the wind, prompting a lakeshore flood advisory through the evening hours on Saturday. You can get all the latest weather alerts here.

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Tree comes down on porch of Falls home

Saturday, March 3, 2012

THE FUTURE An architectural drawing shows what the inside of the new Salem United Methodist Church will look like once the building is completed. The old building was heavily damaged by a log truck April 25 and will be demolished Tuesday. The congregation has been attending services at another church in their charge. They are hoping the new building will be finished in September, in time for their annual fall festival (Photo submitted)

LUTHERSBURG - The Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Thessalonians, "Therefore among God's churches, we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecution and trials you are enduring." Thousands of years later, the same can be said for the Salem United Methodist Church in Luthersburg, which was severely damaged by a log truck April 25. According to previously published Courier-Express/Tri-County Sunday articles, the truck, driven by Clayton Null of Reynoldsville, lost control on a curve, left the road, entered the church's parking lot and flipped onto its drivers side. The logs on the truck broke loose and slammed into the side of the church. The damage to the building was so severe that the church will be demolished Tuesday morning. While the truck accident is the latest challenge the congregation has faced it is not the first. According to Barb Muth, chairwoman of the church's board of directors, the church was built in 1857 but later moved to its present location. The church was then rebuilt in 1943 after it had been destroyed by fire. However, this most recent challenge has been one of the toughest the church has faced. Muth, Sonya Fetterhoff, chairwoman of the fundraising committee, and David Radaker, one of the church trustees, said following the accident, the congregation wasn't sure exactly how to proceed. "We had two services (in the building) after the accident, but the church was closed May 15," Muth said. "The building kept shifting and the damage was getting worse." Radaker said the building was inspected by several engineers between April and September before a decision on how much damage was caused and how much it would cost to repair could be made. Radaker said it would be about $350,000 just to repair the building. Several other inspectors said they thought it would be less costly to demolish the building and build a new church on a different area of the property. The decision to move (the location of) the (new) building was made in order to protect the new building from future accidents. Muth, Fetterhoff and Radaker said the log truck incident was not the first traffic accident to occur at the property. They said not long ago, another vehicle struck a utility pole and fencing on the property. They said the mailboxes and fencing are struck by vehicles on a regular basis. Several years ago, they said, a garbage truck wrecked, spilling its entire load into the church's parking lot. The new church will be located on the opposite side of the parking lot, farther away from the road. Radaker said the congregation is hoping the new location will better protect the building from any future accidents. Although the damage to the church did not seem irreparable at first, the building is starting to twist on its foundations. Cracks that were not there at the time of the original accident began to appear and are getting wider. "Even if we were able to rebuild, the engineers could not be sure that the building would not continue shifting and moving," Radaker said. "There is a lot of concern about the roof. If we would have had a hard winter, there's a good chance the roof may have collapsed." Fetterhoff said the congregation plans to hold a service at the church at 7 a.m. Tuesday before the building is demolished. She said the corner stone which was placed in the church's foundation after the fire will be removed and set in the foundation of the new church when it's constructed. "It was a tough decision," Fetterhoff said. "Some people really wanted to keep the old church because of sentimental reasons. A lot of the older members have been going there for a long time. They raised their children there, but they understand the problem with the building." Since the building had to be closed, the 60-80 members have been attending services at the Luthersburg United Methodist Church, another church in their charge. "They're looking forward to coming back home," Muth said. "It's been tough. We're a small congregation but we're looking at a huge project." Radaker said with the church's budget, none of the small, local banks would lend the church money for the rebuilding project. "We can't blame them," Radaker said. "I wouldn't lend us the money either based on our income. We've gotten donations and volunteers have offered to donate their time to help with the painting." Radaker, Fetterhoff and Muth said the church was able to get a loan through a credit union to help pay for the repairs. With the help of Hallstrom Construction, they are hoping to break ground on the new church in late March or early April, weather permitting. Fetterhoff said the church is hoping to have the construction completed in September, in time for its annual Fall Festival. Radaker said the trustees have removed the pews and all the furniture from the old church and it will be taken to the new church once it's built. The new building will be a single-story structure which will be fully handicapped accessible. "The old church was not handicapped accessible," Muth said. "It's something we wanted to do for the older members. The older generation is really what has held our church together after all this." She also said the church is working to raise as much money as possible and is applying for grants so the debt will be paid off as soon as possible." "We have had people ask us what kind of legacy we'll be leaving for future generations," Radaker said. "One thing we won't leave them is debt. We took out a 30-year mortgage so the payments will be lower, but we plan to pay as much as we can as soon as we can." The church is planning several fundraisers including: selling Christmas bulbs with a picture of the original church, a game of chance for a quilt that was made by a member of the church and a spaghetti dinner May 20 at the Luthersburg Community Building complete with "celebrity" waiters and waitresses. The church members will also be at the community booth at the DuBois Mall March 10 and April 14. "It's been a step on faith, but the community and other churches have really done a lot to help us," Fetterhoff said. For more information about fundraisers for the church, call Sonya Fetterhoff at (814) 503-8259. --- Reported by Kimberly Finnigan, Tri-County Sunday. Email: kfinnigan@thecourierexpress.com.

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Church looks to build anew

When the walls of Ridgways St. Joseph Catholic Church fell during Wednesday mornings storm, the tremor was felt in Tallula.

That is where Dennis Drone lives. He scoured the next days news coverage of the southern Illinois storms that killed six in Harrisburg, looking for some mention of the old church. Nothing.

I would have been happy with just a line, he says, saying that 20 miles east of Harrisburg, the storm blew in the church.

The Harrisburg Daily Register reported that, though the church is ruined, the marble altar is untouched.

As far as we can tell, it's hard to find a scratch on it, the Rev. Steve Beatty, St. Joseph pastor, told the Register.

As you can guess, that church means a lot to Drone. He was born in Ridgway in 1937. The family name was LaDrone back in France, but, as happened with many emigrants to America, the original name was shortened by an official when Denniss great-grandfather, Joseph Drone II, arrived in this country.

Joseph eventually settled in Ridgway, where the saying was that if your name was Drone in Gallatin County, you have to go outside of the county to find someone you arent related to.

Joseph Drone and three other men were instrumental in building St. Joseph.

They got money for building the church from France because the family stretched back there, says Dennis. Many of the settlers down there were from France.

The church was beautiful. It was built on the same construction design as the cathedral in Belleville. Thats the Belleville diocese down there. The bishop at the time dubbed it the little cathedral of southeastern Illinois.

Read the original post:
Dave Bakke: Destroyed S. Illinois church was part of family history

Photo gallery: San Elceario Catholic Church restoration

The doors of San Elceario Catholic Church are still open. Instead of pews, there are work ladders and construction materials all around.

In mid-January, parishioners at the church had to move services to the parish hall because of San Elceario's dangerous deterioration.

"I think it all started when we got some bad advice to remove the sidewalk about two years ago," said Lillian Trujillo, a member of the church's finance committee. "Within about a month of it being removed, little cracks started to expand and then there were humongous cracks on the outside and inside."

Trujillo said the church received three grants for several thousand dollars from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso to help with construction work.

"We've also received some donations during collections, so we can start fixing the church again," she said.

To make the money last, most of the work is being done by volunteers.

Tony Araujo of Organizacion Progresiva, and husband of the church's secretary, is leading the construction work.

Trujillo said that a new, wider sidewalk has been put in to stabilize the church and that volunteers are now working on the walls, reinforcing the adobes.

Besides being displaced,

Original post:
Preserving San Elizario's past: Services forced to move as church repaired

A bubble of new student housing could grow larger in the next few years if a request that would allow the construction of another central-city apartment building wins the Columbia City Council's approval tomorrow.

The rezoning request applies to two properties on Locust Street between Hitt and Waugh streets, just east of Salty's formerly the Athena nightclub and Club Memoir. It would convert the zoning from dense residential to planned commercial. The designation would allow the construction of a student apartment building with potential ground-level commercial space. The project is proposed by the Odle family as part of its Brookside brand.

Garrett Taylor, an attorney for the firm that represents the developers, said at most the building would feature 150 units and would be 80 feet tall, but he said an exact size had not been determined.

"We just don't want to hamstring ourselves right now," Taylor said at a Feb. 9 meeting of the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission. That panel recommended allowing the proposed rezoning in a 5-3 vote.

Before making the recommendation, P&Z commissioners expressed concerns about where tenants of the planned apartment complex would park. The request contains an exception for a parking requirement that usually goes with planned commercial zoning.

City planner Matthew Lepke said the planned commercial designation offers some protection for residential aspects of the neighborhood, and the waiver of the parking requirement was included to entice developers to bring projects to that area of downtown.

"That's sort of been the cookie that's been extended to the developers to get them to come to areas that the city felt were ripe for redevelopment," Lepke said.

The building would stand next to another student apartment complex planned at the current site of Salty's. That project has been proposed by St. Louis developer Jeff Pernikoff, who plans about 190 beds at the site. The Odles also are building student complexes on Elm Street and the intersection of College Avenue and Walnut Street, and local developer Travis McGee is working on a student apartment complex on Ninth Street across from the University of Missouri's Reynolds Journalism Institute.

P&Z Chairman Doug Wheeler, who voted against the recommendation, said he did not think the council had adequately addressed parking issues associated with the Odle's project at College and Walnut.

"Not all college students have cars, but a lot of them do," Wheeler said, according to meeting minutes. Andy Lee and Ray Puri also voted against the recommendation.

More here:
New student housing site up for vote

CHARLIE'S getting a little old to plan a trip to Paris with.

Then there's the shots, the quarantine period, the learning to speak poodle.

Charlie's a dog, see, and we will not likely darken the doors of any French bistros together. Though as I recall you don't see a lot of border collies dining there, whether in bohemian Left Bank haunts or ritzy Right Bank Michelin-starred dining rooms.

Mostly, it's those little lap-sized things that the ladies who lunch bring with.

But we have often been glad to dine together in sidewalk situations in Pasadena. The city of course has its own Health Department and its own guidelines for dining, along with Long Beach and, uh, Vernon.

Imagine there are many outdoor dining areas in Vernon?

But now, thanks to a Los Angeles County Health Department decision last week, in cities that are not the above three, it's not only sidewalk dining avec chien that's allowed, but patio dining as well.

I've never understood why it wouldn't be. Or, for that matter, why you couldn't bring your well-behaved dog actually inside a restaurant, as the Frenchies do.

After all, you can take children into restaurants, and they're not well-behaved at all. What's a little giving the eye to the New York strip from a position on the floor compared with screaming and throwing of bowls filled with peas?

Sunday's random notes: Several years ago I went on my one and only adventure to Sushi Nozawa,

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Larry Wilson: In restaurant patios, the dogs have their day