Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
Seven years ago this week, a team of Green Berets with the 7th Special Forces Group was enroute to mud-walled villages run by members of the Afghan Local Police.
An ALP leader they worked with, Sultan Mohammed, had been recently gunned down by the Taliban. The assassination was retribution and a warning to others. Days later, four U.S. soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device near the base.
The Green Berets were on their way to visit the checkpoint Mohammed had patrolled, in Kandahar, the province where the Taliban was born one of the most restive places in Afghanistan. The plan was to drink some tea with the commander there and find out what he needed.
The soldiers loaded up in MRAPs named Batman, Joker, Bain and Riddler so called because its easier to remember those names than the serial numbers, said the team sergeant and headed outside the wire.
The small team of commandos and support troops who left the base in Kandahar were working with Afghan villagers to help the local population resist the Taliban once the majority of U.S. and NATO troops pulled out a year later.
The goal was to create a patchwork of areas across the country where indigenous forces made up of members of the local tribes and clans make it difficult for insurgents to operate.
Part of the Village Stability Operations (VSO)/Afghan Local Police program, it was a classic mission for special operations, especially Green Berets.
Get the military's most comprehensive news and information every morning
(please select a country) United States United Kingdom Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Subscribe
By giving us your email, you are opting in to the Early Bird Brief.
But in September, at the end of this fiscal year, the U.S. is pulling the financial plug on what remains of that mission, which had success but at times was mired in controversy about extrajudicial killings, helping warlords and using children as troops.
In a recently released Operation Freedoms Sentinel lead inspector generals report to Congress, it was announced that the NATO Special Operations Component CommandAfghanistan (NSOCC-A) confirmed plans to dissolve the Afghan Local Police. Not only that, but the Afghans are supposed to gather up all the weapons and integrate the remaining 18,000 ALP members into the larger Afghan national security forces. Neither will be easy tasks.
Resolute Support continues to work closely with Afghan partners to provide train, advise, assist support on a wide variety of institutional issues, to include ALP dissolution, as noted in the IG report, a defense official told Military Times. We refer you to the Afghan Ministry of Interior. ASFF funding for the ALP will culminate at the end of FY2020.
Afghan officials could not be reached for comment.
But its a move that leaves those who helped create the program concerned that the weapons roundup and integration will be a disaster and worried about the Afghans who risked their lives to help America.
If we had maintained the VSO and ALP Program, the situation in Afghanistan today would be much different, retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, dubbed the Godfather of the ALP program, told Military Times.
The Afghan government would be negotiating from a position of strength, the Taliban would be neutralized, AQ would be neutralized, and ISIS would never have seen an opportunity to join the fight. The Afghan people would be experiencing advanced social reform, safety and stability. The focus would be on strengthening their economy, governance, and regional stability. More importantly, the United States would be in a position to responsibly transition from combat operations to non-combatant operations.
Instead, bad political policy by the Obama administration, poor strategy, and the wrong operational approach by our senior military civilian and military leaders has led to the Taliban controlling the peace talk narrative, a weak Afghan government, continued regional instability, and a more effective AQ and ISIS, Bolduc said.
The genesis
VSO and ALP was designed in 2010 and implemented in 2011.
The VSO and ALP was the most successful bottom-up COIN program implemented in Afghanistan, said Bolduc. It was not perfect, but it was effective. It did what it was designed to do. The SOF teams with augmentation did a superb job organizing, equipping, training, advising and assisting our Afghan partners to disrupt, degrade, and neutralize the Taliban.
Gens. Stanley McCrystal, David Petraeus, and John Allen saw the effectiveness of the VSO and ALP Program and ensured we had the resources needed to expand VSO and the ALP, said Bolduc, now running as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Adm. William McRaven also supported this program and ensured SOF component commanders resources the effort.
The program used the Afghan historical model of defending its nation by uniting villages and connecting districts by using villagers and organizing them to protect their village, family, and livelihood from the Taliban.
"This is how they defeated Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan, the British, Russians, and now an international effort, Bolduc said.
When we started the program, the Taliban controlled the rural area in Afghanistan, said Bolduc. By the middle of 2013, the Afghans controlled over 80 percent of the rural Afghanistan. It is no secret, control rural Afghanistan and you control Afghanistan. In 2011, Mullah Omar (leader of the Taliban) declared that we cannot defeat this new American strategy.
Unfortunately, said Bolduc, by 2013 the Obama administration wanted to downsize in Afghanistan and change strategy. This resulted in a return to top down SOF CT approach and using the police and Army to defeat the Taliban. This was a transition from combat operations to non-combatant support operations.
Bolduc said he respectfully communicated to my superiors and the ISAF and IJC staff that changing strategy at this time is a bad idea.
"My staff assessed that by changing strategy now would have detrimental effects on the security situation. That is exactly what happened. I failed in my attempts to drive a different outcome. I was sent to Africa Command and the SOF 2 Star command began its transition to a CT focus command, leaving the VSO and ALP program to function in name only.
Trouble in the program
What started off as a promising effort to build up a bulwark against the Taliban eventually encountered serious problems.
A minority of villagers describe it as an indispensable source of protection, without which their districts would become battlegrounds or insurgent havens, but it is more common to hear complaints that ALP prey upon the people they are supposed to guard, according to a June 2015 report by the Crisis Group. The report argued that: Too often, the Afghan Local Police (ALP) has preyed on those it is meant to guard. Some members are outright bandits, exacerbating conflict. Rogue units should be disbanded, and better ones integrated into the armed forces. This must be done carefully and slowly, or else insurgents will win a new military edge.
Such behavior, according to Crisis Group, often provokes violence: in 2014, an ALP officer was three to six times more likely to be killed on duty than his ANSF counterpart.
At times, the report argued, this reflected the way ALP units have become a central part of the war, singled out by Taliban as important targets. In other places, the high rate resulted from abuses extortion, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings that instigated armed responses.
The local police are being used a lot as security guards for the local warlords," said John F. Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, in an October 2015 report. We dont know how bad it is because we and I mean the U.S. government really dont have a presence out in many of the areas where the Afghan Local Police are operating.
The Afghan government has made progress on the issue, of child soldiers, said Leila Zerrougui, the U.N. representative for children and armed conflict, the Associated Press reported in February 2016. But she said the Afghan Local Police government-allied groups that often operate as independent militias and are widely seen as unprofessional and corrupt are major perpetrators.
While the ALP "have gained some local support as a result of recent reforms, in many localities these forces have been responsible for numerous abuses against civilians, as well as summary executions of captured combatants and other violations of international humanitarian law, according to a 2017 Human Rights Watch report.
The proposed Afghan Territorial Army would ultimately replace the Afghan Local Police as a defense force at the local level, according to that report. There is concern that existing Afghan Local Police units could remain armed as militia forces.
The U.S. government initiated three specialized police programs after 2005: the Afghan National Auxiliary Police, the Afghan Public Protection Program, and the Afghan Local Police, SIGAR reported in 2017.
With limited oversight from and accountability to the Afghan government and the United States, these police forces were reported to have engaged in human rights abuses, drug trafficking, and other corrupt activities, ultimately serving as a net detractor from security, the report stated.
Yet, while the United States stopped supporting two of the programs due to these issues, the Afghan Local Police continue to operate today, according to the report.
Bolduc acknowledged there were problems.
Yes, it is not a perfect program, but it did what is was intended to do, he said. There were administrative issues, there were abuses by district and provincial governors and chiefs of police. Some ALP abused their power. We acted on these issues and did see our best to mitigate these issues.
Bottom line, the cost of this program was one-sixth the cost a soldier and one-eighth the cost of a policeman, said Bolduc. The return on investment was significant. This was a program the Afghan government could afford."
The program, he said, accomplished what the police and military could not:
1. Neutralized the Taliban
2. Established security in the rural areas
3. Allowed development and good services to be delivered to the populace.
4. Legitimized the Afghan government.
5. Allowed justice to be enforced by village elders and not the Taliban. Allowed farmers to farm. Allowed business to open and run.
Most of the issues with the ALP have been due to a lack of supervision, said retired Green Beret Lt. Col. Scott Mann, another key architect of the VSO/ALP program.
You can walk back the instances of abuse of power and there was usually a violation of VSO tenant, he said in a text message. In other words, ALP were brought in from outside areas, ALP were pushed beyond their community zone, or again lack of supervision. This is very typical when local, bottom-up programs like VSO become conventionalized into programs like ALP. The two are far from synonymous.
Better to end it
Mann is not mourning the death of the ALP program. Given the current status of U.S. troops in Afghanistan fewer than 10,000 now drawing down to 8,600 by July as halting peace negotiations with the Taliban fumble along Mann told Military Times that the program wouldnt work without the requisite oversight of teams like the one I was with out there visiting the ALP
I am OK with it being over and let me tell you why, said Mann, now an author and playwright who writes and speaks extensively about stability operations. I am a purist on the whole advisory piece. I believe, if you are going to advise irregular forces, you have an inherent responsibility to be in close proximity to them.
Programs like the VSO/ALP are a long-term endeavor, not a flash in the pan advance to cover a withdrawal, he said.
Now the hard work begins
As the program ends, the Afghans are going to have to round up the ALPs weapons and help integrate the ALP into other Afghan security agencies.
In the inspector generals report to Congress, NSOCC-A said that to mitigate potential security risks, the Afghan government has tentatively scheduled a plan for post-dissolution employment options for ALP members and for recovering ALP weapons and equipment.
The command reported that in order to prevent the creation of future insurgents, it is working with the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and the Office of the National Security Council to identify and encourage recruiting of ALP members into the Afghan National Army (ANA) and ANA-Territorial Force (ANA-TF), and the Afghan National Police.
All that may be easier said than done, according to Bolduc and Mann.
The integration will be a disaster and so will the weapons round-up, said Bolduc. I doubt very much the villagers want to be in the army or police. They would have already joined. They are mostly farmers and shop owners and need to be home.
Disarming them now will leave them vulnerable to attack by the Taliban, he said. ISAF tried this in earlier years along with a buy-back program and it was a disaster. It could also result in violence due to resistance and the Afghan government and international forces will be conducting operations against the populace. Now you got the Taliban, AQ, ISIS, and the populace against you.
Mann agreed.
Oh man, he said. Demobilization is always, in my opinion, the trickiest part of standing up an irregular force. My initial inclination is that this is very, very challenging. The military is not in the position to have any responsible oversight. We can say all day long that we are going to demobilize, but if you are not in a position to be in the rural areas, how can you do that?
Taking their guns away is also going to be a tremendous challenge, Mann said.
This is a heavily armed population, he said. Lets assume there is positive intent. These are still decent folks who do not intend to do harm. Well, they are going to face retribution for their activities in those rural areas by bad actors. To willingly give up their weapons is probably a hard sell.
The recent IG report seems to back up this gloomy assessment. The concerns also echo warnings issued by the programs critics that ending it could prove difficult, even dangerous.
DoS officials reported that implementing this strategy will be challenging, as ALP leadership has stated that they have limited ability to carry out the strategy and there is a lack of coordination with civilian public and private sector organizations that could help to find employment opportunities for former members of the ALP.
Previous Lead IG reporting" raised questions about whether well-armed but newly unemployed ALP members would join the ranks of violent extremist groups or local power brokers, who have previously used ALP units as their own private militias," the report states.
Left on their own
Seven years ago, the ODA commander and some of his men sat cross-legged underneath shade trees blocking out the hot sun. They sipped tea and talked with the ALP commander about his wants and needs.
The ALP commander, wanting to let bad guys in the area know he was protected, asked for a show of force. The TACP traveling with us made a call and a short while later, a Navy F-18 roared over the valley, putting a big smile on the ALP commanders face.
But now the ODA is gone and with it, such shows of force, leaving the ALP commander, who risked everything to stand up against the Taliban, all alone. There are thousands like him across Afghanistan.
And that troubles the men who helped create the VSO/ALP program.
Yes, I do worry about the ALP, said Bolduc. Especially since we will leave them vulnerable.
Mann said that to some degree...yes, he is worried about the ALP, too. But Ive been worried about those ALP since we pulled Special Forces and other operators out of the villages back in 2012 and 2013.
Follow this link:
Why dissolving the Afghan Local Police program troubles its American architects - Military Times
Category
Architects | Comments Off on Why dissolving the Afghan Local Police program troubles its American architects – Military Times
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
In another time, not long ago, an elevator was a conveyance to reach a higher floor, an open office was a spot to clock eight hours while hoping your boss didnt catch you checking Facebook and a doorknob was one of those banalities of architecture that seemed to warrant attention only when it needed replacing.
What a difference a virus makes.
To live through the COVID-19 pandemic is to see the surfaces of our cities rewritten by invisible narratives of contagion. Elevators now seem like intolerably small spaces to share with a stranger. The open-plan office, with its recirculated air and countless shared surfaces, feels like a flu buffet. And that humble doorknob? It could play a starring role as a protagonist named Critical Vector in an over-the-top summer movie about an outbreak.
The pandemic has changed everything about the way we live. It is bound to change architecture too.
If you take the great architectural inventions of the 20th century: the airport, the high-rise, the freeway those are the things that are challenged the most right now, says Brett Steele, dean of UCLAs School of the Arts and Architecture. They have great density or they promise movement at high speeds. Those are exactly the things that sit at the crux of the crisis we are going through.
Architects say new ways of traveling through airports will be part of the coronavirus reset. Above, a masked traveler at Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Its a reset button for the entire world, says Mark Lee, co-founder of the Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee and chair of the architecture department at Harvards Graduate School of Design. Do we need so many new buildings? Do we need such specific programs? It raises questions that are really helpful.
Already the pandemic has had architects and architecture schools (which spent their spring semester improvising classes and project reviews over the internet) considering the nature of buildings at a time in which one of architectures core purposes creating containers that bring people together seems almost inconceivable.
Im working on a synagogue, and that is a crazy problem, says Barbara Bestor, founder of Bestor Architecture, a 25-person firm based in Silver Lake. How do you do High Holidays after COVID with 2,000 or 3,000 people?
The solution may involve segmenting larger spaces and segregating the most vulnerable in a separately ventilated environment the virus version of the glassed-in cry rooms contained within some churches and movie theaters. Or it may involve designing a physical space that, Bestor says, features a robust video component so that people can watch remotely.
The virus version of old-fashioned cry rooms coming to your neighborhood cineplex?
(Jiaqi Wang / For The Times)
Mark Lee, co-founder of Johnston Marklee, chair of the architecture department at Harvards Graduate School of Design
Gatherings via videoconference could become a way of life. Architects could find themselves designing spaces just for that purpose.
In the early 20th century, concerns about tuberculosis and sanitation helped shape Modernism consider Richard Neutras influential design for the Lovell Health House, filled with windows and sleeping porches tailored to promote air circulation in Californias dry, sunny climate. Similarly, COVID-19 is likely to reshape the ways in which todays architects design houses and offices, transit hubs and medical facilities. It will have architects reaching for new technologies and reintroducing old ones say, a little less air conditioning and a lot more cross ventilation.
Barbara Bestor in May at her Bestor Architecture office in Silver Lake. She says smart density is more than just designing a single building.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Barbara Bestor, founder Bestor Architecture
But first, architecture firms, like all other businesses, must weather the pandemic. Design studios have atomized, with staffs working remotely from home. And though construction on existing projects remains underway in many locations, including California, where it has been deemed essential, the design of new buildings has largely halted, threatening the economic stability of many firms.
A rendering of the Sixth Street Bridge by Michael Maltzan Architecture. Construction on the bridge, which connects downtown L.A. with Boyle Heights, has continued through the pandemic.
(Bureau of Engineering, City of L.A. / Michael Maltzan Architecture / HNTB Corporation)
Every month, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) reports on architectural billings for an estimated 700 U.S. firms an index that can generally be used to project construction spending over the following nine to 12 months. From February to March, billings tumbled dramatically according to the April report. (An embedded graph looks like a literal cliff.) The most recent index, published in May, showed a continued plunge the steepest decline on record.
Of the 12 Los Angeles firms contacted for this story including a small seven-person shop, studios that employ dozens and the L.A. outpost of a global design office with more than 1,200 employees 11 reported having projects suspended. For now, they are holding onto most of their employees. Only two studios reported laying off employees and two reported furloughs.
The majority of architects interviewed, however, expressed anxiety about what is to come. We might not, said one architect, have any new starts in the fall.
An interior rendering of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, designed by wHY. Founder Kulapat Yantrasast is looking into how museums might safely reopen when the lockdown orders lift.
(wHY / Academy Museum Foundation)
Kermit Baker, who serves as the AIAs chief economist and helps produce the organizations various economic reports, says he has seen a couple of major downturns in his 25 years at the AIA but never anything like the pandemic. The first was the 9/11-dot-com bubble, and the other was the recession of 2008 and 2009, he says. There is little meaningful comparison.
The economics are dire. And yet there is a determination to not waste the moment.
Every crisis is an opportunity, says Hernn Daz Alonso, director of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). The optimist in me believes that this will force us to reevaluate everything that we do.
This is a time, he says, to ask the big metaphysical questions about architecture and its purpose. Its also about considering the nuts and bolts. If we dont get a vaccine, what does that mean? What does that mean in terms of physical space? What do you do with a doorknob?
Fewer people, more lounge space? Architects say office layouts need to adjust for the coronavirus era of design.
(Jiaqi Wang / For The Times)
Paul Danna, design partner for Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Some of those immediate questions revolve around the office.
In 2015, almost a quarter of the U.S. workforce was already doing some or all of its work from home, according to data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In early May, Twitter announced it would make remote working a permanent option for its employees. Later in the month, Facebook announced a similar move. If others start doing the same, it will have a tectonic effect on commercial real estate markets. It also means that the office as we know it is about to be transformed.
Bob Hale is partner and creative director at L.A.-based RCH Studios, a 160-person architectural firm that has worked on office projects around the U.S. He says that some of his recent office designs called for densities that were twice what it was 20 years ago. COVID-19 is likely to put the brakes on that trend. Densities of offices will change, he says.
Densities of offices will change, says Bob Hale of RCH Studios, seen here at the Music Center in 2019.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
This raises questions about one of the most popular and widely reviled workplace designs: the open-plan office, in which rows of workers are jammed around long bench desks.
These are settings that have a poor track record when it comes to producing actual work. They also, according to a Danish study from 2011, account for significantly higher rates of sick leave a phenomenon that played out in a study published by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April, which showed the ways coronavirus hopscotched around an open-plan call center in Seoul. (Also, is it too much to want to sit at your desk and eat a sandwich without feeling like youre on display?)
For years, design writers have penned obituaries for the open office. And some are certain coronavirus will put another nail in the open-plan coffin. But Lawrence Scarpa, a founder of Brooks + Scarpa, a 22-person firm with offices in L.A. and Fort Lauderdale, says the open office is not going away.
Headquarters for a 60,000-square-foot tech company designed by RADAR, an architectural office founded by Rachel Allen. The office was completed just weeks before the governors safer-at-home order shut down most offices.
(Jim Simmons Photography)
For one, real estate in cities like L.A. is too valuable. Moreover, office culture is increasingly casual, and therefore architecture is unlikely to go back to the formal, private dens of Mad Men.
It satisfies a younger generation who wants a spatial equality in the office space, says Bestor. People do not want the executive holed up in the corner office.
That said, Bestor does not see a triumphant return for the cubicle, which at least gave the illusion of privacy. Cubicles are nasty, she declares.
Instead, many of the architects I spoke with visualize once-cavernous spaces segmented into more intimately scaled settings with small clusters of desks. We work in teams, so its easy to think of people in groups, says Paul Danna, a design partner in the L.A. office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, a global firm at work on an office development in Pasadena. Its a matter of putting barriers between groups as opposed to every individual.
A rendering of the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine at USC, with interior design by RCH Studios.
(Kilograph)
Ultimately, most architects said the office of the future will likely be less focused on desks and more on meeting and gathering spaces.
Its a future that some designers are already envisioning for their own firms. Im meeting with my associates and we are planning a radical shift in how we work, says Thom Mayne, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect who founded Morphosis, the 90-person studio that designed the CalTrans District 7 headquarters in downtown L.A.
He says the pandemic has been a great test of remote working for his office, one that has offered a bevy upsides: more flexible work schedules, hours gained by not sitting in soul-crushing traffic and the improved air quality that comes with less car commuting.
I am moving two-thirds of the desks out of the office and it will be more of a meeting place, he says of his Culver City office. We need couches and tables and comfortable chairs instead of just desks. It redefines the idea of everybody has a desk.
Architect Thom Mayne at a panel discussion at MOCA in 2013.
(John Sciulli / WireImage)
Thom Mayne, architect
In fact, the office of the future may look like the office of the 1990s: Scarpa says that once fears of transmission have passed, we may see a return to hot desking a flexible, more space-efficient environment in which people no longer have their own desks but a shared rotating desk and plenty of sanitized wipes, we assume.
Access to fresh air is no longer a luxury in a time of coronavirus quarantines.
(Jiaqi Wang / For The Times)
Barbara Bestor, founder Bestor Architecture
Change is also coming to the home. Certainly, the coronavirus has made glaringly evident L.A.'s shortcomings in the areas of housing construction and design. Single families in single-family homes have been waiting out the governors safer-at-home orders in relative comfort; others, not so much. The pandemic, says Mayne, makes extremely clear the importance of urban housing at multiple economic types. That is the biggest urban problem in Los Angeles.
Nearly 60,000 people in L.A. County are without permanent shelter a figure that is unconscionable on an ordinary day but at the moment represents a public health tinder box. Countless other Angelenos have been crowded into small apartments with little access to fresh air.
I have one employee who lives in an apartment without any outdoor space, says Rachel Allen, founder of RADAR, a 10-person firm with offices in Chinatown. Shes the one going the most crazy. She hangs out in her parking lot.
Architect Rachel Allen, outside her Chinatown office in May, says the design of housing is likely to evolve as a result of the pandemic.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)
Rachel Allen, founder RADAR
For starters, L.A. needs to build more housing, faster and more efficiently. The design solutions for that may already be at hand.
Prefab construction, in which a buildings key components are manufactured in a factory and then assembled on site, is already going mainstream in places like Japan, Germany and Sweden. In Los Angeles, Michael Maltzan Architecture used prefab techniques in its design of the Star Apartments for the Skid Row Housing Trust in 2014. Now Lorcan OHerlihy Architects (LOHA), is doing the same for a 54-unit project for Clifford Beers Housing that is under construction in South L.A.
Isla Intersections, designed to serve formerly homeless individuals and families, is being crafted from custom-built shipping containers. If it had been constructed as a regular apartment complex, the development would have taken four years to complete. By employing prefab, it will take two. Says the firms founder, Lorcan OHerlihy: Speed is the essential issue.
Its a method that can be applied to other housing types as well. LOHA is also at work on a pair of modular homes crafted from wood. We think, he says, this will really be of interest.
But to use these time-saving methods with more regularity, the citys Department of Building and Safety will need to be more open-minded about permitting prefab designs.
Its still challenging, says OHerlihy, of contending with the red-tape. The city is better at it now, but they are still apprehensive about it.
A photographic illustration shows Isla Intersections highlighted to the right of the freeway. The prefab housing complex for formerly homeless people was designed by Lorcan OHerlihy Architects.
(LOHA)
The pandemic, likewise, has put a spotlight on the need for residential design that is more humane especially when it comes to multifamily units and apartment buildings. Balconies should be a human right, says Bestor. Shade and balconies.
Cross-ventilation, roof decks, balconies, courtyards, gardens and other outdoor spaces have been considered luxury amenities. OHerlihy, who has long applied these principles to his work, even in his affordable housing designs, says the pandemic could make them essentials.
There is an opportunity to give more gravitas to our clients about passive design, about greening up buildings, he says. One can imagine that all of those aspects will now be taken far more seriously.
With all of this, the shape of the home as we know it is also liable to change.
Lorcan OHerlihy, in 2018, at an L.A. housing complex designed by his firm. The architect is a big proponent of passive design techniques that bring air and light into buildings.
(Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times)
Lorcan OHerlihy, founder Lorcan OHerlihy Architects
For one, the average middle-class home will likely include a home office as a standard feature. It will mean adjusting homes in other ways too.
Already, over the last decade, the so-called Boomerang Generation adults in their late 20s and early 30s have increasingly returned home to live with their parents. For architects, this has meant thinking about designing multigenerational homes that serve children when they are small but also as adults. Now the pandemic has added work-from-home to the mix, creating a scenario in which multiple adults may be working in a home at one time.
Home design may, as a result, shift to incorporate larger bedroom spaces that children can inhabit over time and also use as a remote workspace. Something like a loft within a family home, says Allen.
And every home may need a corner or two that functions as a ready-made Zoom backdrop (or risk having your decor deconstructed on Twitter). There is this intersection with built and virtual space, says Daz Alonso. That will be a factor moving forward.
In late April, urbanist Joel Kotkin wrote an op-ed for The Times in which he noted that L.A.'s dispersed urban pattern has proven a major asset in the midst of the pandemic, noting that infection rates were below that of denser cities like New York. Its probably wildly premature to be doing any end-zone dances in favor of sprawl, given that the pandemic has yet to fully play out. And, as Scarpa notes, sprawl, with its traffic and attendant accidents and pollution, is killing us slowly.
In fact, almost every architect I interviewed for this story says that it remains essential for L.A. to move forward on increasing density. But, says Milton Curry, dean of the school of architecture at USC. We need to do it smartly.
Currently, the model for density in L.A. consists of podium apartments: two stories of concrete parking structure, topped by several stories of apartments. Or as Bestor likes to describe it: Parking, followed by three stories of crap. Outdoor space may consist of a few decorative hedges at the perimeters. Only the most high-end ones feature courtyards or roof decks.
Bestor says the pandemic has revealed the urgency for better models.
Barbara Bestors firm has undertaken a research project that looks at how L.A. might bring density, outdoor spaces and walkability to a neighborhood near San Fernando Road along the L.A. River.
(Bestor Architecture)
In a development that occupies a whole block, for example, parking could be relegated to one corner, apart from the residential structures, she says. You put the parking in one corner and then you walk to your apartment through an open space. From there, you have groupings of three- and five-story buildings with their own entrances. Thats a good form of density for L.A. she says, and its easier to manage COVID situations because its not one lobby for a million people.
Ideally, urban planners would then find ways to incentivize the connection of green spaces so that these outdoor areas arent happy accidents but a continuous green lung.
This is the moment to push for pocket parks and other things that allow us to exist together in a dense environment, says Sharon Johnston, cofounder of Johnston Marklee. (Its a strategy her firm deployed in its renovation and expansion of UCLAs graduate art studios, which has a courtyard and open-air work areas.)
Is there anyone out there who does not like fresh air and cross-ventilation or views? asks Lawrence Scarpa. A housing development for disabled vets by Brooks + Scarpa maximizes light and air.
(Tara Wujcik)
In the interim, the efficient use and reuse of our existing infrastructure will be critical. If fewer buildings are used as commercial office space (which looks highly likely), that could make way for those buildings to be turned into housing. We are already seeing some office-to-housing conversions in Koreatown, says Allen.
And in January, California relaxed rules for constructing ADUs accessory dwelling units, or granny flats which continue to bring smart density to the city. Nursing homes are going to be very unpopular for a long time, adds Allen, whose firm has worked on many of these. More folks than ever are going to want Grandma in the backyard where they can keep eye on her.
Excerpt from:
Architects on reopening cities in the coronavirus era - Los Angeles Times
Category
Architects | Comments Off on Architects on reopening cities in the coronavirus era – Los Angeles Times
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
designed by 1+1>2 architects, this single-storey house in vietnam is topped with a thatched roof that protects the building from the regions varied weather conditions. titled mothers house, the project forms part of jackfruit village, a community of new residences in a western suburb of hanoi. surrounded by natural trees and other vegetation, the property was designed to exist in harmony with the bucolic landscape, allowing residents to immerse themselves in nature.
all images by hiroyuki oki, courtesy of 1+1>2 architects
1+1>2 architects, led by hoang thuc hao, approached the project as a potential model for contemporary rural housing in vietnam. sloping down towards the lake, the terrain on which the house sits undulates with the ground floor responding to the changes in elevation. the adobe bricks used for the walls were sourced from the land itself, while the thatched U-shaped roof canopy protects a secluded interior courtyard. here, a foot path provides access to the propertys interior.
internally, each area of the house has been designed to offer a range of different spatial experiences. protected from the sun, a curved corridor connects all areas of the home, with rooms facing the lake receiving fresh air and ventilation. meanwhile, outdoor terraces allow occupants to spend as much time outdoors as possible. the residence has two bedrooms, with all areas designed to convey a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere where humans can coexist with nature.
Link:
1+1>2 architects tops 'mother's house' in vietnam with thatched roof - Designboom
Category
Architects | Comments Off on 1+1>2 architects tops ‘mother’s house’ in vietnam with thatched roof – Designboom
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
When a couple in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, tapped Will Gamble Architects to design an extension for their Victorian home, they expected the adjacent stone wall ruin would have to go. But the firm came back with an entirely different idea: instead of demolishing the centuries-old remnants, the architects proposed celebrating the crumbling structure with a reinforcing steel, brick, and glass volume.
Locatedabout an hour northwest of London in Northamptonshire, a Grade II listed Victorian home was extended to encompass an adjacent cattle barn and historic ruin.
"Despite falling into disrepair, the ruin was very important within the community and further afield," says director Will Gamble. "It once produced parchment paper and was rumored to have made paper for members of the royal family. The ruin was also very much part of the character of the building as a whole, and we felt strongly that it needed to be preserved."
The disorderly nature of the ruin is juxtaposed against the modern extension and Victorian-era residence. The facade brickwork was largely completed using reclaimed materials, allowing the new section to sensitively blend into its surroundings.
Nestled between the existing Victorian home and the crumbling masonry section sat an unused cattle shed. To connect all three sections, Gamble proposed a "building within a building" using materials reclaimed from the site. "[The ruin] ended up being the driving force behind the entire scheme, and the change in approach was eventually well received by the client, the planners, and Historic England," Gamble says.
A new brick staircase leads up to a rooftop terrace above the new section. A portion of the Victorian home was also remodeled to tie the old and new spaces together.
New retaining walls and landscaping help to further harmonize the stepped areas.
One half of the ruin footprint is now an enclosed living room and kitchen for the homeowners. Cor-Ten steel beams reinforce the formerly crumbling sections while reclaimed brick and floor-to-ceiling glass fill in the rest. The new volume was limited to one story to allow remaining remnants of the ruin to dominate the overall visual appearance.
One half of the ruin was enclosed and is now part of the kitchen and dining area. The other half of the ruin encloses a new patio, which is accessible from the former factory entrance.
Internally, timber joists inside the old cattle shed were left exposed and stone walls were washed in lime to create a mottled effect. Painted steelwork distinguishes the new section while white-washed oak floors help to connect the entire space. Contrasting with it all is a strikingly contemporary kitchen, which plays on the theme of a modern intervention set within a historic context.
The firm also designed the new kitchen space, opting for a contrasting darker palette.
An original timber post stands beside the new sleek cabinetry and stainless-steel countertops.
"The concept behind the interiors was to go for an honest palette of materials that celebrated the architecture of the cattle shed and the ruin," explains Gamble. "We tried to preserve the character of the ruin and the cattle shed as much as possible by leaving most of what was already there uncovered."
Painted wood and steel beams subtly mark a separation between the former cattle shed and ruin footprint. The two areas now seamlessly flow together as a kitchen, dining, and living area.
The new dining area looks out onto the front garden. Will Gamble Architects designed a concrete plinth to run along the base of the stone walls as a monolithic 'skirting' design.
Opposite the dining room and around the corner from the kitchen, a small living room looks out directly onto the ruins. Sliding glass doors provide access to the new enclosed patio.
Yet another discovery during the restoration was the original parchment factorys location on top of a natural spring. According to Gambles research, hides used to make the parchment were cleaned by lowering them into a series of spring-fed baths located underneath the building. The firm reopened one of these underground baths as part of the project, creating a new water feature and dry well for water runoff.
J67 was designed by Ejvind A. Johansson in 1957 when he was head of FDB Furniture. With a fine balance between light and heavy, feminine and masculine, J67 is a simple piece of wooden furniture that harmonizes function, aesthetics and durability.
Industrial, organic charm - Juxtaposing the unique, rustic features of reclaimed wood with the clean, contemporary shape of Parsons design, our Rio Dining Collection is crafted with an industrial, minimalist aesthetic.
The Carronade Pendant by Illuminating Experiences uses an organic blend of raw materials to create a pleasant, yet functional fixture. Its body resembles that of a spotlight, featuring a closed cylindrical Aluminum head and a wooden arch with sleek metal hinges.
A view of the historic water feature, which is now integrated into a new patio surrounding the ruin and modern extension.
See more here:
A Victorian Home Takes Over the Ruins of an Old Parchment Factory in England - Dwell
Category
Architects | Comments Off on A Victorian Home Takes Over the Ruins of an Old Parchment Factory in England – Dwell
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
Commercial
In addition, the report categorizes product type and end uses as dynamic market segments that directly impact the growth potential and roadmap of the target market. The report highlights the core developments that are common to all regional hubs and their subsequent impact on the holistic growth path of the Countertops market worldwide. Other valuable aspects of the report are the market development history, various marketing channels, supplier analysis, potential buyers and the analysis of the markets industrial chain.
Ask For Discounts @ https://www.marketresearchintellect.com/ask-for-discount/?rid=303747&utm_source=WCS&utm_medium=888
Table of Content
1 Introduction of Countertops Market
1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions
2 Executive Summary
3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research
3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources
4 Countertops Market Outlook
4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis
5 Countertops Market, By Deployment Model
5.1 Overview
6 Countertops Market, By Solution
6.1 Overview
7 Countertops Market, By Vertical
7.1 Overview
8 Countertops Market, By Geography
8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East
9 Countertops Market Competitive Landscape
9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies
10 Company Profiles
10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments
11 Appendix
11.1 Related Research
Customized Research Report Using Corporate Email Id @ https://www.marketresearchintellect.com/need-customization/?rid=303747&utm_source=WCS&utm_medium=888
About Us:
Market Research Intellect provides syndicated and customized research reports to clients from various industries and organizations with the aim of delivering functional expertise. We provide reports for all industries including Energy, Technology, Manufacturing and Construction, Chemicals and Materials, Food and Beverage and more. These reports deliver an in-depth study of the market with industry analysis, market value for regions and countries and trends that are pertinent to the industry.
Contact Us:
Mr. Steven Fernandes
Market Research Intellect
New Jersey ( USA )
Tel: +1-650-781-4080
Tags: Countertops Market Size, Countertops Market Trends, Countertops Market Growth, Countertops Market Forecast, Countertops Market Analysis Sarkari result, Government Jobs, Sarkari naukri, NMK, Majhi Naukri,
Read more from the original source:
Countertops Market Research Report 2020: Key Players, Applications, Drivers, Trends and Forecast to 2026 - WaterCloud News
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on Countertops Market Research Report 2020: Key Players, Applications, Drivers, Trends and Forecast to 2026 – WaterCloud News
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
Other
In addition, the report categorizes product type and end uses as dynamic market segments that directly impact the growth potential and roadmap of the target market. The report highlights the core developments that are common to all regional hubs and their subsequent impact on the holistic growth path of the Laminate Countertops market worldwide. Other valuable aspects of the report are the market development history, various marketing channels, supplier analysis, potential buyers and the analysis of the markets industrial chain.
Ask For Discounts @ https://www.marketresearchintellect.com/ask-for-discount/?rid=260094&utm_source=WCS&utm_medium=888
Table of Content
1 Introduction of Laminate Countertops Market
1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions
2 Executive Summary
3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research
3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources
4 Laminate Countertops Market Outlook
4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis
5 Laminate Countertops Market, By Deployment Model
5.1 Overview
6 Laminate Countertops Market, By Solution
6.1 Overview
7 Laminate Countertops Market, By Vertical
7.1 Overview
8 Laminate Countertops Market, By Geography
8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East
9 Laminate Countertops Market Competitive Landscape
9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies
10 Company Profiles
10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments
11 Appendix
11.1 Related Research
Customized Research Report Using Corporate Email Id @ https://www.marketresearchintellect.com/need-customization/?rid=260094&utm_source=WCS&utm_medium=888
About Us:
Market Research Intellect provides syndicated and customized research reports to clients from various industries and organizations with the aim of delivering functional expertise. We provide reports for all industries including Energy, Technology, Manufacturing and Construction, Chemicals and Materials, Food and Beverage and more. These reports deliver an in-depth study of the market with industry analysis, market value for regions and countries and trends that are pertinent to the industry.
Contact Us:
Mr. Steven Fernandes
Market Research Intellect
New Jersey ( USA )
Tel: +1-650-781-4080
Tags: Laminate Countertops Market Size, Laminate Countertops Market Trends, Laminate Countertops Market Growth, Laminate Countertops Market Forecast, Laminate Countertops Market Analysis Sarkari result, Government Jobs, Sarkari naukri, NMK, Majhi Naukri,
See the original post here:
Laminate Countertops Market Research Report 2020: Key Players, Applications, Drivers, Trends and Forecast to 2026 - WaterCloud News
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on Laminate Countertops Market Research Report 2020: Key Players, Applications, Drivers, Trends and Forecast to 2026 – WaterCloud News
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
A recent market study on the global Countertops Dishwasher market reveals that the global Countertops Dishwasher market is expected to reach a value of ~US$ XX by the end of 2029 growing at a CAGR of ~XX% during the forecast period (2019-2029).
The Countertops Dishwasher market study includes a thorough analysis of the overall competitive landscape and the company profiles of leading market players involved in the global Countertops Dishwasher market. Further, the presented study offers accurate insights pertaining to the different segments of the global Countertops Dishwasher market such as the market share, value, revenue, and how each segment is expected to fair post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Get Free Sample PDF (including COVID19 Impact Analysis, full TOC, Tables and Figures) of Market Report @ https://www.researchmoz.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=2674976&source=atm
The following doubts are addressed in the market report:
Key Highlights of the Countertops Dishwasher Market Report
The presented report segregates the Countertops Dishwasher market into different segments to ensure the readers gain a complete understanding of the different aspects of the Countertops Dishwasher market.
Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry [emailprotected] https://www.researchmoz.com/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=2674976&source=atm
Segmentation of the Countertops Dishwasher market
Competitive Outlook
This section of the report throws light on the recent mergers, collaborations, partnerships, and research and development activities within the Countertops Dishwasher market on a global scale. Further, a detailed assessment of the pricing, marketing, and product development strategies adopted by leading market players is included in the Countertops Dishwasher market report.
Key market playersMajor competitors identified in this market include Electrolux, Whirlpool, Sumsung, Panasonic, Siemens, Haier, Bosch, Arcelik, Smeg, Baumatic, Indesit, Asko, GE, Galanz, etc.
Based on the Region:Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India and ASEAN)North America (US and Canada)Europe (Germany, France, UK and Italy)Rest of World (Latin America, Middle East & Africa)
Based on the Type:SingleDouble
Based on the Application:ResidentialCommercial
You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.researchmoz.com/checkout?rep_id=2674976&licType=S&source=atm
Read the original here:
COVID-19 impact: Insight on the Growth of Countertops Dishwasher Market Growth with Challenges, Standardization, Competitive Market Share and Top...
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on COVID-19 impact: Insight on the Growth of Countertops Dishwasher Market Growth with Challenges, Standardization, Competitive Market Share and Top…
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
You reach for a can of soup at the store. Or youre about to sit down in a waiting room chair at the auto repair shop. Suddenly, red flags for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) fly through your mind.
Is this safe?
Heres some straight scoop for you.
Yes, the virus lives on surfaces door handles, countertops, clothing, furniture and much more. How long the virus survives on a given surface varies from hours to days, depending on numerous factors.
Yes, you can become infected with the virus after touching a contaminated surface.
But no, its not likely you would get sick that way especially if you diligently practice good hand hygiene.
We keep saying the same things your mother taught you when you were growing up, said OSF HealthCares Lori Grooms, director of Infection Prevention and Control, Quality and Safety. Frequent hand washing throughout the day is the best way to protect yourself.
Touching objects will not make you sick
The consensus among experts is that COVID-19 spreads primarily from person to person, via those famous respiratory droplets. We emit these microscopic particles when we breathe. We emit them in increasing quantity, and send them further distances, when we talk, sing, shout, cough or sneeze.
Thats why wearing a mask and social distancing are recommended best practices.
So, how do surfaces come into play?
First, those droplets land where they land: carpet, desktops, keyboards, clothes, furniture, etc. If you touch a droplet, whatever bacteria or virus is in the droplet can be transmitted to the next thing you touch. That might be a doorknob or it might be your mouth.
Which is why good hand hygiene is so important.
This is a respiratory virus. It mainly attacks your respiratory system, so it needs to have contact with a mucus membrane, such as in your nose, mouth or eyes, Grooms said.
In other words, simply touching a contaminated surface will not make you sick. The problem starts when you use unwashed or unsanitized hands to eat or scratch your nose or rub your eyes.
Even then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that such contact is not believed to be the main way the virus spreads.
Listen to Mom: Wash your hands
How much virus is concentrated on a surface? How long has it been there? Has the virus been exposed to direct sunlight? What is the air temperature and humidity?
All of these are factors affecting the relative risks that come with touching surfaces.
We cant know all of the answers, so its best to be safe and follow Moms admonition.
But we should not worry about everything we touch on a trip to the store. We dont need to wipe down every pizza box or postal package we bring into our home.
The likelihood of picking up coronavirus from a cardboard package is very slim, Grooms said.
Its been shown the virus can survive 24 hours on cardboard, but that doesnt mean its present in a level where it will cause infection. Just wash your hands after you handle the package.
The same goes for your groceries, whether you have them delivered or go to the store yourself.
Wash your fresh items, like, fruits and vegetables, Grooms said. Things that are not in sealed packages like, broccoli, onions, oranges you should always be cleaning anyway. Its not necessary to clean prepackaged items. The virus can live on those surfaces, but you dont consume all your groceries in one day. Chances are, even if the virus was there, it will die off before you touch the package again.
That said, always clean your hands before and after you prepare food and before you consume food, she said.
Dont shake your dirty laundry
The virus can live on fabric, such as clothing or on your sofa.
But cloth really isnt an effective mode of transmission, Grooms said. You would have to touch the specific spot and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth.
One precaution with fabric Grooms does advise: Dont shake out your clothes and linens. If the virus is present, shaking will send particles into the air to be inhaled. Instead, gently place the items in a pile of dirty laundry.
Then wash your hands and wipe down the counter top. And go about your life.
We cant live in a world where were paranoid to touch things, Grooms said. The best thing you can do is what your mother told you: Wash your hands.
Kirk Wessler started work as a writing coordinator for OSF HealthCare in January 2019. A Peoria native and graduate of Bradley University, he previously worked for newspapers in Missouri, Texas and most recently at the Peoria Journal Star.
More here:
Our Health: The truth about coronavirus on surfaces - Alton Telegraph
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on Our Health: The truth about coronavirus on surfaces – Alton Telegraph
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
Curious just how far your dollar goes in Charlotte?
We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to scoring apartment rentals in Charlotte if you're on a budget of up to $2,600/month.
Take a peek at what rentals the city has to offer, below. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.)
Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions.
Listed at $2,517/month, this 1,576-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is located at 1351 E. Morehead St.
The apartment has granite countertops, hardwood flooring and air conditioning. Neither cats nor dogs are permitted. The rental doesn't require a leasing fee.
Walk Score indicates that the surrounding area is friendly for those on foot, is very bikeable and has some transit options.
(Take a look at the complete listing here.)
Here's a 1,374-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 2020 Morton St. that's going for $2,542/month.
The listing promises a mix of hardwood floors and carpeting and a fireplace in the apartment. Pet lovers are in luck: This property is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly.
According to Walk Score's assessment, the area around this address isn't very walkable, has some bike infrastructure and has some transit options.
(Take a look at the full listing here.)
Next, check out this 2,080-square-foot three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment that's located at 4835 Cameron Valley Parkway. It's listed for $2,575/month.
The building boasts garage parking. The apartment comes furnished and includes a fireplace, a dishwasher, a walk-in closet and hardwood flooring. Pet owners, take heed: The rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly.
According to Walk Score, this location is somewhat walkable, isn't particularly bikeable and has some transit options.
(See the complete listing here.)
Listed at $2,600/month, this two-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment is located at 251 Lincoln St.
Amenities offered in the building include garage parking and outdoor space. In the unit, you can anticipate hardwood flooring, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. Cats and dogs are not welcome.
According to Walk Score's assessment, the area around this address is somewhat walkable, is very bikeable and has good transit options.
(Check out the complete listing here.)
Working with a tight budget? Here are the cheapest rentals recently listed in Charlotte.
This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Additionally, read on for five marketing tips for real estate agents to showcase local market expertise.
Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Continued here:
Apartments for rent in Charlotte: What will $2600 get you? - Hoodline
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on Apartments for rent in Charlotte: What will $2600 get you? – Hoodline
-
June 1, 2020 by
Mr HomeBuilder
Like HGTVs reality show Good Bones, local renovation specialists ICON Custom Builders have a real passion for transforming older homes into stunning remodels.
Readers may remember meeting ICONs Chuck Hicks and Shawn Bowman-Hicks five years ago when the couple invited Winston-Salem Monthlys Step Inside team into their recently remodeled home in Buena Vista (Open House, May 2015). Always on the lookout for the next renovation, they discovered a home right around the corner from them on one of their favorite streets Roslyn Road.
Hidden from view, the couple didnt even know the house was there until they discovered a For Sale sign.
Shawn was the one who saw the wonderful white brick cottage behind the trees and bushes and dreamed of saving it, Chuck says.
After two years of waiting, and with a promise not to tear the house down, their patience and persistence won the day; ICON Custom Builders was the proud owner of a home that had been in the Vogler family since 1936. In need of some serious TLC, or as Chuck describes it, A total and complete renovation from top to bottom, ICONs in-house architect, David Meyer, got to work on renovation plans.
We wanted to honor the original house design, he says, to renovate it in a way that looked like it had always been there.
As workers began to take the house down to the studs, Chuck reached out to his friend, neighbor, and interior designer Amanda Hiatt, and asked if she would be interested in taking a look inside. ICON had just finished a major kitchen remodel for the Hiatts, and Chuck and Shawn were impressed with Amandas design talent.
For years I walked past that home and wanted so badly to see inside, she says.
Overgrown with ivy and azaleas, Hiatt had always imagined the hidden house as a secret cottage and just knew it must have had a powerful backstory. To no ones surprise, Hiatt was hooked the moment she walked through the door.
Chuck and Hiatt agreed that the primary goal of the renovation was to preserve the historical integrity of the house and create a home for a modern family to enjoy. Walking the thin line between making conservative design choices and remaining true to her own design integrity, Hiatt occasionally pushed the envelope in pursuit of the wow factor.
Like the paint color in the libary, she says with a smile. The painter must have said Are you sure? a dozen times.
Of course, Hiatt dreamed of bolder choices in some rooms, but in the end the classic looks she created like navy cabinetry and white quartz countertops made design statements of their own.
For the two new bathrooms added to the second floor, David Meyer designed an accommodating side dormer to match the steep front gables of the house. And when the decision to open up the first floor staircase was made, he again borrowed from existing handrail and baluster designs from a second floor stair.
Helping to meet the challenges of a new kitchen design created from four smaller rooms was Jenny Roush Newman with West End Cabinet Company.
It was a space in stark contrast to any open kitchen concept, she says.
Instead, the cabinet designer helped create a beautiful transitional kitchen that boasts, among other things, an original breakfast nook transformed into a large butlers pantry with ample storage and a wet bar.
The finished renovation proved to be a perfect balance of historical charm and modern amenities. Chuck, Shawn, and ICON were happy to hear from so many Vogler friends and neighbors who were excited to see what had been accomplished and they couldnt believe it was the same house. In addition to being showcased on the Home Builders Associations Parade of Homes and playing host to a soiree for members of the Buena Vista Sipping Society, ICON hosted a luncheon for its employees, subcontractors, suppliers, and associates as an expression of their gratitude.
I still run by it often, says Hiatt of her secret cottage. But now I just smile knowing that shes doing just fine.
Read the rest here:
A major makeover in the heart of Buena Vista - Winston-Salem Journal
Category
Countertops | Comments Off on A major makeover in the heart of Buena Vista – Winston-Salem Journal
« old Postsnew Posts »