Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Downtown Austin is transmogrifying before our eyes as it turns into (Caution: columnist exaggeration ahead) Manhattan-on-the-Colorado.

The signs are everywhere, helping us sort out which building will be what. There are hotels, office buildings, condos and all kinds of stuff that rich real estate investors think will make them even richer real estate investors.

Eager to get in on the downtown crane craze, the University of Texas System is pretty far along on the 19-story building that will replace several downtown office buildings that long have housed system officials. Move-in at the new building begins Aug. 1. Congrats to UT Systemites and best wishes on your new home.

READ: University of Texas System building $102 million headquarters downtown

The sign in front of that new building identifies the replacement office building as the Replacement Office Building. Heckuva name. I like it. Hey, you going to the meeting at the ROB?

The name also seems to have caught on with DPR Construction, the folks building it. Its website identifies the 330,000-square-foot building as The University of Texas System, Replacement Office Building.

So thats it. Now and forever its the Replacement Office Building, just like the sign says. Done. Finito.

Nope, insists UT System spokeswoman Jenny LaCoste-Caputo.

The building itself actually has this inscribed on it: The University of Texas System Administration, she told me.

Not trying to get picky here, but the inscription actually says The University of Texas System. Either way, is that the name of the building or the name of the agency in it? Shouldnt the building have a distinctive name maybe a famous persons name as do the buildings the Replacement Office Building is replacing?

To my knowledge, LaCoste-Caputo reported, there have not been discussions about a different name for the building.

Karen Adler of the systems Office of External Relations told me Replacement Office Building is sort of internal speak and not the buildings name.

Its simply an identifier. Its who we are, she said. We are the University of Texas System.

And she joked that it could be the Ken Herman University of Texas System Building for a $100 million donation. I told her it takes me three years to earn that kind of money. (And Im aware some readers would be willing to contribute if it would be the Ken Herman Memorial University of Texas System Building.)

Perhaps the UT System needs a Your Name Here campaign aimed at wealthy donors.

RELATED: UT fund drive ends with $3.1 billion in gifts, pledges

At the new building, UT will be on six floors, others include parking and leased space. It replaces two buildings knocked down at the site on West Seventh Street, between Lavaca and Colorado streets. Those buildings unimaginatively were known as the Lavaca Building and the Colorado Building.

The three other nearby UT System buildings that are being replaced have peoples names on them, though only one of the three is readily recognizable and another is a Confederate guy.

You know the story about for whom the O. Henry Building is named. (Its a short story.) That structure was sold by the UT System to the Texas State University System. And the UT folks have signed a ground lease with Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. for the site of the systems current Ashbel Smith Hall and Claudia Taylor Johnson Hall.

That latter one is a building named for someone everybody knows but not under the name by which everybody knew her. Claudia Taylor Johnson was Lady Bird Johnson. What if we would have rechristened Town Lake as Claudia Taylor Lake? Just not the same.

And by getting out of Ashbel Smith Hall, the UT System is cutting ties with the Confederacy. In addition to other stuff (Republic of Texas secretary of state and ambassador to the United Kingdom and France, first UT System Board president), Smith (1805-1886) was a celebrated physician and a colonel in the army of the Confederacy.

Even his name is kind of Gone with the Wind-ish. Oh, Ashbel! (Not to be confused with O. Henry.)

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Post-Civil War, Smith did lots of good stuff for our state, serving in the Texas House and becoming a major advocate for education, including helping to establish Prairie View A&M University for African-Americans.

Trammell Crow will develop the property on which Smith and Johnson halls now stand. The lease requires preservation of the southern and western facades of Johnson Hall.

So whos got ideas for a good name for the new UT System administration building, something UT appropriate? FYI, there was a time when I thought if he had led the Horns to another national title or two we might have renamed our Capitol as the Vince Young Statehouse. Alas, all we got was a steakhouse.

How about we name the new UT System building for former state senator and Texas Supreme Court Justice James Wallace?

Yeah, I know hes a University of Arkansas alum, but I like the idea of the UT System housed in something named Wallace Hall, reminding all in perpetuity of the recent regent who spent a lot of time investigating, suing and being a general nuisance to the system.

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Herman: Move-in day nears for UT System Replacement Office Building - MyStatesman.com

DeWalt is expanding its 20V Max System to include the worlds first pro-grade 18 GA flooring stapler, the DeWalt 20V Max Flooring Stapler. This new stapler can drive18 GA 1/4-inch narrow crown staples from 1/2- to 1-1/2-inches for installation of solid and engineered hardwood ranging in thickness from 3/8- to 5/8-inch. It features a contact arm optimized for flooring, tool-free adjustable base, and a brushless motor.

If youve ever put in the effort of tongue and groove flooring installation, you know what a challenge it can be. Not only is your body in an uncomfortable posture bent at the back, weight on your knees for long periods of time, but then theres the standing up and kneeling down again for trips to the saw for cutting pieces to length or for notching around doorways. The nailer or stapler is usually powered by a gas cartridge or a compressor and hose to which you must be tethered.

Then you might have to contend with the inconsistency of the nailing angle and splitting of groove rails. You could use a flooring nailer with a hammer for consistent angles, but that can be tiresome, especially for large jobs. DeWalt might just have a solution with theDeWalt 20V Max Flooring Stapler that just intuitively looks like it will make your flooring installation life a whole lot easier.

Youll immediately notice the cordless nature of the tool the first of its kind. Cutting the cord/hose is probably enough to convince most people that this stapler is superior to most. But theres much more here. The staplers adjustable, non-marring base gives it an upside-down orientation when in use and ensures proper fastener angle every time. You can quickly slide the stapler down the groove and fire off fasteners quickly with the tool-free selectable trigger for sequential or rapid sequential actuation. To add to the potential speed, molded to the traditional trigger is a paddle trigger which allows the user to sink staples just as fast as the motor will cycle.

In addition to all that good stuff is a brushless motor which extends tool and battery life, work lights, and a bottom load magazine. We have a feeling that the DeWalt 20V Max Flooring Stapler is a big leap forward for flooring installation. It might not eliminate the bent-over and kneeling posture required, but it certainly looks like it will significantly cut down on the time you have to be in it.

Link:
DeWalt 20V Max Flooring Stapler Unleashed - Pro Tool Reviews (blog)

Everett Harding, and employee of the Cincinnati Floor Company, installs new unfinished wood slats for the new gym floor at Whiteoak High School. The project began on June 1, 2017 with the removal of the previous flooring and is expected to be completed by August 1, 2017.

Ryan Applegate | The Times-Gazette

The Whiteoak High School gymnasium is currently undergoing a significant facelift, as a new wood floor is being installed at the facility. Cincinnati Floor Company (CFC) was contracted to perform the tear down of the old floor and the installation of the new floor. The Bright Local School District (BLSD) has also entered into a maintenance agreement with CFC for annual maintenance and prevention measures.

CFC is a locally owned flooring installation and maintenance company based in St. Bernard, Ohio. The company has been in business since 1894 as an installer and manufacturer of wood flooring. According to the companys website CFC has installed numerous gym floors locally as well as nationally including the practice courts for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA and historic Assembly Hall on the campus of Indiana University (Bloomington).

The project will cost the BLSD $150,000 all of which, according to BLSD superintendent Ted Downing, has been fully funded through the general fund of the district. Downing told The Times-Gazette that the floor should last up to 50 years as long as it is taken care of and maintained properly.

The BLSD Board of Education decided to move forward with this project after it was discovered, during the last school year, that the wood panels were beginning to break and that it was likely they would continue to break if something was not done to remedy the problem. We looked at things and figured if we dont replace it we are going to keep nickel and diming. It needs to be fixed, said Downing. Downing also pointed out that the roof on the gym, and other parts of the school, was leaking leading to the accelerated deterioration of the gym floor. Downing also said, When they took everything out of here there was still water sitting on the concrete under the gym floor. They had to delay work on the new floor by a week to let it dry before they started the installation project.

Because of the differences in concrete pouring practices and advanced technology that is used to level the concrete in the present day CFC has had to re-laser and readjust every board that has been placed to fit the gym floor.

Along with the new floor the gym has also been the recipient of new backboards, new lights, an air conditioning system, and new visitors side bleachers. The money that the BLSD will save by using LED lighting throughout the school is being used to help fund the air conditioning system not only in the gymnasium but also in other parts of the school. The installation of the new air conditioning system in the gym is one of the key aspects of maintaining this floor for a long time. The climate controlled environment will allow the wood to avoid a tremendous amount of the stress the old floor had to endure simply by allowing the wood to not draw moisture and extending the overall life span of the floor, Downing told The Times-Gazette.

The district has also undertaken several other improvement projects in the last few years including the re-paving of the school parking lots and the construction of a soccer field. Downing advised that if there are enough kids we are going to be using the soccer field this coming year. There are also plans to build a batting facility for the baseball and softball teams, the facility will be located behind Whiteoak High School.

When asked about the impact the improved facilities will have on the athletes at the school Downing said, First of all, if you dont take care of your facilities how are you doing to have any pride in them? If you have pride in where you play and what you are in it means a lot more to you. Downing went on to say, Its like your home, you cannot let your home go and not do stuff. Since I came on board the Board of Education and the treasurer and myself have all been working together and we are getting stuff done. We are trying to bring back a lot of the pride that had gotten away for a while.

The gym floor was started on June 1 and is expected to be finished by August 1 for the start of the 2017 volleyball season. If the floor is not finished by then we can practice in the elementary school gym. There are advantages to having a second gym, Downing said.

Along with the improvements to the facilities the district also intends to offer bowling as a varsity sport in 2017 and will be offering more classes at the high school for the 2017 school year.

Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.

Everett Harding, and employee of the Cincinnati Floor Company, installs new unfinished wood slats for the new gym floor at Whiteoak High School. The project began on June 1, 2017 with the removal of the previous flooring and is expected to be completed by August 1, 2017.

http://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Whiteoak-Gym-Floor-Replacement.jpgEverett Harding, and employee of the Cincinnati Floor Company, installs new unfinished wood slats for the new gym floor at Whiteoak High School. The project began on June 1, 2017 with the removal of the previous flooring and is expected to be completed by August 1, 2017. Ryan Applegate | The Times-Gazette

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Whiteoak High School gets new gym floor; part of ongoing district renovations - Hillsboro Times Gazette

By Kaitlin Junod lexington@wickedlocal.com

The Lexington Permanent Building Committee and DiNisco Design met on Wednesday to discuss the progress of the construction at Clarke and Diamond Middle Schools, the Hastings School and the new preschool and community center at Pelham Road. While all projects are progressing on schedule and on budget, DiNisco presented new design elements and adjustments for the Hastings School and the Pelham Road site.

Pelham Road

Following a summit meeting of the Board of Selectmen and the School, Appropriation and Capital Expenditures Committees earlier this month, Donna DiNisco of DiNisco Design reported that the final decision at the Pelham Road project is to tear down the existing building and construct a new Lexington Childrens Place. A robust schematic design is projected to be ready to present at the fall special Town Meeting, scheduled for Oct. 16 and 18.

While the design for a brand-new LCP is moving forward, plans to devote part of the Pelham Road site to an expansion of the Lexington Community Center have been put on the back burner for now. At a summit meeting in August, committee members and selectmen will decide on the projects next steps.

We just want to continue to look at it holistically to see what makes sense from the community center aspect of it, DiNisco said. Its taking a pause and not rushing into a decision that might not ultimately be the best decision for the community center.

Hastings Elementary

The Hastings Elementary School project is officially in the design development stage, said DiNisco. The biggest change to the buildings design was the decision to shift its orientation slightly south to increase the space between the school and the bordering properties to the north and reduce the length of the retaining wall between them.

According to DiNisco, shifting the building further south would increase the distance between property lines from 30-35 feet to 60 feet in some places, but it would not affect the overall square footage of the building. The adjusted design would have some impacts on the outdoor space, reducing walkways and planted areas near the playground.

Andrew Clarke and Curt Barrentine of the Permanent Building Committee expressed concern that the students would be losing out on active play space, but DiNisco said she was confident that the total 43,000 square feet of play area could be maintained. She emphasized that the design is still in the works, and that the plans presented at the meeting were not finalized.

The only downside of shifting the building would be compromising the north-south solar orientation of the classrooms, which was the driving factor behind the old design. This means that with the shifted building, some classrooms could experience glare from the sun depending on the time of day, but DiNisco said these impacts were not major, and were outweighed by the budgetary and logistical benefits of the new design.

Clarke and Diamond

June was a productive month for the Clarke Middle School project, according to a report made to the committee. Demolition for the interior renovation began, as did preparations for relocating the gas line at the bridge. In July, permanent power will be installed, interior demolition will be completed and a pedestrian bridge will be installed. Demolition at the entry plaza and parking lot will also be completed, with the hopes of installing underlying structures and new utilities there.

At the Diamond Middle School project, drywall in the classroom addition is complete, with the prime and first coats of paint finished. Throughout June, priorities included demolishing the buildings existing boilers and starting installation of lockers, flooring and ceiling tiles. In July, the committee hopes to finish installing lockers, start millwork and have permanent power at the site completed.

Read the rest here:
Brand-new building pitched for Lexington Children's Place - Wicked Local Wakefield

British clean-tech company, Pavegen, installed the first street that will generate electricity with help of the weight of pedestrians footsteps in Bird Street, London. Shoppers and commuters will generate electricity by walking on tiles encompassing 10 square meters (107 square foot), and will also be able to check how much theyve generated from a mobile application.

Pavegens installation is a multifunctional, custom flooring system that is embedded with a wireless transmitter, capturing the data from the tiles, along with generators that generate kinetic energy as people walk. This happens because the pressure causes generators in the flooring to vertically displace. Therefore, electromagnetic induction creates kinetic energy, which can then be used to provide electric power. As its name suggests, in Bird Street, the tiles will be powering ambient bird chirps as well as lighting.

Lawrence Kemball-Cook on a bike in Bird Street. / Twitter

When a person walks, they generate 5 watts of energy continuously, so you are, we all are, a 5-watt power-feed. Now imagine 10 people; thats 50 watts of energy continuously, saysPavegen CEO Laurence Kemball-Cook.Lets say you have 40,000 people an hour passing through Grand Central Station, that energy is stored in batteries, and at night time, the power comes on. So municipalities, train stations, offices, schools anywhere with lots of people walking thats perfect for us, he adds.

This is not the first Pavegen installment in London; in 2014, Heathrow AirportsTerminal 3got its very own energy-generating tiles.Its also the worlds first airport interactive light exhibit, which they are calling Flow, coupled with the hashtag #walkandlight for passengers to add in their captions when posting videos or pictures.

Across the pond in Washington DC, just steps away from the White House, Pavegen designed a 73 square meter (240 square foot) installation on Connecticut Avenue,which sees around 10,000 people passing through daily. In Rio de Janeiro, the company has used the weight of childrens footsteps as they run, jump and play ina football field to light it, making it safer for children to play at night.

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Pavegen Gives London World's First Energy-Generating Street - progrss (press release) (blog)

When most people think of wood flooring, the old tried-and-true standbys like oak, maple and cherry usually come to mind. But bamboo and cork floors are getting a lot of attention nowadays because of their environmentally friendly qualities.

They both come from quick-growing sustainable resources and are available in a variety of colors and patterns. Unlike traditional wood flooring, both products are grown and harvested abroadAsia for bamboo and Mediterranean countries for cork. The need to transport them long distances add to their overall carbon footprint, but they have other attributes that outweigh their transportation and make them eco-friendly flooring choices.

Bamboo is not actually woodits a grass that reaches maturity in about six years. There are three types of bamboo flooring: vertical grain, horizontal grain and woven. Each provides a distinctive look that ranges from a traditional-looking wood floor to one that displays distinctive bamboo-type markings, such as the knuckles, or growth rings, of the bamboo stalks. Other characteristics include:

Cork flooring absorbs sound and is warm to the touch underfoot.

Cork comes from a species of oak that after it grows for about 25 years. Its bark is carefully removed without hurting the tree. New bark is harvested every nine years after that. The cork used in flooring is waste from the cork stopper industry. The product is not only sustainably harvested, but it is a recycled material as well.

Although it may seem like cork flooring is a new product, it has been around since the end of the nineteenth century. Natural cork has a distinctive look that is different from those found on wood flooring. Some products are digitally altered to give the appearance of stone, similar to the technique used on laminate flooring. Other characteristics include:

When it comes time for new flooring, both bamboo and cork flooring are good eco-friendly options.

Fran Donegan is a longtime DIY author who also writes for The Home Depot. He covers a variety of topics, including the best eco-friendly hardwood flooring options and how to build a home with sustainable materials. To see more ideas on green hardwood options, click here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Bamboo and Cork: The Alternative Wood Flooring Products - Care2.com

Speed is of the essence when youre upgrading your kitchen, considering that youre likely to be spending more money on takeout and dinners out during the renovation.

Consumer Reports offers advice.

Design

To limit costs, leave the layout alone. If that wont do, consider moving only the fridge, because it requires just a standard 120-volt outlet (and access to a cold-water supply line, if it has an icemaker). Moving a range requires altering gas or electric lines, which adds a day or two of labor from an electrician, a plumber or both at anywhere from $45 to $145 per hour apiece. Likewise, moving a sink requires a days worth of plumbing work.

Dont skimp on cabinet quality. Remodelers that Consumer Reports surveyed said cabinetry was a top spot where they wished theyd spent more. To make room in the budget for high-quality cabinets, skip the uppers altogether and use open shelving to showcase pretty items. If youre adding an island, work in any storage space youve lost to stash anything you dont want on display.

Materials

Before knocking down a wall to create an open-concept kitchen, consider how youll marry the flooring in the two spaces. To extend hardwood throughout, install unfinished planks parallel to the old, and either get a pro to match the existing finish or have him sand the old boards and stain everything at once about $3.50 to $4 per square foot.

If your kitchen will stay sealed off, porcelain tile is probably your best bet, says Joan Muratore, Consumer Reports test engineer for flooring. Its excellent at resisting stains, dents or scratches. And it holds up well under heavy foot traffic. Youll find options from about $3.60 per square foot, plus $1,200 or so for installation.

When it comes to counters, granite and quartz top Consumer Reports tests, thanks to their ability to resist staining and stand up to abrasion and heat. Installing these workhorses in the average kitchen could save between $500 and $1,000 over higher-end marble or soapstone.

Appliances

Consumer Reports reveals that you can skip pro-style appliances. Youll pay $15,000 to $20,000 on a full kitchen suite, when $5,000 would get you better-performing models from mass-market brands, says Tara Casaregola, Consumer Reports kitchen test engineer. Adam DeSanctis of the National Association of Realtors adds, pro-style appliances wont necessarily boost the resale value of your home, beyond the bump youd get from having any new appliances in place.

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Upgrading kitchens - Virgin Islands Daily News

HELENA Glenn A. Benton, 82, loving husband, father, and grandfather, passed away at his home on Friday, June 23, 2017, surrounded by his family and faithful caregiver, Justin Giddings. Glenn was born in Lewistown, Montana, on Jan. 3, 1935, to Florence (Barney) and Rodney Benton. He was the sixth of seven children.

Glenn grew up in and around Lewistown where he began his life-long love of horses, the mountains, and hunting. He left high school at 17 to join the Air Force, serving as an airplane mechanic during the Korean War and ultimately was stationed at Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls. During his service, he married and had three children, Rick, Cindy, and Bryce. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1971 Glenn married his wife of 46 years, Wanda Webb, of Stanford. They had two children, Kimberly and Miles.

After leaving the service, Glenn worked at various jobs in Lewistown and the surrounding area, often holding down 2 or 3 jobs to support his family, from logging, to beekeeping, to bartending, to ranching, and finally working in the construction industry. His work with Morgan & Oswood Construction and Volk Construction found him working on various projects in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Glenn also served as Commander of American Legion Post 16, donated time to the Boy Scouts of America, and served as a deputy sheriff while in Lewistown. Despite his love of Lewistown, Glenn never returned to live there. Glenn settled in Helena where for the better part of a decade he worked on restoring a mansion on the upper West side of Helena, as well as working on the same familys Holland Lake cabin. When the work was completed and Glenn needed a new challenge, he and Wanda started a hardwood flooring installation and restoration business until his health forced his retirement.

In the early 80s, while living in Deer Lodge, Glenn and Wanda traded a bus that Glenn had converted into a motor home for an unfinished cabin above the Nevada Creek Reservoir outside of Helmville where the family spent a great deal of time and labor creating a family retreat where wonderful memories were created.

Glenn never gave up the joy of learning and mastered what he put his mind to. He dabbled with beekeeping, cooking (he especially loved his Dutch ovens and pie making), and greatly enjoyed time in his wood working shop making many beautiful pieces of furniture and keepsakes for his family.

First, last, and always, Glenn loved his familyhis face lit up with a smile when he saw themespecially his grandchildren. Glenn will be dearly missed by Wanda, his wife of 46 years; his son, Rick Benton, of Lewistown; his daughter, Cindy Thiel, of Missoula; his son, Bryce Benton, wife Debbie, and their daughter Chloe, of Helena; his daughter, Kimberly Hooper, husband Troy, and their children, Brandon Cerise and Shelby Hooper, of Helena; his son Miles Benton, wife Colleen, and their daughter, McKenzie, of Helena; and his sister, Dolly Poser, of Lewistown. He was preceded in death by his parents, five siblings, and his daughter-in-law, Debbie Sue Benton, of Lewistown.

The family extends its deepest gratitude to Glenns caregivers this past year: Justin Giddings, Brenda Pineiro, and Melinda Herron. They enriched Glenns life every day. We will be eternally grateful for the kindness and care they extended to Glenn, as well as to Miles, Colleen, and McKenzie who moved in with Glenn and Wanda so Glenn could spend the remaining months of his life in his home. The family also thanks Compasuss (formerly Rocky Mountain) Hospice.

A graveside service with military honors will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, July 3, 2017 at Montana State Veterans Cemetery. A reception following the graveside will be in the social hall of Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home, 3750 N. Montana Ave., Helena, MT 59602. In lieu of flowers the family request memorials in Glenns name may be made to Compassus Hospice, 1075 N. Rodney St., Helena, MT 59601. Please visit http://www.aswfuneralhome.com to offer a condolence to the family or share a memory of Glenn.

See more here:
Benton, Glenn A. - Helena Independent Record

Who wants to live in a slammer? Home security has never been an artful enterprise few choices exist outside jailhouse grills that seem to incarcerate homeowners rather than block intruders.

Enter sculptor David Hollen, who creates nature-inspired gate and window screen designs that may have thieves snapping photos instead of latches. Built primarily from three-sixteenths-inch plate steel, the structures riff on nature found in homeowners own backyards.

Hollen works from his HollenArt Studio in downtown Los Angeles and has built nearly a dozen security projects, priced from $2,000 for small window screens to more than $12,000 for larger gates, not including outsourced installation costs.

Pasadena homeowner Doug Hammett has commissioned six projects. The most striking is a side tree gate topped with a tumble of sharply pointed maple leaves that are both beautiful and dangerous.

There had been some theft in the neighborhood, and instead of just getting a gate from Home Depot, I thought, how can I do this aesthetically? said Hammett, 53, an artist.

David Hollen

Sharp-edged steel maple leaves top a steel gate.

Sharp-edged steel maple leaves top a steel gate. (David Hollen)

Hollen designed the $5,000 gate 15 years ago and recently added the steely maple leaves on top ($1,800) and along an adjacent fence ($3,500) which reference Hammetts backyard Chinese maples.

I got the idea by looking at dried fallen leaves and the tips that get rather pointy, said Hollen, 56, whos also working on an oak leaf design.

He designed a variety of leaf shapes and sizes and welded them onto the gate and onto a metal strip bolted to the side fence. The artist primes and then paints his work with the industrial finish architectural bronze, a warmer alternative to stark black.

A water theme permeates other works in Hammetts home: a $5,000 wave gate references artist Katsushika Hokusais turbulent wave motifs, and a $7,000 Dutch door pays homage to another Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, and her passion for polka dots, circles and bubble-like forms.

A slim 7-foot-tall window screen resembles a rippled pond struck with pebbles ($3,500). Monkey silhouettes play among concentric whirls on two kitchen window grates ($3,500 total). The overlapping rings are designed to prevent hands from reaching through the screens.

The bane of this kind of work are 5-year-olds who jump up and climb on it, said Hollen, whos also designing back-patio features for Union Stations Traxx restaurant. A gate has to bear weight and stay within code so kids cant stick their heads through and get stuck.

David Hollen

A silhouetted monkey plays among concentric steel rings.

A silhouetted monkey plays among concentric steel rings. (David Hollen)

Other work is more decoratively functional: A $12,500 gate resembles a tree flanked by meadow grasses and flowers. The structure hems in a West Hollywood couples front-entrance patio (it keeps their cat inside).

Hollen hand-draws his designs in a raster program, converting them to a vector, a kind of blueprint read by an outsourced laser cutter that cuts the patterns. Both the design work and its execution are exacting.

Im working within intolerances of 5,000ths of an inch, about the thickness of a piece of paper, he said.

hotproperty@latimes.com

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Home security gets arty with nature-inspired gate and window designs - Los Angeles Times

Ive never understood the fascination with connected home cameras, such as Canary, the Nest Cam, and others. Theyve always been a gimmick in my experience: not reliable enough for a proper security system, not practical enough to be a baby monitor. But a lot of people really like them, so I spent the last week with the new Nest Cam IQ to see if it could change my opinion.

The $299 Nest Cam IQs big pitch is intelligence. It has a higher-resolution camera than prior Nest Cam models, but it doesnt use that to output a larger video feed. Instead, it combines that high resolution with smart people tracking to automatically zoom in on a subject when it sees a person in the frame and still maintain good image quality. It can see friendly faces that you identify in the Nest app, and it can alert you when it sees a person that it doesnt recognize.

To make this work, you need to subscribe to the Nest Aware service, which is available with 10 days of rolling backups for $10 per month or $100 per year, or 30 days of rolling backups for $30 per month or $300 per year. Adding a camera to the 10-day plan is $5 per month; additional cameras on the 30-day plan are $15 each per month. Without the subscription service, the Cam IQ will still provide push alerts to your phone for motion, sound, and people, but its Familiar Faces feature will not work and it will only be able to rewind the last three hours of footage.

Between the cost of the camera itself and the fees for its service, the Cam IQs intelligence has a lot to prove.

Nest advertises the Cam IQ as a security device, so I set it up in my front window, pointed toward my front door. (Note that this is inside the house: the Cam IQ is not designed to be used outdoors.) I thought it would be able to alert me to visitors and delivery people like a doorbell, in effect which it did do. But it also alerted me whenever one of my neighbors was walking their dog on my street, which grew tiresome quickly.

The Nest Cam IQ also had both false positives (alerting me to something when there was nothing) and false negatives (failing to alert me when someone was actually there), which make me really hesitant to rely on it for any actual security needs. Combined with the fact that the only thing the Cam IQ can do when it detects an intruder is send my phone a push notification (which I may or may not see immediately), it doesnt seem like a great solution if you really want to secure your home. It cant call authorities or ask for help the way a proper home security system can.

Video captured by the Cam IQ is saved in 1080p resolution instead of the 4K that the sensor is capable of. Image quality is fine, but its nothing compared to a high-end smartphone. There are also three microphones and a speaker on the Cam IQ, so if you have it set up in the right place, you can talk to a person through it. Or yell at your kid when they are refusing to go to sleep.

Supersight is a very cool feature, but only visible within the Nest app

The Supersight feature, which zooms in on a person it detects in frame, is very cool to see in action. The camera will automatically zoom in the image and pan it to track the person while they move in frame, ostensibly so you can identify them easier. But the only way to view the Supersight feature is within the apps timeline mode, and shared or saved video clips will only show the full wide view of the camera.

Still, after having the Nest Cam IQ in my front window for a week, I started to understand a little bit why people like these things in their homes. They may not be great security systems, but they are good at capturing serendipitous moments throughout the day. That might be my two-year-old walking her play lawnmower around the yard or my father-in-law finding yet another thing to fix on the front of the house when he comes to visit.

Some people like to use these cameras as baby monitors, but Ive found them to be too slow and not immediate enough for that. A push notification isnt going to wake me up, but a proper baby monitor will. My colleague Ben Popper uses a similar camera in his boys bedroom to monitor them when its time for bed, but even he said that the cost of the Nest Cams service would not be worth it.

And thats the real issue: the Nest Cam IQ is basically an expensive toy. Even with its people-tracking intelligence and high-resolution image quality, Im not convinced its worth the price.

See the original post here:
Nest's new home camera is an interesting toy - The Verge - The Verge