Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

J.C. Penney has started selling products such as bathtubs and power toolsonline and is expanding its services in some markets withbasicbathroomremodels, The Dallas Morning News reports.

The department store forayed into home improvementin 2016by selling kitchen and laundry appliances in 500 stores and later partnering with Trane to offerheating, ventilation and air conditioningsystems.

J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison saysthese new ventures will help [the company] grow and de-emphasize the department stores dependence on apparel, according toThe Dallas Morning News.

CNBCreports that theinstallation services will be available through100 stores and will include bathroom remodeling, home heating and cooling systems, quick-ship and installed blinds, whole home water solutions, awnings and smart home technology.

Its a $300 billion market that we believe we have the opportunity to pick up some significant market share, Ellison says in theCNBCcoverage.

In addition, J.C. Penney will add 100 more appliance showrooms in 2017and begin offeringmore appliance brands, according to theDallas Business Journal.

The changes follow announcements that the retailer is closing 140 store locations and trimming its workforce by offering early retirement to thousands of employees.

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JC Penney Sees More Opportunities in Home Improvement - Hardware Retailing

Who says you can't come home?

J.C. Penney ( jcp ) is making a big bet on home remodel servicesa new arena for the retailerto help revive what had been a promising turnaround.

In a 100-store test that is likely to presage a rollout to hundreds more stores, the department store this spring will start offering services like bathroom remodeling and blinds installation, and selling and installing awnings, water systems, and smart home technology. It's a major departure for a retailer better known for its apparel and soft home goods like towels and sheets.

The six new service groups, being tested at stores in San Diego, San Antonio and Tampa, are branded together under the "JCPenney Home Services" rubric and will also include heating and cooling systems.

The incursion, coming on the heels of a disappointing holiday season for Penney, will take the retailer straight onto the turf of such well-established rivals in these areas as The Home Depot ( hd ) , Lowe's ( low ) and Best Buy ( bby ) .

The move could be risky, since customers have never thought of Penney as the go-to retailer to provide these services.

But Penney has its eyes squarely set on a more direct competitor that is a big player in these areas, Sears , with which Penney goes head-to-head in 400 malls. Penney is looking to poach sales and lift its sales per square foot with big ticket items like appliances and HVAC systems. Sears' comparable sales were down 12.3% during the holiday quarter, continuing a long sales hemorrhage. In addition, the recent hhgregg bankruptcy is also freeing up some market opportunity in appliances and services.

"We don't have aspirations to be #1 in market share in appliances, smart home or window installation," J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison told Fortune as he gave us an exclusive tour of the home area at a store in East Elmhurst, N.Y. "We have a large competitor, larger than us, in the mall, that is struggling, and there is market share up for grabs."

Expanding on an appliance revival

Each group of services will have its own display and signage inside Penney's home goods departments at the test stores. A web site, jcpenneyhomeservices.com, will serve as a portal with information as well as the ability to ask for a consultation and set up a home visit with an authorized contractor to get a project estimate.

As with appliances, Penney will not take actual possession of goods, and thus will minimize risk. For instance, in the case of the HVAC systems, Penney is teaming up with supplier Trane, whose products are primarily sold by local distributors. And the smart home systems are offered by Samsung. Penney is essentially renting out its space to these suppliers and service providers, and taking a cut of their sales.

These new services are also meant as the logical extension of and complement to Penney's return to appliances last year after 33 years. Together, they're part of an effort to diversify away from apparel, its largest category but a struggling one (Penney expects comparable sales in apparel to fall 5% this year), and to ramp up offerings that will be tough to replicate for purely online stores.

Ellison, who became CEO in August 2015, has made a point of reducing Penney's reliance on apparel sales to focus more on home goods, soft and hard alike. That category generates only 12% or so of Penney's sales, down from 21% just a decade ago.

What's more, sales per square foot in Penney's home goods section lag the store average dramaticallyabout $100 per square foot per year, compared to the store average of some $170. But by some estimates, the home areas of stores that sell appliances generate anywhere from $600 to $1,000 per square foot. (The appliance departments, which the company says have not required much capital, have now been rolled out to 500 stores, and Penney will add them at 100 more this year.)

Ellison says he wants a piece of the consumer spending that has shifted to home improvement (and away from apparel), and he may be onto something: The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University recently reported that the residential remodeling market reached an all-time high of $340 billion in 2015, and forecast it would grow 2% a year through 2025.

The bet on home services comes at a tough time for Penney. Its comparable sales were unchanged for the fiscal year that ended in January , and even fell during the holiday season. That was a far cry from the 3% annual pace through 2019 that Ellison and his team promised Wall Street, and a disappointment compared to 2014 and 2015 numbers. Investors have been losing faith too: Shares have fallen by nearly half since hitting a 52-week high of $11.85 nearly a year ago. And Penney recently announced it would close about 140 of its 1,020 stores.

As chronicled last month in a Fortune examination of the travails of department stores , Penney, like rivals Macy's ( m ) and Kohl's ( kss ) , is grappling with too much overlap and sameness among their offerings, leaving discounting as their only tool to stoke sales.

In addition to the new services, J.C. Penney will be introducing a JCPenney Home Services credit card that will offer higher credit limits than its regular store cards, reflecting the higher overall prices of such projects. The card will be a crucial tool for collecting data on customers, an area where Penney lags Macy's and Kohl's.

The new categories play to Ellison's strengths, given the 13 years he spent a The Home Depot , including some time overseeing its appliances business. But it also harkens back to a time when Penney offered everything for hunting rifles to washing machines and was a national leader in things like window treatments. In its heyday, Penney reportedly provided one-third of U.S. homes their blinds, shades and curtains.

One stat Ellison likes to cite is that 70% of Penney customers are women, and 70% are homeowners. And so he sees a natural fit. He dismissed the idea that big appliances and services would hurt visit frequency, since people don't get a new fridge every year but do freshen up towels sets and get coffee machines more often.

"We are not as concerned that the customer will buy a washer and dryer, then we won't see them again for five years," he said. "Next year it will be a dishwasher." And if his hunch is right, an HVAC system the year after that.

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JC Penney Wants to Remodel Your House - Fortune

GENESEO Moving day is drawing nearer for the animals at the Henry County Humane Society's Geneseo shelter.

Society members hope this year's Pasta for Paws event, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. March 25 at the Geneseo Moose Lodge, will provide enough funds to schedule a tentative moving date for the shelter's animals.

The new shelter is located off of Illinois 82, just east of the former shelter and west of Cole Cabin.The 4,000-square-foot steel pole building was designed with a 1,200-square-foot attached storage garage on 4.6 acres. The site also includes a dog park and pavilion which will remain open to the public.

"Progress at the new shelter is happening by leaps and bounds," said Karen Russell, president of the Henry County Humane Society. DeDecker Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, of Atkinson, is working on the duct work for the ventilation and the installation of copper pipe in the walls for the plumbing.

Accurate Electric, of Lynn Center, has installed conduit within the walls of the new shelter and some lighting in areas where there will not be a dropped ceiling, she said. And theGeneseo High School building trades class is mounting dry wall and will begin applying waterproof wall covering in the animal areas.

The concrete floor of the shelter has radiant heating. Remaining work includes a suspended ceiling, lighting fixtures, interior doors, windows, dog kennels, sinks in the animal areas, a dog wash bathtub and painting.

"There are plans to construct outdoor play areas for the dogs behind the building," Ms. Russell said. "But that project may take place after the move.

Since time has elapsed since the beginning of the project and the Geneseo High School Building Trades classes have provided free labor, we are currently trying to update prices of the remaining work," she said. "And we are projecting that remaining work and material costs should be less than $100,000."

Construction began in 2013, but a lack of funds has kept the building from completion. In September, the shelter received a $250,000 donation from Dr. Barb Kuhns, a retired Geneseo veterinarian, and her husband, Bob Kuhns, a retired Geneseo band director.

Tax deductible donations for the shelter may be mailed to Henry County Humane Society Geneseo, 14606 Roos Hill Rd, Geneseo, IL 61254. For more details, call 309-944-4868.

The March 25 Pasta for Paws includes a dinner, cash bar, a 50/50 drawing and auctions. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 8 years old and may be bought at the door.

Donations are being soughtsilent and live auctions. For more details, call 309-945-8757 or 563-505-8309.

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Pasta for Paws will help animal shelter reach new home - Quad-Cities Online

Its tax season, which means many people are looking for the best way to invest their tax returns in their homes. Kitchen and bath remodeling are the first to come to mind, because both provide the largest return-on-investment. Infusing your home with the latest interior styles will help improve your property value and ensure that your renovation is beautiful and functional.

Contractors are now frequently asked to knock down walls and create more open kitchen layouts. (Craftsmen Home Improvements)

Staying abreast of the most popular designs of this season can help you make decisions throughout your upcoming kitchen remodel. Here are five trends that you should keep in mind

Homeowners now seek complex lighting arrangements, complete with natural light from large windows, lit areas beneath and inside the cabinets, and a series of light fixtures on the ceiling. (Craftsmen Home Improvements)

To find out more about how you can make your upcoming remodel in Cincinnati or Dayton fit the styles of 2017, work carefully with your contractor fromCraftsmen Home Improvements. Your contractor can talk with you about the latest trends and the most recent innovations to make your kitchen remodel a success.

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5 kitchen remodel trends for 2017 - Dayton Daily News

Exhibits range from stone work, landscaping, and sellers of sheds, gazebos, hot tubs and pools, to kitchen and bathroom remodeling, home security systems, windows and skylights, sunrooms, and roofing and siding.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. The 15th annual Southern Rhode Island Home Show is taking place this weekend at the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Center.

Show organizer Dean Appleman said 106 companies are exhibiting at the show, which was open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and will continue Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Appleman said he expects attendance to be between 9,000 and 11,000 people.

Exhibits run the gamut of home improvement products and services, from stone work, landscaping, and sellers of sheds, gazebos, hot tubs and pools, to kitchen and bathroom remodeling, home security systems, windows and skylights, sunrooms, and roofing and siding sales and installation. Appleman said representatives from local banks will also be on hand to assist those who need help financing their home-improvement projects.

Appleman said cash-and-carry items will be available for sale.

Energy companies will also be at the show, including solar energy vendors. "Solar is really big this year," said Appleman, who produces home shows all across New England. "It has really taken off."

General admission is $7, or $5 with a coupon. Children 12 and under may enter free with an adult.

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Southern Rhode Island Home Show draws thousands to Ryan Center - The Providence Journal

Clinton A. Matthews, of Canton, and his business Matthews Home Services LLC are accused of violating Ohios Consumer Sales Practices Act. In the lawsuit, DeWine seeks reimbursement for consumers and an end to any violations of the law.

According to the lawsuit, Matthews did business as Matthews Home Services, offering home improvement services, such as basement or home office remodeling and vinyl siding installation.

The Ohio Attorney Generals Office has received three complaints against Matthews Home Services. Estimated consumer losses total about $4,550.

Additional complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau. In their complaints, consumers generally said Matthews took their money but failed to start the work as scheduled, provided multiple excuses for delays, and either never did any work or did work that was shoddy.

The lawsuit, filed in the Stark County Court of Common Pleas, accuses Matthews of failure to deliver and shoddy workmanship.

DeWine offered consumers the following recommendations to help prevent home improvement problems:

Research a company before making any payments. Search for complaints on file with the Ohio Attorney Generals Office or Better Business Bureau. Also conduct an internet search with the name of the business and words like reviews or complaints. Be skeptical if you find no information. Some operators change business names regularly to make it harder for consumers to detect their record of shoddy work.

Get multiple estimates. For a large job, consider contacting at least three different businesses before making a final selection. Keep in mind that the company that gives you the lowest estimate may not necessarily deliver the best results.

Check your cancellation rights. If a home improvement contractor does not have a fixed place of business or comes to your door to offer services, you may be entitled to a three-day right to cancel the contract under Ohios Home Solicitation Sales Act. Make sure you receive detailed written information about your cancellation rights.

Make sure verbal promises are put in writing. Get a detailed written contract including any verbal claims the contractor makes and other important details, such as the estimated cost of the work, the expected start and end dates, and the names of the individuals who will perform the services.

Be wary of requests for large down payments. Its reasonable for a contractor to require a down payment, but be skeptical if youre asked to make a large down payment (such as half or more of the total cost) before any work begins. If possible, pay in increments as the work is completed.

Consumers who suspect an unfair or deceptive sales practice should contact the Ohio Attorney Generals Office at http://www.OhioProtects.org or 800-282-0515.

A copy of todays lawsuit is available on the Ohio Attorney Generals website.

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Home improvement contractor accused of not keeping promises - Norwalk Reflector

Valley Brook Apartments includes 240 units, 213 of which are affordable.

Birmingham, Ala.Steele Properties acquired and plans to rehabilitateValley Brook Apartments, an affordable community located at 2969 Gallant Drive in Birmingham, Ala. for $24.8 million. Renovations will begin in April 2017 and are set for completion in spring 2018. The property will be managed by Monroe Group.

Valley Brook Apartments

The 240-unit community offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 750 to 1,050 square feet, according to Yardi Matrix.Of the total unit amount, 213 apartments are affordable.

Valley Brook will receive $47,000 per unit in hard cost rehabilitation as part of the acquisition. The renovations will coverexterior and interior work, including building a new community center with a computer lab, laundry facilities and playground; replacing the vinyl siding with durable siding systems; the installation of new roofs; the addition of hard wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; a new key fob controlled vehicular access gate with security guard shack; a new security camera system and improved lighting. Interior upgrades will include new electrical, paint, flooring and doors; the addition of energy efficient lighting and water saving features; new countertops, cabinets and Energy Star appliances in the kitchens and new vanities, tubs and fixtures in the bathrooms. Full ADA conversions will be completed on 12 of the units.

The project is financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Tax-Exempt Bonds provided by the Alabama Housing Finance Authority.The project is funded by the sale of the Tax-Exempt Bond proceeds underwritten by R4 Capital and Tax Credit equity provided by PNC Bank.

We are proud to be preserving this affordable housing community that is in dire need of renovation, David Asarch, partner & chief investment officer of Steele Properties, told Multi-Housing News.Our entire development, construction, operations, compliance, finance and HR teams are working together to rehabilitate Valley Brook and make it a place where the residents are proud to call home.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix

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Steele Properties Acquires Affordable AL Community - Multi-Housing News

Designers of the Bell Museum + Planetarium at the University of Minnesotas St. Paul campus want the new facility to be as natural as possible.

When completed in the summer of 2018, the $79.2 million complex will showcase the states natural history and be made out of it.

About 40 percent of the new museums exterior is covered with locally sourced, thermally modified timber, or cooked wood as it has been dubbed. Designers believe the project is the largest commercial-scale use of thermally modified white pine in the country.

Its a beautiful wood, white pine, said Dave Dimond, a principal at the Minneapolis office of architecture firm Perkins+Will, which designed the new museum.

The challenge always has been that you cant use pine outdoors that it has to be protected by the weather, Dimond said. This is a really new and exciting way to use white pine in a way its never been used before.

About 21,000 square feet of white pine will be finished being installed this month on the outside of the museum located near Larpenteur and Cleveland avenues near the State Fairgrounds. A portion of the bottom half of the building is clad with steel from the Iron Range.

The architecture speaks to the story of Minnesota and nature in Minnesota. White pine is an iconic timber species from Minnesota, said George Weiblen, interim scientific director and curator of plants at the Bell Museum.

The white pine comes from state forest land in Cass Lake, located about 30 minutes from Bemidji, that has been certified by the international nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council for being responsibly managed. One of the focuses for researchers at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth is how to help strengthen Minnesotas forestry industry in an environmentally sustainable way. Thermally modified wood is one of the products the group is studying.

One of the cool ways to grow the economy in northern Minnesota is to start looking at renewable resources, Dimond said. Rather than cutting down trees permanently, grow them sustainably and selectively cut them so that the forest remains. This is what got us excited about white pine, since it is native to Minnesota and does have some significant sustainable forest.

The process of cooking wood originated in Finland and while Europe has been experimenting with it for years, the process has had limited use in the United States, said Kelly Bartz, president at Duluth-based Arbor Wood Co., which sourced the wood and the local kiln needed for the museum project.

Arbor has been selling thermally modified wood for about four years, though it normally focuses on hardwoods like ash and red oak instead of pine, which is a softwood.

For the museum project, Arbor Wood selected Palisade, Minn.-based Superior Thermowood of Minnesota. About 8,000 board feet or enough wood to fill half a semitrailer truck was slowly heated in the kiln until it reached about 100 degrees Celsius. The heat cooks out the moisture and natural sugar that can cause wood to decay and attract insects. The heat is then spiked to 210 degrees Celsius so that the cellular makeup of the wood is changed, and it makes it less susceptible to water. The wood is cooled down with the addition of steam and is provided with some much-needed moisture so that the wood is not too brittle. The result is a wood that can withstand the elements without needing any other type of finishing. The entire process can take four to five days.

Several partners were needed to make the museum project work, including Cass Forest Products, the sawmill that harvested the pine, Woodline, the sawmill that prepared the thermally modified white pine for installation, and McGough, the construction company responsible for building the museum and installing the white pine.

This innovative way that Perkins+Will has come up with the siding for the Bell Museum is definitely intriguing to us, Bartz said. Now the supply-chain challenges that we had in the beginning, thats all figured out. We have resources and it is kind of interesting to work with something like white pine thats indigenous to Minnesota and is a newly-revitalized resource.

After 75 years on the U campus in Minneapolis, the old Bell Museum closed in December and will reopen next year on the St. Paul site.

Besides the wood siding, other natural elements are featured at the museum. There will be rain gardens to help reduce stormwater runoff from the parking lot. There will also be a pollinator garden and other native plant landscaping as well as solar panels on the roof.

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At new Bell Museum, designers turn to a new process to make building look natural - Minneapolis Star Tribune

In January, prosecutors in Riverside filed 30 felony charges against two longtime Palm Springs developers and a former mayor in an alleged $375,000 bribery scheme related to building projects downtown.

Ah, the romance of the desert! A place of fierce natural beauty and beguiling spiritual wonder! A rejuvenating refuge from the crushing pressures of modern urban life!

Desert X, the ambitious exhibition of new site-specific art installations scattered around the Coachella Valley, is successful partly because the 16 participating artists mostly skirt romanticized desert clichs or else they engage them, casting a skeptical or parodic eye. Perhaps surprisingly, none chose to consider the springs that made this corner of the desert bloom; but many works burrow into the areas complex history and heterogeneous present.

In Coachella, the easternmost town in the valley, Armando Lerma has painted a big, charming mural on the side of a modest neighborhood ice cream shop. Titled The Party in the Desert, its amiable rural imagery of clowns, a juggler, a table laden with cake and bowls of fruit, assorted revelers, a starburst piata, some chickens and a couple of dogs, unfolds its narrative slowly.

FULL COVERAGE: Spring arts guide 2017

Lermas chosen site on a scruffy industrial strip along railroad tracks looks back to the towns founding almost a century and a half ago as a siding for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The locales modesty reflects the working-class identity of a rough-edged town where more than a quarter of residents live below the poverty line.

Look closely, and the mural sports several small medallions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, saint and protector. In a wry gesture, they are affixed to the wall at places where metal bolts protrude, signaling earthquake retrofitting. Fiesta connects the ice cream store with the towns largely Latino local population.

Perhaps the murals most vital feature is its implied but incisive contrast to that other local party in the desert the raucous, corporately produced, hugely profitable Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival that annually invades the area just up the street in Indio, where the artist was born. Lerma grounds his marvelous mural in the routine social realities of place, yet without so much as a hint of critical disdain for what is finally just a different way for revelers to paint the town.

Twenty-eight miles away in Palm Springs, near the westernmost end of the valley, Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri, who lives and works in Los Angeles and Brussels, has brought a chunk of desert indoors. For Donation Box, hes filled half a storefront in a down-on-its-heels mini-mall at the edge of town with a deep layer of sand, piled into a desolate landscape of gently rolling dunes.

Peering through the plate-glass window, youll see hundreds of cigarette butts stuck in the sand, along with casually tossed coins. It loosely recalls Damien Hirsts giant ashtray sculptures, with their aura of forlorn grandiloquence, plus Chris Burdens monumental city-in-the-sand sculpture, A Tale of Two Cities, assembled from toys. Kuris is a grunge wishing well, radiating boom-and-bust.

Zigzagging across the region during the two days necessary to see all of Desert X, I put more than 175 miles on my odometer. (A free guidebook and map with GPS coordinates are available in the lobby of Ace Hotel & Swim Club on East Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.) The physical distance between Lermas mural and Kuris sculpture is fitting for the sprawl that characterizes both the raw desert and its fitful development since the 1960s. The valley, once a string of villages, is primarily suburban now.

Indeed, the graphic logo for the shows title draws the X like a crossing sign. Desert Crossing is the name of a mid-valley shopping center.

The artists were selected by Neville Wakefield, 54, former curator of Frieze Projects, a program of artists commissions that is part of the Frieze Art Fair in London, and past advisor to PS1, the Long Island City affiliate of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art. Most Desert X commissions are clustered in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, but other projects are farther afield.

In the remote, drop-dead gorgeous landscape of the Whitewater Preserve, a bit more than five miles into rugged canyon country north of the 10 Freeway, L.A.-based Sherin Guirguis transformed sandbags, tree limbs and mud into an elegant, hive-shaped dovecote. The structure, based on pigeon towers commonly found in desert villages of her native Egypt, is a cross-cultural emblem of displacement and shelter.

So is Richard Princes grim installation, albeit of a wholly different character, in a disheveled quarter of nearby Desert Hot Springs. The ramshackle walls and surroundings of an abandoned hacienda-style house are plastered with printed blowups of sordid Twitter feeds that the artist scavenged for tales of banal indulgences in sex, drugs and rock n roll.

In keeping with the derelict domesticity of the works forlorn site, Prince focuses on vulgar tweets by and about dysfunctional families sisters, cousins, mothers and aunts. Voyeuristic trash gets tangled like litter in desert scrub.

According to an exhibition spokesman, the unsecured site has already been vandalized and several works looted from the house. Unsurprising, perhaps, for an artist whose queasy paintings of naughty nurses soft-porn imagery where nurture precedes betrayal have sold in the seven figures. But vandalisms crude delinquency merely serves to italicize Princes theme. Like Twitter, the installation makes hitherto secret vices brazenly public; vanity grates against shame.

Two artists Glenn Kaino and Will Boone have burrowed into the ground. Both view the desert as an ancient, wide-open expanse harboring topical secrets.

Kainos Hollow Earth is an ordinary storage shed set out in a bland field. Open the door, go inside and in the center of a small room lined in cheap fiberboard is a seemingly bottomless shaft ringed by a circular white grid that glows with a bluish light. A pristine infinity pit, it elicits playful childhood fantasies of tunneling all the way to China crossed with grown-up fears of sinister silos harboring the tools of Armageddon.

Speaking of bomb shelters, Boone built one beneath another dusty field. Clamber down a ladder, pass through a heavy steel door and enter a tubular metal shelter like a big sewer pipe. There sits a bulky bronze sculpture of President Kennedy, decorously painted red, white and blue, as if some pharaonic potentate buried in the sands of time.

Illuminated from overhead by a single, solar-powered bulb, the seated dignitary is both a Lincoln-like Monument, as the installation is titled, and a suspect ready for interrogation. The conundrum befits a national hero whose life and death are the subject of endless conspiracy theories. Hes the hidden love-match to Marilyn Monroe, whose likeness is plastered all over Palm Springs as an emblem of its midcentury Hollywood playground past.

Back above ground, two other artists have built walls. Both are Minimalist and hallucinatory.

Phillip K. Smith III, who gained acclaim four years ago for wrapping a remote desert shack with mirrored strips that made it seem on the verge of disappearing into Joshua Trees rugged landscape, is here with more mirror-play. This time he has crafted a big, bowl-shaped arena, 70 paces across and composed from scores of tall mirrored rods set up in a circle.

Canted outward on a 10-degree angle, the exterior reflects the earth back onto itself. The bowls interior reflects sky, incongruously surrounding an earthbound viewer. From both vantages the actual landscape is simultaneously seen between the shiny reflective bars. Normality alternates with a routine order of things thats been flipped on its head.

Near the base of a hiking trial, Swiss artist Claudia Comte has built a long, tall, undulating concrete wall. Its horizontal form slowly morphs from gentle curves at one end to an angular zigzag at the other. Comte has matched this brute material form with the same sequence of purely visual shapes vertical black stripes set against a blazing white ground, starting with rippling waves and ending with jagged lines.

Like rising waves of desert heat that lead one to delirium and back, the effect is surprisingly powerful. Sol LeWitts rigor mixes with Bridget Rileys verve. Minimalist Op art is rarely this good.

Illusion is likewise key to Jennifer Bolandes head-turning set of three double-sided billboards along the west side of Gene Autry Trail, a road leading in and out of the valley from the freeway. Bolande photographed the distant San Jacinto, Santa Rosa and San Bernardino mountain ranges, then enlarged the images to billboard scale. For one fleeting, disconcerting moment as you drive by, the wordless pictures line up exactly with the approaching view.

While the mountain contours match up precisely, the clarity, color and light inevitably do not. The quick drive-by sequence of three billboard moments is so brief that you cant quite be certain of what you have just witnessed.

Its like a flash-cut in a motion picture, subliminal in effect. A disjunction between image and reality is lodged in a path named for a half-forgotten cowboy star of movies and TV. The seamless fabric of experience gets torn.

Additional projects by Doug Aitken, Lita Albuquerque, Jeffrey Gibson, Norma Jeane, Rob Pruitt, Julio Sarmento and Tavares Strachan are also on view. The show is being seen as an art world answer to the wildly successful Coachella music festival, beginning April 14. (Desert X, continuing through April 30, overlaps with it.) While that connection makes marketing sense, in spirit the endeavor is more like a suburban version of the urban Sculpture Projects Mnster, a once-per-decade exhibition of commissioned public art throughout the German city.

The Mnster show, opening its fifth iteration in June, is among Europes most reliably engaging art events. Desert X organizers hope to mount their own sequel an excellent idea, given the overall artistic success of this one, although not yet certain.

If a serious flaw mars this otherwise admirable event, it is the sharp gender disparity in the current lineup. In 2017, no excuse is good enough for inviting only four women to participate among 16 artists. (An irony: The areas first major artist was transcendentalist painter Agnes Pelton, who arrived in Cathedral City in 1932.) If Desert X 2.0 does take place, the unforced error represents an easy fix.

Where: Various sites in the Coachella Valley; guidebook and map at Ace Hotel, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs

When: Through April 30

Information: http://www.desertx.org

christopher.knight@latimes.com

Twitter: @KnightLAT

See our complete guide to spring arts events in L.A.

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Diego Rivera's Cubist masterpiece arrives at LACMA

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International art invades the suburban Coachella Valley: The best of ... - Los Angeles Times

Building information modeling (BIM) provider BIMsmith has released a new addition to its platform that will make roofing assembly easier for architects, contractors, designers and other industry pros.

The free, cloud-based tool seamlessly combines roofing products and elements into one complete BIM-ready assembly for Revit and other programs. The platform allows industry pros to combine manufacturer specific and generic product data assemblies as they will appear in built projects. The roofing tool joins the company's current lineup of wall, floor and ceiling assemblies. Through the BIMSmith platform, professionals can build, collaborate and share their product data seamlessly among key stakeholders.

BIMsmith has partnered with industry leaders in the roofing vertical to provide branded product data from manufacturers like Redbuilt, GAF, ICP, Akzo Nobel, Fabral and Weyehaeuser.

"BIMsmith has led the charge for web based BIM data creation for years," BIMsmith CEO, Benjamin Glunz stated. "Roofing is absolutely critical to any building project," notes BIMsmith CEO Benjamin Glunz. "We are thrilled to provide this critical missing piece to the puzzle for the betterment of the BIM and building science communities."

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New BIM Roofing Tool Launches - Builder Magazine