Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

SALEM, Ore. Visitors and locals lined up inside Portland International Airport to have their photos taken with an odd celebrity a piece of nearly 30-year-old carpet.

By day's end, more than 800 photo booth-style pictures were snapped of people standing next to the segment of floor covering, hung up for an event called PDX Carpet Fest.

It was classic Portland, a city known for keeping it weird: a farewell party for the airport's trademark teal carpet, which is being replaced after three decades under travelers and luggage wheels.

"I guess this carpet is really iconic, and I can't imagine another city getting this worked up over carpet," said Sierra Prior, a Portland resident who posed for photos before boarding her plane to New Orleans.

The unmistakably '80s carpet at the airport known as PDX is decorated with dark-blue lines and red, lavender and purple dots a design meant to symbolize air traffic controllers' view at night.

As word spread that it would be torn up, the weathered floor covering became an online superstar.

More than 40,000 "foot selfies" photos people took of their feet on the carpet were plastered on Instagram. The carpet got its own Facebook and Twitter pages.

Some local companies started selling T-shirts, coffee mugs and other products featuring its signature pattern.

"I'm getting married on November 6th, and I think I'm going to have all my groomsmen wear the PDX carpet socks," said Derek Harguth, a Portland native who went to the airport to check out the PDX Carpet Fest.

Demand for actual remnants of the carpet has been so high that airport officials are giving four local vendors 1,000 square yards each to incorporate into items including sofas, doormats and cat beds that will be sold to the public.

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Fervor over Portland airport's trademark teal carpet generates new life for the old design

In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 4, 2015, farmer Chang Chen-kai, prunes common salad lettuce growing under banks of LED lights at the ARWIN plant factory in Miaoli, northern Taiwan. Entrepreneurs in Taiwan are combining the islands leading edge in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with its traditional agricultural know-how to create artificial environments to grow vegetables. These indoor grow-rooms have nutrient-filled water instead of soil and variable LED lighting to imitate the cycle of night and day. They are gaining popularity for raising everything from common lettuce to the exotic South African ice plant, which draws US $400 per kilogram. These LED-lit hydroponic environments yield more crops per area than soil but without the need for traditional toxic pesticides.

Wally Santana, Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan Chang Chen-kai is part of Taiwan's new generation of high-tech farmers that is harnessing the island's technological edge in light-emitting diodes to grow vegetables indoors under bright LED lights.

Chang works in an air-conditioned "grow-room" at a plant factory operated by ARWIN, a biotechnology company, where plants grow in nutrient-filled water instead of soil and the temperature and humidity are controlled. LED lights imitate the cycle of night and day.

These high-tech indoor farms yield more crops per area than soil, and don't need traditional toxic pesticides. Plants grown under LED lights grow twice as fast because the intensity of lights and nutrients provided in the water, growers say.

"To grow vegetables in the water (under lights), you need less land," Chang said, and "you don't need pesticides."

Such plant factories are gaining popularity for raising everything from common lettuce to the exotic ice plant, a thick leafy vegetable from South Africa that looks like it has water bubbles on its leaves and can fetch $400 per kilogram.

In recent years, Taiwanese manufacturers have been able to produce cheaper LED lights that consume less electricity and give off light that mimics the intensity and spectrum of sunlight.

TingMao Agricultural Biotechnology was an early pioneer, starting its plant factory in 2007, and today is the leading producer of LED-grown vegetables in Taiwan. It has also set up its own restaurant using vegetables from its factory to allow consumers to taste the vegetables themselves.

But Lily Chang, a food writer and professor at Innovative Institute of Technology, isn't convinced that LED-grown vegetables are as nutritious as those grown in soil.

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Taiwan expanding into indoor LED-lit, pesticide-free farms

Youth wasted on the young by Architects 2015

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Youth wasted on the young by Architects 2015 - Video

Architects - Gravedigger - Live Nottingham 2015
Architects - Gravedigger - Live Rock City Nottingham 13.03.2015.

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Architects - Gravedigger - Live Nottingham 2015 - Video

Webinar: Preventing Leaks and Litigation by Design (trailer)
#39;Preventing Leaks and Litigation by Design #39; is a webinar masterclass featuring Ross Taylor. Building leaks provide the biggest risk of litigation for both architects and builders alike. The...

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Webinar: Preventing Leaks and Litigation by Design (trailer) - Video

ANTAGONIST A.D - You #39;re Killing It (Downer) feat. Sam Carter (Architects)
#39;You #39;re Killing It (Downer) #39; is taken from Antagonist A.D #39;s brand new album #39;Haunt Me As I Roam #39; - Out in Europe April 13 via Lifeforce Records! Pre-Order #39;Haunt Me As I Roam #39;: Exclusive CD...

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ANTAGONIST A.D - You're Killing It (Downer) feat. Sam Carter (Architects) - Video

Beautiful Restored Country Home by Des Ewing Residential Architects
For more gorgeous architectural projects, please visit:http://www.desewing.com/ This video features gorgeous Country Home Restoration by Des Ewing Architects. The romantic, flawlessly renovated...

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Beautiful Restored Country Home by Des Ewing Residential Architects - Video

The New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA-NJ) announced that Robert Cozzarelli, AIA, will serve the American Institute of Architects as a Regional Representative to the organization's Strategic Council. The Belleville resident was installed during AIA-NJ's annual awards gala in Moorestown.

Cozzarelli is a principal of both Rutherford-based Cozzarelli-Cirminiello Architects and Bertone Cozzarelli Healthcare Architects, the latter of which specializes in designing long-term care facilities, such as hospitals and nursing homes.

The newly created AIA Strategic Council's role is to advise the organization's Board, including assembling goals and objectives, recommending public policy, and disseminating information and insights.

The council is designed to allow the organization to confront the future of architecture proactively and investigate emerging issues in business, practice and design.

Cozzarelli will be one of 35 representatives, each of whom will represent different regions across the United States. Previously the AIA-NJ regional director, Cozzarelli will continue his activities as he transitions to the new, similar role of regional representative.

Cozzarelli is an award-winning architect and planner with over 30 years of professional experience. He specializes in educational, recreational, institutional and residential design for federal, state, municipal and private-sector clients.

Over the course of his decades-long AIA-NJ membership, Cozzarelli has earned many accolades, including his award as AIA-NJ Architect of the Year in 2009 and his 2005 Distinguished Service honor. Other awards include the UNICO Millie Grazie Award for his pro-bono services throughout the state, and his recognition as Columbus Day & Celebration Italian-American Man-of-the-Year.

In 2008, he received an Honor Roll Medallion from NJIT Alumni for exemplifying leadership in architecture, planning and design.

Cozzarelli also founded AIA-NJ's popular CANstruction event, the charitable design competition the organization arranges each fall.

Cozzarelli is a member of AIA Newark and Suburban Architects, one of AIA-NJ's six local sections, for which he has also served as president.

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Local architect is set to serve as regional representative to AIA-NJ

The bids are in for the northwest Canton fire station and the Canton City Council will discuss which business will be awarded the design and construction management services contract to oversee the building of the new station.

The council will also discuss adopting a nuisance ordinance amendment to include banning LED lighting around windows of commercial businesses.

The fire station, which will be operated by the Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services once it is built, underwent some delays due to the city requesting the bidders submit their own designs.

Mayor Gene Hobgood said at the time the process could confuse bidders instead of having a clear drawn design already on hand.

Only two construction companies submitted bids, which varied drastically in price, during the initial bidding process. The council voted to put the fire station design and construction management services out to bid again in order to get a clear cost estimate on the design and have the company oversee the construction phase.

Six businesses submitted price quotes: Sutton Architectural Services, Pieper OBrien Herr Architects, Wiley/Wilson, Sizemore Group, Casteel Construction Co. Inc. and Pond Constructors. The lowest bidder was Casteel, who submitted a bid of $617,406.

The council will vote on the bids and select a company at its meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

In other business, the city will also receive an update on the downtown parking enforcement from Councilman Farris Yawn.

The councilman gave an update in March that the parking time limit needs to be enforced. Changes suggested include three-hourparkingon East Main Street down to the dance studio; two 20-minute spaces in zone 3 in front of the Painted Pig Tavern; and three 20-minuteparkingspaces in front of Stouts Growlers.

Other items on the agenda are:

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Canton City Council to review contract bids for fire station

Blending his personal life with his creative output, Adrien Brody brought to this years SXSW the documentary feature Stone Barn Castle, co-directed with Kevin Ford. Filmed over nearly a decade, the film follows the Academy Award-winning actor as he buys a dilapidatedproperty in upstate New York with the goal of restoring it to its full glory and, ultimately, finding a place to call home. Check out Brodys thoughts on the film, the painstaking restoration and on his plans for the future!

CS: Tell me about how this project began, both as a restoration and as a documentary.

Adrien Brody: It was a lifetime dream to get a country house and to try and make that home. In the years that finally led up to me acquiring the place, I had experienced a degree of increased awareness of myself and my work. That was a beautiful thing, but I had been working quite a bit so I felt the need to find something that was very honest and real and in touch with nature. I wanted to retreat a bit from Hollywood in a way. To do my work, but to have a place to come home to. I also loved the idea of renovating something that was old and in a state of disrepair. That also obviously made it more affordable. I found it when I was away doing a movie in Belgrade. I found the structure online and fell in love with it. I have many friends who live upstate and my parents used to have a place when I was younger. I went home, bought it and began to rennovate. I thought it would be interesting to chronicle that journey. I brought on a friend of mine who is a fellow filmmaker, Kevin Ford. He has a wonderful, creative eye and similar sensibilities. I think we gravitate towards the same aesthetic and appreciation of a style of storytelling that is both very natural and authentic, like the Maysles. My mother, Sylvia Plachy, was a photographer in New York. She really captures moments as they occur and find the magic. If you missed it, you missed it, you know? It cant be created in a studio setting.

CS: Did you find that magic?

Brody: We got a lot of magic! It was almost a decade of my life. There were a lot of changes in my life. Somehow we managed to find the narrative structure where the Castle is the protagonist and I, perhaps, am the co-lead in the film. We told a story that I think is quite universal, this desire to find home.

CS: What was it about the property that immediately spoke to you?

Brody: It captured a lot the aesthetic qualities that Ive always been attracted to. I love period, turn of the century architecture. It was a barn and, for a long time, I had considered rennovating a barn, because its this big, cavernous creative space. I can paint. I can restore an old car. I can do grand things within that. I also love open living, loft-like spaces. I had been searching barns and spent a lot of time in Europe filming castles. I think that gave me a taste of how beautiful they all are. Those ones are far too remote, though. There are decent deals, still, but you have to be in the most remote part of the world to imagine rennovating something like that. To be a foreigner, too, makes it feel less like home. So I had been looking in the States and then this thing popped up and it was just remarkable.

CS: Were you specifically targeting a property that would require some extra love?

Brody: I guess so, but I wasnt looking for something on that level. Im very much of a dreamer, I guess. Even when I bought the place, my first instinct was to not do a rennovation of the barn structure. Theres a log house on the property and I was going to rennovate that. I lived in that for awhile while I was rennovating the main house. I was fine with that. It was a beautiful little one-bedroom house with a stove. I would get up every morning and light the fire. It was wonderful. I thought perhaps Id just do a superficial rennovation of the main structure to keep it structurally together. I thought it would be a folly. A work of art. I mean, it was built by an engineer who was ahead of his time. There are tunnel structures and lots of other elements that arent really elaborated on in the film but that fascinated me when I went to explore. There used to be a dairy barn, so he devised these underground flues that would extract the foul air from the cows and the manure. Theyd bring it up through these 60 foot chimneys. This thing was fully functioning sending butter and cream to New York City. There was an ice house where they brought these big blocks of ice from the lake. The whole history of it all is just so fantastic. Theres something also about bringing something back to life that took so much love. The family that had lived there before me had spent 30 years trying to rehabilitate it. They built up some of the outer buildings, but they never got to the main place. They didnt have the resources. It was an enormous task. I kind of took over where they left of.

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SXSW: Adrien Brody on Finding Home in Stone Barn Castle