Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) have announced two winning designs for the 2015 City of Dream Pavilion Competition. Pending approvals and fundraising, both the Billion Oyster Pavilion by New Yorkbased BanG studio and the Organic Growth Pavilion by Madrid- and London-based Izaskun Chinchilla Architects will be assembled on Governors Island and open to the public this summer.

BanG Studios pavilion proposal incorporates the New York Harbor Schools Billion Oyster Project, which focuses on the long-term benefits of growing new oyster beds in the harbor. The pavilions base will be comprised of custom Reef Balls to create an artificial habitat for the oysters, and it will be topped with a woven canopy. After the pavilion is decommissioned at the end of the summer, the will be donated to the school and its materials will be reused on Governors Island.

Billion Oyster Pavilion by BanG Studio, Brooklyn (2014 BanG Studio)

The Organic Growth Pavilion proposal by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects was also inspired by nature and features recycled materials, such as broken umbrellas, old stools, and damaged bicycle wheels. The proposal draws awareness to the large amount of waste in landfills and provides solutions for recycling the pavilion after its use, such as indoor chandeliers and seasonal protection for outdoor spaces.

Organic Growth Pavilion by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects, Madrid/London (2014 Izaskun Chinchilla Architects)

After reviewing more than 100 submissions, the jury selected five finalists who had one month to develop their designs. The three additional finalists were: The Pulp Pavilion by MegaZoo, Tied Together by Hou de Sousa, and Galassia by Michele Zanella.

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BanG Studo and Izaskun Chinchilla Architects Win 2015 City of Dreams Competition

Pryor & Morrow Architects and Engineers, P.A. is proud to announce Ashley Studdard Hughes will be joining Pryor & Morrow Architects and Engineers, PA as an interior designer. Ashley brings several years of interior design experience with emphasis in higher education, multi-family residential, military and healthcare design. Mrs. Hughes is a native of Columbus and a graduate of Mississippi State University. Ashley earned her bachelors of science in interior design in May of 2007.

Hughes began her career at Bullock Tice Associates in Pensacola, Florida. While employed as a project interior designer, Ashley worked extensively with clients to determine project space needs for planning, completed project specifications and construction documents. Mrs. Hughes has completed the certification process with the Mississippi Interior Design Advisory Committee and was approved as a certified interior designer in the state of Mississippi.

"We are very glad to have Ashley on board leading our interior design department. Her experience with client relations, space planning and project scheduling will be very helpful to our design team," said Chris Morrow, AIA, Principal. Pryor & Morrow Architects and Engineers, P.A. is a thriving architecture and engineering firm founded in 1985 by Chris Morrow, AIA and Roger Pryor, AIA. Pryor & Morrow Architects and Engineers, PA has projects across the state of Mississippi and employs nearly 30 in our two locations (Columbus and Tupelo). The professional staff at Pryor & Morrow includes interior designers, engineers, architects, landscape architects and designers specializing in sustainable design.

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Business brief: Hughes hired

Rendering of the proposed Station Park Green mixed-use residential development near the Hayward Park Caltrain Station in San Mateo.

The long-proposed residential and retail community known as Station Park Green is closer to construction as the San Mateo Planning Commission approved the proposal to redevelop the 12-acre site at a prime intersection near the Hayward Park Caltrain Station.

EBL&S Developments plans to construct a 1-acre park and up to 599 apartments, 30,000 square feet of retail space and 15,000 square feet of office space at the corner of Delaware Street and Concar Drive were approved by the Planning Commission Tuesday night and will now be up for City Councils vote Feb. 2.

The project, which was approved in 2011 but put on hold due to financing, was amended and required EBL&S, city staff and planning officials to iron out details over the last year. The proposal outlines four main buildings with residences wrapping around an enclosed, above-ground parking structure. The former proposal called for eight, smaller buildings and increased office and retail space.

I think working together with the Planning Commission and the staff, we came up with a better project and I think its going to be a project I can be proud of. Its sort of a legacy project for me, that will be here long after I am, said Alan Talansky, EBL&S senior vice president of development and a San Mateo resident. I think what were going to be able to do is set a standard for how these villages should be at [Caltrain stations] and I think theyre important for the future transit and growth of the area.

Should the council approve the proposal, Talansky said he anticipates starting demolition within three months at the former sites of Kmart and Michaels Arts and Crafts. Construction is likely to take about two years, he added. The Shell gas station has already been demolished.

An evolving juncture

The Hayward Park Caltrain station has served as the catalyst for several redevelopment proposals including the Hines complex, which will transform 3.3 acres into 292,400 square feet of offices directly across from Station Park Green, and Caltrain plans to construct a mixed-use residential complex on 2.7 acres of its surface parking lot.

Its a prime location because it had underutilized space. You had space that was old retail, that was really not that viable for the area, Talansky said. The whole impetus comes from the corridor plan that San Mateo did several years ago, so this was asked for by the city and the citizens a long time ago.

Planning Commission Chair Rick Bonilla said the city has long sought mixed-use projects like Station Park Green since approving the Rail Corridor Plan, which promotes transit-oriented developments, in 2005.

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Station Park Green plan heads to council: Planning Commission approves 599-unit residential development

The retail space in real estate market of Ahmedabad witnessed a slow year due to highest increase in mall vacancy among top eight cities in 2014. According to the latest report by Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate consultancy, at the end of 2014, Ahmedabad's mall vacancy grew by 1.8 per cent to stand at 32.1 per cent, due to low preference for poor quality mall space.

The total eight cities including Delhi, Mumbai, NCR, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai, among others saw only 1.7 million square feet (msf) of fresh mall space being infused in the calendar year 2014.

Leading cities of India saw an addition of only 5 new malls of which Pune noted the influx of 2 malls adding upto 500,000 square feet (sq ft) of mall space. Hyderabad (500,000 sq ft), Bengaluru (310,000 sq ft) and Delhi-NCR (250,000 sq ft) witnessed an infusion of 1 mall each. Kolkata saw an addition of 120,000 sq ft to the city mall inventory.

In Ahmedabad, limited availability of quality mall space kept the transaction activity in Ahmedabad low. Increasing vacancy levels in a few poor quality malls on S.G. Highway led to city's overall mall vacancy increasing by 1.8 percentage points over the last one year and was noted at 32.1 per cent.

"There has been a period of low activities in the mall supply across the country as the developers are cautious of taking up retail projects which are high gestation and high investment as retailers still remain concerned on uptake and are therefore cautious with their expansion plans in India. Having said that, any new retail location that has appropriate catchment areas have witnessed good levels of activities," said Sanjay Dutt, Executive Managing Director, South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield.

The total supply that was estimated to enter the market in 2014 was approximately 12 msf of which less than 15 per cent came into existence amounting to indefinite deferment of approximately 25 malls across key cities of India. Maximum number of malls (9) were deferred in Delhi-NCR totalling to 6.7 msf of new mall space, which is 56 per cent of the total mall space deferred. Though Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata witnessed some supply during this year, a large quantum has been deferred. Bengaluru lost out on 7 planned malls while 4 malls were deferred in Pune. Kolkata witnessed the deferment of 1 mall while Chennai and Hyderabad both witnessed the deferment of 2 malls each.

The delays have happened due to a variety of reasons, mostly from approval construction linked delays in Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi-NCR. However, low demand has also led to the deferment of some malls in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Chennai.

However, leasing activities in the existing and new mall spaces remained stable with vacancy levels remaining similar to the previous year recording a very marginal drop in vacancy at 0.2 per cent. The average vacancy level stood at 14.3 per cent.

In Ahmedabad, despite rising vacancies, landlords kept the rentals for these malls steady during the last year.

Since higher preference for main-street format was noted in Ahmedabad, it did not witnessed any mall supply during 2014 and currently has just one under-construction mall.

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Ahmedabad records highest rise in mall vacancy in 2014

Correction: A Thursday Tulsa World story incorrectly stated the amount of money the Muscogee (Creek) Nation plans to contribute to a new development at RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks. The nation plans to contribute $11 million to the $22 million project. This story has been corrected.

JENKS The Muscogee (Creek) Nation announced a $22 million entertainment complex that will be built at the RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks.

The facility will offer high-tech golf, family-oriented games, restaurants, sports bar, party rooms and corporate space.

Principal Chief George Tiger said the tribe hoped to have the facility finished in 18 months. It will be built in an open space just north of the shopping centers movie theater.

There will be nothing like it within a 250-mile radius of Tulsa, Tiger said.

Tiger said the announcement is just the first of several to be made regarding RiverWalk Crossing, located along the west bank of the Arkansas River in Jenks.

The new development will be a partnership between the tribe and RW Restaurant Group, a new entity that was formed specifically for the venture. Of the $22 million cost, $11 million will be covered by the tribe and the rest covered by RW.

John Vollbrecht, a local investor and representative of RW, said the group was proud to work with the tribe.

Were honored to be partnered with them, and we believe this will be the start of a great revitalization of RiverWalk Crossing, he said.

Sean Kouplen, a local banker who is chairman of One Fire, the business arm of the Creek Nation, said the fate of the movie theater will be determined later.

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Creeks announce $22 million entertainment complex at Jenks' Riverwalk Crossing

Greensburg grew in 2014, with the number of new construction projects and new businesses rising significantly from 2013.

The city Planning Department presented its annual report to city council Monday, showing a positive year for the city.

Councilman Jonathan Vesely pointed to Seton Hill University's construction of a dance and visual arts center on West Otterman Street and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art's major renovation of its North Main Street building as the city's most significant construction projects in decades.

There were four cranes working on these new buildings for the first time in 30 years, Vesely said.

The Planning and Zoning Department collected a total of $213,070 in building permits, occupancy permits and related fees in 2014, up more than 31 percent from last year's total of $146,012.

According to the report, 24 businesses signed new leases for retail and office space downtown, while three businesses canceled existing leases.

A lot of that is trickle down from Seton Hill, said city Planning Director Barbara Ciampini.

The college's new developments and heightened downtown presence has spurred more businesses to want to set up shop in Greensburg, Ciampini said.

The Stack Hookah Lounge, which opened on West Otterman Street over the summer, is one example of a business that chose a location close to college facilities, Ciampini said.

Downtown Greensburg has changed a lot in the last five years or so, she said.

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Construction projects, businesses increased in Greensburg in 14

A retail rebound in Lawrence is well underway, according to an annual study that shows the vacancy rate among stores and shops in Lawrence has fallen well below the national average.

A new commercial real estate report by the Lawrence office of Colliers International found that the citys retail vacancy rate was 3.9 percent at the end of 2014, which is below the national average of about 6.5 percent and below the Kansas City area average of about 8.5 percent.

It is very tight, said Marilyn Bittenbender, a senior vice president with Colliers. The good news is a low vacancy rate shows your economy is doing well, but it also makes it more difficult to attract new companies because you have fewer properties to show them.

The 3.9 percent citywide vacancy rate was down from 4.4 percent in 2013 and 5.4 percent in 2012. The closely watched downtown retail vacancy rate is even lower at 2.7 percent. The downtown rate, however, is up slightly from 1.8 percent in 2013, mainly because of the recent relocation of Buffalo Wild Wings to South Iowa Street and the closing of M&M Office Supply, both of which have left large buildings empty. The report estimates there is about 35,000 square feet of vacant retail space in downtown.

East 23rd Street had the highest retail vacancy rate in the city at 11.5 percent. South Iowa Street had the largest amount of vacant square footage at about 80,000 square feet, but that accounted for only about a 3.8 percent vacancy rate.

The low vacancy rates will create for an interesting 2015, Bittenbender predicted. There has been interest in building a new retail development southeast of the Iowa Street and South Lawrence Trafficway interchange, but it has not yet won city approval. There also have been efforts to lure retailers to an undeveloped area around the Rock Chalk Park sports complex in northwest Lawrence.

I would think well see some additional construction or at least see some additional projects approved in 2015, Bittenbender said of the retail front.

The report also looked at office and industrial vacancy rates in the city.

The office vacancy rate ended the year at 9.6 percent, up from about 9.4 percent a year ago. It remains below the Kansas City and national averages, which are between 11 percent and 12 percent.

The industrial vacancy rate fell to 6.1 percent, down from 7.4 percent in 2014. That puts Lawrence on par with the average vacancy rate in Kansas City and slightly below the national rate of about 8 percent.

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Lawrence tops Kansas City, nation in key retail property rate

Attorney General Pam Bondi made it unanimous on Thursday, joining fellow Cabinet members in dissing Gov. Rick Scotts removal of Gerald Bailey from his perch atop the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"Attorney General Bondi is dissatisfied with the manner in which this matter was handled," stated Bondi spokeswoman Jenn Meale in an email to the Times/Herald.

Meale sent the one-sentence statement on Thursday, joining Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam, who made similar statements.

Its quite the turnaround for all three, who only two days before unanimously supported Scotts appointment of Rick Swearingen as Baileys replacement.

What made their reversal all the more remarkable was that Bailey, by Tuesday, had said he had been forced out by Scott. He even stated that Scotts general counsel told him in December that the governor had the concurrence of all three cabinet members.

Bondi refused to answer questions on Tuesday about whether she communicated with Scotts administration about removing Bailey, or if she asked why he was being removed. Like Putnam and Atwater, Bondi expressed no reservations at the time about the shakeup.

That was then. Since then, a media firestorm has erupted as revelations suggest the personnel move was politically motivated.

So if all three are now expressing concerns about how Bailey was removed, will they reconvene the Cabinet, as they have the power to do, to reconsider the issue (and help disprove growing evidence that they are a tool of the Governor)? Are they now saying that Scott did not have their concurrence on removing Bailey? Or did Scott have their concurrence, but only because he misled them?

The public awaits more information...

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Cabinet Trifecta: Bondi shares misgivings about Bailey ouster

Hardi Exterior Siding Installation
Installing Hardi Siding in freezing temperatures ! Location: Frankfort, IL. by: Bianco #39;s Construction, Inc. https://www.facebook.com/BiancosConstruction.

By: Michael Bianco

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Hardi Exterior Siding Installation - Video

Demo, Framing, Windows and Hardi Siding Installation
Residential Remodeling - Location: Frankfort, IL. by: Bianco #39;s Construction, Inc. https://www.facebook.com/BiancosConstruction.

By: Michael Bianco

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Demo, Framing, Windows and Hardi Siding Installation - Video