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By: sai kumar Dhulipudi
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Home Lighting Store - Video
Lincoln Pre K Architect Grant
See how Lincoln Pre-K students are becoming little architects with the help from a Waterloo Schools Foundation grant.
By: WaterlooSchools
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Lincoln Pre K Architect Grant - Video
Allout Helter playing "We Are The Architects," at The Marquis Theater.
"We Are The Architects," by Allout Helter as played on March 16th 2012 at the Marquis Theater.
By: Victor Valdez
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Allout Helter playing "We Are The Architects," at The Marquis Theater. - Video
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton will make an appearance at the American Institute of Architects' annual convention in mid-May, the AIA announced today. The professional organization's yearly three-day conference is one of the biggest events in the American architecture industry, with nearly 20,000 architects attending last year. President Clinton is scheduled to make a keynote address on May 14, the first day of this year's event, which will take place in Atlanta.
In the announcement heralding the event, the AIA did not specify the precise topic of President Clinton's remarks, but noted his political record of economic expansion, his post-White House work with the Clinton Foundation to improve health conditions and economies worldwide, including in Haiti, where the foundation is supporting economic growth, rebuilding, and education. The theme of this year's convention is "impact," emphasizing the role architects play in communities both local and global.
Fingers crossed that Clinton won't pull a Pharrell and drop out right before the event.
Check out Co.Design's previous coverage of AIA's annual convention here. Read more about the Clinton Foundation and one of those other Clintons from Fast Company.
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Bill Clinton To Headline The 2015 AIA Convention
Many people know E Ink for providing technology that creates the text in e-readers like Amazon.com 's Kindle. Now the Taiwan-based company is moving beyond displays for authors to the world of architects.
E Ink is using the Consumer Electronics Show to launch Prism, a new application of its technology to decorate company walls, commercial exhibits, airport terminals and other spaces. Think of flat, sign-like surfaces composed of a collection of polygons or other shapes. Those shapes can individually switch on to show colors, creating shifting patterns that are a bit like a simple abstract painting.
Giovanni Mancini, the companys director of product management, compares the applications to paint. When decorating a wall the old-fashioned way, he says, people choose their colors, apply the paint and the effect remains static for a long period of time.
With Prism, the colors can be dynamic, changing at random, due to conscious programming or external stimuli. What E Ink is doing is taking pigments and controlling those pigments, Mancini says.
Digital display technology, of course, is much more dynamic. But it also consumes much more power. Prism benefits from the same advantage that makes E Ink a popular choice for e-readers: Power is only consumed when a page turnsor, in this case, when colors change on a wall.
Promoting Prism will be a different kind of task for the company. Instead of reaching out to dozens of hardware companies, E Ink will be trying to attract thousands of architects, designers and other professionals. Mancini says the response has been good so far. Theres a lot of interest, he says.
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Jackson Hole, Wyoming (PRWEB) January 06, 2015
Two new villas nestle into a dramatic butte overlooking Jackson Holes Teton and Snake River Ranges. Naturally elegant and at once distinct yet all of a piece, the elite private homes designed by Ward + Blake Architects are the latest of nine residences designed by the firm for Jacksons ultra-chic Amangani Resort. Named for the Shoshone word for peaceful home, Amangani was recently ranked on Robb Reports list of the worlds top resorts and named a Travel + Leisure most romantic getaway. The Ward + Blake-designed homes are part of a collection of Aman Villas situated adjacent to Aman resorts internationally and referred to by the luxury resort group as its ultimate tier of Aman accommodation options. Dream vacation homes for their owners, the villas also provide an extraordinary level of luxury and privacy available for guest lodging.
Working within the strict parameters of the resorts architectural covenants, Ward + Blake Architects designed the villas in harmony with resort architect Ed Tuttles original aesthetic for Amangani. Tuttle envisioned that the resort would be designed to be in relationship with its surroundings, creating the hotel with a modernist purity of line, its low profile and stepped roof reflecting the surrounding topography.
"The idea is to be comfortable and sink into the views," said Tuttle, designer of Aman resorts around the world, in a Travel + Leisure article about the resort.
Ward + Blakes designs for the Aman Villas have unfolded like a life-size 3-D jigsaw puzzle over a period of more than a decade. Built within resort stipulations created by Tuttle that guide proportions, materials and composition, the homes representing nearly half of 22 total residential building sites on 54 resort acres coexist peacefully from a design standpoint with one another and the Tuttle-designed resort, while standing out as individuals. The vertical-boarded exteriors of the private residences mimic the surrounding peaks, and native grasses cover sod roofs like an extension of prairie.
The nine Ward + Blake-designed villas share the main resorts earth-hugging profile and palette of rugged natural materials. At the same time they belie their similarities to be revealed as unique, gem-like residences, each an unmistakable reflection of its owners, including the owner of the villa known as Aman 12 who describes her Amangani vacation getaway as truly awesome in the literal meaning of that word.
What I love about it is the integrity of the materials, living in a home thats made of real wood and stone and also an architecturally important home, says Aman 12s homeowner. We have unobstructed views of the valley below which is really why you live in a place like this something Ward + Blake really took advantage of with their design.
The Aman 12 homeowner also praises the indoor/functionality and privacy of her villa as well as its attunement to the resorts overall peaceful home intention. We use the outdoor spaces as much as indoors, she says. We love the hot tub on the big deck that overlooks the valley. And each of the bedrooms has its own outdoor space great for reading and relaxing. I think of each of the bedrooms as a little private serenity chamber.
According to Amanresorts, the Aman Villas take the luxury, privacy and relaxation of an Aman resort stay to an entirely different level. The Amangani vacation homes include the exquisite detailing and customized approach that Ward + Blake Architects is known for the finish work is absolutely flawless, just very subtle, beautiful details, says the Aman 12 owner. At the same time they offer access to all of the ultraluxurious services and facilities of the resort, from housekeeping and concierge to the restaurant, lounge, library, spa, ski shuttle and more.
About Ward + Blake Architects: Ward + Blake Architects was built on a distinctive vision: to be provocative in thought, flexible in nature and disciplined in execution. Since 1996, the firm has earned recognition for architecture that is sensitive to its environment and successfully integrated with its surroundings, including being named Architect of the Year by International Design Awards, having a project shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore, and being named Firm of the Year by the six-state AIA Western Mountain Region. Ward + Blake creates buildings that are tactile, modern, bio-climatically responsible, honestly expressed, technologically sound and artfully crafted. A recent monograph, In the Shadows of the Tetons: Selected Works of Ward + Blake Architects, provides an overview of the firms award-winning work. For additional information, visit Ward + Blake online at http://www.wardblakearchitects.com or call 307.733.6867.
There are cranes hanging over downtown Long Beach, with work underway or soon to start on multiple, multimillion-dollar mixed-use developments.
City officials and business leaders say a sort of renaissance is taking place, with new housing and retail soon to be available in the citys urban center. Michael Conway, the citys director of Economic and Property Development, said he is encouraged seeing construction crews at work, calling it a sign of a strengthening downtown marketplace. He added that the planned new Civic Center is going to be yet another boon to downtown development.
Among those major developments underway today, Long Beachs Development Services Department lists three major projects: The Current, The Edison and The Parc Broadway.
But besides those, smaller new development projects and adaptive reuses also are under way with much more on the horizon, promised Conway and Downtown Long Beach Associates President and CEO Kraig Kojian.
Development of the Sixth Street Lofts, for example, is turning what was once a real estate site left for dead into 30 loft apartments at 431 E. Sixth St. That project could be complete in early 2015.
New developments still in the entitlement phase include a proposal for 207 Seaside Way that would accommodate a five-story, 113-unit residential component over a two-story parking garage, among other features.
A proposal for 442 Ocean Blvd. is working its way through the process to make way for another five-story complex with 95 residential units over a two-story parking garage, among other amenities.
The former AMC movie theater at Pine Square is being transformed through adaptive reuse into 69 residential units. Other proposed adaptive reuses include: plans to reuse the Ocean Center historic office building as residential and retail/restaurant space at Pine Avenue and Ocean Boulevard; adapting the former Security Pacific Tower at 110 Pine Ave. into 118 residential units; among other projects.
While the construction does create jobs short term, the even better long-term benefits, Conway said, are a collateral effect of having more people and a different demographic living downtown, ultimately bringing in other new developments and retailers that the city hasnt had before.
The real multiplier here is the additional residential density we are going to have downtown, he said. Its still a bit of a tough market, and downtown has a somewhat challenging demographic. Its been a long plan and a long road to bring the downtown to its current status as a very popular and lively downtown. Twenty years ago, I couldnt say the same thing, but I think it is an extraordinary downtown and this development is a testament to its economic vitality.
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New High-Rises Develop In Downtown Long Beach
U.S. shopping-center owners are starting 2015 on an optimistic note thanks to a solid holiday season and rising rents throughout 2014.
Yet, given that retail vacancies remain near historically elevated levels, more bullish news for retail landlords likely will come at a glacial pace.
All in, last year was a good one for mall and strip-center owners. The average strip-center vacancy last year was 10.2%, the lowest annual percentage since 2008, according to new data from real-estate research firm Reis Inc. Average rents increased 2%, the largest increase since 2007, said Reis, which tracks the largest 77 markets.
At malls, the vacancy rate ticked up slightly to 8% in the fourth quarter from 7.9% in the third, due mostly to closures by Sears Holdings Corp.But vacancy remains down from the recent high of 9.4% set in the third quarter of 2011. Mall rental rates, meanwhile, rose for the 14th consecutive quarter, albeit by tiny measures in each case, to $40.66 per square foot per year, Reis said.
For a property type that has really struggled over the past few years, things are getting better, said Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis. That portends improvement in 2015 and beyond.
Retailers and their landlords alike have sunny outlooks for several reasons. Holiday sales were strong. Thomson Reuters projects that the 76 retailers it tracks will post an average fourth-quarter gain in same-store sales of 1.8%, up from 0.7% for the final quarter of 2013.
Job growth has gained significant momentum in recent months, and wage growth is picking up, too. A potential windfall recently arrived for merchants in the steep decline of oil prices, which has freed shoppers to spend less on gas and more on retail goods.
If 2015 sees any material rise in income, and if energy prices remain where they are, you could see a real bump in spending in 2015, said Gene Spiegelman, vice chairman and head of retail services in North America for commercial brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.
OConnor Capital Partners LLC, a closely held builder and owner with 14 million square feet of shopping centers in the U.S. and Mexico, anticipates that its tenants will post an average sales gain of 2% to 2.5% for the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period. Thatd be as good a fourth quarter as weve had since 2011, OConnor Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn Rufrano said.
Mr. Rufrano said he noticed sales gains last quarter from OConnors tenants in athletics, accessories, electronics and home goods. But he said some apparel stores were struggling. Several flagship apparel chains have been reporting weak sales lately,including Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and American Apparel Inc.
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Shopping-Center Owners Start Year With Optimism as 4th-Quarter Rents Rise
US retail mall vacancies rose in the fourth quarter from the third, mainly due to the closure of some Sears Holdings Corp stores, according to real estate research firm Reis Inc.
Asking and effective rents for shopping centers increased slightly faster than the previous quarter, Reis said in a report on Tuesday.
Retail mall vacancies rose to 8 per cent in the fourth quarter from 7.9 per cent in the third quarter, marking the first quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2011, the company said.
Retailer Sears said in December it planned to close 235 stores in 2014, nearly double the projection of 130 made in August, in an attempt to return to profitability.
Asking and effective rents for shopping centers grew by 0.5 per cent this quarter. Asking rent had risen 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, while effective rents rose 0.5 per cent.
"Demand continues to rebound from a weak 2013, though it also remains at relatively low levels... (This) provides more evidence that the recovery is not yet accelerating," Severino said.
The national vacancy rate for neighborhood and community shopping centers declined by 10 basis points to 10.2 per cent during the fourth quarter, slightly improving from the third quarter, when the rate was unchanged.
Construction activity remained limited with only 1,752,000 square feet of new shopping center space completed during the fourth quarter. Shopping center space completed during the third quarter was 1,272,000 square feet.
Reis said accelerating pace of job creation, wage growth, and cheaper energy prices portend better times ahead.
"While we are still a number of years away from characterizing the retail real estate environment as 'strong', 2015 could certainly be a year of transition to a healthier market environment," Severino said.
Continued here:
US retail mall vacancies rise in fourth quarter: Reis
Sandycombe Lodge has been placed on the English Heritage register of endangered historic structures. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
A house designed by the painter JMW Turner as a country home to share with his father will be saved from dereliction and opened permanently to the public through a 1.4m grant to be announced on Wednesday by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
We are just so excited, it is superb news this house is a national treasure, but it is in a sad, sad state, and if we had to get through another bad winter without knowing whether we could go ahead with restoration, it would be truly worrying, said Rosemary Vaux, of the Turner House Trust. The months of torrential rain last winter did terrible damage, and we were really fearful of the consequences if we had another prolonged spell of such bad weather.
The Grade II listed house, Sandycombe Lodge in Twickenham, west London, is the only known building designed by Turner. It was described by Vaux as a three-dimensional work of art. It was left by the last private owner to a trust, but its increasingly fragile condition meant that it was only open to the public one afternoon a month, and placed on the English Heritage register of endangered historic structures.
The grant, with extra funding being raised by the trust, means that it will close this year and reopen in 2016 for 46 weeks of the year, with later features removed and the garden and interiors restored to their appearance in Turners day. The house had many features including distinctive tall narrow arches inspired by his friend Sir John Soane, the architect whose own much grander country home, Pitzhanger Manor, was only a few miles away in Ealing. Turner lived in Twickenham for part of the year from 1813 until 1826, producing many dazzling paintings of nearby stretches of the Thames, with his father as housekeeper and gardener. As portrayed in Mike Leighs film Mr Turner, father and son were devoted, though many visitors mistook the modestly dressed little man pottering around the garden with a wheelbarrow seen in one Turner drawing for a groundsman. He entertained friends to lavish picnics in the garden, which had colourful flower beds, a large pond full of fish and water lilies, and a weeping willow planted from a slip he took from the garden of another local celebrity, the poet Alexander Pope.
In 1826 Turner sold the house and moved his father back to his larger town house, studio and gallery in London. Although the house passed through many hands, and the fact that he designed it was forgotten, the connection with the artist was never forgotten locally and it was cherished on his account by a succession of owners. The narrow country lane is now a suburban street, with the house hemmed in by later buildings, but it is still recognisable from 19th century engravings made in Turners day. The interior was barely modernised even after being a second world war factory making goggles for aviators.
Turner kept the adjoining meadow for years, finally selling it for a handsome profit in 1848 to the railway company which was driving a new line through to Windsor.
In 1947 Professor Harold Livermore bought the surviving scrap of garden and the house which was in such poor state that there was talk of demolishing it. He carried out extensive research with his wife Ann on Turners time in Twickenham, campaigned to prevent development which would have damaged its setting, established the trust in 2005, and bequeathed the house on his death in 2010 along with an extensive collection of books and works of art.
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Turned out nice: artists home gets 1.4m rescue grant
