Alphaville Interview - Architects meet in Fuoribiennale_OFF
Alphaville Interview - Architects meet in Fuoribiennale_OFF - Venice, Palazzo Widmann - 06/06/2014. Interview by Ginevra Selli, Luca Marinelli. Video Editing...
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Alphaville Interview - Architects meet in Fuoribiennale_OFF - Video
Brunelleschi: Age of Architects HelpSystem
A brief demonstration of the Catalog in the Brunelleschi: Age of Architects web client at http://BruneGame.com.
By: Brunelleschi
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Brunelleschi: Age of Architects HelpSystem - Video
Summer means construction season, and in downtown Madison, that meansnew housing and retail space that could lead to a different feel near campus.
Among the most significant additions to the State Street area is the development of the Hub, a new apartment and retail complex that Scott Stager, senior vice president of Property Management at Core Campus, said he hopes it will be the center of student life and community activity.
State Street is really the center of activity for shopping, dining and nightlife near campus. I cant think of a better location for a building to be located, right in the epicenter of it all, Stager said. With the 960 students we will have as residents, we are sure State Street businesses will really see a positive impact.
Stager said the building will include 313 housing units with more than 960 bed spaces. The building will also feature an amenity package that Stager said has never been seen before in Madison. This will include things like a rooftop sun deck with a resort style pool, a 20-foot LED outdoor television, a fitness center and study rooms. Stager said he hopes these amenities will help promote both academic achievement and a healthy social life for students living there.
Mary Carbine, Madisons executive director of the Business Improvement District, said she thinks the Hub will add a lot to the area, bringing people to the businesses in the Hub and to the existing local shops on State Street.
Stager said the Hub is going to be student friendly and will lease to anyone that meets their rental requirements. The primary targets for tenants, Stager said, are UW-Madison students and young, just-graduated professionals.
Stager said the building began construction in 2013 and will open in August of 2015.
Not everybody is fully supporting developments like the Hub. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the displacement of smaller stores due to projects like the Hub is concerning for both city staff and nearby residents.
It is still somewhat bittersweet, perhaps sobering, that despite all the excitement over this new project, there will still be displacement of existing businesses. Verveer said.
The previous tenants worked with Core Campus to smooth out the relocation process, Verveer said.
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New high rises at the forefront of Madisons summer renovations
By Rick Smith, The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS Groundbreaking is set for Wednesday on CRST International Inc.s new 11-story, $37-million headquarters on the downtown riverfront.
The site across First Street SE from the Alliant Energy tower is being prepared for construction.
Most noticeably, the 100 or so vehicles that parked in a temporary lot since fall 2011 have moved to other parking spots in the downtown.
Marc Gullickson, president of Ryans Midwest region, said construction will begin immediately after Wednesdays groundbreaking ceremony with excavation and removal of foundation material from earlier structures on the site.
The building will be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2016, he said.
The CRST site, in the 200 block of First Street SE, previously was home to the First Street Parkade, which was slated for demolition for some years and was demolished in the summer of 2011 after sustaining flood damage in 2008.
On Saturday, another sign of change was the removal of 13 trees from the CRST site, which were added when the surface parking lot was put in place in 2011.
Daniel Gibbins, the citys parks superintendent, said the city is moving the two-year-old trees to Noelridge and Cherry Hill parks. Its not the best time of the year to move trees, but the recent wet soil conditions should help the trees survive, he said.
In 2011, five downtown entities created Short Term Parking Solution LC and financed the temporary parking lots construction with the thought that it would provide parking until the city found a company to build on the site.
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Construction of CRST riverfront headquarters ready to start
Business News of Sunday, 20 July 2014
Source: GNA
Broll Ghana has organised a maiden Broll Ghana Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO) cocktail, for the business community to principally share information and knowledge about development of Retail facilities that are springing up in the country.
Broll Ghana Limited has been compelled to initiate promotion of local investment in retail development based on the competitive income and capital returns from this sector.
Our direct involvement in retail broking services and retail management has brought to the fore enormous opportunities that majority of us are not taking advantage of and which we would like to recommend to the financial institutions, Mr Kofi Ampong, CEO of Broll Ghana said in his inaugural address in Accra on the theme: Financial Institutions and Retail Development.
The event attracted personalities like Reverend George Nimako, Broll Ghana Board Chairman, as well as representatives from HFC Bank, International Commercial Bank, First Atlantic Bank, Barclays Bank, Cal Bank Ltd, Universal Merchant Bank, Property Express, Star Assurance, Access Bank, GT Bank, Fidelity Bank, Vanguard Assurance, Zenith Bank Ghana and Ghana Shippers Authority.
Broll Ghana Limited for the past eight years has been involved in all property related consultancy services with the exception of property development.
The company started with two services namely; property management and facilities management services. Broll Ghana Limited is now a multidisciplinary professional service firm providing property consultancy services in seven core areas namely; Retail Management, Commercial Broking, CRES, Valuation and Advisory, Residential Property Management, Real Estate Consulting, Market Research and Retail Broking.
According to the African Retail Development Index (2014), Ghana is among the countries which dominate the list of fastest growing economies in the world and the potential for growth is still high.
Ghana exhibits good demographics and possesses highly skilled labour force creating the necessary environment for good investment, says Mr Ampong.
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Broll hosts maiden CEO cocktail on retail development
Could Mellon Square become the next Market Square?
While its no European-style piazza, some believe the area around the newly restored park could be primed to become one of Downtowns next hot spots for restaurants and retail.
I see it becoming the next great Downtown destination, said Herky Pollock, executive vice president of the CBRE real estate firm.
Only a few years ago, the Smithfield Street corridor between Fifth and Liberty avenues that includes Mellon Square appeared to be ready for last rites.
The Saks Fifth Avenue department store had closed, the Henry W. Oliver building next door was 70 percent vacant, and the former Lord & Taylor department store and the James H. Reed office building were empty.
Today its a different story.
The upper floors of the Oliver building are being converted into an Embassy Suites hotel. Lord & Taylor is now a PNC Bank call center with about 700 employees, and the James Reed building is being turned into an upscale 249-room Hotel Monaco. Saks is being redeveloped for retail and parking, and the upper half of the former Alcoa building is becoming apartments.
Add to it the rehabbed square and Mayor Bill Pedutos interest in making Smithfield a grand boulevard of Pittsburgh filled with small shops and boutiques, and its easy to see why some think better days are ahead for the corridor.
If you fast-forward 18 months to two years from now, the whole Mellon Square corridor will be unrecognizable given all of the redevelopment going on, in and around the square, Mr. Pollock predicted.
David Glickman, director of retail services for the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank real estate firm, believes Market Square, with its piazza and teeming restaurant scene, is unique in Downtown, but he sees the potential for Smithfield to generate as much, if not more, retail.
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Planners see potential in a revamped Mellon Square
When Dewey Sampson moved to a small Victorian on 14th Street SE in 2010, he knew he had moved to a unique stretch of Anacostia. The block between V and U streets was the site of the Old Market Square, a gathering place in the historic community, and the price for his home was impossible to pass on for what he wanted with his wife.
But the house next door was an abandoned, dilapidated mess, so much of one that Sampson was intent on doing something about it.
We had some squatter issues, things of that nature, Sampson said of the house, which was known to serve as a crack den. He added that he once considered buying the house: I didnt really feel comfortable with my wife being around those situations. So, I definitely had to call and got the house boarded up.
Then, a stroke of luck. The LEnfant Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving historic properties, bought the run-down house for $112,000 and fully renovated it. The organization, known for offering tax incentives to owners of historic properties around the city, was looking for a place to start a new rehabilitation program, and 2010 14th St. SE, the source of Sampsons angst, was a perfect fit. The group will now sell the house at market rate and use the profit to invest in more properties around the city.
All the while, it has restored a bit of pride to a neighborhood whose name alone still carries a certain stigma in Washington.
On Tuesday, representatives from the organization, D.C. officials and residents will mark the houses transformation with a ribbon-cutting and ceremony. But by that time, the hardest part will be over.
Were sort of like the emergency room of historic buildings, Carol Goldman, the trusts president, said. She added that the new initiative, known as a revolving fund program, represents a shift in how the Trust identifies preservation projects. For years, the group has largely encouraged property donations and volunteer easements to foster preservation. The new program was initially funded by a $50,000 grant from a Connecticut foundation.
The group, which holds the most historic easements in the country, has bought properties to renovate in other places around the United States, but the Anacostia home was its first in the District. To assess the right deal, the nonprofit group solicited community input about which properties it should buy and is acquiring its next set of homes to renovate.
Anacostia was clearly the place to launch this because they had these things sitting, Goldman said, referring to the swath of historic houses in the community. A number of them were crack dens. Lots of syringes. For decades. We thought, boy, if we can figure out a way to use our nonprofit funding mechanisms to rehab these buildings and put them back and stabilize and revitalize the neighborhood, thats really good use of the trust and funding partners, our nonprofit dollars.
Greta Fuller, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for that part of the neighborhood and a member of the Historic Anacostia Preservation Society, said she has welcomed the trusts presence in the community.
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Old homes restoration helps to restore pride in Anacostia
A Cambridge landmark is getting a makeover.
Restoration work is scheduled to begin in mid August on the Armstrong Covered Bridge, which has called the City Park home since the late 1960s.
The city administration awarded the contract for the work earlier this year to Cambridge-based Crossroads Construction.
Workers first assessed the bridge, determining what timbers required replacement. An order was then made by the contractor to a specialized company for the custom prepared wood.
Once the contractor receives the wood, the bridge will be closed to foot traffic and restoration work will begin. A simulated dark-colored cedar shingle roof will replace the current tin roof, itself a replacement of the original. Side boards, cross braces and beams will be replaced as needed.
No foundation work is planned, Sherry said. The metal braces beneath the bridge will be retained.
The work will not alter the dimensions of the bridge, Sherry said, approximately 75 feet long, 13 feet wide and 17 feet high at the peak of the roof.
The contract calls for the work to be completed by May 3, 2015. However, the contractor anticipates completing the work within a 90-day window.
Total cost of the project is approximately $200,000. The local match is $30,000, to be taken from the Continuous Street Improvement Fund line item.
Funding for the work comes through the Ohio Department of Transportation via the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program.
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Restoration work planned for Armstrong Covered Bridge, a Cambridge landmark
David and I didnt fall out exactly. There was a constant friction. The worst of it was, some of his aides were briefing that I was going to be sacked all the time."
"I had a great row with them when they told the producer of Question Time that I was ill and they were able to provide a replacement. It never occurred to them that I could ring up the producer. She said: 'I'm told you are ill.' After that, I got even more freelance, he told the Observer.
Mr Clarke warned that the economic recover remains fragile, vulnerable to shocks and lacks a strong productive base necessary to compete.
"It's not firmly enough rooted on a proper balance between manufacturing and a wide range of services and financial services. I mean, we have this mystery of why we can't get productivity to start rising again."
He warned against triumphalism over a bit of cyclical upswing in the economy.
Mr Clarke said he is uncomfortable with personal attacks, as the Tories sharpen their message that Ed Miliband is unfit to be Prime Minister. This is a generational thing. One of the ways in which politics has changed which I don't find very desirable is the celebrity culture. The system gets more and more presidential."
He revealed Margaret Thatcher wanted to go to the American system of healthcare when he was his health secretary.
"I had ferocious rows with her about it. She wanted compulsory insurance, with the state paying the premiums for the less well-off. I thought that was a disaster. The American system is hopeless, dreadful."
In her memoirs, Mrs Thatcher disowned a leaked policy paper proposing education vouchers and medical insurance to provide private healthcare meaning "the end of the National Health Service", saying it was "total nonsense". However, subsequently released Cabinet papers suggests she commissioned and seriously discussed the proposals.
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No 10 lied to BBC to keep me off-air, says Ken Clarke
Six in ten voters believe the reshuffle - which demoted Michael Gove and promoted several female ministers - was a step in the right direction for the Conservatives, ORB International survey shows
David Camerons Cabinet reshuffle has boosted the Conservatives chances at the next election as most voters give his new ministerial team their approval, a new poll shows.
The ORB International survey for the Telegraph shows that six in ten voters believe the reshuffle - which demoted Michael Gove and promoted several female ministers - was a step in the right direction for the Tories.
Some 59 per cent of people questioned backed the shake-up of ministerial jobs, while 41 per cent had doubts.
The reshuffle received the most positive response from Tory voters, 87 per cent of whom approved. And in a result that will encourage Downing Street, half of Ukip voters took a positive view of the shake-up.
Even 45 per cent of Labour supporters said the reshuffle was good for the Tories, according to the survey of 2,000 adults, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
The findings came as one of the ministers whom Mr Cameron sacked launched an extraordinary attack on his political opponents.
Interactive chart: 'The PM's reshuffle is a step in the right direction'
In an article for The Telegraph, Owen Paterson, the former Environment Secretary, says that he accepts the Prime Ministers right to choose his team but argues that the jubilant reaction to his sacking from green activists shows he was challenging them rather effectively.
Mr Paterson mounts a vigorous defence of his record battling the influence of green groups in Brussels, fighting Liberal Democrats in coalition over wind farms, and responding to the flooding of the Somerset Levels last winter.
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Poll: David Cameron's reshuffle boosts Tories
