Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

For historic architecture in Los Angeles, death can come in one of various ways: fire, earthquake or slow decay ... followed by redevelopment schemes that involve bland luxury condos. But none is quite as ignoble as being razed to make way for a parking lot.

That was once the proposed fate for Julia Morgans dashingly flamboyant Herald Examiner building in downtown Los Angeles. Completed in 1914, the block-long, Mission Revival structure, with its ornate-to-the-point-of-baroque lobby, represents one of only a handful of L.A. buildings designed by the pioneering architect the first woman to be licensed to practice architecture in California.

The freshly refurbished Herald Examiner building at the corner of Broadway and 11th street in downtown Los Angeles.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

It was the site of other important California history too. Throughout much of the 20th century, the building represented a key part of William Randolph Hearsts media empire, housing the Herald-Express, an afternoon newspaper, and the morning Los Angeles Examiner, which merged in 1962 and became the Herald-Examiner.

Five years later came an acrimonious strike that lasted several years and led to mounting losses. Despite an editorial revival sparked by the hiring of editor Jim Bellows, the general decline in finances and readership, spelled the end of the paper. By 1989, the Herald Examiner had shut down. For several years, the building sat empty. Three years later, a representative for the Hearst Corp. approached the city about tearing the place down.

The proposal generated an outcry. Morgans industrially scaled Mission Revival structure whose facade and gracious lobby feature an ebullient mix of Moorish, Spanish and Italian flourishes had at that point already occupied a slot on the citys Historic-Cultural Monuments list for almost 15 years. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Conservancy described the plan as a tragedy and disgrace.

Tiled cupolas adorn the roof of the historic Herald Examiner Building located at Broadway and 11th Street in Los Angeles.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Thankfully, good sense or, more realistically, economic inertia won out. The Herald Examiner building remained standing, albeit in a somnolent state. For more than two decades, it was employed primarily as a filming location. Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Usual Suspects were among the projects filmed at the site.

This fall, however, the Herald Examiner building came back from the brink. The building has reopened in a new guise: as a learning center for Arizona State University.

Sunlight streams through the arched windows of the Herald Examiner building. Since the 60s, these windows had been barricaded with block walls.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The developers at Georgetown Co. and a team of architects at Gensler have lovingly revived this gracious structure. This has included tending to decades of deferred maintenance and removing unsympathetic additions. Among them: taking out a mezzanine level that cut through some of the more majestic double-height spaces and removing paint from the sawtooth skylights on the third floor that had been painted over during World War II and never unpainted. Also removed were the block walls that had, for decades, obstructed the graceful arched windows at street level. These were installed in the 1960s after the windows were smashed by bricks and Molotov cocktails during the strike.

Its kind of miraculous that the building was saved, says Melanie McArtor, a senior associate at Gensler who served as project manager on the buildings revamp. It would have been such a lost moment.

Now the Herald Examiner practically gleams, with a tenant that is in keeping with the buildings unusual history. In the place where newspapers were once printed and movies shot, ASU students can complete coursework in journalism and filmmaking.

Since the buildings historic lobby didnt meet modern accessibility standards, the architects designed a separate, more functional entry space for ASU. The historic lobby is now employed for events.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The Herald Examiner building is one of two interesting reuse projects in this piece of downtown Los Angeles.

Travel three blocks north on Broadway and youll land at the old Tower Theatre, which is now a shiny new Apple store thanks to Foster + Partners, the namesake firm of British designer Norman Foster. The Pritzker Prize-winning architects team has designed numerous other retail and corporate spaces for Apple, including the companys headquarters in Cupertino.

Designed by S. Charles Lee and opened in 1927, the 900-seat venue was the first film palace in Los Angeles to be wired for sound. Al Jolsons The Jazz Singer the first motion picture to feature synchronized singing and soundtracks premiered at the Tower in 1928 and remained on the screen for weeks. An ad that appeared in the Los Angeles Evening Post-Record at the time described letters from people who have seen this picture, 3, 4 and 10 times.

An ebullient collision of Spanish, Romanesque and Moorish elements, the building features an Art Deco clock tower, decorative terra cotta facades and a lobby inspired by the Paris Opera (albeit on a far smaller scale). From the lobby, a grand staircase flanked by marble columns ascends to the mezzanine area. A stained-glass window bears a fleur-de-lis pattern and a celluloid film strip.

Like the Herald Examiner, the Tower Theatre had slipped into a grungy state after closing in 1988. By and large, the theater bided its time as a filming location it makes an appearance in David Lynchs Mulholland Drive and on occasion as a music venue.

Now the Delijani family, which owns the building, along with Apple, have found a new use for a type of architecture that isnt always sympathetic to reinvention. And it looks bright and elegant in an Apple kind of way (since no movie palace in its right mind would paint so many surfaces white).

Facades have been cleaned and the exterior neon has been repaired. The plaster and bronze details around the proscenium, which bear a delicate floral motif, have been scrubbed of accumulated layers of nicotine and grime and now sport fresh coats of paint.

Naturally, there have been changes. The oval ceiling mural, which once contained some buoyant cherubs, has been simplified into a view of a golden California sky. The ground-floor seating area has been leveled out and the seats replaced with blond wood tables bearing Apple merch. The repair shop must we call it a Genius Bar? has been placed in the balcony, where much of the seating has been retained, though in a modern guise. (Think elegant Minimalist pews wrapped in Italian leather.)

This will undoubtedly be the best location in L.A. to contend with a computer crash.

The view from the balcony inside the Tower Theatre on Broadway now an Apple store courtesy of a renovation by Foster + Partners.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Linda Dishman, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, is delighted to see the Tower make its comeback. For theater geeks, its incredible, she says. What Apple did is that they came to the Tower very respectfully and really took a very careful approach.

The building retains its theatricality. And Dishman notes that though the building doesnt currently contain its original seats, those have been preserved in the event someone wanted to reinstall them at a future date. Its thinking about how you balance what you need today and what it might one day be, she says.

For anyone who may roll their eyes over an Apple store occupying a historic theater, may I recommend a visit to the old Golden Gate Theatre in East Los Angeles, where one can acquire tampons and Alka-Seltzer in what is now a well-trafficked CVS, or the old Federal Bank Building in Lincoln Heights, a 1910 neoclassical bank on the citys list of Historic-Cultural Monuments that has been occupied by an El Pollo Loco since 1993.

As Dishman notes: A building that is in use is not usually threatened.

The restored marble staircase in the lobby of the Apple Tower Theatre is seen upon the stores opening in June.

(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The renovation of some of this long-moribund Los Angeles architecture is significant for a couple of reasons.

For one, it finds new uses for existing architecture, thereby cutting down on the need for new construction (and its attendant environmental costs). But preserving these buildings also helps preserve some key historical episodes.

In the case of the Herald Examiner, that means preserving the work of a pioneering, early 20th century female architect whose profile has grown as of late. In 2014, Morgan was posthumously awarded the gold medal by the American Institute of Architects. More recently, she has been the subject of a belated obituary in the New York Times and a podcast by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which highlights the contributions of women in building and design.

Morgan designed hundreds of buildings, including Hearst Castle in San Simeon, but she built relatively few in the Los Angeles area. Among them is the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, completed in 1926 another commission from Hearst, for his lover, Marion Davies. She also designed a YWCA in Pasadena, a handsome Mission Revival structure whose fate is uncertain, since the city of Pasadena and an investor are battling each other in court for control of the structure.

Chronicling Morgans legacy has been a complicated endeavor. Before her death in 1957, she destroyed most of her papers which leaves her buildings as the decisive record of her work. For scholars and architects who are just beginning to understand her design legacy, tearing down the Herald Examiner would have been a spectacular loss.

There are a lot of women who worked on this project, says McArtor, and we felt so honored to work on this.

A detail of the marble staircases in the lobby of the Herald Examiner building. The structure was Julia Morgans first commission from William Randolph Hearst.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Finding a new use for the Herald Examiner building wasnt easy. Old newspaper buildings are peculiar: generally, a combination of a few fancy offices befitting of an institution that plays a role in civic life attached to what is essential a factory (the printing presses). Youre trying to put infrastructure that meets the expectations of the current market into a building that has that many idiosyncrasies, says McArtor. That is really challenging.

But the architects at Gensler did a thoughtful job of restoring and preserving the buildings iconic portions: the arched facade, the bright, tiled domes that cap the building, the ornate lobby, with the private elevator that once delivered Hearst to his suite. Other areas were revamped to suit contemporary needs.

A new lobby was added immediately to the south of the old one since Morgans design, with its high counters and marble steps, didnt meet contemporary accessibility standards. The original lobby remains as a dramatic gathering space. (The public is welcome to tour the space by scheduling an appointment with ASUs visitor manager, Jasmin Mejia at jasmin.mejia@asu.edu).

The ground floor, which once contained the printing presses, has been reimagined as an event space. (On the day I walked through, university leadership had gathered for a board meeting with remote video hookups.) The newsroom floors above have been reconfigured into classrooms, study areas and meeting spaces, as well as a television studio and editing bays for film and media students.

The spaces are generally plain, designed for flexibility and the wear and tear of student life. But the practical design gives Morgans architecture room to breathe especially on the third floor, where the restored sawtooth skylights make for a workspace that feels airy and bright.

Working on the building, says McArtor, gave her a real appreciation for the ways in which Morgan deployed daylight. Its not typical of the time.

The third-floor work spaces in the Herald Examiner building are bathed in light.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The building, likewise, preserves some of L.A.'s more interesting media history.

Hearst founded the paper so that he might have a Southern California bastion in the event he ran for office. It was from this site that he pummeled Depression-era political narratives to adhere to his conservative vision. It was also where news of the Black Dahlia killing was first reported and where Louella Parsons gossip columns emerged. By the time the 60s rolled around, the company was in the hands of Hearsts grandson, George R. Hearst Jr. It was his attempts to break the unions that spelled the beginning of the end.

The whole ordeal began in 1967 as a contractual dispute over pay with NewsGuild employees and ended up snowballing into a strike that included workers from other divisions. One street rally devolved into violence. In addition to smashing windows, the protesters took baseball bats to the curving brass banister of an interior stairwell.

The banister remains as do its dents. The architects left that history in place.

That patina, says Dishman, is really important to continuing the story.

A brass banister that was pummeled by unionists during a 60s labor dispute remains in situ at the Herald Examiner building.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

And continuing the story is something that both of these renovations do admirably well: The Apple Tower Theatre maintains a site that was critical to the film industry, while the Herald Examiner bears within its walls stories about architecture, labor and the press.

Together, they help flesh out the character of Los Angeles as a city in the early 20th century: unorthodox in style and, in places, comically overstated. They are buildings that say, Check us out. We have arrived.

Thankfully, they remain here. And now we can revel in them.

Architectural details preserved in the historic lobby of the Herald Examiner Building in Los Angeles erected by publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1914.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

The original tile floor preserved in the historic lobby of the Herald Examiner Building in Los Angeles.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Details of the original fire alarm system preserved in the historic Herald Examiner building located at Broadway and 11th Street in Los Angeles erected by publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1914.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Is an Apple store any way to revive an L.A. theater? Maybe - Los Angeles Times

Cities designed with expansive greenspace encourage residents to live a more healthy lifestyle.Destination Toronto

Reimagining urban centres as healthier places to live is essential to reducing the billions of dollars spent every year treating chronic illnesses, according to a panel on the future of cities.

A group of experts who gathered virtually this week for a Future Cities, Future Care event agreed that creating healthy cities requires collaboration between urban designers, builders, civic leaders and health care providers. The event was presented by The Globe and Mail and moderated by Globe reporters Andrea Woo, Andr Picard and Adrian Lee.

With eight out of 10 Canadians living in urban areas, according to a 2019 Statista survey, leaders and policy makers need to come together to listen to their communities, the panelists all agreed.

That starts with understanding barriers that people face, says Dr. Jane Thornton, assistant professor and Canada research chair in injury prevention and physical activity for health at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Good health depends on more than just an individuals medical situation, she explains. For example, having access to green space and looking at different ways people can get around in the city are important factors.

We have to think in a more circular, inclusive way about cities and health.

Understanding that some people feel ignored or discriminated against is also essential to encouraging healthier lifestyles for people living in cities, says Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle, assistant professor and Indigenous health lead at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

When I think about cities right now, I dont see myself, she continues. Even products at grocery stores where Indigenous people shop are not familiar to their culture or customary to their diets, Dr. Mashford-Pringle explains.

There isnt even a word for banana in Cree its called the yellow curvy thing. Even the BMI [body mass index] doesnt take Indigenous peoples bodies into account. We have to think in a more circular, inclusive way about cities and health.

Dr. Sean Wharton, head of the Wharton Medical Clinic and adjunct professor at McMaster and York universities agrees, saying marginalized and racialized people need their voices heard as part of a continuing conversation among decision makers about making cities healthy.

Some of the ways are simple sitting less and walking more, for example. But you also need to involve lower-income people in how policies are made, he says.

Dr. Jane Thornton, assistant professor and Canada research chair in injury prevention and physical activity for health at the University of Western Ontario in London, said good health depends on more than just an individuals medical situation.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Gil Penalosa, founder and chair of 8 80 Cities, a not-for-profit group that advocates for easier mobility and public space, says the political system needs an overhaul. Ranked balloting in elections would bring new people into the system, with better decisions, he says.

The current system of first-past-the-post tends to elect the same people with stale ideas; a more proportional system would bring about new voices and better ideas, he explains.

For example, we should not be spending $6-billion to turn green space into highways, as Ontario Premier Doug Ford has proposed, he says.

Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie raised the issue of how environment and infrastructure factor into the health of a city.

Mississauga grew into a community that was dependent on the car, she says, [But] we are becoming healthier; were building new waterfront communities and a completely urban downtown.

The experts agree that cutting down on the use of cars which results in cleaner air and making services such as shopping, doctors offices and gyms easier to walk to, are immediate ways to contribute to the robust health of intensified areas.

New facilities, such as the recently announced $40-million Novo Nordisk Network for Healthy Populations at U of T Mississauga, are taking a leading role in public-health research in the global fight against diabetes and other chronic diseases, the mayor added.

Dr. Lorraine Lipscombe, associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and staff physician in endocrinology at Womens College Hospital, says architects and designers are incorporating accommodation into their work more as they realize the value of collaboration.

Better health trickles down to the way cities are designed, she says, adding that fixing cities to be healthier requires extensive retrofitting.

Layla Guse Salah, co-ordinator of public and patient engagement for the Canadian Medical Association, and a person with a disability, says even a small measure of forethought can improve the quality of life for marginalized communities.

The building I live in is quite new, but the unit I live in was not designed for accessibility. I can manage fine, but given that it was built so recently, theres no reason that the design couldnt [have been] more accessible.

We can all do better at building healthier cities if we work together.

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From civic leaders to architects, improving the health of a city takes a village - The Globe and Mail

Staff of ASLA writes:

In an era of mounting climate change crises, racial and social inequities, and emerging variants of COVID-19, landscape architects are increasingly being called upon to help solve societys critical challenges. This years Conference will highlight the professions inclusive planning and design solutions for all communities. - Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA CEO

Landscape architecture professionals will feature new approaches to inclusive design at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN, Nov. 19-22, 2021a year in which the profession has seen its role become even more important in helping communities, particularly historically marginalized and underserved communities, use nature-based solutions to become healthier and more resilient.

More than 6,000 landscape architects and studentsand 300 exhibitorsare expected to attend the event, the nations largest annual gathering of professionals in the field.

The conference this year is perhaps the most urgently needed event ASLA has ever held. At no time before in history have we faced more critical issues that require the unique planning and design expertise of landscape architects.Torey Carter-ConneenCEO of ASLA

The conference this year is perhaps the most urgently needed event ASLA has ever held, said Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of ASLA. At no time before in history have we faced more critical issues that require the unique planning and design expertise of landscape architects.

This year, the Conference will feature multi-layered plans and designs from landscape architects that improve community health, increase resilience to climate change, and address long-standing racial and social inequities.

Landscape architects will show the incredible range of their workfrom city- and county-wide plans, to parks and gardens that ensure the long-term health of communities, said Carter-Conneen.

As communities around the world combat extreme heat and flooding, landscape architects are being called upon more and more to help reduce dangerously high urban temperatures and protect populations through smarter water management.

The Conference will feature several sessions that address these and other climate-related topics, such as:

The Conference will also host more than 100 educational sessions and field trips, led by many of todays leadingLandscape architects practicing around the world. These will include tracks on the Design and the Creative Process; Design Implementation; Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Leadership, Career Development, and Business; Planning, Urban Design, and Infrastructure; Resilience and Stewardship; and Technology.

American Hydrotech Booth #809 15,000,000+ SF of Garden Roof Assembly installed since 1996. Designed as a lightweight, low profile system, the Garden Roof Assembly can be safely installed on roof and plaza decks engineered for as little as 15 pounds per sf saturated dead load. And because the assembly incorporates Hydrotechs Monolithic Membrane 6125, a proven roofing/waterproofing membrane, the building owner can be assured of a water-tight structure. http://www.hydrotechusa.com/

LiveRoof/LiveWall Booth #1717 Green Roof and Living Wall Products That Work. LiveRoof and LiveWall allow you to create a unique visual signature for your designs, without risk. Both LiveRoof and LiveWall were designed to grow healthy plants to correctly interface with building structure. There is no need to figure it all out LiveWall has developed an effective Sketchup model and spec writer, and even provides design assistance. LiveRoof offers time saving tools like BIM models, CAD files, and a custom spec writer. Award winning designers choose LiveRoof and LiveWall for their natural function, ease of maintenance, and beauty. http://www.liveroof.com/

rooflite Booth #2000 The success of any green roof starts with rooflite! Many companies provide media, but none of them are like us with a core business of only green roof media. Why does it matter? Because it makes us experts in a way that other companies just cant be. With our range of rooflite soil products, our blender network across North America, our experience with complex logistics and our top-notch customer service, there is simply no other company that can offer what we do. And our products speak for themselves with successful green roof projects on vegetated rooftops covering more than 11 million square feet. http://www.rooflitesoil.com/

Tournesol Booth #817 Tournesol Siteworks has grown by focusing on innovative solutions for the commercial landscape market. Today, our brand is centered around relationships, trust, loyalty, and delivery striving to make our customers, specifiers, and partners successful! Our quality products include planters, site furnishings, fountains, root barrier, bollards, and more! We are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area and serve clients located throughout North America. http://www.tournesolsiteworks.com/

Read more: ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture Focuses on Inclusive Design with Theme "Designing Shared Spaces"

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Don't Miss Exhibits by American Hydrotech, LiveRoof/LiveWall, rooflite and Tournesol at the 2021 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in...

He is a car detailer who gives Ferraris, Lamborghinis and old barn finds the beauty treatment.

Those crusty, oxidized layers? Layers of paint. On any given day, Kosilla might be prepping a supercar like a Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus SCG 003 that is being sold to a billionaire. Or power washing a 1990s Jeep Cherokee that was baking in the Texas desert. Or de-funking a car like a 1969 Pontiac Le Mans that had languished in a garage, undriven for years.

Kosilla and the spotless garage that is home to AmmoNYC is known to two million YouTube subscribers who have watched him demonstrate such auto esoterica as the needle and syringe method for touching up the paint on a Ruf Slantnose Porsche. My colleague Steve Kurutz writes that Kosillas YouTube clips are essentially cleanfluencer content for car buffs.

The grungier the car, like a 1969 Mercedes 280 SL that moldered in a New Jersey garage for 37 years, the more satisfying it is to see Kosilla make it gleam. Its probably not surprising that Kosilla says things like vacuuming is the most therapeutic thing in the world.

In the hierarchy of the automotive world, detailing ranks below body work and engine repair. Kosilla said that overlooks a basic fact: Some of these cars are worth more than homes. The owner of a $12 million McLaren once spent $50,000 to fly him to Pebble Beach, Calif., just so the McLaren would sparkle at a car show.

Kosilla came to detailing after working at the New York Mercantile Exchange in Lower Manhattan after college. By 2005, with money hed saved from the Wall Street job and borrowed from his mother, he opened the New York Motor Club, a carwash in Harrison, N.Y., with two friends.

Kosilla soon developed a reputation as a master of detailing. Anyone can detail, said Matt Farah, 39, one of his partners who later became an automotive journalist and the host of The Smoking Tire podcast. Its not advanced labor to take the wheel off your car and spend three hours with a toothbrush cleaning it. It just requires the desire to have the end result be perfect.

Its never perfect enough for Larry, Farah said.

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A 15-Minute Grocery Delivery That Took 21 Minutes - The New York Times

The City of Bloomington Volunteer Network is your source for information about volunteering locally. For a complete listing, visit BloomingtonVolunteerNetwork.org or call 812-349-3433. The inclusion of an organization in this list does not imply city endorsement or support of the organizations activities or policies.

Information and registration information for the following opportunities can be found online at BloomingtonVolunteerNetwork.org.

Be a part of the people-power that will make this Thanksgiving Food Drive a big success. Thanksgiving is one of the biggest distribution days of the year for Pantry 279. This year, 2,000 Thanksgiving boxes will be assembled and distributed at the Monroe County Fairgrounds Community Building or delivered to homebound residents throughout a multicounty area. The work will be nonstop until everyone has been served! Individuals and groups can participate in this huge effort as helpers with Thanksgiving food box packing and assembly, as delivery drivers, or as on-site traffic volunteers. Two-hour volunteer shifts are available 2-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20. Groups are welcome! Volunteers are needed all month long for regular pantry duties as well. Sign up for a Nov. 19-20 shift here: https://bit.ly/30efxFo. Contact Cindy Chavez at 812-606-1524 or pantry279@yahoo.com.

Volunteers are the heart of the Community Kitchen of Monroe County. Open six days a week, Monday-Saturday, volunteers help prepare and serve free meals for in-house and carry-out patrons at two locations (South Rogers Street and the Express location at 11th and Summit streets). Indiana University students are an important component of the volunteer program, which makes school breaks and days around the holidays critical periods. The kitchen needs more than 100 volunteers each week most of the year to provide their meal services. There are two volunteer shifts daily Monday through Saturday. The six-volunteer prep shift, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., helps with dinner food prep, puts together the cold carry-out meals, and lunches for the after-school programs. Some cleaning and washing dishes may be included. The3:30-6:30 p.m. serving shift of seven volunteers consists mainly of serving the evening meal "cafeteria-style" and doing some cleanup afterward. Those ages 14 and older may volunteer independently. Youth 10-13 may volunteer if accompanied by an adult. Please contact June Taylor at 812-332-0999 or june@monroecommunitykitchen.com and provide a phone number for confirmation.

The kitchen at Beacon's Shalom Community Center serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week to individuals experiencing poverty. It takes lots of volunteers to keep the kitchen running! Families are welcome to volunteer together and individuals age 14 or older can assist with doughnut and bagel pickup, meal preparation, meal service and clean up. Scheduling is flexible, so pick your shift today! Contact Novella Shuck at 812-334-5734, ext. 113, or novella@beaconinc.org.

Middle Way House

Middle Way House is a domestic violence shelter and rape crisis center that offers services including emergency shelter, legal advocacy, transitional housing and support services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Contact Madeline Plant at 812-337-4510 or development@middleway.orgto arrange a donation.

Featured wishes:$10-20 gift cards (Kroger, Walmart, gas stations), USB wall chargers, brown paper bags, ethnic hair care shampoo, conditioner, and coconut oil, housewares, linens, childrens clothes sizes 12 months-6T especially long-sleeve tops, pants and coats for the winter season, and more!

View their full Wish List online.You can find current in-kind, material needs on the year-round Community Wish List at BloomingtonVolunteerNetwork.org/communitywishlist.

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Volunteer Bloomington: Helping to feed local people in need - The Herald-Times

Yankunytjatjara Pitjantjatjara Elder Sammy Brown was behind a complaint to the ALRM three years ago.

He was caring for his two primary school-aged grandchildren when his power was cut off and owed $12,000.

The [grandchildren] didnt like it, so I had to get family to look after them, wash their clothes, and get them to school, Mr Brown said.

We had no electricity for the washing machine or baths or to stay warm.

It took more than five months to get reconnected, during which time the grandchildren had to live with other relatives while he relied on a backyard campfire to stay warm at night and cook his food.

They cut it off and I said, Ill have to make a fire just to cook in the morning, dinner and supper," he said.

Feel no good, Mr Brown said. touching his chest. I was going to move away.

Residents struggling with their bills have told SBS News it was suggested they apply to the local Native Title group for hardship funding - designed to help with one-off costs such as sorry business, a medical emergency or household goods -to pay their electricity bills.

Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal Corporation (AMYAC) board members say theyve contributed $65,000 to help 65 families with utility debts since 2016.

The board has recently stopped allowing grants to be used to pay power bills and is instead calling on state and federal governments to find a solution because we know the issue is much bigger than the Council itself.

In our view, it is unconscionable that AMYAC members and Native Title holders should have to access Native Title compensation to prevent their essential services being disconnected, an open letter addressed to parliamentarians reads.

If these services cannot be sustained without significant contributions from Native Title funds, government and industry on all levels need to explore longer-term, more equitable solutions to ensure essential services are available to community members at a sustainable price.

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Aboriginal residents of outback SA are having to choose between food and electricity - SBS News

An early lesson from Jan Showerss career: Buy what you love. It was the late 1990s, and the Texas designer was in Paris to buy a container full of antiques to kick off her Dallas showroom. This was her first big buying trip abroad, and she was facing a dilemma: At the time, Dallas was a brown furniture town, and there was plenty of that available in France. But Showers didnt like it. She split the difference, buying half a container of classic 18th- and 19th-century antiques and filling up the other half with the stuff she liked, mostly pieces from the late 1940s.

As soon as I got all the antiques in the store, what sold first? What I loved, Showers tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. I had to book a trip back to Paris to buy more of it. And I then had to sit and look at all the pieces I didnt like. That taught me never to buy something I didnt love. If I dont love it, I cant sell it.

Showers, an interior designer, product designer and showroom owner, is the wearer of many hats and a doyenne of Texas design. The Lone Star State is a particularly good place to be a success in the design industry these days, as it is benefiting from the same COVID-era boom as the rest of the country, only more so (the lack of a state income tax has helped draw pandemic-era city escapers, especially from California). Thats especially true in Dallas, a town that, perhaps unlike Austin, isnt particularly shy about big houses decorated to the nines.

We had the wonderful head of Dallas Museum of Art [host an event], and he said the thing thats the best and worst about Dallas is materialism, says Showers. I dont think thats the case, but I do think people in Dallas want their houses done. Its very easy to find houses in Dallas that can be published.

In this episode of the podcast, Showers breaks down the recent Dallas Kips Bay Decorator Show House; talks about her own product lines rocky early days; details what young designers need to do to put themselves on the right track; and explains why she recently pulled her furniture out of showrooms to sell direct to designers online.

I had a couple of friends in the manufacturing business who encouraged me. My furniture has been out there for a long time, people know our product, people are buying online, she says. Ive been thinking about [making this move for] quite a while. We have 6,000 square feet of antiqueswe put those online and thats done great. So I thought: Its time.

Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This episode was sponsored by Ben Soleimani and SideDoor.

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How Jan Showers learned to trust her instincts - Business of Home

There are a growing number of options to replace the plastic light switch.

When it comes to brutalist functionality, its hard to beat the white plastic rocker switch. Its an inexpensive, ubiquitous 21st-century incarnation of the switch dreamt up by the electrical engineer John Henry Holmes in 1884, which employed quick-break technology that turned lights on and off instantly.

Thirty years later, William J. Newton moved things on again with an elegant, brass toggle switch that replaced the push button.

It was the creeping functionality of light switches that interior designer Serena Herbert sought to address when she launched Forbes & Lomax more than 30 years ago. Its first invisible light switch: a simple, transparent Perspex plate that allowed the wallpaper or paint beneath to show through, with only a metal switch visible. It was an instant hit.

The type of light switch you choose comes down to a question of budget, believes Mrs Herbert. A white plastic light switch costs a few pounds, whereas ours start at 40. However, the effect, we believe, can be quite transformative.

For a relatively little outlay, changing these details can instantly albeit almost unconsciously smarten up a space.

Light switches havent always been utilitarian, notes Mrs Herbert, who remembers that those at her school were made of cast brass in the shape of a friars head.

You would toggle his nose up and down. The Forbes & Lomax collection includes a range of rotary dimmers and momentary switches that come in the form of a toggle, rocker or button. I think the whole idea of a switch is not to notice them, she adds.

Interior decorator Irene Gunter has more forthright views on the matter of white plastic light switches. We never use them, except in functional spaces such as garages. I wouldnt even use them in a utility room.

She turns instead to Forbes & Lomax or Focus SB for more elegant solutions.

The Forbes and Lomax invisible switch

Antique brass and bronze finishes are still very much in fashion, but it depends on the scheme: bronze sockets can look like dark blobs on a cream wall, explains Mrs Gunter. The ideal is to make them so subtle you hardly notice them. Well go as far as to powder-coat switches and sockets in the same colour as the walls, if the budget allows.

Mrs Gunter says that clients arent generally aware of the impact the right switches and sockets will have, until its pointed out. She also adds that our approach to switches is different to that of Europe. In Belgium, they take it very seriously and there is a whole array of brands available that we dont have in the UK.

Heralding that shift is the arrival of the Wiltshire-based Corston Architectural Detail. The online company was born out of a demand for a coherent range of fittings, explains founder Giles Redman.

He sees a further reason for white plastic light switches falling out of favour: customers are demanding more sustainable materials. All our switches and sockets are made from solid brass, a natural material that is also recyclable.

He adds: We also strongly believe that the tactile parts of the home you interact with every day are really important, hence they should be a joy to use.

A generation or two ago, kitchens were routinely re-done in bright colours and there's something in colourful kitchen design even

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Light switch alternatives: Why its time to ditch plastic - Country Life

First, Sidney Carter was laid off from his job as a dishwasher, when the restaurant where he was working lost business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, Carter lost his apartment, after his savings ran out and the states eviction moratorium expired. Since then, he has been living in a tent in Touhy Park, 7348 N. Paulina St., joining a dozen or so homeless men and women who began camping out in the six-acre park in July.

I just came here one day and I saw the tents, and I just started hanging out here, said Carter, 49. Its safer out here than riding the train all night. You do what you have to to survive.

A tent and a sleeping bag donated by neighbors calling themselves the Rogers Park Solidarity Network keeps Carter warm, even as temperatures at night approach freezing. The Night Ministry bus delivers meals and medical care once a week. A Just Harvest and Rogers Park Food Not Bombs also donate food to the homeless.

There have long been homeless jungles in Margate Park, in Uptown, and at Roosevelt Road and Des Plaines Street, alongside the Dan Ryan Expressway. This year, though, tents have been appearing in neighborhood parks, as a result of the economic distress caused by COVID. Homelessness was already on the rise in 2020, and the pandemic has only made the homelessness crisis worse, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge declared earlier this year.

Its hard not to see it as an effect, said 49th Ward Ald. Maria Hadden. Go up Lake Shore Drive. You see more people camping out. Were definitely seeing more people unsheltered during the pandemic. Some of them may previously have been able to crash with a friend, but thats no longer considered safe because of COVID.

Elsewhere in Haddens ward, homeless people are sleeping under the viaduct at the Howard Street L station.

Over the weekend, Hadden held a public meeting outside the Touhy Park Fieldhouse to announce a plan to find permanent housing for the campers. On Thursday, officials from the Department of Family and Support Services will drive the homeless to the Broadway Armory, where theyll be able to sign up for one of 20 available units. Hadden is calling it an Accelerated Housing Event, or Rapid Rehousing. Those who apply should have permanent homes within two weeks to a month. Funds from the federal CARES Act have enabled the city to speed up the process, which previously took as many as 200 days.

Theyre going to take us downtown to get state IDs, said Jerome Smith, a 70-year-old ex-Marine who has been sleeping in the park since the summer. I had one, but Im homeless. I been on the L. They stole my wallet.

Life in the encampment has been pretty good, Smith said. They give us sleeping bags, blankets, food, snack packs. Still, Smith is longing to sleep indoors.

All I want is a one-bedroom or a studio, he said. I got all my stuff in storage by the Red Line. Im gonna have my own little place. Im an interior decorator. I got everything. Get me in. Break that tent down.

Smith said campers use restrooms at Walgreens and Jewels, but during the meeting, Hadden heard from residents who complained that the homeless have been urinating and defecating in alleys. Since the park fieldhouse is usually closed, the alderman is working with the park district to install a portable toilet.

Drinking and drug use are also problems in the encampment. Men sit by the fence at the north end of the park, sipping from Miller High Life tallboys. On Oct. 17, Carter watched as paramedics pulled the body of an overdose victim from a tent an incident confirmed by the alderwomans office.

Some are dope fiends, some are addicts, Carter said. Ive seen a guy OD. Just a bad shot of heroin.

The Rapid Rehousing event does not necessarily mean the end of Touhy Park encampment, Hadden said. Some campers may refuse housing, either because its in a part of town where they dont want to live, or for personal reasons. If they do, the city has a policy of not forcing the homeless out of parks.

It still doesnt mean people might not live in Touhy Park, the alderwoman said.

Carter wont be one of them; he plans to be at the Broadway Armory on Thursday, to sign up for housing.

Im just passing through, he said. Im not going to be in the park when the weather really hits hard. Im hoping I can get some kind of housing the same day, and then go back to work.

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A Rapid Rehousing Event Looks To Help the City's Homeless - Chicagomag.com

The digitization of the art world is in full swing, given a hefty push by the Covid-19 pandemic. Arts professionals accustomed to dealing with traditional mediums, such as painting, struggle to make their material intelligible to digital natives. While digital content should ideally serve as a teaching tool that leads viewers back to the original artwork, the two modes of communication are not always compatible. The dazzle of the newer media can overwhelm the smaller, quieter art of earlier times, as is the case with the two immersive Van Gogh experiences now on view in New York. Such presentations function as autonomous entertainments, effectively superseding their sources.

Google Arts & Culture recently launched an online hub, Klimt vs. Klimt: The Man of Contradictions, devoted to the Austrian Art-Nouveau master Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). It is chock-a-block with features that will be familiar to anyone who spent time in lockdown browsing art-related websites: videos, of course; digital slide shows with seductive zoom features; a virtual Klimt exhibition that could never be duplicated in real life, both because of the cost and because some of the paintings no longer exist. As one would expect from Google, the Klimt site is technologically impressive and easy to navigate. High-resolution images were solicited from the worlds foremost Klimt collections, including those at the Belvedere, Albertina, Leopold Museum and Wien Museum in Vienna and the Neue Galerie in New York. The project was overseen by Franz Smola, curator of 19th- and 20th-century art at the Belvedere. The stories that accompany the artworks were for the most part scripted by the Belvedere, or by the institution responsible for the visuals.

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Klimt vs. Klimt: The Man of Contradictions Review: Exploring an Art-Nouveau Master Online - The Wall Street Journal