Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Architect Alfred Dragani and his wife, Concetta, an art historian, were at a Chestnut Hill dinner party six years ago when they learned that the house next door was for sale - and their ears perked up.

The house, designed in 1957 in two glassy pavilions by Swiss architect Oskar Stonerov, was a rare gem - a modern house on a street dominated by modern architecture in the middle of Victorian Chestnut Hill. A devotee of the International Style of architecture, Stonerov advocated clean, sparse designs and community connections as espoused by the writings of French architect Le Corbusier - whom Alfred Dragani had admired since being a graduate architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1990s.

At the time of that dinner party, the Draganis were living in a large, old house in the northern part of Chestnut Hill that required constant upgrades and renovations, and the family was looking for a home that was less expensive to maintain - their three children planned to attend private school.

The 2,500-square-foot house offered that, as well as a place in architectural history.

On the former estate of 19th-century developer Henry Houston, the house was part of a nine-year Stonerov project that included the 104-unit Cherokee Village development, a walkable community adjacent to the Wissahickon woods, and a few private homes. Besides its notable architect and developer, the house had been owned for 10 years in the 1970s by Ian McHarg, a famous landscape designer.

But the house still needed work, and the project was embraced by the whole family.

The yard had to be replanted, and the couple's sons, now 18 and 20, planted a beech tree and removed the overgrown stuff, Concetta Dragani said.

On the interior, the couple wanted to restore the original Stonerov design - covered with layers of previous owners' additions - and reclaim it as a "machine for living," a Le Corbusier phrase that compares the function of a home to something like a car.

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An architectural gem, still a home

Yesterday at 6:52 PM An IRS ruling has made donations to the trust tax deductible, clearing the way for buildings, property and monetary donations to create affordable housing.

By Amy Calder acalder@centralmaine.com Staff Writer

WATERVILLE A nonprofit organization that seeks to provide affordable homes to people with low to moderate incomes has received tax-exempt status, allowing it to receive tax-exempt donations of homes, land, money and other gifts.

click image to enlarge

SEEKING HOMES: The Waterville Community Land Trust is seeking homes that can be used to create afforable housing. This house at 11 Clark St. was going to be the first, but was deemed too deteriorated to use, so the city gave it to Habitat for Hummanity.

Staff Photo by Amy Calder

Donations for the Waterville Community Land Trust may be sent to the fiscal agent, community group REM, 93 Main St., Waterville, ME 04901. The trusts Facebook page, watervilleclt@gmail.com, will also soon have information on how to donate. Donations also may be sent to the land trust at P.O. Box 1834, Waterville, Maine, 04901.

The Waterville Community Land Trust received notice recently from the Internal Revenue Service that, as a public charity, it is exempt from federal income tax, which means donors get a tax deduction for gifts to the trust.

The land trust plans to buy or acquire houses and land, renovate them, and sell them at affordable prices. Homeowners may later sell the homes if they wish, but the trust will retain the land ownership and a substantial amount of any profits. The idea is to increase home ownership, improve neighborhoods, help prevent deterioration and restore the historic fabric of neighborhoods.

Nancy Williams, executive director of the multi million-dollar Lake George Land Conservancy in Bolton Landing, New York, initiated the idea for the Waterville Land Trust.

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Waterville Community Land Trust gets tax-exempt status

The Daily Briefing Buckeye Forum Podcast

The Dispatchpublic affairs team talks politics and tackles state and federal government issues in the Buckeye Forum podcast.

County land-bank officials caught a $1.5 million break this week when Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that he would extend the deadline for counties to be reimbursed for money they spend to demolish blighted properties.

The attorney generals Moving Ohio Forward program made up to $75 million available in matching funds for counties that knocked down community eyesores and prepared formerly distressed properties for redevelopment.

Franklin County originally was awarded about $8.2 million for demolitions, with the money to be divided between the county and Columbus, which has its own demolition program.

Counties were given until the end of last year to spend the money, but many found the deadline hard to meet. So late last year, the attorney generals office extended the deadline until Saturday.

That still wasnt enough time for some land banks, including Franklin Countys, and the state relented again.

In a letter sent to land-bank leaders this week, Matt Lampke, DeWines mortgage foreclosure counsel, extended the deadline to Sept. 30. He said that any money left over could be redistributed to counties, but preference would be given to those that got their work done by the end of this month.

John Rosenberger, president of the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp., which operates as the countys land bank, said the land bank struggled at first to find and acquire distressed properties to knock down. But the problem with meeting this months deadline was a lack of contractors.

You cant just grab a sledgehammer and a pickup truck and go to work, Rosenberger said of the need to find qualified contractors who could handle all aspects of the demolitions from utility disconnections and asbestos abatement to final site clearing.

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State extends deadline for counties to spend blight-demolition money

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Interior Designer Top Tips by Dulux Designer Paola Thomas
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How you frame art, whether it be posters, photographs or a rare oil painting, can enhance the look of your home. Details matter. Just ask Mark Leithauser, senior curator and director of design at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Day in and day out, he oversees the design of exhibits and presentation of the great works on display at the gallery. He analyzes how to make a work of art look its best, from the color of the exhibition walls to the kind of frame or choice of mat and frame.

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A frame of reference for displaying art

SAN ANTONIO A San Antonio boarding home operator has ignored repeated requests by the city to clean up her facility, which for the past year has been in violation of a host of health and safety codes, according to a lawsuit filed by San Antonio.

The home at 1123 Pasadena has been the site of accumulated trash, unsanitary living conditions, faulty wiring, unsafe food preparation, and a rat and insect infestation, the city alleges.

A judge could order the closure of the home operated by Doreen Silva, who also runs two other boarding homes in San Antonio, both of which are also in violation of codes, according to the city.

Silva has also failed, according to the city, to install a sprinkler system, part of an ordinance passed two years ago to make boarding homes safer for residents, most of whom are people with mental or physical disabilities. Silva was not available for comment.

Since the ordinance passed, 28 homes have voluntarily closed rather than comply with the new law. The city has shut down another six, stating they posed immediate danger to residents.

Read more about the controversy over boarding homes at ExpressNews.com or in Saturday's edition of the Express-News.

mstoeltje@express-news.net

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City seeks to close boarding home

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