Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

The future of downtown Stillwater? Five architects and a designer have been meeting in a spartan room next to the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce for the past few months to sketch it out.

Words scribbled on long sheets of vellum paper -- taped to the walls with blue painter's masking tape -- show what they've been concentrating on: Main Street. Chestnut Street Mall. Storefronts. Biking. Parking. Traffic circulation. Dozens of computer-generated sketches fill the conference room table.

The sketches and ideas will soon be compiled in book form and presented to the chamber's Downtown Revitalization Committee and the Stillwater City Council.

Todd Streeter, the chamber's executive director, enlisted the six men to help the chamber generate images and blueprints showing what downtown could look like after the new St. Croix River bridge opens in 2016 and the Stillwater Lift Bridge closes to vehicle traffic.

As part of the bridge construction, a bike-pedestrian loop trail will be created, circling the new bridge and the old. In addition, the Brown's Creek State Trail is being built on the former Minnesota Zephyr dinner train route, which runs north and west out of downtown Stillwater. With its connection to the Gateway Trail and St. Paul, it's expected to bring in thousands of bicyclists.

"We're trying to be proactive and get ahead of the curve," architect Brian Larson said. "Because what's going to happen is that it's going to be pretty abrupt -- all of a sudden the bridge will shut down and these bike trails will show up."

Architect Tim Old, of SALA Architects in Stillwater, added: "It seemed like there have been a number of times in the past 40 years that all of this stuff has been visited and revisited, but we're faced with some new opportunities because of the bike trail and bridge."

The most eye-popping proposal: turning the two blocks of Chestnut Street that run from Main Street to the lift bridge into a pedestrian plaza.

"When you think of Stillwater, you think of the lift bridge," Larson said. "It's like a magnet, and the plaza would be sitting right in front of it. You hope that you take a bold move, and do what you can with it. To have an open (city) block like that, it just doesn't come along very often.

"Some people have talked about running (the plaza) all the way up to Third Street -- to the (Chestnut Street) stairs," he said. "Wouldn't that be something?"

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New Brighton architect wins prize for Stillwater plan

February 15, 2014 - 13:58 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Istanbul Modern's 2010 exhibition Armenian Architects of Istanbul featuring photos of architectural structures made by Armenian architects during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, can now be seen online on the Turkish Museum of Architecture's website, Todays Zaman reported.

A joint effort between the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency, the International Hrant Dink Foundation and the Solidarity Association of Architects and Engineers (HAYCAR), the exhibition was on display at the Istanbul Modern from Dec. 9, 2010, to Jan. 9, 2011, as part of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture program.

Now, art lovers who missed the exhibition can visit the virtual museum to have a look -- http://www.archmuseum.org in English and http://www.mimarlikmuzesi.org in Turkish. The show is on the website under the heading Armenian Architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization.

Curated by architect Hasan Kuruyazici, the exhibition highlights the role of Armenian architects in shaping Ottoman Istanbul during a Westernization process that took place from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Photos of more than 100 buildings by 40 Armenian architects, from churches to mosques and hospitals to municipal buildings, are being showcased.

The architecture of Istanbul would be unimaginable without the Balian family - a dynasty of famous Ottoman imperial architects of Armenian ethnicity.

For five generations in the 18th and 19th centuries, they designed and constructed numerous major buildings, including palaces, kiosks, mosques, churches and various public buildings, mostly in Istanbul. The nine well-known members of the family served six sultans in the course of almost a century and were responsible for the westernization of the architecture of the then-capital city.

The Balians used Western architectural techniques and designs; they did not, however, disregard traditional Ottoman elements. The most important and largest construction built by members of the family was Dolmabahce Palace, which is considered to be one of the world's finest palaces of the 19th century.

Most of their buildings are still in use and registered as historical monuments.

Another illustrious architect of Istanbul was Mimar Sinan (15 April 1489 - 17 July 1588) the chief Armenian Ottoman architect and civil engineer for sultans Suleiman I, Selim II, and Murad III. He was, during a period of fifty years, responsible for the construction or the supervision of every major building in the Ottoman Empire. More than three hundred structures are credited to his name. He is also considered one of the world's first earthquake engineers.

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Armenian Architects of Istanbul exhibit showcased online

(Image courtesy Neshamkin French Architects, Inc.)

A rendering of the proposed project.

By Patrick D. Rosso, Boston.com Staff

The developers behind a five-story mixed use development proposed for East Broadway will be in front of the South Boston community Wednesday night to go over the projects plans.

A public meeting, sponsored by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, will be held Feb. 19 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Tynan Community Center, 650 E 4th St.

Proposed by the Empire Realty Trust, plans call for the construction of a four-story building on top of an existing parking garage at 728 East Broadway. The top floor would be set back from the roof line, according to project drawings.

The building is proposed to house three ground floor commercial units, as well as 25 residential units, which would be located on the top four floors. Forty-six parking spaces, which are proposed to be split between at-grade spaces and double height lifts, are included in the project. The parking would be accessed from East Third Street.

The footprint of the existing building would not be altered for the project.

In addition to needing the approval of the BRA, the project will need the OK of the Zoning Board of Appeals for a number of zoning variances including insufficient off-street parking, excessive height, and an excessive floor area ratio.

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Mixed-use project proposed for East Broadway in South Boston

Mississippis tourism tax development incentives failed to gain enough legislative support for renewal this week and will expire July 1, ending the states practice of awarding tens of millions of dollars as incentives for development of shopping malls and retail plazas.

Pearls Outlets of Mississippi stands to gain up to $24 million in sales tax rebates from the state.

The Mississippi Development Authority so far has awarded up to $155 million in potential subsidies for three shopping malls since legislators widened the sales tax rebate program last year to include cultural retail attractions, or what are more commonly known as retail centers and shopping malls.

Under the terms of the law, the state returns 80 percent of sales taxes collected at a development over 10 years, until the total collected reaches 30 percent of the construction price.

Lawmakers this week declined to extend the tax credits, thus letting them run out on July 1. House Bill 1233, sponsored by Rep. Rita Martinson, R-Madison, would have extended the program by three more years. After a lawmaker questioned the bill last week, it was moved to the bottom of the House calendar, where it remained without a call up.

Martinson said in an interview with The Associated Press she thinks incentives have been helpful, but conceded there was some sentiment to let the lures run out.

We might even think about letting it go, she told AP. It might be at the point to sit back and see what weve done.

State Sen. David Blount, who does commercial leasing for retail space, said he is glad to see the state cease creating an unlevel playing field for retail businesses. Its favoritism of one business over another, the Jackson Democrat said.

Many economists voice doubts about subsidizing retail development as well. Good Jobs First, a nonprofit group that is skeptical of business subsidies, is particularly critical of giving money to retailers, saying they dont pay well or create spinoff jobs, the AP reported.

Building new retail space doesnt grow the economy, it just moves sales and lousy jobs around, the group writes.

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Bills demise ends state pot sweeteners for retail development

Updated: Saturday, February 15 2014, 09:37 PM MST

By: Stacey Welsh

EL PASO, Texas -- The Sun City's first four star hotel could revitalize the El Paso International Airport area. Plans are in the works for a new Westin hotel at the intersection of Airway Boulevard and Boeing Drive.

EPIA Director Monica Lombrana expects the new hotel to have much more in store for El Paso because it's set to have retail space nearby.

"We're looking at it in terms of redeveloping the entire area of the southern industrial park over time. We recently rezoned that to SmartCode. We have a master plan for that entire area," Lombrana said.

"I think that as long as it's going to stimulate the economy, it's a good choice for the area and also for El Paso," central El Paso resident Ruben Ville said.

The plan for more restaurants and retail locations could benefit other hotels in the area.

"There isn't anything aside from two restaurants to go out to at the end of the day," Lombrana said.

However, some are afraid the project would only bring more traffic to the airport area.

"They've got hotels up all over the city. Put them all on Interstate 10. That's where all the competition is anyway. I don't see any reason for building more hotels, especially a hotel that size," East El Paso resident Roger Jernigan said.

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Westin hotel project could revitalize El Paso airport area

After nearly a decade of renovations, the South Carolina home where President Woodrow Wilson lived as a teenager is reopening to the public as a museum not only about the politician but also the Reconstruction Era.

On Saturday, to kick off Presidents Day weekend, visitors will once again be able to see the home where the 28th president of the United States moved at age 13 and spent his teenage years.

Wilson's father taught at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Columbia and was minister at First Presbyterian Church, where Wilson's father, mother and sister are all buried.

The villa-style home built in 1871 is one of four historic sites for Wilson along with his birthplace in Stanton, Va.; a home in Augusta, Ga., where he grew up; and the Washington, D.C., home where he lived after his time as president and is South Carolina's only presidential site.

Saved from demolition in 1928 after residents protested, the historic home in downtown Columbia closed its doors and grounds to the public in 2005 when plaster fell from the ceiling in some of the downstairs rooms and water damage to the home's foundation became evident.

"Rather than just start pulling out artifacts from those rooms that were affected, we decided to go ahead and close the whole site," said John Sherrer, director of cultural resources at Historic Columbia, which maintains the property.

The $3.6 million project to restore the home, which is owned by Richland County, was funded through tax money and private donations. During the nearly decade-long closure, Historic Columbia spent that time doing a historic analysis, which determined details like the blueprint of the home when the Wilsons lived in it and what had been added and closed up in the decades since.

"The end result was a building that, structurally, looked like it did when the Wilsons called this home," Sherrer said. "If Tommy Wilson and his family had showed up here in 2005, they'd be walking around going, 'What's that window doing there?' or 'How can we get from this room to that room?' ... Now what we have is a building that more genuinely reflects what they would have been accustomed to."

The home also now has a new roof, shutters and a wood foundation that needed to be replaced because of water damage. The project also included a revamp of the home's exterior paint scheme, which Sherrer says is now closer to what they would have been when Wilson lived there and is being replicated by preservationists working on other Columbia-area buildings from the same era. Once painted white and gray, now the home's outside is cast in more vibrant but still earthy tones, with tan and brown trim and deep blue-green shutters.

"It's exciting because this is a building that is important in its own right, but it's magnified when people use it as kind of a historic preservation laboratory, and in so doing, they can apply those thoughts to their own properties," he said.

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Woodrow Wilson's Columbia Home Reopening to Public

BATES CITY, Mo. - A Bates City father returns home to see the aftermath of the more than 40,000 gallons of water that leaked into his home, but surprisingly, Adam Parker appeared calm despite the buckled floors and missing ceilings in his rural home.

The Parker family of nine went to Florida to attend a wedding. Just days into their vacation, they got a phone call from a neighbor alerting them of the running water and mountains of ice that were forming around their home.

"Probably at least a couple of days before they turned the water off," Parker said.

Car problems delayed the family's plan to drive back home, instead Parker booked a flight that was also delayed due to weather. By the time he made it home, friends and a restoration company had already started cleaning and drying out the home. The plumber handed him a copper pipe with a tiny slit, believed to be to blame for all of the damage.

"We believe the pipe burst in our master bathroom and leaked for days undetected," Parker added.

When Parker walked in the door, bowed hardwood floors, soaked sheet rock, and wet furniture greeted him. He immediately started a video chat with his wife, who remained his Florida with his children and relatives. Parker is thankful that the running didn't destroy the entire top floor.

"I was worried that the entire top floor had caved in. I was relieved when I saw it was just sheet rock," Parker shared.

Parker says his calm during chaos comes from his faith in God. He is a missionary who works with families who want to adopt children for the Orphan Justice Center. He said he often works with families in crisis and people who don't have homes. This experience gives him new perspective on the people he normally serves.

"It makes me look at the families in a whole new perspective because they have no one to turn to; we are thankful to have family and a support system, but so often the families we work with don't, " Parker said.

The Orphan Justice Center has set up a fund to help family the rebuild. If you like help click here .

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Broken pipes flood a Bates City home

The Tennessee man charged with blowing up his wife's parents with a package bomb worked with children at his church's Sunday school, ran a home restoration business out of his in-laws' backyard and was convicted of arson two decades ago, records show.

Richard Dean Parker, 49, was being held in jail in lieu of $1-million bond after he was indicted in Lebanon, Tenn., on Thursday. Hes been charged with two counts each of felony first-degree murder and premeditated first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of septuagenarians Jon and Marion Setzer.

Investigators said that they thought Parker was solely responsible for the attack but did not give specifics about what evidence led them to him. They did not cite a motive for the bombing.

Nashville First Church of the Nazarene appears to have removed several references on its website to Parker and his 48-year-old wife, Laura Parker. But as recently as last week, according to online archives, it showed Laura Parker was involved in the church's women's ministry and that both she and her husband were Sunday school teachers. They were scheduled to host an event at their home last September, according to a calendar.

Pastor Kevin Ulmet couldn't be immediately reached for comment, but he told The Tennessean that he was "deeply troubled by whatever led to this act." Ulmet told the newspaper that he saw Parker several times when they were visiting Marion Setzer in the hospital on Monday. He said the Parkers have four children.

The Parker family lived behind the Setzers, holding different addresses but sharing a driveway. A website for Parker's company, Legacy Restorations, reads that the firm "can bring your historic building back to life, or provide building maintenance for the long term care of your old house or unique structure." The website says the company has operated since 1989 across the South.

Parker ran into trouble in 1990, according to Tennessee court records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

On a Friday evening in July of that year, a 19th century, 5,000-square-foot log house on which Parker had been working caught fire. As part of a plea bargain on charges of felony arson and working without a license, Parker served four years' probation, from 1993 to 1997.

The home belonged to Danny and Rosemary Martin. "We want the people to know what hes really like," Danny Martin told The Times on Friday as he recalled his experience with Parker.

Martin said Parker first offered to fix up the house for nearly $150,000. He said Parker returned two weeks later and offered to do the work for $60,000 because he wanted to start doing business on his own and this could serve as a model to show potential customers. Parker and Martin signed a contract written by the now-dead father-in-law, Martin said.

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Accused Tennessee package bomber had been convicted of arson in 1990

Salisbury, North Carolina

SALISBURY Glenn and Beth Dixon bought one of Salisburys most historic houses Friday when they signed closing documents on the Fulton-Mock-Blackmer House at 112 S. Fulton St.

This is our forever home, Glenn Dixon said. At one point, if we live here long enough, it could be the Fulton-Mock-Blackmer-Dixon House.

Historic Salisbury Foundation sold the 1820 house for $150,000, and now the Dixons will begin a bottom-to-top restoration, which by any measure, will be challenging.

Realizing its an ambitious goal, Beth Dixon said she hopes her family can make the house their new residence by Christmas.

The house encompasses 4,800 to 5,000 square feet. It has four chimneys and eight fireplaces. Once it becomes a residence again, it will afford four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs.

The Dixons plan to add a master bedroom downstairs, and they also will be bringing back the once grand porch/portico in front, which featured four full columns.

The Dixons will count on contractor Al Wilson and architect Jon Palmer to guide the restoration. The couple also want to accomplish as much of the project as possible this year, because N.C. historic preservation tax credits available for this property are scheduled to sunset Jan. 1, 2015.

The project will qualify for residential tax credits of 30 percent. Glenn Dixon said the couple would not have considered buying the house without the tax incentive.

The house, once owned by famed film and stage actor Sidney Blackmer and his wife, Suzanne, was severely damaged in a 1984 fire.

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Dixons purchase their 'forever home,' the historic Blackmer House

February 15, 2014

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT In his first press conference after being named Chief Minister-elect of Sarawak, Adenan Satem (right) said he will not be making any changes to his cabinet.

I dont believe in changing horses in midstream, cracked Adenan at his first press conference yesterday, when asked about what he plans to do with a state cabinet he will have inherited from retiring CM Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Last Wednesday, Adenan was chosen by Abdul Taib as the replacement chief minister when the latter retires on February 28.

While the 69-year-old Adenan wont want to rock the boat for the simple reason that the major movers and shakers in the state BN are all on edge at the start of the post-Taib era, he cannot defer for long the naming of the Deputy Chief Ministers.

Under Taibs 33-year tenure as Chief Minister, Sarawak was used to having two Deputy Chief Ministers.

Alfred Jabu Numpang (left), Deputy President of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), is the incumbent DCM (1), and while he was in the cabinet until his defeat in the state election of April 2011, George Chan of Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) was DCM (2).

The DCM (2) post has been vacant since the 2011 state polls when SUPP lost in 12 of the 19 constituencies it contested.

Once installed as Chief Minister on February 28, would Adenan simply maintain the status quo, with Alfred Jabu as DCM (1) and leave the other DCM post vacant, or would he tweak the formula of balanced representation to reflect a new pecking order?

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Comment on CM-Elect Adenan in tricky Deputy tangle by looes74