Cushing Terrell’s Post

Transforming a 43,606-square-foot facility into a modern elementary school is no small feat. Especially when it involves undoing years of ad-hoc renovations. Kroeschell’s team took on the challenge of renovating an aging school in Colorado, initially used for trade-based education. With limited as-built documentation and outdated architectural plans, we meticulously navigated the complexities to bring the facility up to code. Every corner was touched, every detail considered. The result? A safer, more functional learning environment that meets today's standards. Learn more about our approach to facility renovations and how we ensure projects are completed on time, every time. #Construction #FacilityManagement #Education #BuildingRenovation #ProjectManagement

🌵 If you’re familiar with my work on ‘spikes’ and ‘curb cuts’, please read this powerful article about the real consequences of ‘hostile architecture’. Then reflect on the unintentional, figurative and hidden spikes within the fabric of your school’s campus and curriculum, teaching and assessment, strategy, policy and practice, and to what extent they may have the same effect. 💡 Significantly, the author, Eva Wiseman, observes that our built spaces “make everybody rush through them, meaning there’s less opportunity for chance encounters, for communities to form, for idle thought.” She argues that, “rather than making an area feel more safe, these designs impact us in mean and insidious ways”. 😔 Finally, she describes them as “a grim illustration of how public spaces are increasingly not for the public at all. While billionaires build underground bunkers, and suburban doorbell security cameras monitor every passerby’s movement, as I pass another sloping bench, this hostile architecture feels like a concrete embodiment of a society at war with itself.” Now… 1️⃣ explore your data sky to find the margins of your school community 2️⃣ listen carefully and sincerely to their silent or silenced stories 3️⃣ uncover, with curiosity and humility, the spikes you didn’t know were there 4️⃣ reimagine, together, better ways of being and doing 5️⃣ and, again together, move intentionally towards it. * (*The ‘Equity Transformation Cycle’, from Safir and Dugan’s ‘Street Data’) #TheMonaLisaEffect

Building the Future, Today with Redcut! Can you picture it? That incredible building concept, poised to transform a space into something spectacular. You've poured your heart into the design and vision, almost seeing it come to life. Yet, just as you're ready to leap forward, you hit the all-too-common roadblock – a bogged-down DOB, where progress grinds to a frustrating halt. Enter Redcut. ✨ Envision a partner who navigates the labyrinth of NYC's building regulations with finesse, advocating for your project as if it were their own. We specialize in cutting through bureaucratic red tape, turning endless waiting into action and progress. It's not just about us or your goals; it's about the community. Delays can leave our neighborhood with half-finished sites, an eyesore no one wants. Everyone, especially neighbors, anticipates a nicer, revitalized area without the blight of stalled projects. They're eager for the positive changes that come with completed developments, not merely awaiting approvals. Embrace building in NYC without the wait. Let's make your architectural dream a reality, together! #NoMoreDelays #RedcutEfficiency #ProjectSuccess

Fascinating stuff (for urbanist nerds, anyway). Another book I'll add to my ever-growing to-read list. "Functional Zoning redefines the concept of a 'zone' down to the block level and regulates the rate of change based on existing conditions rather than the fixed limits of traditional zoning. This means that the scale and scope of a by-right project is determined as a function of the current intensity of development. As growth takes place on and adjacent to each block, the scale of by-right projects incrementally increases. In the short-term, Functional Zoning would resemble a modest upzoning, but over time, as conditions change, the zoning map would rewrite itself without the need for a complicated political process."

For this year’s final #BlackHistoryMonth community spotlight, KAI looks to the Arlington Grove Apartments project. Located in the City of St. Louis, this special project included the redevelopment of the William B. Ittner designed Arlington School, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Established under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register of Historic Places, managed by the National Park Service, aims to facilitate public and private initiatives in identifying, assessing, and safeguarding America's historical and archaeological assets. KAI was chosen by the St. Louis Housing Authority to perform Design-Build services and transform the block into a $34 million, 162,000 square foot mixed-income and mixed-finance residential development that includes 112 units of apartments, townhouses, and semi-detached housing as well as a mixed-use building and renovated school. The 91 construction housing units included a heavy emphasis on sustainability that positively impacts both the residents and the community for years to come. The opportunity to help provide people in underserved areas with a meaningful place to live and a starting point for a better future is something on which we’ve built our legacy. Our mission of transforming communities is part of every project we take part in and is a mission we strive for with each step we take into the future. Read more about this historic and meaningful project in the link below. https://lnkd.in/g-m-VSSp #TransformingCommunities #CommunityImpact #AEC #Design #Engineering #CommunityInvestment #Construction #CommunityDesign #ResidentialDesign #EducationDesign

Per Tuesday's news, a blockbuster proposal for United Center-adjacent land represents a giant step toward "restoring the traditional neighborhood development pattern," in the words of Chicago planning commissioner Ciere Boatright. Fifty-five acres of surface parking lots that have long severed the Near West Side would be redeveloped with a mix of up to 5,000 housing units (20% affordable), a 6,000-seat music venue designed by Los Angeles architecture firm RIOS, and a hotel with 2.5 acres of elevated park space. Field Operations and Chicago-based site design group, ltd. and are other key members of the project design team, placing deserving emphasis on landscape and the pedestrian experience. United Center CEO Terry Savarise describes the approach as more neighborhood infill than entertainment district. It's a model one could imagine deploying for the Guaranteed Rate Field environs in Bridgeport. We agree with the Sun-Times Editorial Board that the project must be done carefully and with community participation and that it's encouraging that no public moneys are being sought initially. If tax dollars do come into the picture, we hope the primary use is for construction of a new CTA Pink Line station. The project, led by Michael Reinsdorf and Danny Wirtz, targets a 2025 start with the hotel & park component (including underground parking), and progresses through several phases toward a 2035 completion. #megadevelopment #LoopAsLab #stadiums #UnitedCenter #1901Project Link to Sun-Times column: https://lnkd.in/ghWVXcsW

#ThrowbackThursday: Refurbishment of Norbury Library  This Thursday, we're taking a look back at one of our standout projects – the Refurbishment of Norbury Library. This project set out to refresh and modernise the space while preserving and reintroducing its original features. Here are some of the highlights: 📚 Main Library Transformation: New shelving and furniture have breathed new life into the main library area. 🌞 Natural Light: The original roof lights were cleaned and repaired, allowing natural light to flood in through the new glass roof above. 💻 Upgraded Computer Room: Equipped with new computers, providing a modern space for digital learning. 📖 Study Area: Multiple options for working or relaxing with a book, perfect for all ages. 👶 New Children's Library: A dedicated space for younger readers and families to enjoy. 🕰️ Restored Original Features: Sympathetically restored to maintain the library's historical charm. 🚶 Improved Access: Enhanced access to the upstairs Community Room, including the installation of a lift for better accessibility. We are proud of how this project turned out, creating a modern, welcoming, and inclusive space for the community. For more details on our past and current projects, visit our website: https://lnkd.in/g-SJ4PS #EnsignaConstruction #LibraryRefurbishment #CommunityProjects #BuildingExcellence #OnTimeOnBudget #Construction #Modernisation

SIGNAL: To do that, New York needs to build more housing, and it can. New York could add dwellings for well over a million people — homes most New Yorkers could afford — without substantially changing the look and feel of the city. My architecture firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, previously worked with Times Opinion to imagine the future of the city’s rail infrastructure and streets. This time, we took a fresh look at housing. We found a way to add more than 500,000 homes — enough to house more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — without radically changing the character of the city’s neighborhoods or altering its historic districts. - - - Tags: economics,policy - - - What is this? Signals are part of Adventuring Ventures' research methodology for exploring possible futures. A signal is a small or local phenomenon and a potential sign of change that might grow in scale, where it shows up, or who it influences. The tags refer to 5 lenses through which we look for signals - society, technology, economics, ecology, and policy. - - -

"Why stop at killing the Ontario Science Centre? Toronto is no city for old buildings..." - a comment by writer Shawn Micallef in a piece for the Toronto Star which was meant to be ironic, but hits close to home in Chatham-Kent. We have a decidedly mixed record here in CK when it comes to preserving historically and architecturally significant structures. A current proposal before Council includes "killing" several of our own historically and architecturally significant public buildings (Civic Centre, Chatham-Kent Public Library Chatham Branch, and Chatham-Kent Museum), even though the cost to repair and renovate them is significantly lower. Questionable (and in some cases, non-existent) financial arguments to move these publicly-owned buildings barely 2-3 blocks into a building that's almost the same vintage seems as ironic as it is perplexing. Despite being heralded as some kind of downtown saviour for several years now, we know almost nothing more about this building and this proposal than we did when it was first announced. Still too many questions, and too few answers. Will we look back at this moment as our "Harrison Hall 2024"; a loss that our community uses to this day as a tragic example of short-sighted demolition?* Or will we recognize the financial, environmental and historic benefit of fixing what we already own and ensuring these busy and active facilities can serve as hubs for our communities for many more decades to come? *(For those outside of CK, Harrison Hall was another historic civic building in Chatham lost to the wrecking ball. Irony abounds (again) because Harrison Hall was torn down so private developers could build a Sears department store...and it's the now-empty former Sears store that Chatham-Kent taxpayers are now being asked to buy from a private developer...for the facilities mentioned above). #ckont #chathamkent #chathamontario #libraries #library #architecture #historicpreservation #creativereuse #architecturalmasterpiece #chathamkentmuseum #chathamkentlibrary #chathamkentciviccentre #cityhall #midcenturymodern Lloyd Alter Catherine Nasmith Kae Elgie Architectural Conservancy Ontario National Trust for Canada Alex Bozikovic

Bloomberg CityLab | Ryan Johnson’s Culdesac became an urbanist darling in the US for its project in Tempe, a built-from-scratch zero-driving development that is transforming a vacant lot near a light rail stop into the kind of dense and walkable neighborhood that advocates say could be a model for other places trying to shun American-style car-centricity. Designing on a site adjacent to a light rail station allowed Daniel Parolek and his team to sketch a space that wasn’t defined by streets. In a typical US residential project, roads take up about 30% of the built environment; removing them from Culdesac helped the designers achieve more dense housing while still setting aside 60% of the development for public space. The closeness of the structures, separated by eight-foot-wide passages called paseos rather than wide vehicular roadways, let the designers create what Parolek calls “fabric buildings.” Designers drew from the Greek islands and southern Italian villages, adobe structures from the Southwest, and the historic district of Barrio Viejo in Tucson, filled with boxy stucco structures that would inform the simple clusters of units spread across Culdesac. In addition to the human-scale design philosophy, one of the critical ingredients in Culdesac’s success has been its coordination with the Tempe planning department, which was willing to bend rules and requirements to accommodate the unusual project. In this case, everything from parking requirements and transit-oriented development overlays needed to be adjusted….