SANTA MARIA, Calif., June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --After a comprehensive selection process, BCA Architects was selected to design the new 400-seat performing arts center for Pioneer Valley High School. The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District administration prepared a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to solicit architectural services for the planning and construction of the performing arts center at Pioneer Valley High School. Letters and RFQs went to 165 firms requesting proposals. Proposals came in from 19 firms and a committee of five reviewed and narrowed them down to six firms who were interviewed for consideration.

Ultimately, two firms were selected by the committee for a second round of interviews that included a member of the Board of Education. The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District administration recommended BCA Architects as the firm to contract with to design the performing arts center. The Board of Trustees ratified this decision in their regular meeting on June 20, 2012.

"After an extensive interview process, we are thrilled with our decision to select BCA Architects as our district architects for the design of the new 400-seat Performing Arts Center at Pioneer Valley High School. It was clear to us that BCA Architects emerged from the pack as the most qualified architectural firm to design our new Performing Arts Center -- I have absolute confidence that they will create an outstanding performing arts center for our students and community," said Doug Kimberly, Superintendent of Schools, Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.

Situated on 53.5 acres of land, Pioneer Valley High School is one of the district's largest high schools. The Performing Arts Center will be the newest addition to the school's facilities which include six full computer labs, a college and career center, library, cafeteria and multipurpose facility with indoor and outdoor seating, and an outdoor amphitheater.

"We are excited about this challenge and look forward to designing a performing arts center that is imaginative and rooted in the community's traditions and mission of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District," said Paul Bunton, AIA, president of BCA Architects.

BCA Architects is recognized for its educational facilities, including its performing arts centers. Last year, ABC San Diego presented BCA Architects with an Award of Excellence for its performing arts facility at Chula Vista High School, which is a part of a two phase project including a library that is seeking LEED Platinum certification, the highest level for energy design.

"The BCA team looks forward to planning the district's new performing arts center with a focus on arts instruction as well as live events for the campus and local community," stated Steve Pollock, vice president, Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, a leading theater, media facilities, and lighting consulting firm working with BCA Architects on the project. "The design will be student-friendly, relevant, and turn-key without the need for additional staffing by the district."

Construction of the performing arts center will begin in 2013.

BCA Architects partners with clients on a mission to achieve excellence in design. Since 1989, BCA strives to strengthen communities through projects to: design facilities, help define partnerships, locate financing, and save energy or present alternate delivery methods. BCA goes above and beyond the task at hand to ensure their clients succeed. Visit: http://www.bcaarchitects.com.

Media Contact: Rachel Del Fierro (925) 785-1435 or RachelD@bcaarchitects.com

Original post:
BCA Architects Selected to Design New 400-Seat Performing Arts Center for Santa Maria Joint Union High School District

OVER THE RHINE, OH (FOX19) -

A ground breaking Tuesday on a $59 million redevelopment project in Over The Rhine. The project calledMercer Commonswill include condos, apartments and retail space.

It is3CDS's largest mixed use project ever. It will encompass more than two and half acres and it's a project that Cincinnati Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls says will change the face of Over the Rhine. "Transforms Vine Street. We have over....when it's built out...phase one and phase two we'll have over 150 units of new housing," she said.

The project was launched With the ceremonial turning of the first shovel fulls of dirt by city officials and other V.I.P's.

Mercer Commons will be built in phases and includes 26,000 square feet of retail space, 28 condos and 126 apartments. Some apartments will be moderately priced which is something Over the Rhine resident Mike Rogers says hewants to see. "What I really like about it is we need more rental property in the community and not only that affordable apartments...you know units for people. So I think its great," said Rogers.

Vicki Sanford has lived in over the Rhine for nearly nine years and she says it helps the local economy. "It'll give us an economic boost. You got a lot of people out here that are working...working poor, but they are working and this is a chance for people to get some more jobs."

Funding for the $59 million project comes from a variety of sources including the city. Despite Cincinnati's budget woes Mayor Mark Mallory says its a worthwhile investment. "Progress has to continue. We have a lot of development going on in the city of Cincinnati right now. We have a lot of energy and the best thing that we can do to get rid of budget deficits and those kinds of things is to continue to invest in economic development that creates jobs and brings jobs to the city because that's where we get our money."

Construction is expected to take about 16 months with the 340 space parkinggarage opening in March of 2013.

Copyright 2012 WXIX. All rights reserved.

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Ground broken for large OTR redevelopment project

INDIANAPOLIS, June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon Property Group, Inc., (SPG), the world's leading retail real estate company, and Woodmont Outlets announced today that construction on St. Louis Premium Outlets will begin on July 11, 2012. The project is a joint venture with Woodmont Outlets. Simon owns a 60% interest in the project.

St. Louis Premium Outlets in Chesterfield, Missouri is a part of Chesterfield Blue Valley, a mixed-use development to include office space, hotel, restaurant and entertainment venues. Located on the south side of I-64/US Highway 40 east of the Daniel Boone Bridge, the center's first phase of 350,000 square feet and 85 stores will open in the fall of 2013.

The new outlet center will be anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH, one of seven new store locations recently announced. "We are excited to grow our OFF 5TH store portfolio with Simon. We believe these locations are well suited for us to deliver our distinct merchandise offerings to area residents and visitors," stated Robert Wallstrom, President of Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH.

The center will feature an impressive collection of leading designer and name brands selling direct to consumers at significant savings in a sophisticated outdoor village setting. Some of the top fashion and accessories brands include Ann Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Elie Tahari, Haggar Clothing Co., Jones New York, Loft Outlet, Maidenform, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen and many others. Due to high interest in the merchant community, St. Louis Premium Outlets is currently over 60% committed.

"We are excited to bring many of the finest retailers and brands to the area offering incredible value," commented John R. Klein, President of Simon's Premium Outlets platform. "We look forward to having this project, our merchants and the community benefit from our regional, national and international outreach."

The center will offer something for all members of the family. Shoppers will be able to choose from a wide range of footwear and sportswear brands including Asics, Clarks Bostonian, Easy Spirit, Famous Footwear, Finish Line, Fox Racing, Hot Topic, Izod, Naturalizer, Nine West, Skechers and Under Armour. The mix of stores will feature popular children's brands such as Hartstrings; an excellent selection of women's sizes at Lane Bryant; jewelry stores like Kay Jewelers; and stores that offer home furnishings and great gifts including Yankee Candle.

"In addition to providing shoppers with an incredible shopping experience, the project will create an estimated 700 new retail jobs as well as over 1,000 local construction jobs over the next year," said Stephen Coslik, Chairman and CEO of Woodmont Outlets, an affiliate of The Woodmont Company. "We look forward to the center becoming a source of pride for the community."

About Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG) is an S&P 100 company and the largest real estate company in the world. The Company currently owns or has an interest in 339 retail real estate properties in North America and Asia comprising 245 million square feet. We are headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and employ approximately 5,500 people in the U.S. For more information, visit the Simon Property Group website at http://www.simon.com.

Simon's Premium Outlets portfolio features 72 Premium Outlet Centers including 59 in the United States, one in Puerto Rico, eight in Japan, two in Korea, one in Malaysia and one in Mexico. Its industry-leading properties include Woodbury Common Premium Outlets (New York City), Orlando Premium Outlets, Desert Hills Premium Outlets (Palm Springs, California), Las Vegas Premium Outlets and Wrentham Village Premium Outlets (Boston).

Originally posted here:
Simon Property Group and Woodmont Outlets To Celebrate the Start of Construction on St. Louis Premium Outlets® With ...

FAIRFIELD, N.J., June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Designed to provide high-performance, visually comfortable, high efficient ambient lighting for commercial and office environments, Amerlux introduces GRUV HE, an upgraded version of the popular recessed linear fluorescent lighting system featuring steel construction, superb aesthetics, lower costs and shorter lead times. Amerlux is an industry leader of task-specific, energy-efficient lighting solutions, an innovator of lighting solutions for retail, supermarket, commercial and hospitality markets and a recent recipient of Five Next Generation Luminaires Awards.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120626/NY30875)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120118/NY36894LOGO)

"Achieving the same high level of aesthetics while reducing costs and lead times, GRUV HE offers the perfect combination of high performance, efficiency and steel construction in architectural recessed linear fixtures," said Chuck Campagna, CEO and President of Amerlux.

GRUV is perfect for a wide range of office, institutional and commercial applications including open office plans, private offices, conference areas, trading rooms, classrooms and individual workspaces. Available in 4-, 6- and 12-inch apertures, GRUV HE luminaires are offered for use in gypsum board, Armstrong TechZone, USG Logix, slot and t-grid ceilings and in both standard lengths as well as runs. Fixtures can be individual or continuous row-mounted using a drawer latching system that provides easy and precise joining of units for straight runs, wall runs with J channels, or in T or L shaped patterns (4" and 6" only).

With improved steel construction, the GRUV HE also features integral bend-out mounting tabs to lock on ceiling rid runners, sliding lamp trays that adjust light to the end of runs eliminating dead spots. An extruded aluminum trim for precision interfacing with most ceiling suspension systems, a flush lens and design details result in a clean ceiling alignment. High performance optics includes a formed reflector made from high reflectance materials applied to steel and an engineered lens that deliver maximum efficiency, excellent light transmission and light source concealment.

The GRUV HE 4", individual or continuous, features an extruded snap-in lens, T5/T5HO lamping in one- and two-lamp configurations with up to 75% efficiency and an LED option with 5W 400lm/ft or 10w 750lm/ft output with high efficacies in a range of color temperatures and standard 0-10v dimming.

The GRUV HE 6", individual or continuous, also features a snap-in lens, and along with T5/T5HO one- and two-lamp options, feature long life T8 one- and two-lamp options while achieving up to 79.7% efficiency. An optional integrated LED accent light is also available.

The new GRUV HE 12" offers individual one- and two-lamp configurations in T5/T5HO lamps and T8 with up to 80.5% efficiency. The 12-inch GRUV HE features a lift and shift lens that sits flush with the ceiling line and is perfect for TechZone 5'x 5' grid layouts and 30"x 30" ceiling grid tiles. Accessories include a variety of media such as a straight blade louver with acrylic overlay with 56.6% efficiency for the one-lamp configuration.

GRUV HE is UL- and cUL listed.

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Amerlux Introduces GRUV HE Recessed Linear Fluorescent Lighting System featuring High Performance, Efficiency ...

JENSEN BEACH Pete Quasius walked out on the dock at Indian RiverSide Park on Tuesday and saw the bottom of the Indian River Lagoon.

"I was amazed," said Quasius, a director of the Snook Foundation as well as a lobbyist for the Audubon Society. "It comes from so many years living on the Caloosahatchee River."

Sand is a rare sight there because of water so dark you can barely see the black sediment bottom that flows from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee.

Back home in Fort Myers water churned by Tropical Storm Debby went over Quasius' seawall and onto his lawn, approaching his house.

The clear water in the Indian River Lagoon is unlikely to last much longer as Debby's heavy rain in north Florida makes its way down the Kissimmee River, through Lake Okeechobee and into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, he said.

Quasius came to Jensen Beach for a meeting of about 40 people from government agencies and conservation groups.

Known as the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Working Group, they're exchanging ideas on how to reduce the amount of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee that gets into the two rivers.

They're looking for the right combination of reservoirs, water levels and flow rates to clean water before it reaches the estuaries or goes into the Everglades.

Tuesday's presentations were filled with charts, graphs, technical data and acronyms incomprehensible to most people who haven't been following the Everglades restoration and water quality improvement efforts.

The agency representatives hope to sort through all the possibilities and present its preliminary report in October 2013.

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Ecosystem restoration group meets in Jensen Beach to discuss ways to save Everglades

The old Baldwin Junior High School auditorium could be remodeled for other purposes at a cost of $475,000 to $800,000, an architect told the Baldwin school board on Monday.

The board has been reviewing district facilities since it received a report in April from district administrators proposing future uses of all district properties. In its subsequent discussion, the board agreed to attempt to reuse existing district properties rather than add new buildings or space.

One of the areas of interest to the board was the old junior high school auditorium made redundant with the opening a year ago of the Performing Arts Center. Earlier this month, the board accepted a proposal from Kevin Grieshar, of the districts architectural firm DLR Group, to review at no cost the remodeling of the space.

On Monday, Grieshar shared three options, all of which would remodel the theater seating area into space for a 3,365-square-foot multi-purpose center. That center could be used for high school wrestling and cheerleading practice, a junior high weight room and a 775-square-foot prop storage room.

The options differed on how they would use the stage, storage space behind the stage and the junior high school band and vocal music area, with the cheaper options making fewer changes to those areas.

Grieshar said the sloping floor in the auditorium could be leveled.

The most expensive option, which Grieshar estimated would cost $700,000 to $800,000, would convert the stage and storage space behind it to a band and vocal music room and build two 1,100-square-foot classrooms in the music room.

The second and cheapest option, estimated to cost $475,000 to $500,000, would leave the band and vocal rooms in place and convert the stage to classrooms while doing nothing to the storage space behind the stage.

The third option with an estimated cost of $565,000 to $650,000 would move the band and vocal room to the stage, convert the current music space to classrooms but not touch the storage space behind the stage.

All three options would make improvements to restrooms near the gym and auditorium.

More here:
Baldwin Junior High School auditorium remodeling options shared with school board

SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST The historic Buck Rock Lookout will undergo a major renovation this summer, the Sequoia National Forest announced.

Originally constructed in 1923, the lookout has not seen any significant enhancements since the 1970s. Located in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, Buck Rock is staffed annually for wildfire detection and is open to the public during the fire season.

Renovation of Buck Rock will include the rehabilitation of the interior and exterior siding, installation of new cabinets, refurbishing the window frames and trim, weather-proofing the cab, replacing the catwalk fencing, upgrading the electrical system, and replacing a section of the 1942-era stairway.

Wherever possible, the original materials used in the construction of Buck Rock will be refurbished and utilized in the renovation; otherwise, in-kind period appropriate materials will be used to reflect the 1920s era.

Located in the Big Meadows area in the cooler elevation of 8,500 feet, Buck Rock Lookout is a popular destination for people from all over the world. Perched 300 feet above the ground on a granite dome, visitors have grand views of the High Sierra featuring the Great Western Divide, Kings Canyon and surrounding beauty. Eagles, falcons and other birds of prey are often spotted soaring the skies around the lookout. After many years of being shuttered, Buck Rock reopened in 2000.

According to the Buck Rock Foundation website, access to the top is via a series of stair flights (consisting of 172 steps) suspended from the side of the rock.

The current lookout building was constructed in 1923 and is historically significant as a representation of the earliest 4-A style live-in cabs of which there are only three in existence in the world today.

Prior to the current building, an open platform was situated on the top of the rock, which a patrol unit would climb onto to scan for smokes using only binoculars, a compass, and a map. Spotting a smoke, he would quickly descend, hop on his horse and chase down the fire. In 1914, a telephone was installed and a phone line between Pinehurst and Buck Rock was carried by mules and restrung at the beginning of each season.

Originally, only long slim tree trunks with boards nailed across for steps led to the top. A series of ladders for climbing to the lookout came next, and finally in 1942, a stairway built by Frank Fowler and crew was added to ease the climb. By the 1980s, electricity replaced gas and wood as a source of energy, and today the lookout enjoys many of the modern conveniences of most homes.

Legend has it that if you look at the rock from a certain angle, you can see the profile of an Indian warrior, thus the name Buck Rock. Native Americans referred to the rock as Finger Rock.

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Buck Rock Lookout to get needed face lift

25-06-2012 13:25 A window repair man sits down with a young organic couple to discuss window replacement options for 3 bedroom Levittown rancher. During the consultation he is insulted and forced to eat organic coconut ice cream even though he was advised by his doctors that any type of ice cream could kill him

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Chocolate Coconut ORGANIC Ice Cream Kills Window Repair Man- Shocking Video - Video

Good morning, Clackamas County. You might've noticed the OregonLive website has a new look. Read all about the changes after you check out this morning's roundup of Clackamas County news:

Happy Valley: A four-year-old boy fell 15 feet from a window of a two-story house in Happy Valley last night, and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. The parents were preparing dinner when the child went upstairs, climbed a bunk bed to get onto the window sill and began kicking the screen, which eventually gave way, witnesses said.

Lake Oswego: The Lake Oswego City Council recently approved a $242,417,322 budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. The budget maintains the current property tax rate, instead of one that remains flat as the budget committee recommended, and also provides funds for a streetsweeper replacement and other equipment replacements. The same council majority decided on the budget at its June 5 meeting, but because it would raise the tax rate above what the budget committee recommended, the decision had to be delayed for a second public review period. Wilsonville: John C. Davis, a real estate and business lawyer who lives in Wilsonville, announced Monday he too wants a shot at running for Rep. Matt Wingards Oregon House seat this fall. Davis joins Lindsay Berschauer, a 31-year-old conservative activist, in seeking the approval of Oregon Republican precinct members at a meeting July 9. Davis, 29, is an associate at law firm McEwen Gisvold.

Oregon City: Oregon City Mayor Doug Neely will have a little fun at the upcoming Clackamas County Historical Society annual meeting, when he portrays a mayor from more than a century ago, Dr. John McLoughlin. The performance from Neeley will be followed by Patrick Harris, who will finish up the historical society's "Cities of Clackamas County speaker series. The event is Thursday.

Events: Another Tuesday, another roundup of things to do in your area. This week's options include a lavender festival in Oregon City, featuring a botanical garden, a lavender U-pick and lavender ice cream. The free event will run from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat, June 30 and noon-5 p.m. Sun, July 1 at Oregon Lavender Farm, 20949 S. Harris Road. Vickie Kavanagh this morning also shares happenings in Happy Valley, Estacada, Sandy, Milwaukie, and Gladstone.

Rachel Stark

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Clackamas County Roundup: Happy Valley window fall; Wilsonville GOP candidate; Lake Oswego budget

Is summer the best time to remodel? Well, according to remodeling expert Dan Fritschen, yes it is. Here are some reasons why and also some tips on how to get it done.

Summertime is when you might go on a weekend trip or extended vacation. If you are remodeling, these are the best times for the workers to be in your house making a mess and getting the work done. The workers will have more space and you don't have to worry about staying out of their way - plus when you come home, all or at least a good portion of the work will be done.

If you are remodeling the kitchen, summer is certainly a good time to do it. You can eat outdoors, and light meals, not requiring much if any cooking, are just the thing during the summer.

If you happen to be opening a wall because you are adding a room, or if you need to open a wall to add a window, summer is the perfect time because you don't have to worry about freezing-cold temperatures If painting is in order, summer is good because you can open windows to let the smell out and the fresh air in.

Nature gives great inspiration during summer. Look at the colors and the color combinations in nature. Absorb what appeals to you and use it in your remodeling.

While you are out there soaking up the sun, consider getting your yard in order. Remodel, upgrade or simply clean up your landscape. Some remodeling projects, such as a new driveway or walkway, might better be left to experts. But you never know: You might be ambitious enough to tackle these yourself.

Original post:
Summer remodeling makes use of weather, vacation