Updated: 01/26/2015 11:28 PM Created: 01/26/2015 11:13 PM WDIO.com

The Duluth City Council heard from the architects on Monday night who put together the remodel and rebuild plans for the Duluth Public Library.

Architects outlined each their four major proposals; the cheapest option on the table only brings the building up to code and fixes costly energy inefficiencies, while the most expensive calls for a complete rebuild.

"It is really struggling to keep itself in that condition," said Stephen Bellairs with MSR Architecture, the group who completed a report on the city's options. "But what is happing behind the skin of the building is not what the city needs in the future."

MSR's report recommends building a completely new facility of roughly the same size at the existing library site. The report estimates the project, known as 'Option C,' will cost $34.7 million.

The report says that the overwhelming majority of public responses favored that option. 63 percent voiced support for Option C, while none of the other three options received more than 16 percent.

To read the full report, click here.

Library manager Carla Powers says a citizen committee will make its plan recommendation to the council in two weeks.

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Architects Recommend Complete Rebuild of Duluth Public Library

So while the 2008 financial crisis has been a disagreeable hiccup for tower-building, corporate architects who just took the intervening time to dream up taller versions, it has been something of a blessing for a generation of younger London architects. It is a generation that has, in any case, begun to kick back at the bubble-shaped (and often bubble-headed) digital creations of their globalising predecessors.

The profession has been increasingly dividing into huge and slick international firms and sole practitioners with the creative middle squeezed out.

Alongside guerrilla knitters, DIY clothing customisers and vinyl record enthusiasts, London practices such as Architecture 00, Carl Turner Architects, vPPR, Assemble, Studio Weave and We Made That the clue is sometimes in the name are, to varying degrees, emphasising the process and involvement of the users of their designs, the crafted, the improvised and the down to earth.

In some ways it mirrors the counter-cultural explosion of the Sixties, in the face of the Space Age. With its lo-fi solutions, whimsical ideas and co-operative values, it is a riposte to the direction that architecture has taken in the past few decades.

What the latest generation of activist architects have in common is commitment to peoples needs rather than stroking their own egos by building a stylistic brand.

They are the heirs to studios such as Muf and the now-disbanded FAT, which refused to play the corporate game, and their choices have not so much been driven by a changed economy as a desire for a new vision. Necessity has not so much mothered as matched invention for three practices, in particular.

DIY diehards: the Assemble collective work from their self-built hall near Bow, created for 80,000 out of standard timber and concrete tiles made on site (Picture: Assemble)

Assemble is an architectural collective born out of collective frustration at the way standard architecture offices often work. Hierarchical with malignant presenteeism, leading to late nights but little creative input for younger designers.

The collective has a core of about 14 members, half of whom teach architecture part-time. Most are Cambridge graduates many had got sick of working in other practices.

They are stressful places and theres not enough discussion of architectural merits. Wed been taught to have more involvement than that, says one member.

More:
Meet the activist architects: why young designers in London are going back to basics

The 300-seat auditorium of the Church of Christ in CHC's Soho Village project at Alamanda Estate at Point Cook.

Churches have traditionally been the hub of the community, but one architectural firm in Collingwood has given a modern twist to this ageless concept.

ClarkeHopkinsClarke has made "Don't forget the church and community in urban design" ethos in its urban design. "Towns evolve differently from what they used to. Unless it's master-planned in, different uses such as churches often get overlooked. They don't get a voice at the table," said CHC partner Dean Landy.

"We're passionate about building strong communities. It's not just about the buildings. The main driver is 'Get a layer of culture and activation into town centres'."

The modernised Highway Christian Centre.

What that means in practice is the church shares its facilities with a variety of local groups. It uses the building on the weekend, the peak time, and the locals during the week.

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CHC, with 65 staff, turns 55 this year. The company has been a pioneer of this concept, which covers not only greenfield land in Melbourne's growth corridors, but brownfield sites where redundant buildings in light industrial areas are given a new purpose.

CHC has completed or is undertaking church projects at Hoppers Crossing (an old glass manufacturing plant was converted into a 700-seat auditorium with functions rooms and full commercial kitchens), Scoresby, Point Cook, Box Hill and Bundoora.

The churches are mixed denominations. Point Cook has a Church of Christ, whereas the others tend to be new Australian Christian churches, such as Apostolic, Hillsong and Planet Shakers. The buildings are not designed with religious architecture and paraphernalia. "They are appealing to a younger demographic, with contemporary music, art and performance, and cafes. They adapt to what today's younger culture wants," Mr Landy said. "Mainstream churches have an ageing demographic. As the church population ages, they are closing down." Mainstream church buildings are often transformed into apartments.

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Churches make a comeback in commercial buildings

TALLAHASSEE Gov. Rick Scott recruited a Louisiana state official as the replacement for Florida's chief insurance regulator weeks before he publicly called for the regulator's removal as part of a second-term reorganization.

Scott's office confirmed Monday that it asked for a resume from Ron Henderson, 45, the deputy insurance commissioner for consumer advocacy in Louisiana. His name was pitched to Scott by a Tallahassee lobbyist for the insurance industry, Fred Karlinsky, a friend of Scott's and co-chairman of his recent second inaugural.

Henderson was being considered as a replacement for Kevin McCarty, who has headed Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation since 2003 and plays a critical role in setting the property insurance rates that affect all Florida homeowners and businesses.

Karlinsky, a Fort Lauderdale-based lawyer, recently switched law firms and joined Greenberg Traurig, one of the state's most politically active.

Scott last month appointed Karlinsky to a prestigious state board, the nine-member Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. That gives the lobbyist a seat at the table in recommending who should be the high court's next justice.

Karlinsky has had a tense relationship with McCarty's office, and the lobbyist is on friendlier terms with Henderson. Karlinsky and Henderson were co-presenters at an insurance regulation seminar on ethics in New Orleans in July, sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

Karlinsky has twice donated $5,000 to the election campaigns of Henderson's boss, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James Donelon, in 2009 and 2013.

Scott's office reached out to Henderson while the governor was at the center of a growing furor over his office's sudden December ouster of Gerald Bailey, the long-time commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That move has led to calls for an outside investigation by two Cabinet members Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

McCarty, like Bailey, does not report only to Scott, but also to the three independently elected Cabinet members. All three said they were blind-sided by the removal of Bailey and all three belatedly criticized the way Scott's office orchestrated it.

By law, the hiring of an insurance regulator requires Scott and Atwater to agree.

Read more here:
Scott already eyeing replacement for state's top insurance regulator

ELDORADO Leading Edge Restoration, in West Frankfort, collaborated with local businesses to give Ally and Peyton Wintersthe bedroom of their dreams.

The idea came from three men who formed Leading Edge, a restoration company, and they wanted to make a childs day by giving them a room they could call their own.

We always had the ability to do the work, but there wasnt any financial backing to make it happen, said Leading Edge co-owner Eric Speakman.

He said Leading Edge partnered with Black Diamond and River Radio as part of their "Shop with a Jock" contest. Ally, 10, and Peyton, 7, were chosen as the winners of the program.

Ally and Peytons mother, Theresa, said she couldnt be happier about the room makeover.

Winters said she bought the house in Eldorado a couple months ago with her husband, Michael Tison, who is the sisters' stepfather. She is in the process of remodeling the entire house, including the girls bedroom before winning the contest.

It is a blessing and the kids love it, Winters said. The kids stay in their room all the time.

Johnnie McKinnies of Leading Edge said the selection process wasnt easy, but Ally and Peytons application painted a vivid picture.

I am not sure why, but there was something about their story that stood out from the beginning, he said. The girls' mom works 84 hours a week to support the family, while her husband looks for work. He was laid off from his job in the coal mines.

Once the Eldorado sisters were selected, Speakman said Black Diamond and River Radio began asking local businesses for help.

Continued here:
Sisters get the room of their dreams

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