A city planning commission stalled in making a decision on a proposed apartment complex on North Brooks Street Monday because of conflict between city and university building guidelines.

Property owner Joseph McCormick presented a proposed plan to tear down two existing apartment buildings at 202-206 N. Brooks St. and replace them with one five-story apartment complex.

The apartment complex is designed for students with two-, three- and four-bedroom units, bicycle and moped parking and a modern design.

Its going to serve the students at UW and is very attractive and will serve the market for years to come, project architect Joe Lee said.

The Plan Commission referred the proposal to the Urban Design Commission, which will review the proposed apartment plans for a third time. The Plan Commissions concern included the proposed buildings height and how far it would be set back from the street.

McCormicks proposal also conflicts with guidelines for future construction projects set in the Campus Master Plan, Regent Street South Campus Neighborhood Plan and the citys Comprehensive Plan.

UW Facilities Planning and Management Director Gary Brown said the campus master plan calls for academic and research facilities, including an addition to the Educational Sciences Building to be built the on the corner of Brooks and Dayton streets.

Although the city and universitys plans direct the type of construction in the southeast campus area, Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said they are recommendations and more of a should-do this than a must-do this.

Resnick said although he understands the conflict, the new apartment complex would be replacing the current dilapidated structures, which were built in 1905 and have no other historical relevance to the neighborhood.

In situations similar to this, developers have compromised and built less-concrete structures with a shorter life span, according to Resnick. However, no agreement has been reached.

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City stalls on proposed apartment complex on North Brooks Street

By JOY BROWN

STAFF WRITER

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Monday ordered extensive asbestos removal at the burned Argyle apartment building, where demolition is expected to start this week, Service-Safety Director Paul Schmelzer said.

"The news is the worst case scenario from the owners' perspective," Schmelzer said. Specialists in hazardous materials removal must undertake "full-site remediation," which is costly, he said.

The 122-year-old building, damaged by fire and the millions of gallons of water poured on it Feb. 23, has been destined for razing since last week, when structural engineers decided it was in danger of collapsing. Wall bracing was done to temporarily keep it upright.

City officials had hoped to get the site declared an emergency by the state, so the razing process could be hurried. But the EPA's asbestos concerns have slowed demolition.

Since the fire, South Main Street from Sandusky to Lincoln streets has been closed to traffic, which has affected commerce, too. Some of those barricades will come down today.

"We hope to have the building in a pile, sidewalks cleaned up and Main Street reopened on March 12, a week from now," Schmelzer said Monday.

Asbestos removal could begin as early as today, but Schmelzer said hazardous materials crews will have to get equipment there and become familiar with the site.

Asbestos cleanup and demolition can be done at the same time, he said, and demolition may begin Thursday.

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EPA orders removal of asbestos at fire-damaged Argyle building

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Building opponents lose appeal

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Opponents of Minnow Lake apartment building lose appeal

The developer rehabilitating two once-prominent Hornell apartment buildings is hoping work will start this month.

Hewan Fraser, co-founder and general manager of the Bronx-based IronShore Property Management, said he hasnt picked an exact date for foundation work on the apartment at 1 Prindle Ave. to start, but believes it will be this month.

For me, Ive got the guys on call waiting to go to work, he said. The swing in temperature is too much right now. It could be the high 40s, then it could be the low 30s.

Fraser was initially hoping the first apartment building would be finished by Christmas of 2011. Surveys and environmental reviews caused delays, though, and Fraser is still waiting to receive the official permit from the city.

He doesnt expect any hold-ups with the permit, meaning all he has to wait for is a stretch of consistently warm weather.

Hopefully well get going as soon as possible, he said. Im anticipating getting the buildings done this year.

Construction will start with the building at 1 Prindle Ave., which will hold six three-bedroom apartments.

Fraser said once the occupancy of the first building is 75 to 90 percent filled, Maple City Savings, which loaned the majority of the funds for the project, will allow work on the second building to start.

The second apartment building is expected to house six two-bedroom apartments.

In addition to foundation repairs, new electric and plumbing systems and flooring will be installed.

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Bronx-based developer hoping Hornell project will start in March

When it comes to green building, the design firm Perkins+Will is doing pretty well. They have more LEED-accredited employees than any other design firm in the country. Theyve created a gutsy list of ethical, healthy building materials to guide design and construction decisions. And they've made their mark with inventive reuse and innovative projects.

These sustainability successes mean that when Perkins+Will designs its own offices, theres a lot of pressure to get it right. In its new Atlanta office, the firm more than managed to live up to its values: Company leaders will announce today that the office is the highest-rated LEED building ever constructed. Paula Vaughan, who co-directs Perkins+Will's sustainable design initiative, talked to GOOD about the process of designing the building. Here are four lessons we took away.

Dont count chits. While the team designing the building looked at LEED requirements, Vaughan says they werent aiming to top the LEED charts. Instead, they focused on created a space that reflected the firms values and improved the experience of people working there. We really have to do what we say we do, Vaughan says.

Stick to your principles. It wasnt always simple. The original building on the site had a parking lot on the ground floor, and while the team knew a strong urban design would feature ground-level retail or another public space there, parking is a valuable commodity in car-centric Atlanta. The designers had to ask themselves: Do we really want to lose that parking? We snapped out of it a minute later, though," says Vaughan. Of course we wanted to lose the parking. The buildings first floor now houses the Museum of Design Atlanta.

Sometimes you have to pave your own way. The firm also wanted to meet the Architecture 2030 challenge for new construction or major renovations, which requires using 60 percent less energy than the regional average for a particular type of building. But the Perkins+Will team struggled to find those sharp reductions, even after designing energy efficiency measures. Atlantas electricity grid depends heavily on coal-fired power plants, and that dirty electricity was driving the buildings consumption up, Vaughan says. The designers ended up installing a co-generation system: two small, gas-fired turbines on the building provide electricity, with the excess energy driving an absorption chiller that heats and chills water.

Consult everyone. The new building has employees working in shared spaceslong benches with work stations instead of cubicles, for instance. The design team came up with idea after interviewing their colleagues about how they worked. But changing the nature of their workspace spooked some employees. When they started looking at the layout, they were worried about it, Vaughan says. Because the designers showed colleagues the plans, they were able to win them over to the idea before they were shocked by the completed project. Ultimately, Vaughan said, changing the way people work and making them more productive and happier was one of the most valuable parts of the project.

Photo courtesy of Eduard Hueber/archphoto

The rest is here:
4 Lessons Learned From Designing the World's Greenest Building

CARBONDALE The Carbondale City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution approving the final unit development plan for the fourth phase of construction at Park View Apartments at 905 E. Park St.

The fourth phase of construction will add nine buildings to the apartment complex. Each new building will house four one-bedroom apartments. Phase-four plans are available on the city of Carbondale website.

The resolution is the only item listed on the action item agenda for Tuesdays meeting.

The council will also vote on the following consent agenda items:

Acceptance of motor Illinois Department of Transportation motor fuel tax audits for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

An ordinance adopting a budget adjustment for the current fiscal year after a portion of real estate taxes was incorrectly levied to the firefighter pension fund instead of being split between police and fire pension funds.

A resolution authorizing City Manager Kevin Baity to execute a new five-year agreement between the city and Southern Illinois Regional Landfill for the disposal of solid waste. The city will pay $29.09 for each ton of compacted waste and $23.13 for each ton of loose waste. Those prices are several dollars less than standard rates of disposal at the landfill.

The council is also expected to enter into a closed session to discuss personnel and review closed meeting minutes.

The Carbondale City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday at council chambers at 200 S. Illinois Ave.

dw.norris@thesouthern.com

Link:
Council to vote on apartment construction plan

A bubble of new student housing could grow larger in the next few years if a request that would allow the construction of another central-city apartment building wins the Columbia City Council's approval tomorrow.

The rezoning request applies to two properties on Locust Street between Hitt and Waugh streets, just east of Salty's formerly the Athena nightclub and Club Memoir. It would convert the zoning from dense residential to planned commercial. The designation would allow the construction of a student apartment building with potential ground-level commercial space. The project is proposed by the Odle family as part of its Brookside brand.

Garrett Taylor, an attorney for the firm that represents the developers, said at most the building would feature 150 units and would be 80 feet tall, but he said an exact size had not been determined.

"We just don't want to hamstring ourselves right now," Taylor said at a Feb. 9 meeting of the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission. That panel recommended allowing the proposed rezoning in a 5-3 vote.

Before making the recommendation, P&Z commissioners expressed concerns about where tenants of the planned apartment complex would park. The request contains an exception for a parking requirement that usually goes with planned commercial zoning.

City planner Matthew Lepke said the planned commercial designation offers some protection for residential aspects of the neighborhood, and the waiver of the parking requirement was included to entice developers to bring projects to that area of downtown.

"That's sort of been the cookie that's been extended to the developers to get them to come to areas that the city felt were ripe for redevelopment," Lepke said.

The building would stand next to another student apartment complex planned at the current site of Salty's. That project has been proposed by St. Louis developer Jeff Pernikoff, who plans about 190 beds at the site. The Odles also are building student complexes on Elm Street and the intersection of College Avenue and Walnut Street, and local developer Travis McGee is working on a student apartment complex on Ninth Street across from the University of Missouri's Reynolds Journalism Institute.

P&Z Chairman Doug Wheeler, who voted against the recommendation, said he did not think the council had adequately addressed parking issues associated with the Odle's project at College and Walnut.

"Not all college students have cars, but a lot of them do," Wheeler said, according to meeting minutes. Andy Lee and Ray Puri also voted against the recommendation.

More here:
New student housing site up for vote

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Firefighters rescued people and pets from a burning east side apartment building Friday afternoon, and five people - including one who jumped from a second floor window - were taken to area hospitals in serious condition.

All five people taken to hospitals were suffering from various degrees of smoke inhalation, and the man who jumped from the window also suffered a broken leg. Three other people were treated at the scene.

Crews were first called to the building at 5143 E. Washington at 12:24 p.m. The first units to arrive on the scene reported seeing smoke and immediately called for more help.

A nearby construction crew Sergio Construction was working across the street when the fire started. They told 24-Hour News 8 Reporter Julian Grace that they rushed in and helped residents. The crew used its own ladder to get four residents out of the burning building through a window.

"We saw the fire come in. We saw the kids and people jumped inside and put up some ladders," said one worker.

That help was key, Indianapolis Fire Department said.

"They were very instrumental in getting people out," said IFD spokeswoman Rita Burris.

IFD reports it found "chaos amongst the thick black smoke and heavy fire." Firefighters found an unconscious woman on the second floor and carried her out.

After the fire was under control, about 45 minutes after crews arrived, firefighters turned their attention to rescuing pets. Our crews watched as two dogs were brought out of the building. IFD reports five dogs and two cats in all were rescued by firefighters, though an unknown number of animals perished.

All 10 apartment units were damaged by the fire, and IFD said the building was a total loss, with damage estimated at $650,000, according to Battalion Chief Shawn Grass.

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Five seriously hurt in apartment fire

By JOY BROWN

STAFF WRITER

Findlay-based Charles Construction Services has been hired by owners of the Argyle apartment building to be the general contractor for demolishing the fire-damaged structure, Findlay Service-Safety Director Paul Schmelzer said Wednesday.

A "demolition specialist" will be brought in to oversee the work, he said, which could begin today.

Schmelzer said city administrators are coordinating with the contractor, the owners, the Environmental Protection Agency and Wood County Building Inspection Department to get the project declared an emergency.

Demolition usually involves a lengthy permit process through the EPA, Schmelzer said, but when public safety is at risk, permission can be expedited.

Downtown streets and businesses near the Argyle remain closed to traffic, although some businesses behind the barricades remain open to pedestrians.

The area has been cordoned off since Thursday's fire, which structurally weakened the building enough to necessitate razing it.

"We've already given them (owners) a verbal deadline" to bring in demolition crews, Schmelzer said Wednesday. "That deadline was yesterday."

But Schmelzer said the city hasn't pressured the owners too much, because the owners continue to seek a resolution.

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Firm hired to raze Argyle