By JOY BROWN

STAFF WRITER

Demolition of the Argyle apartment building began Thursday, two weeks after a fire made it structurally unsound.

Organized by general contractor Charles Construction Services of Findlay, crews began using aerial equipment to start tearing down the four-story downtown building. Work had been delayed Wednesday by high winds.

Findlay Service-Safety Director Paul Schmelzer said demolition and subsequent containment of debris will take about a week. The 500 block of South Main Street then can be reopened.

Razing is expected to be done carefully to protect adjacent buildings, particularly one that houses the Wine Merchant. Those two buildings share a common wall, Schmelzer said.

Picking apart most of the Argyle building in relatively small pieces is also necessary for asbestos containment. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has deemed the whole building contaminated because some of the building materials, containing asbestos, caught fire. The asbestos became "friable" or broke into pieces, investigators determined, which enabled the fibers to become airborne and travel to other areas of the building.

Asbestos cleanup at a demolition project typically requires spraying water to ensure containment, and bagging debris in plastic. The materials are then hauled to state-approved landfills that can dispose of them properly.

"The whole building is a hazardous waste product that has to get abated," Schmelzer said. Asbestos handling alone will cost $1 million, he said.

Demolition of the front of the Argyle can be viewed live at http://www.livestream.com/argylebuilding, thanks to TCM Architects, which placed a camera on the Blackford Building across the street.

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Argyle demolition under way

HANK SCHOUTEN

A luxury apartment block, with harbour-view units selling for up to $5 million, is set to rise on the site of Wellington's old market building near Te Papa.

The $50m-plus One Market Lane is an 11-storey development on the vacant site beside the former John Chambers building between Cable St, Jervois Quay and Taranaki St.

An earlier $200m apartment and hotel development planned on the same site by Donald Stott's Land Equity Group failed in 2009 when financing fell through.

Willis Bond bought the block in 2010 and has since refurbished and tenanted the old John Chambers building and scaled back previous plans.

Project director David McGuinness said there had been substantial early interest. "People are still leaving big homes in the suburbs who are looking for smaller city pads, and people from the Hawke's Bay and Kapiti are looking for Wellington boltholes."

The cheapest of the 40 apartments, lower-level 85-square-metre ones with city views, were being sold off the plans for $650,000. All apartments on the harbour side would be more than $1m, with the 310sq m four-bedroomed penthouse priced at $5m.

This is less than half the price and half the size of the penthouse in the proposed Watermark development on the same site, which reportedly sold off the plans to a London investor for $12m.

That apartment was 750sq m and was to have included four bedrooms, a swimming pool, guest suite, separate one-bedroom studio apartment, wine cellar, climate-controlled balcony and garaging for four cars. Mr McGuinness was reluctant to make comparisons, saying it was a different era, but said even the modified penthouse was at the high end.

Most apartments in the new block were going for $1m to $2m. The developers were holding back two levels so apartments on those floors might be modified or even made smaller if market demand showed a buyer preference.

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Luxury apartment block to top $50m

March 8, 2012 in Washington Voices

Lars Neises stands in one of two yoga studios he is building as part of a complex that also includes fiveapartments. (Full-size photo)(All photos)

The neighbors affectionately call it the Haystack Building, because of the rock formations around it. Its been under construction since 2009 but it wasnt until mid-January that the project finally cleared permit requirements at Spokane CityHall.

Its located just west of the South Perry Business District and is unlike other buildings in the neighborhood: its a combined yoga studio and apartmentbuilding.

Owners Rebecca Laurence and Lars Neises are building the Haystack Building at the far northern end of the property where theylive.

Lars always wanted to build a yoga studio, said Laurence about how they got the idea for the building. Most yoga studios are in old refurbished buildings. Sometimes they are not ideal. He always wanted to build the perfectstudio.

When the Haystack Building is done, it will feature two second-story yoga studios with a joint reception area and five one-bedroom apartments four on the ground level, and one at the top level. The building is nestled in the landscape in such a manner that the upstairs yoga studios have easy wheelchair access via a flat ramp in theback.

The Haystack Building is obviously not a cookie-cutter project had the builders realized how difficult it would be to get all the permits they needed, they probably wouldnt havetried.

We could have built a 42-unit apartment complex here just like that one, said Neises, pointing to a neighboring complex. That would not have been as difficult as building this building, but thats not what we wanted todo.

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Haystack Building faced myriad obstacles - Thu, 08 Mar 2012 PST

BERKELEY -- A spectacular two-alarm fire gutted an apartment building south of the UC Berkeley campus early Thursday morning, displacing as many as nine people and forcing the evacuation of nearby homes, the Berkeley Fire Department said.

And it's midterm week to boot.

The accidental fire -- blamed on a set of water heaters -- flared up at 4:13 a.m. at a three-story, six-unit building on Dwight Way near Fulton Street. It took nearly four hours for a squad of 32 firefighters to methodically extinguish it, with tactics quickly shifting to a defensive fight from the outside after the roof and upper floor collapsed and made it unsafe to be inside, said Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong.

The occupants escaped safely, Dong said. Additionally, residents from adjacent apartments and homes were evacuated amid fears that parts of the fire-ravaged building might break off onto adjacent structures.

Imran Khan, a 26-year-old mechanical engineering graduate student, lives behind the charred building and was forced to flee with cell phone in hand and a blanket around his waist.

"A noise awoke me and then I saw the building on fire through my window," Khan said, holding a pair of blue jeans in his hand. "I grabbed my pants, but did not have time to put them on."

Later in the morning, Khan and other tenants were escorted by firefighters to retrieve things like laptop computers and shoes, but were not immediately allowed to reinhabit their

Khan had a more forgiving midterm schedule, with an exam set for 5 p.m. Thursday, but he could be forgiven for not seeing that silver lining.

"We'll see how it goes the rest of the day," he said.

A team of fire investigators probed the blaze, which displaced at least nine occupants. Dong said not all of the units in the building were rented out.

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Fire guts apartment building near UC Berkeley

BERKELEY -- A spectacular two-alarm fire gutted an apartment building south of the UC Berkeley campus early Thursday morning, displacing as many as nine people and forcing the evacuation of nearby homes, the Berkeley Fire Department said.

And it's midterm week to boot.

The accidental fire -- blamed on a set of water heaters -- flared up at 4:13 a.m. at a three-story, six-unit building on Dwight Way near Fulton Street. It took nearly four hours for a squad of 32 firefighters to methodically extinguish it, with tactics quickly shifting to a defensive fight from the outside after the roof and upper floor collapsed and made it unsafe to be inside, said Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong.

The occupants escaped safely, Dong said. Additionally, residents from adjacent apartments and homes were evacuated amid fears that parts of the fire-ravaged building might break off onto adjacent structures.

Imran Khan, a 26-year-old mechanical engineering graduate student, lives behind the charred building and was forced to flee with cell phone in hand and a blanket around his waist.

"A noise awoke me and then I saw the building on fire through my window," Khan said, holding a pair of blue jeans in his hand. "I grabbed my pants, but did not have time to put them on."

Later in the morning, Khan and other tenants were escorted by firefighters to retrieve things like laptop computers and shoes, but were not immediately allowed to reinhabit their

Khan had a more forgiving midterm schedule, with an exam set for 5 p.m. Thursday, but he could be forgiven for not seeing that silver lining.

"We'll see how it goes the rest of the day," he said.

A team of fire investigators probed the blaze, which displaced at least nine occupants. Dong said not all of the units in the building were rented out.

Read more here:
Two-alarm fire guts apartment building near UC Berkeley

By JOY BROWN

STAFF WRITER

Demolition of the Argyle apartment building in downtown Findlay is expected to finally begin this morning.

Officials initially hoped the razing would happen shortly after a Feb. 23 fire tore through the building. The damaged, structurally unsound building forced city officials to close off the 500 block of South Main Street.

But the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency determined that asbestos present in the building will require extensive cleanup, a decision which has slowed the demolition process.

Agency spokeswoman Dina Pierce said that because materials containing asbestos caught fire, the asbestos fiber became airborne and contaminated the rest of the building.

"A survey done after the fire found friable (broken) material in the roofing and some of the floor tile," Pierce said.

"It's very hazardous if it's airborne," Pierce said of asbestos. "It can cause some very serious health problems."

The finding changed the scope of the project. Instead of removing the asbestos first and then tearing down the building, which is what typically happens with most demolition projects, the entire Argyle must be treated as a toxic structure, Pierce said, because the asbestos can't be separated from the rest of the material.

Officials and building owners had been urging the EPA to agree to quick demolition of the building. The city declared the site a public emergency in order to expedite the project, and the owners hired Charles Construction Services of Findlay as the general contractor for the razing.

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Argyle razing to start

Australian construction activity has declined for the past 21 months, a report shows.

The Australian Industry Group-Housing Industry Association's performance of construction index (PCI) fell 4.2 points to 35.6 in February.

A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

The index has now shown a contraction for 21 consecutive months.

All four construction industry sub-sectors experienced falls in activity, with commercial and apartment building sectors posting the largest decline.

The new orders sub-index also declined 1.7 points to 34.2.

Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) director of public policy Dr Peter Burn said the February data showed the rate of decline increased after slowing in January.

"The tentative signs of recovery that had emerged in the closing months of 2011 as interest rates were lowered, appear to have dissipated since the start of this year," he said.

"With new orders also weak in February and with market interest rates now somewhat higher, the outlook for the next few months remains flat, particularly for commercial and residential construction."

Housing Industry Association (HIA) senior economist Andrew Harvey said the index showed the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points in November and again, by the same amount, in December had not been enough to halt the decline in the sector.

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Construction activity slide continues

Australian construction activity has declined for the past 21 months, a report shows.

The Australian Industry Group-Housing Industry Association's performance of construction index (PCI) fell 4.2 points to 35.6 in February.

A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

The index has now shown a contraction for 21 consecutive months.

All four construction industry sub-sectors experienced falls in activity, with commercial and apartment building sectors posting the largest decline.

The new orders sub-index also declined 1.7 points to 34.2.

Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) director of public policy Dr Peter Burn said the February data showed the rate of decline increased after slowing in January.

"The tentative signs of recovery that had emerged in the closing months of 2011 as interest rates were lowered, appear to have dissipated since the start of this year," he said.

"With new orders also weak in February and with market interest rates now somewhat higher, the outlook for the next few months remains flat, particularly for commercial and residential construction."

Housing Industry Association (HIA) senior economist Andrew Harvey said the index showed the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points in November and again, by the same amount, in December had not been enough to halt the decline in the sector.

See more here:
Construction's 21st month of decline

IQALUIT, Nunavut - Nunavut's former fire marshal says the territorial government should have known an apartment block that was the scene of a fatal blaze didn't meet modern building codes.

Tony Noakes, who lost his job in May 2010 after he voiced related concerns, says similar problems exist throughout the territory.

"I'm concerned government hasn't implemented any recommendations I put forward in my report in 2009," Noakes, who now lives in Lyndhurst, Ont., said Tuesday. "Maybe something could have been done to save these people.

"It's not a far stretch to say there's gross negligence here."

At least two people died when a 22-unit block in the White Row apartments went up in flames on the frigid night of Feb. 27. The building was being used as a residence for Nunavut Arctic College and all the tenants but one were students or their families.

Some 83 people were forced outside in -50 C temperatures and lost everything in the fire.

Reports have said the two who died were adult children of an Arctic College student. Remains of one person were found Friday and police reported Monday that a second set of remains had been found.

An RCMP forensic team was on the site.

White Row was built about 35 years ago well before Nunavut was created and Iqaluit named as its capital. Noakes pointed to a fire inspection dated Jan. 23, 2000, that outlined a series of structural problems with White Row's 200 block.

The biggest problem was that individual units didn't have adequate fire-resistant separation walls between them, said the report. It also noted that existing drainage, waste and ventilation pipes should have been sealed off with fire-resistant drywall.

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Government knew building in fatal Iqaluit fire a trap: former fire marshal

The Portland Housing Bureau has broken ground on a Northwest Portland housing project that will bring 80 affordable apartments to an area near Union Station.

During a ceremony on Monday, the bureau announced the beginning of the latest phase of The Yards project, a multiphase residential and retail redevelopment project that will transform a seven-acre brownfield behind Union Station.

The first three phases are complete and have brought 535 new, mixed-income housing units to Portland. The first phase began about 15 years ago. The latest phase will add 80 residential units to the project, and its construction is expected to cost $15 million.

The Housing Bureau invested more than $4 million in River District Tax Increment Funds for the latest phase, and also offered a 10-year tax exemption. The project is also expected to create more than 200 construction jobs, and will result in a LEED silver-certified building.

Specifically, the new building will create six studios, 48 one-bedroom apartments and 26 two-bedroom units with 48 parking spaces. A community room, lounge area and fitness center will be built on the ground floor, and free bicycle and other storage spaces will be available.

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Ground broken for 80-unit affordable apartment building in Northwest Portland