By Joanne Peters

It seems nearly everyone has heard the term aging-in-place AARP reports that about 90 percent of older adults would choose the many health and psychological benefits associated with staying in the home and community they have known for years. Can we stay in the house we have lived in for the past 30 years, the place we preserve to be most comfortable? Your answer lies in the safety of the home.

Are you thinking about living in your house forever? Before making that final decision to Age-in-Place, there are some questions to ask and perhaps enlist a professional to check out the home for future safety issues. Prevention is the keyword and the only way to Age-in-Place safely. A home safety assessment will undoubtedly ease your mind when you are faced with this decision.

Whether you need to get, your dads house assessed by an Age-in-Place Advisor or need someone to make the necessary modifications, a professional can help you determine what it will take to Age in Place safely. It is essential to recognize our ability to maintain the inside and the outside of our house. The physical ability to climb up on a ladder and clear the autumn leaves must be off-limits and delegated to a family member or qualified professional. Our mental stamina to keep the house cleaned, organized, and clutter-free may be limited. Even simple items cause fall hazards, such as trips on throw rugs, which are common threats to safely aging in place.

One of the essential areas of the house that will need remodeling by a professional is the traditional bathroom. Recent studies have shown that for people age 65 and older, falls account for approximately 60 percent of all injury-related emergency department visits and over 50 percent of injury-related deaths annually. Not surprisingly, 80 percent of falls in the home occur in the bathroom. The first order of business would be to install grab bars. These will be the best investment if you plan to age in place. Women especially enjoy a nice warm bath. Protect yourself from slipping while getting in and out of the bathtub. A non-slip mat on both sides of the tub will provide a safe place to land. Another safety feature for a tub/shower is a bench as another level of safety.

The importance of looking into the future will bring a whole different view of aging in place to light. Lighting is an important safety feature to think about for seniors both inside and outside. As our sight begins to diminish, the need for extra lighting is essential. Reading lamps to hallway floor lighting are all things we typically do not think of but are crucial for the aging senior to continue existing safely in their homes.

The two-story home is hazardous. Physical therapists treat more patients every day from falls downstairs and trip on rugs. It is still possible to live in a two-story home as we age.

An eye-opening, scary encounter with an older gentleman caused me to shudder with fear one day. As I was visiting him in his home, he wanted to demonstrate his ability to jump on his bouncer! He was so proud of his fitness routine, but his chosen location for the bouncer was not safe by any stretch of the imagination.

He did not have any family close by to watch out for him, which is true of many seniors. As we walked through his home, it was apparent that this home was not safe for a single man. His bedroom was on the second floor, and he had to climb a surprisingly steep flight of stairs to get there. What I noticed immediately, and which raised the red flag was the safety issue of the handrail. It was literally a moving piece of wood; any weight against it would have snapped off the stairs, and down he would have fallen. There was a nice landing area at the top of the stairs, perhaps 8 x 8, which is where we found his bouncersnuggled up right next to the railing overlooking his living room! No, No, No, my inner voice called out as he began to demonstrate his agility to hop up and down like a monkey! One bad hop and that railing would take him for a ride to the living room floor. A deadly accident was waiting to happen. This man was in no way a candidate to age in place. In this case, his home was not safe anymore. He needed to have some major repairs and renovations or, better yet, move to a safer environment where he was not alone anymore. However, as we age, we do not understand how unsafe our homes can become, especially if we do not maintain them over the years. If a senior wants to stay in a two-story house, they should consider installing an elevator or an automatic chair that takes you up to the second level. These, however, are expensive items to install.

Here are some of the top priorities that should be addressed when considering whether aging in place is best for you. First, begin with a Home Safety Assessment. A professional can identify the most dangerous features that need attention when a senior wants to age in place.

Second, the Kitchen and Bathroom should be the concentration for modifications that allow seniors to live alone to continue cooking for themselves and avoid any slip hazards in the bathroom.

Third, identify what home maintenance is required to keep the home in good condition and keep the property value up. Perhaps a professional landscaper or handyman needs to be on speed dial. This gives the family and homeowner peace of mind that the home and yard will be maintained nicely. Remember, if you plan to age in place, your home will require maintenance, you will need to pay for these services, so ask yourself if my house is still affordable for me to live here. It may be better to search out a retirement community so you do not have the safety hazards or the expenses of maintaining your home.

Fourth, consider the cost of in-home security. Some security features can help you live safely, like, installing emergency response systems. If you live alone, you want to make sure you are not isolated. Hence, a remote monitoring system and active computer for any Telehealth visits with your primary care physicians are essential. Security alarms can be connected to the local emergency responders for theft and in case of any emergency.

And finally, if you do not drive, you will want to make sure that you have a transportation service that can get you out to your appointments and to grocery stores when needed.

I hope these few tips will help you with the conversation about Aging in Place with your family and a way to evaluate your decisions in the future.

The question becomes; Do I Age-in-Place or choose a Retirement Community. By planning and assessing your current environment, the answer will be clear.

Until next time..

Joanne

Remember, you can Age-in-Place with the right layout of your home safely and wonderfully.

Like Loading...

Related

Read more:
Senior Living: Planning and Assessing Paso Robles Press - The Paso Robles Press

The living room pops with malachite Jim Thompson window coverings, a Scott Group Studio custom rug and Michael Felix Madda chair. (Aubrie Pick)

Oh, shes brave, McCaffrey Design Group principal Katie McCaffrey recalls of the first meeting with her 30-something client, whose high-tech career hadnt slowed down her fun-loving fashion and decor choices one bit. Shes going to make some bold decisions. Indeed, she did, especially when it came time to largely gut and re-envision her Mission District condo in the heart of an area brimming with immersive art, vibrant culture and a healthy dose of hip.

One of the very first decisions the home-owner made was to go with the little blue Cornue in the kitchen, says McCaffrey. The kitchen was designed in collaboration with senior designer Courtney Ferry and redone by Jeff Brown of Jeff Brown Construction, who also delivered on McCaffreys reimagining of the homes outdoor space, now complete with a custom outdoor kitchen, tiled floor and glass wind barriers for privacy. She loves blue, so we had various shades to work with in this open area, McCaffrey says of the connecting interior kitchen, dining area and living room. You dont want it to look too matchy-matchy and dont want them to fight one another, McCaffrey says of making the cerulean tones all work in the same glance, from the Beetle dining chairs covered in a deep teal velvet to a custom barn door painted Slate Teal by Benjamin Moore. The door serves form and function when it conceals a dual laundry-pantry. The variation on the theme extends to the third bedroom, converted to a workout space wrapped in Polished Slate, again by Benjamin Moore. In the master bedroom, pale blue glass shimmers in a vintage Murano chandelier, scooped upon Chairish, illuminating a hand-painted triptych of de Gournay wall panels. We were thinking about peacock hues, McCaffrey says of the whimsy their perch brings to the space.

Perhaps nowhere is that whimsy more distilled than in the master closet, crowned with roaring tiger wallpaper by Gucci and installed by California Closets to the organizational envy of any fan of The Home Edit. The powder room also makes a statement with Schumachers Chiang Mai pattern.

Her personality is as vibrant as the colors in her home, McCaffrey enthuses, while not mentioning her client by name. It really turned out to be a reflection of her, which is always a goal for us, she says of her team, recently relaunched as McCaffrey Design Group after 12 years as Angus-McCaffrey Interior Design. Still based in Sausalito, the firm serves San Francisco, the Peninsula and Napa Valley. We always want the homes to be a reflection of our clients, and then we just help push that forward and make it as beautiful as possible.

Related

Read the original here:
Brave Shades of Blue - Nob Hill Gazette

(CNN) It's long been the bane of traveling New Yorkers' lives, and incoming president Joe Biden once described it as "third world."

But while the aviation industry has been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic, LaGuardia Airport has been quietly undergoing major renovations.

And now, $8 billion later, the new Terminal B is almost finished.

"New Yorkers love to criticize, and they love to hate. I think if you looked at every single passenger survey, LaGuardia was always the worst," says Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Today, filled with art installations including one of the largest mosaic walls in the US, and even a breathtaking water feature which projects images of New York icons such as the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge onto a cascading fountain, LaGuardia is a very different place.

Passengers for Air Canada, American Airlines, Southwest and United -- which are all housed at the new terminal -- have been enjoying the new public spaces since the summer.

A plane takes off from New York's LaGuardia Airport on December 3, 2020.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America

From worst to... best?

It was Joe Biden's comments in 2015 that sparked the renovation effort.

New York authorities green-lit the works after the then-Vice President said, "If I blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York you'd think I must be in some third-world country."

The central terminal, B, was built in 1964, and had barely changed since then.

And LaGuardia was, according to travelers, among the most outdated, noisiest and least accessible airports in the country. Not to mention its on-time record, which was one of the worst in the United States.

The redevelopment is the largest public-private partnership in US aviation history, and is still only 80% complete -- there are still some last gates to demolish and reopen. The project will be fully completed in 2022, and will see three out of the four terminals completely redeveloped.

But for now, travelers in Terminal B can enjoy the new breezy, light-flooded departures hall, its entire back wall covered in Laura Owens' colossal, 25,000-square-foot mosaic mural, "I NY," in which NYC icons, such as signs for the Stonewall Inn, Apollo Theater, and Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster, are depicted against a background of blue skies and fluffy white clouds. It's accompanied by a monumental aviation-themed sculpture by Sarah Sze, "Shorter than the Day," hanging in mid-air.

In the Connector area is Sabine Hornig's "La Guardia Vistas," a modern stained glass installation (of latex ink and vinyl mounted on glass) pairing over 1,100 photos of New York City into a cityscape in honor of the airport founder and former NYC mayor, Fiorello La Guardia.

Jeppe Hein's 70 steel balloons dangle from the ceiling throughout the terminal, and his bench sculptures provide photo-friendly seating.

Free Covid tests for all

2020 isn't the best year to be relaunching an airport.

When New York was the US center of the epidemic in March, passenger numbers across the city's three airports plummeted by an astonishing 98%. Numbers are still down 75-80%, according to Cotton.

But the airport is offering free Covid tests, alongside the art, to attract passengers back.

Cotton thinks the offering -- which spans 840,000 square feet and four floors -- is now "best in class."

The Port Authority will be hoping that more travelers get to experience it in 2021.

View original post here:
America's 'worst' airport tries to reinvent itself - CNN

Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, Cinematic Illumination, 196869, eighteen slide projections (1,350 black-and-white slides, sound, 114 minutes 45 seconds), 108 color gels, disco ball. Installation view, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2020. Photo: Robert Gerhardt.

IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO THINK OF Andy Warhol when pondering Shuzo Azuchi Gullivers Cinematic Illumination, 196869, currently tucked away in the Museum of Modern Arts new Marie-Jose and Henry Kravis Studio, albeit originally installed in the Ginza discotheque Killer Joe, where the ceilings, walls, and pistonlike pillars were covered with silver vinyl. During the brief period I served on the board of advisers to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh before its 1994 opening, a colleague who had been close to the artist suggested that the institution really should be configured as a discotheque (Andy would have loved that!). There was a silence while the staff held their breath, before the notion was deemed a joke and the board moved on to other things. The idea of the museum as a space for fun and games was then beyond outlandish; the Instagram-friendly process that critic Ben Davis has somewhat unfairly called Kusamafication was years in the future.

Based on a 2017 reconstruction at the Tokyo Photo-graphic Art Museum (and organized for MoMA by Sophie Cavoulacos), Cinematic Illumination consists of eighteen slide projectors clustered in a sort of overhead space station, each one beaming out seventy-five images onto screens arranged in a cycloramic, 360-degree circle. Geometric forms whirl past, as well as cars, manga pages, blurry street scenes, the face of Marilyn Monroe, and various bodies, sometimes in silhouette, sometimes seemingly pressed against the wall by centrifugal force.

The images, many taken from 16-mm movie footage, variously skitter past or hang around. Occasionally, the carousel creates the disorienting impression of going in both directions simultaneously. A disco ball produces moving dots on the floor. Color filters add variety. The whole thing is fueled by a soundtrack of late-1960s rockthe Leaves, the Human Beinz, Jim Morrison crooning Five to One, Japanese bands that sound like the MC5, and, of course, the Velvet Underground. The cinematic illusion, not uncommon in the High Sixties, is that youdancingare in the movie.

Cinematic Illumination was designed for love, play, and delirium.

In the catalogue for his 2015 exhibition Hippie Modernism at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, curator Andrew Blauvelt invoked Herbert Marcuse as the epochs echt theorist in maintaining that art was less a weapon for than a consequence of emancipation. Live as though the day were here! In his 1969 Essay on Liberation, Marcuse envisions a possible free society as the conflation of the barricade and the dance floor, love play and heroism. Cinematic Illumination was designed for love, play, and delirium. The Killer Joe Manifesto, a 1968 paean to intoxication written by a number of Gullivers colleagues, is saturated in booze, ending with the ringing declaration that in the true Killer Joe spirit, we declare that this life of love and liquor is a gallant and magnificent one.

Still, Cinematic Illumination is more disciplined than Warhols Exploding Plastic Inevitable or the roughly similar multimedia extravaganzas of Gerd Stern et al.s USCO collective. (Programmatically anarchic, USCOs pioneer hippie modernists were too freewheeling for Timothy Leary, disrupting a psychedelic spectacle theyd contrived for him by drowning out his soothing lysergic exhortations with one of Antonin Artauds mad harangues.) A component of the Intermedia Arts Festival, a quasi-Fluxus event in which Gulliver and other Japanese artists performed pieces by George Brecht, Dick Higgins, and John Cage, Cinematic Illumination was pure zeitgeist. A rival happening, the tech-heavy Cross Talk Intermedia event, was held at Tokyos Yoyogi National Gymnasium. Inta-media spectacles, as well as student uprisings, were big in Japan in 1968 and 1969, as was Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), the first feature by mixed-media artist Toshio Matsumoto. A hippie-modernist extravaganza that transposes Oedipus to Tokyos geiboi subculture, Funeral Parade incorporates street performances, cinema verit, and zany underground shenanigans and really should have been released in the US as a midnight movie.

Because I came early on one of the first days MoMA reopened after its pandemic-induced hiatus, I mostly had Cinematic Illumination to myself. Seen in Covidian solitude alone on the barricades, the installation felt as alien as the Temple of Dendur or the haunted remnants of Krell civilization in the movie Forbidden Planet. After a while, my partner came to check on me and, inspired by the sound of Jefferson Airplane blasting from the speakers, spontaneously broke into a free-form arm-waving dance, briefly animating the gallery with the spirit of 1969. Marcuse concluded An Essay on Liberation by proposing that the social expression of the liberated work instinct [would be] cooperation. Ensconced in a MoMA gallery, Cinematic Illumination suggests not the transcendence of self but the triumph of the selfie. In the era of Kusamafication, it feels less like a place to have fun than like a place to document oneself in the act, appearing to have fun. Go with the flow is gone with the wind.

Cinematic Illumination is on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, through February.

J. Hoberman was a village voice film critic for thirty years and has been contributing to Artforum for even longer. He has completed a monograph on the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup.

More:
J. Hoberman on Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver's Cinematic Illumination - Artforum

Submitted| Crookston Times

With the addition of snow and ice under our feet, the fear of falling heightens for many. However, Mother Nature is not the only culprit when it comes to falls. Many falls happen in the home, where you may think you are most safe.

Fortunately, there are ways to make your home a safer place with a few easy adjustments, according to RiverView Healths Coordinator of Physical Therapy Lindsey Ebertowski, DPT.

Before the snow even fell, we were seeing a higher number of falls taking place throughout the community, Ebertowski shared. I think its due to the lack of exercise with more people being homebound and getting deconditioned.

RiverViews Physical Therapy Team can help with any mobility issues you or a loved one might be experiencing.

There are actions you can take today, and as you age, to help keep you safe and independent tomorrow, she stated. Make a plan today. Stay independent tomorrow.

Ebertowski suggests the following:

Get a physical checkup each year. Some health issues may increase your risk of falling (such as leg weakness and balance problems).

Get a medical eye exam each year. Eye problems can increase your risk of falling or being in a car crash.

Review all your medicines with a doctor or pharmacist. Certain medicines can have side effects that can change your ability to drive, walk, or get around safely.

Follow a regular activity program to increase your strength and balance. Strength and balance activities, done at least three times a week, can reduce your risk of falling. Other activities, like walking, are good for you but dont help prevent falls.

Check the floors in each room in your home and reduce tripping hazards:

Keep objects off the floor.

Remove or tape down rugs.

Coil or tape cords and wires next to the wall and out of the way.

Check the kitchen:

Put often-used items within easy reach (about waist level).

For items not within easy reach, always use a step stool and never use a chair.

Check the bedrooms:

Use bright light bulbs.

Place lamps close to the bed where they are within reach.

Put in night-lights to be able to see a path in the dark. For areas that dont have electrical outlets, consider battery-operated lights.

Check inside and outside stairs and steps:

Check for loose or uneven steps. Repair if needed.

Make sure carpet is firmly attached to every step, or remove carpet and attach non-slip rubber treads.

Check for loose or broken handrails. Repair if needed. Consider installing handrails on both sides of the stairs.

Use bright overhead lighting at the top and bottom of the stairs.

Consider putting light switches at both the top and bottom of the stairs.

Check the bathrooms:

Put non-slip rubber mats or self-stick strips on the floor of the tub or shower.

Consider installing grab bars for support getting in or out of the tub or shower, and up from the toilet.

Falls are also more likely when wearing inappropriate footwear, such as flip-flops that dont cover the heel. Wear safe shoes that fit well, have a firm heel to provide stability, and have a textured sole to prevent slipping.

Falls and a fear of falling can diminish your ability to lead a full and independent life, Ebertowski stated. Although one in every four older adults falls each year, falling is not a part of normal aging. You have the power to reduce your risk of falls.

Ebertowski and RiverViews Physical Therapy Team are movement experts who improve quality of life through hands-on care, patient education, and prescribed movement. If you worry about falls, have had a fall, or have experienced a loss of balance, talk to your primary care provider about having a physical therapy evaluation. For more information, call RiverViews Rehab Services at 218.281.9463.

Read the original post:
RiverViews PT team offers fall prevention tips - Crookston Daily Times

After Columbus police released more body footage showing the moments after Andre Hill was shot by a now-fired officer, the family of Andre Hill says they want to see more action taken by the department and the city.Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, was shot by a Columbus police officer on Dec. 22. Hills family attorney, Benjamin Crump, says Hill was visiting the home of a family friend when a non-emergency call was placed. He says Hill was unarmed, carrying an illuminated cell phone and was not armed during the shooting.Hill later died at a local hospital.The officer responsible for the shooting was identified as Adam Coy. Coy did not have his body camera on during the shooting but turned it on after. A look back featured installed showed 60 seconds of video with no audio before Coy turned the camera on.On Monday, Coy was fired as a Columbus police officer.On Thursday, the city of Columbus released more body camera footage showing the moments following the shooting. After several minutes pass, body camera video shows officers handcuffing Hill instead of giving him medical care.They gave him nothing. He laid there dying on a cold winter night on the garage floor. That is not the way you want to see your loved one go, Hill sisters Michelle Harriston said.Columbus police Chief Tom Quinlin calls Coys violation of police egregious.Andre Hill should be alive today. A Columbus police officer is responsible for his death. I cannot defend it. I cannot make it right. But I will do what is in my power, Quinlin said in a video statement.Hills daughter says the footage haunts her.These pictures that I got to look at, I got to memorize my dad on the floor for the rest of my life and how nobody helped him, Karissa Hill said.Chief Quinlin says he wants accountability not only for Coys actions but also for any actions and inactions of the officers who responded. After Hills death, Quinlin says he imposed tougher policies for officers regarding body cams and rendering first aid.Currently, the state is investigating Coys actions as well.An attorney for the family of Andre Hill said Thursday they want to see Coy arrested, convicted and serve jail time for improper use of force. Crump said the family also wants to see accountability from Columbus police and the mayors office for allowing Coy to stay on the force after dozens of complaints were filed against him.Crump calls for peaceful protests while the family awaits answers.

After Columbus police released more body footage showing the moments after Andre Hill was shot by a now-fired officer, the family of Andre Hill says they want to see more action taken by the department and the city.

Hill, a 47-year-old Black man, was shot by a Columbus police officer on Dec. 22. Hills family attorney, Benjamin Crump, says Hill was visiting the home of a family friend when a non-emergency call was placed. He says Hill was unarmed, carrying an illuminated cell phone and was not armed during the shooting.

Hill later died at a local hospital.

The officer responsible for the shooting was identified as Adam Coy. Coy did not have his body camera on during the shooting but turned it on after. A look back featured installed showed 60 seconds of video with no audio before Coy turned the camera on.

On Monday, Coy was fired as a Columbus police officer.

On Thursday, the city of Columbus released more body camera footage showing the moments following the shooting. After several minutes pass, body camera video shows officers handcuffing Hill instead of giving him medical care.

They gave him nothing. He laid there dying on a cold winter night on the garage floor. That is not the way you want to see your loved one go, Hill sisters Michelle Harriston said.

Columbus police Chief Tom Quinlin calls Coys violation of police egregious.

Andre Hill should be alive today. A Columbus police officer is responsible for his death. I cannot defend it. I cannot make it right. But I will do what is in my power, Quinlin said in a video statement.

Hills daughter says the footage haunts her.

These pictures that I got to look at, I got to memorize my dad on the floor for the rest of my life and how nobody helped him, Karissa Hill said.

Chief Quinlin says he wants accountability not only for Coys actions but also for any actions and inactions of the officers who responded. After Hills death, Quinlin says he imposed tougher policies for officers regarding body cams and rendering first aid.

Currently, the state is investigating Coys actions as well.

An attorney for the family of Andre Hill said Thursday they want to see Coy arrested, convicted and serve jail time for improper use of force. Crump said the family also wants to see accountability from Columbus police and the mayors office for allowing Coy to stay on the force after dozens of complaints were filed against him.

Crump calls for peaceful protests while the family awaits answers.

Read the original:
'Where is the humanity': Family seeks justice against now-fired Columbus police officer - WLWT Cincinnati

WILMINGTONAs travelers hustle through Wilmington International Airports new terminal expansion, theyll also be welcomed by the talent of local artists, thanks to its partnership with the Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County. Three new installations will go up in July 2021, created by Cape Fear muralist Jill Webb, as well as Jeff Hackney and sculptors Paul Hill and Greg Hall.

Proposal requests launched in June 2020, and were marketed to reach artists locally and across the SoutheastRaleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Virginia Beach, Richmond, Charleston, and Columbia. The arts council put a call out to state, regional, national and international sculpture organizations, too. By the Aug. 1 deadline, 33 entries shuffled in from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

An artist selection committee from ILM including business development director Carol LeTellier, airport authority member Julia Olson-Boseman, facilities director Granseur Dick, marketing specialist Erin McNally and TWC architect Brian Wilson chose the finalists work: one 3-D sculpture and two terrazzo floor designs.

The selection committee evaluated submissions based on artistic merit, relevance to the airport, technical feasibility, scale, budget, and maintenance, explained arts council executive director Rhonda Bellamy, who helped launch the search.

With work showing at Friends School of Wilmington, Cape Fear Academy, and in the Brooklyn Arts District, Webb submitted a geometric design with the intent to ease travelers and welcome them to engage in the design. She mocked up a floor labyrinth with imagery of loggerhead turtles. Webb drew inspiration from the areas marine life, and began studying the turtles, from their nest birth to their exploration of life in the Atlantic.

The remarkable journey at the beginning of their lives is well-known and worth contemplating as we travel, she explained, and it sure doesnt hurt that they are cute and well-loved by people of all ages.

First, Webb scaled the floor site, which will be poured by a terrazzo flooring contractor ILM hires. The labyrinth will be installed post security. She landed on colors inspired by the ocean and sand at Wrightsville Beach, and even suggested sea shells be used as partial aggregate.

I am very interested in the role that design plays in placemaking and community building, Webb said of including art in public spaces. She thought back to mazes and parks she reveled in as a child to encompass the same freedom of play.

I really love the idea that a labyrinth can invite people to transform this space in the airport into a little park for kids or a meditative space in the midst of a traditionally busy transitional space, she explained. I love to imagine that this labyrinth will give some weary or anxious travelers a little bit of peace and fun.

The ILM terminal expansion began in November 2019. The call for its new artwork included a request for artists to capture the spirit of coastal North Carolina. Floor plans are allocated a budget of $25,000 each and the installation will be given $250,000; any monies spent over budget will be the responsibility of the artists.

When sculptor Greg Hall heard about the project, he asked to partner up with his mentor, Paul Hill. They wanted to draw on nature and the beauty of the coast.

We considered all of the aspects of our community that make it unique, including the flora, fauna, historic architecture, and significant geographical features, Hall said.

While Hall was driving out of town one morning, contemplating the giant sculpture they would submit, he began to consider the traffic flow of people in the airport. He couldnt seem to land on an idea that would enhance the space while not blocking views of the airfield.

It hit me at 3 a.m., staring down a dark empty highway, Hall said. Live oaks!

A staple on the coastline, live oaks often are revered for their sturdy elegance.For Hall and Hill, the creation of Laurel Oak Tree would take up a lot of space in its height and branches, while still maintaining a small footprint below, as to not impede airport flow in the atrium, next to Loggerhead Labyrinth.

It provides a unique viewer interaction, as travelers who would normally be scurrying through a busy terminal can pause to immerse themselves in a seemingly natural space while waiting for flights, he added.

They built a small-scale of the architectural structure that would surround the oak and then made a small tree of aluminum foil to understand its scale.

The next step will be constructing a full-size small branch out of steel rods, using a structural engineers eye to make sure its safe for public use. Then they will move forward on its base, trunk, and the rest of its branches essentially the internal skeleton, according to Hall.

They plan to cut thousands of leaves to weld to the branches, each flame-treated as to unveil colors like blue, purple, fuchsia and gold.

Once the overall skeletal form is complete, the bark of the tree will be hand-cut from stainless steel sheets and shaped in sections, then welded to the surface, Hall continued.

A plaque noting the significance of the Laurel Oak to Wilmington will be made from an actual Laurel Oak burl slab, donated by the Wilmington Forestry Management Supervisor and City Arborist Aaron Reese.

[It] will be carved to accentuate the natural beauty and grain of the wood, and placed near the base of the tree sculpture, Hall said. Due to the rarity of finding a burl this size, the Urban Forestry Division decided to harvest and save the wood for use in a community-based art project after the tree died.

The finished sculpture will be transported to ILM as 35 separate sections before being installed.

Hall grew up welding in his fathers shop, forging farm equipment and tractors in youth. He studied engineering and architecture, but landed on sculptural art as his major and graduated with a BA from UNCW more than a decade ago. A full-time artist, he met Hill from one of his professors, Andi Steele.

Over the years, he has mentored me as an artist and allowed me to assist him with many of his public and private installations, Hall said.

Hill went to college, joined the military and then worked as creative director for numerous advertising agencies before following his passion to become a full-time sculptor and painter. He picked up a torch to do steel work more than 25 years ago. His steel and fused-glass Venus Fly Trap erected in downtown Wilmington is a popular scenic stop on the Riverwalk.

For ILMs second terrazzo floor design, Hill teamed up with Jeff Hackney for the 2D design of Venus Flytrap. It is drawn with deep blues, neon green and pink, and will be visible at the security checkpoint in the center of the main terminals high-ceiling atrium.

Since the partnership between the arts council and ILM began four years ago, Bellamy said they have showcased more than 200 artists in solo and group exhibitions. The latest round of installations will be permanent; however, Bellamy said she is confident at whats to come at ILM.

Once the dust settles, were hopeful we will be offered space to curate more local exhibits, Bellamy said.

Have arts news? Contact Shea Carver at shea@localdailymedia.com

Excerpt from:
Bringing color to ILM: Local artwork installation slated for airport's terminal expansion - Port City Daily

John Lauter is best known for his many iconic designs in southern Californiafrom the Elrod House in Palm Springs, made famous by the Bond filmDiamonds Are Forever, to the Chemosphere, a spaceship-like home in the Hollywood Hills.

But a few of the master architect's structures can be found outside of the Golden State, including this recently listed property in Anchorage. As the only Lautner-designed home in Alaska, the waterfront property offers a rare opportunity for buyers willing to undertake the restoration.

Recently listed for sale, the 1966 Harpel Residence II in Anchorage is the only home John Lautner built in Alaska. An unassuming front facade provides a small hint of what's inside.

The home's centerpiece is a circular living area topped by a radial-beamed ceiling. A zigzagged wall of windows overlooks the lakefront location in College Village, about four miles southeast of downtown.

According to the John Lautner Foundation, only about a dozen of the master architect's 200 built and unrealized projects were located outside of Californiaincluding in Florida, Colorado, and Mexico, among others.

This particular property, dubbed the Harpel Residence II, was commissioned by returning clients Willis "Bill" and Patty Harpel, who previously lived in Lautner's more famous Harpel Residence I, built a decade earlier in Los Angeles. Bill Harpel was a popular radio announcer in L.A. and went on to found the KHAR station after moving to Anchorage.

In the rear of the living area, the ceiling opens upward to meet a large skylight that tracks the sun's movement and maximizes sunlight during the shorter winter days.

The elevated portion of the ceiling is supported by a trio of totem poles, which are original to the structure, as are other details such as the built-in couch and slate flooring.

A1967 article in Liferecounts the Harpel's challenges with importing labor and materials, as well as Bill's own work installing some of the finishes with the help of Lautner's go-to foreman, John De la Vaux.

"When a local firm asked $4,500 to install the living room floor, [Bill] ordered the slate from Seattle and put it in himselffor $600," the article notes. "To build the immense fireplace wall, he scrounged tons of rock, trucked it home, hoisted it with a block and tackle, and grouted it into place." Such projects were not new to Bill, who was also heavily involved in the construction of his original residence in L.A.

A dining space overlooks the sunken living area and provides direct access to a deck.

A wall of cabinetry extends from the kitchen and into the dining area. The triangular window pattern seen here is repeated throughout the interior.

A look at the kitchen, which also overlooks the living room via an open section of the wall.

More than 50 years later, many of the home's original details remain, although some are likely in need of restoration by the new buyers. Offered at $1,200,000, the home comes with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and a finished basementall spread out across over 6,000 square feet of interior space. Keep scrolling to see more.

Lined by built-in shelving, a wide hallway leads to each of the four bedrooms.

The primary bedroom continues the interior aesthetic with wood-clad walls and ceilings.

The ensuite bathroom features a central window above the vanity and more original features.

A look at one of the home's other three bedrooms.

A view of the property across Lake Otis in Anchorage. The steel-ribbed concrete foundation is bolted to pilings reportedly sunk 12 feet into the lakefront soil.

Read more from the original source:
The Only John Lautner Home in Anchorage Asks $1.2M - Dwell

SO PAULO, Brazil It is eerie to see Oscar Niemeyers whitewashed monolith in Ibirapuera Park stand so empty. The building traditionally hosts the So Paulo Biennial, now postponed to September 2021, due to the pandemic. In the meantime, a number of smaller shows take place, starting with the exhibition, Vento (Wind). As curators Jacopo Crivelli Visconti and Paulo Miyada note, while they didnt originally envision this deathly aura the space is usually teeming with works and people its proved fortuitous. It reminds visitors that Brazilian modernisms claim to transparency, embodied in Brutalist architectures clean lines, obscured that movements entanglement with nationalist politics of its time, and the latters oppression of Black and Indigenous Brazilians. The exhibitions underlying impulse is to evoke these obscured histories and reclaim whats been repressed.

Vento takes its name from Joan Jonass video, Wind (1968), installed on the ground floor. In it, performers sway, buffeted by ghastly winds in a mesmeric dance of physical resistance. Its striking to see such bodily pliancy within these solid concrete walls. And yet, theres resonance: Niemeyers sinuous ramps testify that the modernists too conceived of organic forms. Picking up from Jonas, a spirit of resiliency blows through the show. It echoes the theme of obscurity, that which cant be easily absorbed into the hegemonic culture.

The Indigenous artist Jaider Esbells The War of Kanaims (2020) a series of eleven acrylic and pen paintings, composed mostly for the Biennial is a luminous example of such thematic confluence. In various Amerindian cultures, kanaims are complex dark forces. As Esbell pointed out in a Biennial talk, they are protective, albeit violent, spirits. Ebsells works blend dark and luminous qualities perfectly. Their vibrant colors stand out against the uniformly black backgrounds. Humans, spirits, and nature appear in dense configurations, whose minute patterns give them the luxurious feel of handwoven tapestries. While the animals are easily identifiable (e.g. snakes, a frog, birds), the representations are neither entirely figurative nor abstract. In one painting, a group of tribesmen, perhaps mounted by kanaims, with their red glowing eyes, crowd the works lower edge. The raised yellow spears echo in the forests green and purple vertical lines. The composition pulses with mesmerizing energy a bodys thrall in natures war/dance tug, evocative of the Jonas video, menacing yet sublime.

The ground floor also includes a sound installation by the Colombian artist Gala Porras-Kim, Whistling and Language Transfiguration (WaLT) (2012). The whistles are tonal translations of the Indigenous Zapotec language, historically used to evade the Spanish in what is now Southern Mexico. Such secret tonality also figures into Carla Zaccagninis From Bell To Fate (2017), a sound installation on the upper floor, with a bell from the Nossa Senhora do Rosario dos Homens Brancos (Our Lady of the Rosary of White Men) Chapel, in the colonial town of Ouro Preto. In the Biennials educational publication, Primeiros ensaios (First rehearsals), Zaccagnini discusses her belief that the tolling connects to the repressed tonal signals of enslaved Africans, though such a metaphoric leap somewhat occludes the historical resistance of the Catholic Church to racial inclusion in its ranks.

More direct is another installation: a sound loop of the Maxakali shamanic chants, which point back to the insistence of Indigenous tribes emphasized by both Esbell and Ailton Krenak, an Indigenous activist, writer, and founder of the ForestPeoplesAlliance, in his interview for Primeiros ensaios on memory being preserved not in things but beings, reinforcing the importance of sacral, tribal, familial continuity.

The oneiric quality of Jonass and Esbells works resonate in the paintings of the still little-known Brazilian modernist Eleonore Koch. Her exquisite renditions of Rio de Janeiro emptied squares and parks with rudimentary architectural forms la de Chirico posses an instinctual lyricism. Same goes for the light installations of Clara Iani, Education by Night (2020), in which geometric blocks are lit up to project transfigured shapes on the walls. Theres something about the way these spectral evocations which distort matter yet capture its essence that perfectly encapsulates the mythical power of Esbells entrancing fabulations.

Ventos insistence on centering the poetics of the repressed is a welcome gesture after the last biennial all but sidestepped urgency and historical perspective, in favor of often tepid formalism. And while its still too early to glean this editions full ambition, one would hope that after Vento it will prove more of a gale than a passing zephyr, potent enough to raise some dust in Niemeyers drafty halls.

Vento (Wind) continues through December 13 as part of the 34th So Paulo Biennial, Though its dark, still I sing (Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Ibirapuera Park, So Paulo, Brazil). The exhibition is curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti and Paulo Miyada.

As arts communities around the world experience a time of challenge and change, accessible, independent reporting on these developments is more important than ever.

Please consider supporting our journalism, and help keep our independent reporting free and accessible to all.

Become a Member

Read more:
Winds of Change at the So Paulo Biennial's Introductory Show - Hyperallergic

GREENWICH Greenwich Communities has completed a $1.6 million project to refurbish all the kitchens in 110 housing units at the Wilbur Peck Court apartment complex.

In any size home, no matter if its a multimillion-dollar home or its a public housing unit, what are people most proud of? Greenwich Communities Director Anthony Johnson said. Its the kitchen and how it looks. It sets the tone for the rest of the house. That was our thinking here.

The kitchens now all have stainless steel appliances, beautiful cabinetry and new microwaves and ventilation systems. This goes along with fresh paint and new bathrooms as well as stained wood flooring in the 110 apartment units.

Families spend a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking and preparing meals, Johnson said. It has its own panache depending on how it looks. This is a good thing and needed.

The downtown housing complex was built in 1953, and the kitchens have not been collectively improved in 40 years, Johnson said.

This was something we had wanted to get done as part of the five-year plan, and we saved enough money to be able to do it, he said.

The project took a year to plan, and the work has been underway for several months, Johnson said. Only a few final touch-ups remain, he said.

The coronavirus pandemic delayed the work, because of slower delivery of the appliances from China, Johnson said. They are still waiting for the final few refrigerators, he said.

Greenwich Communities is the new name for the Housing Authority of the town of Greenwich, which oversees all the town-owned public housing. Renovations, improvements and new construction have been its priority in recent years.

It is important that our residents and their children live with dignity and feel like they fit in, Johnson said in a statement. We have worked diligently through fiscally responsible asset management of our resources and strong partnerships with state and local agencies to help strengthen family life, foster stable home environments, and promote self-sufficiency.

Greenwich Communities is part of the town government structure, but it operates independently and is responsible for financing all the projects.

Overall, Greenwich Communities oversees 837 units in town spread over 15 properties. It also assists 343 families through the Section 8 subsidized housing program. Through all its efforts, Greenwich Communities serves 2,574 residents.

With the five-year plan for Wilbur Peck Court nearly finished, the focus will move to Agnes Morley Heights, a downtown complex with 150 units for seniors, Johnson said. Plans are still under discussions, but they want to start off with new windows to improve energy efficiency.

Work is also continuing at Armstrong Court in Chickahominy. In June, Greenwich Communities cut the ribbon on 18 new townhouse units there. Next up, the old buildings will undergo a full rehabilitation, with one- and two-bedroom units combined into three-bedroom units, which are in high demand.

Johnson said Greenwich Communities hopes to begin the construction work in January.

Sam Romeo, chair of the Board of Commissioners, said in June that over the next five to seven years, Greenwich Communities would bring forward plans to build nearly 300 units to increase the towns housing stock.

This is an all-new Housing Authority for the 21st century. Stay tuned the best is yet to come, Romeo said.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com

Excerpt from:
It sets the tone: New kitchens installed at Wilbur Peck Court in Greenwich - Greenwich Time