Us painting a $400,000 6-room addition with cathedral ceiling

By: Charles Graves

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Us painting a $400,000 6-room addition with cathedral ceiling - Video

ALBANY, N.Y. Twenty stories above ground zero, its existence and whereabouts known only to those who needed it, the Family Room served for a dozen years as a most private sanctuary from a most public horror.

It was spartan office space at a 54-story tower at 1 Liberty Plaza for families to be by themselves, a temporary haven where they could find respite from bad weather and the curious stares of passers-by. Piece by piece, without any planning, it was transformed into an elaborate shrine known only to them.

Unconstrained and undesigned, a profusion of intimate expressions of love and loss filled the walls of the room, the tabletops, the floors and, even, the windows, obscuring views of the World Trade Center site below, as if to say: Jim and John and Jonathan and Harvey and Gary and Jean and Welles and Isaias and Katherine and Christian and Judy are all here, with us, not down there in the ruins.

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What tower? What floor? That was the way other people saw our loved ones, said Nikki Stern, whose husband, James E. Potorti, was among those killed on Sept. 11, 2001. It was adamantly not how we wanted to define our loved ones. The Family Room was the beginning of the storytelling that was controlled by the families.

And it was that rare thing at ground zero, a secret refuge hidden in plain sight of the workers, shoppers, neighbors and visitors who streamed past the building every day. It was not meant to be a public memorial and was little known until today.

This week, 150 miles north of ground zero, the Family Room with its thousand stories of love and loss has opened to the public for the first time, in an exhibition at the New York State Museum in Albany. The display speaks of the personal communion between the victims relatives and those who were killed 13 years ago, when terrorists took down the twin towers.

The Family Room opened in April 2002 in space donated by Brookfield Office Properties, the owners of 1 Liberty Plaza, across Church Street from the trade center site. By presenting what was known as a medical examiners family identification card, victims relatives were admitted during regular workdays and at night, on weekends and on holidays.

On the 20th floor, behind a door marked The Family Room, relatives could settle into ample leather couches or stand at windows 15 and 20 feet wide. The room was intended for quiet contemplation, said a 2002 notice from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which created and maintained the space, just a few doors down from its own headquarters and those of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation.

A childrens play area was provided, as were boxes of tissues. Photos, poems, cards, artwork and personal effects from the first family viewing area, an outdoor platform at Liberty and West Streets, were brought indoors.

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A Ground Zero Shrine for 9/11 Families Brings Forth Its Stories

By Ian Bauer, Milpitas Post

Bay 101 Casino, the San Jose card room that sought to relocate to neighboring Milpitas but saw state-level lawmakers fail to advance that plan last month, will attempt to reenergize efforts to make the move. This time around, the gambling operator wants Milpitas voters to plead its case in November by passing Measure E, which calls for a card room here and paves the way for new legislation to be advanced in Sacramento.

"We are fully engaged," said Ed McGovern, a lobbyist for Bay 101, now promoting Measure E. "All of the traditional types of activities you do for an election year campaign we're doing."

The "Yes on E" campaign, financed by Bay 101 owners the Bumb Family and in part guided by former Milpitas mayor Bob Livengood, who is a paid consultant to that family, includes canvassing the city, knocking on doors, creating lawn signs, gaining critical endorsements including ones from public safety unions, phone banking, conducting a survey of voters, and holding a rally Saturday.

"We don't need Sacramento legislation to let the voters approve Measure E," McGovern said.

The lobbyist alluded to the Aug. 30 non-vote that killed Assembly Bill 2549, which would have allowed the card room at San Jose's 1801 Bering Drive to potentially relocate to 15 acres on the western edge of the city near North McCarthy Boulevard and generally between state Route 237 and the Newby Island landfill, west of Interstate 880.

If Measure E is passed by a simple majority of voters, McGovern said City of Milpitas will have additional arguments to make to state lawmakers to push forward with re-introducing a new bill in the Assembly by December. He added Bay 101's Sacramento team -- led by lobbyist David Kim -- will chart its course depending on how the vote goes.

"We're not just waiting, we're obviously engaged in the campaign," McGovern said.

Bay 101 says City of San Jose's high cost of taxation -- with at least $7 million in table tax revenues from the operator going to that city annually -- and limits on the number of card room tables gambling operators can utilize there in part prompted the desire to move.

According to city reports, a one-time election cost per the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to place Measure E on the Nov. 4, 2014 election ballot is estimated to be $274,000. Bay 101 is expected to pay for the cost of the ballot measure.

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Measure E supporters campaign for card room in Milpitas

If the Sri Krishna Sweets store on Venkatanarayana Road in T. Nagar is abuzz with activity, the tiny office at the back is quiet except for managing director M. Muralis voice giving orders. The room is painted white, making it seem smaller than it already is and in it sits Murali clad in a white shirt. The garlanded pictures of gods that adorn the walls lend a little colour to the room.

The soft-spoken Murali recalls the opening of his first shop in Chennai in 1996: There was a steady crowd from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in front of the shop; it gave me a lot of energy, confidence and faith that made me realise that I can turn my dreams into reality. And they have indeed, with 42 outlets in the city that include restaurants specialising in South Indian cuisine.

You walk into a fast food outlet and you just pick up a pizza or a packet of French fries or a burger, you hardly give food like kozhukattai or the boli a thought. What weve done is give these a twist. For example, the Bolizza is our take on the pizza and has both sweet and spicy versions, he explains. Simply put, Murali says, weve taken their concept and incorporated our culture. They also plan to offer bondas and kara appams as alternatives to French fries, and mor kali instead of pastries. According to Murali, their idea is to show that Indian foods can also be suited to fast living and that the notion of fast food merely indicates the time it takes to prepare and not the origin of the food itself.

Speaking about appealing to youngsters, Muralis face lights up when he talks of his two daughters joining the family business. Ive been in the business since I was 11 or 12; its similar for them since they were brought up in the same atmosphere.

Twenty-one-year-old Sneha Murali describes herself as not bookish. My father always encouraged me to focus more on work than on education; but both were equally important while growing up. The younger of the two girls, she says that working with your father has its pros and cons, Most of the time work becomes dinner-table conversation, she laughs and adds that its tough on days when youre mad at both your father and the boss. But all that doesnt come in between what shes learnt from her father. He taught me that its alright for two people to disagree on something. And he still listens and respects any idea irrespective of the size of it or the person who offers it, she says.

Sneha remembers when shed gone to Berkeley for a summer programme and came back brimming with new concepts, especially a store-in-store, its like a food court where you can buy podis, sweets, kaarams and more. Its a work in progress at Sri Krishna Sweets, she says.

Shruthi, the older daughter who looks after the Food Products Division, has a quiet aura about her, much like her father. She talks about how joining her father in business was a natural course of action. Shruthi reveals that she is passionate about making traditional sweets appealing to her generation.

We go out often to eat and I realise that youngsters prefer something thats light on the stomach, healthy but tasty and thats what were trying to do. Weve launched something called Cashew Bites thats like soan papdi and were planning to bring out a halwa made using ragi, she says. For someone who has been working for two years with her father, Shruthi, a graduate of the Cass Business School in London, says that she still has so much to learn from him and the biggest lesson he has taught her was to criticise a persons performance rather than the person himself.

Murali couldnt be happier that his daughters have joined him, Its the hospitality business and I believe that women bring strengths to the table such as good values and a knack for personalisation. And its not just the daughters who are learning from the father. Murali says its sometimes difficult to keep up with them: They bring systemisation and in five-six years there will be more opportunities for them.

Sri Krishna Sweets was started by his father N.K. Mahadeva Iyer in 1948 to overcome the absence of a standalone sweet shop that offered pure ghee sweets in Coimbatore.

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The sweet addition

STOCKBRIDGE -- Round One goes to the developers of the proposed $50 million, 112-room Elm Court Resort on the residentially zoned Old Stockbridge Road.

By a resounding 3-0 vote, the Select Board endorsed the controversial project, much to the dismay of opponents from both Stockbridge and Lenox who attended the final, nearly three-hour public hearing that ended late on Monday night. Supporters congratulated members of the Travaasa Experiential Resorts team that would operate the hotel owned by Amstar Co. subsidiary Front Yard LLC.

At least 110 members of the public filled the gymnasium at the Town Offices -- formerly the Stockbridge Plain School -- to hear both sides present their final arguments before the Select Board on the special-permit application aimed at preserving the 1886 Elm Court mansion by building a connected 96-room addition, opening a 60-seat public restaurant and constructing a 15,500-square-foot spa.

Noting that she was "surprised by the public concern" that erupted suddenly at the board's initial June 23 public hearing following extensive previous discussions by several town committees, Selectwoman Deborah McMenamy credited the opponents for presenting their views in "an organized, consistent manner."

McMenamy, the longest-serving member of the board, also cited the supporters' efforts, which yielded 300 signatures on a petition favoring the resort.

"This was a truly democratic process and I think Norman Rockwell would be proud of us for that," she said.

While acknowledging that neighborhood concerns over traffic and safety impact "are real," she stated that, based on traffic studies commissioned by the applicants and validated through an independent peer review by the Tighe & Bond engineering and consulting firm in Westfield, "the causes for concern are minimal.

McMenamy cited another major project that had generated "all kinds of pulverization from people in the community" -- the 1993 relocation of the Norman Rockwell Museum from downtown to the Linwood Estate in the Glendale residential section. Concerns at that time about traffic impact "have proven to be unfounded," she said.

She also said that more recent, similar concerns over an 80-room addition to the Kripalu spa and resort were also "proven to be unfounded." McMenamy described both projects as "true assets to the town."

McMenamy characterized the Elm Court resort as a "large, but well-planned" project because the 96-room addition is "sited far from the road, nestled into the woods" with minimal visual impact from Stockbridge Bowl, which the 90-acre property overlooks. She also praised the developers' application for maintaining nearly all of the open space at the site.

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Stockbridge Select Board endorses Elm Court Resort project

A movie about the making of one of the all time worst movies, The Room, is currently in development, and we now have word about who will be writing the film.

According to Slashfilm, The Disaster Artist will be written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The news was first reported by Metro.

Neustadter and Weber are also known for writing (500) Days of Summer and The Spectacular Now, in addition to this year's hit film, The Fault in Our Stars.

As we previously reported, The Disaster Artist will star James Franco, and will be about the making of The Room, one of the most famously terrible movies ever made. Franco will be playing Tommy Wiseau, director of The Room.

The film is based on the book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, written by star of The Room, Greg Sestero. It tells the real story of how he got involved in The Room, the increasingly strange decisions Wiseau made on set that caused the film to turn out so strange, and the cult hit that followed as the film started attracting fans because of how absurdly terrible it was.

Sestero will be played by Dave Franco in the film, as we've previously reported.

The Disaster Artist will be produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who were also behind This is the End and Neighbors.

Image courtesy of INFphoto.com

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'The Fault in Our Stars' screenwriters to write James Franco's 'The Disaster Artist'

A new condo project proposed by Bosa Properties would include a public living room to the waterfront, possibly even with a fireplace, if the development at 1000 Quayside Dr. gets the green light.

A report to council on Monday recommends Bosas application to rezone the site go to a public hearing on Sept. 29.

The companys development plans include two condo towers, one 23 storeys, the other 28 storeys, atop a four-storey podium that includes parking for residents, visitors and shoppers with a shopping mews along the south side, across from the Inn at the Quay and the Westminster Savings buildings.

The retail would also wrap around the east end, facing the River Market.

Townhouses would be built along 10th Street, across from the existing co-op.

The new development also includes a pedestrian walkway through the podium to the waterfront, and a staircase and glass elevator linking it to the McInnes overpass.

The condo towers would be comprised of 305 one-bedroom units, 188 two bedrooms and 26 three-bedroom residences, each with flex-space features that allow things like a kitchen island to be converted to an eight-person dining table, or bedrooms that can be converted to a living room.

In addition to 516 parking spaces for residents on six levels, two of which will be underground, there would also be 80 parking spots available to visitors to the River Market as well as the developments commercial tenants.

A parking study by Bunt & Associates transportation planners said even though those parking spots are less than the 794 spots required by existing parking bylaws, the projects proximity to SkyTrain, its high walkability score, and a plan to provide 89 subsidized transit passes to residents as well as four stalls for car share programs means there will still be plenty of parking.

The proposal has been altered considerably since it was first presented to council in February. That plan called for two 26-storey towers atop a seven-storey parkade, six of which would be above ground. But city staff and a public review that consisted of two open houses, as well as an information kiosk at the Quayside Festival, raised a number of concerns with the projects size, as well as the nature of some of its public spaces.

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Condo project would create living room to waterfront

Room Addition Contractors in Hoover Part 3
Room addition contractors in Hoover should do quality work at affordable prices. Some of the best room addition ideas start with a need to add more living sp...

By: One Call Remodel

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Room Addition Contractors in Hoover Part 3 - Video

Paslode Cordless Framing Nailer - Room Addition Gut Remodel - Ways to Nail It Series
Learn more about the benefits of Paslode #39;s Cordless technology in this installation of Paslode #39;s "Ways to Nail It series feature application: Room Addition ...

By: RVEVANSCO

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Paslode Cordless Framing Nailer - Room Addition & Gut Remodel - Ways to Nail It Series - Video

Polk and Definitive Technology, sister companies under the Sound United umbrella, a have both announced multi-room audio systems that use DTS DTSs Play-Fi technology. Similar in function to Apple Apples AirPlay, Play-Fi and these speakers will let you stream music throughout your house with minimal setup.

Products in the two families include wireless speakers, soundbars, connected amps, and more.

DTS

Play-Fi, announced last year, works over your current WiFi network. It allows you to stream music from your PC and the web (via Pandora Pandora, Spotify, etc), to multiple speakers.

Sonos works similarly, but is a closed ecosystem (you can only use Sonos products. Apples AirPlay also does the same thing, but not everyone loves Apple. Also, you have to spend a fair amount to get a decent sounding AirPlay speaker.

Polk

Polks new line is called the Omni Wireless Music System. At launch there are five products.

Omni S2 ($179): A small wireless speaker designed for bedside or a small space like a bathroom. It has two 2-inch drivers and two passive radiators. A USB connection will charge your phone.

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Polk and Definitive Technology Launch DTS Play-Fi Multi Room Audio Gear