Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

More than 80 members of JAX Chambers Downtown Council and guests met virtually Feb. 19 to learn about the past, present and future of Jacksonvilles most historic entertainment venue.

The Zoom presentation was provided by Numa Saisselin, president of the Florida Theatre Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. The nonprofit has managed and programmed the theater since 1987, when the city bought the building, 60 years after it opened at Forsyth and Newnan streets.

Saisselin and his staff manage the six floors of office space in the building and book the performers.

We put up the money. We pay the artists, the stagehands, security, bartenders and the box office staff and we pay for the advertising, he said.

The theaters economic impact is about $13 million a year, representing more than 400 full-time equivalent jobs, Saisselin said.

More than 80 members of JAX Chambers Downtown Council and guests met via Zoom.

Like other businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a negative effect on the theater. Before March 2020, about 175 shows opened at the theater each year. Despite the pandemic shutdown, the Florida Theatre remains a top-five venue in the U.S. under 2,000 seats in terms of ticket sales.

Before COVID, we were on an 18-month roll. The economy was strong. People were spending money and performers were touring. On March 12, 2020, that all came to a screeching halt, Saisselin said.

With no choice but to close the venue, the $10 million renovation plan in preparation for the theaters 100th anniversary in 2027 was accelerated.

Wider seats with more legroom and cupholders were installed, along with a new sound system. The rest of the plan will expand the lobby and bar area, improve the restrooms and replace the HVAC system, he said.

Saisselin said he hopes that a positive outcome of the pandemic will be a greater appreciation of the value of people congregating for entertainment.

TV and Zoom are not the same as something thats happening only here and only now.

The venue has reopened at 50% capacity for social distancing, with temperature checks at the door and face masks required in the building.

Free concerts planned

Saisselin also is chair of Downtown Vision Inc., the nonprofit funded by an additional property tax paid by Downtown owners that promote the neighborhood as a place to live, work and play.

He said the Florida Theatre is booking the entertainers for DVIs free outdoor concert series each Thursday evening in April at Riverfront Plaza, former site of The Jacksonville Landing.

The lineup, yet to be announced, will include classic and alternative rock, country and hip-hop.

Were keeping in mind young audiences, Saisselin said.

Downtown Council grant

The Downtown Council announced Feb. 15 a $5,000 donation to the Jacksonville Historical Society for the societys planned museum of Jacksonville music history.

The contribution was the net sponsorship proceeds from the groups annual Painting of the Paw Prints, conducted each year the Saturday before the Jacksonville Jaguars first home game, said Gracie Simendinger, Downtown Council president.

Downtown Council also submitted an entry to the historical societys annual gingerbread house contest at Historic St. Andrews in the Sports Complex.

Simendinger said the entry was a miniature representation of the bright yellow paw prints painted on Bay Street in front of the Bostwick Building, now Cowford Chophouse.

Baked and decorated by Downtown Council board member Laura Phillips Edgecombe, it won the Peoples Choice award and raised about $1,000 for the society, based on votes from the public at $1 each, Simendinger said.

The Downtown Councils entry in the Jacksonville Historical Societys 2020 Gingerbread House Contest won the Peoples Choice Award.

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Florida Theatre: Learning about the venue's past, present and future - Jacksonville Daily Record

At the start of the Spring 2021 semester, University administration informed 113 Broad Street residents that the Core study space in the residence hall would be used as a COVID-19 testing site. In response to the administrations decision to establish the Core as a COVID-19 testing site, 113 Broad Street resident sophomore Margo Williams started a petition requesting the University reopen the Core study space for students.

Im disappointed with the decision that the administration came to because I do think there are lots of other better places on campus [for COVID-19 testing], Williams said.

In an email sent by President Brian Casey on Feb. 2, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) attested that the Core space would be the most feasible location for a COVID-19 testing site on campus.

Each of the possible alternative locations are being used to accommodate a return to campus this semester, including, for example, the Hall of Presidents (for a new dining venue) and Edge Cafe (also used for dining). I know that the EOCs review was comprehensive and considered vehicular and foot traffic to the testing site, size of the room, ability to store items so as not to need to set up a testing site each day, proximity to the anticipated vaccine clinic and Student Health Services, among other particulars, Casey wrote in an email.

113 Broad resident sophomore Anya Steinmetz explained that the Core is an integral study space for residents and was especially popular in the Fall 2020 semester.

People would sit at tables with masks on, but it was a place to study with your friends, to see your friends, but obviously in a safe way. It was a nice place to go just to study too and do classes [on Zoom] especially because its a place where you can talk and you dont have to feel weird about talking. But also, its not necessarily a loud place, Steinmetz said.

Steinmetz explained the disappointment from students in response to the sudden decision of the Core becoming a COVID-19 testing site.

A lot of people drafted emails regarding why they dont like the decision about the Core based on the social reasons, mental health reasons, educational reasons, and for health and safety reasons. People including myself were kind of concerned with the fact that there are going to be so many people coming everyday to this building to get tested for COVID-19 and then theyre going to be walking down the same staircase as us and touching the same door handle, Steinmetz said.

Williams articulated that, despite the administration reaffirming their decision to have the Core be a COVID-19 testing site, it is best to come to terms with this new situation.

Im not planning to continue to pursue advocating for the change because I feel that [administration] answered the call and shut it down pretty succinctly. Id be wasting my energy to continue trying to make that change happen, Willams said. At some point, you adapt and you move on, and the culture changes. Were not using that space anymore, so well find other spaces on campus to see 113 [Broad] members.

In light of the Core no longer being a study space, the facilities staff will install furniture, televisions, ping pong tables and pool tables across the four buildings of the 113 Broad Street complex for students to use. Currently, residents can use folding chairs and foldable tables set up on their floors.

Outside of 113 Broad is a modular classroom for students to study after 8:30 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday and after 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. On weekends, the modular classroom is available the entire day for studying.

In response to these accommodations, Steinmetz reiterated the Cores significance as a place for studying and socializing for 113 Broad Street residents.

I dont think its accommodating enough, Steinmetz said. They finally put some furniture out in the common area right outside of my room, which included a foldable plastic long table and some folding chairs. They just added one or two small wooden tables, but thats really not enough. People see the people on their floor every single day.

In an email from Assistant Director of Residential Life Amanda Stewart to 113 Broad Street residents sent Feb. 12, Stewart explained that the Office of Residential Life will provide new furniture and recreation equipment, such as study tables, chairs, foosball table and air hockey tables, expected to be installed in lounges and basement lounges on Feb. 24.

Williams showed concern that students might study and socially interact with each other in bedrooms and put each other at risk as a result of the Core no longer being a study space.

I think students are going to be going in and out of one anothers rooms far more often as a result of this, which makes the students who are most nervous about COVID-19 in a really tough position. Particularly if one person is not nervous about getting COVID-19 and wants to have people over because they have nowhere else to be social, or to do schoolwork with a classmate and their roommate doesnt want that, Williams said.

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Students Respond to 113 Broad Core Study Space Becoming a COVID-19 Testing Site - The Colgate Maroon-News

In densely populated areas of India, it is common to see multi-use buildings that house both a business and residence. Sound Sense, an award-winning integration firm in Surat, has one of Indias most elite showrooms and is quite familiar with working in this type of structure. Sound Senses state-of-the-art showroom displays living and office space possibilities to meet virtually any audio, video and control need that is then customized for each client to meet their unique requirements and budget.

A local dental surgeon reached out to Sound Sense after recently completing construction of a 4-story home/business with his dental clinic located on the ground floor and residence situated on the upper three floors. He had a two-fold vision for the uppermost floor to provide a place to retreat from the long hours of the work week and to provide a place to get together with family and friends on evenings, weekends, and special occasions. The client envisioned a high-end theater, yet they only had a room sized just under 25 x 19 to work within.

Our client wanted a larger-than-life movie experience whose vibrancy was to remain isolated from the dental clinic below, said Ankur Bhatt, founder and director of Sound Sense. The client requested a monster-sized screen and a high-end audio video calibrated system that well exceeded the limited budget that remained after the other construction expenses. We were able to carefully select components that allowed us to fulfill his vision while staying within the allocated budget.

The main challenge was to meet the large seating requirement in such a limited space. After assessing the room size, screen size, speaker placement, seating needs and acoustics, we designed five rows of seating for 33 people using six or seven seats per row in non-reclining chairs. The six-seat rows were designed to accommodate the pillars on each side of the room.

We used a discrete speaker setup with the surrounds placed in the center of rows one and two and rows three and four to achieve the correct phase alignment for these rows. Diffuser panels were used in the back half of the room to add spaciousness to the sound and reduce the localization of the surround and rear speakers. For subwoofer placement, we performed a room analysis, and the seats were place in the optimized zone with moderated peaking and no nulling. We needed the boundary gain from the wall for the subwoofers and placed the two subs in the corners of the room to create a virtual sub in the center. This gave us the real estate we needed to place more seats.

To address the noise isolation issues, we designed the acoustic treatments to rectify the reverberation time and solve problems related to the flutter echoes. An intricate isolation system was installed in the floor and an acoustic sheet was added behind the Milan acoustic transparent screen. We also installed a dedicated split air conditioning unit with internal thermostat controls in the equipment room to overcome the typical Indian heat whether the cinema room was in use or not.

Phase Technologys CI Custom Install 3-way in-wall speakers were selected for cinema audio for their high-quality sound and noise isolating properties. The tweeter and midrange assembly absorb the horizontal sound waves through Unicell Acoustic treatment to minimize interaction with the mounting wall resulting in amazingly precise imaging and clarity.The patented CI 130 uses a hybrid in-wall enclosure design that lowers the transmission of sound into an adjacent room while keeping the bass output at levels close to an infinite baffle design. With this design, a speaker with the same size rear enclosure will have bass output that extends up to one octave lower than a comparable speaker.

We selected Phase Technology loudspeakers and subwoofers for this project as they brought us the superlative sound and resonance we needed for this cinema. With our experience installing Phase Tech speakers over the past few years, we can vouch for their consistency and reliability in terms of quality output and technical performance over time.

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Sound Sense Recently Completed a High-end 33-seat Theater in Just a 25 X 19 Space Featuring Phase Technology Audio. - rAVe [PUBS]

The group restoring The Roxy in Leadgate are looking for funding to complete their work

The Roxy opened in 1939 and was an iconic art deco style cinema at the heart of the community on Watling Street in Leadgate, County Durham.

The building later became a bingo hall in 1974 before closing its doors for the final time in 1985.

Since its closure over 35 years ago, the Roxy has sat derelict and because of this the fabulous example of art deco construction suffered years of neglect and vandalism.

Thankfully the building was saved back in 2001 by the family of David Barnes, who is now company manager and one of five directors of Watling Spaces Community Interest Company.

This company was established to assist with the regeneration and then go on to manage the day-to-day running of the venue when its restoration is finally complete.

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Meet the team behind the restoration of 1930s art deco cinema The Roxy in County Durham - ChronicleLive

A Port Angeles man is in custody for allegedly stealing multiple guitars and musical equipment from a Sequim restoration businesss customer who sustained a home fire.

Trevor Mason Anardi, 30, was arrested on Feb. 9 after Sequim Police Officer Paul Dailidenas developed probable cause from witness interviews and a neighborhood canvass for allegedly stealing 16 guitars, one keyboard, two amplifiers, a microphone and stand and a framing stapler all valued at about $16,000.

Sequim Police Officers arrested Anardi on Feb. 9 at his mothers residence. He was charged on Feb. 12 with making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, and vehicle prowl in the second degree, both misdemeanors, and theft in the first degree and possession of a controlled substance, both felonies, according to police reports.

Anardi was appointed public defender Lane Wolfely and his bail is set at $100,500. His next hearing is 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, in Clallam County Superior Court.

Dailidenas reported that he initially began his investigation around 5 a.m. on Feb. 4 while doing a routine check of Dominos Pizza and other businesses, when he saw a black 2002 Honda Accord with its trunk open parked behind the building; the vehicle was registered to Sara Mobley, officers said.

In his statement, Dailidenas said that Mobley and Anardi who identified himself as his twin brother Nicholas Anardi did not know why the trunk was open.

According to law enforcement officials, the pair told Dailidenas they went to Dominos but it was closed, so they smoked some marijuana. Anardi said he opened the trunk to put his head in it while he smoked.

Seeing black cases in the back seat and in the trunk with tags similar to a pawn shop, Dailidenas went to see if NW Pawn had been burglarized, he reported. It had not, so Dailidenas let them leave.

About 20 minutes later, Dailidenas reported he went to Mountain Court Apartments and noticed all the cases were removed from the vehicle. There, Mobley told him Anardi allegedly asked for a ride to pick up some stuff that belonged to a friends father, so Dailidenas returned to the business complex to find three empty cases by a nearby creek where Mobleys car was parked.

Dailidenas reported that he later learned the tags on the cases were from ServiceMaster Restore of Sequim, 765 W. Washington St. There, he discovered a box truck with the back sliding door unlatched; opening it , Dailidenas found boxes similar to the ones in the car, he reported.

Sean Ryan, ServiceMaster Restores owner, told police the truck has been padlocked and contained property from a customers home after it sustained a fire, according to the officers report.

Back at the apartment complex, Dailidenas was able to recover seven cases of stolen items.

In a statement to police, Mobley alleged Anardi asked for a ride to pick up some of his and Deacons fathers belongings.

She said she did not know why Anardi provided his brothers name, Dailidenas reported.

In another statement to police, Angelica Rodger stated Anardi allegedly used her phone for Facebook Messenger to contact people asking for assistance to pick up the guitars.

Some of those messages, Dailidenas reported, read: I found out about 15 electric guitars that are autographed but Im guessing you wont get this or show (sic) up at Deacons too (sic) help me; Its Trevor I need your help asap its an emergency I will lose out on 30,000 dollars, and, Dude do you have a vehicle this is Trevor its a emergency i have 17 autographed electric guitars in the bushes Ill give you one if you can help me.

After his arrest, Anardi apologized for using his brothers name and admitted to officers he sought help to obtain the guitars, police reports noted.

Before being booked into jail, Anardi allegedly told Dailidenas hes upset hed be going to jail, stating that next time we will have to shoot him, as he will not go willingly.

After the interview, while waiting for correctional officers, Dailidenas said Anardi fell to the floor and claimed the officers hit him, which the officer denies; the scene was recorded on jail cameras, according to law enforcement officials.

Correctional officers allegedly found 11 grams of whats believed to be heroin found on Anardi too, Dailidenas reported.

According to court records, Anardi refused to go to his preliminary Feb. 10 court appearance after verbal outbursts and claiming not to be Trevor Anardi.

Sequim Police report no other charges have been filed against other persons.

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Suspect arrested in restoration business theft - Sequim Gazette

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Its been more than 60 hours since some homes in Abilene have had power as electricity is slowly being restored across Texas.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says they were able to supply power to 600,000 homes Tuesday night, but 2.7 million households statewide still remain affected by widespread power outages that began during winter weather Sunday.

We know this is hard. We continue to work as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. We gained some MWs overnight but are back to 14,000 MW of load shed; lost east DC-tie imports due to Midwest power emergency. We hope to reduce outages over the course of the day.

Nearly 20,000 of those affected homes are here in Abilene, with many local customers living without power since early Monday morning or even Sunday night.

Abilenes power outages also hit all three of the Citys water treatment plants, causing all customers to lose water around 7:00 p.m. Monday.

Tuesday, City officials said power had been restored to the northeast water plant, in turn restoring water to a large portion of Abilene.

However, customers are asked to be conservative with the water as the system recharges, and once restoration is complete, a boil water notice is in effect.

This means the water must be brought to a rolling boil for two minutes if its going to be used for eating, drinking, teeth brushing, or any other activity that involves ingestion.

Non-consumption related activities, such as showering and hand washing, do no require the water to be boiled.

Customers who have their power restored are asked to be conservative as well.

ATMOS Energy says there is an unprecedented demand for natural gas.

For more information about the ongoing outages, including why its taking so long to restore power and why the blackouts lasted so long, read this explainer article from AEP Texas.

See live maps of the outages from AEP Texas and Oncor.

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Power Outages Day 4: More outages expected as nearly 20,000 still without - KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com

BATON ROUGE - Weather experts say icy conditions in Baton Rouge will begin to thaw on Wednesday (Feb. 17) as temperatures, though still causing chilly 'sweater-weather,' start to rise.

This is good news for the thousands of Louisianians who have braved freezing weather conditions without electricity in their homes since Monday morning.

Demco has deployed a vast number of workers to help restore power to the area and Entergy also says it has more than 2,000 representatives attending to restoration efforts. As of 5 a.m., Wednesday these efforts are needed to bring electricity to nearly 27,000 in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Even more customers found themselves in the dark and without heat on Tuesday night when Entergy abruptly cut power to thousands for about two hours.

The company says it was forced to do so due to "as a last resort and in order to prevent more extensive, prolonged power outages that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid."

Click here to read more on the unexpected outage and the power company's explanation.

As of Wednesday morning, power has reportedly been restored to more Baton Rouge residents and restorations are expected to continue into the evening.

WBRZ will continue to monitor outages and update viewers as major changes occur.

For the latest updates on Entergy's restoration efforts, please visit this link:https://www.entergy.com/view-outages/and click Louisiana. Then, click the red bar at the top for the most recent information, including estimated times of restoration.

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Wednesday to bring warmer temps, power restoration to thousands - WBRZ

There's no denying that fans have become obsessed with Ty Breaker. It's a great way to get renovation ideas for your home and you can see the former Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host work his magic. And while this show has stark differences from other home improvement shows, there are a few details that they have in common.

Per the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the show is actually filmed in the metro Atlanta area. And if you're familiar with Atlanta, then seeing various styled homes including bungalow, colonial, split-level, and townhomes would have been an easy clue.

Not to mention, plenty of HGTV shows are filmed in the Atlanta, The Cinemaholic reports. "Several HGTV shows are filmed in Atlanta, including Flipping Virgins, Flip or Flop Atlanta, Rock the Block, and House Hunters."

Plus, Ty has also tagged Atlanta, Georgia in his location for all of his Instagram posts that are related to the show.

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Where Is 'Ty Breaker' Filmed? Details on the Home Renovation Show - Distractify

The Woodland Restoration Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving the grounds of Woodland Cemetery, is in the process of fundraising and renovating the Eastern Henrico cemeterys former chapel into a museum to house artifacts and memorabilia of those interred at Woodland.

Woodland Cemetery, established in 1917 and located just north of I-64 at Mechanicsville Turnpike, is the second-largest historically African American cemetery in the area at 29 acres, next to the 60-acre Evergreen Cemetery. Woodland was created two years before perpetual care in cemeteries was required legally.

Marvin Harris, the cemeterys owner and the creator of the Woodland Restoration Foundation, grew up in Jackson Ward. He volunteered first at Evergreen Cemetery because he was an alumnus of Maggie Walker High School, whose namesake is buried in Evergreen. He spent more than four years working there before moving to Woodland.

I would venture to say I knew about 1,500 people out [in Woodland Cemetery], or at least had heard their name, Harris said. Thats what really brings me back. To see this history go back to absolutely nothing, it really makes me get involved. Thats why Im out there and thats why as long as Im on this earth, Im going to make sure that we bring it back around to where it should be.

Harris became the owner in August 2020, around five months after he became involved with the cemetery, he said. Prior to his ownership, Henrico elementary school teacher Kathleen Harrell was leading the efforts to get volunteers involved with cleaning up the cemetery.

Arthur Ashe, a Richmond-based tennis icon, is interred at Woodland Cemetery. His family and friends have donated money to the cemetery in the past. Those who were close to Ashe are also donating memorabilia to the museum, Harris said.

Harrell first went out to Woodland Cemetery in 2018 after she discovered that Ashe was buried in Richmond through a documentary she wanted to show her students, she said.

I saw [Ashes] gravesite and it looked great, she said. His family takes care of it and makes sure that its well-manicured. Then I turned around and the rest of the cemetery was completely overgrown. You couldnt see headstones, you couldnt see much of anything. It just really shook me and I couldnt stop thinking about it.

Later in 2018, Harrell heard that a large number of pine trees had been dumped in Woodland.

That was kind of my one deciding moment, like I need to go out and do something about that, she said. Three weeks and 22 truckloads later, John Shuck (another volunteer), my kid and I had cleared the dumped trees. Then I was just hooked.

Since then, Harrell has gone to the cemetery on a weekly basis, she said. She and other volunteers started a Facebook page to document the clearing progress and recruit more people to help out.

Harrell is now a board member for the restoration foundation and is in charge of coordinating volunteer efforts, she said.

Restoration is an ongoing process based upon available funding, Harris said.

Right now, were getting volunteers to put in as much time as they possibly can and weve got some donations coming in, he said, citing a $25,000 grant from Henrico County last summer among others. [A]nd we just got notice that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation is giving us a grant, so were basically doing it as we get the funding.

The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation also donated $50,000 to Woodland Cemetery in November 2020 for its restoration efforts.

Long-range planning, including road construction and an eventual educational center, will probably take 10 to 15 years, Harris said.

We see a lot of youth that come out and they might have heard of Arthur Ashe, but they have no knowledge of some of the other people the pastors and doctors and lawyers that are interred out there, Harris said. And some of the family havent been out there in years because they moved away, or it got to the point where they didnt feel safe coming out there. We want it to be so that they can punch their relatives name in and itll tell them exactly where theyre located.

Roxie Lyons, treasurer of The Woodland Restoration Foundation, has been involved with the organization for almost a year and started volunteering because she has family members interred in the cemetery, she said.

My mother used to take me and my brothers and sisters out there as kids to clean off the graveyard because it was in such bad condition, she said. Over the years, it got worse to the point where you couldnt even get in there to do [clean up].

The foundation has been applying for grants, trying to set up a perpetual fund and also reaching out to relatives of those who are buried in the cemetery for donations and volunteers, Lyons said.

Woodland is important to Lyons on a personal level, but it also should be important to everybody in the context of identifying the history of African Americans in Richmond, she said.

We know a lot about the Confederacy. We know a lot about the generals and soldiers and everybody in that, but what about people who were living under the laws of Jim Crow? What accomplishments did they make? Thats something that Woodland represents, Lyons said. It shows that people in this community, even though we were working at a major disadvantage, were able to accomplish wonderful things. Thats why I want [Woodland] to be beautified and made sacred again. I want it so that we can educate our children.

Patricia Bozeman, another board member of the restoration foundation, also grew up going to Woodland Cemetery. She re-visited the cemetery in her adulthood and decided to get involved when she saw its poor condition, she said.

For the group of founders, the original directors, who had the imagination and the skills at the time to make sure there was a decent, respectable burial place for African Americans in the Richmond area, its really important that story continues, Bozeman said. And then to find out who the people are who are buried there and their stories, thats something that my generation is going to lose.

Im not a spring chicken anymore and Im trying to make sure that my children and grandchildren are aware of the story and know where their families and neighbors are at Woodland Cemetery.

* * *

To learn more about the Woodland Restoration Foundation and Woodland Cemetery, or to contribute to the efforts to restore it, visit http://www.woodlandrestorationfoundation.org/

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Restoring history | The Henrico Citizen - Henrico Citizen

Softie Interior Renovation / OPA Architects

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Text description provided by the architects. Why cant architecture be more like nature -- changeable, varied, and uninhibited? Our client wanted to return home and feel a sense of private freedom, a release from the conformity of the world outside.

In this project, we softened her existing Modernist house by infusing it with an atmosphere of clouds. The clouds scatter freely throughout the house and dissolve and soften it in different ways.

The clouds erode and blur the order of the rational modernist grid, creating a sense of space that floats and drifts. Moments of softness are encountered unexpectedly the interventions are like a mist that has settled unevenly.

The softness dissolves the entry, melts the stairs, wafts through the house on all three floors, and a lonely cloud is trapped above a sheltered terrace.

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Softie Interior Renovation / OPA Architects - ArchDaily