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In ancient Rome, tens of thousands gathered at the Colosseum to watch enslaved men, condemned criminals and wild animals fight to the death. These grisly gladiator clashes required great feats of engineering: To make caged creatures and prize fighters emerge from underground as if by magic, the Romans devised a labyrinth of secret tunnels beneath the arenas wooden, sand-covered floor.

These underground structures have remained exposed to the elements for more than a century, enabling the millions of tourists who visit the Colosseum each year to see them up close, according to Reuters. Now, the Italian government has pledged 10 million (around $12 million USD) toward the installation of a new, retractable floor that will restore the amphitheater to its gladiator-era glory.

We want to give an idea of how it was, and we are seeking proposals from around the world, Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum, tells the Times Tom Kington.

Per BBC News, architectural designs for the ambitious renovation are due by February 1. Italian officials say they hope to complete the project by 2023.

During the four centuries that the Romans used the Colosseum, the hypogeum, or network of underground tunnels beneath the arena floor, resembled a huge sailing ship, wrote Tom Mueller for Smithsonian magazine in 2011.

The structure consisted of staging areas, ramps, pulleys, ropes and other mechanisms that allowed workers to create a seamless show aboveground. Engineers even devised an underground elevator of sorts that lifted lions, bears, leopards and other caged wild animals into the arena.

The hypogeum allowed the organizers of the games to create surprises and build suspense, Heinz-Jrgen Beste, a researcher at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, told Smithsonian in 2011. A hunter in the arena wouldnt know where the next lion would appear, or whether two or three lions might emerge instead of just one.

All told, the complex system of passages and lifts served a single purpose for the empire: to delight spectators and ensure the success of shows that both celebrated and embodied the grandeur of Rome, according to Smithsonian.

As Jonathan Hilburg reports for the Architects Newspaper, Italian authorities say the restored version of the floor will feature replicas of trapdoors, lifts and other mechanical elements used in Roman times.

[The renovation] will be a major technological intervention that will offer visitors the opportunity to not only see the underground rooms ... but also appreciate the beauty of the Colosseum while standing in the center of the arena, says Culture Minister Dario Franceschini in a statement quoted by BBC News.

He adds that the retractable area must be able to close quickly in order to protect the ancient tunnels from the elements.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D., the Colosseum fell into disrepair, alternatively serving as a quarry, a fortress and a convent. Partially dismantled as a handy source of building materials, the amphitheaters stones were later repurposed during construction of St. Peters Basilica and other Baroque churches, according to History Todays Ann Natanson.

The hypogeum, meanwhile, was eventually filled with dirt and rubble. By the early 20th century, when archaeologists first started restoring and researching the space, the tunnels had become overgrown with plants.

Russo tells the Times that after the renovation, the Colosseum plans to host concerts and theater productions on the new floor.

The arena will be used for high culture, meaning concerts or theater, Russo adds, but no gladiator shows.

Original post:
Italy Will Rebuild the Colosseum's Floor, Restoring Arena to Its Gladiator-Era Glory - Smithsonian Magazine

Sunlight is not typically associated with the dingy basement vibe that envelops commuters passing through Penn Station.

But natural light spills across the new Moynihan Train Hall through its massive, 92-foot-high skylight ceiling and illuminates another surprise: permanent installations by some of the most celebrated artists in the world.

Kehinde Wiley, Stan Douglas and the artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset have major pieces prominently displayed in the new $1.6 billion train hall set to open Friday, offering an expansion of Penn Stations concourse space and serving customers of Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road. The hall, designed by the architecture firm SOM, also connects to subway lines, although they are some distance away.

The 255,000-square-foot train hall is inside the James A. Farley postal building, the grandiose Beaux-Arts structure designed by McKim Mead & White in 1912, two years after the original Pennsylvania Station. (New Yorkers may know the Farley Building from rushing up its giant staircase to file income taxes before midnight in mid-April.)

The new hall is named for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, who first introduced plans for a renovation in the early 1990s, but they were mired in delays for years. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the driving force behind the project, in 2016 announced a public-private partnership for developing the hall, including Empire State Development, Vornado Realty Trust, Related Companies, Skanska and others.

The Moynihan Train Hall serves as a redemption of sorts for the doomed Penn Station, demolished in 1963 in an act deemed so heinous for the citys historical buildings it is said to have kicked off the nascent national preservation movement.

The new hall fails to solve many of New Yorks myriad transportation problems congestion on the tracks, the need for a new tunnel under the Hudson River, the blight of the existing Penn Station, to name a few. But officials say its a necessary step to complete other transit projects, add more train capacity and to alleviate crowding at Penn Station.

The train hall opens at a time when citizens are being asked to refrain from nonessential travel to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and at a moment when commuter train traffic is extremely low.

But the governor has pointed to the achievement of delivering a major infrastructure project on time despite a pandemic, as well as one that would transcend the Covid-19 era. Mr. Cuomo called the new hall deeply hopeful.

It speaks to the brighter days ahead when we will be able to congregate, to pass one another and to share the same space free of fear, Mr. Cuomo said. It promises renewal and rebirth of civic life in New York, and points to the opportunity ahead.

The completion of the project a station meant to welcome commuters and the rest of the world to New York serves as a bright spot at the close of a dark year for New York City where deaths from a global pandemic soared in spring and are on the uptick again, and scores of beloved restaurants and shops have shuttered as the virus pummeled the local economy.

On a recent tour of the train hall, masked workers were putting the finishing touches on blue curved benches in a walnut seating alcove in the ticketed waiting area. The halls radiant flooring feels warm to the touch, and, for now at least, is sparkling clean. Majestic trusses and vaulted skylights nod to the elegant traceries in Penn Stations original concourse. The hall offers free Wi-Fi and a lounge for nursing mothers. A 12-foot-tall clock with a typeface designed for road and railroad signage serves as a reminder of the clock in the demolished Penn Station. Intended as a meeting point, it hangs 25 feet above the floor.

Construction on the new hall began in 2017 with painstaking restoration of the landmark buildings 200,000-square-foot stone facade, its 700 windows, copper roof, steel trusses and terra-cotta cornices. Some of the 120,000 square feet of shopping, dining and retail space wont be ready right away. The train hall wont take up all the space in the building; the post office will still operate. Facebook is moving in as the main commercial tenant.

While the new hall pales in comparison to the majesty of the starry-ceilinged main hall of Grand Central Terminal, it will serve as a far more pleasant welcome to commuters than Penn Station, which has been derided as the La Guardia of train stations.

The addition of work by well-known artists adds a celebratory vibe, a sense of pride in the public sphere and a method Mr. Cuomo has prioritized at similar transit points in four stations along the Second Avenue subway line (with pieces by Chuck Close, Jean Shin, Vik Muniz and Sarah Sze) and a new Terminal B at La Guardia Airport with installations from Ms. Sze, Laura Owens, Sabine Hornig and Jeppe Hein.

Theres something to be said about a society gathering around an artist, around his or her vision, to say this is something we believe in collectively, said Mr. Wiley, best known for his portrait of former President Barack Obama, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. New York needs this right now.

The space seems intended to always keep commuters looking up, from its sprawling glass skylight to two major ceiling installations at each entry way Mr. Wileys stained-glass paintings of break dancers at 33rd Street and Elmgreen & Dragsets The Hive, a cluster of upside-down models of futuristic skyscrapers, at 31st Street.

Its an opportunity for artists to stretch themselves and do something new and different, said Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund, which oversaw the art project.

The artists submitted their proposals in 2019, before any of them envisioned Covid-19 spreading across the world, and then executed their pieces from afar. The installations cost $6.7 million.

Heres a first look at the artists and their projects.

Mr. Wileys backlit, hand-painted, stained-glass triptych called Go, across the ceiling of the 33rd Street entrance, depicts sneaker-clad break dancers who appear to float across a blue sky.

The artist, whose paintings often reimagine well-known works with Black subjects, said he wanted to embrace the rarity of contemporary art on stained glass as well as play with the language of ceiling frescoes by using his installation to celebrate Black culture.

So much of what goes on in ceiling frescoes are people expressing a type of levity and religious devotion and ascendancy, said Mr. Wiley, who has a studio in New York but spent much of the year in his studio in Dakar, Senegal. For me the movement and space made so much more sense thinking about ways bodies twirl in break dancing.

One woman wears baggy yellow pants and a crop top; another is outfitted in a denim jacket. Instead of angels and gods in classical frescoes, Mr. Wiley offers Nike logos and pigeons in midflight. The outstretched finger of a young woman in camouflage shorts conjures images of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapels ceiling.

Its this idea of expressing absolute joy break dancing in the sky, he said, noting that break dancing began in New York City.

Mr. Wiley toured the train hall taking note of decorative flourishes and metal work. The molding around the three panels was designed to coordinate with the metal around windows outside the building.

Mr. Wiley said he deviated from his usual method of street casting, or selecting strangers from the street as models, because he was pressed for time in delivering the work, and instead turned to the subjects of prior paintings.

The aesthetic of Black culture is the aesthetic of survival, of buoyancy and saliency and the ability to float in the midst of so much, Mr. Wiley said, adding that he hoped the work would make commuters pause and smile.

And I hope they recognize themselves, he said. I wanted to create, at the intersection of trade, commerce and transportation in the capital of the worlds economy, something that sits as a testament to Black possibility.

Giant photographic panels by Mr. Douglas, a Canadian whose work re-enacts historical moments of tension that connect local histories to broader social movements, serve as the backdrop along a more than 80-foot wall of a waiting area for ticketed passengers. The series, Penn Stations Half Century, is a homage to the original Penn Station, with Mr. Douglas drawing on archival research to recreate nine small but noteworthy moments that occurred there.

Mr. Douglas, who is representing Canada in the 2022 Venice Biennale, invited 400 people 100 each day of shooting to an empty hockey arena in Vancouver, where they were dressed in period costumes and spaced apart. He stitched together numerous images on digitally recreated interiors of the demolished station based on old floor plans and photos.

The panels include a depiction of the outlaw and folk hero Celia Cooney, also known as the Bobbed Hair Bandit, meeting crowds in 1924 when she was returned to New York to face charges. Mr. Douglas also reimagined Penn Station as the soundstage for the director Vincente Minnellis 1945 film The Clock, starring Judy Garland.

One joyful image recreates a very New York moment: a spontaneous show put on by vaudeville performers inside the hall after a major snowstorm stranded them and other travelers in 1914. It was led by Bert Williams, a Black singer and comedian who also created pioneering musical theater productions.

This is complete fantasy we dont know what it looked like, Mr. Douglas said of the scene he created. We found out who was doing shows on the Eastern Seaboard and incorporated them. We found acrobatic troupes of the era and reference images for costuming and their acts.

The pandemic threw a curveball to Mr. Douglas.

Each model was masked until the moment before the shutter clicked. And everyone was photographed individually, even for large crowd scenes, then the images layered atop one another.

One person did pass out, Mr. Douglas said, but to everyones relief, Covid-19 was not involved. She was wearing winter clothes inside on a July day, he said.

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Berlin-based artists whose work explores the relationship between art, architecture and design, created The Hive, a set of up to nine-foot-tall models of skyscrapers that hang upside down like stalactites from the ceiling at the 31st Street entrance.

The aluminum buildings, some replicas and some purely fictional, look futuristic with their perfect edges and tiny lights. A mirrored base allows commuters to feel projected into the cityscape and creates a sort of mirage of an imaginary city, the artists explained.

Thats an important aspect of it, that people do see themselves reflected in the base plate, Mr. Dragset said. We like that theres an interaction between the audience and the work itself.

Mr. Dragset said the work was named The Hive to reflect how cities, with their richness of diversity, function because people accept certain rules for coexisting.

Its about a huge collaboration in order to make everyone survive, he said.

The installation contains nearly 100 buildings, most made of aluminum, that the artists hoped would offer commuters a new experience each time they entered.

People are often in a rush when they go to the train, Mr. Elmgreen said. We thought of making something that you could get the sense of in one viewing, but if you wanted to have a full experience you could stop and look up and discover new aspects of the artwork over and over again.

The exhibit includes 72,000 LED lights; six buildings can change colors.

Shipping the work to New York from Germany, where it was fabricated, was nerve-racking, the artists said. Together, the buildings weigh more than 30,000 pounds. Mr. Dragset was the only artist among the four who was able to travel to New York to oversee installation this month.

I saw it coming up and coming together and was there for this magical moment of the lights coming on, he said. Both me and my product manager, we shed a little tear.

View original post here:
Moynihan Train Hall Brings Art to Penn Station - The New York Times

The project isn't anticipated to have a completion date until 2023 but when it's done, it'll have been an unbelievable undertaking.

Many people don't realize that Rome's famed colosseum was actually once far more technologically-advanced than what we see today. The ruins of the colosseum as it stands only echo its historic past and don't fully do it justice, as it was once a sight that many believed were full of mystical wonder and allure. Part of this allure was the floor that actually retracted to reveal a scene of violence, victory, and tragic loss below it, and this is the same type of illusionary magic that Rome hopes to bring back to the colosseum with new construction plans in place for the project.

Related:A New Ancient Roman Shrine Has Been Discovered (And Other Ancient Sites All History Buffs Need To Visit In Rome)

On the same sight where many tourists now gather to witness the remains of what once was, at one point in time,tensof thousands of spectators gathered to view prizefighters who were enslaved and predatory animals battle with one another. While the new plans for the colosseum do not include anything of that nature (obviously), the results of the finished project will be nothing short of spectacular when it comes to events, concerts, and theater performances. It's the hope of Rome that this installation will not only provide an incredible venue from which to watch these things but that it will also bring the colosseum itself back to its former glory during the days when it was one of the most significant destinations in the city.

As the colosseum stands today, every floor is able to be seen from the interior of the structure itself. At one point, though, the hypogeum, or inner labyrinth of the colosseum, was once hidden by a floor made of wood and sand. The goal is to separate the floors once again to give the same appearance that whichever show is taking place on the said floor has appeared by magic, as it was believed to have done centuries ago. The project is anticipated to cost millions, with Italy's governmentalready pledging almost $12 million USD. Now, all that's left is for a design team to come in and coordinate the project while creating a design that's historically accurate as well as functional.

The most intriguing part of the project is its historical accuracy. During the days when the city of Rome was at its height and one of the most revered empires in the world, the colosseum was a place where all inhibitions were thrown to the wind as spectators witnessed things that modern-day society would deem inhumane and heinous today. These things included setting wild animals loose in the colosseum with a trained fighter, and part of that was the uncertainty and unexpectedness of it all which made it (morbidly) thrilling to viewers. These animals would arrive in random locations around the colosseum floor thanks to the addition of trapdoors and secret passageways that were created to throw off suspicion and make each fight incredibly unpredictable. This is the same technology and design that Rome intends to implement in the colosseum today with the goal in mind to incorporate similar surprise features.

Related:Does Visiting The Trevi Fountain In Rome Live Up To Expectations? What To Plan For

According to Dario Franceschini, the culture minister, the renovation "will be a major technological intervention that will offer visitors the opportunity to not only see the underground rooms but also appreciate the beauty of the colosseum while standing in the center of the arena." Whereas during ancient Roman times, the use of the floor appeared to be some type of mystical magic, nowadays, it's the hope of the city that the new design would allow visitors to fully understand the colosseum's architecture as well as how it would have served its purpose long ago. While it's intended to be a central location for concerts and theater, it's first and foremost a piece of history and an icon in terms of Rome's past, and it's hoped that the two will be accepted with a sense of balance and appreciation of all the colosseum has represented.

While there are no plans to begin building right now, the project does have a timeline and all plans from designers are expected no later than February 1st, which means there could be more news to follow in the spring of 2021. However, with that being said, this project is no small undertaking - not only do architects need to respect and ensure that the original structure will be safely protected while adding new structures, but the plans themselves must be in line with the historical design of the colosseum itself. With that being said, the date for the finished project is anticipated in 2023.

Next:Baia Was Considered Ancient Rome's "Las Vegas"... Until It Sunk To The Bottom Of The Sea

Everything You Didn't Know About Celebrating Kwanzaa

Originally from New York, Katie is used to a fast-paced lifestyle. She got her personal start with writing in the second grade, and carried that passion with her until she won a spot in her high school's published poetry book - but not before becoming the News Editor and columnist for the high school newspaper. In college, she majored in English Literature with an emphasis in Political Science, soaking up most creativity and method from one of the last professors to study under famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The more she wrote, the more she learned about the world and, more importantly, herself. She has been writing professionally and has been published since the age of 19, and for nearly a decade has covered topics in entertainment, lifestyle, music news, video game reviews, food culture, and now has the privilege of writing and editing for TheTravel. Katie has a firm belief that every word penned is a journey into yourself and your own thoughts, and through understanding this, people can begin to understand each other. Through her voice, she brings personality, research, and a bit of friendly sarcasm to every piece she writes and edits.

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Rome's Colosseum Could Be Returning To Its Former Glory With A Retractable Floor - TheTravel

Judy Rose, Special to the Detroit Free Press Published 7:00 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2021 | Updated 8:02 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2021

A house with a handsome landscape in the gated Turtle Lake community. Pond and fountain view and a well-finished lower level. Wochit

Twenty years ago this was the showcase house in Bloomfield Township for the posh new gated and guarded neighborhood called Turtle Pond.

Since then its second owners enriched the house and its setting with an updating by interior designer Jeffrey King and a huge revamp of the grounds by landscape designer Deborah Silver.

The house is sheathed with cedar siding above a base of granitewith a partly enclosed courtyard in front. Gutters are copper. Its wide front steps, courtyard and driveway are stone pavers. It has a new cedar roof, with swooping witches-hat dormers.

It sits on a double lot, now loaded with mature evergreens, regimental hedges and hydrangea. Realtor Preka Berishaj said the second lot is an additional price, $650,000. That includes a large play structure.

A fountain is in the middle of Turtle Pond as seen from the rear of the house. It's all part of the gated Turtle Lake community which has 113 homes.(Photo: Teuta Photography)

To its rear this houses view is Turtle Pond and its fountain. Close in, a raised organic garden is wrapped with a 7-foot fence to keep out deer.

Inside, these owners many changes included installing oak and cherry floors and building out the closets. They had the main stairs wrought-iron railing copied. Now its continued at the loft over the great room and as a railing for outdoor terraces.

They changed the kitchen backsplashes to a light-toned tile with designs sculpted in.

The foyer has a stone tile floor with faux stone paint on the walls. These owners had the wrought-iron railing copied and repeated it at the upstairs loft and outside terrace.(Photo: Teuta Photography)

One especially nice spot is the sunroom, which is also the breakfast room. Two walls here are multipaned glass and French doors. They give a view of the pond and fountain and let light pour into the kitchen. All four seasons look beautiful, the owner said.

Besides a Viking range with its oven, the kitchen has a stack of three more Viking ovens. They are a warming drawer, a convection oven and a microwave.

The large owners suite is on the main floor, two stories tall. The view through French doors is the fountain with a terrace outside.

The owner's suite of this home at 2937 Turtle Pond Court in Bloomfield Twp. Turtle Pond is a neighborhood of 19 houses in the larger Turtle Lake development, which has 113 houses and walking trails. Like all the Turtle Lake neighborhoods, it's only entered through one set of main gates, which are staffed with a 24-hour guard.(Photo: Teuta Photography)

The main floor has a great room 25 feet long with a massive limestone fireplace. An 18-foot loft overlooks it through the railing copied from the stairs. This is made into a reading nook with sofas and built-in bookshelves designed by Jeffery King.

The walkout lower level is very thoroughly finished. It includes a guest suite with French doors to the outside and a bathroom thats ADA accessible. At one point these owners hosted a handicapped relative, with the help of a stair lift between the lower and main floors. That lift is taken out now.

The rest of the lower level is a big multipurpose room that has a stone fireplace, built-in cupboards, a full bar, a small kitchen and a pool table. It has pine walls that had been whitewashed, but these owners had them stripped and stained.

The lower level entertainment area of this home at 2937 Turtle Pond Court in Bloomfield Twp. Turtle Pond is a neighborhood of 19 houses in the larger Turtle Lake development, which has 113 houses and walking trails. Like all the Turtle Lake neighborhoods, it's only entered through one set of main gates, which are staffed with a 24-hour guard.(Photo: Teuta Photography)

On the second floor is a large bonus room, now set up as a serious gym. They had a personal trainer come to the house.

This free-standing house is a site condo. Owners can contract with their association for lawn and garden care if they wish.

Turtle Pond is a neighborhood of 19 houses in the larger Turtle Lake development, which has 113 houses and walking trails. Like all the Turtle Lake neighborhoods, its entered through one set of main gates, which are staffed with a 24-hour guard.

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Where: 2937 Turtle Pond Court, Bloomfield Township

How much: $2,399,000

Bedrooms: 5

Baths: 4 full, 2 half

Square feet: 5,285 in the two main floors, plus 2,300 finished in the walkout lower level.

Key features: Handsome house with handsome landscape in the gated, guarded Turtle Lake community. Pond and fountain view. Well-finished lower level with accessible suite, landscape maintenance available, 24-hour security. Second lot with play structure available.

Contact: Preka Berishaj, Victor Properties, 248-568-4580.

In order to limit our staff's exposure to coronavirus, the Detroit Free Press is temporarily suspending its practice of using our photographers to capture images for House Envy and is instead using photographs prepared by listing Realtors, with credit to thephotographers. We thank the Realtors for helping in this effort.

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/michigan-house-envy/2021/01/02/turtle-pond-mansion-home-bloomfield-twp/4073008001/

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$2.4M Bloomfield Twp. home in exclusive Turtle Pond offers fountain views, walking trails - Detroit Free Press

Without question, 2020 was a year like no other. But, with COVID came unexpected opportunities. Essentially, isolation protocols allowed those with access to a workspace and a project more time to focus on the build.

In March, I wrote a column about how I was tinkering through self-isolation, working on a Triumph motorcycle made up of many different years and models spanning the late 1930s to the early 1950s. That led to several readers reaching out with news about their projects, and, with the New Year upon us, I thought it would be interesting to catch up with a few of them and report on their progress.

Your humble scribe with a 1939 Triumph Speed Twin on the lift.

Brendan Stephens

And, the progress, or lack thereof, on the current Triumph build after correcting a crooked girder fork.

Greg Williams

Ill start with my Triumph. By the end of June, the wheels were built and fresh new tires mounted on the rims. With the wheels in place, however, it became apparent something was not straight. Figuring the neck was tweaked on the frame, everything came apart, including the fork. Time was spent measuring and assessing, but it wasnt the frame that was bent. The problem was in the girder fork. More time spent measuring, and much time machining and repairing the lower steering stem. Thats brought everything back into line. During the summer, the engine came together up to the point of being able to put the head and rocker boxes in place thats something that will happen after the engine is in the frame to continue the mock-up process.

Enough about my project, lets catch up with other builders profiled in 2020.

Trevor Wannop of Calgary was working on an ambitious build based on a 1940 Ford Express pickup truck. At the time of writing that story in April, hed finished installing the 5.0-litre Ford Performance Coyote crate engine and was working on the installation of a large 80L fuel tank and putting in a new driveshaft. He hoped he would be cutting apart the cab and doors in order to add extra metal, effectively stretching the cab. However, as some restrictions were loosened in June, Wannop found himself golfing, fishing and gardening while also doing boat, tractor and cottage maintenance, Im all done with that and have started on the body work today, Wannop told me in mid-December. It will be my winter priority.

In June we heard from Bill Murray of Ladner, B.C., who said the COVID-19 pandemic had allowed him to push the reset button. He was taking time to continue working on his project of 14 years, a 1930 Ford Model A pickup hot rod. Hed hoped to have his son, Jason, an award-winning GM mechanic, help him install a 5.0L V8 from a GM truck replacing the 1979 Oldsmobile 6.6L engine he currently has in the Model A. So far, that hasnt happened, but Murray spent a good part of his summer finally installing a drywall ceiling in his garage. That meant moving the project and parts back and forth. But he did have time to further modify the doors on his Model A, finessing the door ends with a curve so they could open without binding. And from a pair of Honda Civic doors, he plans to harvest all of the rods, clips and power window components to adapt into his doors. He also fabricated wood blocks to help transition the interior down to allow upholstery to run under the top rear cab trim. Still lots to do, but I enjoy it, Murray said.

Edmonton builder Patrick McCready was allowed to use sheet metal equipment at NAIT, where he formed a new passenger floor pan and rocker panels for his custom 1976 Datsun 620 King Cab pickup project.

Patrick McCready

Patrick McCready has finished the engine rebuild and installed it in the freshly prepared 1986 Nissan 720 chassis. Now, he needs to finish repairing the 76 Datsun cab and box before marrying the two together.

Patrick McCready

Next, I checked in with Patrick McCready of Edmonton, who was putting the cab and box of a 1976 Datsun 620 King Cab truck onto the chassis and running gear of a later 1986 Datsun/Nissan 720. Hes finished rebuilding the engine, and its now installed in the frame together with the transmission. The rolling chassis is ready to go. However, not happy with the replacement passenger floor pan hed made earlier, McCready fabricated one of heavier-gauge metal and welded it in place. He was graciously allowed access to sheet metal equipment at NAIT where he formed the floor pan and a pair of rocker panels. These have been welded in place. But now, McCready says, My build is progressing very slowly at this stage as I really dont like doing bodywork. He assured me, though, that he will get it done.

Retired Calgary police officer Richard Nyberg has his 1963 Volkswagen pickup ready for engine install, but has put this project to the side for the moment.

Finally, I wrote about Calgarian Richard Nyberg in early September. The retired police officer was working on a 1963 Volkswagen Type 2 single cab pickup. During the first phase of COVID lockdown, Nyberg managed to completely cut out and replace the cargo floor and drivers floor together with several other patch panels. It had been painted by late April, and its now on wheels while the engine is ready to be installed. I stalled off work on the VW, Nyberg said last week. It will be done for the spring, but Ive moved on to a 1973 Porsche 914.

These cars are like stray dogs. They just follow you home.

I negotiated buying the Porsche from the owner of the shop who painted the VW, and the same day the truck came home with new paint, the Porsche went into storage. These cars are like stray dogs. They just follow you home. Nyberg brought the Porsche out of storage in October, mounted the body in his rotisserie and began the messy process of removing the factory-applied undercoating. Now past that point, hes cutting out rusted metal and welding in fresh patch panels. Always busy, Nyberg said, Some days it feels like Groundhog Day around here.

As we move into 2021, Id be interested in hearing how others are spending their workshop time. Feel free to drop me a line at the email address below and Happy New Year.

Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or gregwilliams@shaw.ca

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On the Road: When a pandemic gives you lemons, you work on classic cars - Driving

Installation photo, To Cast Too Bold a Shadow, October 15- January 23, 2021. The 8th Floor. Photo courtesy of The 8th Floor.

To Cast Too Bold a Shadow

The 8th Floor

October 15, 2020 through January 23, 2021

By NINA MDIVANI, December 2020

In a compelling and timely presentation To Cast Too Bold a Shadow at The 8th Floor, the totality of a womans existence within patriarchal systems is broken down into components processed and analyzed by artists. This thoughtful exhibition is organized by Sarah Weisman, George Bolster and Anjuli Nanda at The 8th Floor, exhibition and events space established in 2010 by Shelley and Donald Rubin. Twelve women artists come from different generations and, yet, engage with the same unresolvable arguments.

Various strands running through this exhibition are aptly captured by the exhibition title originating from a 1960s poem by Adrianne Rich, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law. In this poem Rich describes the universe constructed by and for men where we, women, are present in our difference, in our divergence from the norm, from the dogma and the expected molds. All works selected for this exhibition show the resistance, feminist unwillingness to succumb, or at the very least they shine the light of reason onto mindless patriarchal rituals of power. Traditions, social customs and their dogmatic, inescapable, stabilizing pressure constitute the foundation of a status quo, a factor so cynically used by men to justify the suffering, abuse, negligence, othering of women. Yet, the exhibition also includes satisfying alternatives, creative avenues of resistance and fight. Commodification of women as objects for marital transactions, othering, question of consent, and active resistance by women are the themes I picked up, but the show tells multitude of stories, waiting to be discovered by the viewers.

Furen Dai, Love for Sale, 2020. Video (color, sound), 7:03min. Video still. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Several works on view directly address nature of a marriage as a transaction, as a process of othering, and as a problematic institution. The viewer is first greeted by the powerful video work of Furen Dai, Love for Sale. Voiceovers included in this monochromatic work are collected from five marriage markets across Beijing. Fates of young women and their virtues as desirable brides are negotiated based on variables of their age, education, class, and immigration histories. Apparently, after 35 years of age ones chance of making a good match significantly drops and a womans price as a commodity rapidly decreases. Anonymity or rather erasure of identity of a woman who is simultaneously at the center of this transaction is continued as a one of the threads of the exhibition.

Maria D. Rapicavoli, The Other: A Familiar Story, 2020. Two channel video installation with sound, 19:40 min, video Still. Photo courtesy of MDR and the artist.

In the gorgeously orchestrated two-channel projected film by the Italian artist Maria D. Rapicavoli, specifically commissioned for this exhibition, the artist traces a tale of her relative whose story she adopts as an example of a women devoid of an agency when bestowed upon a husband who decides her fate. A woman is taken from her hometown of Catania, Italy to Lawrence, Massachusetts as a property, forced to get married, forced to abandon her children and partner, forced to become someone else based on the demands of her patriarchal home community. Rapicavoli uses poignant symbols of ruins, mannequins, collected coins, closet-like enclosures to portray the ordeal and dissociation in the face of suffering. Although some of the used imagery hits home, some of it looks a little belabored. Othering that the woman experiences by losing her agency is real, but her story becomes too abstract to touch on a personal level.

Rajkaman Kalhon, Untitled Bandaged Pin Up, 2017. From the series Do You Know Our Names. Paint on augmented book pages, 39.5 x 28in. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Othering is a theme of two other sets of works on display. Both of them looking at this multifaceted cultural and gender phenomenon through the prism of postcolonialism. Rajkamal Kahlons series Do You Know Our Names? (2017) traces the role of photography as the means of othering, of producing distance between portrayed colonial subjects and the cultured viewer. As her primary source Kahlon uses 1890s German anthropological classic she bought at a used bookshop in Vienna. The artist revitalizes schematically portrayed women through adding vivid details such as dots, lines, coverings. By reintroducing them into the contemporary existence the artist defies presenting women as singular anthropological element of the other locale as originally intended by the books authors. The same line of reasoning and visual appropriation is used by Joiri Minaya when she manipulates art of Paul Gaugin and Enrique Grau Araujo for the series of postcards or collated images from dating websites for her installation #dominicanwomangooglesearch. Both sets of work address objectification of the Other, stereotype of an exotic women of color created solely for the pleasure of a mostly white male predator.

Another powerful thread running through the exhibition is the question of consent and how it is referenced in private and public domains of a womans life. Aliza Shvarts commissioned installation Anatomy,2020 is manufactured from a collection of graphic diagrams used by police departments of different states culled from so called rape kits used to document sexual assaults. Anatomy drawings inside those kits intentionally lack precision, while also missing out on crucial details of whether consent was or was not part of an incident. A more public context of the consent is explored through Yoko Onos now legendary Cut Piece. In the performance piece originally staged in 1964 Ono gives her audience a consent to undress her piece by piece by cutting with scissors parts of her clothes. The result is striking and unnerving. Onos stoical presence is matched by delighted faces of audience members who slowly destroy her garments.

Betty Tompkins, Apologia (Caravaggio #1), 2018. Painted text on torn out page from art history book, 12 x 8 1/2 ins. Courtesy of Betty Tompkins and PPOW, New York.

Betty Tompkins and Mierle Laderman Ukeles both manifest forms of resistance offering hope. Both use stories and words of themselves or of others to show the patriarchal establishment that women are indeed on the rise and finally comfortable in their skin. Mierle Laderman Ukeles earthy work Second Binding, 1964 presents cheesecloth overstuffed with rags and newspaper mounted on a canvas. Abstract parts of an abstract body are pulsating with life and libido or so it seems. Not surprisingly this work caused Ukeles to take a leave of absence at Pratt, and later to quit the school completely, as her teachers found her approach to be too sexually explicit in nature.

In her recent series Apologia, 2018 artist Betty Tompkins applies hand-written words onto reproductions of well-known artworks. For example, in Tompkins piece Apologia (Caravaggio #1), 2018, pink, handwritten text across Caravaggios boy reads: R. Kelly has close friendships with a number of women who are strong and independent, happy, well-cared for and free to come and go as they please. We deny the many dark descriptions put forth by instigators and liars who have their own agenda for profit and fame.

Tompkins reference to R. Kelly and other public figures and how they try to mitigate allegations of rape, assault, misconduct, and misuse of patriarchal power is commendable. Only through this honest and visually powerful resistance can we hope to achieve shifts in consciousness. Artists who are also women are here to carry the torch. WM

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Subjugation, Consent, and Active Resistance: To Cast Too Bold a Shadow at The 8th Floor - whitehotmagazine.com

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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