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Janet Marie Smith smiled when she heard the word designated hitter.

I know what story youre telling, said Smith, the architect behind Polar Park, as she interrupted Charles Steinberg ,the president of the Worcester Red Sox.

Thirty-two years ago this December, Smith walked into the office of Larry Lucchino, then-president of the Baltimore Orioles, to discuss plans to build Camden Yards.

Lucchino greeted her with a question.

I say with some embarrassment looking back on it, the first question I said to Janet as she was walking into my office was, Which league has the designated hitter? Lucchino said.

Smith responded, Im offended by the question.

Thats fantastic, sit down, lets talk, Lucchino said.

The exchange represents the intersection of two future baseball Hall of Famers whose collaboration created Camden Yards in Baltimore. Since then, each left their fingerprints on about a dozen baseball cathedrals such as Fenway Park, Petco Park in San Diego and Turner Field in Atlanta.

Polar Park is next on the list but holds a special significance. Its the first project since Camden Yards, which opened in 1992, that the two have built from start to finish.

Youre looking at John Lennon and Ringo Starr, Lucchino said with a smile looking at Steinberg, who is a big Beatles fan. We wouldnt have done a ballpark without Janet and Charles being a part of it. I wouldnt have. I dont remember how it happened, but the minute we bought the team, I talked to Janet and Charles about being involved.

Lucchino is quick to point out that no two cities or ballparks are identical, but direct lines can be drawn from Camden Yards in 1992 to even some of the most unique features at Polar Park in 2021. Other aspects derive from Lucchinos history around the game of baseball.

Worcester in a sense is the beneficiary of a lot of experience in other places.

Larry Lucchino

Still, aspects from the location down to specific items like smiley faces on the foul poles originate from successes at Camden Yards.

Worcester in a sense is the beneficiary of a lot of experience in other places, Lucchino said.

Lucchino pitched Camden Yards as the new centerpiece of Baltimores inner harbor, which experienced its renaissance before with a convention center and aquarium among other things. On a smaller scale, Worcesters Canal District fits within the Lucchinos ballpark lineup.

From Birchtree Bread Co. to the Locke 50 and The Queens Cups, the Canal District was booming with some of Worcesters finest eateries years before Lucchino thought of moving the Pawtucket Red Sox out of Rhode Island.

The redevelopment of the Crompton Building injected retail into the area. The Worcester Public Market acted as fuel to the economic fire burning in the neighborhood.

Worcester sells itself in that regard, Smith said. Wed love to present ourselves as geniuses. But when you see a city thats rich in and history and with that kind of opportunity laid out in front of you, when you combine that with some of our previous experiences, it just seemed like a natural fit.

Worcester Red Sox chairman Larry Lucchino (left) and ballpark designer Janet Marie Smith look around in Polar Park early during construction.

Lucchino grew up with the idea of an urban ballpark in his backyard in Pittsburgh with Forbes Field. The home of the Pirates was nestled, as Lucchino described it, a long home run from Carnegie Library. A short walk could take fans from the YMCA to the ballpark.

It was a place you could spend your entire day, Lucchino said. And I did many times, spend my entire day there going from one of those buildings to another.

Lucchinos account of Pittsburgh in the 50s and 60s describes the plans for Polar Park in the 2020s.

The Worcester Public Library and YWCA sit about a block from the scoreboard in left field of Polar Park. Across the diamond in right field, Summit Street acts as a border between the Worcester Wall seating and the Canal District.

Smith, Lucchino and Steinberg envision the corridor as a next-generation Eutaw Street in Baltimore or Jersey Street at Fenway Park - locations where fans gather before, during and after games.

Both are trying to animate the area just outside the ballpark itself, Lucchino said. Its an area not generally animated at a ballpark.

The former mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke initially resisted the idea of an urban ballpark downtown. After touring other suburban ballparks, he altered his thinking.

Schmoke said the city instantly benefited economically from the creation of Camden Yards. Baltimore saw visitors from other Major League cities, specifically Boston and New York, drive to Camden Yards for a game. Schmoke also highlighted hosting the 1993 All-Star Game as an event the city reaped rewards from years down the road.

While out-of-town visitors are far less likely in Triple-A baseball, the WooSox have already floated the idea of hosting an International League All-Star game.

Economically, Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said the stadium coinciding with the arrival of the WooSox has already directly led to investors showing interest in New Englands second-largest city.

Ill tell you, the ballpark, which some people love to hate, Augustus said, I think the ballpark if you talk to a lot of developers, most of them that have come have cited the team relocating to Worcester as one of the reasons they took another look at Worcester.

The diamond at Polar Park looks like a baseball field with grass in the outfield, three bases, a pitchers mound and home plate.

Small business owners in the Canal District including OneZo, a bubble tea cafe and Suzette Creperie & Cafe each cited the WooSox arriving in the city as catalysts for investing in the city. A.J. Stephens, cited the WooSox as a reason why he selected Worcester as the location for his American Basketball Association franchise.

The WooSox, thats why we decided [on Worcester], because the baseball team thats coming to Kelley Square in this area, owner of OneZo James Ta said. We love this area and hopefully its a great location to expand our business.

Schmoke said economic arguments can be built upon figures favoring both supporters and detractors of ballparks. Something not up for debate, Schmoke said, is the pride the Orioles new home installed in the city.

Were kind of a tale of two cities. We have some wonderful things going on but we also have challenges of heavy concentration of poverty and areas of high crime. [Camden Yards] was always an entity that brought and uplifted our spirits and boosted the morale of the community, Schmoke said. Even the years when the Orioles werent doing well, Camden Yards was a real source of pride for residents of Baltimore.

A week before Camden Yards hosted opening day, the ballclub allowed people to enjoy a brown-bag lunch sitting at the ballpark.

Schmoke estimated 1,000 people attended the event. As the former mayor and Lucchino walked down the first baseline, a man shouted at the mayor, Glad to see government can do something right.

It brought diverse neighborhoods together, Schmoke said. People who might not interact at other times during the week, found common ground, both physically and literally at Camden Yards. The rich and the poor, all races, men and women all enjoyed the experience.

Lucchino planted the idea of an urban ballpark in Baltimore in the ear of Steinberg during the 1986 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets. (The same series, coincidentally, where Worcester native and WooSox hitting coach Rich Gedman played in.)

At the time, Memorial Stadium acted as a multi-purpose facility in Baltimore that hosted baseball in the summer and football in the winter.

Lucchino envisioned one old-time ballpark for baseball and another stadium for other purposes.

It was such a foreign concept in 1986, Steinberg said. He said were going to build two stadiums. I said, Two? Theres not even an appetite to build one.

Lucchino held a belief that a ballpark differed from a stadium. During the planning and construction of Camden Yards, Lucchino even implemented $5 fines to employees who used the term stadium to describe the project.

The hunger for two stadiums reached a fever pitch in May of 1988 when the organization announced plans for a new home for the Baltimore Orioles.

At about the same time, construction was nearing completion in Toronto on SkyDome, a $570 million (Canadian dollars) project which included a retractable roof and artificial grass.

When discussing the project with then Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, Lucchino downplayed the magnitude behind Camden Yards.

I said, Paul, The difference is you guys are building the eighth wonder of the world. Were trying to build a nice little ballpark, Lucchino said. In many ways getting back to basics was an important part of what we brought about.

In 1988, the idea of an open-air nice little ballpark with a natural grass surface was considered outside the box.

Photographers cover the game in an empty stadium during fourth-inning intrasquad baseball game action in Toronto, Friday, July 17, 2020. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

SkyDome represented the trend. It evolved out of symmetrical multi-purpose artificial turf stadiums like Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Kingdome in Seattle, the Astrodome in Houston and Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

All followed circular, symmetrical shapes footprints, with cookie-cutter seating bowls. Lucchinos envisioned resurrecting asymmetrical dimensions, fitting the ballpark into the landscape.

Grounds crew members work on pulling a tarp off the field during a rain delay of a baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Three decades later, Lucchinos out-of-the-box ideas, like keeping the warehouse on Eutaw Street in Baltimore as a backstop to a corridor in right field, are now etched into the vernacular of ballpark design.

At the time, though, the thought of integrating the warehouse into the ballpark drew criticism. Lucchino remembered a sports editor in Baltimore criticizing him for wanting to keep a rat-infested building.

Janet Marie was very clear that it would be something distinctive in a positive way as opposed to a negative way, Schmoke said. Initially the consensus among elected officials was that we doubted the wisdom of [integrating] that building. Obviously, she was right. We were wrong.

Keeping the warehouse forced Smith and Lucchino to construct the park around its surroundings. Polar Park is no different with a severe grade differential in right field on Summit Street and a railroad track along the third baseline.

A look at the Worcester Wall in right field at Polar Park.

As an organization under the Boston Red Sox, it made sense in terms of development to install a Green Monster-like structure.

Listening to the landscape, it was obvious where the Worcester Wall would stand.

We expected a version of the Fenway Green Monster, a wall in the outfield, for a whole host of reasons, Lucchino said. There was no way Janet was going to read the terrain to suggest there was a need for a wall in left field. The place where there was a need for a wall was right field.

In construction Camden Yards, after the decision to keep the warehouse, Steinberg questioned the idea of creating Eutaw Street as a place for congregating and moving throughout the game.

When they were designing Camden Yards and talking about the Eutaw Street corridor, I thought, thats going to be empty during the ball game because 40,000 people are going to be in their seats, Steinberg said. Its going to be animated before the game, but its going to be a concrete desert during the game.

I think what Larry has challenged us to do at Polar Park is really to take whats defined as a seat to another level and one that responds to how fans watch baseball today.

Janet Marie Smith

Lucchino and Smith built it in Baltimore and people came. Polar Park challenges the notion even more as with a capacity of 9,508, but only about 6,000 seats.

I think what Larry has challenged us to do at Polar Park is really to take whats defined as a seat to another level and one that responds to how fans watch baseball today, Smith said.

From nearly every vantage point, Polar Park offers a perspective for the nomadic fan. A family can start with a picnic in the left-center field berm, then move across the outfield to the Worcester Wall in right field for the third or fourth inning. By the seventh-inning stretch, they may have caught a perspective on the bridge along the right field line and behind home plate before closing out the game in left field.

Each vantage point offers a view not only of the playing field but of scoreboards packed with more information than ever -- from Boston Red Sox updates, to pitch velocity and diving deeper into analytics. The scoreboard also will allow for an interactive experience for fans, which the team has yet to release.

Twenty years from now youre going to see how so much of this information and interaction between fans and the ball game has become par for the course, Lucchino said. And no one would want to go back and be without that information.

The largest videoboard will be located in left field measuring 40 feet by 70 feet. It will focus on the batter and lineups during the games.

The final piece to constructing Camden Yards is also apparent in Polar Park. Smith not only created a ballpark, but the place uniquely home to the Baltimore Orioles.

It was shoehorned into the culture and history of the city, Schmoker said.

With Camden Yards it started with the name. The team agreed to call it Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to honor the original home of the ballclub in Baltimore in the 19th century.

It continued by marking each home run that landed on Eutaw Street with a bronze marker with the distance and hitter. The organization also unveiled the Flag Court, located between the right-field scoreboard and Eutaw Street. Each American League team has a flag that is flown in order of the divisional standings.

Those things arent so much about history as they are saying this is a place that will have a history and how can we start that storytelling from the first pitch, Smith said. Polar Park will offer some of those same kinds of opportunities, maybe even more because its Triple-A.

Four months before Polar Park is set to open, its saturated in characteristics tying it to Worcester.

The diamond at Polar Park looks like a baseball field with grass in the outfield, three bases, a pitchers mound and home plate.

The outfield lights will be shaped like hearts. Smiley faces will appear atop the foul poles. The capacity, 9,508, pays tribute to Worcesters area code. Informational signage and kiosks will appear throughout the concourse educating fans about Worcesters industrial and social history as well as its threads that tie it to the fabric of baseball history.

Construction workers, city officials and the Worcester Red Sox celebrated the laying the final steel beam on Polar Park. The final beam was covered in signatures from those involved in the project.

Much of Polar Parks history begins with a baseball game at the stadium Camden Yards replaced. Smith overheard a fan discussing a possible new stadium. The idea fermented for months. During Thanksgiving dinner with her parents in Jackson, Mississippi, she experienced a eureka moment that prompted her to pen a letter to Lucchino about her ideas for Camden Yards.

She wrote the letter on her birthday, December 13, 1988. The letter was nearly dismissed by the Orioles, but caught the attention of Lucchino, who then invited her in to talk ballparks and urban planning.

I read the one from Janet, and I said my goodness, Im up to my eyeballs in Camden Yards, Lucchino said. This woman has an architectural background, an urban planning background, she would be perfect.

More than three decades later, some of the most beloved ballparks in America have Smith and Lucchino to thank from Fenway Park and Camden Yards on the East Coast to Petco Park or Dodgers Stadium on the West Coast.

The next line on their respective resumes and accomplishments will include Worcester and Polar Park.

The remarkable chemistry between Larry and Janet Marie is going to propel both of them to the Hall of Fame, Steinberg said. Theyll be enshrined because they not only changed ballparks for the better, theyve not only changed baseball for the better, but theyve also changed the social and cultural history of American cities. And thats quite an accomplishment.

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Facing the current and accentuated global challenges, we ask ourselves: What should we address first?

2020 was a tremendous opportunity to focus all our efforts and attention on the most urgent issues of architecture. Through articles, interviews, debates, and projects, ArchDaily's Topics presented each month an in-depth response to the most relevant problems - from the climate crisis and emergency architecture to artificial intelligence and How Will We Live Together.

Providinginspiration, knowledge, and tools, we havegenerated hundreds of publications. In order to sum upthis past year, we presenta selection of articlesthathad the biggestimpact on our readers. Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!

"Forty percent of the human population lives within 100 kilometers of a coastline, with one in ten living under ten meters above sea level. As climate change induces more volatile flooding events and long-term sea level rises, it is estimated that coastal flooding could cause as much as $1 trillion of damage per year by 2050. We cannot escape the reality that cities, and their populations, are more vulnerable to flooding than ever".

"Two-thirds of the worlds energy and 70% of global carbon emissions are attributed to cities. This leads to the question of how the evolution of public policy, and urban design, can strategically combat these two growing issues. Around the world, cities are looking to mobility as part of the solution, and in particular, asking a simple question: what if public transport was free?"

"According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the construction sector is responsible for up to 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions.....As architects, one of our biggest concerns should be the reduction of carbon emissions from the buildings we construct. Being able to measure, quantify, and rate this quality is a good way to start".

"Concrete, the most widely used construction material in the world, due to its versatility, resistance, ease of handling, accessibility, aesthetics, and other factors. At the same time, its manufacture is also one of the main polluters in the atmosphere, mainly due to the fact that the cement industry emits around 8% of all global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). In addition to its intensive production, concrete is an extremely rigid material, heavy and composed of cement, water, stone, and sand. Thus, would it be possible to continue to use concrete sustainably after demolition, eliminating its disposal as mere waste and overloading landfills?"

"Though interest in rammed earth declined in the 20th century, some continue to advocate its use today, citing its sustainability in comparison to more modern construction methods. Most notably, rammed earth structures use local materials, meaning they have low embodied energy and produce little waste."

"Humanity spends more and more time inside, whether at work or at home - with studies showing that we now spend 87% of our lives indoors. Pleasant environments positively influence the mood and well-being of its occupants, just as poorly lit, uncomfortable places can make lives miserable. That is why the craft of interior design is so important."

"Psychology of space is in fact the study of human relations and behaviors within the context of the built and natural environments according to Dave Alan Kopec, a specialist in the field and professor at the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego.Having a direct impact on your subconscious, contributing to your emotions and perceptions, through that special part of your brain that reacts to the geometry of the space you occupy, interior design became an inherent part of peoples psychology. Though it is not the only factor involved, interior space has big implications, and it is the architects responsibility to shape tangible solutions for users and incorporate these ideas into the structure.

"As we approach a time when the broad intelligence of AI exceeds human levels, existential questions arise. What should you study when any job can be programmed or replaced? Will universal income be adopted as a result?Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes so.AI is just the latest in technologies that allow us to produce a lot more goods and services with less labor, says Gates. How we work, and what we can work on, will begin to change at an increasingly faster rate. If half of all work can be done by robots or machines in the next 15 years, it's likely that all work will be shaped by AI before 2050".

"Generative Design combines parametric design andartificial intelligence together with the restrictions and data included by the designer. According to Celestino Soddu, a researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, it is a morphogenetic process that uses structured algorithms like non-linear systems to obtain unique and unrepeatable results, executed by an idea code, as in nature . The analogy withnature illuminates some important parallels. Taking the example of a tree, a large trunk that is wider and stronger at the base resists all the pressure and tensioncaused by the wind and its own weight. From there, several other increasingly thin branches emerge, culminating atlast in the leaves. There are no leftover materials, and the forms adopted are the most suitable for their habitat. In places with a lot of wind, the composition of the tree will be very different from that of another in a sandy soil, differentiatedby a process ofnatural selection occurring over millions of years. This same reasoning can be used in art, design, and architecture".

"While damage control and preparation is an ever increasing factor in how we plan our cities, certain extraordinary circumstances, like natural disasters, remain outside of our ability to plan and demandquick architectural responsesthat offer instant aid to the people affected, often being the difference between life and death... By comparing the two approaches to emergency construction, it is possible to study how well they respond to different circumstances, and, consequently, tomix the two approaches as a way to facilitate a quick and efficient construction process that involves the communities that they are benefiting".

"One-third of the entire continental U.S. are at risk of flooding this spring, especially the Northern Plains, Upper Midwest, and Deep South. Last April, deadly floods decimated parts of Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Iran as well, resulting in a low estimate of 1,000 deaths while tens of thousands more were displaced. While architecture cannot solve or even fully protect from the most deadly floods, it is possible and necessary to take several protective measures that could mitigate damage and consequently save lives".

"In a world centered on visual communication, as explained by Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa in his bookThe Eyes of the Skin,'architecture has adopted the psychological strategy of advertising and instant persuasion'where it seems that graphs and hand-drawn plans are increasingly making way for "striking and memorable" visual content. For the untrained eye, for example, exact measurements are not as significant as the lighting, the quality of materials, the textures, the shapes, the colors, or any of the other elements that create the image'satmosphere: the implicit content that communicates beyond the image itself".

"Recycling and upcycling of materials and structures have become more and more popular in architecture as alternatives to the production of components in construction, typically associated with increased energy consumption and high levels of pollutants released into the atmosphere. The main difference between these two methods is that, while the former uses a certain amount of energy to process the material before it is reused, the latter does not require this process, but rather reuses it just as it was discarded".

"Our society is flooded with campaigns to recycle paper, plastic, and metal- so much so that it feels ingrained in our nature to properly dispose of our soda can or plastic cup in the right bin without a second thought. But what about how we recycle the buildings we tear down? If a building cant be repositioned for adaptive reuse, how can we transform its materials and give them a new life through initiatives that help reduce the number of obsolete materials that we pile into landfills?"

"despite the most recent health concerns, economic disparities, and environmental and social calamities the world is still heading towards dense urbanization with more people moving to cities and requiring safe and healthy housing, which is not always easy to come by. In fact, a recent UN report suggested that nearly one-quarter of the worlds urban population lives in informal settlements or encampments, most in developing countries but increasingly also in the most affluent. Living conditions are shocking and intolerable. Residents often live without water and sanitation, and are in constant fear of eviction.".

"Denise Scott Brown once said: Architecture cant force people to connect; it can only plan the crossing points, remove barriers, and make the meeting places useful and attractive. Although it cannot control the outcome, architecture holds the potential to set the stage for chance encounters and social interactions, thus nurturing community building and influencing the fabric of our social culture".

"The tiny home trend has been hard to ignore over the last several years. There's an increasingly saturated market of TV shows and Pinterest pictures dedicated to the topic of exploring micro-dwellings where your home is reduced to the size of a walk-in-closet and each room takes on a triple-duty programmatic role has only increased its popularity. What looks enticing on reality TV is often much less desirable in real life, and as people continue to long for a lifestyle that frees them of material goods and the ability to travel, what does this mean for the actuality of tiny home construction? Is it just a wanderlust fantasy that no one actually lives and was there ever any promise to its realization in the mainstream world?".

"Sheltering is a fundamental issue in Architecture. The ways of living and interacting with the space in which we spend our daily lives is an everlasting debate in the field, which is committed to providing a better quality of life, but also to developing new ways of living. By adding other aspects such as real estate speculation, high housing density in urban centers, the pursuit of nomadism, or even the sheer desire to follow a trend, the debate around small-scale houses becomes even more relevant. And so, we ask ourselves, what is the smallest area required to live in?"

"Human impacts on Earth are a common issue nowadays, and many people say that there is no turning back. Climate crisis, greenhouse gases, exploitation of natural resources, production of solid waste and atmospheric pollution are some of the most pressing issues that the global community must address if we want to ensure a sound future for the next generations. These topics can be viewed in full-color and high-definition in the new book Overview Timelapse: How We Change the Earth, by Benjamin Grant and Timothy Dougherty, which compiles 250 satellite and drone photographs of places on Earth that are in constant transformation".

"Although most guides, norms and theories start to include peculiarities, seeking to cover as many people and realities as possible, it is not difficult to observe how many of our architectures and cities remain resistant to the different possibilities. Would it be a modernist, shaping and even oppressive heritage hanging in the air?Is this an architecture shaped by the proportions of man or an attempt to shape its inhabitants? Most immediately, readers should remember don't worry if your proportions didn't resemble those of the Vitruvian Man".

"ArchDaily is proud to announce the 2020 Young Practices selection. This premier edition highlights emerging offices that are providing innovative approaches, proposals, and solutions to some of the main challenges Humankind is facing right now. From climate crisis to racial and gender issues. From technological disruption to social cohesion. These challenges are shaping the evolution of architecture, leadingthe discipline towards a new society and a new economy.".

"As the forces shaping our built environment have shifted, engaging technology, networks, and complex systems, architects need to envision more than the physical space but produce narratives on how to best operate within this new societal landscape. In this context, speculative architecture seems to have never been more critical."

"With more than 5500 different projects published during the year, our curators are excited to share this collection of the 100 most visited projects of 2020. This selection represents the best content created and shared by the ArchDaily community over the past 11 months".

"Despite all the hurdles and the pain, 2020 did not fail us in terms of content. Reacting to the global situation,ArchDaily's team of editors has tackled all the pressing issues that occurred this year and influenced the worldwide state of turmoil. While the whole planet was on pause, these writers were in search of critical substance, seeking to produce exclusive editorial pieces that highlight present-day topics and concerns.

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: 2020 In Review. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.

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From Climate Crisis to How Will We Live Together: 2020's Most Relevant Topics in Architecture - ArchDaily

There is no silver lining to a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people globally. But as COVID-19 barraged us with new challenges, it also forced adaptation that in the design world translated to faster, lighter, cheaper and more flexible buildings and landscapes. This kind of grass-roots change has been called many things: ad hoc architecture, guerrilla architecture, pop-up architecture, tactical urbanism.

Such ideas devised by world-class designers and amateur enthusiasts alike emerged immediately in the form of modular hospitals, mobile treatment centers and tented drive-through COVID testing sites, but they have since spilled into streets and other public spaces, taking advantage of the relative safety of the outdoors. They offer not only utility but also hope and inspiration in a supremely dark time. The quick, flexible thinking behind them has begun seeping into architecture, construction and urban design, worlds that are known for permanence, red tape, slow change and a limited sphere of practitioners.

Here are some of the best ideas that have emerged from around the world this year. They are clever and sometimes astonishing solutions from all types of creative people, solving new challenges beautifully, effectively and quickly.

Perhaps the field most affected by this wave of ad hoc architecture has been restaurants, which by necessity have expanded onto sidewalks, parking lots and even streets a move enabled by quick adjustments by municipal governments worldwide. (New York, for one, made its Open Restaurants program permanent.)

The Page, San FranciscoSan Francisco has long been a hub for parklets, those small parks built on street parking spots and sidewalks. The citys dining parklets are some of the best and most plentiful in the country. Some have bamboo-clad walls, intricate murals, planted dividers or A-frame structures. Thanks to designer and tattoo artist Mattie Breen, who goes by Mattie B, this dive bar and pool hall in the citys Divisadero neighborhood essentially re-created its interior outside. Breen and owner Bob Wait installed faux brick walls, fireplaces, old-time paintings, photos and plastic taxidermy. Much of the haul was taken from salvage yards, Breens and Waits personal collections, and the restaurants interior. Breen, who learned to build from his grandfather, a carpenter, sees the surge in creative projects as a lifeline for artists like him who are struggling during the pandemic. When things start to get tight you really start to think about what you can do to survive, he said.

When COVID-19 closed indoor drinking and dining in San Francisco, Mattie Breen collaborated with Bob Wait, owner of the Page, to re-create the bar and pool halls interior vibe in a new outdoor space.

(Jacquelyn Warner)

Setaara, Atlantic City, N.J.Afghan French restaurant Setaara in the summer took the extraordinary step of building a temporary two-story structure around a rear courtyard inspired by a Moroccan riad. Tiered plywood arches, supported by a steel frame, ring a fountain filled with rose petals and lighting imported from Morocco, Egypt and Turkey. Restaurant co-owner Abdullah Panah, whose family hails from Afghanistan, is a building enthusiast (and also a medical student at Rowan University). The design, he said, was inspired by his trips in the Middle East, particularly to Morocco and Iran. Once he gets planning approval, he and his team of builders will layer in stucco and tile cladding and add a second-floor dining space and a third-floor rooftop terrace, with views of the Atlantic City strip. So far, Panah said, the restaurant which has installed heat lamps and fire pits for winter is busier than its ever been.

The restaurant Setaara in Atlantic City, N.J., responded to demand for outdoor dining spaces by building a two-story, Moroccan-themed open-air structure around a dining courtyard.

(Abdullah Panah)

Caf Galleria, Midway, UtahAs the winter sets in, restaurants have taken to employing globes, igloos, greenhouses, yurts, tents or cabanas equipped with blankets, fire pits and space heaters to help diners stay warm and safe. The city of Chicago even held a competition to encourage winter dining ideas. But none is quite as beautiful as Caf Gallerias Alpenglobes, polycarbonate spheres built with curved, stained timber frames and timber flooring, and equipped with tables and benches, integrated heating, music and lighting. Reservations to dine in the so-called reverse snow globes on the patio are booked through February, while the restaurant and its designers, Insight Exhibits, have started a business building Alpenglobes nationwide for restaurants, hotels and even private residences.

Alpenglobes started as an outdoor dining solution for a Utah restaurant, but they may start popping up in other parts of the country.

(Alpenglobes)

Dine Out, New York

Melbas, one of the Dine Out participants with open-air seating in New York.

(Rockwell Group)

Relatively early in the pandemic, restaurant and hospitality specialists Rockwell Group devised free of charge a modular kit of parts that included flooring, barriers, shading, lighting and furniture as well as space for sanitation and equipment. The system, now being fitted with wind shields and heaters for the winter, has been employed in restaurants in all five boroughs of New York, and the outline of components is available for free download. We never see anything like this up in Harlem. This only happens downtown, a woman told the New Yorker, referring to Melbas, one of Dine Outs restaurant partners.

Another pro bono hero is Design Advocates, a New York group of affiliated architects and designers whose Test Fits initiative has assisted local businesses and communities adapting their spaces to COVID using simple materials, bold colors and unusual patterns.

The low-cost Design Advocates approach to outdoor dining in New York.

(Alan Tansey)

Civic spaces are more important than ever, and many are being used in new ways. Plazas have become skate parks, green spaces have become marketplaces. A few have been dramatically, and quickly, transformed with social distancing in mind.

Domino Park, New YorkOne of the most photographed outdoor spaces during the pandemic has been Brooklyns Domino Park, hugging the East River in Williamsburg. It was transformed in May with about 30 8-foot-diameter white circles spray-painted on the artificial grass, delineating space for social distance. Park director Michael Lampariello, a landscape architect, came up with the idea after the city had threatened closure of parks, which were becoming overwhelmed by those escaping quarantine. We thought that keeping the park open was one of the most important things we could do, said Lampariello, who noted that the initial implementation using a line-laying system jury-rigged for use as a compass took about three hours. Thanks largely to social media, parks around the world followed this lead.

With a little spray paint, Domino Park became a pandemic Instagram star.

(Marcella Winograd)

Checkerboard Park, Elblag, PolandA similarly simple but elegant solution was the strategic mowing of the overgrown garden of Elblags Centrum Sztuki Galeria EL, an arts center that occupies a cavernous Gothic church. Gallery director Adriana Ronewska-Kotyska, who trained as an architect, devised the checkerboard concept to help visitors picnic on the grass. After measuring space for blankets, she realized that most were the same size (6 feet long) as social distance requirements. She made a sketch, and her only investment was paying a gardener $50 to mow the squares. The gallery moved its summer concerts, usually held inside the church, to the lawn, which became a sensation on Instagram and other media.

In Elblag, Poland, the grass outside the Centrum Sztuki Galeria EL art gallery was mowed in a checkboard pattern to provide an outdoor space where people could hang out while still maintaining social distance.

(Lukasz Kotynski)

Cathedral Gardens Play Park, Belfast, IrelandMost of us associate pop-ups with shopping, but COVID has prompted cities to open pop-up parks on parking lots, underused green spaces and abandoned properties. Thanks to an emergency allocation from the Belfast City Council, Cathedral Gardens Play Park rose in less than two months to a square next to the University of Ulster and St. Annes Cathedral. Designed with input from local toddlers, the park features imagination-friendly equipment like a giant spinning hamster wheel, bendy benches, outdoor musical instruments, a swinging bridge and colorful mushrooms on a carpet of rainbow-colored sod called Unicorn Grass. The park is expected to be up as a trial for about two years.

Cities worldwide have opened miles of thoroughfares to pedestrians, providing badly needed public space thats often enlivened with art, play facilities and bike lanes. Others have transformed streets into green spines, exhibition spaces and town squares.

Common Ground, Jackson, Miss.

A detail of the giant mural on Duling Avenue in Jackson, Miss., including its blue grid of 8-foot squares.

(Travis Crabtree)

This vibrant street mural lining Duling Avenue in Jacksons Fondren neighborhood created by local designers Scott Allen and Casey Jennings and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies Fertile Ground Project invited a hesitant public to use the street for dining and recreation. Originally created for the Dining on Duling event in June, the grid of blue 8-foot squares clarifying social distance and leaving room for tables and activities is still in use. Between each square are colorful, playful shapes: Squiggly forms represent the Mississippi River, staggered lines represent chair legs, asterisk shapes represent plants, and circles represent plates. Our community was eager to get out of their houses and socialize after three months of lockdown, said Rebecca Garrison, executive director of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation. We wanted to amplify the message that we were still a strong community, even though circumstances dictated a detour from the things that typically defined us.

A giant mural on Duling Avenue in Jackson, Miss., gives the public another outdoor space, with the design and placement of chairs clarifying safe social distance.

(Travis Crabtree)

Tactical Urbanistas, LondonThis collective of artists, founded in April in Londons Hackney area, has used colorful art to enliven closed streets, reclaim parking spaces for pedestrians and encourage social distancing. Using acrylic paint, bollards and tires, the group blurs the line between open and closed space. Londons streets are not safe for social distancing, and a disproportionate amount of space is given to cars at the expense of other road users, a member of the group told BBC.

For those wishing to energize their own streets, Baltimore-based pavement mural specialists Graham Projects have created an online toolkit called Make Place Happen. The designers promise to carry out some of the proposals, working with local authorities.

State Street Promenade, Santa Barbara

Downtown Santa Barbara closed 10 blocks of State Street to cars in May, transforming it into the State Street Promenade. The move followed an emergency ordinance giving businesses more space for outdoor social distancing. The street and its sidewalks have since been enlivened with outdoor restaurant and bar seating, planters and music. Side streets added their own parklets, and establishments have entered into a kind of design one-upmanship to stay competitive, said Robin Elander, president of the community organization Downtown Santa Barbara. It had been spoken about for many years, but there was never enough consensus to do it, said Elander, who expects the street closure to continue next year and, in some form, permanently. The City Council is investigating new lighting and bike lanes.

A street view in Santa Barbara, which moved cars off the main drag downtown and used the road for outdoor dining.

(Tim Persson)

Not everyone has spent the pandemic binging Netflix. Drive-in movies have made a comeback, and some of the best in California include Cinemauto in L.A.s Chinatown, featuring film, dining and shopping; and Electric Dusk in Glendale, where you can watch flicks on the roof of a Sears parking lot, providing for great views. But these are just the beginning of the creativity thats been spawned for those who need to get out for a mental break from home isolation.

The Flaming Lips, Space Bubble ConcertsPerhaps the most on-the-nose response to the pandemic came from the Flaming Lips, who have performed concerts with band members and their fans encased in human-scaled plastic bubbles. The first performance, a test run at their hometown Criterion theater in Oklahoma City in October, featured about 100 inflatable orbs, and they kicked off space bubble concerts at the Criterion this month with even more more orbs. You just cant infect the person next to you, no matter what you forget about, how excited you get, Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne told CNN. Coyne has long been a bubble aficionado. He and his wife, Katy Weaver, were married inside one last January.

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips performing in a bubble in 2019, before the pandemic. This year the bands audience got bubbles too.

(Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Cinema sur lEauOn July 18, Paris popular Paris Plages series which transforms the banks of the Seine and the Canal St. Martin into temporary beaches opened with Cinema Sur Leau. Viewers watched a movie, Le Grand Bain, while floating on electric boats in the Bassin de La Villette. An audience watched from 38 boats while others were socially distanced in beach chairs on land.

People on boats get ready for the start of Le Cinema Sur LEau, or Cinema on the Water, in Paris.

(Associated Press)

Educators have long advocated for outdoor learning, ushering students out of their claustrophobic classrooms to get fresh air and a new perspective. The COVID crisis has made this concept more attractive particularly in warmer months, and creative designers have responded with ingenious ideas.

The third grade sukkah at Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Pewaukee, Wis.

(Brian Slawson)

Prairie Hill Waldorf School, Pewaukee, Wis.

To make in-person learning more feasible, every class at Prairie Hill Waldorf School has an outdoor space for learning. Designs, devised by each class teacher, include indoor-outdoor tents (first grade), sukkahs (third grade) and, for fourth grade, a 12-sided outdoor classroom walled in plywood, supported by a central column and topped with a tarp like a circus tent for learning, with large openings for fresh air to flow in and out. Learning opportunities, first-grade teacher Stanlee Maliszewski said, have widened substantially.

Every leaf that falls, every caterpillar, every butterfly, you have to learn to make that a part of your lesson that day, she said. The hearty Wisconsinites plan to continue using the outdoor spaces through the winter.

One of Curl la Tourelle Head Architectures early tent projects for schools was at Manorfield Primary School in London, where the design provides some protection from the elements but still has large openings for fresh air.

(Killian OSullivan)

Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture, LondonThis firm has worked with tent manufacturers who normally make structures for weddings, conferences and other events; during the pandemic, theyre creating outdoor learning spaces for British schools. The architects, who are veterans of educational design, advise the schools on how to organize the new spaces, where to put them and how to keep them safe. They started with a plasticated fabric classroom at the Manorfield Primary School in Londons Tower Hamlets neighborhood, then moved to a solid-walled tent topped with cone-shaped roofs that acts as an outdoor dining hall for the Elsley Primary School in Wembley. (Large openings allow for natural ventilation.) Theyve developed solutions for a half-dozen schools and drawn up proposals (so far not executed) to create entire outdoor campuses. The work, senior architect Richard Taylor said, has encouraged the firm to focus on better integrating outdoor space into its future schools. The company is working with a modular builder to create timber-framed pop-up facilities that would be far better designed than most of the countrys so-called education porta-cabins.

A rendering of Curl la Tourelle Head Architectures concept for a pop-up outdoor school.

(Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture)

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14 clever COVID-19 design solutions from around the world - Los Angeles Times

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Key Trends in Grass Seed Market: Growth Drivers and New Business Opportunities 2020-2026 - Farming Sector

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The most important players in this report are: Hancock SeedPennington SeedThe Scotts CompanyBarenbrug GroupTurf MerchantsGreen Velvet Sod FarmsBonideJonathan GreenPickseedPGG wrightson Turf

The Grass Seed Market Research Report presents a top to bottom data and expert analysis for the period to 2026. The report contains information on upstream raw materials, downstream interest, and value of production, as well as a number of important factors that may stimulate market development. In the same way, the report consists of Manufactures, Types, Applications, and Regions.

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Coronavirus Insights: Ongoing Updates Covering The Impact On Grass Seed Market - NeighborWebSJ

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No. 10 Disasters strike across Newton

By Taylor Beck | tbeck@covnews.com

The calendar year of 2020 hasnt been kind to many people across the nation with much of the blame being pointed toward COVID-19. However, the novel coronavirus wasnt the only resemblance of disaster to strike in Newton County.

First responders rescue six from flood waters

Members of the Covington/Newton County Dive Team waded through icy and rising flood waters from the Yellow River on Feb. 7 to rescue six people trapped in their homes at the Riverside Estates Mobile Home and Travel Trailer Park on the Access Road in Covington.

Newton County Fire Battalion Chief Joe Cagle said firefighters were dispatched to the park on a report of a person trapped in a camper. While authorities were on the scene, more people were reportedly trapped.

Newton Fire Lt. Tim Martin and Fire Apparatus Operator Bret Madsen donned dry suits and using a boat rescued the initial victim before conducting a door to door search of the flooded area. No injuries were reported.

One of the rescued victims, Billy New, said of the firefighters, They did a great job.

According to Newton County Emergency Management Agency Director Jody Nolan, the team is made up of public safety personnel from Covington and Newton County and is funded by the EMA.

Two drown in Alcovy River

A Covington residents efforts to save his girlfriends son from drowning Aug. 11 ended tragically for both in the Alcovy River.

Members of a local and state water rescue team recovered the bodies of Covington residents Antonio Perry, 38, and Dejerein Grier, 14, from the river adjacent to Factory Shoals Park in south Newton County.

Family members reported the two missing after both went under the water around 7 p.m., said Sheriff Ezell Brown.

(Responding deputies) were told the teenage son had gone out swimming and the teenage son appeared to have gotten in a challenging mode with the waters, Brown said.

Perry then went out into the water to rescue the teen and he was succumbed by the waters, as well, Brown said.

Media reports said family members had gathered at the park for a day of fun and relaxation. The mother of Grier and girlfriend of Perry, Tonya Hardeman, also was there, Fox5 News reported.

Brown said the group had been to another area and they left that area and they chose to come to this last area where they were all together again.

They were just going to enjoy, have fun, he said.

The Newton-Covington Dive Team was called in to search after the incident occurred but called off their efforts because of darkness.

The team resumed its search Aug. 12 and found Perry but ended the search because of heavy thunderstorms, said spokeswoman Caitlin Jett of the Newton County Sheriffs Office.

The team then resumed the search of the river Aug. 13 and found Grier, Jett said

Brown said he wanted the families of the victims to knowthat they have our greatest sympathies for their loss especially during these times.

He noted concerns about COVID-19 had forced changes in how funerals are conducted.

Any time is a bad time, but these times are unprecedented times that you do not have the opportunity to really mourn and cannot have a traditional funeral, Brown said. Its tough, and I want the families to know that.

The Dive Team is a joint effort of the Newton County Sheriffs Office, Newton County Fire Services, Covington Fire Department, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement, and Georgia Emergency Management Agency, Jett said.

Fire displaces Covington apartment residents

An Oct. 28 fire displaced about 20 residents after an air conditioning unit caught fire at an apartment complex near downtown Covington.

Covington Fire Department responded to an 11:34 p.m. fire call at Harrisburg Park apartments at 2140 Conyers St. and found the air conditioning unit caused sprinklers to turn on and cause extensive water damage in a third floor hallway, said Donnie Tudor, deputy chief of operations for the department.

Two Newton County Fire Department units assisted city firefighters in responding with two ladder trucks, two engines, a rescue squad unit and two battalion units. No injuries were reported.

Tudor said the American Red Cross assisted the displaced residents by finding overnight housing at an area motel.

Tornado hits Covington homeless shelter

Director Clara Lett stood outside what was left of the Rainbow Community Shelter building Oct. 12.

She said she had been in the shelters doorway five minutes before a tornado hit the building without warning two days earlier.

Id just drove off and got around that corner and they said a tornado had hit, she said.

The National Weather Service reported a tornado touched down in Covington and ran for about 1.4 miles Oct. 10.

Police reported it uprooted some trees but only caused one minor injury to a volunteer at the homeless shelter when the tornado hit the building off Turner Lake Road about 5:15 p.m., said Covington Police spokesman Capt. Ken Malcom.

The EF-1 tornado was tracked from Washington Street and Walker Bend Parkway to Woodhaven Drive near I-20 in western Covington, according to the National Weather Service.

An EF-1 has estimated wind speeds of 73 to 112 mph, according to the NWS.

The tornado downed trees along its path, including in the area of Brown Bridge Road and Turner Lake Road near the Rainbow shelter, a local official said. Downed trees also caused some power outages in western Newton County, Snapping Shoals EMC reported.

The storm was the remnants of Hurricane Delta that struck the coast of Louisiana and prompted several tornado warnings across Georgia.

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2020 REWIND: Newton's top stories of the year ranked 6-10 - Covington News

Theres something for everyone in the City of Joy, be it for for take out lovers or the ones who are stepping out to bid farewell to 2020. Pub crawls or dance nights may be off-limits owing to safety concerns but you can still have a good ol' family dinner on the night of December 31, or even a luxe brunch. City eateries and premium lounges have curated a spectacular range of pocket-friendly festivities for a safe,

Monkey Bar

Monkey Bar is hosting a Jolly Good New Year Eve Bash with their in-house DJ Rwikraj and a wide assortment of heady and delicious meals from their Jolly Good Fellow menu.Drop in for a night to remember and enjoy delicacies such as, Maka Pao De, Panthras & Mother-In-Laws Chutney, Spicy Chicken Roast, Ball Curry and Pao, Red Bourbon a festive concoction of red wine, Jim Beam whisky, strawberry and lime juice; and a cocktail straight out of the Goan beaches -Brandy Bugger- a heady mix of brandy, orange, lime and peach, to name a few.

La Macario Cafe

The newest caf in town La Macario is all set to host a live concert with Nilanjan Live and they also have a winter special menu which includes soups, the options are Creamy Asparagus Soup and Classic Roasted Pumpkin Soup a sumptuous spread of Sushis like Cream Cheese & Asparagus Sushi, Spicy Shiitake Mushroom Sushi and 'Avocado Cucumber Sushi. The appetizers include Chilli Water-chestnut, Peri Peri Sweet Potato Fries in Orange Vinaigrette and Beetroot and Goat Cheese Arancini. For mains, theres Asparagus Risotto, Winter Squash Crepe in Creamy Thyme Sauce, to name a few. The sinful desserts on the menu are Strawberry Parfait, and Strawberry and Nutella Crepes. Theres also a variety of everyones favourite winter drink - Hot Chocolate. Apart from the classic flavour, there is also an addition of profoundly rich offerings, including, Peppermint Winter Hot Chocolate, Spiked Winter Cinnamon Hot chocolate, and Snowman Hot Chocolate with marshmallows

JW Marriott

Brace yourselves for the exquisite brunch, lunch and dinner offerings at the hotels all-day diner JW Kitchen as well as the signature specialty Pan Asian restaurant, Vintage Asia, on Thursday, 31st December, 2020 and Friday, 1st January 2021. With lip-smacking spreads bringing the best of global cuisine and gourmet creations, guests are sure to head on a gastronomic journey into the new year. Enjoy brunch and lunch from 12 PM to 3 PM, while the dinner spread will be available from 7 PM to 11 PM on both the days at the propertys dining-out spaces.

ibis Kolkata Rajarhat

This New Years Eve, ibis Kolkata Rajarhat's team of experts have planned a mouth-watering array of culinary offerings like live Seafood counter, Salad Bar, Compound Salad counter, live Italian counter with various kinds of breads for display. Chicken Malai tikka and Tandoori Aloo will definitely make for a finger-licking dish. The elaborate dessert counter will surely leave everyone spoilt for choice, especially the little ones.The Olive Bar with a display of 8 varieties of olives will surely be a sight to behold.Keeping in mind the current situation, we are taking the utmost precautions for our guests. Our aim is to offer you a pleasant and fun celebration with the highest health and safety standards.

Date: 31st December, 2020

Time: 1900 hours onwards

Laa Mozarellla

Head on to Laa Mozarellla for a special musical performance by Amit Guchait. The caf also offers a New Year menu featuring roasted turkey with mushroom in red wine sauce, Baked Chicken breast in honey brown sugar glaze (served with grilled mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts), Honey roasted duck serve with red wine juice, Prawn thermidor, Italian Wood Fired Pizza, Half Roast Chicken served with Honey Bar B Q sauce and Char Grilled Baked Fish are sure to take your taste buds on an adventure.

Billions

The newest uber house in town has something special for all the party lovers this year. Dig into the specially curated a-la-carte menu that offers an extensive selection of both non-vegetarian as well as vegetarian choices. Some of the signature highlights include Baked Brie Cheese, Bacon wrapped honey glazed prawns, Garlic chicken supreme, Chicken Roulade Corn Spinach Casserole, Roasted vegetable lasagna, Classic roasted chicken and Chicken Stroganoff toname a few.Saving the best for the last, the rich and irresistible desserts on offer are, Old Monk Chocolate Cake, Churros amongst others.

Fairfield By Marriott

Beginning the countdown to 2021 are the thoughtfully curated New Years Eve Dinner on Thursday, 31st December 2020 and New Year Brunch on Friday, 1st January 2021 at Kava, the hotels all-day diner. Following the lavish New Years Eve Dinner alongside a charming live saxophone performance, guests can also head to Mangrove, the hotels stunning banquet space for an elegant party with food, mocktails, unlimited alcohol (at an added cost) and a two-piece musical band. The sumptuous buffets at Kava will feature live counters and delicious signature offerings like Seafood Bisque, Hara Masala Ka Chapli Kebab, Warm Quinoa Salad, Surkh Lal Badami Aloo, Gondhoraj Mahi Tikka, Roasted Vegetable Panini, to name a few. End the feast on the sweetest note with desserts like Praline Cake, Coconut Passion, Multigrain Kheer, among others.

ITC Sonar Kolkata

Explore A New Year's eve dinner or a New Year's day brunch buffet at Pan Asia where you'll find picks like Vegetable Basil Miso, Spinach Pan Cake Stuffed with Red Onion and Mushroom, Mapo Dofu (Stir fried mushroom and bean curd with hot bean sauce), Kung Kratium (Wok tossed prawns with garlic and fresh black pepper corn sauce), Fish Takrai (Wok tossed fish with Thai chilli paste and lemon grass), Cliced Chicken Chilly Bean Sauce, Classic Chinese Mango Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, IceCream Kati Sod (Young tender coconut jelly topped with home made coconut ice cream)

The Brass Room, ITC Royal Bengal

The jewel hued bar is a soft nod to Kolkatas intricately woven heritage. The menu brings together a medley of spirits and tapas against a background of soft acoustics creating an ambience ideal for any occasion. Drop in for aNew Years Eve Dinner that will feature numbers likeCottage Cheesenut Kanoli, TBR Potato Tatters, R.N Cheeni, TheNaga Honey Chicken, Kofte Kebab, PanchPhorok Pork etc.

Continued here:
New Year's Eve in Kolkata: A definitive guide on where to eat, drink and be merry - Indulgexpress

Robin Autopilot and Weed Man Form Partnership

Ranked as the eighth-largest company on the 2020 Lawn & Landscape Top 100, based on 2019 revenue, Weed Man has provided high-quality lawn care services for 50 years. The company expanded into the robotic mowing business when it launched TurfBot in 2018 to test the concept, recognizing the benefits of offering battery-powered and emissions-free robotic mowing services to customers. TurfBot currently operates in three locations and plans for aggressive expansion plans in 2022.

"We are proud to partner with Weed Man, which has a long and outstanding history as a pioneer and leader in the North American market for lawn care services," said Logan Fahey, chief executive officer of Robin Autopilot. "We are creating a strong new force in the lawn and landscaping market that will help both of our companies continue our growth as we provide more customers with the opportunity to adopt robotic mowing technology."

"Robin Autopilot was the obvious choice for us in our search for a partner with cutting-edge technology and expertise that would help us grow in the exciting robotic mowing industry," said Jennifer Lemcke, chief executive officer of Weed Man. "We believe robotic mowing has a bright future, and we look forward to working with Robin to continue the transformation of the lawn care industry through the wide-ranging environmental and economic benefits of this new technology."

About Robin Autopilot Robin Autopilot's software platform provides solutions to enable landscapers to begin offering robotic mowing to their customers by providing software to manage their fleet and jobs, training and educational materials for their staff and customers, marketing collateral to expand their customer base, and finally, innovative products to simplify the installation and management of robotic mowers. Robotic mowers are battery-powered, programmable, and energy- and cost-efficient. They can be used daily to keep a lawn trimmed to a precise length, resulting in a more attractive landscape with pollution-reducing benefits equivalent to replacing two family cars with electric vehicles. This allows landscapers and lawn maintenance crews to deliver a more reliable and eco-friendly lawn care solution than traditional gas-powered mowing and also results in a healthier lawn. The automated mowers also offer significant relief for landscape service providers who are challenged by a lack of available workforce in many markets.

About Weed Man Based in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Weed Man has provided high-quality lawn care services since 1970. During that time, the company has grown from its Canadian roots into an international network of more than 300 locally owned and operated franchises providing services that produce lush green lawns for homeowners in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Weed Man's environmentally responsiblelawn care programs and services focus on a well-balanced, high-quality fertilization program first, which in turn produces the thickest, healthiest lawn possible. From lawn fertilization to weed control, integrated pest management, and everything in between, Weed Man has a lawn care program for every lawn.

For more information, contact: Ellen Bruno, VP, Operations 574-524-0364 [emailprotected]

SOURCE Robin Autopilot

robinautopilot.com

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Robin Autopilot and Weed Man Form Partnership to Strengthen Both Companies' Positions in the Rapidly Growing Robotic Mowing Market - PRNewswire

If you own or plan to buy a home security camera or smart doorbell camera, you need a place to hold all of the footage it captures. That means you need to decide where video will be saved once the camera captures it, because where the video goes determines how long it lasts, how secure it is, what it costs, and how easy it is to access.

There are two types of video storage for Wi-Fi security cameras. Local storage saves all your video recordings in the camera, on a networked device, or even on network-attached storage (NAS)so all your video stays local, inside your home. Cloud storage is the other option, in which the camera transfers all your recordings over the internet to store them on servers that you can access from almost anywhere (thats what the cloud part refers to).

We suggest that most people use cloud storage for their security cameras, or that they select cameras offering both local and cloud options (such as our current top-two indoor camera picks). Although local storage is usually cheap (just the cost of the memory card), and in going local you dont have to worry about who might potentially view your footage, there are a few specific reasons we recommend only those cameras that offer some type of cloud service.

If you merely want to spot mice running across the kitchen counter or view what your dog is doing during the day, local storage should be just fine. However, if someone breaks into your home and steals the camera cardor the whole camerayou wont have a record of the incident.

Cloud storage keeps all your footage safely away from prying eyes (or hands). Of course, if the power goes out, if a child yanks the power cord, or someone simply steals your camera, youre out of luck no matter what type of storage you use. However, cloud storage at least ensures that you have a video clipright up until your camera shuts downthat you can view in an app or a web browser.

Every type of storage option has limits. If you use local storage, youre limited by the amount of space on the memory card or NAS device. For example, the Eufy 2K Indoor Cam can support a microSD card up to 128 GB, which provides enough space to hold about 30 hours of 2K-resolution video or 36 hours worth at 1080p resolution. Wyze recommends using a 32 GB card with the Wyze Cam v2; that translates to 48 hours of 1080p video or 168 hours of 720p video. That may sound like a lot, but it can disappear quickly depending on how often your camera gets motion triggersyou may end up having hours of clips of you mowing the lawn, say, or of kids playing in the family room. Typically when a card hits its limit, the camera automatically deletes the oldest video clips to make room for new oneswhich means if you arent checking it once or twice a week, you may miss something.

With a cloud storage plan, you think in terms of time instead of storage size. For instance, Wyzes Cam Plus service stores your footage for 14 days (your recordings delete automatically after that). Although most cloud storage plans dont support 24/7 recording (Googles Nest Aware being a notable exception), Wyze says you could theoretically store 14 days of 24/7 video clips if your camera is constantly being triggered to record.

It often pays towell, pay. Companies want to get you on the hook for that recurring revenue, so they often include exclusive features and other perks to entice new subscribers and keep existing customers happy.

For instance, for $2 per month per camera (or $15 annually), Wyzes Cam Plus service includes person detectionso your camera can be more selective when it records clips and sends you alerts. Similarly, the Arlo Smart service provides people, vehicle, and package alerts, as well as activity zones. And some cameras, like those from the Google Nest line or newer Arlo models, dont provide any type of storage, person alerts, or the ability to share clips without a subscription.

Although were never eager to subscribe to yet another paid service, we think cloud storage for security cameras is a service worth having, even if you dont use it 365 days a year. Compared with most service fees, the pricing for cloud storage tends to be relatively low. Current cloud plans cost anywhere from $2 to $6 per month for a single camera (and usually offer a discount for multiple cameras) and include several privacy and safety features.

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One Option You Shouldnt Overlook When Setting Up a Security Camera - The New York Times