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A new feature-length documentary film profiling the meticulous, Harboe Architects-led restoration of Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, will be available to stream for a limited time on Vimeo starting October 30. This special preview screening/fundraising period will conclude on November 15 with a panel discussion hosted by filmmaker Lauren Levine discussing the documentary and the momentous effort to preserve one of Wrights most iconic early works for future generations. Virtual tickets for the film, titled Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wrights Modern Masterpiece, cost $20 and include access to the Zoom-based panel.

Proceeds from ticket sales will help support four additional Wright sites in addition to Unity Temple: Taliesin, Taliesin West, Fallingwater, and the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. (Despite being geographically disparate, all five of these works collectively comprise a single UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Frederick C. Robie House, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.)

Narrated by Brad Pitt, Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wrights Modern Masterpiece dives into the rich history of the reinforced concrete (a then-audacious choice) house of worship. Commissioned in 1905, Unity Temple was completed in 1908 following a string of construction delays, modifications, technical difficulties, and cost overruns.

Wright, 41-years-old at the time of the churchs completion, had settled in Oak Park, a growing suburb directly west of Chicago, in the late 1880s. Wright took on numerous residential projects in and around Oak Park during the beginning of the 20th century including early Prairie-style homes. Wildly experimental for its time, Unity Temple was not only Wrights first major public buildingits also widely considered his most significant work and a vastly influential forebear of the modern architecture movement. Unity Temple makes an entirely new architectureand is the first expression of it. That is my contribution to modern architecture, Wright later said.

The project was also a deeply personal commission for the young architect, who was a member of the Unitarian Universalist congregation that the church was built to serve. (Unity Temples predecessor, the Oak Park Unity Church, was destroyed in a fire in 1905.)

Over the decades, Unity Temple has suffered from various structural problems and maintenance woes, namely water damage. Early efforts to safeguard the church led to the formation of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation (UTRF) in 1970, a secular, preservation-minded organization that, thirty years later, began devising a comprehensive restoration master plan in partnership with the church. Unity Temple was named both a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year UTRF was established.

Fast-forward nearly four wear, tear, and leak-filled decades later to 2009 when the UTRFs push to preserve the ailing church became all the more urgentand widely-publicizedwith its inclusion on the National Trust for Historic Preservations 11 Most Endangered Historic Places List. In 2015, Unity Temple closed to the public and restoration work kicked off in earnest. The multi-year, $25 million effort, which involved painstaking interior and exterior work including on the buildings art glass windows and multitude of leak-prone flat roofs, was completed and reopened in the summer of 2017 for both worship andguided public tours led by the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. The restoration was met with widespread acclaim and much like with the churchs drawn-out construction, the patience of all involved certainly paid off.

Over the course of the documentarys 55-minute run time, Levine chronicles the reawakening of Unity Temple with input and insight from the restoration team including lead architect Gunny Harboe, members of the Unity Temple congregation, and a range of architectural historians and critics including Paul Goldberger and Blair Kamin. As for Pitt, he steps in to narrate the architects philosophies, according to a press release.

I hoped to convey a window into Wrights mind, beyond the often repeated autobiographical mainstream material, so that we could better understand Wrights guiding philosophy and intent that his buildings reflect the people who use them, said Levine. It was important to capture both the tremendous task and details of the restoration itself as well as the spirit, diversity and commitment of the congregation who continue to bring the building to life.

Go here to read the rest:
A Brad Pitt-narrated documentary about restoring the Unity Temple will soon be available for streaming - The Architect's Newspaper

The earthquake struck in seconds, but three years later restorers still face a monumental task: about half of the 2,340 colonial-era buildings and churches damaged in the 2017 Mexico quake still need to be repaired, restored or partially rebuilt.

It is a titanic challenge: crumbling old stone and lime mortar walls and domes, without an ounce of cement or rebar, have to be built back with the same ancient materials

But that doesnt mean the work is primitive. At the Nuestra Seora de Los Angeles church near downtown Mexico City the restoration work has a space-age feel: towering curved metal support structures are delicately lowered into place by huge cranes, to support the half-collapsed dome of the church. Meanwhile, the other, standing half of the 100-ton dome looms 80 feet (25 meters) above workers.

There is always a sensation of risk being in there, of course, because you sense that pieces could come falling down at any time, said Antonio Mondragn, the architect at the National Institute of Anthropology and History who leads the restoration effort. Any material that comes flying down from 25 meters (yards) would be very dangerous. There is always a risk, and we know we cant stay inside very long.

Mondragn has gained a respect for the old church a chapel built in the late 1500s stood here, of which only a portion of one wall remains, while the collapsed dome was built between 1740 and 1884 calling it noble. The dome didnt collapse at the moment of the quake, but rather five days later, leaving time to get people and precious objects out.

It is so dangerous to stand beneath the remains of the dome that the tons of steel structures are made off-site and then gingerly lowered into the crater at the center where the dome once stood; the steel beams simultaneously brace the remaining walls of the cupula, provide a work platform just under the dome and the arch over the top, to provide trusses for a temporary metal roof.

The experts working on projects like this across Mexico face some of the same issues confronting restorers everywhere, like Frances re-building of the Notre Dame Cathedral: are the materials and craftsmen's skills of centuries ago still available? How can you explain delays to impatient modern citizens, for whom construction is something that is done in weeks or months?

It is true that some of the finer, more specialized knowledge of these (construction) crafts has been lost. This work is still being done, perhaps more clumsily, but the crafts remain and people know how to work with these materials, Mondragn says, referring to the quarry stone and super-light tezontle volcanic stone used to build the original dome. But with quarries near the city depleted or filled in to create housing Mondragn says in effect, it gets harder every day to find good material.

Initially, restorers thought that they would have to dismantle what remained of the dome and re-assemble it piece by piece, Mondragn said. But they realized that the cause of the collapse had been an enormously heavy central cupola that stood atop the dome and which had been leaning out of level because the church was unevenly sinking into Mexico Citys notoriously swampy soil. So the collapsed part could be rebuilt and mated with the remaining structure.

The $2 million restoration effort at Nuestra Seora de los Angeles will take at least two years more; impatient residents often ask experts why it is taking so long. To date, about 1,100 of the 2,340 damaged structures have been restored.

Architect Fernando Duarte Soriano is restoring churches for the Institute, known as the INAH, in the neighboring state of Morelos. He points to the barrel-vault roof from the 1500s of the former convent of San Juan Bautista in Tlayacapan, Morelos that cracked and partly collapsed in the 2017 quake.

Sometimes with community members, we face a situation where they say it has been so long, and you havent finished,' says Duarte Soriano, noting that original materials like lime mortar, wood and stone take longer. Imagine, these structures sometimes took as long as 100 years to be built ... and in three years, we have managed to consolidate the structure.

While the Tlayacapan convent, started in 1554, soon after the conquest, is nearing completion there are dozens of other churches that need urgent attention.

Duarte Soriano headed up teams that went out immediately after the 2017 quake to inspect 159 damaged buildings in Morelos, often at enormous personal risk. The truth is there are vaults on the verge of collapsing, collapsed bell towers, domes, buttresses and walls that were falling down. At times it wasnt safe to go into all those places, there was a chance that part of it was going to come down on top of you.

Unable to correct inclinations in some structures, the best restoration work will still leave some buildings leaning at crazy angles, steadied with steel cables and counterweights.

Nor were the original builders centuries ago faultless geniuses; the restoration work has uncovered some elementary errors, like the use of rounded river-stones in the lower parts of some walls. Their round shapes are inherently unstable and dont hold mortar well.

Experts restoring buildings and monuments here have faced every kind of challenge: how to replace a bent old steel support completely encapsulated inside a slender stone column hundreds of feet tall; how to fix foundations sunk in swampy soil; how to restore church bell towers that are central to village life. There have even been fires and takeovers by homeless people at one church under restoration.

Filiberto Arias Araujo, the parish priest at the San Juan Bautista church in Tlayacapan, explains the importance of the bells in Mexican village life. Church bells are commonly rung as an alarm in emergencies, or toll to gather townspeople together. After San Juan Bautistas bell towers were damaged in 2017, the town went silent for three years.

They rang the bells recently as a test, Arias Araujo said of the restoration experts. They wanted to see if there were any vibrations, especially in the facade, and the people were saying Great! We got shivers hearing what we hadnt heard in three years, our bells, the voice of our town.

The rest is here:
Mexico halfway through quake restoration of old churches - The Independent

Pastor Bill Wiebe has been head of the congregation at the Port Rowan Community Church in downtown Port Rowan for 16 years. He says the accidental excavation of a 19th-century gravesite on church property Tuesday was a surprise and remains a mystery. Monte Sonnenbergjpg, SR

PORT ROWAN Accidently digging up a grave is always disturbing.

So it was Tuesday in downtown Port Rowan when a crew installing water mains at the corner of Bay Street and Church Street inadvertently excavated bones that proved to be human.

A construction crew digging at a local church unearthed the remains, Const. Ed Sanchuk of the Norfolk OPP said in a news release Wednesday.

The Norfolk OPP crime unit continued to investigate and determined that the remains located in a casket are historical in nature and appeared to be a burial site.

No foul play is suspected and this incident is not being treated as suspicious.

The remains were found on property belonging to the Port Rowan Community Church. A date stone embedded in the front of the brick building says it was known as the Baptist Chapel at the time of its construction in 1856.

At the scene Wednesday, Pastor Bill Wiebe says the discovery would not have been a surprise had the remains been located on the south side of the church.

Wiebe said the old Baptist cemetery was south of the building but was relocated over time as the congregation sold off lots for properties that, today, front onto Bay Street between the church and Wolven Street.

As it happened, the grave discovered this week was excavated to the north of the church across the street from the Port Rowan post office. That, Wiebe said, adds an element of mystery.

The records of the church were destroyed in a fire in 1906, said Wiebe, who, with wife Lorraine, has served as the pastoral family at the Community Church for 16 years.

All we have is a written oral history. Thats what we rely on pre-1906. History tells us that people too poor for a funeral wouldve been buried on site. This wouldve all been farmland 150 years ago.

Wiebe added that the oral histories gathered after the 1906 fire do not mention burial grounds to the north of the church. The fact the body was interred in an east-west direction tells Wiebe it was a Christian burial.

The excavation occurred at a time of turmoil in downtown Port Rowan.

The London firm J-AAR Excavating is replacing iron water mains at several locations in the core that prematurely failed due to improper installation 30 years ago. The graves discovery is part of this work.

Overseeing installation is Vallee Consulting Engineers, Architects and Planners of Simcoe. A foreman in downtown Port Rowan Tuesday declined to comment.

It is too early to say what will become of the remains. Norfolk OPP are in contact with the office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, forensic anthropologists, and Norfolk officials along with Pastor Wiebe.

From a spiritual standpoint, Wiebe says there are no consequences he can think of regarding the innocent disturbing of a grave, as opposed, he added, to the conscious act of grave robbing.

The scriptures tell us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, he said.

Excavators in urban areas of Norfolk have uncovered 19th-century gravesites before.

In the late 1980s, an excavating crew removing an in-ground fuel tank at a former service station on James Street in Delhi uncovered a portion of a forgotten cemetery from the days when Delhi was known as Fredericksburg. The graves were located on the east side of James Street immediately south of Church Street East.

MSonnenberg@postmedia.com

See more here:
Construction crew unearths human remains - The Beacon Herald

AVONDALE Thirty-three years ago, local leaders were asked to look 50 years into the future and make predictions about Chicago and society as part of a time capsule project for ComEds 100th anniversary.

This summer, a construction worker found the time capsule much earlier than expected and the predictions arent looking too accurate, though we have 17 years to change that.

In one, ad agency founder Harold E. Kuttner predicted by 2037 we will no longer have bigotry, anti-semitism or discrimination of any kind in our country.

In another, local pastor John S. Quinn of St. Andrew Catholic Church said by 2037 he expects the Catholic church to allow women and married men to be priests, and to adapt its doctrines to scientific discoveries.

The country is battling a growing wave of bigotry, anti-semitism and discrimination, with hate crimes on the rise.

And women and married men are still excluded from priesthood in the Catholic church despite repeated calls for change.

SCROLL FOR PHOTOS OF TIME CAPSULE ITEMS

The construction worker found the letters and all of the other artifacts in the time capsule at the end of July on the ComEd headquarters site at 3500 N. California Ave.

Crews are demolishing the 90-year-old building because the company built a new headquarters. ComEds new, $58 million headquarters complete with a public STEM education area opened on the same site in February.

The time capsule was installed in 1987 at ComEds centennial party, a grand event with a performance by Lane Techs marching band, a helicopter landing and a car show, said John Maxson, a longtime ComEd employee who organized the party.

In the weeks leading up to the party, the time capsule was filled with memorabilia from ComEd employees, everything from 1987 coins to 1987 issues of Life magazine, as well as letters from local leaders.

The goal was to surprise and delight whoever stumbled across the box decades later, Maxson said.

At the party, officials placed the time capsule near an 8-foot-tall art deco eagle sculpture, thinking itd be found at least 50 years later, in 2037.

Maxson said he was surprised when he got a call in July and learned the time capsule had already been found.

I was like, Oh my gosh, already? I really had not thought about when it would be found. I thought it would be way in the future, Maxson said.

I didnt know what way in the future meant, but at the time we thought of the office there, at California and Addison, as being one of the pyramids or something we thought this was something that was a permanent asset of the company.

But Maxson noted the past 33 years probably saw more change than [ComEds] first 100 years.

Its unfathomable how technology and the company has changed in such a short period of time, he said.

Back in 1987, ComEd relied on natural gas and coal to generate electricity, whereas today natural gas is its main source. Technicians had to bring drawings with them when going out to fix or install power lines because there was no GPS. Meter readings were done manually; today, theyre automated.

Those are only a few examples of the technological advancements made in just a few decades, said Maxson, who worked for ComEd for 32 years.

I remember [thinking] it would be a different world when its found, but I had no idea it would be such a short period of time, he said.

As for the 2037 predictions: Weve got 17 more years to eliminate bigotry and make the capsules vision for the future a reality.

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Original post:
Time Capsule From 1987 Found In Avondale Building: 'Unfathomable' How Technology Changed But Social Progress Lagging - Block Club Chicago

Road construction to fix delays on one road have created new problems on another one, leaving many drivers on Highway 101 in the Greer area frustrated. A driver reached out to us frustrated with their morning and afternoon commute. Well, apparently she is not the only driver frustrated because SCDOT says they have received several complaints. SCDOT officials said they are working on a solution. Drivers are seeing backs up in the areas of from Memorial Drive Extension to Pine Drive sometimes. We did some digging and found some answers for why this is happening. This stretch of road has been on SCDOTs radar since 2016. "We have monitored the intersection, and then in 2018 based on the crash data we had at the time for safety reasons it was necessary to have a 3-way stop there to stop the major collision we were having there," said Brandon Wilson, the traffic engineer for District 3.This helped traffic from Milford Church Road enter onto Highway 101 but now it is causing backups for drivers on Highway 101. SCDOT officials said that is partly because of Gross Meadow Bridge being closed. It was deemed unsafe after an inspection so SCDOT had to close it. "Unfortunately, what that has done is pushed a lot of vehicles over to 101 and to that intersection," Wilson said.SCDOT is looking at whether or not to repair or completely replace the bridge. It is going to be a while before the bridge is fixed, officials said. So, engineers say they are not going to wait on the bridge to be fixed to hope that also fixes the congestion issues on Highway 101. "We are actively working on the intersection working to come up with a solution there to work that out then once the bridge opens back up it will just work even better," Wilson said.SCDOT officials said they are looking at several options including adding a traffic signal or replacing the three-way stop with flashers but it will probably be early next year before they get anything in the works.If there is something slowing down your commute or something you think is dangerous, we want to know about it. Send an email with details to this email address, newstips@wyff4.com, so we can work to get to the bottom of the issue.

Road construction to fix delays on one road have created new problems on another one, leaving many drivers on Highway 101 in the Greer area frustrated.

A driver reached out to us frustrated with their morning and afternoon commute.

Well, apparently she is not the only driver frustrated because SCDOT says they have received several complaints. SCDOT officials said they are working on a solution.

Drivers are seeing backs up in the areas of from Memorial Drive Extension to Pine Drive sometimes.

We did some digging and found some answers for why this is happening.

This stretch of road has been on SCDOTs radar since 2016.

"We have monitored the intersection, and then in 2018 based on the crash data we had at the time for safety reasons it was necessary to have a 3-way stop there to stop the major collision we were having there," said Brandon Wilson, the traffic engineer for District 3.

This helped traffic from Milford Church Road enter onto Highway 101 but now it is causing backups for drivers on Highway 101.

SCDOT officials said that is partly because of Gross Meadow Bridge being closed. It was deemed unsafe after an inspection so SCDOT had to close it.

"Unfortunately, what that has done is pushed a lot of vehicles over to 101 and to that intersection," Wilson said.

SCDOT is looking at whether or not to repair or completely replace the bridge.

It is going to be a while before the bridge is fixed, officials said.

So, engineers say they are not going to wait on the bridge to be fixed to hope that also fixes the congestion issues on Highway 101.

"We are actively working on the intersection working to come up with a solution there to work that out then once the bridge opens back up it will just work even better," Wilson said.

SCDOT officials said they are looking at several options including adding a traffic signal or replacing the three-way stop with flashers but it will probably be early next year before they get anything in the works.

If there is something slowing down your commute or something you think is dangerous, we want to know about it. Send an email with details to this email address, newstips@wyff4.com, so we can work to get to the bottom of the issue.

Read more from the original source:
Traffic Tuesday: Construction delays on Highway 101 lead to frustration on other road - WYFF4 Greenville

Tony Bolick|The Courier-TribuneAsheboro Police Reports

Recent reports

Oct. 12: Asheboro Police responded to Wendys, East Dixie Drive, Asheboro, in reference to a larceny.

Oct. 13: The manager of The Salvation Army Thrift Store, East Dixie Drive, Asheboro, reported the theft of a bicycle valued at $50.

Oct. 13: CedricJumar Cassidy reported the theft of work equipment from his work truck parked at a construction site, North Fayetteville Street, Asheboro.

Oct. 13: Barbara Eleanor Funkey, Elwood Stout Street, Asheboro, reported a larceny at her residence.

Oct. 13: Jennifer Nixon Damron, Old Liberty Road, Asheboro, reported a possible larceny at her residence.

Oct. 13: Asheboro Police responded to Workout Anytime, East Dixie Drive, Asheboro, in reference to a larceny.

Recent charges

Emmanuel D. Jones: 23, 1009 S. Church St., Apt. 12, Asheboro, simple possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, open container.

Stanley Jean Lerebours: 29, 1002 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Greensboro, probation violation.

Chris Elvin McNeill: 38, 73444 Union Grove Church Road, Seagrove, possession of heroin.

Recent reports

Oct. 8: Kimberly M. Blake, Beechwood Court, Asheboro, reported the theft from her residence of $710 in clothing, $435 in shoes, a bag valued at $575, jewelry valued at $252, a cell phone valued at $600, toiletries valued at $67, a pillow valued at $25 and a drill valued at $20.

Oct. 7: Brian E. Pearman reported a check stolen from his business located on NC 62, Trinity.

Oct. 10: Douglas Eckland reported the theft of a Kubota BX23S tractor valued at $25,000 from a construction site on Tobacco Road, Trinity.

Oct. 13: Tyler G. Smith, US 220 S, Asheboro, reported the theft from his motor vehicle of a cell phone valued at $500 and $300 in damage to his vehicle.

Recent charges

Donald Robert Lynch: 54, 2958 Spencer Road, Archdale, communicating threats, assault and battery.

David Anthony Powell: 52, 4546 River Oaks Drive, Randleman, bill of indictment.

Denise Saunders Powell : 56, 4546 River Oaks Drive, Randleman, bill of indictment.

Donald Lee Stiles: 56, 5117 Elmont St., Archdale, possession of a stolen firearm.

Cody William Toler: 33, 5240 Ridge Road, Trinity, court/receive active sentence.

Heather Leigh Davis: 36, 3141 Nance Country Road, Climax, second-degree trespass.

Joshua Michael Wood: 37, 1840 Dennis St., Asheboro, electronic house arrest.

Nicholas Joseph Davis: 31, 3499 NC 42 South, Asheboro, true bill of indictment.

William Ray Carpenter Jr. : 42, 4328 Briarcliff Road, Thomasville, two counts financial card fraud.

James Carroll Chriscoe: 52, 1656 Jericho Road, Asheboro, second-degree trespass.

Branson Marshall Culler: 20, 6925 Union Grove Church Road, Asheboro, true bill of indictment.

Catherine Alexis Dilldine: 21, 333 Hill St., Asheboro, cyberstalking threats.

Jerry Wayne Grice: 51, 5420 Edgar Road, Archdale, failure to return rental property.

Bonnie Dean Larimore: 59, 6819 Kerr Drive, Randleman, first-degree trespass, misdemeanor larceny.

Thomas Alton Lucas: 43, 2272 Woods Stream Lane, Asheboro, violation of 50B protective order.

Excerpt from:
Business-related thefts reported around Asheboro and the county - Asheboro Courier Tribune

Workers for Monadnock Construction prepare the foundation for the Catholic Charities Bishop Valero Residence in Astoria, Queens. (Photo: Bill Miller)

ASTORIA Construction of a new home for low-income people was about to start last spring in Queens, but the COVID-19 pandemic rattled all aspects of normalcy worldwide.

The Bishop Valero Residence, a project of Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens, is expected to add 102 badly-needed apartments for seniors and formerly homeless adults. Its located at 23-11 31st Road in Astoria, Queens.

Financing for this $62 million effort depended on several partners, including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The pandemic forced that agency to cut back on its budget by 40 percent for the rest of 2020, plus next year, according to David Downs, the deputy director of Catholic Charities Progress of Peoples Development Corporation.

The projects partners, realizing its importance, did not give up.

All the players chipped in to make the project work in the time frame we needed, Downs said. A lot of people had to make some concessions and be flexible.

For example, Downs said Catholic Charities and the city agreed to add more financing. The citys portion of the funding was key because it involved $3.1 million in low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), which are expected to generate $30.8 million in equity over 15 years, nearly half of the money needed to build the project.

Other partners include Bank of America, Richman Housing Resources, and Barings, LLC. Dattner Architects designed the project and Monadnock Construction is the builder.

Although the projects closing was a few weeks late, construction started on time in June, which was a great relief, according to Downs.

We had our construction budget in place, but we could only guarantee costs through June, he said. Supply was a big concern for building materials like steel. So there was a lot of pressure on the team.

We had a calm exterior, but on the inside, we were very nervous.

Affordable Housing Shortage

The Progress of Peoples Development Corporation started making affordable housing in the 1970s serving families, formerly homeless people, senior citizens, and people with HIV.

The task has only gotten harder as New York Citys population swelled to about 8.6 million people, the biggest of all U.S. metropolitan areas. The citys expensive real estate market adds even more hurdles for land acquisition.

Tim McManus, vice president of Progress of Peoples Development Corporation, said a 2016 study showed there were 200,000 applicants for 20,000 affordable housing units in New York City.

Demand for senior affordable housing is a mess throughout the city, McManus said. We dont have numbers to suggest whats happened since COVID, but we know that number has grown.

The Bishop Valero Residence is the second affordable housing project from Catholic Charities to start in 2020. In January, ground broke on the eight-story, 135-unit Catholic Charities Loreto Apartments on Sackman Street in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn.

This site is the former address of Our Lady of Loreto Church, which was demolished in 2017. Nearby is the Catholic Charities Monsignor Anthony J. Barretta Apartments, which was opened in 2013 on the former site of Our Lady of Loreto School.

The Brownsville project began a few weeks before the pandemics onset in March and continued uninterrupted.

However, projects planned by other developers are not as fortunate, being stuck in a COVID-wrought financing limbo, adding to the frustration of advocates struggling with an existing shortage of affordable-housing citywide.

A lot of projects, McManus said, are still on the sidelines.

Build a Community

The six-story Bishop Valero Residence is expected to open in 2022 with nearly 85,000 square feet of space and environment-friendly features like solar panels.

Its located in a former parking lot for the existing Catherine Sheridan Senior Housing project, another property in the Progress of Peoples Development Corporations affordable-housing portfolio.

About 6,500 square feet are set aside for a ground-floor, 200-seat community center operated by Catholic Charities Neighborhood Services. Other amenities include a commercial kitchen serving hot meals, an exercise area, a computer lab, and a landscaped patio area.

We build buildings wed like to live in ourselves, Downs said.

Of the 102 units, 71 are designated for low-income senior citizens, while the other 31 are for formerly homeless seniors. All residents will have access to on-site social services.

We really are trying to put together a comprehensive model, providing not just for housing, but also social services to address the residents physical and social needs, McManus said.

Father Patrick Keating, deputy chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens, explained that low-income tenants deserve safe homes, hopefully in the neighborhoods where theyve lived and near their longtime parishes.

What we try to do is build a community, Father Keating said. But its not just buildings; its a greater integration of bricks and mortar with services. All our programs are interconnected.

Father Keating credited Msgr. Alfred LoPinto, chief executive officer, for devising a holistic approach to integrating services.

The Church teaches the dignity of every single person, Father Keating said, and by providing a safe home, youre serving that person, which allows us to fulfill our ministry.

Go here to read the rest:
Catholic Charities Stays on Its Quest for Affordable Housing - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

OK, pay attention at the back. Heres your maths question for today.

Dont worry if sums are not your strong point because it is one which I am sure most three-year-olds would be able to answer. It is what comes between three and five?

Contrary to what you might think its not four. At least according to the Japanese manufacturer Mazda its 30.

Now you may think some of the car makers in the Far East tend to do things a little differently but even thats taking it a bit far.

Apparently theres a simple explanation why theyve labelled their latest family-sized crossover/compact SUV the CX-30, which sits in the gap between the CX-3 and the larger CX-5.

The CX-4 name has already been given to a very similar car which is produced and sold exclusively in China by the joint venture FAW Mazda and so is not available for other markets.

In the overall scheme of things it doesnt really matter, except potential customers could be forgiven for being confused about what is being offered.

Actually it is good the number three is still there, because under the surface is the same platform that is the base for the excellent Mazda 3 hatchback which was voted both overall Scottish and Family Car of the Year in 2019.

It rides higher on the road than the hatch and is aimed at taking on the tough competition from the likes of the Seat Ateca, Skoda Karoq and Nissan Qashqai.

First off, it is a good-looking car with smooth, flowing lines, from the long sharp-nosed bonnet through to the stubby rear end with black plastic body moulding and extended wheel arches along the side.

The 790 option of soul red crystal metallic paint gave the test car strong presence in the street and attracted many admiring glances to the car, which I think has bags of character not commonly seen in many new models.

What is even more impressive though is the superb quality of the finish on the inside. The test car had fine light stone-coloured leather trim on the seats which looked far more expensive than the 200 option price although I was not so keen on the brown leather accents which seemed rather out of place in the otherwise tasteful interior.

The overall look is sophisticated and well away from the perceived plasticky image of some of the other Japanese brands. It reminded me more of the quality standard found in the current Volvo range, simple but effective design and first-class build quality.

The dash is dominated by an almost 9in-wide screen in the centre with all the functions accessed by a rotary dial between the seats, making it more accurate and easy to use while on the move than the alternative touchscreen.

The test car came with stacks of equipment including heated steering wheel, 12 speaker Bose surround sound audio and head-up display sensibly linked to the memory on the seats, which also recalled the settings for the door mirrors.

Cockpit space in the front is generous although it was a bit tighter in the back if you happen to be transporting a couple of six-footers and while the boot space is fine, some of the competition is larger.

There is a four-wheel-drive option but the test car was front-wheel-drive with a six-speed manual gearbox.

The clever bit was under the bonnet, where lies Mazdas revolutionary Skyactiv-X power unit, the worlds first petrol engine with compression ignition which combines the free-revving performance of a petrol engine with the fuel economy of a diesel. Like a diesel engine, the fuel and air mixture is ignited by squeezing it but uses a spark plug only as a way of starting the process. That gives greater control and reliability and torque is improved by 30%, fuel consumption is reduced by 20% and emissions are much lower too.

There is certainly no lack of power and over several hundred miles of mixed driving, it felt assured, well-behaved and happy to stretch its legs.

I enjoyed my time with the CX-30 and while on the face of it, the numbers may be a touch confusing, they certainly add up.

Link:
ROAD TEST: Mazda's new family car adds up to a great choice - Press and Journal

Customers of SEMrush, an all-in-one advertising and marketing toolkit, now have entry to 2 new options that can enhance native web optimization administration. The Itemizing Administration software, which is obtainable as a part of the Premium service, makes it simpler for companies to spice up visibility, monitor evaluations and have interaction new prospects.

Organisations utilizing Itemizing Administration will discover that its a lot simpler to distribute enterprise information, with corporations in a position to share data routinely with greater than 80 enterprise directories within the US and over 40 in different international locations. Inside Itemizing Administration, corporations can edit all their data from one place and routinely distribute it to main search platforms, together with Amazon Alexa, Google and Bing. Info may even be voice search prepared.

Primarily based on buyer suggestions, utilizing Itemizing Administration can considerably scale back the time it takes for digital advertising and marketing companies to achieve their shoppers. Throughout only a two-month interval, healthcare-focused digital entrepreneurs WebServ used SEMrush to ship a 34 per cent uplift to their consumers Google My Enterprise (GMB) itemizing when it comes to discovery searches.

The largest additions to the Itemizing Administration software come within the type of two new extensions. The primary, Evaluation Administration, offers companies the chance to answer evaluations from GMB or Fb straight, with out having to go away the platform.

The second, an area rating heatmap, permits corporations to trace as much as 5 key phrases on a hyper-local scale, utilizing Google Maps to realize a greater understanding of their native rivals. The heatmap supplies a scan radius that permits companies to find out whether or not they wish to monitor on a smaller or bigger scale.

Its simple for companies to get carried away when theyre increasing and neglect their native prospects in pursuit of fast progress. The brand new options from SEMrush present a reminder that native success can nonetheless profit from an in depth web optimization technique.

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Customers of SEMrush, an all-in-one advertising and marketing toolkit, now have entry to 2 new options that can enhance native web optimization administration. The Itemizing Administration software, which is obtainable as a part of the Premium service, makes it simpler for companies to spice up visibility, monitor evaluations and have interaction new prospects.

Organisations utilizing Itemizing Administration will discover that its a lot simpler to distribute enterprise information, with corporations in a position to share data routinely with greater than 80 enterprise directories within the US and over 40 in different international locations. Inside Itemizing Administration, corporations can edit all their data from one place and routinely distribute it to main search platforms, together with Amazon Alexa, Google and Bing. Info may even be voice search prepared.

Primarily based on buyer suggestions, utilizing Itemizing Administration can considerably scale back the time it takes for digital advertising and marketing companies to achieve their shoppers. Throughout only a two-month interval, healthcare-focused digital entrepreneurs WebServ used SEMrush to ship a 34 per cent uplift to their consumers Google My Enterprise (GMB) itemizing when it comes to discovery searches.

The largest additions to the Itemizing Administration software come within the type of two new extensions. The primary, Evaluation Administration, offers companies the chance to answer evaluations from GMB or Fb straight, with out having to go away the platform.

The second, an area rating heatmap, permits corporations to trace as much as 5 key phrases on a hyper-local scale, utilizing Google Maps to realize a greater understanding of their native rivals. The heatmap supplies a scan radius that permits companies to find out whether or not they wish to monitor on a smaller or bigger scale.

Its simple for companies to get carried away when theyre increasing and neglect their native prospects in pursuit of fast progress. The brand new options from SEMrush present a reminder that native success can nonetheless profit from an in depth web optimization technique.

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