I attended the PIDCO (Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation) Annual Meeting today and was voted into a position on the Board of Directors. I have voiced some disappointment with PIDCO’s squandered potential the last few years and I guess now I have to put up or shut up! Easterday Construction has long been a shareholder in PIDCO. We’ve believed in the mission and the work they have done for Plymouth and Marshall County has been impressive. I look forward to helping them recapture and advance their agenda for the betterment of the community.
There was a presentation from Dan Zuerner of Garmong Construction regarding his thoughts on economic development and the new shell building that is being built on PIDCO property. This project is a combined effort with PIDCO, MCEDC, City of Plymouth and the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission. This will give us a flexible state of the art building to offer on the market. The presentation was interesting and hopefully a wake-up call to the PIDCO members and city officials that were there. He chastised the City for high fees and difficult requirements that have added costs and slowed the project. If this is a difficulty for a company we’re partnering with, just imagine the view from a new business looking to expand here…
Granite countertops remain one of the coveted kitchen upgrades. Unfortunately, along with the beautiful colors of natural stone comes the perception of cold. The mass of the stone acts as a heat sink so even when the stone is at room temperature, it feels cold to the touch. With our new emphasis on energy conservation, more and more people are using setback thermostats. While the new high efficiency forced air furnaces bring the air temperature up fairly quickly, the thermal mass of the stone is affected much more slowly.
This has been a problem for years with tile floors and it has been addressed by installing electric or hydronic heating elements in the grout beneath the tile. If you haven’t experienced this, you’ve missed out. Stepping onto a cold bathroom floor in the morning can be a bit shocking. Stepping onto a warm tile floor is wonderful. If your feet are warm, the rest of you feels warm.
In doing the previous post on alternate WECS’s (Wind Energy Conversion Systems) I ran across some interesting options for street lights that are powered by wind, solar or a combination of the two. Some are more decorative than functional, but I thought they would be interesting to consider for the Sand Hill Farm project. I’ve collected a list of interesting links below showing some of the innovations that are out there. I’ve also included some pictures gleaned from the net.
I also was impressed with the idea of the E-Turbine. This bollard size WECS is designed to be installed along roads and take advantage of the constant rush of air caused by passing vehicles. I would imagine these would be extremely efficient in underpasses and tunnels where that energy can be directed to the turbines and then employed to light the surrounding areas. Each Turbine has a built in battery to store the energy produced. This is similar to the idea previously posted here regarding paving tiles that steal the energy created by foot traffic.
With the currently proposed ordinance these may well be banned too. 0.5 Kilowatts (low end of proposed ordinance WECS definition) is 500 Watts. Street lights use bulbs averaging from 35 to 250 watts per hypertextbook.com That means for a fixture using bulbs at the upper end of this scale, each bulb would require its own turbine to stay under the mandated wattage.
The Flow fixture by Igen Design. Link: http://www.coroflot.com/vasquez/Flow-public-lighting-for-the-Third-World
UGE’s whimsical Wind-Solar Hybrid Street Light. http://www.urbangreenenergy.com/solutions/wind-solar-hybrid-streetlights/how-it-works
Wind Tulip by Tuvie: http://www.tuvie.com/windtulip-wind-powered-street-light-that-looks-like-a-tulip-flower/
Beach Lamp by Zengzhu Deng. http://www.ecochunk.com/3777/2012/11/14/sea-and-land-breeze-power-the-eco-friendly-beach-lamp-concept/
Loopwing Korea powers clocks as well as street lights. http://www.greendiary.com/loopwing-korea-unveils-self-powered-streetlight-wind-power-generator.html
Of these, I think I like the UGE version with the banner option and wind/solar combination power. Some of the links above talk about 400 watt bulbs, but assuming there is a battery to charge too, the wattage may well exceed the 0.5 Kilowatt limitation being proposed. The wattage restriction would also limit the option of one turbine powering several lights.
The kind of creative thinking that creates these things won’t be stifled by Culver banning WECS’s. The ban just stops the use of the new technology that’s out there. This is what I tried to suggest at the Plan Commission with limited success.
One of the problems with tile showers is how to handle the drain. It is often difficult to get the water to flow to the low point when dealing with tile. I have seen tile installers get very creative with this – not always with an aesthetically pleasing result though.
California Faucets has come up with the StyleDrain, a decorative shower drain that provides a tile frame that can receive the same tile as the floor. (Shown above and to the right) The perimeter works like a mini trench drain allowing the drain to be much less obtrusive.
While I like this idea and it will help with some installations, I still think I favor the linear drain solution previously discussed here. The linear drain will be a more expensive solution, but it is much more versatile and would work with almost any tile pattern.
A recent post on the SRA Blog talked about the new HepCat Loft Development in Warsaw, Indiana. It’s an interesting concept and one I might consider including in our Sand Hill Farm Development when it moves forward. There is not much in the way of what I would call “loft space” developed as such in Culver. Most of the spaces above the downtown buildings have been developed as more traditional apartments such as what Susie Mahler has created above Cafe Max. (Listing with pictures here.) Jan Nanini’s building at 110 North Main Street took the old Masonic Lodge on the second floor and subdivided it into apartments as well. (You’ll need to go to Jeff Kenney for better history of that building. He tells us it’s haunted here.) Others, such as the space above Fisher & Co. have been left undeveloped and have been relegated to storage.
When I think of “Loft Space” I think of open concept and high ceilings, generally having exposed trusses and often having spiral duct HVAC systems. (I love Google Image search, but it’s frustrating when I look through so many pictures and don’t find exactly what I want. This time I came pretty darn close!) It is very much the look Larry Surrisi went for in the original design of The Edgwater Grille (now The Lakehouse Grille) in Culver. There are more of these spaces in Plymouth. We worked on a loft space at the site of the old Moose Lodge and George Schricker has developed some loft apartments above the former Vine Restaurant as well.
This is very much what RW Kidd Construction has gone for in their concept design; the difference being that instead of rehabbing existing abandoned second floors of buildings, they have used “Loft Space” as a style for their new construction. It is somewhat of a minimalist style that should lend itself to some cost savings. It looks like RW Kidd had outfitted them at a fairly high level though to go along with the HepCat theme, which has reintroduced costs.
I like the flat roof patios. I’m picturing them along the east property line of the Sand Hill Farm Development where they would look out over the baseball diamonds. It could be an interesting concept there. I also like the multifamily format. I think some limited mix of this type of building could fit well in my mixed use scheme. As mentioned above, it would be something different for Culver. I also wonder if it could be modified to work with a more traditional loft theme where there could be some home-based retail on the first floor, possibly moving the garage entrance to the back off of an alley. There’s potential here!
I’m in Warsaw enough that I will need to swing by and see them in person. There are quite a few pictures at the HepCat Loft Development site listed above, so check them out if you’re interested. Let me know what you think. Is this something that could work in Culver?