projects
Heritage Park Mural
Sometimes our projects make the news. Sometimes it’s our staff. This time it’s equipment! We are leasing scaffolding to the Town of Culver for the mural being completed on the wall of The Garden by Elizabeth. The picture above appeared on the front page of the Oct. 3rd, 2019 edition of The Culver Citizen. The new mural will be a bold addition and eye-catching update to the Park. It has been interesting watching the progress.
The tie-in is interesting because Easterday Construction Co., Inc. built the trellis and arbor for the original Heritage Park. (See a post regarding the carpentry work we completed here.) Since that time, some of the structures suffered from age and “deferred maintenance”. Some of the plantings are past do for some thinning.
Landscapes change and parks adapt to new uses over time. It’s not surprising that there is a new vision for the park. A lot of thought went into the original design though and I hope some consideration is given to the vision and investment of Richard Ford, Richard Fisher, Mark Holeman and others when they originally created Heritage Park, not to mention the loving care Ansel “Bud” Cripe put into the construction.
Interesting Take at the Plan Commission
I attended the Culver Plan Commission with a client Tuesday night. I was a little surprised to be called out in front of my client regarding another project, but so these things go.
Last month I had appeared for the Secondary Plan Review for the PUD (Planned Unit Development) needed for construction of The Paddocks. The project is one of the signature pieces in Culver’s Stellar Strategic Investment Plan and had been before the Plan Commission multiple times. It passed with one dissenting vote. I wondered about that vote, but never questioned it. It was their right to vote against the project. If they had expressed their objections before the vote, I could have provided a rebuttal to their objections, but after the vote it was a moot point.
Tuesday, that commissioner chose to elaborate on their no vote. To paraphrase, their objection was that all ordinances should be treated equal and since the Town had adopted a Complete Streets ordinance, and The Paddocks had agreed to provide a trail connection through The Paddocks property, the developer should have been required to exhaust all options to continue the trail through the adjacent property. The Developer should also be held to a higher standard due to the Tax Abatement awarded to The Paddocks.
A few things bothered me about that, but again, it was water under the bridge so I did not attempt to address it at that meeting. This is my venue to vent though, so here are my thoughts:
- I was disappointed that this was brought up after the fact when I was there with a client for another project. I thought that was inappropriate as it put me in an undeserved negative light when the project I was there for had nothing to do with The Paddocks.
- Complete Streets aside, this has not been a standard applied in the past. The last PUD was asked to provide trail access and as with The Paddocks, they provided access up to their property line. The adjacent property owner was not amenable to a trail through their property, so that was left to be addressed in the future… similar to what was done with The Paddocks. In that case, that development was not even required to provide the future Right of Way that was called out in the Comprehensive Plan because adjacent property owners were not supportive. The Paddocks PUD was required to dedicate additional Right of Way that wasn’t part of the Comprehensive Plan or part of the current project. The Town will be setting a high bar to hurdle if they choose to start requiring developers to purchase or negotiate rights to additional property outside the initial development.
- The Paddocks PUD did receive some matching funds and a tax abatement from the Town, but this was done because incentives were required to get the housing that the Town had made a goal. This also allowed the Town to receive matching funds from the Regional Cities Initiative (RCI) and qualify for the IHCDA LIHTC program. These was a very public negotiations. Making one sided changes to those agreements will make developers leery of working with the Town. On a side note, to my knowledge, this is the only RCI funded project where that funding is given to the Town through the Developer. In the awards of which I have knowledge, the RCI funding went to the Developer.
- Originally, and in all the Stellar discussion, this property was to connect to the Town via the revitalization of the Jefferson Street corridor. That was to be the “Complete Streets” connection. It was not until later that a request came for a connection to Cass Street. The Paddocks did agree to provide a trail connection to Cass Street, but was required to do so now despite some objections, one of which was the lack of a connection through adjacent properties. The preference would have been to provide the connection at a later date when it would have connected to Academy Road. Connecting to Cass Street was also an option, but it would have made more sense to wait until the Town had worked out a route with adjacent property owners.
As I have said many times in the past, I respect the volunteers that serve on public boards and commissions. They take more slings and arrows than they ever gets balanced out with accolades. That doesn’t alleviate their responsibility to know all the facts. In this case, some of the commentary was counter to things previously negotiated with the Town Council and the Plan Commission’s own Technical Review Committee. Speaking from the table at the front of the room gives their voice additional weight. That needs to be used judiciously.
Obviously this commissioner’s take differs from mine. Fortunately for me, the project and the Town, his position wasn’t shared by the other commissioners.
Harrington Noodles Project in the News
We’ve been working with Harrington Noodles for some time on a new facility. They make Amish Egg Noodles which are sold in stores locally and throughout our region. The demand is exceeding the capacity of their current facility.
The new Harrington Noodles factory will provide them with updated work space with modern temperature control, a loading dock and room to expand – all things they’ve been lacking in their current facility. Last night they were featured in a news report on WNDU. You can find the story and video here on the WNDU website.
We went through several reiterations on this project to find the right fit. The site is adjacent to Pretzels, Inc. in Plymouth providing some benefit to having similar production facilities in the same area. The property was purchased from PIDCO (Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation) and has easy access to Hwy 30.
The wet spring has hampered construction on this project as with many throughout our region. We have the building up and are waiting for the soils to dry out so we can proceed with infrastructure. That should be happening soon.
Damore Amphitheater
Always nice to see our projects make the paper! The Damore Amphitheater made the front page of the Culver Citizen on May 9th. Check out our name on the dedication plaque when you’re there taking your selfie!
Blast From the Past: Memory Countertop
This is an old project that came to mind the other day when talking to a new client. Unfortunately I often kick myself for not keeping the best picture record of projects. In this case, I have pictures of the finished counter, but not particularly good pictures of the counter once it was installed. Hopefully there is enough here to give you an idea of what can be done.
This project was the renovation of an old summer cottage. The style was dated, but filled with memories for the Owner’s family. The kitchen and bathroom had deteriorated to the point of discouraging use of the entire cottage. The plan was to do a renovation in the style of the older portion of the home, but including an addition which expanded the kitchen, included a small dining area and created an enlarged bathroom with modern amenities.
The home’s “living room” was in the center with no windows. Everything was heavy woodwork with dark stain. Again, they wanted to keep the style due to the historic ties, but also wanted more light. The solution was to brighten up the kitchen including lots of windows and bright colors and then create a pass-through window to transfer some of the light to the interior living room. It was very important to the family to preserve the character and style of the original cottage, so a lot went into making sure the addition blended new with old.
A lot of discussion went into how to accomplish the connection and it was determined that the pass-through should also serve as a bar top creating a supplemental eating space. A sketch/plan for the top was created and approved. The top cantilevered into the living room space held up with decorative support brackets. The pass-through was cased in oak similar to the rustic trim throughout the house. Plinth’s were used around the opening to cover gaps necessary to fit the completed top into place.
The Owner was a photographic artist and had preserved many historic photos of gatherings at the home. She had a vision of including these photos in the renovation. A little research on our part uncovered a product called Kleer Kote from U.S. Composites. The product is an clear epoxy coating that is self-leveling and creates a glass-like finish. The Owner provided specially duplicated photographs that were compatible with the Kleer Kote and gave us an arrangement she wanted. We then placed them on the top and permanently adhered and protected them with the coating.
For those of you considering this, a few tips on using the Kleer Kote: 1) The product has to be mixed slowly to avoid creating air bubbles , 2) the product is flowable, but thick when applied, so care must be taken not to move the media being preserved during installation and 3) the product is self-leveling, but is syrupy as it goes on, so care must be taken not to over fill the borders of the area being filled. You can work it a little to help the spread, but again, this must be done carefully to prevent creating bubbles.
This is the original cottage before the addition was built. The door shown entered a hall into a narrow kitchen and the room extending on the right was a small breakfast nook. The stairs were in poor condition and the railing was unsafe. The cottage was winterized each year via a series of pipes and valves in the basement. (Which only one family member knew how to do.) The basement walls were deteriorating to the point light could be seen through mortar joints. The breakfast nook itself was actually an addition many decades old, but its foundations were in worse shape than the original cottage foundation which was much, much older.
The renovation included removing the old structure for that housed the breakfast nook and expanding that space to include the new kitchen, dining area and bathroom. The space is still compact, but fitting with the rest of the home. The smaller, high windows were updated, but in a similar style. New steps and railing were installed to improve access. The plumbing was reconfigured and valving was created to make winterization easy and self-explanatory.
There was a tree that was dying near the home which created a potential future hazard. The tree had meaning to the family and was difficult to lose. As a solution, we removed the tree and had a local chainsaw artist create a carving and bench. The bench includes wood burning art and a plaque commemorating family members, their interests and their time at the cottage.
