Tag:Culver
Pony Barn
SE View (Before)
Unless you have worked at Easterday Construction, you probably don’t know what the Pony Barn is… The offices of Easterday Construction are on what used to be Russell L. Easterday’s farm. We’re still technically at the west edge of Culver, but there used to be a bit more of a development gap! When I was growing up, my great grandparents lived in the brick house on the northwest corner of Ohio & Cass Streets with nothing blocking their view of the lumberyard site.
SE View (after)
The Pony Barn is the only remaining structure from when the property was a working farm. Some of the other buildings have been built on the foundations of former farm buildings and there is still the vague remains of a cattle barn in the woods at the back of the property, but that structure has mostly collapsed and rotted away. My great grandfather continued to do some cattle farming as a side venture, but he moved his farm up to northeast corner of School Street and Hwy 10. The barn that stood on that site has been gone for years, but I can vaguely remember that before the high school was built, Great Grandpa Easterday’s Herford cattle grazed on that property at the end of Slate Street.
SW View (Before)
The Pony Barn has remained as a viable structure for shade and shelter over the years, though it’s been more of a home to wildlife in the past few years. We store some miscellaneous shingles, pipe fittings and forming materials in it. The interior has the original framing and you can see the stalls with the nawed boards from when farm animals were housed there. There are the remains of nearly petrified straw and hay in the corners, but they are so old that even the mice aren’t interested in them.
SW View (after)
The original tin roof has had some damaged patched here and there over the years, but this past winter’s wind storms did a real number on it. Patching was no longer an option. Fortunately, we had enough left over VSR roofing to reroof the entire building. And what do you know? It was Easterday Green!
I have no idea how old it is. It has to be one of the older structures in Culver. It still needs some work, as many of the siding boards are failing. I intend to do some additional minor patching to keep the structure “alive”, for the memories if nothing else. It remains an interesting reminder of times gone by and of my great grandfather.
Stellar FAQ from Culver Citizen
There was an article in the Culver Citizen on April 7th answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Stellar Communities program and the Town of Culver‘s plans to compete for the award again this year.
Culver competed in 2016 and was a finalist. The Town has been encouraged by the State Agencies sponsoring the program to compete again this year. The Town Council and the Town’s Stellar Committee have again taken up this challenge. I’ve include the article to the right and the continuation can be seen here.
Stellar Update
Karen and Jonathan have started putting out a Stellar Update newsletter. I’ve linked the March edition here or you can click the image to the right to access a PDF. The PDF includes some active links to the minutes of past meetings and other interesting things. Also, don’t forget to follow the @CulverISstellar twitter feed to see some of what’s going on with the Stellar Committee. Currently we’re working on preparing the Letter of Intent (LOI) to get us in the running. That will be going out later this month.
If you’re interested in helping out, the Stellar Committee meets at the Town Hall on the first and Third Tuesday’s of the month at 5:30pm. This past Tuesday night we discussed the Lighter Quicker Cheaper portion of our submittal. Lots of good ideas! Some may end up becoming project regardless of how Stellar progresses.
Keep an eye out here and on Twitter for more on Stellar and how you can help.
Culver Beach Lodge
There has been a lot of talk about what can or could be done to the Culver Beach Lodge to make it more usable. Some renovations are currently underway. I understand that this discussion started as part of the Park’s long range plan a few years ago and really began in earnest last year with the Stellar Communities competition. I’ve been very involved with Culver Stellar and while I haven’t been directly involved with the Beach Lodge planning, I’ve listened and contributed to some of the conversation.
It has been discussed that the function of the building for the Town and the Park is more important than the historic significance of the building. It has also been discussed that there is no defined use for the top floor yet. It has been discussed that there is a continuing need for meeting space and rental space. All this discussion got me thinking a little outside the box on how a renovation could be accomplished to meet these goals. Eliminating the interest in getting a Historic Renovation Grant and consequently worrying about preserving the facade and roof opens up new possibilities. Last Friday evening I spent a little time sketching out a possible idea.
Let me further preface this by saying I was not involved in any of the preliminary discussions with Steve Park, the Architect with whom the Town has contracted, and he may have a dozen reasons why this won’t work. I’m not a structural engineer or architect, but look at the attached sketches and descriptions. Maybe this is an idea that should be explored.
Plan View
Gut everything but the two storage areas on the north side of the top floor. The storage rooms on the north wall could be removed as well. If the storage units are removed, the usable space on the top floor would actually be larger than the main floor meeting room.- Reframe the stairs to a standard pitch with a landing and 90 degree turn into the space.
- Move the restroom to the area above the kitchen. Plumbing access could be obtained through the existing kitchen when it is remodeled. There would be room for a small mechanical closet there for HVAC.
- A kitchenette could be installed anywhere along the north wall if deemed needed, but I wonder if built-in cabinets and counters for catering might be more valuable. This would also provide headroom protection along the clipped ceiling.
- Remove the south side roof and extend the south wall up to 8’ height.
- Reframe the roof with two vaulted ceiling dormers facing the lake. The dashed lines show the new roof ridges and valleys. (Dormer valleys would direct water away from the decks. Dormers could extend out over the deck to provide coverage and extended use.)
- Provide French doors with sidelights out to a deck over the main floor deck. Drainage would be necessary since this creates an enclosed space, but scuppers or piped drainage could accommodate this. (Deck size might be limited by load capacity. You also might have to step up onto it to get the structure in place, but this could still be very cool.)
- Provide railing to match main floor railing around deck as needed.
Note: If we do not reframe the entire roof, we might need interior support for the ceiling and remaining trusses on the north side. I do not know how this was framed… If it was framed using rafters in lieu of trusses, we could potentially vault the north side as well using existing structure. The dormer valley rafters should provide support the ridge beam.
East/West Elevations
Install siding from the main floor ceiling level up to the roof lines. This would cover the brick and cover the change in pitch on the south roof without having to match the brick. It would fit in with the stucco on the lower level walls. Stucco panels could be used in lieu of siding.- Brick fireplaces would continue through for continuity.
South Elevation
As a gathering space, the new layout would provide more open floor space and an enhanced view of the lake, both lower and larger from what’s there now, via the expanse of glass doors and sidelights.- The decks would provide outdoor access and views of the park in either direction as well as the lake.
- I didn’t try and sketch it in, but I assume this face would be white siding above the second floor as well.
Building Section
The clipped ceiling would remain on the north side of the room, but the south side would be full height at the minimum and more where vaulted.
Totally outside the box… Unworkable if the Town wants to go for a historic renovation grant… Totally blowing the budget… But this would make a fabulous meeting/party space.
With only one stair, there would be a capacity limit. This could be improved by sprinkling the space or adding a fire escape. I think a fire escape could be added unobtrusively on the east elevation, particularly if we used one of the counter balance styles. (I suggested this for Lucrezia’s second floor too.)
Now’s the time for brain storming on this, so if you have different or better ideas, throw them out there now. If you have ideas to improve what I’ve shown here (it’s rough!), let me know in the comments and if I like them and have time, I’ll update these drawings.
Go Stellar!
Counter Balance Stair picture borrowed from www.fireengineering.com
Culver Stellar Update
Last Thursday I traveled to Carmel with a contingency from Culver (Ginny Munroe, Jonathan Leist, Anna Campbell and Mike Reese) to attend an information seminar on the 2017 Stellar Communities program. The meeting was hosted by Indiana Municipal Power Agency (IMPA) at their facility.
The meeting consisted of presentations by all the participating agencies, most of which are represented on the graphic to the right. The big three in this group for Culver are Indiana Office of Community & Rural Affairs (OCRA), Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA), and Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). But in saying that, that is where we concentrated efforts last year, and hearing some of the presentations from other service providers there, we found that there are additional programs we should be considering. This was further emphasized in the breakout session where we were able to talk to representatives from each group and find out specifics on what programs might apply to Culver. We received a lot of encouragement from the people at the Arts Commission (IAC), Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and even the Indiana Bond Bank (IBB).
The Stellar Communities presentation underway at IMPA in Carmel
The agencies involved continue to go out of their way to emphasize that this is not a grant program. This is a program to accelerate initiatives that are already underway in the community. Three of last year’s projects, Sand Hill Farm Housing Development, the Community Bike/Pedestrian Trail and the improvements to the Beach Lodge/Park, are moving forward as we speak. To paraphase Jennifer Vandeburg, our OCRA Community Liaison, “Stellar Communities is designed to be nitrous in your community gas tank, giving that boost to allow projects with a 8-10 year horizon to accelerate to completion in 3-4 years.”
Jonathan Leist, Town Manager, recently reported that over 125 community members responded to the Stellar Survey he sent out. The survey was designed to assess whether the Stellar Committee was still on track. It also include a few additional projects to consider. While this is a good response, more is needed. One of the things we will be graded on is community participation and support.
Sand Hill Farm Preliminary Plan
Part of this community support is making sure that Culver’s various boards and commissions are behind this effort. The two major players in this field will be the Town Council (Ginny Munroe, Sally Ricciardi, Dave Beggs, Joel Samuelson, Tammy Shaffer and Town Clerk, Karen Heim) and the Redevelopment Commission (Brandon Cooper, Sue McInturff, Tammy Shaffer, Rich West, Tom Yuhas). Be sure and encourage any members of those two entities to get behind this effort. Go out of your way to do so! That doesn’t mean that many of the other boards and commission won’t play a role. Please also encourage the members of the Plan Commission, BZA, Tree Commission, etc. to do their part to support the effort. They all need to hear that the community is behind this.
Even if we don’t get Stellar this year (I hate to even say that!), the effort has no doubt been time and money well spent. Everyone we spoke to made mention of remembering our community and the golf cart tour. The golf cart I drove had two representatives from IHCDA, both of whom recognized me and spent extra time talking to me about our housing project. The representatives from DNR have now actually walked and ridden on part of our pedestrian trail, so when the plans comes before them, they can visualize the potential. The representatives from INDOT have actually ridden down Jefferson Street and understand the improvement needs. The representatives from the Arts Commission, having seen our Town, made specific suggestions on what they could do to help. I truly believe that our OCRA Community Liaison now is invested in seeing us succeed, where before we were just another one of many communities in her territory. As our President would say, “This is HUGE!” We have made great strides in building relationships that will pay off in the future. Go Stellar!
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