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Scott, Cox & Associates, Inc. |
Boulder, Colorado |
Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Architects: RO&AD Architecten
Location: Halsteren, The Netherlands
Client: Municipality of Bergen op Zoom
Project Area: 50 sqm
Photographs: Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
The West Brabant Water Line is a defense-line consisting of a series of fortresses and cities with inundation areas in the south-west of the Netherlands. It dates from the 17th century but fell into disrepair in the 19th century. When the water line was finally restored, an access bridge across the moat of one of the fortresses, Fort de Roovere, was needed. This fort now has a new, recreational function and lies on several routes for cycling and hiking.
Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Plan
It is, of course, highly improper to build bridges across the moats of defense works, especially on the side of the fortress the enemy was expected to appear on. That’s why we designed an invisible bridge. Its construction is entirely made of wood, waterproofed with EPDM foil. The bridge lies like a trench in the fortress and the moat, shaped to blend in with the outlines of the landscape.
Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
The bridge can’t be seen from a distance because the ground and the water come all the way up to its edge. When you get closer, the fortress opens up to you through a narrow trench. You can then walk up to its gates like Moses on the water.
Courtesy of RO&AD Architecten
Text provided by RO&AD Architecten
Full article here
http://www.archdaily.com/184921/moses-bridge-road-architecten/
I really want to do something like this in Boulder.
Parking Lots Quickly Emerging as New Hotspot for Solar Projects
by Urban Land Institute on Monday, October 24, 2011 at 7:47am
by Jeffrey Spivak, Urban Land institute
All across America, surface parking lots dot metropolitan landscapes, serving the same solitary purpose day after day, a poster child for underutilized real estate.
But that is changing in some parts of the country. Parking lots are quietly becoming the new frontier in solar power.
While photovoltaic solar-panel installations are most often seen on swaths of vacant land or on top of buildings, parking lots are quickly emerging as a new hotspot for solar projects, primarily on the East and West Coasts. So far this year, thousands of solar panels have been constructed over parking lots at government offices in California, a football stadium in Maryland, a zoo in Ohio, and a corporate campus in New Jersey, among other places . . .
Continue reading the entire Urban Land magazine story: http://bit.ly/nXFXJJ
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/selling_is_not_about_relatio.html?referral=00563
Five developers on ACE park shortlist
LOVELAND - The city of Loveland and the Colorado Association of Manufacturing and Technology have five developers on the shortlist of candidates to help run the Aerospace and Clean Energy manufacturing park, according to media reports.
The city and the trade group are trying to establish the facility at the campus formerly occupied by Agilent Technologies Inc. CAMT said the center could be used by more than 70 companies and provide up to 10,000 jobs. Loveland bought a long-vacant portion of the campus for $5.5 million in June.
CAMT and Loveland initially signed an agreement with United Properties, a Minneapolis-based developer, to help create the center, but in August the developer withdrew from the project.
The city and CAMT have received requests for proposals from five developers, according to press reports. Three are from Colorado.
Local candidates include Loveland Commercial LLC, which is based in Loveland, Neenan Co., which is in Fort Collins, and the Broe Group, which is headquartered in Denver.
Cumberland & Western Resources, from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Beck Group, which is headquartered in Dallas, are the other bidders.
Betsey Hale, Loveland's director of economic development, could not be reached for comment.
Read the article here: http://bit.ly/r9QL8H
By Michael Davidson
© 2001 Boulder County Business Report
An Apple Tree Grows in Suburbia
The hot trend in the suburbs is to mix homes and agriculture
Used to be, developers built high-end suburban communities around golf greens.
In a movement propelled by environmental concern, nostalgia for a simpler life and a dollop of marketing savvy, developers are increasingly laying out their cul-de-sacs around organic farms, cattle ranches, vineyards and other agricultural ventures. They're betting that buyers will pay a premium for views of heirloom tomatoes—and that the farms can provide a steady stream of revenue, while cutting the cost of landscaping upkeep.
Forget multimillion-dollar recreation centers—"our amenities are watching the cows graze and the leaves change," says Joe Barnes, development principal for Bundoran Farm, a 2,300-acre development set amid apple orchards and cattle pastures outside Charlottesville, Va.
To be sure, the shaky economy has taken a toll on some of these developments, including Bundoran Farms, where the developers are moving ahead with new financial backers after a co-owner of the acreage went into foreclosure. Still, Bundoran's developers say they have sold 19 lots, which run from about $250,000 to more than $1 million, in the past 10 months. And new communities centered on agricultural development are in various stages of planning and construction in cities from coast to coast, including South Burlington, Vt., Hayes, Va., Boise, Idaho, and Stockton, Calif.
"Agriculture is the new golf," says Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit group focused on land-use planning.
Read more at http://on.wsj.com/r9ixzX
© WSJ
Military Offers Opportunity for Entrepreneurs
The military real estate market is marching forward.
From Florida to Georgia, California to Texas, military projects are being proposed, planned, and built—providing welcome work for architects, land planners, and construction firms across the country and beyond. The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have all embarked on major housing upgrade programs in the past decade, creating a military housing construction boom.
Those in the industry say assignments for the military are one of the hot sectors in the real estate market. Like Washington, D.C., they add, the military sector seems “recession proof.”
The reason? Companies involved in military construction expect even more contract opportunities during the years ahead as the U.S. military looks more toward private development.
Read more on ULI
http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/September/SheridanMilitary
© ULI 2011
Boulder selects Jeff Arthur as new utility director - Boulder Daily Camera" http://bit.ly/n6C5bm
Still smoldering
The Four Mile Canyon fire outside Boulder has left a residue of anger, confusion and loss
By Steven Titus/photograph by Thia Martin
The 6,250-acre Four Mile Canyon fire was deemed "contained" on Sept. 13, 2010, a week after it started a few miles west of downtown Boulder. But for those whose homes it touched, the impact of this relatively small forest fire will be felt for decades.
Some 169 structures were destroyed and hundreds more damaged. Since then Boulder County has issued only 30 building permits, and some residents of the area predict only half the homes will be rebuilt. Depending on whom you speak to, blame for the slow pace of rebuilding is spread between county officials, the state of Colorado, the economy and insurance companies.
Conversations with residents about this subject can quickly spiral into anger and frustration. Some still can't talk about it. Others talk as a kind of therapy. To understand how bad the situation was - and is - and how ravaged people living in the canyons feel, it helps to go back to the day residents were allowed to go home.
Read more at ColoradoBIZ Magazine: http://bit.ly/pi1SZe
Boulder's leading Civil, Surveying and Geotechnical Engineering Firm.
www.scottcox.com
