A severe shortage of rental housing on New York’s Long Island due to zoning restrictions is at least partially to blame for the high share of all 20- to 34- year-olds on the island still living with their parents: 55 percent, according to a new report.
Source: New York Times
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/more-than-half-of-long-islands-20-34-year-olds-live-with-parents/#sthash.v6NKK9tr.dpuf
wenty years before Ludwig Mies van der Rohe realized his famous Farnsworth House, and seven years before emigrating to the United States, he designed Villa Tugendhat in 1930 for the wealthy couple Fritz and Grete Tugendhat.
As a wedding present, Grete (born Grete Weiss Löw-Beer) received about a half acre of her family’s land, a portion on a slope immediately adjacent to Černopolní Street in Brno, now in the Czech Republic. On the property Mies developed a split-level house with three floors: The entrance, bedrooms, nanny quarters, a terrace and play area, and a garage with chauffeur quarters are on the upper level; the living spaces, kitchen, winter garden and another terrace are on the middle level; and the utilities are on the lowest level.
The house can be seen as a domestic version of Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion from just one year before, with its flowing, open plan and structural columns distinct from walls. It is also a precursor to Mies’ later “universal space,” found primarily in the office towers he designed in the United States in the 1950s. But the design is sensitive to the particulars of place and the family who occupied it for only a short time — the Tugendhats, Jewish in origin, fled in 1938, first to Switzerland then to South America.
Perhaps due to Mies’ open plan, the building was able to serve later as a school and hospital (housing a child psychology department) before the municipality took ownership and restored the villa in the 1980s. In 2001 the house was named a Unesco World Heritage site, and 10 years later it underwent more restoration work, opening to the public in March 2012. The photos in this tour follow the latest restoration.
Villa Tugendhat at a Glance Year built: 1930 Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Location: Brno, Czech Republic Size: 2,600 square feet Visiting info: Guided tours with advance tickets available
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The west side is where we find all three levels, but the massing does not make it appear so. The horizontal glass of the middle floor dominates, while the top floor is set back, almost out of sight, and the lowest floor is short and predominantly solid. |
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From the street side on the east, the house appears as one horizontal level. With its planar surfaces, glass expanses and garage front and center, the house must have made a stir in 1930. Even now it presents a very un-house-like face to the street. Between the garage on the right and the glass expanse in the middle is a gap that frames the landscape beyond and draws one toward the entrance. |
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Here is a plan of the main level, where we find the living area, kitchen, winter garden and terrace. The stair from above is located in the middle. The spiral below it on the drawing provides access to the lower (utility) level. After the 180-degree turn from above, one enters a large, open space with the primary view to the right (bottom on the drawing). But two walls — one straight and one curved — break up this space, as does a grid of small columns. What looks open is actually made up of smaller areas defined in unconventional ways. |
Archbishop Stepinac High School introduced a new concept to its academic program on Tuesday as it rolls out a complete digital textbook library for its students.
This program will eliminate the need for the traditionally heavy and expensive books that students use for their academic courses.
In partnership with Pearson, a provider of educational materials, technologies, assessments and related services, Stepinac implemented the new digital library for its 675 students on their first day of the new school year. Stepinac has worked with Pearson for the past two years to offer select digital books to its students, but this is the first time all of its textbooks will be online.
“In keeping with Stepinac’s commitment to remain at the forefront of educational technology, we have moved to this digital library,” said the Rev. Thomas Collins, president of Stepinac. “We are thankful to Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, for working with us on this national pilot program that will set the trend for schools across the United States for years to come. The digital library will help keep our tuition affordable as well as prepare our students for their college careers.”
After a student is charged a one-time annual fee of $150, he can visit the 40-textbook digital library through a website or application for various Androids and iPads to gain access to its College Prep Digital Library and the Honors/AP Digital Library. Typically, students purchase seven hard copy textbooks for the school year, costing $500 to $600 on average.
http://whiteplains.dailyvoice.com/schools/archbishop-stepinac-goes-all-digital-textbooks
The Armonk Art Show, consistently ranked among the top “fine art and design shows” in the New York area by Sunshine Artist Magazine, returns for its 52nd season on Sept. 28-29.
The show, which benefits the North Castle Public Library, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Community Park, 205 Business Park Drive.
More than 185 juried artists will be featured in the show, including 50 new artists. They will display a broad spectrum of media, including oils/acrylics, water colors, mixed media, printmaking/drawing/pastels, sculpture, photography/digital art, wearable art and fine crafts.
There is free parking, and a food court. The library will show a free-art-themed film on Sept. 27, and the Fishtank Ensemble will perform on Sept. 28, at Whippoorwill Hall.
A road race, Jamie’s 5k Race for the Library, will also be run in conjunction with the show. It begins at 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 22.
For complete information, or to register for the 5k race/walk, visit the event’s website.
http://armonk.dailyvoice.com/events/52nd-armonk-art-show-include-50-new-artists
Democratic Vote for Town Supervisor
► Michael J. Schiliro
Anthony Futia
► John J. Cronin
► Barbara W. DiGiacinto
Diane DiDonato-Roth
The first week of each month always brings the most news, the most important news and the newest news. The net result of this week’s load: a brief pause in the next leg up in long-term rates.
For 40 years, one of the most reliable economic indicators has been the monthly survey of manufacturing purchasing managers, renamed “ISM” (don’t ask). For August that value jumped to 55.7 (50 is breakeven, 60 a runaway) in an uptrend beginning early this year of the kind historically telling the Fed that it’s time to pull back.
The companion ISM for the five-times-larger service sector has a history less than half as long, thus a suspect indicator but rocketed to 58.6 in August.
After those two releases, the 10-year T-note on Thursday touched 3 percent, and mainstream low-fee mortgages reached 5 percent.
Today’s job data bought us some time, the 10-year down to 2.9 percent, mortgages in the high 4′s.
The headline 169,000-job gain was enough to maintain Fed-fear, but not the 74,000 jobs revised out of June-July, not the 2.2 percent year-over-year increase in wages (nominal; negative after inflation), and not the jobs themselves, heavy on the low-end.
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/09/06/rise-in-interest-rates-could-be-overdone-or-just-starting/#sthash.tpBPTOi2.dpuf
Rise in interest rates could be overdone, or just starting | Inman News.
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| Becky Kittredge Dedicated to the memory of our beloved Town Councilwoman Click image on right to play a memorable tribute to a beautiful public servant. |  |
On Friday, August 30th, at the steps of Town Hall, citizens gathered to honor the memory of Becky Kittredge and, more importantly, to celebrate her life and contributions to our town of North Castle. | |
To do their work, artists need light and space—two things that can be hard to come by in Manhattan. In the early twentieth century, artists and their backers put up a number of buildings meant to meet those needs, with double-height studios, allowing for ample light, and low rents. Some of those buildings took advantage of the relatively new idea of co-op apartments and had artists buy shares in order to fund the buildings’ construction and maintenance. Artists’ cooperatives had occasional downsides—one resident of 130 West 57th Street filed a disorderly conduct complaint against a downstairs neighbor in 1921 over the “absolute riot” of ragtime music coming from her apartment. (The noisy neighbor in question decided to flee to Italy in search of “personal liberty” even once she was found not guilty.) But they were also home to the production of much notable work. We’ve rounded up 15 notable artists’ buildings for the map below. Most are still standing, though the prices for their apartments are no longer so artist-friendly.
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The prices of solar cells are falling rapidly, and will keep doing so for the next few years. The big questions revolve around the rate of the price declines. And the panels themselves aren’t the only place where cost reductions will be found. America has very high “soft costs”—installation, permitting, marketing etc. Whittling down these expenses will help, too. Check out https://wiredsolar.net/how-much-do-home-solar-panels-cost/ to know the home solar panel cost.
Check out, HOW SOLAR PANELS WORK FOR YOUR HOME: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
Solar is taking off at a breakneck pace (admittedly from a tiny base). Stephen Lacey at Greentech Media provides the striking figures illustrating the exponential growth of solar photovoltaics (PV) in the past few years:
It took nearly four decades to install 50 gigawatts of PV capacity worldwide. But in the last 2 ½ years, the industry jumped from 50 gigawatts of PV capacity to just over 100 gigawatts. At the same time, global module prices have fallen 62 percent since January 2011. Even more amazingly, the solar industry is on track to install another 100 gigawatts worldwide by 2015—nearly doubling solar capacity in the next 2 1/2 years.
Even though prices of modules—the solar panel itself—have plummeted in the last few years, a report from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reveals that other costs haven’t been so easy to bring down:
Non-module costs—such as inverters, mounting hardware, and the various non-hardware or “soft” costs—have also fallen over the long-term but have remained relatively flat in recent years. As a result, they now represent a sizable fraction of the total installed price of PV systems.
When Will Solar Get Cheap Enough for Everyone to Use? | Mother Jones.
