Marriott has developed an environmentally-friendly prototype to help new Courtyard hotels speed through LEED application process.

Marriott is pioneering a prototype design for new, energy-efficient hotels. It is hoped that by working to a prototype, new hotels will qualify for certification under the government-led LEED program faster than if designed from scratch.

Arne Sorenson, Marriot’s president, announced the idea at the Greenbuild 2009 conference in Pheonix, Arizona on Thursday (12th November 2009). So far the company is trying out the strategy with new hotels under its Courtyard brand. Mr Sorensen said there were plans to design prototypes for further brands including the Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites.

The pre-approved prototype will allow the US Green Buildings Council to confer basic (level 1) LEED certification faster, speeding up the registration process. According to Marriott this could save property-owners six months in design time and $100,000 in design and other costs. The scheme makes sense for large companies with multiple sites, and is already in use by Wells Fargo and Kohl’s.  USGBC.

I have had a lot of questions about what my apartment building looks like, so I finally got around to taking some pictures before I left for Christmas (mostly because I was just procrastinating on packing).  I live in Opera Tower, which is a (relatively) new condominium near 19th and Biscayne. It was built in 2007, has 60 floors and has a lot of vacancies – which is how I can afford to live here!  This is the elevator bay on my floor. (Pictures of my apartment will be up at another time…)

This is the hallway leading down to my studio.  The tower is an oval, so the units are wedged-shaped.  The units on the ends of the ovals are the tw0-bedrooms, and then closer in are one bedrooms, and the studios are in the middle, near the elevators.  Theoretically.  I think that my floor is all studios, except for the end units.  Because my unit is only one unit away from the end.  I don’t know. I really don’t know anything.  This is actually all just me making stuff up, in case you couldn’t tell!

Once you take the elevator down to the ground floor, this is where you come out in the lobby!  Through those doors you can see the security desk.  That’s where you pick up packages, call down to have them buzz people in, pester when the pool is closed, etc.

Elevator bay, facing the other direction. On the other side of that glass is the valet circle.

And here is the lobby…

…decorated for Christmas of course!

View back to the elevator bay (through those double doors) from the center of the lobby.

Yup…that’s where I live!

I love the floor tiles…

This is outside, the valet desk and the valet circle.  This is the first time since I moved in that there haven’t been big yellow signs up. They were doing construction out in front of my building for weeks. Planting palm trees, paving the road, stuff like that.  I’m glad its over with.  My heels always got dusty on the way to work. Or muddy.

And this is the view of the tower from the outside, standing right outside and looking up.

And, heeeere’s the parking garage.  Lots of pretty planter boxes.  There are no basements or below-ground parking garages in Florida…if you are wondering why, please view my post on RAIN in FLORIDA.  Sheesh.

Here is the ground floor/lobby/valet circle of the tower.  Right behind the police car is how I walk to work…come down out of the valet circle, cross the street right by that car, then walk down the sidewalk to where I am standing taking in this picture…

(North Bayshore is a loop/split road kind of, it V’s around my building, one side runs back towards Biscayne and the other runs along the water)

…then if you spin on the spot, you are looking at my work building, the Grand! That’s how close it is. Takes me thirty seconds to walk to work.  Saves me a bundle on gas and parking, that’s for sure!   The Grand has beautiful Christmas decorations, but those will have to come later!

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You can go to pretty much any city on South Florida’s coastline and find a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean, but where do you go to find that perfect mix of Ocean, Intracoastal, City, and Bay views? 

I recently took a poll and here were the results:

#5 – Fort Lauderdale

Building: Las Olas Grand
Price: $1,250,000
Location: Downtown Fort Lauderdale

#4- Boca Raton

Building: Reflections
Price: $1,150,000
Location: Lake Boca Raton

#3 – Fort Lauderdale

Building: Point of Americas
Price: $2,149,000
Location: Harbor Beach (Fort Lauderdale Inlet)
View: On a clear day, you can see from Lighthouse Point to Miami.  Located right on the inlet, cruise ships and yachts are daily sights from your balcony.  Beautiful ocean views as well.

#2 – Palm Beach

Building: One Watermark Place
Price: $2,995,000 – $12,000,000
Location: Singer Island
View: Palm Beach Ocean and Lake views, overlooking all of Palm Beach.

#1: Miami

Building: Carbonell
Price: $1,500,000
Location: Downtown Brickell
View: Ocean, Miami River, Bay, Downtown Skyline, Key Biscayne, Miami Beach

It’s about 11.30am in the UK and A Twisted Chimp has finally decided to get out of bed, get dressed and have breakfast before turning on the Xbox and starting up a game of COD: MW2, on free for all mode.

The first game is on the High rise Map and A twisted chimp has elected to use the Scar H with Silencer and Heartbeat monitor. He gets off to a strong start getting three kills before dying for the first time. He soon gets into the groove getting the 5 kill streak required for the predator missile before dying, he then uses his predator missile to get another kill, by now he’s on 8 kills for 3 deaths. He’s having a good time gradually getting more kills and getting deaths, a few nice camping positions being used as well as running around the map, people getting Attack Helicopters made the map more difficult forcing people into the 2 buildings.

By the end of the game almost every opponent at some point had seen the notorious kill cam of “You Were Killed by A Twisted Chimp”

Finishing first in the Free For All Game with 28 kills 20 deaths.

We have just witnessed what we hope to be the final dying moments of a major fire on the 36th floor, I believe, of a building very near Lake Shore Drive in Chicago in Streeterville. Absolutely terrifying to watch my heart goes out to all the brave emergency workers and people who live in the building.

260 East Chestnut

At one point I saw the corner of the building facing us, we are on the 61st floor in another building, roar with flames as 3-5 windows on each side of the corner were just alight. Every apartment dwellers nightmare in one go.

Hi Rise Fire at 260 East Chestnut

I have never seen so many emergency vehicles in one place.

Update:

It looks like there was one fatality in the fire: Visit Chicago Sun Times Web Site.

It certainly makes you take those fire precautions more seriously. I am not sure how I would cope with being told to remain in my apartment with a fire raging a few floors below me I have to say. The fatality was due to the ever present danger of smoke inhalation. As these high rises have central air condition as well as local air conditioning I wonder how that would work in the event of a fire. i.e. would the air con spread the smoke or are they all completely sealed off from one another. I will have to ask our buildings management team.

Terrazzo- 700 12th Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203

HIGH END LIVING. Located in Nashville’s Gulch District, Terrazzo is an intimate 14-story mixed-use community comprised of 117 condominium homes. As Downtown Nashville’s only LEED Silver Certified green high-rise, this eco-chic building features state of the art energy efficient systems that improve indoor environmental quality, lower utility costs, and enhance the owner’s quality of life. The spacious layouts, oversized terraces, floor to ceiling skyline views, and prime Gulch location make Terrazzo the natural selection for Nashville’s discerning urban home buyer.

Unit 508 –   891 Sq. Ft. –    1 BR 1 BA -     $199,000  
Unit 504 –   1,032 Sq. Ft –  1 BR 1 BA –     $240,000  
Unit 1210 – 1,103 Sq. Ft. – 1 BR 2 BA –     $250,000  
Unit 912 –   1,320 Sq. Ft. – 2 BR 2 BA –     $330,000  
Unit 507 –   1,150 Sq. Ft. – 1 BR 1 BA –     $245,000  
Unit 509 –   1,465 Sq. Ft. – 2 BR 2.5 BA -   $325,000  
Unit 605 –   1,515 Sq. Ft –  2 BR 2 BA –      $360,000  
Unit 913 –   1,617 Sq. Ft. – 2 BR 2BA –       $375,000  
Unit 606 –   1,619 Sq. Ft. – 2 BR 2.5 BA -    $375,000  
Unit 601 –   1,654 Sq. Ft –  2 BR 2 BA –      $395,000

For more information, please click here: www.terrazzonashville.net

23 days to Christmas (written December 2)

Moon Set and High Rise - the new developing face of Darwin

In October, with a mate, I drove 600 km from Darwin on something of a personal pilgrimage. The journey had a vague historic connection with twenty-one years before; when, as a travel magazine feature writer, I travelled the deserts and outback tracks. This mate offered to come for the ride. As he was a mechanic and a good bush cook it was an offer not to be taken lightly. Crossing the Gunbarrel ‘Highway’ from the Northern Territory into the little-known back blocks of Western Australia, Neil was taken by the aluminium plaques left by Australian super-grader-driver-explorer Len Beadell.

Neil was so taken by the notion of old Len’s plaques that when it came time for him to return to his job he made his own little plaque and fastened it to a tree near the confluence of the Hodgson and Roper Rivers in the Territory’s Gulf Country. I seem to remember that I was a little critical of this activity, but here we were 21 years later driving down to find this memory etched in aluminium. We found the plaque, all but covered by bark and sapwood of the ironwood tree. We opened it up a little, camped the night by its side, shared a few beers and regurgitated the cud of history and chewed on it as the tropical moon crossed the sky streamed with humid spears of thin cloud of the early Build Up.

Today I am in Darwin, rise at 6:00 during that humid, velvet time before sunrise. I stand under the shower and walk out into early morning Darwin. There is no sunrise this morning, rolling low cloud has greyed out the city. My walk, one I have trudged many times before, follows the harbour shoreline on my left and the high-rise urban CBD on my right.

Cyclone season approaches, the pearling fleet in safe harbour

Millions of dollars of sea going infrastructure is tied up in the safety of the Frances Bay mooring basin, great ocean going trawlers, the Paspaley pearling fleet. The cyclone season is close. Joggers sweat heavily in their Nikes and iPod armbands. They pass without greeting or recognition.

For years I have defended Darwin. Darwin expats in particular return after ten or twenty years loudly exclaiming that ‘old’ Darwin is gone, no longer exists. Always I have taken the line that this so-called old Darwin is very much alive, you just have to look for it.

Darwin, perhaps even more so than other capitals, has had to change quickly. When I first came to live in Darwin in the 60’s, bomb craters and bombed out buildings were not hard to find, the product of Japanese bombing raids of only 20 years before. At 9 AM on the first Thursday of the month, the entire city resonated to air raid warning practice –‘we were never going to be caught out again’. And that wartime Darwin had been rebuilt following a devastating cyclone in the early decades of the 20^th Century. In the 60’s, stroll into the public bar at the Vic in Smith Street and be assailed by the leathery, sweating smell of buff shooters, croc shooters, ringers and storytellers. The stench of old blood, horse sweat, diesel, stale beer and urine was fragrance du jour. But Darwin was growing into a beautiful adolescence. Bougainvillea, frangipani and Jasmine layered a heavy tropical layer of colour and fragrance across the little city.

Then Christmas Eve ’74 and the city again was belted to the canvas with a knockout blow from Tracey. The city staggered to its knees, reared up and faced the future. Over the next twenty years, the mourners for the past were vociferous. Of course the city had changed, it had to. But many of us would tell the detractors ‘it’s still Darwin!’ Those of us in the ‘pre-Tracey club’ were fast becoming birds of a rarer feather.

The Medina Vibe Hotel - history buried?

Today with the insulated joggers who pass without eye contact or a nod, I am starting to wonder, starting to doubt. I come to the new wharf development. Christ, this is where I caught the train to Mataranka, the old slow NAR loco, all those years ago. The precinct’s imagery, most obvious on the startlingly new Medina Vibe Hotel, are clichés from a PR 101 course – ‘Inspire, Desire’. Where is the Territory? Where are the great panoramas of floodplains? Where are the references to Old Darwin, the history – the deaths dammit – that took place on this turf under the lee of Stokes Hill. For the first time I begin to despair that old Darwin is indeed lost.

I walk through the little Damoe-Ra Park – ‘commemorating Northern Territory Women’ – climb the stairway up onto the esplanade. In the humidity my t-shirt is sweat-saturated. Up here many more joggers and walkers make use of the parklands of the esplanade. The harbour is slate. A cooling wind cuts across the headland. The grey chop on the harbour froths into racing wind-blown whiteness.

And it rains. Coming in off the harbour, clean early morning, gentle rain. Baptismal rain. The iPod joggers have somehow instantly disappeared. I walk alone, the rain washing salty sweat down my forehead. I walk through the suburbs of Gardens Hill, taking a ‘long cut’ home. The rain is filling me with joy, the tinge of despair I was feeling 20 minutes ago washed away with the sweat.

A lone androgynous cyclist pumps up Gardens Hill, water streaming, a little spray from the wheels. Our eyes meet. She / he smiles broadly. A second shared in the adversity of a tropical downpour – but also a secret shared that there is nothing adverse about this moment, a shared secret of wonder.

Of a sudden I smell the sweetness of Jasmine, the more acrid fragrance of Eucalypt, the fecund smell of earth under a downpour. Somewhere the syrupy laugh of an Orange Footed Scrub Fowl echoes. I smile, I laugh to myself, and I embrace Darwin.

Neil and I, down in the Roper Country, had found the little plaque. Just a glimpse of aluminium almost grown over by sapwood and bark. But still there in its entirety, just getting harder to find. Bit like Darwin really.

Interested in seeing a minidoco on the search for the aluminium plaque (4:30 mins)?

DUBAI — As financial crisis roiled much of the world in October 2008, the head of Dubai’s biggest state-owned developer unveiled his latest megaproject: a $38 billion development that would include a tower nearly two-thirds of a mile tall.

“I’m sure most of you are asking why we’re launching this, and you’d be mad not to question it,” said the executive, Chris O’Donnell, at a news conference. Though there would be economic ups and downs in the years needed to build the tower, he told listeners, demand would continue to outstrip supply.Mbt shoes sale  

“The fundamentals in the market are too strong,” he said. “There won’t be a crash.”

Since then, residential real-estate prices in Dubai have slumped by almost 50%. Developers have slashed jobs and scrapped projects. Groundbreaking on the tower was long ago put on hold. The yearlong retrenchment culminated in last week’s surprise announcement that Dubai would seek to restructure $26 billion of debts owed by Dubai World, the holding company for many of the government’s port, infrastructure and real-estate businesses.Mbt shoes 

Behind this jolt was one of the world’s most concentrated property bubbles. Some $430 billion worth of construction projects have been scrapped across the United Arab Emirates, a desert country with a population of just 4.5 million and an area smaller than South Carolina. The majority were slated for the emirate of Dubai, according to estimates by the Middle East Economic Digest, a regional projects tracker.

The boom was fueled by easy credit, a poorly regulated market overrun by speculators, and cheerleading from Dubai officials — including the hereditary ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

His vision for the city — a tolerant, modern metropolis open to the world, its many faiths and some of its excesses — has long rankled conservative Arab neighbors, including some officials in Abu Dhabi, the buttoned-down capital of the U.A.E. But for others, Dubai became a symbol of what a modern Arab state might achieve if it embraced the West and its financial system. President Barack Obama, in a June speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, singled out Dubai as a place where economic development worked.

Dubai’s soaring skyline is a symbol of pride here. At a National Day parade this week, men dressed in traditional Arab garb pushed floats consisting of scale models of the city’s iconic buildings. There were models of the Burj Dubai — the world’s tallest skyscraper, due to open next month — as well as the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel and the Mall of the Emirates, which houses an indoor ski slope.

“Our leaders have been able to achieve all of this,” said Ahmed Al Hammadi, watching the parade. As for the current debt crisis, “we will come out of it stronger,” he said.Mbt shoes uk   

Officials and developers justified the breakneck pace at which these were built by touting Dubai’s proximity to both Asia and Europe, its tax-free and tolerant way of life and its position as the region’s business hub. Foreign executives, architects and real-estate brokers flocked here for the seemingly limitless scope to pursue big projects. International debt and property investors bought into the dream, too, until global financial markets seized up and much of the world plunged into recession. Then, buyers began to bail out, employers shed staff and companies put expansion on hold.

The result is a jaw-dropping real-estate overhang. “To Let” signboards adorn the facades of dozens of recently finished buildings along Sheikh Zayed Road, the superhighway that cuts through the city’s canyon of skyscrapers. Office vacancies in new buildings run at 41%, according to international property agency Colliers International.Shoes Mbt 

After taking markets by surprise last week with a request to delay debt payments at Dubai World by six months or more, the government here said early Tuesday it would begin a multiphase restructuring effort aimed at the company’s debt, including $6 billion related to lending by the state-owned property developer, Nakheel. It said the restructuring would include the assessment of “deleveraging options,” including asset sales. Dubai World said it had started discussions with its banks and these were proceeding on a “constructive basis.”

International securities markets recovered their poise after a scare, but the effects aren’t just financial. The debt announcement appeared to open a fresh rift between Dubai and U.A.E. capital Abu Dhabi. Federal officials there were livid at being left in the dark by Dubai’s decision to seek a debt standstill, say people familiar with the situation. The rift has the potential to unsettle an important U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, because Dubai, as a re-export hub and offshore financial center for Iranian businesses, is seen as key to U.S. efforts to isolate Iran.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi officials have underscored unity in recent days. But while the U.A.E. federal government orchestrated a $10 billion bailout earlier this year for Dubai companies, it hasn’t stepped in to offer assistance to Dubai World.

Dubai’s growth began in the early 1980s when Sheik Mohammed and his father pushed to diversify the economy in the face of dwindling oil. Dubai built luxury beachside hotels to lure wealthy visitors from India, Asia and the Middle East, plus package tours from Europe and Russia. In 2002, Sheik Mohammed opened the door to foreign ownership of property in certain developments. With little more than a brochure and a floor plan, buyers began to slap down deposits on townhouses, apartments and villas that wouldn’t be ready for years.

Aarti Chana was living in the U.K. in 2004 when Nakheel pitched a project called Palm Jebel Ali to prospective buyers. As the second piece of a spectacular development jutting out in the sea in the shape of a palm tree, Palm Jebel Ali would include homes built on stilts, forming a 7.5-mile chain spelling out an Arabic poem written by Sheik Mohammed. “It takes a man of great vision to write on water,” the poem reads in part.

Many units would be ready for occupancy by December 2009, Nakheel said. Ms. Chana, now 38 years old, put 10% down on a $780,000 five-bedroom beachfront villa and, making plans to settle here, sold her house near London. “I believed in the Dubai story,” she says.

In 2006, Sheik Mohammed consolidated a handful of government businesses into the Dubai World holding company, with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as its leader. To head Nakheel, Mr. Sulayem, in turn, plucked Mr. O’Donnell from Australia, where he headed a fast-growing property fund. Mbt 

Messrs. Sulayem and O’Donnell declined to comment for this article. A spokesman for Nakheel didn’t respond to emailed questions, nor did a spokesman for Dubai’s ruler.

Nakheel was on a roll, preparing to open the first of the palm developments, Palm Jumeirah, and planning the next two. In September 2006, at a separate, 914-acre residential community called Jumeirah Park, villas starting at $654,000 sold out in a day. International banks and local lenders offered loans for up to 97% of the purchase price.

To help finance all this construction, Mr. O’Donnell turned to the bond markets. An investor presentation in November 2006 called Dubai a “vantage access point” that would draw in businessmen from a wide swath of the greater Middle East, from India to Egypt. It projected that Dubai’s population, then just under 1.2 million, would grow by two million in 14 years.

Investors rushed to buy a piece of Nakheel’s Islamic bond, known as a sukuk. Swamped by demand, the borrower increased the issue’s size to $3.5 billion.

That year, Dubai’s real-estate sector raised $4.9 billion through bonds and syndicated loans, according to data provided by Thomson Reuters. Real-estate borrowing soared in 2008 to $30.4 billion.

In 2007, a Dubai World affiliate bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, unveiling plans to moor the ocean liner at the Palm Jumeirah and turn it into a luxury hotel.

By then, cracks in the real-estate market were forming. Officials had put few regulations on development that might limit the speculation. Now, concerned that the market had grown overheated, they did so. And in early 2008, authorities embarked on a series of high-profile corruption investigations at some big real-estate and finance firms.

But police, courts and the companies themselves disclosed little about the probes. As a result of the lack of transparency, the crackdown on corruption, instead of comforting investors, spooked them.

“There is a complete distrust by investors in the system,” said Michael Diaz, a Miami-based attorney with offices in Dubai. Dubai and U.A.E. officials say they have made efforts to improve the legal system.

In April 2008, police detained the Lebanese-American chief executive of one of Dubai’s top developers. The company didn’t disclose the arrest until after it was reported in the press. He denied wrongdoing

A string of other detentions followed at some of Dubai’s biggest companies, including Nakheel. A Nakheel spokesman didn’t answer emailed questions about the probe.

Typical was the case of British developer Arthur Fitzwilliam, an affable 58-year-old polo fan from London. He had lived in Dubai for two decades, dabbling in real estate and other ventures. In 2004, he inked a deal to develop a 14.5 million-square-foot plot of desert acquired from a government-controlled company.

The Plantation Equestrian and Polo Club would have air-conditioned stables for 800 horses, four polo fields, facilities to host horse shows and a five-star hotel. Mr. Fitzwilliam sought partners to help finance the project. A British banker agreed to provide financing, in exchange for a 30% stake, Mr. Fitzwilliam said in an interview.

But in June 2008, authorities detained Mr. Fitzwilliam, the banker and one other. Then in September, Dubai Islamic Bank, or DIB, foreclosed on the land for the project. It also seized more than 100 polo ponies, Mr. Fitzwilliam said. For almost a year, he sat in jail before charges were filed. In March 2009, authorities charged seven men with scheming to defraud DIB, according to a bill of indictment filed by Dubai’s public prosecutors. Mr. Fitzwilliam was accused of aiding the scheme.

Last month, he was transferred to a Dubai hospital to undergo tests for cancer. Four Dubai police officers stood guard outside his room.

Mr. Fitzwilliam denied any wrongdoing, as did the British banker he was working with. “I want a fair trial, and I’m prepared to go with the system,” he says, shackled to his hospital bed. “Anyone who knows the case knows I’m not guilty.”

A spokesman for the Dubai prosecutor’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.Mbt shoe

Amid the uncertainty surrounding the arrests, the crisis roiling the rest of the world was catching up with Dubai. When global credit markets froze up in late 2008, international investors stopped buying Dubai property. Some who had already bought stopped making installment payments. Nakheel and others shed staff and scrapped or delayed dozens of projects.

Last February, the troubles touched Ms. Chana’s plan for a new home in Dubai. Nakheel halted work on the Palm Jebel Ali. Though dredging had been done, little construction had.

Ms. Chana says she has sunk about $550,000 into her still-unfinished home. Earlier this year, she flew to Dubai to try to salvage the investment. She is living in a hotel-apartment with her daughter, helping to organize other investors and petition Nakheel for rebates. “I just won’t let this drop,” she says. “It’s become my obsession.”

In October, Nakheel proposed that Jebel Ali investors transfer their contracts to property elsewhere that is already finished or close to it.

Simon Murphy bought a $240,000 ground-floor apartment in the Palm Jumeirah in 2002 and moved in five years later. He is now a “resident representative” to Nakheel, like being part of a homeowners board. He says that in recent weeks, Nakheel has cut back on maintenance, including tree trimming.

Since Dubai’s debt-standstill announcement, Mr. Murphy says, many apartment residents have stopped paying management fees, typically around $700 a month. Nakheel declined to comment. “Most people fear that their money will go into the bottomless pit of Nakheel debt,” Mr. Murphy says.

What do you think?  After eating for an entire day, I was sitting bored and trying not to give in to the tryptophan so I did a little editing for Roosevelt University’s new proposed dormitory and educational building, located at 425 S. Wabash Avenue in Chicago’s Loop.

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This Camera Club of Ottawa outing was on a foggy Sunday morning. The assignment was to shoot urban images in Black and White at 400 ISO within the boundaries of Wellington Street to Laurier Street and Bay Street to Elgin Street. We could submit 6 images in total. These were my shots. Click on the image to find it on my website and you find another link at the bottom of each image to view the colour equivalent. I had to convert from colour in photoshop since the Nikon D70s doesn’t have the capability to shoot B&W. I find it preferable to convert in photoshop anyway.

A look along the Memorial Arch which crosses Lyon Street in Ottawa, between the East and West Veterans Memorial Buildings.

Railing and leaves along a sidewalk between two major streets in downtown Ottawa.

Ottawa back alley and a loading bay entrance for a downtown merchant.

Back side of a high rise building in downtown Ottawa.

The stairs at L’Esplanade Laurier on Bank Street in Ottawa.

Tree against a tiled wall. A few remaining leaves and some yellow Christmas lights add a bit of colour to this late November image. Alterna Savings (formerly CS-Coop) building on Albert Street in Ottawa, Ontario

Web site: www.robhuntley.ca

By Andrea McCallum

A FAMILY was rushed to hospital following a fire in an Edinburgh high rise flat.

The three residents – which included a toddler – were treated at the scene by ambulance workers but were then taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary early this morning.

Fire crews were alerted to the ground floor blaze within Fidra Court on Pennywell Medway near Granton at 8am and spent more than two hours ensuring the 14-storey flat was safe.

The 15 firemen present used breathing apparatus to search the building and one fireman spoke to residents on their balconies using an extendable platform.

Police have now launched an investigation into the fire after they discovered a rubbish bin had been deliberately set alight.

Cameron McKenzie, group manager for Lothian and Borders fire & rescue service, said:

“The fire started in the ground floor where there are no flats, but smoke travelled up the lift shaft and spread into the upper flats.

“Residents opened their doors and were met with a wall of smoke so we had to keep everyone else in their flats and clear the smoke from the stairwell.

“The family were not rescued but are believed to have left the flat after coming into contact with the smoke.”

A 15-year-old boy has been detained by police in connection with the incident.

See more of our pictures at our Flickr site and videos at our dedicated channel,  Deadline TV.

This time in Orlando. More prayers, please, and hope that they catch this murderer. Too much senseless death this week.

Beautiful “villa-style” first floor residence in desirable Townsend Place. This full-service, five star building features a gate-manned entry, valet parking, a gated garage for residents, concierge services, dual fitness facilities, a resort-style pool deck, two-story club room as well as on-site staff to tend to your every need.

This 2,000 square foot unit features 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, Saturnia marble flooring, hurricane impact resistant windows and doors, 10-ft ceilings, an oversized 600 square foot private lanai, and designer furnishings!  This property is being offered as a short sale and is subject to acceptance by seller’s lender.  Asking $475,000.

500 SE Mizner Blvd #A102

In the fall, views of Mount Fuji reappear in Tokyo. Summer is too hazy to see long distances clearly. Even in fall, the times you see Mount Fuji are unexpected, surprising and sublime. The view above and below is from our apartment balcony at sunset.

There was a recent newspaper article about a Nippori, Tokyo neighborhood association’s effort to save their view of Mount Fuji from a hillside named Fujimizaka, “the slope for seeing Mount Fuji.” The Nippori Fujimizaka is the last of sixteen hills named Fujimizaka in central Tokyo where the view has not yet been fully blocked by high rise construction. The Arakawa ward, where Nippori is located, would like to protect the views, but the Bunkyo ward, where the construction is occurring, would like the tax revenue from new construction.

Although unsuccessful in preventing a 14 story building from blocking one third of the view in 2000, the Society to Protect Nippori’s Fujimizaka is organizing to protect the remaining two thirds view. The Mount Fuji view from Nippori was included in Hiroshige Utagawa’s famous woodblock prints of urban Edo life. The preservation leader is an 83 year old man named Kaneko Makoto.

From the Chrysler building to the Empire State building, hundreds of multistory office and real estate towers reign over Midtown Manhattan. Here, office buildings rise into the clouds while retail stores line the streets. Midtown is an area that has been built up again and again, continually reinventing and developing itself. The City is known for its skyscrapers but, few outsiders know that they are mainly in Midtown. So, when a developer decides to construct a skyscraper, what is the preferred location? Midtown seems to be a perfect fit, but some people disagree. Regardless of the height or aesthetics of these buildings, some residents refuse to allow another high-rise to take over their neighborhood.

In 2007 Hines Development bought the 17,000 sq. ft. “S” shaped lot at 53 53rd Street for $125 million. French architect, Jean Nouvel, was chosen to design for the oddly shaped property that spans 53rd and 54th Streets. Calling his creation the Tower Verre, the design is an imaginative swirl of glass and metal that tapers elegantly toward the sky.. The tower would house a hotel, condos, and 60,000 square feet of dedicated MoMA space. In order to achieve the planned height of 1,250 feet (100ft higher than the Chrysler building), Hines Development must buy air rights from adjacent buildings, St. Thomas Church, University Club and MoMA. The Landmarks Preservation Commission and the City Council then must approve this transfer.

Fifty-third Street is a cultural artery in the heart of Midtown. St. Thomas Church and the University Club have landmark status. Others, including Pellii’s CBS building (nicknamed “Black Rock”) and MoMA’s sculpture garden, are studied for their urban significance. Notable architects who have designed structures within this block include Phillip Goodwin, Edward Durell Stone, Philip Johnson, César Pellii, and Yoshio Taniguchi. Nouvel’s stature and vision make him an excellent choice to join this distinguished company. He recently received the Pritzker Prize for his work on over 200 projects around the world. In New York City, he completed 40 Mercer, a condo building, as well as a proposed high-rise condominium located on 11th Avenue and 19th street, next to Frank Gehry’s IAC building

The 75-story tower itself is divided into four parts: the luxury condos, the hotel, MoMA galleries, and a public space (including a restaurant and lounge.) Although the condos will occupy a majority of the building, three floors have been devoted to the MoMA gallery expansion and will no doubt be a financial plus to the traffic and business in the tower.

The exceptional tower height requires more square feet of air rights than most existing lots allow. The space that Tower Verre hopes to occupy comes with only 210,000 sq. ft. of air rights. Because 1,250 ft translates to 786, 562 sq. ft. of air rights, Hines Development needs to gain an additional 576, 562 sq. ft. of air rights from adjacent buildings. That’s where St. Thomas Church and University Club come in. Although they agreed to the transfer in exchange for maintenance preservation and a façade update, community members who oppose the project are attempting to block the transfer as a means to stopping it. They argue that the transfer is not in the best interest of the area and that the buildings involved do not need the money to maintain their landmarked status.

Community members and Landmark councils oppose the Tower Verre on the grounds that it will be too tall in context with the immediate 53rd /54th street block, and will not fit harmoniously into its surroundings. They also believe that the building will impede on its neighbors in architectural aesthetics and will over-shadow the lower buildings. Community Board 5 voted 12 to 1 against the transfer of air rights from the church and the Club to the new site. Liz Kruger, State Senator, said that the residents of the tower will also add to congestion of the local infrastructure, namely, the subways, schools and hospitals.

Local New York City architects, Skidmore, Owings and Merrell, support the Tower Verre based on its grand architecture. Critics Nicolai Ouroussoff, of The New York Times, and Justin Davidson, of New York Magazine, have both praised it. Ouroussoff stated that the Tower Verre would be “one of the most exciting additions to New York’s skyline in a generation.” Since the tower will be constructed in Midtown amongst other skyscrapers, it will not be out of context for the Midtown area at large. Although it will be able to accommodate 300 residential units, only 120 units are projected in the proposal. But even if the maximum number of condos becomes a reality, there will not be enough full time residents for the city to mandate that the developer do a socioeconomic and infrastructural survey of the area. This would seem to negate Senator Kruger’s objections.

If the Nouvel designed tower fails to gain approval, there is another tower waiting in the wings. And, that one has already been approved. The unnamed tower would stand under the height of the current museum tower, but an expansion rendering shows that this tower may also be enlarged in coming years. The preapproved tower is not by any means an architectural breakthrough. It’s a glass box like so many other New York buildings. Although it would not interfere with sunlight initially, the potential expansion of the tower to the same height as the Tower Verre eliminates any functional advantage that design might have. And, given it’s lack of aesthetic appeal, it pales in comparison to the Nouvel tower.

Despite strong opposition from community members, landmark and historical councils, the Tower Verre should be built. Although opponents narrowly define the neighborhood, the tower is in context with its extended midtown Manhattan locale, as well as other buildings in the immediate area. The presence of the Nouvel design on the street will compliment the adjacent architectural neighbors, and the tower will undoubtedly be an instant landmark. MoMA is a cultural institution on a street of culture and arts. Nothing but a significant piece of architecture should be considered. But architecture aside, MoMA will receive 60,000 sq. ft. of space in the tower to expand their galleries and storage space. This alone is a significant cultural benefit to the area, and is a generous allowance, especially from a real-estate developer. The infrastructure concerns that the tower evokes from community members are ill founded. The tower will house too few residential units to cause the city to mandate a preconstruction analysis from the developer. This affluent area presently contains many residential units and would be a suitable location for luxury condominiums. Building the tower on this block will not significantly impact the existing density of residential units, and may, in fact, prove to be financially advantageous for all concerned. And, it is for this reason that a developer interested in building affordable housing would be unlikely to choose this design for another part of the city.

The 53rd St. lot will eventually be developed regardless of design Why not make it one that excites the imagination? In New York City, where undeveloped space is virtually nonexistent, it is rare to see a project that the architect can start from the ground up. This empty space adjacent to a world-renowned museum dedicated to modern art should be valued, not wasted. Nouvel’s design should be embraced as the grand opportunity it is.