DEVELOPERS who want to build 81 homes on green belt land in Bookham have been branded “opportunists” by villagers.

Gleeson Developments has submitted an application to Mole Valley District Council to construct the homes on 12 acres of grass and scrubland in Guildford Road.

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   OPPOSED to plan: Members of Bookham Vanguard

However, Bookham Vanguard, the group charged by the district council with identifying land for development in the village, says the company has jumped the gun.

The group is in the process of drafting a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) which, when ratified, will be consulted when planning applications are made.

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Group spokeswoman Cathryn Hossack told the Advertiser they considered the application “very premature”, adding: “They know the village is in the process of developing a planning document and that this piece of land is one that has been earmarked.

“It is likely the land will go up for development once the NDP is finalised and they are being opportunistic in trying to get the plot before any other developer.

“We want the land to be a part of a plan by local people so we as a village can decide how many houses, what it will look like and the infrastructure that will support it.

“These ideas should come from the local community and not be proposed by faceless developers, so we would only welcome applications after we have finished our NDP.”

Gleeson’s application proposes 81 two, three and four-bedroom houses, plus parking and landscaping.

The application states: “On any view of the evidence, green belt sites are inevitably needed to meet the housing requirement. It is not appropriate to seek to wait for the emerging neighbourhood plan, as there is a need to deliver housing now.

“The neighbourhood forum also recognises the need to develop on green belt land but the neighbourhood plan is at the early stages of production. Sites need to be delivered now.”

The application includes 32 affordable homes, for which Gleeson states there is a “massive and pressing need” in Mole Valley.

“The record of provision (of affordable housing) is abysmal,” the statement reads. “The position in this district is very poor indeed. This failure to meet affordable housing needs is not a marginal one. It is a massive failure, with human consequences that are often forgotten in the analysis of statistics.”

This week, villagers attacked the scheme. Derek Andrews, of neighbouring Groveside Close, said: “To put a development that size into this area is ridiculous. You are talking about another 300 or so people suddenly coming in to Bookham and what effects will that have on the schools, the doctors and everything else?

“The traffic would be a nightmare and, although I understand we need housing, you are talking about a whole new village coming in. It is a dreadful idea.”

The National Trust also objected to the plans, saying the development would cause “significant harm” to the green belt.

The district council is carrying out a review of green belt land in a bid to meet its Government target of providing 3,760 new homes before 2026, but, as Bookham is creating its own NDP, it is not included.

ALPINE – Camilo Celaya’s May 31 retirement will conclude nearly 70 years of Sul Ross State University employment by three generations of his family.

Camilo Celaya, presently the grounds supervisor, will conclude 33 years service, nearly matching the 35-year tenure of his father, Gregorio, who retired December 31, 1998. Son Camilo, Jr., also worked for over a year at Sul Ross. Father, son and grandson were all employed in the Physical Plant Department.

“I have enjoyed working here and I appreciate all the people I have worked with,” he said. “The grounds crew has a done a great job in all the years I have been here and I am very proud of the landscaping work that has been done to make Sul Ross such an attractive place.”

Over the years, Celaya, who began work Jan. 1, 1981, has helped maintain the landscape of not only the main campus, but also the Turner Range Animal Science Center, rodeo arena, Centennial School, Kokernot Lodge, outdoor theatre, Poets Grove, Kokernot Field, Jackson Field, Lobo Field, intramural playing fields and the track infield.

His skills have grown with changing technology. When Celaya began working at Sul Ross, all irrigation was done with manual irrigation pipes. Mowing was a weeklong task with six push mowers.

“When I started, two guys watered all night, moving the hoses all over campus,” he said. “We had six mowers and would start on Monday morning at Turner Range Animal Science Center, then to the duplexes, the rocks and bricks (cottages), through the campus to the Library, then to Kokernot Lodge.”

Celaya said there was a gradual shift to automated sprinkling systems, along with riding and self-propelled mowers, “and we evolved with the system, both in irrigation and landscaping.”

While at Sul Ross, Celaya has seen major facilities growth and renovation, including new residential living facilities (Lobo Village), Vic and Mary Jane Morgan University Center, and Pete P. Gallego Center, along with refurbishing to the Wildenthal Library, Range Animal Science Center, Warnock Science Building, Graves-Pierce Recreational Center and the renovation/relocation of the Museum of the Big Bend.

He helped in the construction of Lobo Field for women’s softball as well as refurbishing the playing surface of historic Kokernot Field.

Celaya has worked under four Presidents (C.R. Richardson, Jack Humphries, R. Vic Morgan and Ricardo Maestas) and six grounds superintendents.

“By working together and sharing ideas and knowledge, we have made a lot of adjustments in how things are done,” he said. “One thing I have done as a superviser is to have cross-training, so the crew members would be able to fill in where needed. I think it has helped our efficiency.”

Celaya has enjoyed an accident-free safety record, although he had a close call with a swarm of angry bees while mowing near the old rock cottages. He has received the Bar-SR-Bar Award for Employee Excellence and served on the university Staff Council and Safety Committee.

“I have enjoyed it,” he said. “It has been a privilege to work here.”

Retirement from Sul Ross will find him working full-time with his private lawn service and landscaping business.

An Alpine native, he and his wife, Belinda, have three children: Camilo, Jr., who lives with his wife Jamie and three sons in San Antonio, working in management for McDonald’s; Marcos, a Sul Ross graduate now an accountant with the Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District; and Jaylynn, at home.

His parents, Gregorio and Eloisa, live in Alpine, as do three sisters and their families: Pam Celaya, Gracie (Richard) Villanueva; and Selma (Rick) Garcia.

 

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Growing up with a strong sense of value and commitment is one reason Ryan Schrader is succeeding as an entrepreneur. The foundation his parents set certainly played a key role in molding his work ethic. Yet his giving heart, which he says came from his mother, is what elevates Schrader above his competitors.

Schrader owns and operates Mariner Auto Repair in a building just south of Elgin Boulevard. Bright yellow paint with deep red accents is meant to stand out and attract attention. It also hints at the fact that this is not a typical auto repair shop.

That is exactly what Schrader was going for. He operates his business, purchased nearly two years ago, as an existing auto repair shop, with a kind of philosophy that is a few steps removed from the stereotypes that give the auto repair industry a bad rap.

I hate salesmen, Schrader said, which is why he works exceptionally hard at not being one.

His experience working in the auto repair field shed light on practices he refused to buy into. Encouragement to up-sell a customer rather than simply fix the issue at hand helped steer him clear of following that path.

Instead, when faced with the opportunity to start his own shop, he chose to listen to the solid advice of his mother.

Be the kind of guy women can trust, he quoted her. Be someone their husbands can trust and the guy women can go to without feeling insecure.

The message, he said, was clear. And thats what Ive worked hard to become, he said.

He began his mechanical career working for others to build his experience on the job, learning the techniques that helped mold his passion. After co-owning Mariner Auto Repair with the previous owner for about six months, Schrader was ready to take the wheel as the sole captain of the ship.

I was looking at property at the time to build my own shop, he explained. Friends advised him to look at Mariner Auto Repair, which was on the market. Schrader met with the previous owner and the two discussed working together as co-owners for a period of time to ensure both were comfortable with the change of ownership.

I could, after six months, walk away, Schrader said. I walked into the ideal situation.

During that six-month trial period, Schrader turned the business around. Because he had been working on cars from his home for years, he had already built a dedicated following of happy customers.

They told a few friends who told a few friends, he said.

He also had done extensive research before considering the path of owning his own shop, something his customers had pushed him to do for years. He had all his ducks in a row and was ready to take the plunge. The offer to try the existing shop was the ideal solution to test his ambition and ideas.

Celebrating two years in October, Schrader is reaching forward, making dramatic changes to the property, including adding some impressive landscaping that transformed Mariner Auto Repair into an eye-pleasing experience.

His hope is that customers will not only feel the difference in the service they receive, but from an atmosphere that strays a bit from a traditional auto shop.

I want them to be happy to come here, he said.

With a team of highly skilled professional mechanics and a support staff that understands the same basic customer focus Schrader grew up with, the shop is receiving an influx of praise. They have taken on fleets of vehicles from local businesses in addition to working with individual customers.

My thing is efficiency, Schrader said. I want them in and out of here so they can get back on the road. And I want to know everything about the vehicle as fast as possible so we can get it done. And it had better be done right.

It is important, he added, that customers be given the facts about their vehicle. They need to be aware of whats going on, he said, so they can make informed decisions.

Schrader has been able to stay competitive with other shops by offering a menu of service items for most makes and models. He also keeps his prices lower than the industry standards, building strong relationships with parts suppliers.

Yet there is much more to the story. Schrader is a believer in giving back to his community for no reason other than to show his appreciation. A culinary artist in his youth before auto mechanics steered his path, Schrader practices his chef skills on the public at regular benefits held at the shop.

Mariner Auto Repair hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and invited anyone who wanted to come. Still tweaking the events, he found he had more volunteers than guests.

He also organized a few benefits to raise money for worthy causes, including the Back Pack Foundation, where they raised money through a carnival to assist children in need.

I dont do it to increase my business, Schrader said. In fact, he hasnt gotten a single customer from the events that he knows of. And thats OK, Schrader said. I just want to give something back.

Hernando Today correspondent Kim Dame can be reached at dameswrites@yahoo.com.

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Just a few months ago, the Legislature repeated its demand that the federal government surrender 30 million acres of public lands to Utah so the state can make more money on them.

That’s just the sort of thinking that the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA) deplores, and why it wants its followers — more than 1,300 in more than 15 countries — to remember LDS teachings to revere the Earth, its sanctity, its people and the need to preserve it for generations to come.

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And, given that Mormons make up most of Utah’s population and hold a supermajority in the Legislature and the state’s administration, MESA wants all Utahns to insist on a clean, healthy environment.

“It’s the dominant culture here,” says Ty Markham, a Torrey rancher, former legislative candidate and now a registered lobbyist who spends part of the year in Salt Lake City.

“We really want to change — in Utah, in particular — how our environment is being managed and preserved in the positive sense of clean air, clean water, all of that,” she says. “We really need to mobilize our culture, our people.”

It makes sense. The LDS community is known for its reactions to disasters big and small. It seems natural, given our environmental circumstances, that Latter-day Saints should take up the e-cause with every bit of their well-honed communication and organization.

No one along the Wasatch Front and in too many other parts of Utah can deny our air is fouled, summer and winter, even in rural and remote areas. Extraction industries create their own threats to the environment and cherished public lands and waters. Utah’s first coal strip mine, and its proposed expansion, threaten the crystalline air at Bryce Canyon National Park as well as residents along Highway 89 who hear coal trucks roar by every day. In northern Salt Lake City and North Salt Lake, oil refineries belch pungent pollutants.

Much of MESA’s philosophy centers on the teachings of the faith’s founder, Joseph Smith, and his successor, Brigham Young.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, Smith wrote, “For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.

“But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin. And wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need.”

Even institutionally, the Utah-based LDS Church is building more and more “green” meetinghouses, including a Farmington stake center that sports solar panels, xeriscaped landscaping and designated parking for electric cars.

For Utah anthropologist Charles Nuckolls, there is no “ownership or endowment to act only in respect to one’s interest. We are instructed by scripture to hold the Earth sacred … and to hold it in trust to the divine being who created it. That’s everything, not just animals and plants, but people.”

That’s apparent in MESA’s organizational plan, Nuckolls says. It’s a grass-roots movement with no hierarchy or leadership and just a few bylaws. Heck, it is not even limited to Mormons.

MESA does owe a debt to environmental groups such as Peaceful Uprising, Utah Tar Sands Resistance and a host of other Utah environmental movements.

“They’re pulling us along; they’re carrying the weight,” Nuckolls says. “We feel it is time for the majority to carry our own weight.”

That shouldn’t be a problem. Markham gave me a stack of papers with thoughts, actions, events and plans that bespeak the Mormon faith’s diligent planning and record-keeping.

The LDS Church, however, has given “no explicit guidance or examples … as to how we should behave or act” in regard to its teachings on being civic-minded, politically active and stewards of the environment, Markham says. “We are left to decide for ourselves.”

As for those Utah politicians who actually believe in hairbrained ideas like seizing all those federal lands?

“They will be swept from office by a growing movement,” Nuckolls says. “They will follow us. We will not follow them.”

Peg McEntee is a news columnist. Reach her at pegmcentee@sltrib.com, facebook.com/pegmcentee and Twitter, @Peg McEntee.

Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Denver International Airport is proposing the largest single purchase of public art in city history, a $2 million sculpture by internationally recognized artist Ned Kahn.

The piece, a kinetic work animated by the wind and spread across thousands of square feet, is intended to enliven the experience of air passengers crossing between the main terminal and the new transit station and hotel going up on the airport’s south side.

The purchase is part of a massive art buy, totaling $5.2 million, mandated by rules that require 1 percent of the construction budgets of major city projects go toward art. The set-aside, common to major municipalities across the U.S., ensures public officials will

consider aesthetics, and not just function, when completing new buildings.

The south terminal project has an overall price tag of more than $500 million.

DIA has already hired Colorado artist Patrick Marold to create a $1.5 million work for the massive bowl that will surround the train platforms where light rail passengers arrive and depart. Officials are also in talks with French installationist Yann Kersalé to create a $1.1 million piece incorporating the escalator that will take rail riders to the Jeppesen Terminal’s upper floor.

The projects are being ushered through the city’s bureaucracy with considerable speed so they can be integrated into the South Terminal project’s construction and landscaping, scheduled for completion by the end of 2015. Another $1 million has been reserved for art that is temporary or needs a shorter lead time to place.

The large purchases require approval from the Denver City Council, which recently gave the nod to the Marold piece and is likely to have the Kahn sculpture on its agenda this month. The council’s

Business, Workforce and Sustainability Committee voted unanimously in favor of the idea last week.

The council’s consent is one of several layers such deals must go through. DIA’s art staff first proposes projects to its in-house Art Committee, made up of eight volunteers representing the fine arts, academic and civic communities. Then, projects proceed through the city’s 24-member Commission on Cultural Affairs.

Dozens of officials and art experts, as well as the building project’s architects and construction staff, will have signed off before the latest pieces are completed, said Matt Chasansky, who oversees DIA’s Art and Culture Program. “It’s not just one guy making decisions on behalf of everyone,” he said

The airport is perhaps Denver’s busiest showcase for art. More than 53 million people pass through each year, half of whom never leave the building as they connect between flights. For many, the airport’s design, efficiency and art provide their only impression of the metropolis. “What we say to them is basically what we’re saying about Denver overall,” Chasansky said.

DIA’s art collection has been the subject of praise and criticism, much of it generated by artist Luis Jiménez’s 32-foot “Blue Mustang,” which greets visitors arriving via Federico Peña Boulevard. The fiery horse, with its electric, red eyes, has emerged as a lightning rod on public opinion about art.

Among its nicknames: “Blucifer” and “Satan’s Steed,” though it has many defenders who cite its recognizability, as well as success generating wide-spread conversation about fine art.

The airport operates an aggressive, international art program that taps new technologies and evolving ideas about visual art. Recently, it commissioned several, short digital pieces to play in rotation on electronic screens above the security check-in lines.

Another work, “Lightning Blues Express,” by artist Humberto Duque and on display through July, is a performance piece that has actors roaming the terminals, pulling behind them amplified music players that look like carry-on bags. The wheeled, boom boxes play various recorded songs with a theme of farewell, generating odd and amused stares from airport users. DIA paid $75,000 for the work.

In addition to making the airport a more lively place, the pieces are meant to shake people out of their hurried routines, if only for a moment. For some passengers, the art fills the down time air travel forces upon them. For others, the works offer an invitation to relax.

One “intent is to create artwork that will pull people out of their fear and anxiety,” said Kendall Peterson, who is heading up the art efforts for the South Terminal expansion.

The Kahn piece will put Denver into an elite list of cities who own one of his works. Kahn, based in Sebastopol, Calif., is best-known for large, graceful and easy-to-like sculptures, often made of aluminum, that move without electrical power. His best works are at public spaces such as San Francisco International Airport, as well as private spaces, such as the ultra-trendy 21C museum and hotel in Louisville, Ky.

The exact shape and size of the DIA piece is yet to be determined. It will be mostly horizontal with moving parts that reflect the patterns of the wind and other natural elements. It will be integrated into the architecture in a way people can walk around and through it, Peterson said.

Marold is known for working with light, and DIA hopes his piece will be visible both day and night.

Kersalé is creating an entire environment that will envelop the main escalator and entertain riders along their 90-second journey between levels.

In all, DIA solicited proposals from 180 international artists. Peterson said the airport wanted to work with established professionals who have demonstrated they can bring quality art projects in a timely manner to large public spaces. “There’s a pretty small sample out there,” she said.

Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi

When Leslie Doyle and her husband, Ronnie, first moved to their new home in December, she missed the sounds of birds.

The Doyles were downsizing, with their children away in college, and the backyard of the new home was something of a blank slate, not enough there yet to draw bird life.

“But, my husband and I had a vision,” Leslie Doyle said.

Just five months later, the birds are a presence in the Doyles’ yard in the Lakeshore Gardens subdivision off Bluebonnet Boulevard.

In the evenings, there’s the comfortable sound of frogs chanting, too.

The Doyles transformed their backyard with a waterfall and pond and an outdoor kitchen. On one side of the yard, new flowering vines are growing up trellises and will cover the wooden fence in time.

On the other side of the yard, the Doyles planted a type of bamboo that’s supposed to be more manageable than the regular type. They’ll keep an eye on it as it obscures the other fence wall.

Soon the peaceful setting will seem even more of an oasis.

The Doyles’ home will be on this year’s Pond Garden Tour for Charity from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Dozens of homes throughout the Baton Rouge area with private ponds will be open for the tour, presented by the Deep South Koi Pond Society.

This year’s event will benefit two organizations: Brave Heart — Children in Need works to improve the quality of life for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and/or neglect.

The second beneficiary, Yelp!BR, provides shelter and adoption services for dogs.

Leslie Doyle said that a helpful feature of her new yard was a rise in the ground, a sloping bank of several feet in height, built-up against a sound-barrier wall across the back of her property.

It turned out to be the perfect place for her waterfall and other landscaping.

The exterior of the Doyles’ house was transformed, as well, the red brick painted white, and the ceiling of the back porch painted a pale, tranquil blue.

“It’s a very Southern ceiling,” said Leslie Doyle, who has had her own interior design business.

The custom-designed, old-fashioned screen door hung at the home’s back door is Southern, too.

From the back porch, a walking area of flagstones, highlighted with geraniums, impatiens and snapdragons leads to the large, outdoor kitchen.

Anchored by antique pine beams, the kitchen features a granite counter, small refrigerator and big, built-in barbecue pit.

A sitting area nearby makes the outdoors like home, with a wood-burning fireplace, comfortable sectional sofa and other seating and a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall.

Beyond the outdoor kitchen is the waterfall, tumbling continuously over three tiers of rock and splashing into a pool with water lilies and goldfish.

Around the pond are palms, Indian hawthorn and azaleas.

Gardenias, a young magnolia tree and colorful annuals are a treat for the eye throughout the yard.

At the front of the house, Doyle has created a charming entrance with a large, handsome fountain, flowers and a small herb garden that she actively uses when she cooks.

The Doyles turned to local business Harb’s Oasis for installation of the pond and help with landscaping.

Of the upcoming tour, Doyle said, “This is all about raising money” for good causes “and for families to get ideas to create their visions.”

“You don’t need a huge space to create an oasis,” she said.

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May 13 — To the Editor:

As someone who attended the forum on downtown parking last week, I was surprised to read in the Saturday paper that the meeting had yielded a “clear consensus” that the city should immediately build a parking garage in the Worth lot.

Consensus usually means unanimous or near-unanimous agreement; but in fact, there was significant disagreement.

City Councilor Ken Smith, who is chairman of the city’s traffic and safety committee, said the Worth lot is a poor choice because it’s too close to the existing garage and would overload downtown streets. Councilor Jack Thorsen gently but frankly told the Worth lot supporters that they don’t have the votes, including his own. Former City Councilor and state Sen. Jim Splaine suggested alternatives that should be investigated, including a state-city partnership.

By my estimate, about a third of the people who spoke had reservations. This is notable, since the forum was sponsored by the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, whose leadership favors a Worth lot parking garage.

What struck me most about the session, however, was that innovative alternatives or supplements to a parking garage were simply not on the table. There was talk about creativity and Portsmouth’s ability to solve problems. But many seemed to have made up their minds that a Worth parking garage is the one and only solution.

For example, walking was given short shrift. The chamber president wrote recently it is “silly” to think people will walk more than five to seven minutes. How far, though, do families walk when they come to Children’s Day? Or Market Square Day? Or when Judy Collins plays at Prescott Park?

Properly motivated and aided by signs (“Last free parking next five blocks”), landscaping and lighting, and the knowledge that downtown parking will be difficult, people will park a short distance away and walk to where they want to go.

There are other options, too, such as public transportation. The city’s parking validation program has been a big success for retailers. What if the city started a Friday and Saturday night “Foodie Shuttle” that’s free with validation, or a “Prescott Park Shuttle” that’s just free?

These are not Gov. Moonbeam ideas. Similar ones are already incorporated in the city of Portsmouth’s master plan, in a 10-page section titled “Towards a Walkable Portsmouth.”

I think what the city needs is not so much a new parking garage as a broader vision of what makes a great, small city, and the will to make it happen.

Doug Roberts

Portsmouth

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A long-lost public sculpture is now back where it belongs, in North Philadelphia.

“El Gran Teatro de la Luna,” by celebrated artist Rafael Ferrer, was installed in Fairhill Square at Fifth and Lehigh streets in 1982. It was removed in 1999 and languished in a municipal storage facility.

“Folklore says that, in American history, there are no second acts,” said Ferrer. “The truth of the matter is, the second act is infinitely better.”

Ferrer originally installed “El Gran Teatro de la Luna,” or “The Great Theater of the Moon,” at a time when Fairhill Square was going through a rough patch. Drugs were a problem, homeless people commandeered the park at night, and crimes were committed openly. Vandals regularly struck the sculpture, even though it was mounted on the roof of a small building in the park.

“The intent of the piece was to be a place where people will come and play music, or talk, or whatever,” said Ferrer in the lobby of Sofitel Hotel in Center City. “It’s a place offering itself as a site for the public to use however they want — public activities of a civilized nature.”

The sculpture is a joyous piece of work: a parade of flat, cut-metal figures twisting, flipping, and contorting as brightly colored circus performers. They are roughly shaped, with snaking arms and legs like a child’s drawing. The piece has buoyancy.

Eventually, the building it was mounted on became a blind for drug dealers. The city tore it down, and the sculpture came down with it.

Last year, the city’s Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy secured a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to reinstall the sculpture on top of an open trellis, making the sculpture more accessible. You can walk underneath and around it.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s an old work. It seems new,” said Ferrer, who with his wife repainted all of the figures. “The shapes were the same, but the individual images you see are totally different. I came at it with great energy because I had new ideas in those shapes.”

In addition to the sculpture, a new stage are has been built in Fairhill Square park, with new landscaping. A nearby commercial corridor also has garnered attention — most visibly in the form of metal palm trees installed in the sidewalk — to revive the neighborhood.

When the weather cooperates, there are few meals more pleasant than those you can enjoy in your own backyard. The fresh air and hot grill have a way of conjuring a vacation mood — even if you are only grilling up a quick weeknight dinner. Get inspired to make over your grilling zone for luxurious outdoor dining with these 13 ideas.

by Olive Branch Integrated…

1. Pull up a stool. Watching the chef at the grill is half the fun — encourage spectators by setting up a bar-height table and stools near the grill. Go for a built-in, like the gorgeous stone version shown here, or just set up a bar-height outdoor table and chairs.

 

by austin outdoor design

2. Accent with steel for a modern look. Lots of outdoor kitchens use stone and wood (which can be beautiful), but modern spaces cry out for something sleeker. Stainless steel counters are a great fit, and galvanized steel Tolix stools bring a little industrial cool.

 

by The Home Improvements Group,…

3. Add a prep zone. Whether you have an outdoor sink plumbed or simply add a freestanding work table, a well-positioned prep area is what will transform just a grill into a true outdoor kitchen. Be sure to include an easy-clean work surface and some storage for frequently used tools.

 

by The Garden Route Company

4. Stay cool with a big umbrella. An extra-large freestanding umbrella offers more flexibility than one attached to the table. Use it to shade the prep area (keeping food out of the sun), then move it to cover the eating area when it’s time to sit down.

 

by Sheldon Pennoyer Architects

5. Make your grill a mini destination.While you will sacrifice some convenience, locating your grill and eating area away from the house can make eating al fresco feel like a getaway. Take advantage of a great view, flip burgers by the pool, or hide away in a secluded garden nook.

 

by Alderwood Landscaping

6. Add a roof for all-weather cooking. If your grill is out in the open, consider adding a shelter to protect the cook in a sudden downpour. Just be sure that any structure is a safe distance from the grill to avoid fires.

 

by Sun Valley Landscaping

7. Cook campfire-style. Is roughing it more your style? Forgo the fancy grill entirely in favor of a stone fire pit with attached grilling grates.

 

by Rice and Brown Architects

8. Try window service. If your grill setup is near the house, a pass-through to the kitchen can be extremely handy — and fun! Pull up a couple of stools on the outside, and you’ll have your own little bar, too.

 

by Vidabelo Interior Design

9. Consider a mini fridge. If you cook out a lot, it may be worth it to add a small fridge to your grill area. It’s perfect for keeping meat at hand yet out of the sun — and for storing icy beverages for the chef.

 

by Stone Acorn Builders

10. Slim down furniture. A slender table with bench seats will fit the most guests in tight quarters. If you really need every spare inch, choose benches that can tuck under the table and push the whole thing against the wall when it’s not in use.

 

by austin outdoor design

11. Maximize your space. Having something built in to exactly fit a space is ideal, because you won’t waste an inch. The outdoor kitchen shown here was ingeniously built right into the deck railing for a sleek look that really maximizes the space.

 

by Sandy Koepke

12. Accessorize. Gather ingredients on a pretty tray (bonus: It’s great for carting items from the house), deck out the prep area with a few potted plants and keep frequently used sauces and oils within reach.

 

by Donna Wax, Architect

13. Set a mood at night with lighting.A combination of landscape lighting and direct lighting over the grill area will offer the right balance of function and ambience.

Tell us: Are you updating your grill setup this summer?  

The Bloomberg administration is pushing to rezone 73 blocks of Midtown East to create bigger, taller office buildings, and there are quite a few people who are worried that jamming more people into the neighborhood is not a good idea. Chief among the concerns is the state of public space in Midtown East—there isn’t much of it and what’s there needs to be improved. So to address these concerns, the city (in this case, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn) has put together a team of consultants that will hold three public workshops to garner ideas in order to revamp the streetscape and “make the area a desirable place to live, work, pass through and visit.”

The consultant team consists of Jonathan Rose Company, Gehl Architects, and Skanska, and the goal is to make the streets less congested and more enjoyable with landscaping and public seating. All of the findings will be published in the creatively-name East Midtown Public Realm Vision Plan, to be released this fall around the same time that the Midtown East rezoning ULURP heads into the home stretch.
· NYC DOT, City Planning and Council Member Garodnick Announce Community Planning Process for East Midtown Streetscape [nyc.gov]
· Midtown East Rezoning [Curbed]