Georgia Anticipates Attracting International Business With New Ultra-Modern Airport

Rendering of the exterior area of the soon-to-be-built King David the Builder International Airport in Kutaisi, Georgia. Image courtesy of UNStudio.

Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili – who symbolically participated in the demolition of the old airport building by tearing down one of the walls with the help of heavy machinery – anticipates that the new airport will act both as a stimulator for new businesses in the country and as a hub between the European and Asian markets.

The new King David the Builder International Airport and observation tower will be among the largest scale and “most distinguished” projects going on in Georgia today, said the president.  

The new airport’s name is in honor of Georgia’s King David IV who ruled between the 11th and 12th century. The country reached its political and economic peak during his reign, only to later fall into seemingly unending occupations, civil unrest, and economic crisis.

After the Rose Revolution in 2003, the new government introduced democratic and economic reforms, and the country is now trying to make strides towards reaching its former glories.

The new King David airport will be located in Kutaisi, which is the second largest city in Georgia and where the new parliament building is now being built. Kutaisi is just 221 km west of Tbilisi, which is the capital and the country’s largest city.

The new airport has been designed by the Dutch architectural company UNStudio, which said that the airport will have a clear structural layout creating an all-encompassing and protective space.

The space will be structured around a central exterior which will be used for departing passengers. The transparent space around this central point will be “designed to ensure that the flows of passengers are smooth and that departure and arrival flows do not coincide,” said the design company.

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Upscale Barclay Sports Center Nearly Done With Plans Now For Neighboring Eco-Friendly Housing

After years of battling financing problems, and lawsuits over issues like private property rights and eminent domain, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards is nearing completion.

Rendering of how the Barclays Center and all three housing buildings will appear when completed at Atlantic Yards. Rendering courtesy of SHoP Architects.

Working on the project, real estate developer and manager Forest City Enterprises, said last month in its third quarter fiscal report, that, “Work continues at Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards, and the arena is on schedule for opening in September 2012.”

The Barclays Center is expected to host more than 200 events annually, including professional and collegiate sports, concerts, family shows, and NETS basketball.

The arena will have 18,000 seats for basketball and up to 19,000 seats for concerts, according to the developer, adding that “the arena will have 104 luxury suites, including 15 brownstone suites (16 seats each), 68 loft suites (10 seats each), 11 backstage suites, six studio suites, and four party suites.”

The arena will also include 40 loge boxes, six clubs and restaurants, and the Barclays Center Practice Facility on-site.

“The design is elegant and intimate and also a bold architectural statement that will nicely complement the surrounding buildings and neighborhood,” said Bruce Ratner, chairman and CEO of Forest City Ratner Cos., Forest City Enterprises’ subsidiary, which is handling and promoting the project.

The development will combine the arena with a public plaza, eight acres of landscaped open space, about 6,400 units of affordable, middle-income and market-rate housing, as well as ground-floor retail space for local businesses and office space.

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Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition Getting More U.S. Federal Funds For Healthy Homes Initiative

Lead poisoning from home exposure is growing into an increasingly rampant problem across the nation.

Nearly a quarter of a million children living in the United States have blood lead levels high enough to cause significant damage to their health, estimates the  U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from a 2003–2004 national survey.

Major sources of lead exposure among U.S. children are lead-based paint and lead-contaminated dust found in deteriorating buildings, says the CDC.

Across the U.S., lead-based paint was used throughout the 1900s, until it was banned from residential use in 1978.

Now, “every year, unhealthy housing is the source of an estimated 250,000 new cases of childhood lead poisoning,” adds the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, which just received a $930,000 federal grant from the Healthy Homes Production Program.

The national non-profit implements and promotes programs and policies designed to reduce lead exposure to children by creating green, healthy homes.

The funds will support the continuation of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) in Baltimore, where the non-profit is based. The initiative is a collaboration between the Coalition, local and federal government agencies, and other philanthropic partners.

The funds will be used to provide services for 200 homes to create healthy, sustainable, and energy efficient environments for families. The Baltimore initiative is one of 17 GHHI programs nationwide.

 Last month, during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, Ruth Ann Norton, executive director of the Coalition, said, “While we have made significant progress toward our goal of eradicating childhood lead poisoning, the job is far from over.

“There are still more than one million children in the U.S. with elevated blood lead levels, causing irreparable harm to their physical and mental health and robbing them of opportunities to learn, grow, and reach their full potential.”

“Lead is a known neurotoxin and carcinogen capable to harming all of the body’s major systems and is particularly devastating to proper development in children under six years of age,” said the Coalition.

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Benedictine Boarding School Grows Greener With New Eco-Friendly Homes For Faculty Families

Blu ‘Evolution’ home exterior. Photo courtesy of Blu Homes.

The Portsmouth Abbey School is in the process expanding its living space, with the addition of two new eco-friendly designed homes for two of its faculty members and their families, as part of the school’s expanding green initiatives.

The two new homes are being built by Blu Homes, which designs and builds of upscale, eco-friendly manufactured homes, home additions, offices, and structures. 

The two-story Blu ‘Evolution’ style homes will be Energy Star-rated and LEED certified. All of the appliances will be Energy Star certified.

Blu ‘Evolution’ homes are very large and come in designs that include three-to-four bedrooms, one-to-two bathrooms, and special features like roof decks, high ceilings, large kitchens, and spacious floor plans.

Kitchen design in an ‘Evolution’ style home. Photo courtesy of Blu Homes.

“The Blu homes, in particular, are very desirable for our faculty. The space is just a great space to be living in. Our faculty are responsible for their own energy costs, so the energy efficiency of these is good for the two families that are going to be living here,” said James DeVecchi, headmaster of Portsmouth.

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Recycled Glass Countertops: Transforming Waste Into Durable Beauty

Over the last few years, recycled glass countertops have become a popular option for people who are looking for something unusual, beautiful, and that also makes a personal statement about their environmental consciousness.

Terrazzo montage. Courtesy of Green Home Source.

The current spectrum of conventional countertops come in styles made from materials including: plastic laminates; quarried stones like granite; silicate minerals like quartz; metals like stainless steel; and butcher block woods.

While there’s nothing wrong with conventional countertops in terms of beauty and functionality, the biggest reason for considering recycled glass countertops or other terrazzo countertops is that they’re the kindest thing that you can do for the planet in terms of preserving natural resources.

For those that don’t know, terrazzo is the original recycled product, a composite material made for centuries by taking leftover pieces of materials like quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable chips and combining them with a cementing binder to cure and then polish for a beautiful, smooth, textured looking surface.

While terrazzo surfaces are beautiful, since they’re using already existing materials that would otherwise find their way to the landfills, they’re also not taking any existing resources from the environment.

Today, countertops made either exclusively or even partially of recycled glass are also gaining a lot of attention because of the broad range of colors and designs they come in.

Depending on the manufacturer, they require no special maintenance, to quite the bit, though they all have their unique charm. Three of the top makers worth taking a look at are: EnviroGLAS, IceStone, and Vetrazzo.

If you’re the sort that really doesn’t like maintenance, then you are really going to love EnviroGLAS because it doesn’t require you to do any waxing or resealing once the countertop is installed.

EnviroGLAS takes post-consumer and industrial glass and porcelain bound for landfills and creates products including countertops and flooring.

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