Let There Be Light

Architects Let Light in at Former School, Industrial Building
By JIM SCHLOSSER
2007-04-09

Someone must have said, “Let there be light” and “let it shine abundantly.”

Presto! A former wholesale produce building that could have been mistaken for the city’s arsenal now has plenty of windows with more to come.

Architect Bruce Cantrell, of J. Hyatt Hammond Associates, and Lomax Construction Co. are redoing the 82–year–old downtown industrial building, which most recently housed the Imani Institute.

The law firm of Purrington Moody Weil will occupy the second floor, and the executive search firm Wyndham Mills will use half of the first floor, leaving about 6,000 square feet available for leasing.

The building dates to about 1925 when whole produce company W.I. Anderson Co. —- which, according to the late historian Ethel Arnett was the first to import citrus fruits and frozen fruits and vegetables to the area —- paid $60,000 for property at what’s now North Church Street and East Friendly Avenue.

The location, two blocks east of Elm Street, had been residential for decades, but downtown was creeping that way. The Anderson firm tore down three houses to make way for its square building with two floors .

Seemingly, a simple structure would have sufficed for a wholesaler located on downtown’s back side.

But Anderson added architectural touches. The most noticeable is the cast iron entrance that remains one of downtown’s eye– catchers.

It contains engravings of fruit baskets and other items and the words “Fruits & Produce” at the top. Centered above the doorway is a scale, with both sides in balance. The scale is a representation of those once common in grocery stores.

John King, project manager for Lomax Construction, says the entrance will remain unchanged.

The scales fit beautifully with building’s new purpose. In the American judicial system, balanced scales symbolize equal justice for all.

But law firm members will spend plenty of time explaining why “Fruits & Produce” is over the doorway. The answer: The words are vital to the building’s history and worth preserving.

“That is a magnificent piece of architecture,” King said of the entrance.

What’s more, the entrance will again become the building’s main passage, as it was during the Anderson era, which ended in the late 1960s.

Photographs from the 1930s or early 1940s by Greensboro photographer Carol Martin show a building with abundant windows. After Anderson left, a furniture and interior design firm that used the building briefly as a warehouse began bricking up windows.

Architect Cantrell pleads guilty to being an accessory to the building becoming a fortress. As a young architect years ago, he vaguely recalls sealing a few windows while the building was being renovated for Duke Power as a local headquarters, appliance center and bill payment office.

Pity students at Imani Institute, the charter school that was the most recent tenant, from 1998 to mid–2006. The only daylight students saw was when they passed through the lobby. Duke Power had turned former truck loading bays into a lobby with windows to make its appliances visible from Church Street.

Cantrell says historical correctness is a goal of the restoration. But changes are being made.

The building will be even more airy than Anderson built it. Anderson left the rear wall of the structure windowless.

Now, along the same wall, 14 windows are being cut into the second floor, 13 on the first.

Huge new windows also are being cut on one side of the decorative entrance on East Friendly. This is being done to match the big windows Lomax unsealed on the entrance’s opposite side.

On Church Street, bricked–up windows are also being reopened, and others are being added along the former loading dock on the north side.

The railroad siding that served the loading dock and the nearby former News & Record building (now the Greensboro Cultural Center) won’t return, to the relief of Norfolk Southern. A locomotive derailed crossing Church headed for the loading dock. While resurfacing Church, the city inadvertently paved over the tracks.

Cantrell says efforts will be made to get the Anderson Building, which should be completed in June, listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The state has indicated age makes the structure eligible for consideration.

And the fact that W.I. Anderson Co. added beauty to an industrial building in a then–out–of–the–way place also makes for historical worthiness.

There’s precedent. Cantrell says several warehouselike buildings in south Charlotte, resembling the Anderson building, are on the register.

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Cool Cities Campaign

‘Cool Cities’ Hope to Cool Global Warming
by Michelle Rivera
February 8th, 2007

As of last week, Blacksburg is the only town in the commonwealth of Virginia to be named a “Cool City.” While locals may feel they have enough snow and chilly winds to spare, and there may be several trendy bars around town, but what makes Blacksburg officially “cool?”

The Blacksburg Town Council recently adopted the Cool Cities Across America campaign in an effort to offset the federal government’s lack of action concerning global warming.

Since the early 1990’s, the United Nations has been trying to curb the problem of global warming and took the Kyoto Protocol into effect in 2005. The Protocol is an international agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions levels by at least five percent below those during 1990.

Though ratified by 141 countries, the United States rejected the agreement and in response, the Sierra Club established the Cool Cities initiative to persuade local governments across the nation to take action against global warming.

To become a Cool City, local governments sign the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, which is a pledge for cities to comply with the Kyoto Protocol and to develop solution plans to reduce emissions.

“It was very important for us to join (the initiative),” said Mary Holliman, Blacksburg Town councilwoman. “Every scientific study for every generation has shown that global warming is a fact and that it is exacerbated by human activities.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, comprised of a group of scientists, came out with a report on global warming last Friday.

“The report said it’s ‘very likely’ that it’s greater than a 90 percent chance humans are the cause of global warming,” said John Chermak, professor of geosciences.

The report is geared towards informing politicians and others who have a limited understanding of global warming and its effects.

Chermak went on to say that “85 percent of the energy we get from the United States is fossil fuels, that is: coal, oil, and natural gas. The key is to try to convert our fossil fuel use to renewable energy sources.”

For Blacksburg, this means “thinking globally and acting locally,” said Thomas Sherman, Blacksburg Town Councilman.

“In the last eight years, Blacksburg has been working on using energy more efficiently in electrical devices. The lights … have all been changed to fluorescent fixtures (and) LAD lights in traffic signals. The town has modernized the bus fleet so it’s much more efficient than it has been and in the future we hope to switch to fuels that are less polluting,” he said.

Virginia Tech students have also begun implementing some energy conservation solutions. A group of interior design students plan to join the “Make the Switch Campaign” by replacing 25,000 incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

“Even though the initial costs for fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive than incandescent ones, it saves costs and energy in the long run,” said Megan Tingley, sophomore environmental policy and planning major.

There is always a little more that everyone can do. From getting a little more exercise by walking instead of driving to going back to employing the Three R’s, reduce, reuse and recycle, every student and citizen can help to “cool” every city and hopefully, put an end to global warming.

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Consider Adding Chandeliers To Your Product Line-Up

New chandelier center brings bling home
Offers sparkling lights for as little as $300
By Pam Witmer
February 04, 2007

A half million crystals sparkle and glitter in the showroom of Strauss Lighting at the International Design Center in Estero.

Since the showroom opened two weeks ago, visitors who see the room full of chandeliers all have the same response, said showroom manager Laura Simion.

“Everyone who walks through the door just says ‘Wow.’”

Bling for the boudoir, bling for the bathroom and bling for the baby’s room.

Chandeliers are a decorating trend and Strauss’ new showroom is full of chandeliers from small to custom-made large. Designs are traditional to transitional.

“Chandeliers can be used in any setting today,” Simion said. “We have sizes from wall sconces to two stories tall.”

Traditionally chandeliers have been done in clear crystal only. But the trend today is to add colored crystals as accents, or to create the entire chandelier.

A small piece done in lavender hangs in the showroom. Simion said when the lights are off, the crystals look blue.

“We will be bringing in more color and styles in the next few weeks,” she said. “Designers love to see color in the chandeliers.”

Co-owner Nizam Harragin said the company originally opened in New York about 12 years ago. They still have a warehouse based there.

Strauss Lighting also has a location on Alico Road, but that storefront is retail and sells a product line of lighting fixtures in a tropical theme, made of wicker and cast iron.

Crystals used to make the chandeliers for the design center showroom are imported from Austria and Czechoslovakia.

“These are high-end crystals,” Harrigan said.

The showroom sells to customers through interior designers, builders, architects and others in the construction and design trades. But if they were sold retail, the glimmering lights would range in price from $300 for wall sconces to $30,000.

“We can do custom designs for any size and style as well,” he said.

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