Month: March 2022

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USG preps for new Avery Quarry, targets construction this year | News

ALABASTER Twp. – Building upon an already lengthy local history, USG is looking to continue its gypsum operations in Alabaster Township well into the future. To secure the ongoing production, as well as the employment of those in the community who work for USG, the company is completing the steps to establish a new quarry.

USG officials presented their plans at a recent meeting of the Iosco County Board of Commissioners, and noted that construction of the Avery Quarry is proposed for this year. They say that USG will celebrate its 120th birthday in 2022 by opening the new quarry, which is named for its original founder, Sewell Avery.

As previously reported, in 2018 USG purchased nearly 600 acres of state forest land adjacent to its current property, with the expressed intention of continuing to quarry gypsum in the township.

The local reserves were part of the company’s founding more than a century ago, and they’ve steadily produced from this location ever since, says USG Manager Matt Craig. “We are proud of our history in the community, and we’re excited to announce we’re embarking on this new chapter of gypsum production at Alabaster.”

As part of the endeavor, USG has submitted a wetlands permit application to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).

Craig says that neighboring property owners and other stakeholders have been notified of USG’s intent, and he assured that those from the company have, and will continue, to answer any questions and address concerns.

In fact, during the recent on-site interview for this story, he said that the plans and designs which have been put forth were done so in a way as to not adversely impact the community.

Further, any land utilized by USG will undergo a reclamation process wherein the property is returned to a natural state. If five acres of wetland are utilized, for instance, the company has to later restore five acres in the same watershed. The reclamation work is ultimately determined by EGLE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

From home building and cement manufacturing, to agriculture and more, USG states that the Avery Quarry is welcome news to the Michigan industries which depend on gypsum-based products. The essential raw material is used in a wide range of applications, including food additives, animal feed, soil conditioner in farming, fertilizers, drywall and plaster.

Synthetic gypsum, made from emission stack material of coal-burning power plants, has been a key material in industry for decades. However, Craig points out that synthetic sources are rapidly declining as coal-burning plants are retired or shifted to natural gas for energy. So it’s critical to have a local, reliable source of natural gypsum rock for the dozens of industries and hundreds of companies USG serves in Michigan.

Also, the shift away from synthetic gypsum being created as a by-product of power plants has put increased pressure on natural gypsum, and available supplies around the United States are short. This includes the reserves at USG’s existing quarry in Alabaster Township, which is nearing the end of its productive life and will soon be depleted.

In terms of the need for a new quarry, the company states that its ability to supply gypsum has been very limited over the past several years, even as demand for gypsum-based construction products has increased significantly.

Craig, joined by other USG staff, also spoke to this at the March 7 Tawas City Council meeting. “We’re going back to what we did before the power plants produced synthetic gypsum, which is to mine natural rock. And this area has an abundance of natural gypsum, that is part of the deposit that goes throughout Michigan,” he advised. With the local gypsum being so close to the surface, it’s also much easier to access and the most economical to mine. “And that’s why there’s three different gypsum companies in this area.”

Councilman Chuck Klenow said that with the increasing demand, it can probably be assumed that the other local companies will continue to grow, which will also be a benefit to the area. “And I appreciate you bringing this to the council; keeping us apprised of it.”

The Alabaster quarry has been in existence since 1862, and has been part of U.S. Gypsum Company since its formation in 1902. “And [it’s] still the same company today, operating a quarry,” Craig told council members. “We’ve been in continuous operation since then, but business has slowed down; picked up. Our ship loading system shut down in 2000, and portions of it were taken out in 2004.”

The marine bin on Lake Huron was also taken out in 2019, he noted. “But at this point, we are now in the process of growing again.”

With the Avery Quarry, the rock will initially be shipped out by truck. But USG is looking at installing rail again, and is even investigating whether it makes sense to go back on the water at some point. “So all those possibilities exist for us,” Craig said. “We’ve got a very bright future, there’s a lot of demand for the product and a lot of need for it.”

As for an estimated time line, he shared that USG has submitted its application, which is going through the public notice phase, and that technical review of the permit is also occurring. This process will take at least until the end of June, but possibly longer since the state and EPA need an opportunity to review it, look at the numbers, ask questions and so on.

Craig adds that USG has put in a lot of monitoring wells to track surface water elevations, and have also done studies to make sure they don’t drain all the surrounding land in part of that process.

It depends on the permit, but he said that once this in place, USG is anticipating about eight months of work before they can start extracting the first gypsum in the new quarry. “And our plan is that most of the work will be done by the current employees who are there; who are mining the last of the rock out of our current quarry, which we call the Northwest Quarry.”

While awaiting the new quarry, staff continue to work in the meantime. Alabaster Operations Manager Jim Sheehan says that they are still selling some of the rock which exists there and continue to ship it to USG’s plant in River Rouge, as well, where it will go on to be used in agricultural and industrial products, for glass manufacturing, in the creation of fireproof/fire-resistant materials and more.

Workers at the current quarry are also stockpiling shale, which is being used to develop a haul road for the new operations.

Once up and running, the Avery Quarry will produce approximately 500,000 tons of gypsum annually and add full-time, living-wage jobs to the area. Craig says that the company has already started hiring more employees in anticipation of this.

As reported, USG began decreasing its production in 2019, due to the limited reserves of gypsum rock at the existing quarry. It was noted that layoffs were possible for some of the 23 employees who were working there at the time, but the site was running out of gypsum faster than anticipated and production had to be slowed while USG worked to get the next site permitted and operating.

According to Craig, they were down to six employees at one point, but now have 18 workers as the company prepares to open the new quarry. There will be even more hiring to come and, while the thought is to have at least 24 employees, it’s most likely going to grow beyond that.

“The demand for the product is very substantial and 24 is what we’re going to need, on the low end of that scale,” he told council members. “And I don’t think we’ll be that low for very long.”

USG completed its agreement with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 2018 to purchase the 580 acres of land for $3.45 million. The new quarry property sits immediately adjacent to the west boundary of the existing quarry, which is south of Tawas City, and is still in Alabaster Township.

According to representatives, USG is committed to being a good steward of our natural resources. They have applied to EGLE for a permit, which is required any time human activity impacts wetlands.

If USG is unable to open a new quarry, it will likely be forced to use imported material until it can identify and create a new quarry someplace else; however, no other locations in Michigan have demonstrated economically obtainable gypsum. Company officials state that if the Alabaster operations closed permanently, it could have economic ramifications beyond Iosco County. The quarry serves the USG factory near Detroit, which makes Durock brand cement board, as well as a variety of other Michigan businesses.

Craig also said that the gypsum in Alabaster is particularly sought after due to its very high purity level. The local supply is special because of its brightness, as well, which appeals to the customers who want white gypsum, and gives USG the opportunity to serve those markets.

For those who may be wondering why the company doesn’t quarry gypsum away from wetlands, he explained that there really isn’t anywhere else to go, since this is where the rock is.

Simply put, according to information from USG, gypsum occurs where it occurs. It’s a calcium-based mineral located in the ground, so quarries must be developed where the rock is. In the case of Iosco County, more of the landscape is wetland than not. The gypsum reserves on USG’s property are very high quality – some of the finest in the country. Siting a quarry which would not impact wetlands in Alabaster Township is nearly impossible, so the company is working with state regulators on a plan that minimizes wetland disturbance and mitigates the impacts by restoring and protecting wetlands elsewhere in the watershed.

Craig says that in conjunction with working on the permit steps for the future quarry, they have also been designing the replacement wetlands and figuring out other mitigation details that will have to be done for the land used by USG.

Once the new quarry opens, staff will use one section of it at a time, lasting for about 50 years.

Craig elaborated on this, first explaining that a quarry is a broad term for an excavating operation. Within the quarry operation, each pit is called a bench.

Although USG purchased 580 acres to create the Avery Quarry, he said that this includes ample buffer acreage to help them be a good neighbor. The actual quarry footprint for Phase One is closer to 50 acres total. Once that 50-acre bench is depleted, it will be filled and reclaimed, then another quarry bench will be opened and so on. The lakes are then created by the final bench.

“All the planned benches in the quarry over next 50 years or so will total approximately 400 acres,” Craig stated. But for now, the focus is on the Phase One acreage.

As for the expected longevity of the Avery Quarry, he said it depends on a lot of unknown factors, mostly related to market demand for gypsum. However, what is known, is that the new setup will serve the region’s gypsum needs for decades ahead.

When removal of the deposits is complete, the areas are restored to create wetlands, lakes, forests and prairies, which is done according to township ordinances and environmental permits. USG notes that its long track record on the land in Alabaster as visible proof of their commitment to restoring the landscape when the work is done.

For example, USG has been hosting Free Fishing Weekend events at the property for the last few years, welcoming the community to fish the ponds on the reclaimed land of its current quarry, which are teeming with a variety of species.

Craig states that these fish are native species which have migrated in naturally over the past 50-plus years. The only stocking done by USG, was to put local minnows into the lakes a few years ago to see if it would reduce pressure on some of the panfish populations and provide forage for some of the carnivorous species. “Given the popularity of the Free Fishing Weekend events, USG is working to keep the fishery healthy to provide great fishing opportunities for those events.”

He pointed out that all of the water bodies on USG property are former quarries.

This includes a former mining pit that was depleted in 1999, was restored and is now known as Pilot Lake. Sheehan says that the lake has an average depth of about 30 feet.

And because there are no chemicals used in procuring the gypsum, the water bodies can naturalize on their own.

Craig went over this, as well, at the Tawas City Council meeting. He said that they remove the dirt, remove the gypsum and then put the dirt back. “The only thing we discharge is groundwater.” When they dig a hole in the ground, water is going to flow in. “And we have a permit to pump that water out. The water then goes through our lakes, before it enters Lake Huron.”

Staff closely monitor the quantity and quality of water and regularly report that data to the state of Michigan. The state also tests to make sure that no sediment from the operation enters Lake Huron.

For the actual collection of gypsum, because the reserves in Iosco County are close enough to the surface, they can be obtained through a quarry process, which is different from an underground mine. Surface soils and clays are cleared until the gypsum layer is exposed, and machines similar to road resurfacing equipment essentially mow rows of gypsum approximately 12 inches thick. The materials are crushed and sorted by size on-site, and transported by truck to manufacturing operations and other businesses across Michigan and North America.

USG officials say that this process does not harm the environment. Gypsum is a very safe mineral, quarrying it is sustainable and its removal entails a mechanical process which does not use chemicals or create pollution.

When USG closes a gypsum quarry, they backfill the earth, create a natural landscape, plant native trees and welcome wildlife into the space. The company is already reclaiming large sections of its existing quarry with wetland creation and enhancement, timber management and control of invasive species.

Craig, who also works at the River Rouge plant, says it’s interesting to see some of the historical areas that were mined more than 100 years ago in Alabaster, and how active they are today with wildlife, lakes, fish and so forth.

A group of whitetail deer is one example witnessed by this reporter, during the recent tour.

Some have questioned if there will be blasting as part of the new quarry, and the company reports that limited blasting is needed in their operations today. On average, they blast three to eight times per year to create holes to collect water from the quarry or access the deeper layers of gypsum. No explosive materials are kept on site, and are brought in only as needed.

Tawas City Mayor Pro Tem Brian McMurray, during the council meeting, commented that he was surprised at how infrequent the blasting occurs.

Craig said that part of their process involves opening a bench, and these are about 200 feet wide by 1,000 feet long. They dig down to the surface of the gypsum, which is mined with what he likened to a converted road planer. “But as part of that process, we have to deal with water.”

So the workers go to the lowest point of the bench and blast a hole, which allows them to collect the water and pump it out. They typically do two blasts per pit, and Craig said that currently, they go through maybe one pit every two years. “But the plan with the new quarry would be two pits a year. So that would be four blasts. And these are relatively small blasts.”

He noted that the outside company which brings in the materials to perform the blasting also sets up seismic equipment to monitor the activity, so that USG knows if there were any shock waves that went out and would have disturbed anybody. “And typically for us, the seismic devices do not record anything.”

Company officials state that USG has a documented, century-long record as a responsible custodian of the natural resources entrusted to them. They work in close partnership with local, state and national authorities to respect environmental concerns and restore impacted areas to a natural state.

“We started here and we want to stay here” is an adage that has been expressed by both Craig and other USG representatives. Although they had a temporary production slowdown during the past couple years, they are now eagerly looking forward to developing the new quarry that will secure gypsum reserves – and permanent jobs to the community – for years to come.

As for what USG intends to do with the existing quarry once it’s no longer operating, Craig says they currently plan to keep and maintain it, and that the priority will be the reclamation work.

Along with what has already been mentioned, USG says that some of the other benefits which will come with the development of the Avery Quarry include, meeting the state’s goal of supporting and strengthening the resource-based economy; putting nearly 600 acres of land back on regular tax rolls to support local public services and schools; supporting the DNR’s conservation projects in the region; and contributing to the economic recovery from the pandemic, by providing building supplies to a booming construction market.

The continuation of quarrying gypsum locally will also allow for the continuation of USG’s public engagement. In addition to hosting the Free Fishing events, employees are involved in the community, attend local governmental meetings and support area businesses.

The company has also teamed with Michigan Sea Grant, Michigan State University Extension, Project Fish and others to explore development of an ongoing summer youth fishing program to encourage recreational fishing and educate children about the natural environment and ecosystems.

Additionally, Craig says that when USG purchased the land in 2018, they immediately put a total of 1,000 acres into public access through the state’s Hunting Access Program (HAP). “We realize outdoor recreation is important to people in the area. As a landowner, we support that as best we can.”

Further, USG has contributed to Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, United Way, Huron Pines, the Tawas City Fire Department, the Iosco County Historical Museum and more.

Staff have given tours to a number of different entities and individuals, as well, including school groups, Sunrise Side Lifelong Learning members, local officials and those from the public.

“I highly recommend you go. It’s very interesting,” Tawas City Manager Annge Horning told council members at their meeting, after Craig confirmed that tours of the facility will again be provided.

Councilman Ed Nagy added that the handouts shared by USG for the meeting were very informative and well put together. “Having lived here a long time, I didn’t know a lot of this stuff. Thank you.”

More workers and more land in support of the Avery Quarry also means that more equipment is needed, and USG has already tackled a big chunk of this task. For example, the company recently purchased three Volvo A60H trucks, which are the largest articulated haulers in the world.

In reference to the quarry’s namesake, Craig said that Avery’s father was a timberman who purchased the Alabaster quarry site in about 1895. Avery and his brother were running the quarry when USG formed in 1902, upon merging several manufacturing/quarry sites.

Avery became the president of USG – a position he held for 30 years – and helped grow the company during that time, even throughout the Great Depression.

According to representatives, USG has grown into an international company, with 6,900 employees across North America and operations around the world. The business is a leading manufacturer of building products and innovative solutions, with one of its most well-known products being Sheetrock® drywall.

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This Purchase Home Design Is All About the Artwork

Photo courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs

Designer and art dealer Gilles Clement transforms a Purchase home for a family of five into an internationally inspired jewel box, complete with a covetable art collection.

When you spot a Colonial in the suburbs, you might expect to see a particular design scheme within. After all, it makes sense for the exterior to match the interior, right?

Au contraire, says accomplished designer Gilles Clement of Gilles Clement Designs in Greenwich. “It doesn’t matter where you live; it matters who you are. A lot of people get caught up in ‘Oh, I live in Westchester County, or I live in Greenwich, so I have to respect the architectural style’ — and it’s not true.” While he admits that a home with a completely different feel from others in a neighborhood might be a harder sell, Clement contends, “It doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”

Clement’s creativity and predisposition for bold decor are what set apart his distinct design, which is infused with European flair and global influences. The Parisian native is also an art dealer and owns an eponymous gallery in Greenwich. “My look in Greenwich is pretty ballsy — you know, let’s just say the truth,” Clement says, bluntly. As such, he is accustomed to a particular type of client, one he typically expects to persuade when it comes to daring decor.

“Art is the soul of the home.”

living room

In the living room, an Il Pezzo Mancante lighting fixture, mixed-media artwork by Natalia Kldiashvili, and hand-selected accessories create a luxurious feel. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

So, when a shopper entered his gallery a few years ago and purchased a striking Visionnaire console on a day that he wasn’t there, he was intrigued. “It’s not a common piece at all, and it’s pretty pricy. Usually, I sell these kinds of pieces through my design projects. It’s very unusual that someone would walk in and buy that.”

Continuing, he says, “Someone who understands that certain sensibility, without there being any sales or educational help to understand the look and why it’s so great, piqued my curiosity to meet her.”

He went with his movers to the client’s home in Purchase. A delivery that was supposed to have taken 15 minutes lasted three hours. “We sat down and started talking,” says Clement. “This is how I found out she needed much more than the console.” She was seeking to renovate her home.

Clement says he found an appreciative muse in his client. “She lived in Manhattan for many years and always had strong interest in design — as much in fashion as in home. She’s someone who’s very keen and curious about the beauty and aesthetics one can become amazed by in this world,” he says. “She already had matured a certain taste over the years on her own, just by lifestyle. She travels a lot. She went to Europe. She stayed in a lot of beautiful boutique hotels.” As a result, his client reacted strongly to his gallery. “She wanted to buy the entire store; she couldn’t believe how much she loved it.”

Clement’s gallery reflects his affinities as a designer: He is known for mixing old and new, respecting a home yet reinventing it in a contemporary fashion. His curated art collection, like his design selections, has international influences. His gallery brims with artists like Georgian-born David Datuna, London-based Debra Franses Bean, French natives Clement Kamena, American creator Devorah Sperber, and Canadian Curtis Cutshaw. Clement describes his design style as transitional and contemporary: “opulent and luxurious but definitely transitional and contemporary.” And the art, furniture, and decor he houses at his gallery reflect that feel.

Of his clientele, Clement shares, “I feel that once they appreciate that sensibility on that aesthetic design level, there is a large chance that they will feel the same way about the art. With the exception of perhaps two percent, my clientele end up purchasing art from me at the end.”

He adorned this Purchase home with exquisite art in the form of mixed-media works, lighting fixtures, and furniture.

The jumping-off point for the home, a Visionnaire console, from Italy, decorates the hallway. Created with black, beveled glass, it has chains waterfalling on both sides. “It’s very bold and a very special character piece,” Clement shares. He adds that he has a lot of respect for American clients for their willingness to educate themselves about art and aesthetics. “I wouldn’t be surprised if, in Paris, someone buys this console. But here, I am. It was really intriguing to me that I didn’t need to be involved in this one sale to convince the client why it’s so great — that she loved it so much on her own.”

sculpture in foyer

In the foyer of this Purchase estate, a sculpture by Edgar Askelovic greets guests, along with a spectacular chandelier. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

Above the console is a three-dimensional rendition by Clement Kamena of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, part of the French natives’ Jar Memory series. It’s no coincidence: Clement Kamena are Gilles Clement’s parents, Serge Clement and Marina Kamena. “They interpreted their own version of [Vermeer’s oil painting],” explains Clement, “so you can collect the art in the jar. Their entire concept [for their Jar Memory series] was to take masterpieces of art history and close them in jars so that people can collect the jars and own a part of art history. It’s very well painted and very well realized — not because it’s my parents. Trust me, if I didn’t love their work, they wouldn’t be in my gallery. I would never jeopardize my artistic integrity.

lady in a jar decor

The Visionnaire console connected the designer and client, allowing for the renovation of this Purchase home. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

“I really like their work,” he continues. “It’s in complete sync with my perspective, which is kind of normal, because we are from the same family, so we kind of share the same vision on certain things, especially when it comes to the arts and aesthetics.”

Surrounding the artwork in this home are two pendants by Italian lighting company Terzani. Each pendant has seven balls of handblown crystal.

In the living room, family ties continue. The lighting fixture is from Il Pezzo Mancante (the owner of this Italian-based lighting brand is the brother of the owner of Terzani). The chandelier in the living room is made from handblown crystal balls. Between each crystal junction to the black metal rod, there is a little circle of polished nickel. Clement says, “It’s like a double-finish chandelier because it has polished nickel and black powder-coated lacquer rods.” Light shines through the crystal from the rod. “The light shines through the crystal from the rod.” Brightly, Clement says, “It’s really spectacular in person.”

Clement Kamena’s Jar Memory series is again found here, with a representation of Jeff Koons’ Diamond. Clement felt this piece was the right scale, color, and vibe for the room, and the multifaceted diamond serves as a unique focal point. “You can get intricately lost in it. It was interesting to see how they could take a sculpture and make it feel three-dimensional, through the painting.”

two chairs and artwork

Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

Additional artwork in the living room includes a piece from Natalia Kldiashvili, a Georgian artist fascinated by the life of Coco Chanel. On the sides of the starburst are newspaper clippings, magazines, and documents from the 1940s–60s that chronicle the life of Chanel. The left side is in French; the right side, English. All the pieces in and around the logo are collages: accessories, buttons, fashion items, to tie the mixed-media piece together.

“It doesn’t matter where you live; it matters who you are.”

The luxurious rug in the space was made in Nepal from genuine silk. Of the metallic blanket, Clement says, “It’s really cool because the way it falls onto things, it breaks into little triangles, so it gives a really interesting feel and look.” Clement often will purchase fabric (“the more unique, the better” he says) from vendors and create distinctive throws and blankets in his workshop. The distinguishing Klismos chairs are “Hollywood glamour style,” made from black piano lacquer. Clement explains they have a “very feminine shape and very masculine finish. It’s unusual.”

Feathers — adorning the living room’s pillows (real rooster) — are Clement’s signature. The homeowner’s personal art collection complemented this. In the powder room, a photograph of a woman wearing a garment with ostrich feathers elevates the space. Clement says his client inquired before they started the project if they should incorporate the fashion-forward image in the home’s new design. “I said yes, absolutely,” recalls Clement, and he curated the powder room around the image, taking into account the black and ivory hues and the model’s golden tresses, translating the color palette to the decor, despite the square footage.

While some counter that dark paint has the potential to close up a small space, Clement declares: “A powder room doesn’t have to feel grand… feel grand in style, yes; feel grand in space, no.

“For me,” he continues, “it was more about creating a jewelry box, something really pleasant and sultry and chic and sophisticated.”

bathroom sink

Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

purchase home design

The designer took cues from the artwork above to create an elevated aesthetic in the powder room. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

To accomplish that sophistication, the designer chose a mosaic brass-tile floor, which complements the Maison Valentina vanity. From Portugal, the vanity features a mix of lacquered and brass balls (the top is imprinted wood on brass). A gold sink and faucet complete it. The photo inspired unexpected design choices. “I know the black toilet is a little ballsy. I know some people hate them. But for me, a white toilet there would make no sense — it would bring attraction to the toilet because it would have contrasted with the wallpaper and black wall. I never try to bring attention to a toilet, so the black in this instance was the proper choice.” Elaborating, he says, “It melts with the design, and it’s discreet and sophisticated.” The wallpaper, handmade in Japan with real gold leaf, is by Studio Zen. The diamond-shaped lighting fixture hails from Holland.

Stylish lighting is an essential characteristic of Gilles Clement Designs: “A good interior design job is made of a lot of small things that create the puzzle, and everything is important, but lighting, in my opinion, is probably the most important,” he says, adding, “a lot of the lighting fixtures I choose are very sculptural, very artistic, made by artisans. Most of them come from Europe.” His propensity for viewing lighting as an artist statement is evident in the home’s grand kitchen. Prior to the reno, the kitchen was outdated and lacking functionality, says Clement. The client, who sought a contemporary and luxurious feel for the space, was Clement’s inspiration. “I wanted to give her lighting that looked like jewelry, because she has a lot of amazing jewelry. I wanted to carry on her sense of fashion and her sense of glamour throughout the kitchen.”

Clement adeptly accomplished this by personally designing the chandeliers that anchor the space. “Originally, I had the starting inspiration point from Brand van Egmond, from Amsterdam, but that brand’s lighting was very expensive, and my clients wanted something they could get faster. They asked if I could do a version of it that was appropriate in scale to the islands. I came up with my own version and had them custom-made in Canada.”

purchase home design

The kitchen features intricate design details and accommodates the large family. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

Also custom-designed was the cabinetry, built in Clement’s workshop. Piano lacquer with brass inserts in the molding make them unique.

Clement says, “I’ve done so many kitchens in the past in silver-and-white and silver-and-gray, and I like to reinvent myself.” To reflect his client’s stylish vibe and execute his penchant for cutting-edge design, he selected a back-splash that is a mixture of solid brass and Nero Marquina marble.

For the family of five with frequently visiting grandparents, Clement doubled the size of the kitchen, to roughly 750 square feet (including the nearby breakfast nook) and reconfigured the space for more practical use. He opted for two islands, seating six, and the breakfast nook seats an additional six. (The kitchen wasn’t originally suited to host that many people; “I had to work my magic to break the walls, some load-bearing,” says Clement.) The islands are Calacatta Gold Ultra Quartz. “Very few people still do marble islands or countertops, because of the maintenance,” Clement elaborates. He shares that the islands are special because they have waterfall edges, and they are angled. “This is something I’ve honestly never seen,” shares Clement. Two of the four corners of each island are angled on a diagonal, because when he expanded the kitchen, one of the walls was protruding. The wall with the ovens and warming drawer protrudes farther out than the other wall. “I carried that angle on the edge of the islands, so not only is it very functional when you walk because they are perpendicular to each other; it is also a design that is unique and a novelty, which is always nice.”

The floor features oversized tiles: 36” x 48” Italian ceramic, with Calacatta Gold Ultra veining. The kitchen opens into the breakfast nook, which dons an impressive chandelier from Italian luxury brand Paolo Castelli. The ceiling is custom silver-leaf finish, and the Roman shades are a sheer fabric intended to pick up the veining on the Calacatta floor. “The idea was to mix the greige that’s on the floor and the countertop with the Roman shade and introduce this gold.” Clement says that not many kitchens featured gold when he started designing this project a few years ago. “I’ve always been at the forefront of using brass in my design. It’s always been challenging introducing clients to it because brass has the connotation of being a traditional material. At the time, I was one of the first ones to create and make pieces with brass when everybody was doing polished nickel and chrome.”

purchase home design

The breakfast nook off the kitchen offers additional seating for a large family. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

The nook is complete with Portuguese finds: brass chairs and a Nero Maquina round table with brass leaf on the top and brass on the pedestal.

The opulence continues in the dining room. The chandelier and sconces are by Terzani, wallpaper by Elitis, and the fabric of the curtains is by Gretchen Bellinger. The table and chairs are custom; the fabric of the chairs is by Romo Zinc. The rug is by the designer himself. Here, the art is elevated to a new level. Rather than typical still art, Clement selected video artwork for this space, by MARCK from Switzerland, which is best appreciated in person.

purchase home design

Photo by Trel Brock

Elsewhere on the first floor, Clement added an opulent bar, laundry room with ample storage and two washers and dryers, and a mudroom with a study area.

While the family doesn’t often enter and exit through the foyer, it shines bright like a diamond. The floor is marble (Clement agreed to incorporate marble here rather than quartz, because “Ninety-nine percent of the time, the family comes through the garage like everyone else in any other house. Because it’s not a high-traffic area, I thought marble was the way to go for this one, and black with white veins is really what I wanted because it is consistent with the design of the kitchen and all the rooms we’d redone,” shares Clement. The real standout here is the sculpture by Edgar Askelovic, a Millennial artist from Lithuania. The life-size sculpture, inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat, is part of Askelovic’s Rihanna series (he gifted the Grammy Award winner with a handcrafted silicone sculpture of herself for her 30th birthday). Clement acknowledges, “It’s a really unique and interesting piece. I wanted to do something unique and not have to again put some flowers or a vase and just try to be innovative by putting something that’s unexpected” in the space.

Also unanticipated here is the choice of lighting. “I wanted the chandelier to waterfall really low because most people would put the chandelier all the way up,” he says. “I often break the rules with the heights of lighting. [Like in the living room, whose fixture waterfalls right on top of the cocktail table.] These are very unusual heights, but I do it because I feel that very often lighting is a great way to anchor a setting. If the lighting is too high, you lose that,” he adds. “In this case [the foyer], the metal chandelier falls literally an inch over the sculpture’s head, which was curated for that purpose. It makes it very interesting and an unusual introduction to the house when you arrive.”

In the foreground is David Datuna’s Black USA Flag. Part of the Georgian artist’s well-known Viewpoint of Millions series, the mixed-media piece features Datuna’s signature technique of using optical lenses over large-scaled layered, collaged, and painted images, with the surface both concealing and revealing the work below. This work by Datuna, a treasure, adds to the esteemed collection of this Westchester estate.

Clement recognizes that there are many important art collections and art enthusiasts in Westchester, and through his design firm and gallery, his focus is to create elegant spaces with mood-enhancing art, in both the traditional sense and through decor and furnishings.

purchase home design

The bar features a bold design. Photo Courtesy of Gilles Clement Designs.

“We live in a difficult world, with a lot of struggles and challenges to overcome every day. For me, your home is really the place you are able to recharge and feel safe. I think it’s a very important part of our lives, our homes, and I believe that making your environment more beautiful has a gigantic consequence on your mood and the way you feel about yourself.

“I believe that by creating a beautiful environment for people, it improves their lives,” the designer continues. “A beautiful environment needs substance. Furniture, lighting, wallpapers, and fabrics are part of that process of embellishment and of fulfillment. Art can fulfill the need of someone aesthetically and intellectually and emotionally. Art is the soul of the home.”

Related: Art Imitates Love Through This Striking David Datuna Piece


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Pine River landscaping proposal meets resistance

The proposed Pine River Channel landscape project. Erosion and stormwater run-off along Pine River Channel's sloped embankment were factors raised by concerned citizens at the recent planning commission meeting.

CHARLEVOIX — A proposed landscaping project together the Pine River Channel has served to highlight two ongoing issues that have plagued Charlevoix city officers.

The very first, how to greatest acknowledge substantial donations and include them inside the city’s total program. The 2nd, the correct implementation and enforcement of shoreline defense restrictions on waterfront developments.  

The landscape job in concern, spearheaded by Leilani Durbin of Silver Linings and built by Landscape Logic, was designed with the idea of transforming the “overgrown and unmanicured” embankment along the channel into an area that will “grow to be a contacting card to the public, and primarily boaters, from all all around to check out our terrific city,” according to Durbin.   

A proposed style incorporates indigenous bouquets, bushes and trees as nicely as patio parts for sitting and gathering to check out boats travel by means of the channel and the sunset.  

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The Rise of “Immersive” Art

In a lot of strategies, the entrepreneurial bent of the artwork-stack model dovetails with lengthy-jogging trends in the art entire world. It comes at a time when museums have developed more company, and also encounter force to diversify their collections and increase their audiences. Artwork works are witnessed as financial assets, and flashy, “starchitect”-intended museum buildings, with ethereal, open gallery spaces, demand from customers get the job done of a particular sizing and scale. There is also the prolonged-standing level of popularity of experiential, environmental art. Artists these kinds of as Turrell, Robert Irwin, and Robert Morris started creating these kinds of artwork in the nineteen-sixties and seventies by the nineties, it experienced turn out to be an institutional fixture. Producing at the commencing of that ten years, Rosalind Krauss, a critic and previous affiliate editor of Artforum, argued that these artwork experienced altered the character of museums. The moment areas total of objects, carefully organized to convey to a story, these establishments now sought to “forego background in the identify of a sort of intensity of practical experience.”

The new immersive art also displays the increase of purchaser digital technologies, and the behaviors and expectations that they cultivate. In “Contemporary Artwork and the Digitization of Everyday Existence,” revealed in 2020, Janet Kraynak, an artwork historian and professor at Columbia College, argues that the museum, “rather than getting replaced by the online, more and more is currently being reconfigured immediately after it.” Museums now take care of visitors as if they are the “users” of a shopper solution, and consequently cater to their tastes, developing “pleasurable, nonconfrontational” environments, and emphasizing interactivity. She indicates that, as a substitute of striving to be sites of pedagogy, museums are increasing “indistinguishable from any range of cultural web sites and encounters, as all turn out to be cars for the shipping of ‘content.’ ” Kraynak informed me that she thinks the person-friendliness of museums is creating them significantly less tough and intriguing. “That friendliness is sort of pernicious,” she said. “They’re not equipping the beholder to go exterior of oneself, outside of one’s ease and comfort zone.” In this vogue, she went on, museums have assumed a therapeutic function.

Marc Glimcher, the President and C.E.O. of Tempo, appeared to regard remedy as element of immersive art’s attraction. “We really do not see a dawn anymore, we don’t see a sunset any more,” he told me. “We progressed in excess of millions of many years in this unbelievable setting, and then, in excess of the past hundred, two hundred several years, we have closed ourselves in, into these metropolitan areas that erase character.” Persons are “hungry for transcendence,” Glimcher explained “churches are emptying,” and “these artists are making an attempt to fill that hole.” Engineering, he went on, has facilitated a motion toward “pop art,” which prioritizes the audience over the intelligentsia and seeks to skirt the entrenched artwork establishment. (He explained N.F.T.s as equally agent of this turn.) As a potent member of the institution himself, Glimcher seemed ambivalent about how to body this growth. “When you say we’re bringing transcendent activities to hundreds of thousands of persons, your coronary heart soars,” he explained. “When you say this is a populist change, your heart sinks. The democratization of art sounds wonderful. ‘Populist spectacle’ ”—he enable out a groan—“doesn’t really feel so good.”

In 2021, Serpentine launched a second “Future Art Ecosystems” report, in which the galleries expanded the art-stack classification to incorporate both of those Superblue and “Van Gogh: the Immersive Working experience.” The latter is not a prestige new-media experiment but a large-structure artwork-historic projection show—one of lots of displays that assert to re-current the function of lengthy-lifeless artists in a rapturous technological context. Similar exhibits consist of “Frida: Immersive Dream” (“Immerse oneself in the art and existence of Frida!”), “Immersive Klimt Revolution” (“Step within his electrifying earth and be swept absent!”), and “Imagine Picasso: The Immersive Exhibition” (“Literally action into the globe and will work of the grasp of modern day art”). There is “Beyond Monet” (“Become a person with his paintings”) and “Monet by the Water” (“Wander free in a planet formed by Claude Monet’s art”), as properly as “Gaudí: the Architect of the Imaginary,” “Chagall: Midsummer Night’s Dreams,” and “Dalí: The Infinite Enigma” the latter is synched to back again-to-back albums by Pink Floyd. Most of these exhibitions vacation the entire world, demonstrating in metropolitan areas throughout Europe, Asia, and North The usa. Quite a few are mounted in empty or transitional professional spaces, as stopgaps of types, until eventually a new tenant arrives. Towns, these times, are abundant with vacant box suppliers, function areas, and theatres.

At minimum in the United States, the sudden proliferation of these exhibits has been attributed to “Emily in Paris,” a Netflix collection about a younger, daffy American marketing qualified with a scary wardrobe and a penchant for pageantry. In the show’s initially time, which aired in late 2020, the protagonist visits “Van Gogh, Starry Evening,” an immersive expertise at L’Atelier des Lumières, a real-existence “digital arts center” in Paris. “Van Gogh, Starry Night” was not the first immersive Vincent van Gogh exhibit—the type dates again to at least 2008—but abruptly it seemed that walls across North The usa ended up becoming blasted with projections of flattened impasto. At existing, there are at least 5 distinct electronic exhibitions showcasing van Gogh’s function, stationed in metropolitan areas throughout the planet: “Van Gogh Alive,” “Immersive Van Gogh,” “Van Gogh: The Immersive Encounter,” “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” and “Imagine Van Gogh: The Immersive Exhibition.” (The nomenclature delivers to head an Amazon research result.)

We dwell, supposedly, in the age of “experiences” the expression evokes the drained trope that millennials—the most indebted technology in history—value journey and ephemeral encounters around substance goods. In a 2018 Occasions short article titled “The Existential Void of the Pop-Up ‘Experience,’ ” the cultural critic Amanda Hess toured a assortment of short term, ticketed encounters in New York City—the Rosé Mansion, Candytopia, the Coloration Factory, the Museum of Ice Cream’s Pint Shop—and concluded that the real knowledge on supply was publishing to social media. 20 yrs before, in an report for the Harvard Business Critique titled “Welcome to the Expertise Financial system,” the small business scholars B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore proposed that commercial services aim to interact persons “on an emotional, bodily, mental, or even spiritual degree.” There is something incredibly literal about coupling this company philosophy with some of the most well-known paintings in the world: readers are predisposed to awe.

Right now, industrial immersive encounters are starting to shift into a lot more regular, institutional configurations. This spring, the Grand Palais, in Paris, will lover with the Louvre to début “La Joconde: Exposition Immersif,” an immersive show dependent on the Mona Lisa that the organizers say will provide a “unique interactive and sensory knowledge.” And, in partnership with Grande Experiences, an Australian content material-generation firm, Newfields—formerly the Indianapolis Museum of Art—has transformed a ground of its constructing into a devoted exhibition area for immersive digital artwork, termed THE LUME Indianapolis. Promoting elements explain THE LUME as a “contemporary, upcoming technology, entirely immersive digital artwork gallery” involving a hundred and fifty projectors, a musical rating, thematic food stuff-and-beverage choices, and “suggestive aromas.” (Grande Experiences functions with ScentAir, a plug-in-fragrance company specializing in “memorable buyer activities.”) A catalogue of presentations can be proven on rotation the Grande Encounters portfolio features “Street Art Alive,” “Da Vinci Alive,” “Monet & Good friends Alive,” and “Planet Shark.” The inaugural show at Newfields is, unsurprisingly, “Van Gogh Alive,” which débuted a 10 years in the past, at Marina Bay Sands, a casino and vacation resort in Singapore.

“Globally, a whole lot of museums, institutions, they’re getting their visitation is dropping off,” Rob Kirk, the head of touring ordeals at Grande Ordeals, told me. “They’re seeking at ways to bring audiences back—to reënergize the audience. I would say that, in the following 5 to ten many years, there will be much more exposure to these types of activities within just those people sorts of establishments.” Immersive art ordeals are hardly ever quite educational in by themselves, but, Kirk said, they could tempt men and women into training-oriented establishments. “School groups like coming into our encounters,” Kirk claimed. “They can operate about, they can get enveloped with the shade and the audio. They are not necessarily discovering anything, but we’re just introducing them in a different way, in some way. Ideally, they’ll get some thing from it that would engage them further more.”

Final yr, Grande opened THE LUME Melbourne, which it touted as Australia’s initially digital-art gallery. Nevertheless, in spite of that designation, the area is information-agnostic: Kirk hopes to bring in audiovisual experiences focussed on numerous distinctive industries and subjects—science, tunes, historical past, sports. Grande’s aim is to attract the greatest probable viewers, but Kirk thinks that there is also place for experimentation. “There could be specified shows that existing N.F.T.-dependent art, produced by electronic artists of today,” he advised me. (Art Blocks, a platform for digital artwork, not long ago opened an N.F.T. gallery in Marfa, Texas.) “It could be the digital equal, must we say, of Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, a little something like that, who would then have their personal presentation of their art in a massive-format setting.” In the potential, he suggested, this sort of generalist digital areas may possibly develop into fixtures of major cities—institutions on par with museums, artwork galleries, aquariums, and zoos.

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How Proven Skincare Brought Science To The Art Of Beauty

If you wished the best case research of a current market ripe for disruption, the beauty market would be it. Globally, the sector is truly worth $155 billion a 12 months but one in two shoppers is not happy with their buys, details out Ming Zhao, the founder and CEO of Tested Skincare. “We are changing that by offering individual buyers the right products for their pores and skin at the proper time.”

It truly is a assure that has witnessed customers flock to the enterprise, which is now launching a $60 million fund-raising spherical less than the Securities and Trade Commission’s Regulation A regime. Confirmed ’s revenue in 2019, the company’s launch 12 months, arrived to a lot less than $100,000. The determine rose to $10 million in 2020 and to far more than $20 million during 2021.

Like so several of the best organization strategies, Tested was influenced by its founder’s personal activities. “I was working lengthy several hours away from home and I woke up a person day and was just horrified by what I observed in the mirror – I seemed like I’d missing my youth and my soul,” Zhao remembers. Purchases of expensive splendor goods appeared to make no distinction, but sooner or later Zhao met a beautician who took the time to find out extra about her and advise a tailored regime of skincare items. “It was transformational for me, and I just imagined, ‘why is this not out there to all people?’,” Zhao claims.

Zhao’s argument is that since all people is distinctive, it can make no sense to check out to offer them all the very same skincare and magnificence solutions. “One sizing does not healthy all,” she suggests. “The skin is the most important organ of our bodies, yet it’s the only a single for which we do not personalise treatment plans.”

To satisfy her eyesight of placing that suitable, Zhao turned to “the smartest particular person I know”. She teamed up with Amy Yuan, a data scientist and an engineer with a qualifications in computational physics. With each other, they produced the Pores and skin Genome Undertaking, the world’s largest attractiveness database it includes tens of tens of millions of info factors, ranging from shopper opinions of skincare merchandise to educational reports of the efficacy of essential elements. “We’ve ingested the known universe of skincare knowledge,” Zhao describes.

On best of that, Established has constructed an synthetic intelligence instrument capable of interrogating the databases to get the job done out what a skincare product or service requires to include to fit a given person, based mostly on about 45 diverse standards. These go over everything from a customer’s skin style and lifestyle to the place they are living and what time of yr it is when they are consulting the databases. “Technology like this has never been used in the client sector, enable by yourself for splendor items,” Zhao says.

The web end result of all this details crunching and AI tooling is the Confirmed benefit proposition. It asks new shoppers to entire a brief questionnaire – Zhao suggests it will consider all around three minutes – and then works out the very best feasible blend of substances for their skincare demands. These are dispatched to the customer in three different products – a working day moisturiser, a cleanser and a night product.

“You’re obtaining the form of personalised products that you would typically have to go to a specialist dermatologist for,” Zhao claims. “It’s a really uncomplicated questionnaire, but there is incredibly advanced science sitting powering it.”

Each package of three solutions is priced at $129 and consumers have the alternative of having out a membership to Established , acquiring typical shipments, or acquiring solutions as and when they need to have them. Either way, Proven can alter each individual customer’s recipe of elements over time – as their lifestyle improvements, probably, or merely for the reason that they now have to have safety from the winter climate.

Zhao is excited about the probable for progress and enlargement, significantly with the supplemental money firepower the company’s fundraising should really convey it. Demonstrated selected the SEC’s Regulation A route pretty specifically, aware that this is 1 of the couple of approaches for an American company to open up up to retail investors as well as to the institutions that ordinarily dominate this sort of rounds. “We know who has constructed this enterprise,” says Zhao. “Our success has arrive from our clients and our neighborhood, so we preferred to be able to repay their have confidence in by enabling them to share in the growing price of the organization.”

Proven ’s options consist of moves into other elegance groups – it is already developing identical databases to the Pores and skin Genome Task in purchase to underpin the personalised tactic in other areas of the magnificence industry. It is also pursuing international growth Verified commenced promoting to Canadian individuals final yr and is launching in the British isles this thirty day period – its 1st undertaking past North The usa.

One striking aspect of the small business is its all-female administration. “We started this business enterprise as solid and accomplished women of all ages who could see an apparent gap in the industry for the goods we needed,” Zhao suggests. “We think in empowering women of all ages throughout the spectrum – less than 30 female CEOs have at any time taken a firm public, so this investment decision possibility marks a likelihood for females to make wise financial commitment conclusions, by gals for women of all ages.”

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Women’s History Month Is The Time To Explore The Gardens Of Beatrix Farrand

Beatrix Farrand, one particular of America’s best landscape architects, was born 150 decades back. The anniversary arrives at a excellent time to celebrate her function: many of her crucial gardens are going through comprehensive restoration, a formerly non-public backyard garden is now open up to the community, and a lavishly-illustrated biography is heading for publication.

At age 27, Farrand was the only girl of 11 founders of the American Modern society of Landscape Architects in 1898. Her aunt, only 3 several years older and a near mate, was Edith Wharton the two women had considerably in widespread, together with keen minds, a finely developed aesthetic feeling and membership in New York’s social, cultural, and financial elite. The two women’s maiden names had been Jones, as in “Keeping up with the Jonses.”

“She was a exceptional and outstanding lady who, like her aunt, built an critical profession for herself in the course of a time and in a milieu where by females did not do that,” says Judith Tankard, the Boston-primarily based author of Beatrix Farrand: Backyard garden Artist, Landscape Architect released by Monacelli Press on March 29, 2022. “Not only did women from her qualifications not have professions, but landscape architecture was completely a man’s globe.”

Farrand discovered an early mentor in Charles Sprague Sargent, a botanist at Harvard College and the founding director of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts. She commenced practicing landscape architecture in New York in 1895, locating consumers among the her mother’s and aunt’s social connections. Her get the job done quickly captivated discover and she became the first consulting landscape architect at Yale College, Princeton College, the College of Chicago and other faculties. She developed the first East Garden at the White House (famously redesigned by Bunny Mellon and Melania Trump.) The rose backyard garden at the New York Botanical Back garden in the Bronx is her design, and she is justly celebrated for her incomparable work at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. On Very long Island, in Connecticut and on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, wealthy homeowners hired Farrand to develop gardens to compliment their grand manses.

3 very distinctive Connecticut gardens built by her are getting restored, such as Hill-Stead and Harkness Memorial State Park, which are open to the public.

The back garden she made for Abby Aldrich Rockefeller in Seal Harbor, Maine in 1926 is the unusual non-public backyard that has been meticulously maintained and is practically unchanged. Now just one of the homes of a landscape non-gain, it is open up to the community from mid-July until early September via on-line reservations.

Browsing any of Farrand’s extant or recreated gardens is a delightful lesson in scale, proportion, color, horticultural practice and the development of vistas, as very well as simple fears this sort of as exactly where paths need to go, what elements finest suit the internet site, how the back garden is to be utilised and how it is to link to the residence. Farrand was a fantastic designer, but she was also a experienced vegetation man or woman and an helpful supervisor of personnel. She did not shy absent from tough bodily work, and was recognised for her no-nonsense do the job outfits, which involved stout boots.

Tankard will promote her e book with a series of lectures, together with at the Back garden Conservancy and the Institute of Classical Architecture and Artwork.

“I desired to tell the life tale of this extraordinary girl,” she suggests. “Besides her great design and style work, she opened doors and produced a profession route for ladies. Now, fifty percent of the pupils at landscape architecture faculties close to the state are girls.”