historic preservation - The Handbuilt City

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Can Second-Floor Apartments Make A Comeback? A New SDBA Grant Program Thinks So.

April 26, 2023April 26, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments construction, dearborn, flamingo vintage, ford motor company, greg mangan, historic, historic architecture, historic preservation, jamahl makled, juan gutierrez, matterport, Michigan Central Station, mixed-use, Nat Zorach, prehabbed, rehab, Renovation, richard kimo frederiksen, rouge river, sdba, sdba grant, southwest detroit, southwest detroit business association, storefront, storefront with apartments, storefronts, vernor highway, west vernor

An ambitious new program in Detroit seeks to provide $10,000 to property owners to renovate and rent out second-floor and third-floor apartments in mixed-use buildings along several major corridors in Southwest Detroit.

Sustainability Construction

Old House Love: Ditch The Chemical Floor Finishes

October 21, 2020October 26, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments barrier finish, carpentry, chemicals, DIY, finish carpentry, floor finishing, floor refinishing, flooring, green building, hardwood flooring, historic preservation, home improvement, home rehab, home renovation, lacquer, LEED, linseed oil, natural finishes, oak, old house love, old houses, petrochemical, petroleum distillates, polyurethane, Renovation, sanding, shellac, softwood, trim carpentry, usgbc, varnish, wood finishes, wood finishing, woodshop, woodworking, zero-VOC

Nat explores wood finishes using a domestically-made, zero-VOC linseed oil-based varnish for some 1895 hardwood floors.

Historic preservation Culture & Language Travel

Postcards from Dubuque: Then and Now

October 12, 2020October 12, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments american history, anamosa, culture, dubuque, fox, gujarati hotel mafia, historic preservation, iowa, language, meskwaki, mississippi, native and indigenous peoples, quebec, quebecois, sac, sauk, upper mississippi, us history

A parable of delicious mini-donuts and– stories about those who came before the mini-donuts.

Business & Economics Historic preservation Urban Planning Transit infrastructure

Detroit Fairgrounds Site: Alternatives to Permanent, Monumentally Bad Decisions

October 6, 2020October 5, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 8 mile, adaptive reuse, brooks patterson, brownfield, dave coulter, DDOT, Density, Detroit, duggan, economic development, eight mile, francis grunow, historic preservation, mike duggan, preservation, QLINE, redevelopment, RTA, SMART, state fairgrounds, state fairgrounds site, transit, transit infrastructure, woodward, woodward avenue

The State Fairgrounds site is centrally located, and it’s huge. Too huge to make some monumentally bad decisions about permanently turning it into a Shelby Township-style strip mall.