Archive for the 'Development' Category
Growing Fish
Here’s an interesting article about a company in Milwaukee that has set up an indoor farm to grow fish and vegetables organically and sustainably. Sweet Water Organics has put together an aquaculture system that recirculates water between the fish and veggies, with each providing nutrients for the others. They are currently raising perch, tilapia, lettuce, basil, watercress, tomatoes, peppers, chard, and spinach. The system has been built in a formerly vacant factory.
We’d love to get one of these in some of our vacant factory space … another business leasing space, more jobs, and fresh food. The building in the picture isn’t ready for prime time, but there are large spaces in Hartford that are much further along in the rehab process that would make excellent locations. Surely there is some space in the Colt complex that could be adapted quickly and easily.
Hartford Preservation Alliance Awards Event
The Hartford Preservation Alliance will be holding their annual Awards Event on Thursday, May 13th, at 5:30, at the Design Center in Parkville (1429 Park St, Hartford). There are 12 Awardees this year, including a number of projects that loyal readers will recognize. The event is open to all, and tickets are $25 – hope to see you there!
In addition to their annual Awards Event, the Hartford Preservation Alliance works throughout the year as an advocate for Hartford’s historic architecture and buildings. They also take on an education mission, organizing various events in the different neighborhoods. For example, tomorrow morning (May 8, 2010) at 10:00 AM they will be leading a walking tour through the Ann Street Historic District in Downtown Hartford. For a complete list of upcoming activities, visit the 2010 Calendar.
2010 Awardees
Common Ground
410 Asylum Street
“The Capitol Building”
Jan & David Klein
Kate & Christian Winkley
79 Girard Avenue
Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance (NINA)
291-293 Sargeant Street
Archdiocese of Hartford
809 Asylum Avenue
“St. Joseph Cathedral School”
Hartford School Building Commission
1304 Main Street
“Barnard Brown School”
James K. Grant, P.E.
Lifetime Achievement
Connecticut Preservation Action
Preservation Advocacy
Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism
“Being Modern in Hartford”
Molly Knorr & Mark Drusedum
1144 Prospect Avenue
PMC Property Group
210 Farmington Avenue
“The Ambassador”
Ross Zachs & Mike Miller
76 North Beacon Street
Antonella Bona
139 Fern Street
Congratulations to all the awardees – and thank you for going out of your way to preserve Hartford’s historic buildings.
MDC Clean Water Project Update
The MDC Clean Water Project has arrived in the West End of Hartford. Over the past few weeks engineering firm Tetra Tech Rizzo has been going door-to-door to map the manner in which sewer and storm water exits individual homes. This is the first step in the process that will eventually reduce (eliminate?) the dramatic amount of untreated wastewater that flows directly into the environment. The About the Project page states that “The existing sewage systems … release more than 1 billion gallons of wastewater to area waterways.”
When the Tetra Tech Rizzo representative arrives, the first thing they’ll want to do is get into the basement to sketch out the location of all the sewer and drainage lines within the property. Most West End homes have multiple lines running down from the upper floors, and the surveyor needs to identify the points where they go under the foundation with some precision. This step takes about 30 minutes on average, and will vary depending on the size of the home and the amount of stuff stored in the basement. Once they know where the different discharges leave the house, the engineers back at the office can (in theory) use city data sources to figure out how the lines get out to the street.
The second activity at each home is to determine where the storm water goes, which is usually just looking at what happens at the bottom of the gutter downspouts. Seeing it shot into the yard makes life easy for the MDC since they know it is not going directly into the sewer. However, if a downspout feeds into a pipe, then it may be going back inside the home and into the sewer system. That’s more difficult to determine, and over the long term will need to be changed.
The MDC Clean Water Project is scheduled to take a number of years, with everything complete by 2020. That sounds like a long time, but the existing water and sewer systems date back to the 1850s; what’s another decade?
For more information, check out page 9 of this presentation, given in March of 2010, which shows the 5 main areas of the initial sewer separation portion of the project. Most of the work is in Hartford, but the Farmington Avenue area crosses the City’s border into West Hartford. The broad areas are divided into 44 individual projects that are on separate timelines. Preliminary designs are complete for all of the projects though only 15 are in the active design phase and 5 are in construction. Check back with the Clean Water Project website periodically to get an update on their progress, the Presentations section seems to be updated most frequently.