Latest news with #SchoolofArchitecture
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
In birth centenary year, a new Satish Gujral work
In his birth centenary year, a significant and previously undocumented, unexhibited conte drawing titled The Condemned (1957) from the Cyrus and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala family collection, now adds to Satish Gujral's oeuvre. Compositionally similar to the oil painting of the same name, which was also made in 1957, this work ranks among Gujral's finest condemnations of the effects of war and forced migration, with the kind of seething, tragic intensity that set Gujral apart from his peers. With a major exhibition of his works poised for later in the year, this work may be the newest inclusion in a positive reassessment of Gujral's position among independent India's modernists. Among all of his peers who witnessed Partition in Punjab and Bengal, Gujral's works are the most visceral. Satish Gujral returned to India in 1955 in a blaze of glory after an apprenticeship for two years in Mexico under David Siqueiros. Training under the great Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros against the backdrop of Mexico's response to the years of revolution, Gujral developed a temper for the nation as subject, as well as broad, free, open-handed strokes that he adapted to both his drawings as well as his paintings. As an apprentice to Siqueiros, the most politically radical of Los Tres Grandes (the three greats, Siqueiros, Rivera and José Clemente Orozco), and greatly influenced by the murals of Orozco, Gujral's own inclination was to adopt themes of social realism. The decade of 1947-57 became for Gujral a foundational expression of his response to the violence that he witnessed during the chaos of Partition. In the midst of Partition violence, he had driven a truck bearing refugees from Jhelum to Indian Punjab, and witnessed the barbarity of a brutal conflict as it played out. Gujral's work has often been likened to his own condition, but to attribute the power of his early works to his hearing disability would be doing the artist a disservice. He painted the charming reflective portrait titled My Sister (1951) but also the agonised Partition paintings, of roiling rage, and the enactment of violence, all executed with a powerful monumentality. Writer and art critic John Berger reviewed his exhibition in London in The New Statesman. Berger wrote: 'He is as single minded as Picasso… I am certain that his exhibition should provoke both humanly and artistically as many people as possible.' The drawing mentioned at the beginning of this article, however, was made after his return to India and has its own interesting history. Cyrus Jhabvala, an eminent architect who also headed the School of Architecture in Delhi, was very active when the capital city was in the throes of intense building activity immediately after Independence. With his firm AAJ, Jhabvala not only designed public buildings like Kirori Mal College, Max Mueller Bhavan and Telecom Building, but also the sprawling Kurukshetra University, which was realised over 10 years. Jhabvala was also enthusiastic about commissioning art works for the buildings. One of the artists he chose to work with was the young Satish Gujral, who was growing a reputation for rugged originality. Gujral did not disappoint. He designed murals in relief in ceramic, painted wood, and with tiles. The actual forms drew from primitive shapes and toys, even as he imbued them with a particular grandeur. While Gujral would continue to enjoy the patronage of Jawaharlal Nehru, and made murals for important State buildings like Punjab Agricultural University, Gandhi Bhavan and the Secretariat, in Chandigarh, Jhabvala openly disagreed with Nehru on the design of Ashoka Hotel, and did not take on any government commissions during Nehru's lifetime. Jhabvala, who also acquired two small works from MF Husain, probably bought The Condemned in this phase of Gujral's career. An artist himself, Jhabvala was fascinated with the simultaneous histories that Delhi inhabits. Many of his drawings are exquisitely rendered panoramic views of the grandeur of historic monuments and the chaos of ordinary street life, as in his work, Fakhr-ul Masjid, Old Delhi. James Ivory, collaborator with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala on his films, commented that 'Jhabvala's record is highly personal and subjective and at times, very precise — as precise as the 19th century photographs taken of the same are before and after the Indian Mutiny of 1857'. Among all of his peers who witnessed Partition in Punjab and Bengal, Gujral's works are the most visceral. While he is often placed alongside the Bombay Progressives who also graduated from the JJ School in Mumbai, or the Delhi Shilpi Chakra artists who had migrated from West Punjab, Gujral probably is more akin in spirit to Somnath Hore and Chittaprosad in his reading of the catastrophic event. More muted than his oil paintings, his drawings on the subject, such as Days of Glory (1954) powerfully depict women in mourning. In The Condemned, the solitary figure, probably the victim of rape, her body taut with pain and mortification, fills the frame. In contrast to the flowing lines of the figure, Gujral added hard-edged abstract elements to the fringes of this work, thereby enhancing the sense of pervasive violence. In his centenary year, Gujral will be celebrated as much for the depth of his broad-based practice — as architect, sculptor, painter and muralist — as for his passionate depiction of the human condition. Gayatri Sinha is a curator and art historian. The views expressed are personal.
CBC
24-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Will 1,200 students move the needle on Calgary's downtown vibrancy problem?
The University of Calgary's move to relocate its School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape into a 180,000 square-foot space in the former Nexen Building — an office tower that sat virtually vacant for about six years — has been lauded by many as a big step for this city's downtown revitalization. But this city has made many efforts over the years to encourage building owners to fill their empty office spaces with housing, and bring life to the streets that seem to empty out once it's quitting time. And to pump cash into efforts to make Calgarians feel safer in the core. But how does this latest announcement move the needle? Will it really bring Calgary steps closer to achieving the downtown of its dreams? "Just in the same way that a medical school is located in a hospital, a design school needs to be downtown, not just located downtown, but integrated into the workings of downtown," said John Brown, the school's dean. "What I see when I look around is opportunity." The Nexen Building was designed to be the corporate head office for Nova Corp. by architect Fred Valentine, who was recognized for the design with the 1983 Governor General's Medal in Architecture. WATCH | Can filling this office building revive Calgary's downtown? The office building sits right on Century Gardens, a park built in 1975 that the City of Calgary updated in 2021. It is one of the westernmost points of the city's Plus-15 network, and is right next to an LRT stop. The Nexen is also surrounded by office conversions, one of which, the Petro Fina Building (connected to the Nexen by Plus-15) has already begun partnering with the University of Calgary to encourage students to snap up leases. These ingredients make up what many see as a major opportunity. "I like to say that Calgary does a great job of doing a Bank or Bloor Street. If we're talking about Toronto, Calgary doesn't have a King and a Queen Street," said Brown "We don't have that kind of cultural, youthful alternative, the kind of vibrant community that draws people downtown or draws people to an area, makes everything safer." Brown recognizes the city's downtown, including the land where the Nexen Building sits, has seen its fair share of challenges. In general, downtown has faced an increase in social issues, leading to poor perceptions of safety with the public. The city and province have focused many efforts on crime and social disorder, like drug use in public areas. At the same time, ground-floor businesses struggle to stay open. It's not uncommon to see faded for-lease signs in the area. Brown says adding 1,200 students to the mix will help dissipate some of these challenges. But some think it would take more work for the West End of Calgary's downtown to blossom into this kind of cultural hub. Beverly Sandalack, a professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, says the Nexen Building has more potential than other conversions. "There's a lot of things there that are waiting for quick redevelopment, but I think it has to happen fairly quickly in order for the place to become, you know, the kind of vibrant neighbourhood," Sandalack said. "It can't take decades. It just can't." A struggling downtown isn't new for Calgary. Take a trip through newspaper archives and you'll be confronted by headlines like "Urban Rot Threatens City Core," a 1966 piece from the Calgary Herald's then city hall reporter John Howse. It could've been written today. "Economic life slowly ebbs from the city's old centre shell. Its chronic sickness manifests itself, just as the ugly blotches of a skin disease, in empty stores, blighted decrepit buildings, ugly parking lots, choking traffic and in the poverty and social breakdown of its residents." OK, maybe a bit dramatic, but Calgary's modern headlines follow similar themes. And for good reason. Calgary has the highest downtown office vacancy rate in Canada. And unlike other cities, Calgary's office vacancy problem started before COVID-19, beginning during the 2014-15 oil and gas downturn and peaking in 2021. That year, the City of Calgary began implementing its downtown strategy — a 10-year plan that's now four years in. A progress report released April 22 showed what the city called promising early returns on public investments that now tally up to more than $250 million in funding. Some of the city-identified highlights include: 300 new housing units converted from offices. $1.8-billion increase in downtown property values since 2022. 12% decrease in social disorder calls since last April. Tracy Hadden Loh studies commercial real estate as a fellow at the Brookings Institution in the United States. She's focused on the issue of struggling downtown centres, and what can be done to revive them. Downtowns and productivity Hadden Loh describes downtowns as being in a perpetual balancing act. They need to respond to changes in the job market, population, change in habits and work technology. All of that can happen faster than the built environment can keep pace. Hence, the pendulum swings between a downtown that's expensive and elite, or a downtown that's dangerous and failing. Having a healthy core is good for the entire city, she adds. A lot of that productivity, she notes, comes down to the economic idea of agglomeration: which just means a mass collection of things concentrated in one area. "In order for downtowns to be relevant, you know, they need to offer something for everyone," she said. "What I found in my research is that across the top 45 U.S. metro areas, the more jobs that are concentrated downtown, the more productive the entire region is." Walsh Mannas, a real estate broker with Avison Young, says he's stopped guessing when Calgary will get back to a low-teens vacancy rate. "It's been relatively flat for quite a while. So still very much above average vacancy, hovering between 25 and 28 per cent for a number of years now," Mannas said. What Mannas is watching is the overall economic story of Alberta, and Calgary. Both, he said, are positive, which gives him hope the city's vacancy rate will continue to trend in the right direction. A post-secondary school isn't new for Calgary's core. The city already has a strong student population in the downtown with Bow Valley College, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University and others through the years — including the University of Calgary's current downtown building that houses its Continuing Education programs and the School of Public Policy. But adding more of a post-secondary presence downtown, Hadden Loh said, could have a trickle-down benefit for the city's economy. And, she adds, students are good customers for those office-to-residential conversions. According to Calgary's recent State of Downtown report, there are 11 active office-residential conversions, with seven scheduled to be completed in 2025. "A lot of these apartments are a little weird and students are looking for cheap, flexible housing. They have a higher tolerance for if the floor plan is a little weird, and so they are a logical tenant base and market for office-to-residential conversions," said Hadden Loh. But Sandalack believes plopping more students, or more residents in the Downtown West won't be transformative without other plans and investments. "The west end of downtown has so much potential because there's quite a big residential population living there, but there's nothing happening at ground level," Sandalack said. "It's only a few blocks to the Bow River and the river pathway system, but you'd never know it. Because the connections just aren't very good." Downtown West is the densest neighbourhood by area in Calgary, home to more than 2,800 people. But according to the city's own web page, it trails other communities in development activity, public investment and property values. There are some choices in Calgary's construction that Sandalack feels would take drastic measures to recover from if these easier interventions don't work. Office buildings with single entries into big daunting lobbies, spaces that don't have built-in ground-floor storefronts. There's also the Plus-15 network — a pedway system that's often blamed for the demise of street-level businesses. Finally, the one-way streets that act like a tide rush for commuters but also ensure the life of downtown bleeds out when the workday is done. "I am of the belief that it needs a really radical rethink," Sandalack said. "The kind of urban form that we created in the '60s and '70s and '80s — it's massively obsolete." While there are hints of community amenities, and third spaces like a cafe, or smaller residential shops, she feels those types of spaces need to be more common to get residents to use their backyard for social engagements, or everyday errands. Thom Mahler, the city's director of downtown strategy, says this is something they are working to address. On the agenda: the city plans to rebuild Stephen Avenue east to west, and create a more vibrant "main street" through the length of the pedestrian mall. Then, there's the plans to turn Eighth Street S.W. into a "main street" for the neighbourhood. "It'll include a lot more trees, cycling infrastructure, wider sidewalks for patios and other types of hospitality uses. So we are all kind of coming together now as we repopulate the buildings," Mahler said. As for Plus-15s, and one-way streets: Those aren't the main focus of the city's transformation agenda. Mahler said the pedways are still seen as important amenities for office towers and hotels. "The one-way streets, that's something that's been on the radar. It comes up in all cities that have one-way streets," Mahler said. "I do think a lot of it is that the more people living downtown … that starts to change people's perception of, well, what's needed here. When you just work downtown, you know, you're kind of focused on what's my experience getting from home to the office. That's all I'm looking for."
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will 1,200 students move the needle on Calgary's downtown vibrancy problem?
The University of Calgary's move to relocate its School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape into a 180,000 square-foot space in the former Nexen Building — an office tower that sat virtually vacant for about six years — has been lauded by many as a big step for this city's downtown revitalization. But this city has made many efforts over the years to encourage building owners to fill their empty office spaces with housing, and bring life to the streets that seem to empty out once it's quitting time. And to pump cash into efforts to make Calgarians feel safer in the core. But how does this latest announcement move the needle? Will it really bring Calgary steps closer to achieving the downtown of its dreams? "Just in the same way that a medical school is located in a hospital, a design school needs to be downtown, not just located downtown, but integrated into the workings of downtown," said John Brown, the school's dean. "What I see when I look around is opportunity." The Nexen Building was designed to be the corporate head office for Nova Corp. by architect Fred Valentine, who was recognized for the design with the 1983 Governor General's Medal in Architecture. WATCH | Can filling this office building revive Calgary's downtown? The office building sits right on Century Gardens, a park built in 1975 that the City of Calgary updated in 2021. It is one of the westernmost points of the city's Plus-15 network, and is right next to an LRT stop. The Nexen is also surrounded by office conversions, one of which, the Petro Fina Building (connected to the Nexen by Plus-15) has already begun partnering with the University of Calgary to encourage students to snap up leases. These ingredients make up what many see as a major opportunity. "I like to say that Calgary does a great job of doing a Bank or Bloor Street. If we're talking about Toronto, Calgary doesn't have a King and a Queen Street," said Brown "We don't have that kind of cultural, youthful alternative, the kind of vibrant community that draws people downtown or draws people to an area, makes everything safer." Brown recognizes the city's downtown, including the land where the Nexen Building sits, has seen its fair share of challenges. In general, downtown has faced an increase in social issues, leading to poor perceptions of safety with the public. The city and province have focused many efforts on crime and social disorder, like drug use in public areas. At the same time, ground-floor businesses struggle to stay open. It's not uncommon to see faded for-lease signs in the area. Brown says adding 1,200 students to the mix will help dissipate some of these challenges. But some think it would take more work for the West End of Calgary's downtown to blossom into this kind of cultural hub. (Helen Pike/CBC) Beverly Sandalack, a professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, says the Nexen Building has more potential than other conversions. "There's a lot of things there that are waiting for quick redevelopment, but I think it has to happen fairly quickly in order for the place to become, you know, the kind of vibrant neighbourhood," Sandalack said. "It can't take decades. It just can't." A struggling downtown isn't new for Calgary. Take a trip through newspaper archives and you'll be confronted by headlines like "Urban Rot Threatens City Core," a 1966 piece from the Calgary Herald's then city hall reporter John Howse. It could've been written today. (Credit: Calgary Herald) "Economic life slowly ebbs from the city's old centre shell. Its chronic sickness manifests itself, just as the ugly blotches of a skin disease, in empty stores, blighted decrepit buildings, ugly parking lots, choking traffic and in the poverty and social breakdown of its residents." OK, maybe a bit dramatic, but Calgary's modern headlines follow similar themes. And for good reason. Calgary has the highest downtown office vacancy rate in Canada. And unlike other cities, Calgary's office vacancy problem started before COVID-19, beginning during the 2014-15 oil and gas downturn and peaking in 2021. That year, the City of Calgary began implementing its downtown strategy — a 10-year plan that's now four years in. A progress report released April 22 showed what the city called promising early returns on public investments that now tally up to more than $250 million in funding. Some of the city-identified highlights include: 300 new housing units converted from offices. $1.8-billion increase in downtown property values since 2022. 12% decrease in social disorder calls since last April. Tracy Hadden Loh studies commercial real estate as a fellow at the Brookings Institution in the United States. She's focused on the issue of struggling downtown centres, and what can be done to revive them. Downtowns and productivity Hadden Loh describes downtowns as being in a perpetual balancing act. They need to respond to changes in the job market, population, change in habits and work technology. All of that can happen faster than the built environment can keep pace. Hence, the pendulum swings between a downtown that's expensive and elite, or a downtown that's dangerous and failing. Having a healthy core is good for the entire city, she adds. A lot of that productivity, she notes, comes down to the economic idea of agglomeration: which just means a mass collection of things concentrated in one area. "In order for downtowns to be relevant, you know, they need to offer something for everyone," she said. "What I found in my research is that across the top 45 U.S. metro areas, the more jobs that are concentrated downtown, the more productive the entire region is." The University of Calgary's existing Downtown building sits across the street from the Nexen Building. (Helen Pike/CBC) Walsh Mannas, a real estate broker with Avison Young, says he's stopped guessing when Calgary will get back to a low-teens vacancy rate. "It's been relatively flat for quite a while. So still very much above average vacancy, hovering between 25 and 28 per cent for a number of years now," Mannas said. What Mannas is watching is the overall economic story of Alberta, and Calgary. Both, he said, are positive, which gives him hope the city's vacancy rate will continue to trend in the right direction. A post-secondary school isn't new for Calgary's core. The city already has a strong student population in the downtown with Bow Valley College, the University of Lethbridge, Mount Royal University and others through the years — including the University of Calgary's current downtown building that houses its Continuing Education programs and the School of Public Policy. But adding more of a post-secondary presence downtown, Hadden Loh said, could have a trickle-down benefit for the city's economy. And, she adds, students are good customers for those office-to-residential conversions. According to Calgary's recent State of Downtown report, there are 11 active office-residential conversions, with seven scheduled to be completed in 2025. The Petro Fina Building is connected to the Nexen Building by a Plus-15 pedway. (Helen Pike/CBC) Surrounding the Nexen Building there are four office-to-residential conversions, each listed in this graphic with the corresponding number of housing units that will be created. (Google Maps/CBC News Graphics) "A lot of these apartments are a little weird and students are looking for cheap, flexible housing. They have a higher tolerance for if the floor plan is a little weird, and so they are a logical tenant base and market for office-to-residential conversions," said Hadden Loh. But Sandalack believes plopping more students, or more residents in the Downtown West won't be transformative without other plans and investments. "The west end of downtown has so much potential because there's quite a big residential population living there, but there's nothing happening at ground level," Sandalack said. "It's only a few blocks to the Bow River and the river pathway system, but you'd never know it. Because the connections just aren't very good." Loophole Coffee Bar and Sigla Books are two businesses that bring life to Eighth Avenue S.W. (Helen Pike/CBC) Downtown West is the densest neighbourhood by area in Calgary, home to more than 2,800 people. But according to the city's own web page, it trails other communities in development activity, public investment and property values. There are some choices in Calgary's construction that Sandalack feels would take drastic measures to recover from if these easier interventions don't work. Office buildings with single entries into big daunting lobbies, spaces that don't have built-in ground-floor storefronts. There's also the Plus-15 network — a pedway system that's often blamed for the demise of street-level businesses. Finally, the one-way streets that act like a tide rush for commuters but also ensure the life of downtown bleeds out when the workday is done. "I am of the belief that it needs a really radical rethink," Sandalack said. "The kind of urban form that we created in the '60s and '70s and '80s — it's massively obsolete." While there are hints of community amenities, and third spaces like a cafe, or smaller residential shops, she feels those types of spaces need to be more common to get residents to use their backyard for social engagements, or everyday errands. More street-level businesses like Harmony Grocery Store in Calgary's Downtown West community are what urban planners say could help bring vibrancy to the community. (Helen Pike/CBC) Thom Mahler, the city's director of downtown strategy, says this is something they are working to address. On the agenda: the city plans to rebuild Stephen Avenue east to west, and create a more vibrant "main street" through the length of the pedestrian mall. Then, there's the plans to turn Eighth Street S.W. into a "main street" for the neighbourhood. "It'll include a lot more trees, cycling infrastructure, wider sidewalks for patios and other types of hospitality uses. So we are all kind of coming together now as we repopulate the buildings," Mahler said. As for Plus-15s, and one-way streets: Those aren't the main focus of the city's transformation agenda. Mahler said the pedways are still seen as important amenities for office towers and hotels. "The one-way streets, that's something that's been on the radar. It comes up in all cities that have one-way streets," Mahler said. "I do think a lot of it is that the more people living downtown … that starts to change people's perception of, well, what's needed here. When you just work downtown, you know, you're kind of focused on what's my experience getting from home to the office. That's all I'm looking for."
CBC
11-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Underused downtown office building being converted to U of C classrooms
Social Sharing The University of Calgary's campus is expanding into 801 Seventh Avenue S.W., formerly known as the Nexen Building, in Calgary's downtown — after the office tower has sat virtually empty for about six years. The university's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape is aiming to make the space its new home by January 2026, transforming 180,000 square feet across the tower and the annex building into classrooms, studios, labs and other teaching and research spaces. "We're bursting at the seams because we've just created our new undergraduate degree, a bachelor of design in city innovation, and so we desperately need more space," said John Brown, the school's dean. "In the same way that a medical school is located in a hospital, a design school needs to be downtown, [and] not just located downtown but integrated into the workings of downtown." The atrium of the silver, 37-storey building was recently renovated. It will host public lectures and events focused on city building. The office space hasn't seen much traffic from workers since mid-2019, when Nexen moved all of its employees to The Bow building. Thom Mahler, the city's director of downtown strategy, said he hopes this project will help breathe life into this area of downtown. "[The building] was a significant part of our skyline for many years, and when it was emptied out, it was pretty devastating for that part of our downtown core," he said. "By this move, we're really creating a bit of a campus environment, which is fantastic for student experience. And for the neighborhood to have all that activity within this area is just a huge benefit." The conversion is being funded up to $9 million through the city's Downtown Post-Secondary Institution Incentive Program. The initiative is meant to encourage Calgary's post-secondary schools to develop their presence downtown while putting the city's underutilized office spaces to good use. Once complete, the expansion will allow the faculty to relocate all its activities to the new location, while freeing up 800 spaces on the main campus and potentially increasing its enrolment capacity to 1,200 students in the coming years. Revitalizing the downtown core According to commercial real estate broker Avison Young, Calgary downtown's office vacancy rate sits close to 25 per cent. The city has been trying to tackle its high downtown vacancy by converting empty offices to mostly housing spaces through an incentive program launched in 2021. Mahler noted the location, right by a CTrain platform, is a great way to get thousands of students to the core and cultivate a vibrant culture downtown. "When you look at cities like Montreal or Toronto … you see the presence of post-secondaries in a much greater presence than we have in Calgary," he said. Institutions including Bow Valley College, the University of Lethbridge and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology also have a presence in Calgary's downtown. But Mahler said this new partnership with the University of Calgary is a significant move to revitalizing downtown. He noted that expanding university operations in downtown will also present more opportunities to get the area bustling. "Certainly [the] School of Architecture lends itself to [business opportunities in the area] like art supply stores, graphic stores, computer stores, other types of food services that maybe operate more in the evening, not just at lunch," he said. Calgary's downtown will act as a 'living lab' In 2018, the faculty opened the City Building Design Lab on Seventh Avenue S.E., across from city hall. That move was "transformative," Brown said, noting it underscored the importance of bringing the school's operations downtown. Once the Nexen Building conversion is complete, the school will take over eight floors of the tower and two floors of the annex. The downtown location opens up many opportunities, Brown said, and the students will be able to use their central campus as a kind of "living lab." "Our students work most of the time on real projects that are related to the city, with community groups and with non-profits," he said.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Georgia Tech breathes new life into old blades
A team of Georgia Tech engineers and researchers are making U.S. history, installing the first bridge made out of a wind turbine blade. The Re-Wind Network developed the bridges, breathing new life into sections of wind turbine blades. Russell Gentry, professor in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech University, leads the United States team. Gentry, alongside other project members, gathered Tuesday in Buckhead to install a BladeBridge at Beaverbrook Park. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: Threat of widespread severe weather this weekend Atlanta Dream's home opener vs Indiana Fever moving to State Farm Arena Army veteran's missing service dog hit, killed on interstate 'These fabulous materials don't recycle well so when they come out of service, you can't really grind them up. You can't use them for anything and they're amazing structures,' Gentry said. Two other BladeBridges were installed in Ireland a few years ago, but the bridge in Buckhead will be the first of its kind in the United States. 'The idea was instead of trying to recycle these materials, we're repurposing them. Keeping them intact and using them structurally for another use,' added Gentry. Gentry says the blades were donated by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Company and brought in from Colorado. The Beaverbook Park bridge will feature a deck on either side and is expected to be ready for pedestrian traffic by next month. Gentry says their team is working on bringing a second BladeBridge to the area. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
