Got booths?

A great website of booth images!

http://www.generalseatingsolutions.com/gallery.htm

Parsons Holiday Open House

You are invited!
Parsons Holiday Open House featuring our usual holiday party fare: lots of good food, liquid refreshments, free sweatshirts...
all served up in our luxurious Fridley warehouse.

Please join us as we celebrate our 80th anniversary!

Thursday, December 6th, 2007 from 4 to 7 pm
at our Parsons' office/warehouse facility
5960 Main Street NE
Fridley
763-571-8000
A Lorenz Mini Coach Bus will be available to shuttle you to and from your car on Main Street.

From I-694 exit on University Ave. go north, turn left (west) on 57th, turn right (north) on Main Street. Parsons is located a few blocks down on your left.

Angels & Eagles Golf Classic Raises $80,000

Despite a rainy, cold day in August at Bearpath Golf & Country Club in Eden Prairie, $80,000 was raised to benefit Facing Cancer Together (FaCT), our program for children who have a parent with cancer. Golfers warmed up their muscles at the Body Balance tent, perfected their swings at the Golf Clinic with six PGA Golf Professionals, and were fed a delicious lunch by Bearpath chefs.

A highlight of the day was teh Dedication Swing when all the players lined up in the rain on the driving range to hit a golf ball in tribute to a loved one with cancer. The rain subsided just in time for a great 18 holes of golf followed by a silent & live auction, dinner, and awards.

Mark your calendars and spread the word to your friends and fellow golfers to set aside Monday, August 18, 2008 for our 6th annual golf event at Bearpath Golf & Country Club in Eden Prairie!

Background:

For several years, Shea has been a proud supporter of the Angel Foundation. This year, Shea partnered with Angel Foundation and designed a vibrant new logo for the event and produced a save-the-date postcard, registration brochure and even signage and banners.

Meet Heidi May

Heidi May comes to us from ZWA (Zimmerman Weintraub Associates) in Chicago, IL. She was convinced to leave the windy city because of Shea’s projects, our creativity, the people, our great atmosphere, and the opportunity to learn and the educational prospects. Heidi May is no stranger to some of our office. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Steven’s Point (Go Pointers!) with Jennifer and Heather. Mark your calendars! May 23rd is Heidi May’s Birthday! If you’re looking for gift ideas, her favorite colors are brown and black. Heidi May’s favorite project thus far was the prototype for a “Residence Inn by Marriott” because it was challenging and detailed. Here at Shea she has been added to the design teams for Buffets, Trail mark, and Schmitt Music. Welcome Heidi May!
(photo to come)

Fusion Fashion Show

Friday, November 9, 2007 at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, MN.

Cori, Jennifer, Heather

Karen, Rachael

Jennifer showing off her dress made of wall-paper.

More information and photos to come!!! Keep checking back.

Meet Nathan Mlynek

"Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine."

Nathan (though you may call him Nate) joins the Shea team from Hammel, Green & Abrahamson. He was drawn to Shea because he likes the types of projects we work on and our commitment to cutting-edge design. He went to school at the University of Minnesota (another Gopher!). His birthday is September 16th so be sure to add that to your calendar! His favorite color is blue; the color that often symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.


Nathan likes the author Ray Bradbury from whose book, Fahrenheit 451, I took the quote at the beginning of this biography. His favorite project to date is the East Texas Medical Center Tyler ER addition (HGA) because he had the greatest level of responsibility and the project had a unique design.


Please stop by his office and get to know our new team member.

Top 40 Restaurants in the U.S. 2007

(No Minneapolis/Saint Paul?!)

Treat yourself to the best in American dining at these 40 restaurants across the country (from Gayot.com).
Atlanta
Bacchanalia
Boston
L'Espalier
Carmel Valley, Calif.
Marinus
Chicago
Avenues
Alinea
Charlie Trotter's
Everest
TRU
Healdsburg, Calif.
Cyrus
Honolulu
Chef Mavro
Laguna Beach, Calif.
Studio
Las Vegas
Alex
Joël Robuchon
Picasso
Restaurant Guy Savoy
Los Angeles
Mélisse
Patina
Providence
Sona
Spago Beverly Hills
New Orleans
Restaurant August
New York
Bouley
Daniel
Eleven Madison Park
Jean Georges
Le Bernardin
Le Cirque
Masa
The Modern
Per Se
Ogunquit, Maine
Arrows Restaurant
Philadelphia
Le Bec-Fin
San Antonio
Restaurant Le Rêve
San Francisco
The Dining Room
Gary Danko
Michael Mina
Silks
Washington, D.C.
CityZen
Michel Richard Citronelle
Washington, Va.
The Inn at Little Washington

New chef eases into Harry's

After chef Steven Brown departed, Colin Murray stepped up to the stove with aplomb.

By Rick Nelson, Star Tribune

Maverick talents like Steven Brown's are depressingly rare. So when the chef announced that the followup to his much-heralded gig at Levain was going to be interpreting American classics at Harry's Food & Cocktails, it seemed a little bit like Meryl Streep joining the cast of "The Young and the Restless."
Of course, comfort-food conformity was not how it played out. The menu had a familiar Everyman sensibility, but it was not without a welcome dose of Brown's harmonic dissonances. Romaine was burnished on the grill before it was stacked like Lincoln Logs and dressed with a pert lemony Caesar dressing. Braised pork belly, perfectly tempura-crisp outside, meltingly pork-y inside, served over earthy lentils, was a dream dish. I loved a plate of sautéed arugula paired with tender butter beans and I still dream about the creamed sweet corn. I know, something as pedestrian as creamed corn, but I'm here to tell you that it was extraordinary, a thrilling marriage of concentrated corn goodness and copious amounts of dairy.
Poutine, that twisted, gravy-soaked, French-fried, French-Canadian guilty pleasure, was flecked with some of the kitchen's exceptional pickles. I loved the plush salmon and its cool cucumber salad. Lime and avocado were the welcome flavor accents on a superb walleye sandwich. Roast chicken had a perfect garlic kiss. The thinking-man burgers were topped with a wild list of accompaniments (which might explain their $12 price tag), and the fries were shoestring-thin and fabulous. Every night featured a different blue-plate special, and they were truly special, from a sizzling pork chop with a marvelous potato-basil salad to a flavorful prime rib. And prices stayed true to the ingredients' accessible nature, with few entrees venturing above $20. Who cares if any eyeball over 40 couldn't read the menu's teeny type?
As summer turned to fall, the menu's offerings seemed to shrink with each visit; it was as if the kitchen crew couldn't keep up with Brown, and his attention was elsewhere. So it wasn't a surprise when Brown announced he was taking on a new challenge (Porter & Frye, opening in a few months in the Hotel Ivy + Residence in downtown Minneapolis), a project that sounds more in line with his culinary gifts.
Brown's move also proved to be an opportunity for his sous chef, Colin Murray, who stepped up to run the kitchen. While it's hard to know where Brown leaves off and Murray begins -- although it's safe to say that Brown's restless inventiveness is definitely absent -- much of the food at Harry's 2.0 has an intrinsic appeal.
Acorn squash is split, roasted and dressed with walnuts and apricots, a lovely pre-Thanksgiving dish. Pot roast is succulent, fall-apart tender, and the accompanying horseradish sauce rings clarion-clear. Meatloaf and chicken salad sandwiches, both made on slices of thick toasted breads, go above and beyond expectations, the former accented with mushrooms and tangy pickled onions, the latter brimming with crunchy carrots and tons of tarragon.
Those blue-plate specials remain models of affordability and generosity. I like taking a seat at the roomy bar and digging into the shrewdly chosen cheese/cured-meats platter. Creamed corn is history, but baked beans, a crock of toothy butter beans drenched in a bacon-enriched barbecue sauce, are a worthy followup. Then I'll segue into the fine plate of iceberg enhanced with smoky bacon and creamy peppercorn-studded dressing or the beautiful salad of smoked salmon, golden beets and sunflower sprouts and then maybe try out a well-prepared steak or a chop. Complicated, no, but most dishes are handled with care and finesse.
I like Murray's simple-pleasures desserts, too, an improvement over their predecessors: a slab of warm, spicy gingerbread, finished with a caramel sauce; a cinnamon-powered apple crisp, and a hearty chocolate pudding crowned with a dollop of thick whipped cream.
Shea Inc., the Minneapolis design firm, gave the former Nochee an admirable once-over that sensibly reorganized the floor plan and added a handsome fall-colors veneer. The restaurant's name is a tribute to co-owner Dwight Bonewell's late grandfather, Harry Snyder, a career St. Paul cook. There was probably a temptation to tip the Harrymania overboard, but the decorative touches -- sweet black-and-white photos, a few Harry homilies lettered over the bar, chandeliers made from bottles of Snyder's favorite brewski, Grain Belt -- provide just enough context without sliding toward Disneyland.
But in the end, it's a hook that doesn't hang very well. We're not given a reason to care about Harry or his connection to what's on the table. Now Brown, he was another matter; anyone taking a single nibble of his divine bread-and-butter pickles had to know that he could headline the show, without breaking a sweat. Although if they'd called it Steven's, they'd have a problem on their hands, wouldn't they? After enjoying his food, and his potential, I'm wondering if perhaps the name on the door ought to be Colin's.

Shea Holiday Party

City Council discusses Alatus Partners' purchase

City council actions
By Kari VanDerVeen
10/19 Meeting Parking Ramps: The City Council agreed to knock $1.1 million off the sale price of several city-owned parking ramps in order to offset the cost of repairs needed for one of the ramps.
Alatus Partners LLC agreed in July to purchase six city-owned parking ramps for just over $69 million. The city is moving forward with the sale of five of those ramps to Alatus — it is still working out the details of the sale of its leasehold interest on the Federal Courthouse Municipal Ramp 333 3rd Ave. S. — and expects to have the deal concerning those five finalized by the end of October.
The city agreed to adjust the sale price of the five ramps after Alatus determined during its due diligence period that costly repairs are needed to Centre Village Municipal Ramp, 700 5th Ave. S. Alatus also noted that the city miscounted the number of parking stalls it was purchasing, and a joint recount with city officials confirmed that there are 35 fewer stalls in the sale package than the city had originally calculated.The city will credit Alatus $1.1 million, bringing the sale price of the five ramps — which, in addition to Centre Village Municipal Ramp include the Downtown East Municipal Ramp, 425 Park Ave. S.; Gateway Municipal Ramp, 400 S. 3rd St.; Loring Municipal Ramp, 1330 Nicollet Mall; and Seven Corners Municipal Ramp, 1504 Washington Ave. S. — down to a little more than $65 million.
The City Council agreed in July to sell a total of eight city-owned parking ramps to three different buyers. In addition to the ramps Alatus is purchasing, St. Anthony Ramp LLC has agreed to pay a little more than $2.5 million for the St. Anthony Ramp, 210 2nd Ave. SE.; and the Guthrie Theater Foundation has agreed to pay $16.5 million for the Riverfront Ramp, 212 9th Ave. S. If all of the sales move forward as expected, the city will receive more than $87 million for the eight ramps.On average, the ramps were collectively expected to lose about $690,000 annually in upcoming years, according to a city report issued this summer. In addition to the sale proceeds, if the ramps are sold, the city will also collect annual property taxes of roughly $800,000 from them.

City sells five parking ramps for $65 million

City sells five parking ramps for $65 million
UPDATED October 31, 2007, 11:06am
By Michael Metzger
The first of the city’s sale of parking ramps have been completed, netting Minneapolis about $65 million. The five municipal parking ramps sold to Alatus Management are Centre Village, Downtown East, Seven Corners, Loring, and Gateway.The sales were the first closed after the City Council authorized in July the sale of eight city-owned ramps.The money from the sales goes into the city’s Parking Fund.As part of the sale, Alatus agreed to construct new developments at or near the sites of two of the ramps. The development at the Downtown East site might include housing, retail, office space and/or a hotel. The development adjacent to the Seven Corners ramp is to include housing and possibly street-level retail.The sale allows the city to pay down debt on its parking system. That system now includes 18 parking ramps and six parking lots, totaling more than 25,000 parking spaces.

The Loop buys Old Chicago Space

The owners of The Loop at 606 Washington Ave. N. are opening another restaurant and bar in the former Old Chicago space on 1st Avenue.
Co-owner Todd Jensen said the restaurant concept is still under development, but the venue will serve lunch and will join the Warehouse District's nightlife scene at 508 1st Ave. N.
The "Magoo's" sign previously displayed in the window was apparenlty a false alarm. The owners of a venture called Magoo's were also interested in the space, Jensen said, but didn't end up landing it.
The Loop opened in December. Jensen said he and the other owners were interested in someday opening another vanue, and they jumped at the chance to occupy a spot on 1st Avenue.
Old Chicago closed in September, citing a districtwide decline in customer traffic.

Wireless Workplaces, Touching the Sky

Brian Schwagerl, left, and Charles Montplaisir showed off some wireless connections inside the Hearst Tower, which opened its doors a year ago.

By AMY CORTESE
Published: November 4, 2007

THE Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan is known for its environmentally friendly features, along with its stunning design by the British architect Norman Foster. A distinctive triangular structure of glass and steel, it rises from the shell of the original six-story sandstone headquarters erected by William Randolph Hearst in 1928.
The tower is one of the more technologically advanced buildings in the country.
But the tower — which opened a year ago near Columbus Circle and received a “gold” certification for sustainability from the United States Green Building Council — is also one of the more technologically advanced office buildings in the country. Almost everything is automated, from the lighting to the two-story waterfall in the lobby. Employees and visitors can also use their cellphones, BlackBerrys and wireless laptops anywhere in the building’s 46 floors, including the lobby and cafe. Employees have access to all the applications and network services they would have if they were sitting at their desks.
At first glance, that may not seem a big deal. Yet in many office towers — as many people who’ve tried to get a cellphone signal on upper floors can attest — heavy construction materials impede radio frequency signals, resulting in weak signal coverage in parts or all of a building. To compensate, many buildings have sprouted a costly tangle of antennas and cables for the various devices, which use different wireless technology standards and spectrum bands. But that can create interference and the headache of installing cables and antenna for each new service.
Charles Montplaisir, the vice president for information systems at the Hearst Corporation, said wireless access was an important design point from the beginning. “I couldn’t imagine building a building today without a fully ubiquitous wireless network,” he said.
A growing number of other companies and organizations appear to agree. Wireless connectivity has become a must-have amenity for businesses, hotels, hospitals, sporting arenas and other public and private buildings.
“Wireless is the way things are moving,” said Mark Feller, the vice president for technology for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. The new stadium for the team, which opened in 2006 and has a retractable roof and a grass field that can be rolled outdoors, provides cellular coverage for fans at the games. Wireless connectivity is also a selling point for trade shows and other events held there.
This high-tech trend, experts say, reflects an increasingly mobile work force as well as consumers’ expectations that their cellphones and other wireless devices will work everywhere.
And since the 9/11 attacks, attention has focused on the crucial role of wireless networks in public safety and emergency response. In New York City, a high-bandwidth public safety network is being deployed for emergency responders like police officers and firefighters.
The global market for so-called in-building wireless systems that use cables, antennas and amplifiers to carry wireless signals throughout a building is expected to be more than $3.6 billion by 2011, according to ABI Research, a market research company in Oyster Bay, N.Y. Much of the growth, said Dan Shey, an analyst at ABI, is coming from wireless systems that are not exclusive to one cellular or wireless service provider but allow many services to plug into a common infrastructure.
In Hearst’s case, a Universal Wireless Network system from MobileAccess, based in Vienna, Va., collects cellular signals from three major carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, which have base stations in the building — as well as signals from the building’s Wi-Fi network, used for laptop computers. These radio frequency signals are converted to light and run up to each floor on a common fiber optic network; they are converted back to signals through eight antennas distributed on each floor. Outgoing signals operate in reverse.
For media companies, whose products are increasingly delivered in digital form, wireless is a natural. But wireless technology is also transforming businesses in all sorts of industries, from hotels to government agencies to health care companies.
In health care, for example, equipment like X-ray machines and intravenous pumps now come with built-in wireless communications connection. A band of spectrum called Wireless Medical Telemetry Service is dedicated to wireless medical devices. That has led to new applications from digital X-ray imaging and transmission to wireless monitoring of patients.
“Wireless networks that integrate digital data are a fundamental part of the infrastructure of health care,” said Timothy R. Zoph, vice president for information services and chief information officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Last month, the hospital opened the one-million-square-foot Prentice Women’s Hospital, where all the nurses wear wireless devices, thus keeping their hands free, and visitors are encouraged to use their cellphones and laptops.
In-building wireless systems can make economic sense. Employee productivity can be increased by as much as 30 percent, according to the In-Building Wireless Association, a trade group that includes Sprint, LGC Wireless, Motorola and PRTM Consulting. While the systems cost from 50 cents to $1.50 a square foot, a common wireless infrastructure can save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in cable material and installation costs, according to companies that have installed them. Mr. Zoph of Northwestern Memorial estimated that the hospital saved $750,000 in such costs.
In addition, these systems make managing and upgrading wireless networks easier, saving on maintenance costs.
For Hearst, adding a new network service — like the more powerful Wi-Fi technology known as 802.11n, which is planned for next year — just requires plugging a component into the existing system, rather than stringing new cable, opening ceilings and adding antennas. “It’s easy for us to upgrade now,” said Brian Schwagerl, the vice president for real estate at Hearst, whose publications include Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Good Housekeeping. “This is where corporations are moving in the technology age.”
Such flexibility can be important when technology is evolving at such a dizzying pace. In the next few years, experts say, several commercial developments are expected to include a broad range of wireless technology and applications for consumers and businesses. WiMax, a wireless technology that allows Internet and other connections across much broader areas than Wi-Fi, will hit the market next year, they say.
New public safety networks, including the one in New York, are being prepared as well, and in January, the Federal Communications Commission plans to auction highly coveted wireless spectrum. The auction is drawing interest from players outside the traditional realm of telecommunications, like Google, which has ambitions to develop location-based applications for cellphones and mobile devices.
At the Hearst Tower, like other high-tech corporate headquarters, people can be seen conducting business around the building with laptops, cellphones and other gadgets. Mr. Schwagerl notes that William Randolph Hearst, the company’s founder, always intended to add on to the original six-story building. “Is this what the old man envisioned?” he said. “I don’t think so. But I think he’d be extremely gratified.”

STIR CRAZY!!!!

David recently visited the Greenwood Stir Crazy site set to open Tuesday, November 6. Congratulations to the Stir Crazy Team on a job well done...keep up the good work.

GreenSource Products

All products featured here are screened and approved by BuildingGreen Greenspec® Directory.–Compiled by Mark Piepkorn

http://greensource.construction.com/products/0710-1.asp

TRICK OR TREAT!

This Halloween Shea enjoyed many treats. They came in many forms: as candy (thanks Kathy), as cookies (thanks Kristie), as cute kids from downstairs trick-or-treating, as the children of our staff enjoying their first Halloween, and for Jason, the treat of becoming an uncle.

Niko as a gorilla

Nolan as a bear

Jason with Sophia

Ella as a pink poodle