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Decision Making Skills When it Comes to Outsourcing Methodologies by Steven Brough

With outsourcing methdologies, one has to decide wisely upon whom to hire, remote or in-house, salary, and a whole lot more. www.freelancerselite.com

THE AGAHI AWARDS 2013 by Puruesh Chaudhary

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Journalists compete in more than 50 different categories; AGAHI Awards encourages best content in print, television, radio and online journalism.

Pakistan’s most prestigious journalism “Agahi Awards 2013” celebrated today at PNCA Islamabad. The Awards have been organized in collaboration with leading press clubs, local and international media development institutions, regulatory authorities, civil society organizations, private sector and other stakeholders. Puruesh Chaudhary Founder & President, AGAHI and Amir Jahangir Chief Executive Officer, Mishal Pakistan founded these awards in 2012.

The Agahi Awards are an annual series of awards for journalism in Pakistan, developed under the umbrella of the Credibility Lab at Mishal for creating an appreciation methodology for ethical and quality content. The evaluation methodology and criteria of the awards have been designed on the pillars of Media Development Indicators of UNESCO, in collaboratiosn with the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) and UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Awards were inaugurated in March 2012 and have become the most prestigious awards for the journalism in Pakistan.

The Awards have created appreciation for journalism in fifty different categories including business and economy, conflict, corruption, crime, education, infotainment, the nexus between water, energy and food security, gender and governance, health, extremism and terrorism, peace, interfaith, dignity; thus creating media diversity across print, television, radio and the online media.

Among the winners for this year’s “Agahi Awards 2013, the Journalist of the Year Award” were deigned in 50 categories. The award for business and economy was won by Naveen Mangi (Bloomberg), Maliha Naz Rana from Herald in Health and Primary Education, Shakeel Ahmad (DAWN News) Higher Education and Training, Zahir Shah Sherazi (DAWN News) in Infrastructure, Abdur Rauf (Express Tribune) for Institutions, Maimoona Saeed (GEO News) forLabor Market Efficiency, Ghulam Mohiuddin (AAJ TV) for Environment,Shabina Faraz (Jang) in Climate Change, Zahid Gishkori (Express Tribune) in Flood and Disaster Reporting, Sehrish Wasif (Express Tribune) in Disaster and Catastrophe, Xari Jalil (DAWN) in Governance, A.B. Arisar (DAWN) in Corruption, Asad Kharal (Express Tribune) forLaw &Order, Hanif Samoon (DAWN.com) in Health,Din Muhammad Watanpal (Daily Qudrat, Quetta) forChild Survival, Sarwar Baloch (VSH News) in Health&Nutrition, Ali Usman (Express Tribune) forNon Communicable Diseases, Zia ur Rehman (Friday Times) for Polio Immunization, Aslam Chandio (Online News Agency) forEnergy, Water &Food Security, Sarah Munir (Express Tribune) on Media Ethics,Syed Ali Shah (DAWN News) forMedia Safety, Ashraf Javed (The Nation)for Crime Reporting, Shahzada Irfan Ahmad (The News) forCorporate Social Responsibility, Zahir Shah Sherazi (DAWN News) in Democratic Values and Dignity, Bina Shah (Blogger) in Education, Zia ur Rehman (Friday Times) for Extremism and Terrorism,Shahzada Irfan Ahmad (The News) in Gender,A.B. Arrisar (DAWN) in Gender – Economic Opportunity, Abdul Shakoor (APP) in Gender – Health and Survival, Zia Ur Rehman (Friday Times) in Gender – Political Empowerment, Aamir Saeed (Pique Magazine) forHuman Rights,Fazal Khaliq (Express Tribune) in Child Protection, Kiran Nazish (DAWN.com) forChild Rights, A.B. Arisar in Gender – Domestic Violence, Zia ur Rehman (Friday Times) in Minorities &Marginalized Communities, Mehtab Haider (The News) in Political &Regularity Environment, Jawwad Rizvi (The News) in Market Environment, Faseeh Mangi (Bloomberg) in Infotainment,Mubashar Zaidi (DAWN.com) in Journalism for Peace,Muhammad Irfan Haider (Dawn) forConflict Reporting, Asad Kharal (Express Tribune) in Judiciary,Zeeshan Anwar (Daily Express) in Court Reporting, Zahir Shah Sherazi (DAWN.com) in Photo Journalism,Aslam Chandio (Online News Agency) in sports.

The awards ceremony was presented by Osama Bin Javaid, a Pakistani journalist based in the Middle East and Razeshta Sethna, par of the editorial team at a leading English language publication in Pakistan. The Awards also have special categories including“Current Affairs Anchor of the Year” and “News Channel of the Year” in Pakistan. These categories are on the basis of people’s choice, which includes voting for these two categories by reaching out to more than 6 million Pakistanis through social media engagement and 1.5 million via SMS campaign and direct feedback.

GEO NEWS won the Peoples’ Choice Award for the “Most Favourite News Channel” second year around.

The “Current Affairs Anchor of the Year” Award was for two emerging anchors; won by Iqrar ul Hassan (ARY News) and Alia Nazki (BBC Urdu), as “the Emerging Current Affair Anchor of the Year” in the male and female categories. “Investigative Journalist of the Year” award was won by Asad Kharal (Express Tribune).

Ejaz Haider from Capital TV awarded the “Most Credible Anchor” based on the Media Credibility Index developed in collaboration with more than 10 journalism schools in Pakistan.

To ensure diversity in content and more social issues to be highlighted in media, Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Save the Childrencreated the health category further dividing them into six sub-categories. This has not only increased the quantum of health content in media, but has also encouraged journalists to write more on the socio-economic challenges in Pakistan.

This year AGAHI Awards received an overwhelming response by the journalist community, where more than 1500 nominations were received from all over the country across more than 50 different categories in print, television, radio and online content.

Academic partners for Agahi Awards 2013 from the disciplines of journalism and mass communication included;Fatima Jinnah Women University (Rawalpindi), AllamaIqbal Open University (Islamabad), BahauddinZakariya University (Multan), International Islamic University (Islamabad), Islamia University (Bahawalpur), University of Gujrat, National University of Science and Technology (Islamabad), Roskilde University (Denmark), Center for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom atEuropean University (Italy).

Press Clubs in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Multan, and the National Press Club along with the Kashmir Press Club (Mirpur) and the Tribal Union of Journalists, Center for International Media Ethics, Ethical Journalism Network, Media Helping Media, Save the Children, Devex, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Press Council of Pakistan, Internews Network, Center for Investigative Journalism (Bosina-Sarajevo), Transnational Crisis Project, Hayward Black Media, MediaShift, P@sha have partnered to ensure making the journalism awards at par with international standard of journalism.

Mishal Pakistan is the country partner Institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks at the World Economic Forum. Established in 2003, Mishal has been engaged with key stakeholders in Pakistan to improve the state of media through good governance initiatives.

Ernest Flagg's Todt Hill Cottages: McCall's Demonstration House by Emilio Guerra

Grant City, Staten Island, New York City, New York

Stone Court, the country estate of the noted American architect Ernest Flagg, is located on Todt Hill, part of the central ridge of serpentine rock which bisects the northern half of Staten Island. Flagg's imposing Colonial Revival style residence, several outbuildings and the nearby stone cottages he constructed on the grounds of his estate form a harmonious ensemble which exemplifies the architect's distinctive interpretation of Beaux-Arts inspired design principles as well as his life-long commitment to building reform.

Born in Brooklyn in 1857, Flagg was a member of the first generation of American architects shaped by the rigorous training programs of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Returning to this country in the 1880s and 1890s, Flagg and his contemporaries were imbued with an awareness of an architectural beauty governed by the constant principles of correct design discovered by the ancients and recovered by the architects of the Renaissance. Flagg's career, initiated by his competition-winning design of 1892 for St. Luke's Hospital on Morningside Heights, has been characterized as one which embraced seemingly disparate projects ranging from imposing residences for affluent clients and large institutional complexes to workers' housing. These were but the outward manifestations of an architectural sensibility which sought always to mediate the general polarities implied by the terms "art" and "science."

Flagg noted, for instance, that the entire design of St. Luke's Hospital, from its plan to the placement of ornamental elements, was determined by his employment of a modular unit of measure, a methodology inspired by his analysis of Greek architecture and repeated in his subsequent designs such as those for the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1894-1898) and the Naval Academy at Annapolis (1897-1899).

Flagg also recorded that, "Even for tenements it has worked well and plans for several large groups of model fireproof tenements (N.Y. Fireproof Model Tenements, 1899-1900) were made this way."

Flagg was introduced to Staten Island by its first Borough President George Cromwell and in 1898 Flagg purchased a lot adjacent to Cromwell's Todt Hill property. Fronting on Prospect Place (today's Flagg Place), it offered spectacular views of the Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Highlands. Set upon a large terrace defined by rubblestone walls and occupying the most elevated portion of his property, Flagg's residence was a substantial structure of whitewashed fieldstone and shingles.

The construction material and the gambrel roof alluded to the local Colonial building tradition which Flagg defined as French Huguenot. Numerous permutations of the colonial tradition were introduced by Flagg; they include a vastly enlarged scale, massive chimneys rising above the eaves on the front and rear elevations, and a circular balustraded observation deck which, straddling the roof ridge and enframed by the chimneys, marked the central axis bisecting the house and its grounds.

Subsequent additions to the residence, the siting of outbuildings and the design of the landscape were all undertaken in reference to this axis. In addition to demonstrating Flagg's individualized Beaux-Arts-derived aesthetic, the estate also reveals, from its inception, the architect's interest in building technology.

The chimneys, for example, are topped by distinctive curved ventilator caps which were painted black; intended to improve the efficiency of the heating system, the curved ventilator cap became one of the hallmarks of his Todt Hill designs. Continuing change, constant elaboration and ongoing experimentation are intrinsic to the history of Flagg's Todt Hill estate; the series of small stone cottages he constructed beginning in 1916 may in some respects be regarded as the culmination of the building program initiated in 1898.

As a young man Flagg had been involved in land and building speculation with his father and brother in the 1870s and 1880s. It was an experience which surely played a formative role in shaping Flagg's visionary development scheme for his Staten Island properties. Just after the turn of the century Flagg began buying additional tracts of land on Todt Hill.

By 1907 he had acquired approximately 70 acres in the vicinity of his original purchase and in 1909 he established the Flagg Estate Company. The total of 200 acres Flagg owned by 1918 extended southwestward from West Entry Road to the far side of Todt Hill Road where his extensive holdings included much of what is today the Richmond County Country Club golf course.

Concurrently, Flagg was also involved in a number of projects entailing additions to his residence and its immediate grounds. The residence gained added grandeur with the construction of a wing on the southwestern side which balanced the earlier wing opposite.

A second level was added to the facade porch; its colonnade repeated the forms of the newly elaborated colonnade below. The terrace platform was extended and the landscaping formalized. Low fieldstone wings were added to the rear of his residence, a new gardener's residence was constructed in 1908, and the earlier gardener's residence on Flagg Place was subsequently enlarged and converted to a gatehouse.

Although conventional rubblestone construction was used for the smaller structures, their scale and design elements predict the architect's experimental cottages. Foreshadowing Bowcot, for example, the new gardener's residence abutted and incorporated a portion of an existing stone retaining wall.

Small Houses; Their Economic Design Construction

Flagg's new additions to his residence de-emphasized its Colonial Revival character; so too did his contemporary removal of whitewash from much of the estate's rubblestone construction. Revelation of Stone Court's stone represented far more than a cosmetic change. Stone construction lay at the heart of his ambitious development plan, the "Flagg Ridge Estate of Ernest Flagg at Dongan Hills, Staten Island," outlined in his book Small Houses; Their Economic Design and Construction published in 1922.

Drawing upon prototypes of greater antiquity than those provided by the local Colonial building tradition, Flagg envisioned his Todt Hill lands populated by many small stone houses, an ensemble which would evoke the ancient Anglo-French or Norman villages of England and France. Stone, described by Flagg as "king of building materials," was selected for very practical reasons as well. The cost of wood increased during the post-World-War-I period due to a diminishing supply. Reduced combustibility was another benefit of stone construction.

By his use of an earlier spelling of the family name, Flagg conferred ancestral and manorial character upon his proposed development, associations perhaps related to the concomitant aggrandizement of his residence and its grounds. The Flagg Ridge Estate was conceived as more than a picturesque enclave for the privileged however. It would also demonstrate that Flagg's inventive cost-saving but improved construction methods could make the American dream of a single-family house attainable by a broadened segment of the country's population. Affordability was not to be the altar upon which good design was sacrificed.

On the contrary, as Flagg pointed out in his introduction to Small Houses, "... the theory for the design of these houses is that the most economical way of obtaining good results is to apply the greater fundamental principles of art and depend upon them for beauty rather than upon the use either of applied ornament or more expensive materials. ..."

Economy was to be achieved by a host of means which Flagg divided into five general categories. Economical plan preparation entailed the use of a modular system. Subdivisions of a three-foot nine-inch modular unit chosen for its relationship to standard lengths of building materials corresponded to the grid of specially prepared graph paper.

Economy was also obtained either through the utilization of under-used spaces or their elimination. Attics, for example, were enlarged through the use of tall, wide-spreading roofs and rendered habitable by the introduction of ridge-line dormers which provided ample light and controllable ventilation.

Hallways and corridors were abandoned while frequently wasted odd spaces were provided with lockers and cupboards. Reduction of the construction materials required was another area in which costs could be lowered.

Wall heights, for instance, diminished as a result of the inhabitable attic story. Foundations shrank and cellars were eliminated by the damp-proofing methods introduced by Flagg. The architect's ingenious method of partition-wall construction — plaster applied to a jute or burlap screen — made studs and lath unnecessary. The much thinner (and fire-proof) walls which

resulted also took up less space. Trim, baseboards and molding were dispensed with.

Flagg's fourth method of economizing entailed decreasing labor costs. A method of concrete wall-construction Flagg called "mosaic rubble" was one of the principal means of accomplishing this goal since it eliminated the need for skilled workmen.

Flagg devised a system of reusable formwork consisting of uprights and cross-bars on foundation sleepers. These formed a trough into which stones could be placed — their flat sides flush with the outer face of the wall — to form a mosaic pattern which evoked conventional rubblestone construction.

Concrete was poured around the stones to form a backing. The formwork was subsequently reassembled at a higher point and the process repeated. When the wall was completed only face-pointing was required. Lastly Flagg cites a number of "more economical devices, materials and methods" which range from construction details — for these Flagg produced many patented designs — to siting.

Structures which conformed to the terrain, for example, eliminated the cost of extensive excavation and grading while adopting the European tradition of a roadside location represented an economical use of the land.

McCall Demonstration House

Averring that ". . . an America of more beautiful, more comfortable homes will be a happier and better America . . McCall's Magazine announced to its readers in May, 1923, that an agreement had been made with ". . . the foremost architects of the country to design. . . a series of small houses planned not for beauty of design alone, but for the convenience of the homemaker as well." A lengthy check-list solicited the readers' ideas on every aspect of residential design. The resulting plans and specifications were to be made available by the magazine for a nominal fee.

In the article, "Here is the House You Asked Us For," of January, 1924, McCall 's Magazine reported that thousands of responses had been received." Plans by eight architects — Ernest Flagg, Clarence Stein, Aymar Embury II, W.D. Forster and Harold W. Vassar, Grosvenor Atterbury, Dwight James Baum, Otto Eggers, and Walter B. Chambers — were available and could be obtained from the magazine for $15.00.

With each set of plans McCall's would also include directions for landscaping and suggestions for household equipment and interior decoration. House sizes ranged from four to seven rooms and construction costs from $ 4,000 to $ 13,500. Flagg's design was at the low end of the scale in both categories.

In the second of a series of articles Flagg wrote for McCall's Magazine in 1924-25 describing and illustrating his design, Flagg declared, "I am going to build a house for the benefit of the readers of this magazine and in so doing hope to show how to overcome some obstacles which usually lie in the way of the home builder. Personally I expect to have a glorious time in this operation and it shall be my endeavor to explain as clearly as possible how others may have the same sort of a time when they build.

Flagg also issued an invitation to observe the course of construction. "It will be built," he said, "on the Richmond Road, Staten Island, a main

thoroughfare, easy to find, where all may see it who take the trouble to come.

It will be open for inspection by readers of McCall's Magazine, both during the building process and after completion, for as long a time as it excites particular interest." As summarized by the magazine's editors, Flagg's goals were, "To prove his theory that beauty and honesty of design, coupled with convenience for the housewife, can be achieved in small house building at half the usual cost."

In succeeding articles Flagg discussed in detail and illustrated with drawings and photographs the construction of the Demonstration House from the laying of the foundation to completion.

He also introduced the magazine's readers to the general aesthetic principles, design theories and construction techniques he had explicated in Small Houses.

Interwoven with his description of progress on the Demonstration House are discourses on such varied subjects as these: the significance and use of modular design, proportion in Greek architecture, proportion as the source of architectural beauty, the disadvantages of cellars, the importance of ridge dormers in his designs (a "Flagg" house without ridge dormers, he said, is like Hamlet without Hamlet casement windows and hinges. Mosaic-rubble construction is explained in detail exceeding its description in Small Houses.

In the final article, "The Cost of the McCall's Demonstration House," published in May, 1925, Flagg celebrates his achievement noting that, "Any fair-minded person who sees it will admit that it bears unmistakable evidence of belonging to a better type of dwelling than ordinary houses of its class, whether in wood or masonry, and this is true both as to appearances and quality of construction. ... One sees at a glance that workmanship and materials are good .... In every detail there is the most transparent honesty. .... It seems incredible that such a structure can be built for less than the ordinary frame houses. As most of the saving is due to the more straightforward and honest methods employed, the building affords monumental proof that honesty is the best policy in building as in other things."

A large sign Flagg installed in front of the Demonstration House conveyed similar sentiments to passerby. Its text, reproduced and enframed at the bottom of the article's first page read:

THIS HOUSE COST LESS THAN THE ORDINARY FRAME HOUSE OF EQUAL SIZE

REASONS

Correct principles both in design and construction.

Honesty and Simplicity are best in building as in other things. They lead to success. Read Benjamin's Franklin's Autobiography and learn how to be intelligent.

Noting that the Demonstration House had been constructed like "a piece of laboratory work," and that, "The most minute and accurate record was kept of every hour's labor and every piece of material entering into its makeup," Flagg provided a detailed accounting of its cost. The sum — $5,179.66 or 41.4 cents a cubic foot — was clearly a source of great pride for Flagg. His comments in this final article suggest he perceived the Demonstration House as vindicating the theories presented in Small Houses.

The site occupied by the Demonstration House is part of the serpentine cliffs which rise up from the northwestern edge of Richmond Road — first gradually, then steeply — to the parallelling Flagg Place some 100 feet above.

Over a period of time Flagg purchased much of the cliffside area which, in effect, fronted his higher elevation holdings between West Entry and Todt Hill Roads. Although isolated from the grounds surrounding the architect's residence by the sharp drop-off from Flagg Place, this cliffside area was included in the lands to be developed as the "Flagg Ridge Estate of Ernest Flagg." His intentions were indicated in Small Houses by the design for House No. 11.

A general view depicts a picturesque, quasi-urban clustering of small houses sited in proximity to a broad thoroughfare; a wooded slope rises behind them. The roadway is bordered by a tall retaining wall. Repeating the usage exemplified by Bowcot and Wallcot, portions of the retaining wall form part of several structures.

Other houses are set back of the wall; for these a break in the retaining wall provides an entranceway. Since the Demonstration House was the only structure built on this portion of Flagg's property, it alone must evoke the appealing development scheme proposed in Small Houses.

Planned for the "convenience and pleasure" of a woman "who does her own housework," the Demonstration House was begun on March 12, 1924. Occupying an ample lot, it is set some 30 feet back from the street and is approximately 12 feet above the grade of the street. The high stone retaining-wall extending along Richmond Road is broken by an entry gate and staircase which provides access to a pathway and stairs leading up to the terraced platform occupied by the structure.

The main entrance is located in the southwestern bay of the facade. This arrangement is not unlike that proposed for House No. 11 in Small Houses. The gently rising slopes rising behind the retaining-walIs are carefully gardened. Numerous trees and shrubs evoke the landscaped settings depicted by Flagg in Small Houses. The house is set on fairly level ground which continues to its rear as a lawn area; the steep slopes further to the rear provide a dramatic backdrop.

Reiterating his comments in Small Houses, Flagg observed in "The Cost of the Demonstration House," that "A house of this type should have its own individuality and that can best be done by adaptation to the site."

Conformity to the terrain was also obtained by omission of a cellar; the Demonstration House is constructed atop a damp-proofed concrete slab. For this reason, Flagg notes, it has a tendency to "hug the ground," a characteristic which endows it with the desired image of domesticity.

The Demonstration House is slightly smaller than the structure Flagg had proposed in "This is the Charming New McCall House."

The earlier version included a small, low, gabled ell for storage which projected from the right-hand bay of the principal facade. Although the rendering is unchanged in Flagg's subsequent article ("The New McCall House, Step by Step"), the accompanying plan indicates the house had been redesigned to its existing format. The storage ell was removed and the first-floor plan revised to accommodate that function and a small bedroom was added; originally only a living room and kitchen were to occupy this floor.

A center entrance was relocated to the left-hand bay and the facade porch reduced from two bays in width to one.

Serpentine or soapstone taken from the quarry Flagg had established on the grounds of his estate is the material employed for the Demonstration House's mosaic-rubble construction. (The stone and other building materials used were all provided by Flagg's own Dongan Hills Stone and Lumber Company.)

The Demonstration House reveals that Flagg's experimentation with construction techniques had not ceased with the publication of Small Houses. Methods described there were further refined. For example, in "Economical Masonry," he records that he was able to reduce the cost of pointing by 40% by introducing fine stone chips, "pressed in while the mortar is still soft." Since "one stroke does it," labor-intensive finishing of the wide joints required by mosaic-rubble was avoided. The result — a rougher finish given the mortar — enhances its compatibility with the stone surface.

Flagg's inventive and simple method of corner construction figures prominently in this structure. To eliminate stones requiring two worked faces, Flagg employed quoins consisting of stacked concrete blocks with large vertical holes. Reinforcing rods were inserted through the stack and the hole filled with concrete. The Demonstration House quoins are are large in proportion to the scale of the structure and seem, therefore, of greater significance to the design of the house than when used in a more sizeable structure.

Employing smaller blocks, Flagg used the same technique for a new purpose — to form a keyed surround for the rear door. It suggests the architect envisioned an expanded usefulness for this method of construction.

A change in the roofing materials used for the Demonstration House provides additional evidence of Flagg's continuing experimentation. Since the rolled roofing used for earlier cottages such as Bowcot and Wallcot had not eliminated leakage. Flagg addressed the problem here by installing a layer of slate on top of the rubberoid sheeting employed for the initial layer. The slate was held in place by the same clips Flagg had designed for use with the rolled roofing.

Combining the two materials allowed the use of one rather than three layers of slate, thus reducing the weight (a major disadvantage of slate according to Flagg) and cost. Although the rear slope is new covered by asphalt shingles, the front slope appears to have retained some of the original material.

In other respects roof treatment is characteristic of that discussed Small Houses. A tall gable provides an inhabitable attic-level story. The spring-eave which continues the main slope over the rear portion of the house contributes to the picturesque profile. That quality is augmented by Flagg's recommended means; end-chimneys with curved ventilator caps (these are now covered by white stucco), two ridge dormers, and gabled dormers set toward the lower edges of the front and rear slopes.

The original center dormer of the front slope is today flanked by two more; these may have been added by Flagg at a later date. Flanking dormers have not been added on the rear slope.

Two amply sized large-paned casement windows appear on the facade. Flagg chose casement-type windows rather than double-hung sash since they admitted more air and, because his swing inward, are easier to wash. Elsewhere — for the dormers and end-wall windows — similar but smaller sash are used. Storm-windows cover all openings. Those used for the main windows of the facade are attached to the inner edge of the original casement frames and repeat the muntin pattern behind them; Flagg's intended effect has not been diminished. Frames and exterior sash are today painted yellow; early photographs suggest these elements were originally painted white.

A modern "picture-type" window containing four vertical lights has been let into the rear or northwestern elevation; the stone-work below this window appears to have been altered as well. Flagg's window frames are set flush with the wall plane eliminating the need for sills and reveals. The set-back picture-window abandons this practice.

The main and rear doors are identical. The upper half of each contains large-paned diamond-shaped glazing; below, raised triangular wood panels are inserted in the spaces created by the X-shaped cross-bars. The deep, wide, open entry-porch with decoratively shaped rafter ends is carried on two simple posts; it provides a generous shelter over the main entrance.

Conclusion

Although it is a small structure, the design of the McCall's Demonstration House embodies Flagg's central aesthetic theories. Flagg considered his Todt Hill cottages to be an integral part of his oeuvre, of no less importance, for example, than his most famous design, the Singer Tower, the world's tallest building when completed in 1911.

As Flagg recorded in Small Houses, "It may seem to some that the steel frame his little to do with small houses. This may be true of the frame itself but not of the methods of design applicable to it. These methods apply to every artistic construction whether steel frame or otherwise... The idea that is requires one kind of skill to deal successfully with the design of the tall building and another with the small house is fallacious; both alike are architectural problems, and in both alike the immutable laws of right design govern."

The architect's syncretic view of his work is reaffirmed in the final article for McCall's Magazine. Noting that the beauty of the Demonstration House results not from applied ornament, but from its Greek-derived harmonic proportions, Flagg concludes that, "It may seem a far cry from the small house to the Parthenon, but the way is not so long as it appears.

Similar principles will produce similar results and when it is understood that the principles used by the Greeks in the design of temples can be used by us moderns in the building of our houses, not only at a huge saving in cost but at a far greater gain in beauty and the higher qualities of life, the writer for one does not believe that the American people will be so foolish as to see the point and take advantage of it."

The McCall Demonstration House brought national attention to the theories and construction techniques Flagg had expounded to a far more limited audience in Small Houses. Although the immediate impact of his McCall's Demonstration House remains to be determined (at least one house on Staten Island was built from the McCall's plans ), the enabling technology it exemplifies played an influential role in the development of American domestic architecture during the 1920s and 1930s.

Flagg's methods of economical stone construction and modular design were also taken up and popularized by other architects. Harold Carey's Build a Some—Save a Third, published in 1924, and Frazier Forman Peters' Houses of Stone (1933) further disseminated Flagg's concepts. Flagg's legacy, however, as represented by the McCall Demonstration House, still endures.

By promoting domestic design which is responsive to nature (Flagg's stone cottages have recently been cited as early examples of passive solar design ) and respectful of the land, an architecture which did not regard good design and economical construction as mutually exclusive, Flagg articulated goals which retain their validity for residential design of today.

- From the 1987 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Milt preservation process, Bangladesh. Photo by Md Badrul Alam, 2012. by WorldFish

Francois Rajts (right), inventor of the milt bank idea, has worked in the aquaculture sector of Bangladesh for more than three decades.

Background of United States housing bubble by henry collins

Land prices contributed much more to the price increases than did structures. This can be seen in the building cost index in Fig. 1. An estimate of land value for a house can be derived by subtracting the replacement value of the structure, adjusted for depreciation, from the home price. Using this methodology, Davis and Palumbo calculated land values for 46 U.S. metro areas, which can be found at the website for the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy.

Housing bubbles may occur in local or global real estate markets. In their late stages, they are typically characterized by rapid increases in the valuations of real property until unsustainable levels are reached relative to incomes, price-to-rent ratios, and other economic indicators of affordability. This may be followed by decreases in home prices that result in many owners finding themselves in a position of negative equity—a mortgage debt higher than the value of the property. The underlying causes of the housing bubble are complex. Factors include tax policy (exemption of housing from capital gains), historically low interest rates, tax lending standards, failure of regulators to intervene, and speculative fever. This bubble may be related to the stock market or dot-com bubble of the 1990s. This bubble roughly coincides with the real estate bubbles of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Spain, Poland, Hungary and South Korea.

While bubbles may be identifiable in progress, bubbles can be definitively measured only in hindsight after a market correction, which began in 2005–2006 for the U.S. housing market. Former U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said "We had a bubble in housing", and also said in the wake of the subprime mortgage and credit crisis in 2007, "I really didn't get it until very late in 2005 and 2006." In 2001, Alan Greenspan dropped interest rates to a low 1% in order to jump the economy after the ".com" bubble. It was then bankers and other Wall Street firms started borrowing money due to its inexpensiveness.

The mortgage and credit crisis was caused by the inability of a large number of home owners to pay their mortgages as their low introductory-rate mortgages reverted to regular interest rates. Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron concluded, "We had a bubble", and concurred with Yale economist Robert Shiller's warning that home prices appear overvalued and that the correction could last years, with trillions of dollars of home value being lost. Greenspan warned of "large double digit declines" in home values "larger than most people expect."

Problems for home owners with good credit surfaced in mid-2007, causing the United States' largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, to warn that a recovery in the housing sector was not expected to occur at least until 2009 because home prices were falling "almost like never before, with the exception of the Great Depression". The impact of booming home valuations on the U.S. economy since the 2001–2002 recession was an important factor in the recovery, because a large component of consumer spending was fueled by the related refinancing boom, which allowed people to both reduce their monthly mortgage payments with lower interest rates and withdraw equity from their homes as their value increased.

Now, however, such situations can be avoided by showing the customers real value of the property they would buy. For instance, 3-D presentations and Real Estate Virtual Tours can be of good help.

31 марта 2022, Второе заседание Научно-методического совета по реставрации Лавры / 31 March 2022, The second meeting of the Scientific and Methodological Council for the Restoration of the Lavra by Троице-Сергиева Лавра

31 марта 2022, Второе заседание Научно-методического совета по реставрации Лавры / 31 March 2022, The second meeting of the Scientific and Methodological Council for the Restoration of the Lavra