Be amazed at Grounds for Sculpture

If you’re considering day trips this Spring, and have never been to Grounds for Sculpture, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  Grounds for Sculpture is an amusement park of contemporary sculpture, just outside Trenton, New Jersey.  It’s a 42 acre outdoor sculpture garden with indoor exhibitions, about two and a half hours from Columbia, MD.  

Park map, Grounds for Sculpture (click on map for downloadable PDF)

With around 500 sculptures indoors and outside, there are numerous opportunities to become one with the art. Sometimes the landscape becomes an extension of the sculpture, or the sculpture invites you to become a part of it.  Several exhibits recreate a famous painting in three dimensions, many larger than life-size. Options for lunch or dinner include several cafes and Rat’s Restaurant, a fine-dining establishment described as “country French cuisine in a Monet-inspired locale.”

Rat’s Restaurant, Grounds for Sculpture (photo by Cathy Schwarz)

Continue reading Be amazed at Grounds for Sculpture

The future of the Columbia Flier Building is uncertain

The Columbia Flier Building is iconic in Columbia, for its unique design by architect Bob Moon, and as the home of the Columbia Flier and Howard County Times for 33 years. Located on Little Patuxent Parkway just down from Howard Community College, the building went on sale in 2012.

With its open floor plans and zoned work areas, some considered it a perfect site for the Howard County Nonprofit Center being planned at the time. Instead, Howard County purchased the building in 2014 during the Ulman administration for the future home of the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

County Executive Kittleman nixed the plan shortly after he was elected in 2015, finding that renovations would cost approximately $7.2 million, almost three times the purchase price. The property has now been identified as a potential site for construction of affordable housing.

Here’s a close-up look at the building, and a glimpse at its history.

Former Columbia Flier Building for Sale [Excerpt]

by Sara Toth (Columbia Flier), July 13, 2012

Main Entrance, Columbia Flier Building (Cushman & Wakefield)

The building, which housed the Columbia Flier and its parent company, Patuxent Publishing, until 2011, opened in 1978 after two years of planning and construction. The Baltimore Sun Co. which is now owned by Tribune Co., purchased Patuxent and the Flier building in 1997. The building has been vacant since February 2011, when the Columbia Flier and its sister publication, the Howard County Times, moved to a suite of offices on Sterrett Place, in Columbia.

Earlier this week, Columbia architect Bob Moon, husband of the newspaper’s then-managing editor Jean Moon, said he designed the iconic building with a vision of youth. Continue reading The future of the Columbia Flier Building is uncertain

The Toby and Hal Orenstein Cultural Arts Center, coming soon to downtown Columbia, MD

On March 1st, 2018 the Howard County Planning Board unanimously approved the site development plan for construction of a New Cultural Center in Downtown Columbia. I’m jumping ahead a bit to be naming it after Toby and Hal Orenstein. She, of course, is the founder of Toby’s Dinner Theatre, the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts (CCTA), and has been a seminal figure in the Columbia arts scene for 45 years. What other name could we possibly give this center that will be the new home for Toby’s and CCTA, other performance spaces, and has been a dream of Toby and Hal’s for decades?

Meet Toby

Since 1979 Toby Orenstein has been the Artistic Director and owner of Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, MD.

Toby is also the Founder and Director of the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts, Inc. (CCTA). In 1972, at the invitation of visionary developer James Rouse, she created a school for young people who possessed an interest in the performing arts. A special group of those students, The Young Columbians, were invited to the White House and performed a musical tribute to America during the Bicentennial Year (1976). The Young Columbians still perform today at special programs all over Maryland. Continue reading The Toby and Hal Orenstein Cultural Arts Center, coming soon to downtown Columbia, MD

Development proposed for Columbia Lakefront advances the Downtown Plan

The second hearing on the Howard Hughes Corporation proposal for Phase 1 of development of the Lakefront Core Neighborhood, is before the Howard County Planning Board on Thursday March 15. Here’s a collection of images and diagrams that illustrate what Hughes is proposing, along with Columbia Association’s preliminary thinking about how the existing Lakefront Plaza might be enhanced. And an analysis of what the development could mean for Columbia.

The Vision for Lakefront Core

As stated in the Downtown-wide Design Guidelines, the vision for the Lakefront Core Neighborhood is to bring community life and activity back to the water’s edge. Lakefront Core should be a lively, walkable neighborhood connected and oriented to Lake Kittamaqundi. New development should be designed to incorporate outdoor corridors to enhance visibility and access to existing amenity spaces.

The Lakefront Core should be revitalized with new development that may include cultural, retail, restaurant, office, residential, and hospitality uses. The Lakefront Core and the surrounding Lakefront Neighborhood are envisioned to be the potential location for new signature building(s), in addition to the existing former Rouse Company Headquarters’ signature building.

Continue reading Development proposed for Columbia Lakefront advances the Downtown Plan

This blogger has esophageal cancer

An update on my current condition at end of this post (October 13, 2018)

This blog must go on hiatus for a time. This blogger has esophageal cancer. I am scheduled for surgery January 31 and anticipate a 3 month or so recovery.

I’ve thought of myself as a reasonably healthy guy, supported with regular doctor visits. And I’ve popped Tums for nearly 30 years. This is me in front of the Tums Building, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1991. 

Who knew that antacids, constantly promoted by Big Pharma, could be masking important symptoms my body was trying to message. Or that cigarettes and alcohol in my younger years had created a rich breeding ground for esophageal cancer.

Sh*t happens. And I’ve usually learned a lot in the process. Seems the cancer was caught very early. I feel that I am in good hands with the surgical team at University of Maryland Medical Center. And I’m looking forward to a resurrection in the Springtime. In the meantime, here’s a science lesson to help prevent the next guy from getting esophageal cancer.

The esophagus

The digestive system breaks down food for the body to use. The esophagus is part of this system. It is a tube-shaped organ, almost 10 inches long, that moves solids and liquids from your throat to your stomach. It is located toward the back of your chest just in front of your spine.

The wall of the esophagus has four main layers.

Continue reading This blogger has esophageal cancer