Month: July 2007

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

Design Mastermind

When Amelia Carkuff first moved back to Memphis in 1998, she wanted to work downtown. But her client base was initially out east, so instead, she would stroll the bluffs to take the city’s pulse.

“I used to walk downtown on Sundays and knew every available building,” says the 38-year-old owner of Carkuff Interior Design. “We’d import our coffee from the Starbucks at McLean and Union, because there was no place to get coffee downtown back then.”

Today, coffee shops abound, thanks to the robust condominium market that’s breathed new life into downtown. And Carkuff has been riding the wave of Memphis’ condo boom. If you’ve visited the models at the Goodwyn Building, Art House at Riverside Drive and West Georgia Street, or One Beale (at the building that once housed Joe’s Crab Shack), then you’ve seen some of Carkuff’s work. The spaces she designs are sleek, modern, and eye-catching. But the part of her job the public sees is often the culmination of a year-and-a-half’s worth of work. As an interior designer, Carkuff’s duties go far beyond selecting colors and buying furniture. She works closely with architects and developers to give shape to the entire design process.

“If I’m lucky, I get in before the [artist] renderings get done,” Carkuff says. “There’s nothing better than when the developer pulls a team together. At some point, we all have input on a job. If I’m fortunate, we’re all hired early and collectively reinforce each other’s decisions.”

Those decisions define the look of the building, the floor plans of the units, and the niche and price point the developer aims to fill. Carkuff’s expertise is understanding how to spend the least to get the most when completing an interior. She determines all indoor finishes — from the kitchen cabinets, lighting fixtures, and flooring to appliances, wall colors, even bathroom sinks and faucets.

“I know what the market is asking for,” she notes. “I understand the relationship between price per square foot and the level of finish in a building.” It’s that kind of knowledge that sets her apart from the pack, says longtime architect and consultant Tony Bologna.

“Amy doesn’t just deal with interiors,” says Bologna, who has partnered with Carkuff on a number of projects. “She sees the big picture, what we’re trying to accomplish and how we need to get there. She also understands space and unit plans and how people will live in them. I think some do it better than others, but Amy does it better than most.”

Carkuff enjoys the construction process and understanding what makes a building tick. She says she gained invaluable experience early in her career when, after graduating from Mississippi State University with a dual major in interior design and marketing, she moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and worked as a designer in the hospitality industry. Two hotel projects — the Old Citadel (Embassy Suites Historic District) and Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina — exposed her to the range of issues that arise whether completing a restoration or building from the ground up. That knowledge has served her well, particularly as Memphis developers have rethought old buildings.

Bologna cites the Glenmary at Evergreen as a good example of Carkuff’s ability to be a team player and see past what exists to the possibility of what could be. The lobby of the former apartment high-rise was dreary, says Bologna. “It was set in the 1970s and had [a box of] mailboxes right in the middle of the room. We had to bring the building up-to-date while working with the existing volume and space.”

The lobby’s transformation into a trendy, urban living room is enhanced with enlarged black-and-white photographs of Hollywood stars by local fashion photographer Jack Robinson. The finished look, with its smoky blue/gray palette and stylish furnishings, conveys a hip, contemporary feel.

Greg Akers

Amelia Carkuff-designed sales models at One Beale

When designing the sales office at One Beale, Carkuff sat down with developers and sales staff to discuss the ambience they wanted the room to project. “We knew we couldn’t show a unit,” says Carkuff, “but through the sales center, we wanted to cue into some of the amenities of the hotel and spa.” (In addition to being a condominium development, One Beale will house a Hyatt Regency hotel and Hyatt Pure spa.)

“We thought the way to approach buyers was to have a personal, handsome, understated space, like a fine, upscale jewelry store where you’re treated in a personal way,” says Terry Saunders, principal broker with Martin Group Realty.

Dominated by 9-foot windows and sweeping views of the Mississippi River, the space Carkuff created is elegant yet inviting (think North Beach Miami). Colors for the sofas and throws are derived from the surrounding landscape: cream, aquamarine, and teal with huge potted palms to balance the room and add interesting texture. “It’s classically modern without being too overstated for the space,” notes Karen Carlisle, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for One Beale developer Carlisle Corp.

Always in search of new ways to use materials, Carkuff routinely pages through ELLE Decor, Dwell, and Metropolis magazines for inspiration. Each issue is then catalogued for reference on future projects. She also keeps abreast of the best products through research. She recently completed a cost and quality analysis on high-end kitchen appliances by makers like Sub-Zero, Wolf, General Electric, and Viking. In addition to reading Consumer Reports, she spoke with distributors, sales reps, and installers to learn which line had the fewest problems. (She reports GE’s Monogram line came out on top.)

In her spare time, Carkuff plans to put some of her creativity to work on her own building. She bought a 16,000-square-foot warehouse on Virginia Street — a location she laughingly refers to as “the other side of the tracks” — where she resides and has an office. But she has big plans to create a few apartment units. “On every project, there are some wacky things you suggest that if they could only see inside your head, they would do it.” This time, she’ll make the call. ■

Categories
News

Memphis Postcards From the Past

Want to see full-color images of the old Claridge Hotel or the original version of Baptist Hospital or the Elks’ Club, or all sorts of other long-gone Memphis landmarks? Sure you do.

Now there’s a website that has archived full-color postcards of buildings, bridges, monuments, and other places in every county in Tennessee. It’s called Penny Postcards from Tennesee, because the old cards originally cost just one penny to mail.

Lots of things have changed since then, including postage charges and the fact that there used to be a “cotton arch” down on Second Street. Who knew?

For some interesting glimpses of the past, go the Penny Postcard website.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Ladies’ Choice

CREDIT: Franz Phluegel | dreamstime.com

Men have long tried to figure out what women want. Now, it’s the city of Memphis that should be asking that age-old question. Within the next three years, women will comprise a majority of

the workforce. Currently, 58 percent of all college enrollees are female; by 2013, that figure will be at 60 percent.

And, according to Brad Segal, president of Denver’s Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), if Memphis wants a strong downtown in the new global economy, it better start flirting with — and courting — young women.

“There is a growing importance of well-educated young women,” he told attendees of the Center City Commission’s (CCC) annual luncheon last week.

I can’t say I was unhappy to hear that. I am a little concerned about where all the men are going to be, but if the future is in the hands of women, I can’t complain.

As the keynote speaker of the luncheon, Segal talked about global trends and their implications for downtown Memphis. Though originally developed for downtown Denver’s 20-year plan, Segal’s worldwide analysis has also been used in Seattle and Dallas.

“We were the economists on the [Denver] project. Usually economists look at past building activity and extrapolate out,” he said. “We realized that wasn’t going to work.”

Recognizing how much of Denver’s future was out of the city’s control, PUMA looked at global trends in demographics, lifestyles, and competition to see how those changes could or would affect life downtown.

What they came up with could be described as “think globally, act locally.”

“We were working under the idea that the city controls its destiny,” Segal said. “It doesn’t. It’s part of the global economy.”

For instance, it doesn’t take a magic eight ball to see that China and India are having a huge impact on the world’s economy. In 2005, China consumed 26 percent of all the steel produced worldwide and 47 percent of the concrete.

As these countries continue to grow in population and wealth, they’re going to consume more resources. Which makes those resources more expensive in the United States.

“Our building costs are going to go up. World consumption patters are going to change,” Segal said.

While that may be unfortunate for new suburbs or communities that don’t have a variety of existing structures, downtowns generally have buildings that can be renovated and re-used.

“Adaptive re-use will become more attractive as less resources are available,” Segal said. “I’m not talking just about historic buildings but those built in the ’70s and ’80s.”

Segal identified several things downtown Memphis should do to be successful in the global economy: prepare for more international tourism with more easy-to-understand signage, do more small-business development, and focus on sustainability.

“One of Memphis’ big issues is transit,” Segal said after the luncheon. “It’s a disadvantage to the city.”

Many American cities have found they simply cannot keep up with road congestion through new construction. By the time a new six-lane highway is finished, an eight-lane highway is needed.

“Additional road capacity doesn’t do anything to stem congestion,” Segal said. “It simply invites more cars on the highway.”

Memphians might argue that they don’t spend that much time in traffic — certainly not in comparison to cities such as Atlanta or Dallas — but they do spend an average of 33 hours a year on the highway.

As we export the American automobile lifestyle, other countries will demand more gasoline. As gas prices rise — or the supply becomes scarce — Memphians will look for other strategies for getting to work, whether it’s living closer, carpooling, or taking public transportation.

“This is where Memphis really hurts,” Segal said. “Transit needs to remain competitive.”

But in a nod to Richard Florida’s work on the “creative class,” Segal said Memphis’ other issue is attracting and retaining younger workers, especially women.

Memphis currently loses more 24- to 35-year-olds each year than it gains. Segal suggested Memphis needs to be more welcoming to a younger, more multicultural crowd. Once it has lured those people here, it needs to keep that talent pool as they age by providing more amenities for families (active park space, another downtown school, etc.).

“The notion of really trying to get young leadership in all types of positions, that would be a real opportunity for this city. You need to embrace new leadership,” Segal said.

As if to illustrate the point, the CCC gave out five awards after Segal’s remarks. One was a lifetime achievement award to Rendezvous founder Charlie Vergos (and accepted by his son, former city councilman John Vergos). Other honorees were Orpheum CEO Pat Halloran, Morgan Keegan partner John Stokes, Streets Ministries, and the city’s fire services department, led by Richard Arwood.

I’m sure all the honorees deserved their awards — especially those who founded popular barbecue restaurants — but watching five middle-aged, white men accept awards didn’t say “young” or “multicultural.”

Well, just wait until women are in charge. Ladies, after you.

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

In Focus

Q: What do people who live in high-rise
condos, townhouses, urban bungalows,
suburban homes, zero-lot-line neighborhoods or on 10-acre farms all have in common?

A: The guy next door.

No matter where you hang your hat, you’ve got to contend with neighbors, especially if you own your living space. Ownership means membership — in your community, in your neighborhood, on your street, in your building, or on your floor — and membership means responsibility: responsibility to hold the line on your neighborhood’s curb appeal and responsibility to make nicey-nice with the folks who live nearby. What that level of responsibility entails depends on you, but a lot of it depends on your neighbors.

How involved you are will go a long way in defining your standing in the neighborhood. Here’s a primer on one of the vital aspects of the exciting world of being alive: neighbors. (And let me take this moment to say how much I like my own neighbors — especially the ones who might be reading this — and to say I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have them in my life.)

The Arms Race

This option is only for those born to neighbor and who long to win at the endeavor. When Jimmy down the street gets the latest self-propelled lawnmower, you get a riding mower. When Pam brings fried chicken to the street potluck, you bring pheasant.

PRO: No one will ever badmouth the appearance of your property. CONS: It’s hard to make friends, and, with escalation, there’ll undoubtedly be some casualties along the way.

The Importance of Being Earnest

No other single factor is as necessary in keeping your neighbors happy as giving the appearance that you care — that you care about your yard and exterior spaces and improvements inside and that you’re invested in the upkeep of your place. And, just as importantly, that you care what your neighbors think. Of course, it helps if you really do care. But it’s not enough alone. You’ve got to wave your flag and remind everybody, lest they forget, that you’re just as committed as they.

PROS: Keeps everybody on an even keel, and it’s easier to get to actually know people rather than just the value of their belongings. CON: You’re following the crowd rather than leading the charge.

Safety in Numbers

Short of equaling your neighbors’ zeal, you must at least not be the weakest link in your neighborhood. Treat it as a law of the jungle: You don’t have to be the fastest gazelle; you just can’t be the slowest. It’s action with due diligence rather than with all diligence. It’s procrastinating bringing your trashcan in but not being the last yahoo on the street with it still on the curb.

PRO: Frees you up for couch time in front of the tube or goofing off online. CON: It hits you in the bottom line: your own property value.

Your guiding principle in dealing with neighbors should be the Golden Rule: Do unto others’ property values and opinions as you would have them do unto yours. Ask yourself, What Would My Neighbor Do — WWMND? Take a long view at being neighborly, doing what’s going to serve you best and make you happiest over the course of a 15-year or 30-year mortgage. And if you ever live near me, remember: I love homemade ice cream and am not above being bribed. ■

greg@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Keeping Busy

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

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It is surely obvious by now that 9th District congressman Steve Cohen is going to be a frequent flyer on YouTube and the network and cable broadcasts and, for that matter, will be grounded in print via choice quotations in major newspapers and magazines.

All that is assured by the longtime state senator’s stage presence, his concern for timely issues, and his way with words, which caused The Tennessee Journal recently to lament the absence of “the wittiest” member of the state legislature.

Add to that an apparent instinct for finding his mark among Washington, D.C.’s power players and on the crowded beltway media stage and what can only be described as an innate anti-bashfulness, and you begin to see why Cohen is rapidly putting in the shade the admittedly impressive benchmarks for celebrity established by his predecessor, former Representative Harold Ford Jr.

Faced with a certain challenge in 2008 from at least one opponent, corporate attorney Nikki Tinker, his 2006 runner-up, Cohen is also making a serious effort to touch all the bases important to his constituency. Make that “constituencies.” The congressman’s appearance at a press conference in front of the federal building on Friday highlighted several major issues — each relating to a different component of the base that he hopes will reelect him next year.

The stated purpose of the press conference was to announce a just-enacted congressional increase in the minimum wage.

Three increases over a two-year period, beginning this week, will raise the minimum wage from the current $5.15 to $7.25, affecting 115,000 Tennesseans directly and 350,000 altogether. African Americans, as Cohen did not fail to note, will be major beneficiaries.

As Dorothy Crook of AFSCME, standing alongside Cohen, pointed out in words the candidate for reelection had to be pleased by, “In Nashville, you worked hard for it, and I knew you would work hard for it in Washington.”

Cohen also took the opportunity at his press conference to mention the role played by himself and his Nashville Democratic counterpart, Jim Cooper, in securing $125 million in new funding for historically black colleges. What that meant for Memphis’ financially beleaguered LeMoyne-Owen College, Cohen said, was no less than $500,000.

More? Asked about an issue of key importance to his white liberal supporters, Cohen owned up to being one of 70 House members who wrote a “line-in-the-sand” letter to George Bush declaring that they “will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of all our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.”

And at least two other recent Cohen efforts were responsible for some still discernible quantum waves. This past week, he joined with Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of a House Transportation subcommittee overseeing FEMA, in a widely noted letter blasting the agency for wasting $67 million worth of ice that was meant for Katrina rescue but never got used.

There was also Cohen’s recent highly public break with other Democrats and with his normal labor allies in opposing passage of a House bill that contained a collective-bargaining provision disliked by FedEx founder Fred Smith but openly coveted by rival UPS and the Teamsters union.

Even potential adversaries might have to concede the diligence of these efforts and their diversity, reminiscent of his often surprising range in the state Senate, where he mixed gun-carry bills and liberalized drink measures in with the standard bread-and-butter positions expected of any card-carrying liberal Democrat.

Opponents may say that the congressman’s motives on the legislative and constituent fronts are largely, if not completely, political. Maybe so, maybe no; in any case, one hears that politicians customarily do just that: practice politics. Indeed, they presumably are elected to do that. And the last several days have contained several practical demonstrations that Steve Cohen, no mere talking head he, knows a thing or two about how to do it.

For an expanded version of this column in “Political Beat,” go here.

Categories
News

John Ford’s Sentencing Date Rescheduled

Former state senator John Ford’s sentencing date has been reset for August 27th, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Ford, who was convicted of bribery earlier this year, had been scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st. He was one of the premier defendants in the Tennessee Waltz political corruption investigation.

Ford has a status conference scheduled for August 3rd in Nashville in a separate federal case involving his consulting fees from Tenn-Care providers. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.

In an interesting twist in the Nashville case, Edward Yarbrough has been nominated to become the new assistant United States Attorney for Middle Tennessee. Yarbrough represented Ford in his senate ethics hearing, meaning he would likely recuse himself from any dealings with Ford’s criminal case. Yarbrough would replace Craig Morford, who has been promoted to a job with the U.S. Attorney General in Washington.

Categories
News

“Blue Dog” Exhibit Comes to the Dixon

He graced the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog and was a fund-raising symbol for the post-Katrina New Orleans saints.

Now, Blue Dog is coming to Memphis.

From July 29 to October 14, the Dixon Gallery will exhibit “Blue Dog: The Art of George Rodrigue.”

The Dixon’s website states that Rodrigue’s internationally-recognized Blue Dog “came unexpectedly from an illustration he did for the folk tale of loup-garous, the Cajun werewolf.” When the artist created Blue Dog, he modeled it after his own recently deceased dog, Tiffany.

The exhibition will span Rodrigue’s 40-year career and will include many never-before-seen works.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Chumney Re-Examined

CREDIT: jb


BY
JACKSON BAKER |
JULY 25, 2007

Some time back my esteemed colleague John Branston was
taken to task in our home-page “Buzz” space (in a “bob,” as we call these online
items internally) for an error of reportage – some mistaken fact the nature of
which I’ve forgotten. But the scolding was so intense that I was compelled to
ask him if he knew who wrote it. “I did,” he replied, an answer that
commanded my immediate admiration.

Indeed, the decision by Branston – usually so scrupulously
reliable a chronicler – to own up so vigorously and candidly to a misstatement, unprompted,
was unquestionably the right way to go, and I am hereby following suit – even
before the general public gets to see the boo-boo in question.

In this week’s Flyer cover story on the Memphis
mayor’s race, “Four More Years?”, a single sentence went awry, and I realized it
after the article and the paper had (as we old-line journalists say) gone to
bed. Happily if belatedly, some little scanning system inside my memory went off as I was
driving from Cordova to Midtown Tuesday night to meet friends for dinner and a
movie.

Here’s the line, a propos city council member Carol
Chumney’s now famous refusal, some months back, to join with several of her
colleagues in a formal resolution requesting the resignation of MLGW president
Joseph Lee, then still serving. After noting that a previous resolution by
Chumney asking Mayor Willie Herenton to accept an already proffered resignation
had failed for lack of a second, the sentence I wrote said: “By contrast, a
subsequent resolution by councilman Jack Sammons asking Lee to resign was
approved without incident, Chumney declining to vote for it….”

It wasn’t approved, of course, and much of the fuss that resulted
from Chumney’s position had to do with the fact that her abstention from that
vote caused its failure. That was the fact, as was adequately and widely
reported at the time, not least by our own Mary Cashiola. Not only did I know
that, I had often mentioned the fact in discussions with other people about
Lee’s predicament, Chumney’s chances in the mayor’s race, and a few overlapping
subjects.

It is bad enough to misreport something. It is worse when
that something is ingrained in your own memory, as basic a part of your mental
inventory as the names of your own children. Stuff happens, as our current
president has reminded us, and who knows why this particular stuff does? A kink
in a synapse somewhere, and, in the idiom of another American president, there
you go again.

A correct sentence would have read something like this: “A
subsequent resolution by councilman Jack Sammons asking Lee to resign encountered racial-bloc voting and failed of
approval by a single vote – Chumney’s.”

The online account of the full article, when it appears
this week, will be corrected. And, for that matter, I’m going to avail myself of
the opportunity of this correction-and-amplification to expand on my previous
analysis here and now.

Because not only did my true memory spontaneously free
itself and float to the surface during that ride to Midtown Tuesday evening, it
was probably assisted in doing so by news that had broken after I had finished
the article.

I had just seen a report on Fox 13 News about a fresh poll
taken by my friend Berje Yacoubian showing Chumney to be leading a second-place
Herenton and a third-place Herman Morris. For this week’s Flyer article,
I had done a brief recap of our own article back in March breaking the news of a Chumney
lead in early private polls and of a follow-up survey last week in The
Commercial Appeal showing her to be tied with Mayor Herenton when the list
of candidates excluded the name of Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton, then still a
potential entry.

Assuming the accuracy of Berje’s new sampling – which
reflected the absence of Wharton as a factor – I was forced to re-evaluate my
own conclusions.

In common with several other observers – some of them well
acquainted with political realities indeed and one or two of them, in fact,
quite close to Chumney – I had supposed her level of grass-roots support to have
either held steady or even to have retracted a bit in the wake of the aforesaid
council vote concerning Joseph Lee, along with other impacting events, and I had
wondered out loud if candidate Morris didn’t stand a better chance than she did
of becoming the default anti-Herenton candidate.

That may or may not be the case, but the Yacoubian poll
results suggest either that Chumney had rebounded more than I and others had
thought – or that no rebounding was necessary, as no dip in her acceptability
had occurred.

And if that latter fact is correct, then the very fact of
councilwoman Chumney’s go-it-alone stubbornness, as demonstrated by the two
Joseph Lee votes, begins to seem less pointlessly stiff-necked and more, er…Churchillian?
Nah, let’s not go overboard (though the councilwoman’s admirers may do so, if
they choose): The word “steadfast” will serve.

In any case, cyberspace has become a hole in the cocoon in
which news has traditionally been packaged and transmitted, and I am grateful
for the opportunity supplied by that opening to provide this additional bit of
analysis along with a necessary correction. As for the rest of this week’s
Flyer article? Go read it. I stand behind it.

And, between now and next week’s issue, anything new I find
out will be reported right here. Online. That’s how we can do it these days. And
that’s how we do it.

Categories
News

Vote Now for the Best Of Memphis!

It’s that time of year again, time to cast your ballot for the one and only Best of Memphis contest. You can get a ballot in this week’s Flyer, or you can vote online by clicking the Best Of Memphis icon on our website.

Or you can just click THIS and go right to the ballot.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Prince Mongo is a No Go for Mayor

Sorry, all you Prince Mongo (nee Robert Hodges) fans, your guy is out of the race for Memphis mayor.

The man who claims to be a 333-year-old-alien from the planet Zambodia has been booted off the mayoral ballot, along with City Council candidate Jesse Neely and City Court Clerk candidate Jeff Shields, thanks to unpaid fines to the state.

They really shouldn’t be surprised, though. It’s not like you can succeed in politics in this town if you break the law … oh, never mind.

Since that’s really all there is to say about this topic, how about you read Mongo’s Wikipedia entry. Man, he does the city proud!