SLH was happy to sponsor and participate in the SeHealth Foundation golf tournament on May 26th at Pinecrest Country Club in Lumberton.  The wind really blew making the course challenging, but the rain held off and everyone had a great time!

You can help the National Trust for Historic Preservation raise awareness for Historic Preservation HERE.  On a sadder note, The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava - Саборнa црквa Светог Саве in Manhattan burned down yesterday.  HERE  is a link to their website where you can see the terrible damage and donate to help them rebuild.  It was an amazing building filled with beautiful artwork and this devastating fire is a tremendous loss for those who love church architecture.

Here's some of the history of this wonderful Gothic revival building from the Cathedral of Saint Sava's website:

"The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, formerly known as Trinity Chapel, (Trinity church on Downtown, Wall Street) was purchased from the Episcopal Diocese in New York in 1943 and consecrated in 1944. Trinity Chapel, built to serve the “uptown” Episcopal community and designed in 1850 by celebrated architect Richard M. Upjohn in the Gothic Revival style, was consecrated by Trinity Church (Wall Street) in 1855.

Trinity Chapel was an active Episcopal Church community for a number of decades until 1915, when the area became commercial and parishioners began to relocate farther north. In 1942, the Trinity Corporation opted to sell Trinity Chapel, the Parish Hall, designed by J. Wrey Mould as Trinity Chapel School, and adjoining rectory.  It should be noted that an extraordinary event took place at Trinity Chapel in 1865, when for the very first time an Orthodox liturgy was held in an Episcopal church in America – an event the New York Times referred to as an “un-usual historic happening,” the “Inauguration of the Russian-Greek Church in America.” Celebrated American writer Edith Wharton (Jones) married socialite Edward Wharton in 1885 in Trinity Chapel; she was later to immortalize the church in her famous novel of Victorian New York, The Age of Innocence."

Here are some photos of Christ Church in Raleigh designed by Richard M. Upjohn's father Richard Upjohn. Brad Farlow was the architect for this renovation in 2001.

Yesterday's sessions at the North Carolina A4LE were very informative and interesting.  The keynote speaker, futurist, David Houle, was especially thought provoking.  You can see some of his predictions here: HERE  and you can read his thoughts on education HERE.

We also enjoyed the presentation by Ratio Architects with Sheri Green & Larry Sherrill from WCPSS about consensus building through interactive workshops.  They had some great ideas about how to get feedback from a diverse group of stakeholders in a short amount of time.

While the average cost for all schools in the US is $250 per square foot, costs in North Carolina remain lower at $188. In his State of the State presentation, Dr. Ken Phelps, PhD, Architect/School Planning expressed concern that more data may be needed to get a good picture of school costs in NC and urged school districts and architects to report accurate school costs to NCDPI.

The day ended with an exciting presentation called Educational Commissioning: Realizing Design Intent in Instructional Practice focused on a Sarasota Case Study of the complete transformation of the Middle School learning environment and pedagogy and the importance of one person in spearheading change.  In this case Dr. Page Dettman was instrumental in changing the focus for middle school education so that students are  engaged and energized in a way rarely seen in schools today. See HERE for the Sarasota Tech Active Classroom of tomorrow.