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Velodrome Coffee
Far from the Madding Crowd: Founded in 2017 by Joshua and Angela Smith has since become Northern Michigan's homegrown college town coffee destination; recently setting up shop in the Van Pelt-Opie Library
Fine Arts 300
"What art is, in reality, is this missing link, not the links which exist. It's not what you see that is art; art is the gap" -- Marcel Duchamp
Museum Lighting 101
This talk was provided for a class of Penn State Lighting Students and traces the history of lighting by telling the story how the Old Patent Office transitioned from day-lit 19th Century landmark into a large museum with modern lighting systems.
Public Art Program
"I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees" -- G.K. Chesterton
Quadrivium: Autumn
Educational settlements are where people come to feel at home in beautiful surroundings. The catalog that informs the safety and sustainability of these "cities-within-cities" changes 100 to 1000 times per day. Titles are unstable, time-sensitive, copyright protected and land (sometimes invisibly) in public law. We explore the action continuously to formulate response to public consultations. Daily colloquia topics appear on our CALENDAR. Recommend refresh of this web page once or twice to see timeliest information.
Museum Collections Security
Several colleges and universities are the home of materials of historic national significance. Best practice guidelines for security and sustainability for these facilities equally apply to all education communities that are stewards of objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest. Link to recent coverage of robbery at the Louvre.
I-Code Group B Committee Action Hearings
Link to webcast of this week's Committee Action Hearings in Cleveland. Group B #2
Current Issues and Recent Research
We examine the proposals for the 2028 National Electrical Safety Code; including our own. The 2026 National Electrical Code which has recently been released for public use (public input on the 2029 revision will be received until April 9, 2026). We have one electrical proposal on the agenda of the International Code Council's Committee Action Hearings in Cleveland October 22-30. We begin coverage of satellite-based internet service to community colleges.
Cultural Resource Properties
Education communities are stewards of cultural assets that are, by definition, priceless; and whose safety features are cut from a "fabric" of about twenty best practice catalogs. Fire safety is a top-most risk to manage and one with heartbreaking results when it fails; as in Paris on April 15, 2019. The 2025 release of NFPA 909 is the current edition. Public input on the 2029 edition will be received until January 6, 2027.