The Charleston Area Alliance is hosting a luncheon for those interested in franchising opportunities from noon to 1 p.m. May 3.

Dunkin’ Donuts, one of the largest baked goods and coffee chains, is seeking to expand in the Charleston Metro Region as part of its steady growth strategy, which includes growing in existing markets and entering new cities across the country. It is working with the Charleston Area Alliance to expand its footprint and identify potential franchisees.

“We are looking for qualified candidates with foodservice, operations and real estate experience to join our team to help expand the brand’s footprint in Charleston,” said Shawn Caric, franchising manager for Dunkin’ Donuts. “We encourage interested parties to attend the May 3 luncheon to learn how to open a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant in their community.”

Dunkin’ Donuts offers franchisees flexible design concepts including free-standing stores, end caps, in-line sites, kiosks and gas stations, as well as other retail environments.

Matt Ballard, the Alliance’s president and CEO, said the luncheon will serve as an informational session.

“It’s for those who want to learn more about investing in and opening a restaurant under a popular and proven brand name. We’ll discuss products, processes and dollars and cents,” Ballard said. “As the Alliance helps create the region’s economic future, we are focusing on entrepreneurship opportunities and downtown development as part of our overall outlook. We feel this opportunity fits within that blueprint.”

Dunkin’ Donuts will provide food and beverages for the luncheon. It is free to attend. To RSVP, please contact Danny Forinash at DForinash@CharlestonAreaAlliance.org.

With summer around the corner, businesses throughout the region will soon be bringing on interns and new hires. How to successfully integrate new and potential employees into an organization and maximize investment in their training and development is the focus of the next “inclusion=innovation” educational  program.

“Right From the Start:  Effective Mentoring, Intern and Onboarding Programs,” will be presented noon-1:15 p.m., Wednesday, April 27, at the Charleston Area Alliance, 1116 Smith Street.

“Recruiting and developing new and potential team members is essential to increasing your company’s capacity for innovation and growth and diversifying its intellectual capital,” said Alliance President/CEO Matt Ballard.  “But it doesn’t just happen.  This program will showcase effective local programs that are helping businesses identify and train the next generation of leaders and managers.”

Speakers include:

•  John Gianola, Ernst & Young
• Jessica Wintz, Education Alliance
• Charles Woody, Spilman, Thomas & Battle
• University of Charleston School of Business representative TBA

“Right from the Start: Effective Mentoring, Intern and Onboarding Programs” is a program of “inclusion=innovation,” an initiative of Alliance and Title Sponsor Ernst & Young.  Studies show that diverse teams boost an organization’s innovation and earnings potential. 

“Inclusion=innovation” aims to help businesses and our region benefit from the contributions of all segments of the community.

Registration, which includes lunch, is $15 Alliance members/$25 future members. Register here.

Silling Associates has been honored with the Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture for the Haddad Riverfront Park and the Schoenbaum Stage project in downtown Charleston, along with the Merit Award for Achievement in Sustainable Architecture for a private residence located in Huntington.

Haddad Riverfront Park was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1993 as a 36,000-square-foot concrete amphitheater on the banks of the Kanawha River. It is a regional gathering place for people to celebrate holidays and city festivals, listen to music and enjoy watching the river traffic.

In 2008, the City of Charleston organized a committee to investigate ways of making the park more user friendly and visually appealing, connecting city to park and park to river.

With no shade, warm sunny days create an inhospitable environment on the concrete surface which radiates heat even during the evening hours.

With a Small Business Association grant of $2,400,000 and a private donation of $250,000, the design team was hired by the City of Charleston to address five separate projects: a shade structure (canopy) for the center section of seating, a permanent performance stage, a pavilion, streetscape and boat docks.

The primary design objectives of the canopy were to create a unique and iconic structure celebrating Charleston’s “front porch”, to provide shade for people and amphitheater surface keeping the concrete cool, and the canopy was required to allow unobstructed views of the sky for viewing fireworks during city festivals and holidays. A tensile fabric and steel structure was designed for its ability for long spans with a single large fabric panel to retract toward and away from the stage.

When retracted the mobile panel rests below a street side fabric panel structure. The 2,400-square-foot mobile panel is 80 feet wide and rides along two steel arches which span 90 feet from sidewalk level to the river level bulkhead. The fixed structure rises 50 feet above sidewalk level and is 90 feet wide. The fabric is PTFE, a Teflon-coated fiberglass material which is very durable and virtually self-cleaning.

The design objectives of the performance stage were to provide an intimate connection between audience and performers both on land and in the water, to honor the long history of this place as a river port going back to the mid-nineteenth century, to be easily maintained after occasional floods, and accommodate the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. The stage is constructed on a 1,200 square foot concrete base with a paddle-wheeled theme using the steel and tensile fabric structure materials used at the Canopy, for visual continuity, economy and easy maintenance.

A terrace will be the access point to the future dock system, which is expected to be constructed in the summer of 2011.

Situated on a 40-acre wooded site, the Merit-winning 6,000-square-foot house was designed and built as a “dream green home” for environmentally-conscious clients.

After hiking the property for four years, the clients and architect began planning the home using the best sustainable practices and technologies available with the goal of being completely off-the-grid within five years.

The house follows the natural topography of the sites’ north/south ridgeline and is nestled into the slope providing a low-profile, one-story east side for shady afternoons on the screen porch, while the west side is two-storied for tree-house views from the main interior space across the gulley. The interiors are animated with natural air and light encouraged by two light shafts on either end of the internal circulation for stack effect ventilation. The house is designed in a contemporary Arts and Crafts style reflecting the client’s appreciation for natural materials, handcrafted workmanship and simple, yet elegant, detailing.

Contact Terry Hill at (304) 344-8033 or t_hill@yeagerairport.com for more information.

Downtown ArtWalk continues its 2011 season Thursday.

More and more downtown businesses are joining the effort to revitalize and reawaken downtown. ArtWalk brings people downtown, and once they see what it has to offer, they keep coming back.

ArtWalk is the epitome of why more and more people are going downtown – to be part of a rich culture. Charleston offers food, ideas, expressions, shops and customs not found anywhere else, and we identify with the charm.

Visit www.CharlestonArtWalk.com for more information. ArtWalk runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

ArtWalk Locations

Art Emporium
Stray Dog Antiques
Gallery Eleven
Annex Gallery Taylor Books      
Good News Mountaineer Garage
Chet Lowther Studio
The Purple Moon
Modern by Design
Romano & Associates Law Gallery
Visions Day Spa
Studio 1031
White Oak Photography & 
    KD Lett Photographic Productions

 
Art Walk Highlights

Modern by Design

The Purple Moon’s Modern by Design at 200 Hale Street will host its Grand Opening during the April 21 ArtWalk.

The Purple Moon has long been one of ArtWalk’s most vibrant venues featuring art and vintage mid-century modern home furnishings and accessories. Modern by Design brings to Charleston the same modernist style as The Purple Moon with new issuance furniture and accessories (blended with some vintage) and will showcase works by local, regional and nationally-known artists. 

Specially brought in for the opening of Modern by Design are works by California artist Leo Possillico. A native of Long Island, New York, Leo, has been a successful, award-winning artist for more than 30 years. His work is known and praised nationally and internationally and is widely recognizable through his signature brush stroke characters.

Romano & Associates

The Romano & Associates gallery will feature works by Ellen Fure and Michael Anthony Smith.

Fure is a fourth-year student at Marshall University, pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture. Although her primary interest is in three dimensional art, she enjoys working in many different media. Ellen is inspired by everyday objects and customs that have become routine and second nature.

Smith does not focus on a single medium.  Instead, the unifying focus of his study is the concept of memory and childhood.  This investigation is easily interrupted because at the age of 12, Smith suffered a catastrophic brain injury from a baseball crushing his skull.  Smith’s work investigates the fluid, shifting recollections of his childhood memories by fabricating objects that jar the viewer by presenting recognizable forms in an altered scale, combination, material or setting.

Taylor Books

“Egg. Flower. Soup. a made up story” is an amalgamation of work from Amanda Jane Miller and Staci Marie Leech-Cornell.

Art Emporium

Art Emporium will feature Sherry Zachwieja Powell’s “My Lucid Dream: In Retrospect,” a mixed media works exhibit, now through May. An artist reception is scheduled during ArtWalk.

 The story below ran today on WCHS Radio.

Candidates running for at-large seats on Charleston City Council answered questions on the city’s user fee, road paving, storm water management and more during a forum hosted by Generation Charleston Tuesday.

Of the 11 candidates that will appear on the ballot, eight took part in the event.

T.J. Meadows with Generation Charleston moderated the meet and greet. He says it was an opportunity for residents to find out more about candidates.

“We wanted a chance to find out where they stand on the issues, and we couldn’t think of anything better than a forum where our members could actually put questions to the candidates,” Meadows said.

Municipal elections typically have a lower turnout than other elections.  Meadows says that’s a problem Generation Charleston wants to change.

“I think one of the most underplayed government roles is that of city council.  It’s hugely important,” Meadows said.  “It doesn’t get a lot of press.  People don’t get excited and run out to the polls.  Most of the issues that affect people are handled right here on the local level.”

Candidates discussed ways to encourage business development in the city, reduce violent crime and crub high gas prices.

Meadows says those topics are the kinds of things that people care about.  He says the only way to get things fixed is to get involved.

“We’re all around the water cooler all the time talking about how we don’t like this, or we don’t like that,” Meadows said.  “If you don’t show up to vote, you don’t have any means to complain.  People need to realize that the very thing they’re complaining about can be handled at the local level.”

The republican candidates in this year’s election are Chris Dodrill, L.G. Sturgill and Tom Lane.

Martha “Gale” Poore, Kasey Russell, Pat Brown, Jerry Ware, Andy Richardson and Mary Jean Davis are running as democrats.

Charles “Chuck Parks and Jason “Slim” Blackhurst are running as independents.

The six top vote-getters will make it onto council. The election is set for May 17.