Author: kmarieclark

Marriott Monday

This upcoming Saturday represents the finish line for four of my goals this year. The Morgantown Marriott hotel will be issued, I ran the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon, I completed my first semester of graduate studies at FSU, and on the 16th I will take (and pass?!) the LEED Green Associate exam. Then, summer begins. I plan to have no plans (ha ha) but focus on living healthy and speaking more Italian.

The Marriott hotel project began last summer and in February I wrote for our company newsletter about the process:

A brand new five-story hotel is planned to rise across the street from the Morgantown Black Bears baseball stadium in Granville, WV. This Courtyard by Marriott has been a collaboration of a full design-build team. Along with the owners, West Place, LLC and general contractor, Waller Corporation, Mills Group is leading the effort.

The site is unique –at the far end of University Town Centre Drive, and it is positioned above the river with a view toward WVU’s iconic Coliseum. A new interchange from Interstate 79 will lead visitors directly to this location in the near future.

Planning began the summer of 2014. Mills Group was integral in the site positioning and assisted the owners in their future visions for the adjacent sites nearby. The Marriott will be perched at the top of a hill, the eastern side of the site, paralleling the Monongahela River located 360 feet below.

This Courtyard by Marriott will offer many amenities to guests. The building has an indoor pool, a generous public space including a bar, a bistro, a business center, and a theater to lounge comfortably. The guestroom configuration favors a two queen bed mix providing families who will enjoy local baseball the best opportunity to be together while they stay. This hotel will be themed with local interests and incorporate baseball, WVU accessories and images throughout the Interior space. A new interior scheme rolled-out in January and this Morgantown Marriott will be one of the first hotels to offer guests this new vision of the Marriott brand. The distinctive location will offer private outdoor spaces for the guests as an invitation to participate in the fine weather and view. This will be enjoyed beside a fire-pit fire crackling in the background.

In December the Mills Group team took a trip to Marriott headquarters located in DC to meet with our Marriott design representatives. The trip provided hands-on observation of the materials, methods and quality the brand expected of our future hotel.

We celebrated the official ground-breaking just before the January snows. Waller Corporation’s team continues to move toward an early spring 2016 opening date. Mills Group is currently refining all of the details that need to be fastened together when the project links structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, site, prefab bathroom pods, fire protection, landscape architecture and more into one Revit model. Construction documents are to be completed in May and construction administration will last through this year. Stay tuned for progress as the building comes out of the ground and begins to play a role in the hilltop scene of University Town Centre Drive.

Rendering study by a past Mills Group employee, Jared.

Key Project Consultants:

MEP & Structural – Allegheny Design

Site/Civil – Cheat Road Engineering

Bathroom Pods – Oldcastle Modular

Tags Morgantown Marriott

Food & Exercise

A weekend’s events ~ Pittsburgh Marathon

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date May 8, 2015
No Comments on A weekend’s events ~ Pittsburgh Marathon

Welcome to Pittsburgh’s Marathon weekend. Through the Fort Pitt tunnel, the cityscape is seen through one of the iconic yellow truss bridges.

The expo was held at the Lawrence Convention Center in downtown where racers could pick up their bib numbers, new shoes, temporary tattoos and more. We met up with Jamie Summerlin, the man behind the first Morgantown Marathon, happening this September 20th!

We took pictures of the city before heading over to Osteria 2350 for an early dinner. At Osteria our group met up with fellow 7 @ 7ers, a group of mainly women who have been running at least 7 miles every weekend day for the last 7 years. There are more than seven of us now and we let boys join in occasionally!

Muffin, in the foreground, has been preparing for her first marathon, so the group got together and made her a book of inspiration! In the background 17-times-a-marathoner-Sue and 5-time-marathoner-Cath are obviously enjoying themselves.

Early the next morning the 5-guy relay team prepares for what will be a 3:09 marathon. It’s 5am and we wake up before dark to do push ups on built-in bookshelves. It’s the life of crazy runners.

I ran a 2:02 half-marathon and enjoyed every mile in the strip, through the North Shore, down Carson Street, over the West End bridge, and then the Birmingham bridge which led to an elevated view of the city before running back into downtown to complete the race. The pack of runners never really thinned out. I was however, able to find my cheering parents along Carson Street.

Clara Santucci, a girl who I can watch running often around Morgantown, won the woman’s marathon! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a nice feature on her here.

Our large group enjoyed dinner across the river from the finish line at Station Square sharing stories about the unseasonably warm weather, the funny signs, the spectators and the bands. Our seasoned marathoner friend ran a 4:18, and the girls running behind her came in about an hour later. I ran alone but finished within minutes between two of the 7 @ 7ers. I couldn’t catch a new friend who ran the half in the 1 hour 40 minute range but the fastest of the girls almost caught him. She ran the 1/2 marathon with a 7:30 minute mile pace! Cheers to all of the finishers!

This weekend promises a run with a finish at Morgantown’s Farmer’s Market. Welcome summer.

Tags Pittsburgh Marathon

Uncategorized

West Virginia in Bloom

-Morgantown, that is.

Enjoy the spring turning to summer. This week is to be nice and warm.

Travel

In Giulianova Italy ~ Day 1

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 29, 2015
No Comments on In Giulianova Italy ~ Day 1

The bus took us from Roma, east and into the mountains. We slid into the low-lying hills as they backed up into the Apennines –the spine of the mountain coursing down the center of Italy. Gran Sasso loomed highest of all. Black granite and snow-capped peaks. The sky darkening. We started to see the signs for Giulianova –our destination on the beach. We drove through a crane-ridden city, Acquila which needed rebuilt after a seisma, an earthquake. There were poppy fields through Abruzzo, arms of grey green olive trees grasping, closed fists, open fists to the sky. Our bus drove through Mosciano, a dusty road right before the train stop in Giulianova. I could imagine my grandfather taking this trek, stepping out into the city from here with my great Uncle Tom forty years earlier. Lucky for them, they knew where they were going.

A view of the ancient city above sea-side Giulianova. Also the view I enjoyed from within the Adriatic Sea.

Tags Finding Family in Italy

Travel

To Giulianova, Italia

We were leaving Rome. We walked to the Termini and took a subway to Tibertina. We’re loaded down with bags and as the train pulls up we realize it’s packed. So we push into different carriages and my backpack gets stuck in the closing doors. Needless to say my Dad was still behind me, and the train left him there in hopes that we’d be able to get back together when we were to get off. Thankfully he is on the next one and from this station we need to figure out the bus schedule.

Up on a piazza, below a raised road and over another is a building adjacent to a large lot. The busses. We buy tickets for Giulianova, grab a bite and are in a coffee shop confused as to where the bus will show up not a minute too soon for the sea. It feels like we’ve got it. It feels like we are one place in a million and this bus will take us to where our family is from.

Tags Finding Italian Family

Travel

Tours by Night – Rome

A lot of people were out enjoying this large piazza -Piazza Navona. The marble sculpted fountains were so idealistically Italy. Our task was to ‘find the Steelers Bar.’ I figured we’d just walk the perimeter looking for La Botticella but it wasn’t that easy. My brother and Phil took off in different directions, and my parents began walking the perimeter which left me standing still to enjoy the view of the Fountain of Neptune.

Fountain photo by Dara McCarthy.

The place was busy. My brother found the bar one or two streets off of the piazza and I couldn’t keep up with Mom or Dad as they drove right through the tables out front and into the place. Giovanni, the owner, came right up to my Mom and shook her hand as she walked in, considering she had changed into her Steelers jersey on our walk to the piazza. (They call Giovanni John here in the United States when he comes to Morgantown or Pittsburgh.)

He led us to Navonna Notte –a good pizza and calzone restaurant just around the corner for dinner. No one really cared how long you took to eat, so we enjoyed a nice two-hour dinner. We returned to the Steelers bar for an after dinner drink where we sat inside and ordered dark beers of Guinness while Mom and Dad looked around trying to recognize the different university flags. We told Giovanni we were headed to Giulianova the next day and he suggested renting a car, which we didn’t do. Our train travel throughout the trip would make everything so much more interesting and eventful. For the rest of the time in the pub we talked about Pittsburgh towns, even Waynesburg. American college students came in and we would have socialized longer had we not a curfew of the train schedule. We made the 11:30 deadline, barely. Leaving the Steelers Bar, we went by way of the Pantheon and Trevi fountain to the train station. Without realizing it we took Rick Steve’s recommended night-time route to see the monuments. All of a sudden we were in the piazza sharing a scene with the Pantheon.

The ancient nature of the Pantheon was more stunning this time than it had been the last time I’d seen it twelve years ago. We stood admiring it for some time before moving on to find the Trevi fountain. There were hundreds of people before this massive sculpture coming from the base of a building and a fountain of rock. Phil and I threw in small coins. Men with roses were abound. The evening colors of gold, shimmering the water with tints of blue were eerie -kind of like what you get below a yellow bulb of a parking lot light. But before the 1700’s sculptural scene, and the crowds enjoying themselves late in the night, we just went along with it. ~ When in Rome…

The next morning meant heading to the heart of our trip -Giulianova! People all around Rome were checking in to get ready for the weekend festivities. God was so central to their being –a part of everyday life, and so beautiful to be within.

Tags Rome Nights, Steelers Bar in Rome

Travel

The Ceiling of St. Peter’s Basilica

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 25, 2015
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Climbing the Dome

In the Vatican you can climb the dome of St. Peters. My grandparents had done this together forty years ago and we wanted to take the same picture as they had done that long ago. Electing to climb the first 300 steps let us skip a huge line. So we climbed and joined others at the roof below the dome where the elevator let off.

This area was directly behind the statues that guard St. Peter’s square. These pieces were twice the size of life. On the inside of the dome angel’s faces were 10’ tall and set in mosaics. In the Basilica earlier I hadn’t realized people we so far above us. The angel’s glances were startled, scared and we slipped in a thin door that led us upward on our continued journey. We walked in slated steps up the walls, hugging the interior dome as the hallway got skinnier. Finally it opens to the crowds of people vying for the same sight of Rome.

The dome was even more beautiful, holding watch after our exit. Outside of the church we walked slowly around the square, following the colonnade, watching the sun set. Phil filmed us. Andy bought a rosary and a prayer card for a co-worker and we walked back into Roma down the long perpendicular street. Festivities for the canonization were gearing up as three million Polish people alone were traveling to this holy Catholic center as we were making our exit.

Tags The Vatican

Travel

In and Above the Vatican

Out into the lovely courtyard carpeted with grass, tourists lunched, some tanning on benches to rest. Gifts of the different popes explained -the pineapple sculpture above lion-carved fountains was one pope’s gift to the Vatican –the fresh water of ancient aqueducts still quenching human thirst. Alcoves and archways, the pristine nature of it all was absorbed as Valeria described the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. For eleven years Michelangelo painted in this room. His first paintings, mind you, for he was a sculptor. Five years it took him to paint the ceiling. He painted angles, hid humor within the work that was sometimes too high for us to see to perceive. He painted God and Adam, judgments and rulers. In one place he painted himself -his signature for work, as artists in that day did not sign the canvas.

Tags In the Vatican

Travel

At the Vatican in Rome ~ April 2014

Post author By kmarieclark
Post date April 23, 2015
No Comments on At the Vatican in Rome ~ April 2014

People parked everywhere creating their own spaces for their small cars. We had a tour of the Vatican booked for 2:00 so we made our way via the subway toward that part of town.

We met Valeria who led us through the maze of getting our tickets, up and down long stairs, we ran past the view of an open green area where Pope John Paul II’s gift rested. A huge bronze sculpture rolled onto the lawn. Domes in the sky above like mountains watching over a city. We only caught glimpses as we followed mama, as she instructed to call her.

We went into open courtyards with marble statues, purple bathing tubs, as old coffins with side holes to let out the remains. The seven of us were attentive children as she explained the art, the artists who worked only for honor for the church, their timeless gifts still staring us in the face. These open-air museums were surrounded by portrait sculptures. Pea gravel centers made all of the tourists sounds militant. From here rooms and rooms of mazes and domes, one bronze sculpture that wasn’t melted during the war-time for casts still stood there.

Tags Roma Italia

Travel

The streets of Rome

My family of five walked the sunny streets, looked over the shaded outdoor cafes covered by large awnings, and descended down steps near the Vatican entry piazza to try and find a bite for lunch before our scheduled tour. All of the tables were covered in linens. Most servers wore a tie. Throughout our time in Italy it was difficult to understand how so many restaurants could stay in business. But then again, when most of the world wanted to come to your country for vacation it wasn’t hard to imagine.

We ate outside at Bar Canada, half at a high-top and half at a shaded lower table with a waiter speaking half Italian and half English to us.

Architectural details in the surrounding buildings were evident in so many ways. The time spent in thinking, crafting and making the balcony brackets, which were pillars formed into men’s torsos carrying the weight of the floor projecting above on their heads were one of the many wonders. Who could carve this work? All the marble scrolls are so delicate. Above most windows there were family crests on the lintels. If our generation now could focus so much as these craftsmen did, appreciate what is valued in the talent and ability at hand, what could we do?

Tags Rome Italy