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Volume 126 Issue 120
kansan.com
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
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Lawrence resident Georgia Bell sits in the living room of her home of nearly 70 years. Bell sold her longtime home to Here, LLC, a company that will develop a high-end apartment complex on the property.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
EMILY DONOVAN news@kansan.com
After nearly 70 years, Georgia Bell will leave her house at 1115 Indiana St.
Bell, 91, sold her property to add to the construction site for a five-story apartment complex developed by Here, LLC.
When asked if she would consider selling, she said, "Oh heck yes." Her one-bedroom house is surrounded by student apartments and Greek houses.
"I'm so sick of it," she said. "It's killing me."
When Bell moved in nearly 70 years ago, she felt low. The house is built into a hill and has no driveway or back entrance. Her only entrance is at the bottom of uneven and steep concrete steps with a metal handrail.
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Bell said it was obvious why she's stayed at 1115 Indiana St. for so long.
"I didn't have the money to buy another house," she said, "and I think that's about a good an answer as I could find."
Tired of her roof leaking, she stapled canvas over the ceiling in her front rooms and used to leave buckets to collect rainwater. Her mismatched front windows won't open.
She said there's so much to do trying to keep the house, she can never get it all done.
"That's why I'm running to get out of here," she said. "I just got to find a place to go."
She said she doesn't want to live in a retirement community because she wants to be on her own. Bell still drives. She doesn't want a cane, but she walks from thing to thing, sometimes leaning against chairs and tables as she walks through her house.
Bell is currently looking for
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Stairs lead down to Georgia Bell's house on Indiana St. in Lawrence. Bell, recently sold her house to a development company.
SEE HOUSE PAGE 2
CAMPUS
Mobile airstream home converted for student use
DALTON KINGERY news@kansan.com
On Thursday, May 15 at 3:30 p.m., a repurposed 1972 Airstream mobile home will be on display on the lawn between Lindley Hall and Marvin Hall. The renovation and repurposing of the Airstream into a mobile collaborative laboratory, or "MoCoLab," is the spring semester project of a Master's of Architecture design-build studio class. When completed this summer, the MoCoLab will belong to the University and be available for students, faculty and staff to use as a mobile multi-purpose space.
Work on the vehicle itself is nearly complete. The students in Associate Professor of Architecture Nils Gore's class gutted the insides of the Airstream, created a new interior and fabricated new parts for the Airstream from scratch.
This transformation from decayed mobile home to the long-awaited MoCoLab has given the students involved a learning experience unlike any other.
"Every day you come in
and it's something different. It's like a job. I come in the morning and leave at dinner," said Jessica Luber, a senior from Kansas City, Kan. "It's a lot more hands on, and we're learning so much more than in any class."
"Trying to figure out where we all fall, who is supposed to be doing what every day can be challenging," said Elisa Mariah Rombold, a junior from Junction City. "I came in with very little knowledge of how to actually build things, but know I know how to do everything from grinding to how to use power tools."
Sorensen attests that ridding the Airstream of dead rodents wasn't the biggest challenge of the semester.
"There were rats," said Brianna Sorensen, a senior from Rochester, Minnesota. "It was nasty, gross, dirty."
When the class got its first look at the Airstream in a dusty warehouse on the outskirts of Lawrence, it was clear the mobile home was a long way from being the sleek multipurpose vehicle it would someday become.
"I think just working as a
team has been hard for us," said Sorensen. "It's been the first time really that we haven't had an alone project; in architecture you're very on the computer, working by yourself. To figure out where you're needed, and working as a group has been the biggest obstacle."
"You've got to get 19 people to agree on something—it takes time," said Gore. "You have to talk things through, and be patient, be willing to back up and change decisions. Part of the design process is being deliberate and careful enough about it that you're not making a disastrous decision that's going to haunt you forever."
Gore echoed this, saying that the collaborative decision-making has been a challenge for the class.
Now that work on the project is drawing to a close, some of the students involved chuckle at the long hours spent working feverishly on seemingly insignificant tasks.
"Removing all of the window stripping was horri-
SEE MOCO PAGE 2
TOM DEHART/KANSAN
Lawrence police and firefighters respond to a car crash that impaled a stair rail behind Joseph R. Pearson Hall on Monday. The suspect has been identified as Donald Rodney Rayton, Jr. and charged with several crimes.
Suspect in JRP crash identfied, charged
CRIME
TOM DEHART news@kansan.com
The suspect in the crash that took place behind Joseph R. Pearson Hall (JRP) on Monday has been identified as Donald Rodney Rayton, Jr.
The vehicle that crashed behind JRP was not the first vehicle Rayton stole yesterday. Rayton had also stolen another car on Monday morning near the intersection of Inverness
According to the Douglas County District Attorney's office, Rayton has been charged with theft, eluding the police, damage to property and driving on a suspended license.
Index CLASSIFIEDS 7 CRYPTOQUIPS 5 SPORTS 8 CROSSWORD 5 OPINION 4 SUDOKU 5
Drive and Clinton Parkway, which he later crashed near the Legends Place Apartments on 24th Street.
Rayton is not affiliated with
RAYTON JR.
SEE WRECK PAGE 2
Don't Forget
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Today's Weather
Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Near record high temperatures.
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