Holla!  It’s that time again… Connect Savannah’s Best of Savannah 2008 has just hit the streets (well, sorta…we’re a little late).  Here’s our very own TCCa take and comment on results:

CITY LIFE

Way to go Melaver, Inc.and Abercorn Commons for their victory in two categories, Best Green Company and Best Green Building.  Melaver, Inc. has blazed the trail for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings in Savannah.  Their most impressive undertaking, Abercorn Commons, was the first LEED certified retail center in the U.S.; the nearby McDonald’s restaurant was the first LEED certified McDonald’s in the nation.

Fitz’s Alma Mater Savannah Country Day School takes the cake for Best Private School.  So that’s why you’re so dang smart, Fitzy!

City Hall hangs tough as Savannah’s Best Old Building.  Evidently that facelift of refinished gold leaf has really done the trick.

According to Savannahians, Ardsley Park and Downtown are “where it’s at.”  Baldwin Park gets honorable mention.  And The Landings gets shafted.

POLITICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Congrats to Best City Council Member Tony Thomas and runner-up is Larry Stuber.  And, likewise, a shout out to Best County Commissioner Pete Liakakis and runner-up Helen Stone.  Congressman Jack Kingston rounds out politics as Best Conservative and Best Local Legislator.  Best Local Liberal?  Donna Antonuccci.

You heard it here, folks.  As of Monday I’m a 26 year old woman (my, how time flies.)  But I’m not the only one having a good time growing up.  Fitz (31, yikes) and Leigh (the big Three-OH), fellow Geminis, are also celebrating birthdays this week.  It’s a bonafide birthday trifecta with TCCa-ers boasting May 26th and 28th birthdays.

If you feel like buying us a birthday beer (or chocolate), celebrating the short work week or just coming out to meet cool, creative professionals, join our cSpot fete.  That’s right: cSpot and birthday suits (kidding).  This month we’re at Lulu’s Chocolate Bar on MLK, right down from Venus de Milo.  Mmmm, chocolate covered creatives.  Sounds like a birthday bash to me!  See you there…

who:      The cSpot
what:     Monthly cocktail shenanigans
when:    Tonight! (Wednesday, May 28th) from 5:30-7:30pm
where:   Lulu’s Chocolate Bar (map)
details:  42 MLK Jr Blvd

Now normally, I usually glaze over all the Savannah Morning News “headlines” that come through my RSS reader. This is mostly because SMN only includes a text-message-esque first sentence of their articles in the feeds they publish. I assume this is for advertising purposes, but it still kinda sucks, as I’m not really a fan of summary-only feeds that make me leave the comfy confines of all-encompassing Google Reader.

But, alas, I digress.

The Puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires

This time however, I happened to stumble upon a particularly tantalizing headline (and accompanying first sentence) from one of my favorite SMN columnists, Bill Dawers. It read something like this:

Thesis Project Imagines a footbridge to Hutchinson
I’ll confess that my eyes rolled a little when Andreas Mayer began to tell me about his thesis project.

Text-message sized teaser aside, I must admit my interest was peaked. Footbridge to Hutchinson? Yes please.

It wasn’t completely clear from the article, but apparently SCAD architecture graduate student Andres Mayer (a Fulbright Scholar from Germany) got some of his inspiration from the Puente de la Mujer, a pedestrian bridge in Buenos Aires designed by Santiago Calatrava. The middle portion of Calatrava’s bridge swings open to allow freighter traffic to pass through.

TCCa knows that a community’s history is vital to it’s future; one builds off the other.  Savannah is a bustling, creative community because of it’s solid foundation of heritage and tenacity, the wealth of culture, and the defining spirit of it’s people.  Thankfully we have community leaders, citizens and a city that appreciates and embraces our rich past as we blaze down the road of today.

Once upon a time in Savannah’s not-too-distant past, the Westside was a pronouncedly active, desirable place to live.  Blacks and whites alike worked nearby for manufacturers, the sugar refinery, the port and the railways.

When the City of Savannah set about rehabilitating the now depressed area (with extensive redevelopment projects such as Sustainable Fellwood) they wanted to approach plans with ambition, sensitivity and community involvement.  It was at this impetus that Low Land and the High Road was commissioned to recognize the social institutions that were once the foundation of Savannah’s Westside.

West Bay Street