Brian Cowan
• Kathy Toth and Team of Keller Williams Realty recent added Brian Cowan, a resident of Dexter, to their Ann Arbor area real estate team as a buyers' agent. Cowan is better known to many Washtenaw County residents as host of the 102.9 W4 Country's "Breakfast with Bubba Morning Show." Cowan will continue to host the show, which is the longest-running morning radio show in the Ann Arbor area.
• The National Restaurant Association recently announced its 2013 Operator Innovations Awards. Locally, Mainstreet Ventures was named a finalist in the "technology" category for a pilot program started in Ann Arbor. An interactive tablet menu has completely replaced paper menus at 11 Mainstreet Ventures restaurants.
• California-based NWP Services Corp., a provider of utility cost recovery and management tools to the commercial real estate industry, has signed a lease with Ann Arbor-based Oxford Companies on a 10,000-square-foot office in Eisenhower Corporate Park on the south side of Ann Arbor. The building will house all associates in Southeast Michigan for NWP. The new office space, located at 2725 S. Industrial Highway in Ann Arbor, will allow NWP to consolidate all employees and services added over the last year, as well as allow for future growth.
• The formal dedication of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan takes place at 2 p.m. Friday, April 5. Faculty, students and special guests will gather along with Penny Stamps and her husband, E. Roe Stamps, in the second floor courtyard of the U-M's Art & Architecture Building, located on north campus for the formal dedication and naming if the school of art and design. The U-M Board of Regents approved in September the renaming of the School of Art and Design. Total commitment to the school — where Penny Stamps is an alumna (bachelor's degree - 1966) — is $40 million, with $32.5 million from the Stamps family foundations and a $7.5 million match from the university. This financial support makes the Stamps the most generous donors in the school's history.
• Ann Arbor-based Advanced Photonix, a supplier of terahertz systems to industry, has sold a T-Gauge terahertz sensor to Shanghai Gaojing in Shanghai, China. The system, equipped with a high-speed line scanner, will be integrated into a new security platform being developed as part of a major national program for security instrumentation. Shanghai Gaojing Radiography Technology Co. is a supplier of baggage inspection systems.
• The University Musical Society in March honored Carpenter Elementary School in Ann Arbor as the 2013 DTE Energy Foundation School of the Year and Ypsilanti Public Schools band director Matt Kazmierski as the 2013 DTE Energy Foundation Educator of the Year. Both recipients were nominated through a public process. The awards were formally presented during the 18th annual Ford Honors Gala, benefiting UMS Education and Community Engagement programs, March 16 at the University of Michigan's Michigan League.
• Every week throughout the month of April, child care center Gretchen's House, located on Dhu Varren Road, will set up children's artwork at Cafe Marie to celebrate Month of the Young Child, a time when communities and individuals recognize the needs and rights of young children and their families. One way Gretchen's House celebrates Month of the Young Child is by hanging children's artwork at Cafe Marie. Gretchen's house gives each wing in their facility a week to show their artwork. This year the Pond Wing will be displayed from Thursday, April 4 to the morning of Thursday, April 11; the Railroad Wing will be displayed from April 11 to the morning of April 18; and the Farm Wing will be displayed from April 18 to April 26.
• Art Van Furniture will offer free spring design classes at three locations in Michigan. The weekly 90-minute classes will be held over three weeks in April at Art Van Furniture's Novi, Comstock Park and Ann Arbor stores. Art Van Furniture's staff will help guests determine their own individual style and help them learn how to decorate with color. The three-week course is free, but interested participants are encouraged to register at www.artvan.com/events or by calling 8880-619-2199. The course will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursdays April 11, 18 and 25 at Art Van Furniture, Ann Arbor, 425 E. Eisenhower Parkway, Ann Arbor.
• Ann Arbor SPARK helped Lyons Consulting Group secure incentives valued at more than $300,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the City of Ann Arbor to support its expansion in the region. As part of its expansion, Lyons, an e-commerce strategy, design, development, hosting and support firm based in Chicago, will invest $1.1 million and create 30 new jobs in the Ann Arbor area. Lyons is currently scouting sites in Ann Arbor for its expansion and expects to move from its current facility to a new, larger facility mid-2013.
• The official launch of the Michigan Modern symposium and exhibition is set for the week of June 13-16 at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills. The symposium is hosted by the State Historic Preservation Office, Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The SHPO partnered with Cranbrook Art Museum and MPdL Studios of Ann Arbor to present the exhibition that tells the Michigan Modern story. "Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America" will open at Cranbrook Art Museum on June 14 and run through Oct. 13. The goal of the project is to showcase how Michigan's industrial and design history intertwined and celebrate Michigan's contributions to Modern design and the stories of the people who made it happen.
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