Window Cleaning News

A man cleans windows in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, on Sunday, June 24, 2012. The boom in Changsha and other inland cities is cushioning China and the world at a time when global growth is slowing, and may help relieve the damping effects of the debt crisis in Europe, China's largest export market. Click picture to enlarge.

Indonesian Maid Falls to Her Death From 14th-Floor Flat: (Singapore). Another maid has fallen. This time, it was an Indonesian maid who fell 14 floors from a HDB flat at Block 63, Marine Drive on Wednesday morning. The maid, Ami, who has only one name, was 32 years old and had arrived from West Java early this month. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. Since the start of the year, there have been nine cases of foreign maids who died after falling from heights while working. Investigations are ongoing for the latest incident, as well as for the death of a Myanmarese maid who fell earlier this month, said a Ministry of Manpower spokesman. Police have classified Wednesday's case as unnatural death. The spate of incidents prompted the Singaporean government to impose stricter rules about maids' working conditions last month.

The new rules require an adult to supervise maids as they clean the exterior of windows. Window grilles must also be installed and locked during the cleaning. Police declined to comment when asked how the maid fell, but Sukmo Yuwono, an Indonesian embassy counsellor, said the flat's kitchen window and grilles were open when police arrived at the scene. A stool was also found under the window, he added. Neighbors told The Straits Times they were shocked to hear a loud thump at around 7 a.m. An eighth-floor neighbor said, "I looked out the window and saw the body... I couldn't move my legs for five minutes." Ami's employers - a young Chinese family - declined comment when approached at home.

Shawn, 28, is also the owner and manager at College Pro Window Cleaning in Courtenay, but had put his work aside to focus on Emily.

Married life cut short as cancer claims Emily: Just 11 days after their wedding, local man Shawn Wood has been forced to say goodbye to his new bride. Emily Ann Wood, nee Niinemets, has succumbed to the terminal Large Cell Lymphoma with which she was diagnosed only in January. After noticing lumps in her neck, Emily tried every available treatment, but doctors quickly realized there was nothing they could do and Emily was given three to 12 months to live. At age 24, she said her dying wish was to marry her fiancé. Emily and Shawn’s wedding took place in Courtenay on Tuesday 3 July, thanks to hundreds of monetary and in-kind donations.

Everything from the limousine to the jewellery was given to the couple, free of charge, while a total of $12,191 was donated via their fundraising website. “I do not know either one of you but was touched by your story that aired on the news,” wrote Katheleen Stubbs, on Shawn’s Facebook page. “Think not of this as a time of sorrow but as a time of celebration: no more suffering. She lived a beautiful life and touched many hearts!” Shawn’s page has been flooded with messages of condolence. “I need you to know that you did your best. You fulfilled a heart, you fulfilled a life, most of all you fulfilled a love,” wrote Tanya Winters. “You did everything possible a loving man and husband could do, Shawn, and for that you are the hero.”

The couple were booked to go on a free cruise to Alaska on July 29, for their honeymoon, but Emily weakened suddenly after the wedding, suffering worse pain, swelling and deteriorating eyesight. On Saturday, 14 July, Emily had to be admitted to hospital, unable to walk and having difficulty breathing. “It's really heartbreaking,” Shawn wrote on his Facebook page. “Why can't I just take this from her? Would lay on my sword any day for her. I just wish that I could do something other than watch her slip away from me!”

Just hours later, Emily was gone. Shawn, 28, is a business student in his third year. He’s also the owner and manager at College Pro Window Cleaning in Courtenay, but has put his work aside to focus on Emily. A fundraiser has been organized for Friday, 17 August, at the Mex Pub, featuring live music and a raffle. Admission is $5 and doors open at 8 p.m. Further funds are being raised via T-shirts, available for $20 at 479 4th Street in Courtenay. Reading ‘Love for Emily,’ the shirts also feature a lime green ribbon – the symbol for lymphoma awareness.

Safety failings led to asbestos exposure at Dorset school: The unsafe removal of asbestos insulation boards at a large independent school in Dorset led to several people being exposed to asbestos fibres, Dorchester Crown Court heard today (13 July). The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Sherborne School and Peter Eldridge, the director of a company responsible for the refurbishment project, after an investigation found they had failed to identify and prevent the risk of asbestos exposure at the school. Asbestos insulation boards were removed in an unsafe way, exposing building contractors and a teenage work experience student to asbestos fibres, and leaving them at risk of developing serious and potentially fatal diseases later in life. The HSE investigation found that from the initial design stages in May 2008 right through to undertaking the construction work in July 2009, there was inadequate planning and a failure to carry out a full asbestos survey. This was despite the fact that a sample taken from the building in 2008 had identified its presence and asbestos had previously been removed from other parts of the school. An asbestos register was also kept for the school buildings.

Regulation 11(3) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "Every designer shall in preparing or modifying a design which may be used in construction work in Great Britain avoid foreseeable risks to the health and safety of any person: (a) carrying out construction work; (b) liable to be affected by such construction work; (c) cleaning any window or any transparent or translucent wall, ceiling or roof in or on a structure; (d) maintaining the permanent fixtures and fittings of a structure; or (e) using a structure designed as a workplace. Exposure to asbestos fibres is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK; it is responsible for around 4,000 deaths a year. For more information on asbestos.

A group of Tory MPs has said that some small limited companies should be freed from stringent employment regulations. The Free Enterprise Group (FEG) has put forward seven proposals which it feels will help to give UK businesses a shot in the arm. One of the ideas is for small firms with turnovers of less than £75,000 a year (the threshold for VAT registration) to become exempt from employment laws. A paper published by the group states:"Private sector growth is the best way to rebuild our economy. So let’s get government out of the way of budding entrepreneurs. "Whether in website design, weeding gardens, window cleaning or widget production, we’ve got to help our smallest businesses to get started and thrive. The government should remove the regulatory burden." The plans would include such limited companies not having to auto-enrol anyone they employ into pension schemes as well as not having to offer people pay for paternity and maternity leave.

Wales coach Warren Gatland suffers serious injuries in fall: Gatland suffered his injuries while cleaning windows ahead of a visit to the family beach-side holiday home by a journalist, who was going to feature the property in a magazine. He broke both heels after falling some three metres on to concrete, sustaining multiple fractures to his right heel. “It was one of those freak things,” he recalled. “I was at the beach on the deck and climbed up on the rail to clean some windows and lost my balance and fell backwards on to the concrete by the garage. “I fell about three metres and landed on my heels. “I’ve had a lot of stick about that. I think Alan Phillips has had a bit of stick as well because he was a window cleaner in a previous life and people have been telling him he didn’t train me well enough!” It was no laughing matter for Gatland at the time though, with his painful injuries leaving him facing a lengthy recuperation period.

The UAE's best window cleaners compete: The daredevil maintenance men who can be seen on the end of ropes cleaning windows on landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa and the Burj Al Arab demonstrated their skills in the first Middle East Rope Access Olympics.

Rope access experts from Megarme walk across a high tensile net, 228m above the ground at Abu Dhabi Gate Towers construction site on Reem Island.

World first for Abu Dhabi workers who walk on air - 228 metres above ground: Workmen at a skyscaper development in the capital are walking on sunshine thanks to an innovative net system that allows them to saunter between towers without ropes or scaffolding - 228 metres above ground.  The 1,800m net has been strung across a 30m gap between two of the towers that make up The Gate Towers development, making it the largest and highest installation of its kind. "There's no office like it," said project manager Mickey Schram, one of the skywalkers who spends every working day on the net, which is accessed from the 64th floor. "I do get scared; if you don't then one becomes complacent. You need to have that fear in you, if you don't then there's a problem."

The net, made of a polyester cord mesh, is supported by steel cables anchored to the structure of the buildings. And, while conventional wisdom says you can avoid vertigo by not looking down, Mr Schram disagrees. "I think you need to look down, because it gives you a sense of respect for the system you're dealing with and heightens your awareness of safety," he added. "So absolutely, I look down." Mr Schram said he enjoyed a number of aspects of the job: "It's outdoors, and it's providing solutions. A client has a problem, you come up with a solution, and to see it pulled off successfully is what's most rewarding." Another member of the team, Roger Gallenbo, said: "I like working on the net very much. It's fantastic and it's a nice feeling walking on it. I prefer it to working on the ropes - it's more exciting."

The nets were developed to cope with the tough conditions on North Sea oil rigs. Their use in the UAE is being pioneered by the Dubai-based rope access company Megarme, which fitted and operates the one that links Towers 3 and 4 at the Sorouh Real Estate development on Al Reem Island. An advantage of the system is that it can be used by workers who are not trained in rope access techniques. At Gate Towers a subcontractor is fitting aluminium panels to the underside of the penthouse skybridge that connects three of the buildings. Megarme staff, meanwhile, are installing abseiling hooks that will be used by rope access personnel to clean and maintain the towers once they are complete. A decking system is being used in conjunction with the net for the first time in the UAE to provide a stable working platform, which makes tasks like drilling easier.

When the work is complete the net will be moved to Towers 4 and 5 so that staff can work there. Megarme is working closely with Arabian Construction Company, the main contractor on the Gate Towers project, and Hill International, the consultant. Amel Vriesman, Megarme's head of access solutions, said: "This is a unique project because of the combination of the size and the height and the fact that we're using a decking system for the first time. "Everybody is really fond of the system. We installed it in 20 days where scaffolding would have taken eight weeks. You have to identify what is the best tool for a particular job, and this was by far the safest, the quickest and the most economical system available." Operations manager Fred Marshall said: "The net works as a system: you load one end of it and the other end tightens up immediately, so the more people you have on it the better it works. "If you stand on one end of a trampoline and somebody jumps on the other end then you bounce with it, and it's a similar type of effect with the netting system."

Golf tournament honors memory, raises funds to fight prostate cancer: A memorial golf tournament has been scheduled for Aug. 3 to honor Rodger Arndt. Arndt grew up in Issaquah and after taking over his father’s residential window washing business, continued to service many Issaquah residents after moving to Bellevue. He died just months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 47. “There’s a huge misunderstanding that prostate cancer is just something you watch,” said Arndt’s sister, Diane Arndt Burns.

Members of the Chattanooga (TN) Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue team are practicing their high-angle rescue skills this week at UTC's McKenzie Arena.  Tuesday morning, the team simulated what might happen to someone, such as a window washer, who somehow gets stranded outside a high-rise building and needs help getting down to safety. Starting from a catwalk in the arena about 85 feet off the ground, Firefighter Michael Battle is lowered by rope to serve as the victim. Mr. Battle dangles by himself, 50 feet above the gym floor, as his fellow team-members work out a plan to rescue him. After getting all the ropes, pulleys and related gear in place, Senior Firefighter Mark Brown is lowered from the catwalk to the victim. After carefully attaching rescue ropes to Mr. Battle and releasing him from his original gear, both Battle and Brown are carefully lowered to the gym floor below.

New York construction accident lawyer David Perecman from The Perecman Firm comments on window washer safety after a scaffold accident in New York. For one of the two window washers stuck on a dangerously tilted scaffold, the accident was his third. Firefighters rescued two window washers from broken scaffolding 42 stories above the streets of Manhattan, reported The Wall Street Journal(7/11/2012). New York construction accident lawyers at The Perecman Firm understand it was the third time one of the workers had been saved from a suspended scaffold on the side of a building. “Hearing of a scaffold worker needing to be rescued three times is a good indication of just how dangerous the job of a window washer can be in New York,” construction accident lawyer David Perecman said. According to the Wall Street Journal, the stuck scaffold in the accident was hanging at a 45-degree angle. The two window washers in the scaffold accident waited 30 minutes before being rescued. “Window washers risk their lives every day. As scaffold accidents without physical injuries show us, it is essential for the safety of window washers that their equipment be in working order and that all proper precautions taken,” said David Perecman, a New York construction accident lawyer for over 30 years. New York's Labor Law 202 provides specific protections for window washers. This law requires building owners, contractors and others to provide a safe environment in which window washers perform their job duties, as well as other safety measures, including safety devices. New York Labor Law 240 also protects window washers and others who perform work at an elevated position.

Window cleaners work on a high rising building in New Delhi.

An exhibit of Guarino's work, "What Manner of Men?" is up now at Real Art Ways in Hartford.  Guarino's work emphasizes the random, disjointed aspect of his philosophies. The men in the paintings look awkward, their heads disproportionately large against their bodies, which at times are fuzzy or broken up. The men do an assemblage of things that all alone may seem natural — sweeping leaves, exercising, holding a shoe, cleaning a window, walking on stilts — but when collaged together don't make sense.

'The Act's' twenty-year journey to create an emotion genre: The Act was never meant to be an iPad game. If things had gone as planned, arcades would be a profitable market and The Act would be that market's most popular game. As fate had it, arcades fell apart and so did The Act. The "emotion" game was conceived and canceled before anyone knew what an iPad was. And yet here it is, available on the iTunes App Store. Today. Right now. You're probably wondering what an "emotion" game is. The Act, far as I know, is the only one. You control the emotions, obviously, of an on-screen character, navigating them through a series of dramatic scenes, ultimately completing a story. In this case, the character is a lovestruck window washer, and the story is his slapstick pursuit of a sexy nurse. Emotion games are like playable movies. You would probably mistake The Act for a feature cartoon from the early 1990s, if it weren't for the "game over" screen that appears when someone doesn't properly man the controls. Also see previous blog here.

The iPad Game That Took 9 Years (And an Epic Disney Fail) to Finish: Edgar, a mild-mannered window washer, is daydreaming of the girl he loves. In his dream, they meet in a nightclub straight out of Casablanca, flirting from across the room. The scene, lovingly rendered in hand-drawn animation on an iPad, is controllable: By swiping your finger right or left, you can control the boldness of Edgar’s flirting. Swipe too hard and Edgar will gyrate wildly, causing her to recoil in terror. But swipe slowly, and Edgar will ease on the charm, pantomiming some smooth dance moves that win him the girl of his dreams. The Act, released last month for iOS, is a game with a remarkable history. Development on the game began over nine years ago and involved dozens of former Disney animators that had worked on films like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Its animation was created the old-school way: pens and paper. And after The Act was completed, it came very, very close to never coming out at all. The seed of The Act was planted in Omar Khudari’s mind in 1986. A computer programmer for an educational gaming company, Khudari was looking for the next big thing.

Clean your way to fun on the App Store with Beat the Window: AS Mobile Applications, an innovative new mobile software and applications developer, is excited to announce the launch of Beat the Window onto the App Store. Compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, this casual yet wildly entertaining arcade game charges players with a simple task - clean one cartoon window after another, and do it faster than the current Beat the Window Champion of the World! It's all about quickness and hand-eye coordination in this game, and the more times you can clean up the scene faster than World Champion Randy Doo the closer you'll get to taking over the title! Beat the Window is currently available for download on the App Store for Free in the Games category. An eloquently simple and highly intuitive experience, this game utilizes sleek touch based controls to enable players to clean off one dirty window after another. After all, that's the name of the game. There's only a few rules - don't touch the window sills while you're cleaning and clean all the smudges off a given window faster than your virtual opponent!

New Solar Windows Are Cheaper, Stronger: Using low-cost materials and a new manufacturing technique, scientists have developed improved solar windows that can produce more electricity at a lower cost. The innovation is the latest in a series of advancements for the SolarWindow, the world’s first technology capable of generating electricity on clear glass windows. The SolarWindow looks like an ordinary window, but contains unique, thin, clear solar cells that are layered on the glass. The cells are connected in a network through a grid system that is virtually invisible. As light hits the solar cells, they create electricity. The new development for the technology helps optimize the flow of electrons within the solar cells, so they can generate more power. It uses efficient, low-cost manufacturing techniques, and also makes the windows more durable because it better protects the solar cells inside. Created by New Energy Technologies along with the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of South Florida, the SolarWindow is currently still in development. New Energy Technologies plans to eventually install the windows in homes and commercial buildings throughout the United States.

Feel-good glass for windows: Daylight acts on our body clock and stimulates the brain. Fraunhofer researchers have made use of this knowledge and worked with industry partners to develop a coating for panes of glass that lets through more light. Above all, it promotes the passage through the glass of those wavelengths of light that govern our hormonal balance. Most people prefer to live in homes that are airy and flooded with light. Nobody likes to spend much time in a dark and dingy room. That’s no surprise, since daylight gives us energy and has a major impact on our sense of wellbeing. It is a real mood lifter. But not everyone is lucky enough to live in a generously glazed home, and office spaces – where we spend many hours of each day – are often not exactly bright and breezy. Modern heat-insulating, sun-protection glazing for offices and housing doesn’t make things any better, since it isn’t optimized to allow the light that governs our hormonal balance to pass through: instead, a distinctly noticeable percentage of incident sunlight in this effective part of the spectrum is reflected away.

Anti-reflective glass that is more transmissive overall to daylight is reserved for certain special applications, such as in glass covers for photovoltaic modules or in glazing for shop windows. The aim with this kind of glass is to avoid nuisance reflections and to achieve maximum light transmission at the peak emission wavelength of sunlight. This is the wavelength at which the human retina is also most sensitive to light. “However, our biorhythms are not affected by the wavelengths that brighten a room the most, but rather by blue light,” explains graduate engineer Walther Glaubitt, a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg. That is why he and his team have developed glass that is designed to be particularly transmissive to light in the blue part of the spectrum. The secret is a special, long-lasting and barely perceptible inorganic coating that is only 0.1 micrometers thick. “Nobody’s ever made glass like this before. It makes you feel as if the window is permanently open,” says Glaubitt. One reason the glass gives this impression is that it exhibits maximum transmission at wavelengths between 450 and 500 nanometers – which is exactly where the effects of blue light are at their strongest. New feel good glass.

The number of graduates forced to take menial jobs as cleaners, labourers, shelf stackers and rubbish collectors has almost doubled in five years, figures show. More than 10,000 university leavers took posts that do not require degrees after graduating in 2010/11. The number in so-called ‘elementary occupations’ six months after graduating in 2006/7 was just 5,460, according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. Other examples in this category include caretakers, road sweepers, street vendors, odd-job workers, shoe cleaners, hotel porters and door-to-door sales people. The figures also show 720 graduates became process, plant and machine operatives in factories in 2010/11, compared with 595 in 2006/7. But many more fail to get even menial jobs, with 9 per cent (20,620) assumed to be unemployed six months after completing their degrees in 2010/11. This is around the same proportion as the year before, but the figure stood at 5 per cent in 2006/7. The statistics will worry parents and students preparing to embark on degree courses this autumn, when tuition fees will rise to as high as £9,000 a year.

Tony Cottee’s lowest Everton FC moment - the night he played against his own window cleaner!  Everton have never played at the Globe Arena, but a Blues record signing did once run-out, reluctantly, at Morecambe’s Christie Park. And Tony Cottee found himself lining up against his window cleaner! Cottee was a British record transfer signing, costing £2.2m, but found himself out of favour when Howard Kendall returned to Goodison as manager. And early in 1991 he was ordered to play for Everton’s A team (equivalent of the third team) at Morecambe. “It was degrading for me, the club’s record transfer, being forced to play for the third team. “A couple of weeks earlier ‘Scan’ had been cleaning the windows at our house in Birkdale with Roly Howard, the manager of non-league Marine, who was our regular window cleaner! “The other Everton lads had a good laugh at my unexpected meeting with my window cleaner but despite winning 2-1, with me scoring one, it couldn’t disguise the fact that Morecambe was the lowest point of my career.”

Legal Advise - Question: We recently moved to new premises and soon after received a demand for payment from a window cleaning company. Although we told them their contract was with the previous owners they are claiming the contract is on the building, and are threatening to take us to court.

Answer: I take it you have bought the building, rather than renting it through a landlord. If it’s the latter it’s possible a management company has contracted for window cleaning and you are due to pay a share. Check your lease. If you own the building the window cleaners, save in exceptional circumstances where the window cleaners spend more than 70 per cent of their time on your building, should have no claim on you, and should send their bill to the previous owners who likely remain liable.

'My Fantastic Mr Fox': Cub visits schoolgirl's garden when she sings - Zillah, and her husband Andrew, 48, a window cleaner, contacted the Fox Project animal charity, after the animal set up home at their detached house in Tolladine, Worcester. Zillah, a legal administrator, added: 'It was a real treat to have a wild fox living in our garden but we didn't want to do anything which could damage it's wellbeing. 'The animal charity told us not to touch the fox and not approach it. 'When either myself or my husband go into the garden Foxy always hides but it always comes out when Lydia comes out to play.' Trevor Williams, director of The Fox Project, said: 'Fox cubs are naturally curious and clearly this one find's Lydia's singing entertaining and enjoyable. 'The animal obviously does not see Lydia as a threat but a friend and not something to run away from.'

Finding clarity in a new company: Isaac and Daisy Russell are former sign language interpreters and instructors who've turned into entrepreneurs with their business Clearly Clean Window Washing & More. The pair have one other employee and serve the Iowa City and Cedar Rapids area. In addition to windows, they clean and perform a variety of services for commercial and residential clients. He'd always wanted to start a business. In 2009, he said, "I'm going to give it a shot" He set up a window-washing business by late 2009 and started calling on potential commercial clients that winter.

The couple struggled briefly, but stood together and a month after starting the home-based business, landed their first commercial account. A month later, they received their first residential job and less than a year after starting it up, there was so much work, they hired their first employee. They'd like to hire more as they grow over the next few years, allowing Isaac to train employees and market his business. Clearly Clean Window Washing & More now serves clients in Iowa City, Coralville, Solon, North Liberty and the surrounding areas.

A window washer repels a downtown building while cleaning the windows Wednesday, July 11, 2012, in Atlanta.

Government services contracting going strong: It takes a lot of repair work to keep government operational. Considering the buildings, roads, bridges and public lands the state owns, it is not surprising that the demand for repair work is strong and continual. In fact, there are thousands of contracting opportunities each week for firms offering repair services. Outside contractors are routinely hired for specialized expertise such as elevator repair, security alarm maintenance and window washing for high-rise office buildings.

Much depends on a test: Sri Lankan refugee Tharsanan Vijayakumar, 30, hopes the mother luck which protected him during the civil war in his country will continue to next Friday, July 27. That is the day when he sits for his driving test, for the second time, at Blacktown Roads and Maritime Services. The result will decide his future — including job security and family happiness — in his resettlement in Wentworthville. NRMA Safer Driving School offered him an extra three to four hours of free driving lessons after he failed in his first attempt last week.

Mr Vijayakumar spent 15 months at Villawood detention centre before he was given refugee status and released into the community early this year. The Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group, which is looking after him, plans to get a van for him to start his own window cleaning company with another refugee as his assistant. With a job secured, Mr Vijayakumar will be able to bring his wife and the one-year-old-son he has never seen to Australia. "It's is all I want to make my life whole again," Mr Vijayakumar said. "A secured job and a family." He was forced to flee Sri Lanka at the end of the civil war, which saw the government gain full control of the country. The Group got him a job with a window cleaning company. Group spokesman Michael Howorth said Mr Vijayakumar's future would be restricted until he gets his driver's licence. His instructor said he was a good driver but failed in his first test partly due to the fault of another driver who cut across his path.

Mansfield man threatened to stab partner in the neck: A judge slammed a Mansfield father-of-three for his ‘appalling’ behaviour after he threatened to stab his partner in the neck. Police were called to Darlton Street after a drunken Mathew Hargreaves (26) returned home about midnight and gathered together eight or nine knives, Nottingham Crown Court was told. He threatened to stab his pregnant partner leaving her petrified. Hargreaves admitted affray and was sentenced to 12 months’ prison, suspended for two years with an electronically tagged home curfew on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, to stop him going to the pub for six months. Judge Tony Mitchell told him: “Maybe by then you will have stopped drinking yourself stupid and come off cannabis.” The judge told him he was ‘immature with a very bad temper’ and people had kow-towed to him over the years. His barrister Emma Coverley said he now had the offer of a job as a window cleaner and would live on Third Avenue, Clipstone.

With so many new — and delicious — food trucks hitting the streets of the Twin Cities each summer, it’s almost too tough to keep up. All the way from the land down under, we bring you Aussie’s Kebabs — a delightful little truck, cooking up a lot of flavor. "There’s a lot of interesting people when you’re working on the streets. People watching is really, really fun. You just see crazy things happen, spur of the moment. Also, food trucks are really popular downtown with the customers but not so much the other businesses. It’s interesting to see the games and tactics that the restaurants in the area have pulled. They did a fake window-washing thing one day to keep us off the streets. Just things like that, it’s really interesting to see. I hope the people of Minneapolis enjoy having food trucks around and we can get along with the rest of the restaurants and stay out here."

An Uplifting Superhero Story: Evelina Children’s Hospital was the first new children’s hospital to be built in London in more than a century. The hospital was designed with a goal of “making a hospital that didn’t feel like a hospital.” Accomplishing this required hospital designers and staff to create a patient experience that included touchpoints fostering a sense of inspiration and wonder – in addition to healing – for children throughout their stay. Perhaps the most remarkable touch point of all comes from an unexpected source: the hospital window washers. As part of their contract, Evelina requires that hospital window washers dress up as superheroes while cleaning the hospital windows. Bedridden, sick children delight in seeing Superman, Spiderman and Batman dagling just beyondf the glass. The window washers report the superhero visits to Evelina are the highlight of their week.