CCA | Bernardo Quinzaños El Campestre Recreational Park & Community Development Center revitalizes public life in Jalpa de Méndez, Mexico Developed as part of SEDATU’s Urban Improvement Program the project introduces a sculptural pavilion for cultural events and a multi-functional center for learning and social engagement Initial assessments revealed that public spaces were in a significant state of neglect and there was a pronounced lack of social assistance facilities at all levels in the area The intervention aimed to enhance living conditions reduce the deficit of equipment and public spaces the El Campestre Recreational Park has become a vital space for community interaction and entertainment with a crossed-arch structure that hosts several of the city’s concerts and exhibitions This versatile space has become a key gathering point ideal for both informal activities and major celebrations the public space program was designed to integrate with the pavilion’s iconic sequence of arches and columns connecting various sports areas and providing a habitable refuge in Tabasco’s tropical the stepped concrete base functions as seating for spectators of sporting events evoking the regional cantera stone found in the balustrades of the main arcade in the historic center CCA | Bernardo Quinzaños completes El Campestre Recreational Park & Community Development Center The construction process facilitated an authentic exchange of knowledge with the local community blending modern design technologies with artisanal processes to enrich the constructive memory of Tabasco’s landscape diverse construction techniques were interwoven strengthening the project’s connection to its surroundings This participatory process gave rise to a new architectural language while fostering a sense of accomplishment developed as part of SEDATU’s Urban Improvement Program the project introduces a pavilion for cultural events and a multi-functional center for learning and social engagement the central pavilion is a sculptural presence and a functional venue orange pigmented concrete evokes the regional cantera stone found in the main arcade in the historic center name: Complex El Campestre Recreational Park & Community Development Center architect: CCA | Bernardo Quinzaños | @cca.mx lead architect: Bernardo Quinzaños design team: Andrés Suárez TRASGO: José Fernando Orozco González designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style Two men riding in a black Porsche were killed in a hail of gunfire on a residential street in the Campestre The luxury sportscar's windshield was peppered with two dozen gunshots and the driver's side window was shattered as the car stood in the middle of a street Drug cartels: Mexico investigates abduction, treason in 'El Mayo' flight to El Paso area The double homicide was unusual because of its location in one of the border city's most-exclusive neighborhoods with streets lined with mansions behind walls and tall ornate fences in the northeastern part of Juárez An investigation into the double homicide continued Homicides continue to be a concern in Juárez but have been on a recent downward trend despite Monday's high-profile bloodshed in the Campestre Femicides: 'I can't live with this pain': Fort Bliss soldier accused of killing Juárez woman Homicides have decreased 33% in Juárez in the first 11 days of August Chihuahua State Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya said at a Monday news conference homicides are down 38% compared to last month There were about 85 homicides in July in Juárez There have been about 700 killings this year Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Gustavo Jauregui Moreno said that 90% of the homicides in the state are linked to organized crime namely drug cartels and gangs trafficking drugs and migrants son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman More: 'Los Chapos' Sinaloa cartel brawl erupts inside Juárez's Cereso No. 3 state prison Intelligence gathering operations are permanently monitoring the Sinaloa cartel in the state, Jauregui said, adding that the Sinaloa cartel has influence zones in: "We have not had a single homicide or violent event" in Chihuahua directly, or indirectly, linked to the arrests of Zambada and Guzman in the United States, Jauregui said at a news conference on Friday, Aug. 8. "I believe those arrests won’t have a direct impact," neither increasing nor lowering Chihuahua's homicide rate, the attorney general said. Volume 3 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fgeed.2021.757540 This article is part of the Research TopicUtilization of Protoplasts to Facilitate Gene-Editing in PlantsView all 10 articles A correction has been applied to this article in: Corrigendum: Establishment of an efficient protoplast regeneration and transfection protocol for field cress (Lepidium campestre) Field cress (Lepidium campestre) is a potential oilseed crop that has been under domestication in recent decades CRISPR/Cas9 is a powerful tool for rapid trait improvement and gene characterization and for generating transgene-free mutants using protoplast transfection system protoplast regeneration remains challenging for many plant species Here we report an efficient protoplast regeneration and transfection protocol for field cress Important factors such as type of basal media type/combination of plant growth regulators and culture duration on different media were optimized Nitsch was the best for protoplast growth in MI and MII media For cell wall formation during the early stage of protoplast growth relatively high auxin concentrations (0.5 mg L−1 NAA and 2,4-D) without addition of cytokinin was preferred for maintaining protoplast viability 1.1 mg L−1 TDZ combined with either 0.05 mg L−1 NAA or 2,4-D was found to efficiently promote protoplast growth 1.1 mg L−1 TDZ without any auxin resulted in over 80% shoot generation frequency A longer culture duration in MI medium would inhibit protoplast growth while a longer culture duration in MII medium significantly delayed shoot formation Using this optimized protoplast regeneration protocol we have established an efficient PEG-mediated transfection protocol using a vector harboring the GFP gene with transfection efficiencies of 50–80% This efficient protoplast protocol would facilitate further genetic improvement of field cress via genome editing and be beneficial to development of protoplast regeneration protocols for related plant species as protoplast regeneration remains a major obstacle for obtaining mutated lines for most plant species the method has mainly been used to evaluate mutation efficiencies of sgRNAs of target genes An efficient and reliable protoplast regeneration method is thus a prerequisite for crop improvement by CRISPR/Cas9 using the protoplast system Development of an efficient protoplast regeneration and transfection method could facilitate the use of CRISPR/Cas9 for rapid trait improvement and thus further speed up the domestication process of the species we have studied some important factors affecting protoplast regeneration and transfection and have successfully established an efficient protocol for protoplast regeneration and transfection of field cress This method is now routinely used in our lab for trait improvement of the species through genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9 This accession was initially collected in Öland All in vitro cultures were maintained in a climate chamber with a temperature of 23 °C/18 °C (day/night) and 16 h photoperiod with a light intensity of 40 μmol m−2 s−1 (cool white fluorescent tubes) Seeds were surface sterilized in 15% (v/v) calcium hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2) for 20 min Surface sterilized seeds were planted on germination medium (half strength MS 7 g L−1 Bacto agar which were placed in the climate chamber as stated above Protoplast isolation was based on the Arabidopsis protocol developed by Yoo et al. (2007) About 40–50 fully opened true leaves of 3–4 week old field cress seedlings were finely sliced and incubated in plasmolysis solution (0.4 M mannitol pH 5.7) for 30 min in the dark at room temperature (RT) 10 ml enzyme solution (1.5% (w/v) cellulase Onozuka R-10 (Yakult Pharmaceutical Co. 0.6% (w/v) Macerozyme R-10 (Yakult Pharmaceutical Co. pH 5.7) were added and incubated in the dark at RT for 14–16 h with gentle shaking The MII medium was renewed every 5–7 days until protoplast colonies reached a size of approximately 0.1–0.2 mm in diameter Effect of basal medium on protoplast viability of field cress Effect of PGRs in MI medium on protoplast viability of field cress Effect of PGRs in MII medium on protoplast callus formation of field cress Microcalli from the alginate disks were spread directly onto shoot induction medium (SIM) (Tables 4–6) The microcalli were subcultured to fresh medium every 3–4 weeks until shoots had appeared Shoots were transferred to shoot elongation medium (SEM) (MS 0.05 mg L−1 6-benzyladenine (BAP) 0.03 mg L−1 gibberellic acid (GA3) Effect of PGRs in SIM medium on shoot regeneration of field cress Effect of C-source in SIM medium on shoot regeneration of field cress Effect of cytokinin in SIM medium on shoot regeneration of field cress For optimizing protoplast regeneration efficiency, various MI, MII, and SIM medium compositions and culture durations in MI and MII medium (Table 7 in the result section) were tested Effect of culture duration in MI or MII medium on shoot regeneration of field cress The detailed information about the medium compositions is given in Tables 1–7 protoplast solution was loaded on a Hemocytometer and five 1 mm2 squares were observed under a light microscope seven or 14 days after isolation For the callus and shoot regeneration tests a single treatment consisted of 50 calli with three biological replicates Results were recorded at different time points depending on experiment and the detailed information is presented in each corresponding table in the result section The data were analyzed with ANOVA and Tukey’s test using Minitab (LLC) version 19.2020.1 To optimize transfection efficiency for field cress, protoplasts were transfected with a vector harboring a gene encoding for green fluorescent protein (GFP) (pCW498-35S-GFiP-OcsT, 14 743 bp (Wood et al., 2009)) Approximately 150 000 to 200 000 washed protoplasts were mixed with 20–40 µg vector DNA in a 2 ml Eppendorf tube containing 200 µL freshly prepared MMG solution (0.4 M mannitol Freshly prepared PEG-calcium solution (25% (w/v) PEG4000 0.1 M CaCl2) was carefully added to the tube in a 1:1 ratio and after 5 min the reaction was stopped by addition of 1.5 ml W5 and gentle mixing The suspension was subsequently centrifuged at 100 g for 3 min The protoplasts were then re-suspended in 1 ml of MI medium and transferred to 12-well sterile tissue culture plates the protoplasts were observed with a Zeiss LSM 880 Airyscan confocal laser scanning microscope using an EC-Plan-Neofluar 10x/0.30 M27 objective for estimating transfection efficiency Excitation wavelength was set to 488 nm and detection wavelength was set to 490–585 nm To ensure that no auto-fluorescence could be observed non-transfected protoplasts were used as a control The transfected protoplasts were cultured on the culture media for shoot induction using the optimized regeneration protocol as described above to further verify the protocol (A) Freshly isolated protoplasts (1 day) (B) Protoplasts undergoing cell divisions and multiplication (0.5 month) (C) Protoplast callus formation (1 month) (D) Protoplast colonies (2 months) (E) Shoot regeneration from protoplast colonies (4 months) (F) Regenerated shoots grown on rooting medium (6 months) This result indicates that a relatively lower concentration of auxin was necessary for protoplast development during this stage for field cress Difficulty in protoplast regeneration is the major obstacle for the protoplast method to be used for research and crop improvement for most plant species. In order to obtain a high regeneration frequency for field cress, we have investigated the effects of type and concentration of sugars, PGR combinations, and the culture duration in MI, MII, and SIM media on callus formation and subsequent shoot regeneration (Figures 1D–F) The results showed sugar type and concentration could significantly affect protoplast regeneration frequency (Table 5) 15 g L−1 sucrose gave the best regeneration frequency (80%) followed by 10 g L−1 glucose (67%) while 30 g L−1 sucrose and 20 g L−1 glucose resulted in relatively lower regeneration frequencies (47 and 45% suggesting relatively lower concentrations of sugar were more effective in promoting shoot regeneration In this study, we found that the culture duration in MI and MII media played an important role in protoplast regeneration. The results in Table 7 showed that 3 and 5 days culture durations in MI medium gave the best regeneration results while a culture duration longer than 10 days would inhibit protoplast growth The culture duration in MII seemed not to have such a critical influence on regeneration frequency but shoot regeneration was significantly delayed if the culture duration was too long most of the calli derived from the cultures with an extended period of time in MII medium would eventually develop shoots Approximately 1 month of culture duration in MII medium resulted in the most rapid growth and highest regeneration frequency This protocol will be very valuable for our ongoing work on genetic modification of important traits in field cress by CRISPR/Cas9 GFP expression 48 h after protoplast transfection of field cress showing no obvious difference when different vector DNA concentrations ((A) 40 µg) were used for transfection FIGURE 3. Schematic flowchart of generation of transgene-free mutation lines edited by CRISPR/Cas9 using protoplast approach. The figure was created with BioRender.com To obtain a high regeneration frequency it is often necessary to optimize the abovementioned important parameters and other culture conditions no published report available on protoplast culture for field cress we have systemically investigated some important factors affecting protoplast culture and regeneration and have established a highly efficient and relatively simple protocol for protoplast regeneration and transfection for the species This protocol would provide a solid foundation for further improvement of this potential novel oilseed crop through gene editing technologies and also provide important information for developing protoplast regeneration protocols for other plant species we tested both leaves and hypocotyls for protoplast isolation and culture for field cress The protoplasts from hypocotyls could be isolated and developed into protoplast colonies but it required several fold more plant materials to yield a satisfactory quantity of protoplasts compared with leaves We thus only used leaves for protoplast isolation in further studies it seemed that fully opened true leaves from 3–4 week old seedlings was the most suitable material for protoplast isolation and subsequent regeneration Leaves from more than 4-week old seedlings could also be used successfully but the regeneration frequency might be compromised our results showed that equal amounts of 2,4-D and NAA (0.5 mg L−1 of each) was the most suitable for maintaining protoplast viability and subsequent regeneration of field cress the culture duration in MI medium also appears to be crucial for successful protoplast regeneration 3–5 days gave the best results as longer culture duration would cause the cells to stop growing The culture duration in MII appeared not to be so critical compared to MI for protoplast regeneration in field cress as a prolonged culture duration would mainly delay shoot regeneration we also observed that a low protoplast density would usually result in poor protoplast viability during the early stage of cultures a too high protoplast density would results in brownish protoplast colonies This is probably due to competition for limited available nutrients in the medium resulting in a large number of protoplasts failing to undergo cell divisions we found in this study that the suitable protoplast plating density was 0.4–0.6 million protoplasts per ml When performing transfections it was necessary to increase the initial protoplast density to 0.75–1.0 million per ml for better regeneration as the PEG-incubation would result in a loss of protoplasts through optimizing various important culture conditions we have developed a highly efficient protoplast regeneration and transfection protocol for field cress This protocol will provide a solid foundation for using the protoplast approach for molecular studies and developing CRISPR/Cas9-edited transgene-free mutant lines of field cress The protocol would also be helpful in establishing protoplast regeneration protocols for other related plant species The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors All authors read the manuscript and approved the submitted version Financial support to this research by MISTRA (The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) and The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences through Mistra Biotech program FORMAS (The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) grant 2016-01401 and Einar and Inga Nilsson’s foundation as well as The Royal Physiographic Society of Lund is highly acknowledged The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Field Trials with Field Cress (Lepidium Campestre L.) from South to north Google Scholar A Simple Culture Method for Brassica Hypototyl Protoplasts CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Plant Protoplasts: Status and Biotechnological Perspectives PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The Molecular Genetics of Crop Domestication PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Nutrient Requirements of Suspension Cultures of Soybean Root Cells CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar High-density Genetic Linkage Mapping of Lepidium Based on Genotyping-By-Sequencing Snps and Segregating Contig Tag Haplotypes PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar High Growth Rate and Regeneration Capacity of Hypocotyl Protoplasts in Some Brassicaceae CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Reduced Enzymatic browning in Potato Tubers by Specific 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Li-Hua Zhu, TGktSHVhLlpodUBzbHUuc2U= †These authors share first authorship ‡ORCID: Li-Hua Zhu, orchid.org/0000-0002-9325-3845 Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish The PGA Tour returns to Mexico next week for the annual running of the World Wide Technology Championship The tournament takes place in Cabo San Lucas which – on top of being a popular holiday destination for North Americans and those from further afield – has become a golfing mecca Few locations offer quite the concentration of world-class courses as Cabo San Lucas with more than 18 within the city Cabo San Lucas is a place you go if you’re keen on a very golf-heavy holiday This list is far from exhaustive as Cabo really has too many courses to adequately cover in concise fashion But here are five highly-rated courses that you can play there Questro Golf has emerged as one of Los Cabos’ premier golf destinations which were created by golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones II will transport you on an amazing tour across the Baja Peninsula’s breathtaking scenery You’ll be treated to stunning vistas of the ocean as you navigate across the picturesque Baja desert which is framed by the imposing Sierra Madre mountains Questro has no handicap or age requirement but asks that all players maintain an appropriate pace of play The club is home to two courses with the public access Cabo Del Sol course sharing a property with the private Cove Club Course The stunning Baja landscape is the backdrop against which the Cabo Del Sol Course (previously known as the Desert Course) was skillfully created around golfers have been in awe of its seamless blend of desert and ocean with canyon-like arroyos that add both to the challenge of the course and the aesthetics With views of the ocean from every hole in the course the Cabo Del Sol Course is a unique feature of the golf experience in the resort town Its dramatic bunkering and varied elevation changes provide a stunning background for your play created by the world-renowned Jack Nicklaus Signature company Club Campestre San José invites visitors to enjoy the stunning panoramic views and undulating championship greens of a first-rate Mexico golf club with spectacular vistas of the Sea of Cortez hidden in the Sierra foothills and offering spectacular ocean vistas from every hole was designed with exquisite precision and demanding elegance Club Campestre is the first course to employ the saltwater-resistant “Paspalum” grass which means it is easier to maintain at local latitudes and in local desert conditions Mexico is famed for its 27 holes of outstanding golf and breathtaking views It is known as the “Grand Dame of Los Cabos Golf” for a very good reason The first Jack Nicklaus Signature design in Latin America the golf course is both beautiful and tough It is a world-class masterpiece of a course that compares to the best courses on the international stage From all 27 holes on this Cabo golf course the centrepiece of a 2,800-acre resort and residential development with 3.2 miles of coastline target-style course designed by Robert Trent Jones which Jones fully redesigned from a previous course soft challenge with vast fairways falling down to the Sea of Cortes which plays across an arroyo on route to the shore is a stunning example of its blend of beauty and challenge Cabo Real’s lengthy back nine is a terrific test of golf with stunning holes carved into desert slopes at the foot of steep mountain peaks raised greens mix with fairways that play along ridge tops and make the most of the rugged terrain WATCH: Golfer sinks hole-in-one and wins three days at Pebble Beach! BELLVILLE — The manager of the newly opened Panchos Tacos Mexican Restaurant said the restaurant's customers are coming from near and far because of the restaurant's close proximity to Interstate 71 bringing customers from across the United States said the restaurant expected customers from surrounding states but never so many customers from outside the United States whose parents Margarito and Lisbeth Carrizal are co-owners of the restaurant that opened Aug 8 at 844 Ohio 97 West at the former KC Steaks and Ribs site the restaurant celebrated a grand opening and ribbon cutting with members of the Mansfield Richland Area Chamber-Economic Development gave the owners a commendation from the Ohio Senate "We've all probably eaten at some of the restaurants around town I travel the state all the time and I can tell you these Mexican restaurants here in Richland County I think are the best of any in this state and maybe the Midwest," Romanchuk said Margarito Carrizal had worked for years at El Campestre in Ontario as have the restaurant's other co-owners Jesus Davalos and Luis and Natalia Davalos He said the co-owners came to the United States from Mexico and eventually to Mansfield to work having known friends in the restaurant business Alejandro said the menu is large and is a combined menu from Panchos Tacos on Lexington Avenue and El Campestre on West Fourth Street in Ontario "We have a variety of tacos and margaritas "We change what's on tap so there are always different offerings," he added "The restaurant is a very unique Mexican restaurant like no other," he added "The atmosphere is friendly and it's fun here said loyal customers from Ontario have come to eat at the new site along with customers from Bellville Their Panchos Tacos sign will be added to the menu sign of attractions eateries and gas stations posted along I-71 alerting motorists to the offerings ahead at the I-71/Ohio 97 exit Panchos Tacos Mexican Restaurant can be reached by calling 419-719-8135 Downriver's new Campestre Chicken has brought juicy, charcoal-roasted rotisserie chicken with flavors of El Salvador Peru and Mexico to Metro Detroit.  the carryout-only spot isn't the first rotisserie chicken joint in town — it's not even the first Camprestre Chicken the family has another location in Maryland — but it is the newest.  Marinated poultry with Peruvian spices is cooked over charcoal for 2 ½  to three hours and served as whole The rotisserie chicken meat is also a protein option in the tacos a green mild sauce that I want to put on everything (celery is what makes it green) and a more spicy orange habanero sauce that has heat but doesn't murder your mouth.  The flavor-packed chicken — juicy seasoned and gloriously smoky — is also sold as a family deal with two whole chickens four large sides and a 2-liter of pop for under $40 Sides offered a la carte or with the combos include coleslaw plantains or thick cassava or yuca strips that look like french fries but are more dense.  Gamez's Salvadoranroots shine in the pupusas puffy flatbread stuffed with beans and/or cheese and topped with crunchy shredded cabbage and a thin, tomato-based red sauce everybody in El Salvador eats them like that If you don't have the tomato sauce and the cabbage you're missing half the plate," said the younger Gamez 23. He says the pupusa recipe has been in his family since he could remember and is the same one that his relatives used at the pupusería they had in their native El Salvador (which they fashioned out of their garage).  Campestre Chicken also serves seafood dishes Gamez says "campestre" means "free range" or "something free."  Father-and-son team own and operate the new spot The younger Gamez said they tried to make a go of it in San Francisco after leaving Maryland but costs for the restaurant were too high and they found the Downriver suburb of Lincoln Park more suitable for both their home and business.  While there are a few tables inside to eat Call in your order and follow the enticing smell of roasted chicken all the way down Fort Street.  Campestre Chicken, 3419 Fort in Lincoln Park, is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Sat. and 11 a.m-8:30 p.m. Sun. Call (313) 914-7522 or (313) 914-7587. View the menu on the website, campestrelp.com.  More: Iconic Detroit area sandwiches, both modern and classic More: Detroit Pepper Company's healthy menu is stuffed with flavor Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1076704 This article is part of the Research TopicPlant and Algal Lipids: Recent Trends and Challenges in a Changing WorldView all 9 articles Corrigendum: Improved fatty acid composition of field cress (Lepidium campestre) by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing The wild species field cress (Lepidium campestre) has the potential to become a novel cover and oilseed crop for the Nordic climate Its seed oil is however currently unsuitable for most food due to the high contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and erucic acid (C22:1) As the biosynthesis of these undesirable fatty acids is controlled by a few well-known major dominant genes knockout of these genes using CRISPR/Cas9 would thus be more effective in improving the seed oil quality In order to increase the level of the desirable oleic acid (C18:1) and reduce the contents of PUFAs and C22:1 we targeted three important genes FATTY ACID ELONGASE1 (FAE1) and REDUCED OLEATE DESATURASE1 (ROD1) using a protoplast-based CRISPR/Cas9 gene knockout system we obtained a mutated line with almost no C22:1 but an increase in C18:1 to 30% compared with 13% in the wild type Knocking out ROD1 resulted in an increase of C18:1 to 23% in combination with heterozygous FAE1fae1 genotype resulted in mutated lines with up to 66% C18:1 Our results clearly show the potential of CRISPR/Cas9 for rapid trait improvement of field cress which would speed up its domestication process The mutated lines produced in this study can be used for further breeding to develop field cress into a viable crop These characteristics make it a promising crop for cultivation in temperate zones such as the Nordic region where it could increase land productivity while providing beneficial ecosystem services some traits need to be improved before the species becomes an economically viable crop Improving the oil quality by increasing C18:1 and reducing the content of PUFAs and C22:1 is thus an important goal in developing field cress into a viable food crop thus enabling the generation of transgene-free CRISPR-edited mutants we aimed at demonstrating that CRISPR/Cas9 can be an efficient genome editing tool for trait improvement of field cress and for developing transgene-free mutants with improved oil quality by knocking out key fatty acid biosynthesis genes campestre L.) used in this study were originated from accession no Seeds were surface sterilized with 15% (w/v) calcium hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2) and Tween 20 for 20 min and subsequently rinsed with sterile water Sterilized seeds were planted on the germination medium (half-strength MS pH 5.7) in sterile and single-use plastic boxes In vitro cultures were maintained in a climate chamber with a temperature of 23°C/18°C (day/night) and 16 h photoperiod with a light intensity of 40 µmol m-2 s-1 the plantlets were vernalized in vitro at 4°C for eight weeks they were planted in soil and grown in biotron with a temperature of 21°C/16°C (day/night) Mature seeds were harvested and stored at 4°C The AtROD1 gDNA sequence (NM_112452) was used for a BLAST query in the WGS field cress database in NCBI to find an A. thaliana ortholog in field cress (WJSH01021407). Using the sequence of this ortholog, we designed primers (Supplementary Table S1) to amplify and sequence the full length LcROD1 according to Muthusamy et al., 2020 Figure 1 Locations of sgRNAs selected (A) and types of mutations detected in FAE1 and FAD2 in different mutant lines (B). Insertions are highlighted in red. Deletions are highlighted in blue. (See also chromatographs from Sanger sequencing in Supplementary Figure S4) Two CRISPR/Cas9 vectors were constructed. One contained two sgRNAs targeting FAE1 and two sgRNAs targeting FAD2, and another contained four sgRNAs targeting ROD1, designated pYLCRISPR/Cas9Pubi-N_FAE1/FAD2 and pYLCRISPR/Cas9Pubi-N_ROD1, respectively (Supplementary Table S2) Protoplast isolation, transfection, and culture were performed according to our previously published protocol (Sandgrind et al., 2021) Approximately 150 000 to 200 000 protoplasts in 200 µl 0.5 M mannitol were gently mixed with 40 µg vector DNA (1 µg/µl) and 240 µl freshly prepared PEG-calcium solution (25% (w/v) PEG4000 The transfected protoplasts were then cultured in vitro in different media for cell division callus and shoot formation according to the protocol To confirm the types of mutations identified by HRFA PCR amplicons obtained with non-fluorescent primers were ligated into pJET1.2/blunt Cloning vector (Thermo Scientific) and transformed into E Single colonies were randomly selected and analyzed by Sanger sequencing (Eurofins Genomics or LGC Genomics) Once the regenerated shoots were confirmed to be mutated by sequencing, they were transferred to the rooting medium according to the protocol by Ivarson et al. (2013) Rooted shoots were subsequently vernalized in vitro for floral induction and grown to maturity in biotron under the conditions as stated above All target sites were sequenced to examine if transgene integration had occurred, and PCR was performed on the mutant lines using Cas9-specific primers (Supplementary Table S5) Pooled seed analysis of homozygous T0 mutants Pooled seeds were used for lipid extraction and analysis using the method described by Ivarson et al. (2016) Ten randomly selected mature seeds per sample were ground in 1 ml 0.15 M HAc and 3.75 ml CHCl3/MeOH using an Ultra Turrax immersion blender vortexed and then transferred to tubes for centrifugation for 2 min at 3000 rpm 200 µl of the CHCl3 phase was transferred to a test tube and dried under an N2 beam 100 µl heptane and 2 ml methylation solution (2% H2SO4 in methanol) were added into the tubes and capped the tubes were then methylated at 95°C for 1 h 100 µl heptane phase was transferred to a GC vial with insert from which 1 µl was used for analysis on a GC machine (Agilent 7890A) with a WCOT Fused Silica CP-Wax 58 column and flame-ionization detection (GC-FID) with the program of split ratio 10:1 100C/min to 2500C and hold at 2500C for 5 min Peaks were identified according to their retention times compared with a standard FAME mixture and the results were expressed as the area percentage of the methyl esters in total detectable peak areas Three biological samples were analyzed per mutant line Half-seed analysis of heterozygous T0 mutants Individual seeds from heterozygous T0 mutated lines and wild type were first phenotyped by analyzing the fatty acid profiles with GC-FID, as stated above. The interesting phenotypes were subsequently genotyped by Sanger sequencing. Half-seed analysis was based on the protocol by Li et al. (2012) and the larger outer cotyledons were excised for fatty acid analysis The remaining parts of the seeds were germinated in vitro and the leaves were used for genotyping by sequencing Excised cotyledons were ground with mortar and pestle in 500 µl heptane The solution was then filtered through a glass Pasteur pipette with a glass wool plug into a test tube and dried under an N2 beam 100 µl heptane and 2 ml methylation solution (2% H2SO4 in methanol) were added and the sample methylated at 95°C for 45 min and the samples were then vortexed and centrifuged for 2 min at 2000 rpm 100 µl of the heptane phase was transferred to a GC vial with insert and 1 µl was analyzed on the GC machine as described for pooled seed analysis and results were expressed as described for pooled seed analysis Data for fatty acid profile analysis (n = 3) was analyzed with RStudio 2021.09.1 Build 372 ANOVA analysis was carried out with Tukey’s test at 95% confidence level The field cress ortholog WJSH01021407 showed 80% of sequence homology with the full sequence of AtROD1 (NM_112452) from A. thaliana. Cloning and sequencing of the gene from gDNA and cDNA revealed that the gene consists of three exons (399, 138, and 327 nt, respectively, in total 864 nt). The LcROD1 gene shared 87% sequence homology with the AtROD1 coding sequence, and two introns (513 and 416 nt, respectively, in total 929 nt) (Supplementary Figure S1) The LcROD1 sequence is now available at GenBank with the accession number OP703165.1 Figure 2 Locations of sgRNAs selected (A) and types of mutations detected in ROD1 in different mutant lines (B) The homozygous fae1 Mutant 1 line was found to almost completely blocked elongation of C18:1 (Figure 3) Only trace amounts (≤0.5%) of C20:0 and C24:1 could be detected in the seed oil of this mutant the proportions of C18:1 level in the mutated line was more than doubled from 13.3% in the wild type to 29.5% in the mutant line The proportion of C18:3 was also significantly increased in the mutant from 38.4% in wild type to 48.3% in the mutant Figure 3 Major fatty acid compositions of seed oil derived from the seeds of homozygous fae1 Mutant 1, as shown in Figure 1 Different letters indicate statistically significant differences at p < 0.05 (n = 3) No homozygous fad2 or double fae1fad2 mutants were detected in T0. The heterozygous Mutant 4 T0 with FAE1fae1 and FAD2fad2 was thus selfed to obtain homozygous knockout lines in T1. Half-seed analysis was carried out on 84 T1 seeds derived from selfed Mutant 4. The results showed that three seeds were found to have dramatically improved fatty acid compositions, named Mutant 4-T1-24, Mutant 4-T1-47, and Mutant 4-T1-48 (Figure 4) The C18:1 content was increased from 13.3% in the wild type to 66.2% the C18:3 content was reduced from 38.4% in the wild type to 3.1% The C22:1 content was reduced from 24% in the wild type to 5.7% the C20:1 content was increased from 4.8% in the wild type to 10.1% Figure 4 Major fatty acid compositions of seed oil from the individual seeds analyzed by the half-seed method exhibiting the most pronounced changes in fatty acid profile. Seeds were derived from selfing the heterozygous Mutant 4, as shown in Figure 1 Sequencing of the mutant lines revealed homozygous 5 bp deletions in FAD2, predicted to disrupt the open reading frames, and heterozygous mutations in FAE1, including a wild type FAE1 allele (Figure 5) Figure 5 Types of mutations detected in FAE1 and FAD2 in selected seeds from the T1 generation of Mutant 4 The distribution of the fatty acid profiles among the 84 T1 seeds from Mutant 4 showed that more than half of the seeds had markedly elevated C18:1 contents, indicating that at least one FAE1 and/or FAD2 allele had been knocked out. Furthermore, it seemed like multiple knockout alleles had an additive effect on increasing the C18:1 content (Figure 6) Figure 6 Distribution of major fatty acids in individual seeds from the T1 generation of Mutant 4 analyzed by the half-seed method (total seed number = 84) Preliminary fatty acid composition analysis of the different mutant rod1 lines showed that they all had highly similar fatty acid profiles. We thus present only the results from Mutant 2 for simplicity. The mutant was found to have a significantly elevated C18:1 level and reduced PUFA contents (Figure 7) The C18:1 level was significantly increased to 22.5% compared with 13.3% in the wild type while the C18:3 and C18:2 contents were significantly reduced from 38.4% in the wild type to 29.9% in the mutant and from 8.8% in the wild type to 7.5% in the mutant Figure 7 Major fatty acid compositions of seed oil derived from rod1 Mutant 2, as shown in Figure 2 there are certain drawbacks to the transgenic approach for commercial applications there are no or limited regulatory obstacles for transgene-free gene-edited plants than transgenic plants the vector DNA may disrupt endogenous genes if they are integrated into the plant genome the continued expression of CRISPR vectors may increase the risk of off-target mutations and the out-crossing of the CRISPR vectors requires additional efforts we explored the feasibility of using the protoplast-CRISPR approach for knocking out the FAE1 FAD2 and ROD1 genes in field cress in this study in which the highest C18:1 level reached up to 80% which could be related to the mutations of the target genes cheap and high-throughput nature of the HRFA method in combination with a large number of shoots obtained from a single protoplast transfection the system is highly recommended for the initial screening of mutation lines It is even more efficient according to our ongoing studies in rapeseed in terms of mutation efficiency we have demonstrated for the first time that CRISPR/Cas9 can induce targeted mutations in field cress using the protoplast approach multiple target sites can be mutated simultaneously and the mutated protoplasts can be regenerated into plants that set seed we have demonstrated that it is possible to dramatically improve the seed oil fatty acid profile of field cress by knocking out the key genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis By knocking out FAE1 it is possible to obtain a seed oil well below the maximum allowed threshold of the erucic acid level for foodstuffs in the European Union and ROD1 increased the proportion of C18:1 in the seed oil it could be possible to create field cress lines with an exceptionally high C18:1 content careful evaluation of the agronomic performance and seed oil content of such lines under field conditions would be of great interest and a big step forward regarding the domestication of this species as field cress lines with improved seed oil profiles are highly desirable for food This study provides a sound base for using the protoplast-CRISPR approach to modify other important traits in field cress in order to speed up the domestication process and thus make it a viable crop for temperate climates The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found in the article/Supplementary Material EI performed cDNA synthesis of FAE1 and FAD2 genes SS and SK generated the CRISPR/Cas9 constructs and RG performed subsequent in vitro tissue culture work and took care of plants in biotron SS and EW performed the mutant screening and the fatty acid composition analysis All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version FORMAS (The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) grant 2016-01401 and Einar and Inga Nilsson’s foundation as well as The Royal Physiographic Society of Lund is highly acknowledged We thank Cecilia Hammenhag and Mulatu Gelata Dida for assistance with cloning LcROD1 Helle Turesson and Niklas Olsson for initial screening of mutated lines by HRFA Flüture Novakazi for assistance with statistical analysis Yao-Guang Liu from South China Agricultural University for providing the vector pYLCRISPR/Cas9Pubi-N and expression cassettes The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1076704/full#supplementary-material Efficient targeted multiallelic mutagenesis in tetraploid potato (Solanum tuberosum) by transient CRISPR-Cas9 expression in protoplasts Genome editing in potato via CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein delivery CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The biochemistry of headgroup exchange during triacylglycerol synthesis in canola Understanding the control of acyl flux through the lipid metabolic network of plant oil biosynthesis CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Biochemical pathways in seed oil synthesis PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A native promoter–gene fusion created by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genomic deletion offers a transgene-free method to drive oil accumulation in leaves CRISPR/Cas genome editing and precision plant breeding in agriculture doi: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-050718-100049 Identification and stacking of crucial traits required for the domestication of pennycress CRISPOR: intuitive guide selection for CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing experiments and screens Demonstration of highly efficient dual gRNA CRISPR/Cas9 editing of the homeologous GmFAD2–1A and GmFAD2–1B genes to yield a high oleic low linoleic and α-linolenic acid phenotype in soybean Corrigendum to commission regulation (EC) no 2019/1870 of 7 November 2019 amending and correcting regulation (EC) no 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of erucic acid and hydrocyanic acid in certain foodstuffs 2019) (Official journal l Google Scholar Cloning and functional characterization of genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis in the novel oilseed crop lepidium campestre l doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0523.2010.01825.x CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar RNAi targeting putative genes in phosphatidylcholine turnover results in significant change in fatty acid composition in crambe abyssinica seed oil Extending the story of vry-long-chain fatty acid elongation PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Modifications of fatty acid profile through targeted mutation at BnaFAD2 gene with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in brassica napus Renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation Google Scholar Significant increase of oleic acid level in the wild species lepidium campestre through direct gene silencing Development of an efficient regeneration and transformation method for the new potential oilseed crop lepidium campestre CRISPR/Cas9-induced fad2 and rod1 mutations stacked with fae1 confer high oleic acid seed oil in pennycress (Thlaspi arvense l.) 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Li-Hua Zhu, TGktSHVhLlpodUBzbHUuc2U= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1183817 Improved fatty acid composition of field cress (Lepidium campestre) by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing A corrigendum onImproved fatty acid composition of field cress (Lepidium campestre) by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing by Sandgrind S, Li X, Ivarson E, Wang ES, Guan R, Kanagarajan S and Zhu L-H (2023) Front. Plant Sci. 14:1076704. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1076704 there was an error in the Funding statement The Funding statement for “FORMAS -The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development” missed the parentheses for the full name of FORMAS and grant number The correct Funding statement appears below: “Financial support to this research by MISTRA (The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) and The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences through Mistra Biotech program and Einar and Inga Nilsson’s foundation as well as The Royal Physiographic Society of Lund is highly acknowledged.” The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way Kanagarajan S and Zhu L-H (2023) Corrigendum: Improved fatty acid composition of field cress (Lepidium campestre) by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing Received: 10 March 2023; Accepted: 13 March 2023;Published: 22 March 2023 This local favorite breakfast spot has quickly become Los Cabos’ worst-kept secret Restaurant Bar Campestre has for years catered to local businesspeople Even after a renovation that upped seating capacity it remains a no-frills flavor palace well worth the wait for a table and the effort to find it Come early for a heaping serving of chilaquiles (strips of fried corn tortillas) All the breakfasts pair perfectly with just-squeezed orange juice and cup after cup of fresh-brewed coffee Information on this page, including website, location, and opening hours, is subject to have changed since this page was last published. If you would like to report anything that’s inaccurate, let us know at notification@afar.com. AFAR participates in affiliate marketing programs which means we may earn a commission if you purchase an item featured on our site.© 2025 AFAR LLC This past weekend was quite a scary one for our dining guests Les had a seriously speedy heart and was transported to a Columbus hospital by medical helicopter Everything checked out fine and we thought we’d have them relax at El Campestre in Ontario It’s an excellent place to sit down with friends to catch up You might have noticed driving on Fourth Street how incredibly busy this particular Mexican restaurant can be as this restaurant was one of the 50 customers to which I formerly supplied cheesecakes He explained that his wife is the owner and that he’s faithfully been working for her for the past eight years or shopping — he wisely declined to answer is a very professional chap who knows the extensive menu inside and out He started us off with three different margaritas The interesting-sounding drinks were phenomenal — I had a subtle hint of that earthy pepper we took Christian’s advice on the four dips with cheese pico de gallo and a tremendous fresh guacamole The guacamole had great texture and evened out our previously medium salsa We did notice several “new” dishes highlighted on the menu including barbecue chicken fajitas and inviting steak and lime tacos Our first entrée was a shrimp trio of barbecue tender and created a very great starter for the four of us Next we tried the pollo primavera with spinach It was a delicious change from what every other Mexican restaurant offers and it’s good to see they nailed this dish which dunked a 7-ounce beer inside of my giant-size margarita I was surprised that the two could be such happy companions A white chocolate diva featured Godiva liqueur and was similar to a wedding cake flavor The second drink was the red lingerie and lace (loosely translated from Spanish) iced drink with incredible strawberry flavor The Raspberry Crush was a dead ringer for the outside of a spiked Tootsie Pop sucker Our caramel apple martini hit the spot as we finished off our chicken dish and El Campestre is one of the few Mexican restaurants that offers a green sauce for them I had 28 guys from Chihuahua who worked for me in Colorado and that sauce took me back to running that restaurant and the guys in the back kicking out those pork-filled creations with Mesa Harina Green sauce is fairly easy to make at home by boiling peeled tomatillos I use either a food processor or an immersion blender to bring it to the right consistency That sauce is also incredible in my “Mean Green” chili with pork loin white beans and a streaming liquid of fresh lime Everything was superb as I gave the “thumbs up” to Luis Although Christian was ready to bring out more entrees we decided to shut it down and save room for desserts I had asked Luis if any more restaurants were on the drawing board and there just so happens to be one coming next month The former “Rock & Wingz” restaurant at 595 Ashland Road is being transformed at this very moment into their second location but we also can have excellent service and food right here at their 1971 W We finished off with a huge fried ice cream with chocolate and whipped cream in a crunchy shell which was smooth in texture and big on flavor After washing that all down with what seemed like endless drinks vowing we all didn’t need to eat until Tuesday Call El Campestre to plan your weekend get-together with friends and family at 419-529-5330 You can also visit them on Facebook to keep up with their newest creations HARTFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Insurity a leading provider of cloud-based software for insurance carriers and MGAs today announced that it has appointed Craig Campestre as Chief Sales Officer Campestre will lead Insurity’s sales strategy and operations and ensuring alignment to Insurity’s strategic goals He will report to Insurity Chief Executive Officer Chris Lafond Campestre brings to Insurity more than 20 years of experience in sales and accelerating growth at leading software companies he served as Chief Revenue Officer at IPC Systems a technology and service leader in the global financial services markets He also served as Vice President of Sales for Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) helping them achieve record revenue growth year after year and leading many successful business transformation projects across a variety of sectors “I am excited to join the Insurity team as Chief Sales Officer Insurity is a trusted technology leader dedicated to helping insurance carriers and MGAs profitably grow with best-in-class cloud-based software,” said Campestre “I look forward to leading a successful sales team and continuing to execute on Insurity’s rapid growth strategy.” “We are thrilled to have an accomplished sales leader like Craig join our leadership team,” said Insurity Chief Executive Officer Chris Lafond “His proven track record in driving significant growth and revenue and over-achieving sales targets will help enable our customers to quickly capitalize on new opportunities and profitably grow their organizations.” © Copyright 2012 - 2023 | citybiz | All Rights Reserved If you're a student at the WIN Academy in the Socorro Independent School District The letters "WIN" in the academy's name stand for three phrases: "Work hard," "I can do it attitude" and "Never give up." The program targets at-risk and underperforming students and offers them a longer school day more time on math and reading and close teacher-parent participation Socorro ISD Superintendent José Espinoza said his inspiration for starting the program came from the story behind the film "Stand and Deliver," which highlighted the work of Jaime Escalante an educator in East Los Angeles who taught struggling Hispanic students and helped turn around the school climate "Low income students, when compared to students from affluent families — it’s tough," Espinoza said. "We wanted to level the playing field with extra time the devices from the technology department, to level the playing field and give them (students) the opportunity to catch up and even surpass." now has 1,323 students at 19 campuses Students are identified for the program based on criteria such as test scores assistant superintendent for elementary education at Socorro ISD "There are some kids who need to feel that sense of belonging and being part of a classroom where the teacher is going to loop with them," Zapata-Farmer said One of the highlights of the program is that teachers loop through school with their students a second-grade WIN teacher will follow his students to each grade until they reach middle school and get new instructors "They (teachers) are going to know every single challenge and not only of the child but the family," Espinoza said. "They’re going to be with them for multiple years Teachers in the program have bilingual certifications and are given a $6,500 stipend when hired They — just like their students — have a longer school day Espinoza and Zapata-Farmer said they were concerned about finding interested teachers I think it started with the belief system that we have to do whatever it takes to get our kids to be successful," Zapata-Farmer said chief financial officer for the Socorro ISD said it takes about $7 million to fund the WIN Academy with about $4.1 million of that going toward salaries He said that money comes from local and state funding "It’s a program we feel we can sustain in the future I have no doubt we can keep going," Reza said 11399 Socorro Road, which is surrounded mostly by agriculture in the Lower Valley the WIN Academy has helped boost state test results 71 percent of Campestre fifth-graders passed their state exams on reading That number rose to 74 percent in 2018 which Espinoza said is due in part to the progress of the WIN Academy "One of the goals is to build up their confidence," Espinoza said puff their chest out, 'We’re part of the WIN Academy.' Their confidence has been built up in them Campestre also received an A on its 2018 state accountability scores had been struggling in kindergarten and first grade before entering the WIN program in second grade Melendez said she has a good relationship with her son's teacher and likes the idea that they will be together for as long as Emiliano is at Campestre Melendez said she's also seen behavioral changes in her son Emiliano loves reading and getting to school on time And I get to go because I’m a volunteer mom Sara Sanchez can be reached at 546-6147; ssanchez@elpasotimes.com; @siempresarita on Twitter When you write a Golf Advisor course review now through December 31 your review will be entered into Golf Advisor’s Rate to Escape: Maui Sweepstakes for a chance to win a five-star trip to Maui One Grand Prize winner and guest will travel in an AVIS rental car for six nights/ seven days of accommodations with the latest gear from OGIO to play on the finest fairways in Maui We’re also giving away 12 Golf Advisor Swag bags to lucky reviewers Golfers teeing it up in Los Cabos have always held onto one high standard when it comes to where they're playing: They want ocean-front golf The sight of golf's shades of green shaking hands with the sandy white beaches and blue waves of the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez distinguishes the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula over many of the world's other luxurious golf destinations More holes rest peacefully near the shoreline in Los Cabos than any other golf hotspot except Hawaii But as development has crowded out the beach, golf courses like the Club Campestre San Jose must prove their worth away from the surf. Campestre is the fifth Jack Nicklaus design in Los Cabos Playing on the ocean at celebrated places like Palmilla and Cabo del Sol will cost you Playing just off the ocean at Club Campestre while still enjoying similar views on the horizon Campestre's greens fees are generally 10 to 20 percent cheaper than its competitors beautiful," said Los Cabos resident and golfer Marcos Cauduro Think of Campestre as more of a country club in Arizona than a Mexican resort track It's arguably the best conditioned golf course in Los Cabos. The tees, fairways and greens tend to be consistently good; even manicure-obsessed golfers from north of the border will notice. Operator Questro Golf takes good care of Campestre and its sister courses, II's Cabo Real and Puerto Los Cabos designed by Robert Trent Jones "The maintenance is superior," noted Dan Kash The 6,966-yard Club Campestre is dressed head to toe in seashore paspalum the revolutionary grass that flourishes in extreme climates with salt water the density of the grass is so thick," said golf professional Adrian Salum Diagonal hazards pepper the Campestre course Water pinches holes between the seventh and ninth Players must carry arroyos or bunkers cutting through fairways on five holes Subtle elevation changes force tough decisions about what club to pick The par-4 fifth and 10th holes trudge painstakingly uphill Play here won't batter guests or their egos It's the greens where the course shows teeth," he said "We rarely get them above nine-and-a-half on the stimpmeter The practice area makes a strong case for ranking as the best in Los Cabos That will serve the club well if it follows through with the plans to eventually go private Real estate and membership drives remain ongoing Club Campestre is the most affordable Nicklaus course in the area mainly due to its lack of ocean-front property strategic routing and the premier conditioning more than make up for the loss of the beach When it comes to a "bang for your buck" course in a typically expensive destination like Los Cabos There's no shortage of luxury hotels in Los Cabos. In that ilk, the 375-room Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort shares the ocean with several holes of the Cabo Real Golf Club Its infinity pool looks down on a sprawling beach one of the few swimmable spots in Los Cabos from the lobby anchored by two giant fish tanks to the décor of the rooms and spacious bathrooms The housekeeper left me welcome and goodbye messages spelled out in decorative pebbles on my bed located on eight acres of beach along the Pacific Ocean just steps from the Land's End and the famous natural arch hacienda style all-suite resort within walking distance of downtown Cabo San Lucas Grab a hardy breakfast at the buffet at the Hilton's El Meson The resort's Madero Bar and Grill offers casual fare like tacos and wood-fire oven pizzas The Tequila Restaurant in downtown San Jose offers an intimate retreat with a secluded courtyard for outdoor dining All the restaurant's organic vegetables are grown locally Drinking house wines pared with entrees off an exotic menu satisfy after a long day in the San Jose sun The beach-front Brigantine at the Playa Grande serves fresh seafood steak and its specialty - molcajete stuffed with lobster ‘campestre 107’ is located in the city’s san angel inn district with a bold façade presented to the passing street the building’s plot measures 11 meters in width and 33 meters in length this ratio has guided the design of the property whose built structure only represents a third of the available site a bold façade is presented to the passing street all images by rafael gamo the residence is organized around two external patios the two terraces separate public areas of the home from more private zones the built structure only represents a third of the available site contained within a T-shaped plan, regular public spaces are articulated around the first patio areas of greenery have been introduced throughout the dwelling a living room, dining room, and kitchen form the first part of the dwelling internal living spaces are brightly and naturally lit the majority of living accommodation is found at ground level the upper storey contains rooms for guests the two-storey dwelling is located in mexico city’s san angel inn district the entire design is based on rectangular proportions name: casa campestre 107 location: mexico city, mexico completed: 2015 project: DCPP arquitectos construction: DCPP construcciones textiles’ intervention: marisol centeno photography: rafael gamo happening now! partnering with antonio citterio, AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function, but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style, context, and personal expression. Text description provided by the architects. Master Plan  Campestre Gymnasium 2022 In 2007, the Board of Directors and the School’s dean decided to begin an ambitious transformation of their facilities, which had a history of 65 years. To accomplish the plan they hired MGP Arquitectura y Urbanism as the designers and Exacta as the construction managers. Both partners studied in the institution 30 years earlier. © Andrés ValbuenaThis building contains the center for the arts with laboratories in its base and two volumes on top for the classrooms, one for middle school and the other for high school. The building is the academic heart of the institution completed by the academic departments under construction now in an interesting revival of the old high school building. © Andrés ValbuenaThe site is ideal for academic activities as it is surrounded by old trees, looking out over the beautiful mountains of Bogota. The Building occupies the territory surrounding the new Patio for the arts, split in two to let the mountain view in and set on a platform that’s under ground level to multiply the chances to enter the project. © Andrés ValbuenaThe students enter and exit the corridors in a way that merges the interior with the exterior assuring that they are aware of their environment The facades are defined by a metal celosia protecting the classrooms from direct sunlight and diluting the buildings volume In an attempt to merge the inside and outside we used the colors from the mountain and the ground in combination with beige concrete walls built with wood that’s imprinted on the material You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email it would be difficult not to stare at ten men dressed in black who brandished submachine guns ten men dressed in black who brandished submachine guns would be the sort of thing that caught a person's eye while young mothers ushered their children to tennis and swimming lessons swarmed the club's entrance and abducted 34-year-old Ivan Escobosa They abducted Escobosa from the entrance's polished green-slate steps only a few yards from where two dozen color and black-and-white photos mounted on the lobby's walls illustrate the club's 57-year history stood a tripod displaying the portraits of Club Campestre's 17 "Debutantes of 2005." According to a Los Angeles Times account of the abduction Escobosa's screams were so loud that "they were heard in the chandeliered dining room nearby." The gunmen shoved Escobosa into one of their black vehicles and crashed through the security gate at the club's entrance and disappeared into the heavy traffic on Boulevard Agua Caliente Three days later Escobosa's body was found beside a Tijuana highway News reports stated that Escobosa's body showed signs of having been "badly beaten" and "asphyxiated," that his head was covered with a "yellow plastic bag." Someone who witnessed Escobosa's abduction told me that he remembered something else about that afternoon "What I remember is that as soon as people realized what was going on They made a point of not looking at the gunmen Someone else who saw the abduction told me and they were attacking a guest at his club He takes his responsibilities very seriously He went right up to the gunmen and asked who they were He told them he was going to write down their license plate numbers One of the gunmen pointed his gun at Guillermo's face and said 'If you take down our license plate numbers we'll come back tomorrow and kill you.' on the morning I met him several weeks after the incident at Club Campestre's entrance in the way that Mexican middle-class men are often respetuoso Like several people I spoke to while learning about Club Campestre Guevara wasn't entirely at ease with our conversation "I started this job only four months ago," he said "I don't know everything about Club Campestre I'd like to keep this interview as informal as possible." While I asked Guevara about his duties at Club Campestre the names of the six country clubs in Mexico City and Guadalajara where he'd held various management positions since 1970 He told me that while Campestre was the largest Mexican country club on the border its $14,000 initiation fee and $300 monthly dues were much less than the fees and dues at other clubs in Mexico country club initiation fees can be as high as $220,000 "But even though we're less expensive than other clubs in Mexico He told me that he managed 265 employees and that around 3000 people meetings -- for anywhere between 100 to 500 people Guevara indicated that he wasn't comfortable talking about what happened on May 4 that he felt it best that Campestre's president Guevara did hand me over to Ramiro Marquez "Only members and their guests can use the golf course "But we're otherwise completely open to the public You're welcome to look around at anything you'd like." It was only after I got up from my seat in Guevara's office that I noticed that a bank of closed-circuit televisions displayed a continuous stream of images captured by security cameras posted at a number of locations around Club Campestre Guevara's desk faces the bank of closed-circuit televisions Guevara must have seen what was going on at the entrance before he went outside Guevara knew what was happening and he went to intervene a man in his early forties with broad shoulders and a firm belly was wearing dark slacks and a navy-blue polo shirt suggesting that nothing much upsets or riles him boy," Marquez said and rolled his eyes when I asked about the abduction "All I have to say is that Guillermo Guevara is a very brave man." Marquez showed me around Campestre as if it were his home and he had significant pride of ownership He ushered me through the various banquet halls Salon Agua Caliente that can hold 1000 people "which is very popular for wedding and baby showers The women can sit up here and have their party while they watch the men play golf." Marquez drove me in a golf cart around the 60-acre course pointing out the private condos and homes surrounding it One enormous structure with an elaborate copper roof belonged to a "Middle Eastern man who for many years had a tobacco concession in Tijuana Every year we have a tournament when policemen from San Diego and Los Angeles come down to play That's where Tijuana's chief of police lives!' Their jaws drop A lot of them believe me until I tell them it's a joke." Guillermo Guevara handed me a large white book a 190-page history of the club published in 1998 to commemorate Campestre's 50-year anniversary The book traces the club's evolution from serving in the late 1920s as the golf course at Agua Caliente Hotel and Casino to its independent incorporation in September 1948 The book devotes a great many pages to detailing organizational aspects of the club such as the writing of its constitution and bylaws The book devotes a great many pages to demonstrating that Club Campestre has done everything by the rules and with the greatest possible transparency "We're an attractive place for a lot of families in Tijuana who don't belong to Club Campestre," said Genoveva Magana "If you want to have a party in one of our banquet rooms in December and July you have to book it at least one year in advance things slow down and we may have as few as only seven private events each week One of our biggest events is the Debutantes Dance in July They draw the name from a box so that all the girls have an equal chance "Club members and nonmembers like to use our rooms because it's so much more convenient than entertaining at their homes You don't have to clean up before and afterward but on average it's about 25 dollars per plate "Another thing that makes us so attractive is our parking guests either have to pay for parking or there is no off-street parking our parking is probably one of the most important things that we have to offer I never did meet Club Campestre's president who said she would get back to me with a time and a date for a meeting Gallardo's secretary and I spoke by phone at least twice each week A couple of times each week I'd drive down to Tijuana and drop by Campestre's offices to see if Dr Each time I spoke with his secretary she assured me that soon I don't know the exact reason why he never got around to meeting me I do know that immediately after Ivan Escobosa's abduction there were rumors that Escobosa had been involved with the Arellano Felix drug cartel But the details surrounding his abduction were sketchy as are the details surrounding most abductions and kidnappings in Tijuana News reports described Escobosa variously as an "entrepreneur," an "owner of money-exchange houses," a "housing developer." Escobosa's own mother called in to Tijuana radio stations to say that her son owned gas stations and was never involved in crime as he left his home in an armored Mercury Grand Marquis The police claimed that Contreras operated a cell for the Arellano Felix drug cartel that had been involved in ten abductions Tijuana's 25-year-old muckraking weekly later reported that while Contreras did work for the Arellano Felix drug cartel Desafortunadamente is Spanish for "unfortunately," and its eight syllables are a mouthful even for native Spanish speakers enunciates desafortunadamente with impressive speed Zeta's investigative reporting has closely tracked the drug Mafia's penetration of Tijuana society Two of Zeta's journalists have been murdered: Hector Felix Miranda in April 1988 and Francisco Ortiz Franco has for the past 17 years contended that Jorge Hank Rhon was the "intellectual author" of Miranda's murder.) dry afternoon I visited Zeta's offices to speak with Navarro three laborers who'd been reinforcing the wall around Zeta's entrance were taking their siesta on a pile of damp sand A burly fellow holding an M-16 stood guard at the front door invited me to take a seat on a broad leather couch "Desafortunadamente," Navarro said "the reaction of journalists to what happened at Club Campestre the reaction of many San Diegans to what happened at Club Campestre was probably greater than that of a lot of people in Tijuana all the law students and the law professors in Tijuana come out and make a big protest all the accounting students and accounting professors come out and make a big protest After Ivan Escobosa was abducted from Club Campestre and murdered They're the sort of people who can get on the phone and tell politicians 'Solve this problem!' Jorge Hank Rhon Jorge Hank Rhon's wife was even 'Queen of the Debutantes' at Club Campestre the members of Club Campestre have never made any kind of formal protest about what happened at the entrance to their club Tijuana is now a city of around 2 million residents I think that now something like only 47 percent of the people who live here are natives the majority of people who live in Tijuana don't have roots here yet They're really not invested in the local society Escobosa was probably involved in drug dealing.' It's a way of saying Nothing like that will happen to us.' What they don't realize is that as the violence escalates so does their chance of eventually being caught in the crossfire Another factor is that the people who have the social position and power to demand change have an escape Navarro handed me a copy of an article she'd written that appeared in the September 2 "Rather than panic," the article began "Tijuana residents prefer to go live in the United States." Navarro went on to say that not only was the number of kidnappings and abductions increasing but that many businessmen and entrepreneurs were facing a new menace In the weeks preceding the article's publication businessmen and entrepreneurs had started receiving extortionary phone calls at their homes and businesses These calls had evolved from threats of kidnapping to outright threats of murder 'If you don't give us a certain amount of money we'll kill someone in your family.' " Navarro quoted Jaime Valdovino as saying that since the beginning of 2005 his organization had received reports of 240 such calls Valdovino said that this number likely represented only a fraction of the phone threats being made in Tijuana "Not only are these phone calls increasing in severity," said Navarro "the kidnappings and abductions are becoming more brazen the City Hall representative from the La Mesa district but he was kidnapped on a busy street at 9:30 in the morning was murdered two blocks away from a police station there's plenty of reasons for people to worry so we're safe,' but the evidence is that no one is safe The incidence of all kinds of crime is increasing The smuggling of people across the border is tied to the narcotraficantes and the smuggling of drugs across the border It all trickles down and touches all our lives I'm not involved with narcotraficantes.' But when you go out to a restaurant and come out a couple of hours later and find that your car and everything in it has disappeared your life has been touched by the same criminal system that's creating all the other problems." But instead of organizing politically to force the municipal and federal governments to confront these problems many of Tijuana's citizens with money and influence have made other arrangements "Go to an upper-class neighborhood in Tijuana like Chapultepec and look around," Navarro told me "I'd estimate that one of every four houses you see has on it a sign that says 'For Sale' or 'For Rent.' What's happening is that a lot of businesspeople are leaving for San Diego and they're hiring management companies that are based in cities like Monterrey and Nuevo León to manage their business for them in Tijuana "I don't call this 'living well and safely.' That was one of the slogans that our current mayor He promised that he was going to attack crime and that we were going to 'live well and safely.' I don't think he's kept his promise." I asked Navarro if she felt that people in Tijuana had a limit for the amount of crime and violence that they were willing to tolerate "I'd like to think that we do have a limit And I'm an optimist in part because I'm a journalist and I feel that I can have an impact on what happens in our city I believe that someday soon people are going to look at the current situation and say we've had enough!' and go out and organize to let politicians know that they won't tolerate these problems anymore Something like what happened in California with your previous governor Are we close to reaching some sort of limit How bad will things have to get before we reach that limit What I do know is that I don't at present see any evidence of our reaching a limit When I left Navarro and later over lunch had a chance to read her article The article mentioned incidents with which I was unfamiliar A week or so before the unpleasantness at Club Campestre armed men dressed in black had abducted and murdered the owner of Carnitas Quiroga stormed a banquet room at a well-known social hall only to discover a graduation ceremony in progress the armed group moved on to their intended target a quinceañera celebration in a room nearby to the floor and then murdered the debutante's father Navarro ended her article with a sidebar giving the names of the 39 men and women who had been murdered in Tijuana in August 2005 the "most violent month in Tijuana in the past six years." The sidebar stated that as of the end of August 2005 I found myself with some time to kill at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana The main exhibition happened to be something called Farsites: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art a 12-year-old binational organization that promotes an annual series of art events in San Diego and Tijuana "The themes that weave the work of the 53 artists in the exhibition are the varied notions of 'crisis' and 'symptom' in relation both to the urban sphere and the domestic scene," explained a statement printed on the wall outside the exhibition Although Tijuana's current "situation," as Adela Navarro puts it would appear to offer inspiration for art concerning "urban crisis" and its "domestic symptoms," Farsites seemed distant from the conversations I'd been having about life in Tijuana I wandered around the exhibit and gazed at black-and-white stills of run-down buildings in Milan at color shots of middle-class homes in Sandusky and at color shots of high-rise apartment buildings in Bogotá dark room I stood for a few minutes and watched what appeared to be a video montage composed of decades-old news footage regarding various terrorist attacks principally that of the 1972 hijacking of Sabena flight 572 from Vienna to Tel Aviv an artist had dumped a pile of hard candies individually wrapped in shiny red who were touring the exhibit with their teacher either did or did not get the artist's point and fell upon the candies like ravenous cubs who either did or did not get the artist's point a Brazilian artist had installed an enormous pillow fashioned from plastic-coated pages taken from various Brazilian newspapers a piece of art that even I could comprehend A joke that even I could get: journalism-as-lullaby But as witty as the giant pillow might have been in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro a city where a number of journalists haven't been much interested in writing lullabies it occurred to me that I was witnessing something not very different from what happened at the entrance to Club Campestre on May 4 who would appear to have a stake in the world at large had chosen to look away from the facts at hand Farsite's artists had privileged as "micro or partial standpoints" neither the 250-odd murders that had occurred in Tijuana as of the end of August 2005 nor the assassination of Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco nor the kidnapping of Alejandro Ruiz Arretche nor the screams of Ivan Escobosa that echoed around Club Campestre's chandeliered dining room "You learn to watch out for certain things Like Dodge Ram pickups with dark-tinted windows Or Ford Crown Victorias with dark-tinted windows Or Mercury Grand Marquis with dark-tinted windows Those are the kinds of cars that kidnappers often use," said 30-year-old Antonio who was the reason I'd killed time at the Farsite exhibition "Those are the vehicles that drug dealers often use The vans are tricky because they look like the sort of vans owned by a lot of legitimate businesses." whose standpoint on Tijuana's symptoms of urban crisis was micro had been referred to me by two young women I'd met one afternoon in front of Club Campestre Neither girl had wanted to speak with me about the May 4 incident but both had said that Antonio came from a respectable upper-middle-class family and had grown up around kids whose families belonged to Club Campestre They said Antonio was well-educated and well-spoken and would be able to give me an idea of how Tijuana's upper middle class responded to what happened I had difficulty arranging to meet Antonio He asked that I supply him with a list of questions so that he could prepare "good answers." He first suggested that we meet at Sanborn's restaurant on Revolución but then rejected the location as "too obvious." He later suggested VIP's coffee shop in Zona Rio but then rejected it for the same reason Finally he asked that we meet at the entrance to the Centro Cultural But after meeting me there and shaking my hand Antonio said he didn't want to talk at the Centro's cafe either had an out-of-the-way second floor that was often empty in the early evening While we sipped iced cappuccinos priced at four dollars each that I would not disclose details that might identify him or his family He did allow me to say that his family was in the construction industry and had done well enough to afford vacations in Europe and Mexico City and "But now we have to be careful," he said "If you're a young person driving a new car somebody might assume that you come from a family with a lot of money My brother worked very hard and bought the car with his own money They just see a young man driving a nice new Japanese sports car we've talked about kidnappings and about the precautions we should take if someone we don't know calls the house and asks to speak with my father If we don't know the person who's calling we always say that our father is away on a business trip We don't say where he's gone or when he'll return 'Change the route that you take when going and coming from work Don't always drive the same car.' My father always says 'Be careful of what you say when you're out with your friends Don't brag about what new clothes you just bought You don't know who might be listening.' "I guess it's like the conversations that families have about earthquakes about what everyone in the family should do in case there's an earthquake And here in Tijuana even middle-class families have to discuss kidnappings because it's not just upper-class or rich people who get kidnapped You personally might not have a lot of money Having a rich person in your family can make you an attractive target for kidnappers "What I'm telling you is what just about anyone in Tijuana would tell you if they felt comfortable talking with you It's part of the life that we live now I know that my father gets some kind of monthly 'security bulletin' that's printed for businessmen that gives suggestions on how to avoid being kidnapped." I asked Antonio how his family had reacted to the news of what happened at Club Campestre I asked if it had changed the way they thought about their personal safety "What I remember is that day we became aware that a young man had been abducted from the club's entrance We heard that a young man had been abducted from the entrance at Club Campestre and then the gossip was that it had taken the police 15 or 20 minutes to arrive The implication was that the police had perhaps been somehow involved in the abduction It wasn't clear if [Escobosa] had been kidnapped for ransom or if he had been involved in drug dealing and had been abducted for revenge by narcotraficantes "For middle- or upper-middle-class people in Tijuana I don't think the incident at Club Campestre was what really changed the way we thought about our personal safety Most of our families don't belong to Club Campestre anyway I think that for the middle and upper middle classes the big change came five years ago when the son of Beatriz Adriana was kidnapped and murdered Beatriz Adriana is a very famous and respected actor and singer in Mexico She tried to raise money for her son's ransom We didn't know if the son had been involved in drug dealing or not if the son of a famous and loved Mexican celebrity can be kidnapped and murdered then even middle- and upper-middle-class people aren't safe I asked Antonio if he feared being kidnapped You can't live with that kind of fear in Tijuana Since members of my family work in public administration I think that's something I would mention to the kidnappers I don't know if it would help protect me I don't know how far my family members' influence extends in the upper levels of public administration But it's something that I would definitely mention if I were kidnapped I asked Antonio if his family had ever considered joining Club Campestre "I don't think my father was ever interested but a few years ago one of my older brothers who's done very well thought about joining I don't think money had anything to do with his decision I don't think money had anything to do with it at all I think he finally thought that the point of joining the club was to play golf and I think that we as a family kind of consider golf to be an elitist sport." When we finished our second round of cappuccinos Antonio offered to show me a home his older brother was building in one of the newer upper-middle-class neighborhoods high in the hills southwest of downtown Tijuana The brother's home was in what Americans would call a "gated community." Armed guards at two security checkpoints control traffic into and out of the development In front of and behind these two checkpoints much larger than any I've ever seen in the US make it impossible for a vehicle to enter or leave the community in haste Not all the lots have been sold in the development standing on the otherwise barren hillsides those homes that were already finished or in the process of being built loomed more imposingly than they might if the development were complete was three stories tall and had a three-car garage The bathroom in the master bedroom had a cathedral ceiling and was about the same size of my living room at home and had "Don't you think that's a lot for a family that has only one child?" Antonio led me up a spiral staircase to the roof of the house which his brother has designed to be used as a patio The view was panoramic: we could see not only all of downtown Tijuana but also all the way to Tijuana's airport The evening air was hazy and made the thousands of lights spread out before us appear a soft amber color "Tijuana can be a nice place to live." "I still live here," says the 50-year-old current president of CANACO "I wouldn't live anywhere else." is one of Club Campestre's most visible members The afternoon I met Valdovino in CANACO's spacious and very well air-conditioned offices in Zona Rio he wore a Ralph Lauren dress shirt striped in yellow and blue pastels projected the sort of easygoing can-do enthusiasm common to civic boosters on both sides of the border "has been our best year for tourism ever." Valdovino explained that 80-year-old CANACO represents 1700 small- to medium-sized businesses that "We represent about 30 different groups -- everything from pharmacies to used-car dealers He said that CANACO's members elect the organization's president (I asked if CANACO's presidency were a part-time position "It's supposed to be," he laughed "At least my father thinks it's supposed to be.") "CANACO's chief role is to act as liaison between businesses and the municipal If our members have difficulty getting some kind of permit We're essentially the buffer between business and the government so we can criticize things without fear of any repercussions." Valdovino told me that he was a Tijuana native and came from a middle-class family that "But we got out of that business," he said 'No more chickens!' That's the best decision I ever made in my life I asked about Valdovino's involvement in Club Campestre "I've been a member of Club Campestre for ten years "A very small percentage of CANACO members belong to Club Campestre You have to understand that more than 50 percent of our members are small- to medium-size businesses They don't have the time for those kind of activities "I probably really became aware of Club Campestre in my late twenties I'd always had friends who belonged there but I wasn't really involved with the club I was more interested in building the family business My image of the place wasn't that it was strictly for the rich because that's not true I'd have to say that now more than 50 percent of the members are middle-class "If you'd ask most people in Tijuana they would say that Club Campestre was a privileged place I always saw it as important to the community Despite changes in the local or national government Our dues have remained about $350 per month and that's relatively inexpensive when compared to places in Guadalajara or Monterrey "Part of Club Campestre's stability is that it's secluded When I started playing golf there what I remember was noticing that it's surrounded by walls and you could kind of forget the problems that exist outside You can forget the problems that exist outside for the two or three hours that you're there I'd go to Campestre two or three times a week I'm so busy that it's only once a week "It's also a good place to raise a family you need a place where you can send your kids to play and eat Campestre has offered that kind of security And it's a good place for your kids to make contacts "The main thing is that when your kids are there you know where they are and you know who they're making friends with 'Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are' Other people will assume to know who you are by looking at your friends And so that's the main reason for sending your kids there My two daughters and my son went there when they were younger And the 'debutantes' aspect of Campestre is very nice A lot of girls still have a quinceañera outside the club and participate in the debutantes but more and more you have girls like my one daughter who said I just want to do the debutantes at Campestre and then have a small dinner at home I don't want a big party.' Things have changed "Campestre is also a nice and convenient place to have parties it's very convenient because it's only 10 minutes from our house I'd say that 90 percent of the members live within a 20-minute radius from the club And that's good for us that it's so convenient for the community and the club can charge for renting the rooms and that way the club can make a little money "I think Campestre's function has been mostly social and not so much as an economic or political center for the city There are a lot of rich people who don't belong I'd say that most rich people in Tijuana don't belong Valdovino's reaction to what happened on May 4 because that's what Campestre has always been about Campestre was one of the few places where you felt secure It made us all realize that times have changed No place where organized crime can't get involved what happened at Club Campestre was a surprise to us There was a realization that things had to change I think this past year we've all been more aware about our security About taking greater measures about our security What happened at Club Campestre hasn't been the only thing that's happened here." I told Valdovino that I'd heard that Ivan Escobosa had gone that afternoon to Club Campestre with the son of a prominent Tijuana family "I've heard various rumors about what happened I've heard various versions of what happened I know the name of the person who was abducted I can't really comment on anything else But there are certain places at certain hours where you shouldn't go If you have the choice between parking your car on the street or in a private lot we've been forced to spend more on security Five years ago our budgets for security were not a major issue I asked Valdovino why he thought Club Campestre's members haven't made any sort of organized protest about what happened on May 4 if someone like an attorney gets kidnapped and murdered But what you have to factor in is that if someone's kidnapped and if that person was involved directly or indirectly in organized crime you're not going to have a large protest A lot of people who get abducted or kidnapped here are involved in organized crime there's definitely a war going on there And the price for involvement in organized crime is high "Here at CANACO we're of course concerned about a lot of what's been happening because it's been happening in daytime in public places." Did Valdovino believe that people in Tijuana had a limit for the amount of crime and violence that they would tolerate but I don't think we've reached that limit yet We want the government to accept that there is a problem you first have to recognize that there is a problem we've had our best year in tourism ever We've got a billion dollars' worth of construction going on from Playas of Tijuana going south to Ensenada and the vast majority of those homes are being bought by Americans and Canadians that might tell you that while things might look bad but it's being created by a very small group of people who are causing the problems "I don't think those problems are going to go away anytime soon We're right next door to the United States And when you have a product and you have a demand But it's not only the Mexican government Both governments have to recognize that there's a problem here." did Valdovino think that people in Tijuana hadn't been able to organize politically in a unified way to demand that their government do something about the city's crime problem A lack of coordination and trust between the municipal "We do know who we're supposed to go to with our complaints but the problem is that we don't always trust the people we're supposed to go to A lot of people would prefer not to speak with them or have anything to do with them Give your kitchen a certain je ne sais quoi with French country styling that combines Provencal with farmhouse French country kitchen ideas are loved the world over for their versatility and enduring elegance Channeling soft styling and practical elements mixed with organic materials like wood and stone French country kitchens are characterized by their classic appearance while still being able to embrace new trends and tastes Like all the best kitchen ideas French country kitchens are designed with family in mind – a space for you to spend time with your loved ones the French flair is seen in the use of a more muted palette accentuated by French vintage finds and antiques.  The ethos of French country design is not too dissimilar from English country kitchen ideas: a huge farmhouse table for gathering around an armoire for housing china and glassware open shelves displaying stoneware and canisters in neat rows and shining copper pans hung above a stove are all quintessential elements of both looks Natural materials are the cornerstone of French country kitchens, especially when it comes to kitchen countertops Positioned at the point where the eye would rest countertops have a significant impact on the visual appearance of the space.  Giving your kitchen a French country-inspired makeover doesn’t need to present a significant investment you can still create a cozy French country kitchen even if you’re on a budget.  be sure to select a durable material that is suitable for use in high-traffic areas 'Search for various shapes and sizes of wooden bread and cake boards These are my favorite accessories in the kitchen because they are also functional Layer them against a wall to add some natural wood elements,’ explains Ariella Duker Original features are one of the many beautiful elements of older homes and it is important to protect and preserve them wherever possible Not only will they add to the charm of your home but original features such as fireplaces coving and flooring can also bring a unique dimension to your French country kitchen ideas.  This French-inspired kitchen, designed by deVol has retained the original fireplace and created the perfect home for their range cooker it provides a practical cooking spot.  Opting for a bespoke pantry will help you to make the most of your available space rather than hoping that an off-the-shelf model will work consider using it to house your fridge-freezer allowing you to maintain your kitchen’s aesthetic Choosing the right kitchen flooring ideas is far from straightforward Your kitchen flooring must be highly durable and aesthetically pleasing all while falling within your budget For French country kitchen ideas, you can't go wrong the beautiful aesthetic of brushed limestone flooring. Injecting both color and texture into the space, it is also highly durable making it one of the best stone flooring types for the kitchen.  With warm honey tones, these Tuscany limestone tiles from Quorn Stone instantly bring warmth to the kitchen and have a tumbled finish which creates subtle variation between each tile bringing texture and movement to the space.  To keep them looking their best, however, you need to know how to clean stone floors and ensure that you seal them when required.  Incorporating decorative elements into your French country kitchen ideas will instantly make your kitchen feel more warm and welcoming and soften the harder elements of the room an area of open shelving has been backed with decorative wallpaper to make a subtle statement Even in the age of the dishwasher, kitchen sink ideas are still an invaluable addition When it comes to your French country kitchen ideas Characterized by a deep single bowl and crafted from hard-wearing fireclay the sink offers more than enough space to wash bulky pots and pans while also looking elegant in its own right Use the wall above your sink to house a row of Shaker-style wooden pegs not only is this a great space to store jugs and other cleaning essentials but it will also visually divide the space.  Proximity to the natural world is a key tenant of French country kitchen ideas. Whether it is herbs on the windowsill, crops straight from the kitchen garden or fresh flowers awaiting arrangement – all these elements add a rustic lived in touch to the kitchen.  ‘Fruit and veggies make the BEST country kitchen accessories Get some bowls on pedestals and hit the farmer's market repeat,’ says Ariella Duker of Ariella Duker Interiors.  Decorating with fresh produce will also add a seasonality to your decor – in the summer berries squash and colored chard make for a vibrant display This idea is beautifully realized in this kitchen designed by Devol Add a backsplash of colorful rustic tiles at the back of the stove or behind the sink to bring color and naive charm to the space. There are plenty of backsplash ideas for kitchens that would be perfectly suited to French country kitchen ideas ‘French country kitchens often feature large sinks with beautiful traditional taps and encaustic tiles that add a wonderful element of color and pattern,’ says Tom Howley.  Even in neutral kitchen ideas color still plays a significant role in bringing the character to the space an otherwise utilitarian kitchen has been brought to life with an artistically tiled backsplash Curated from an array of hand-painted tiles in a warming green and cream color palette Seek out designs with a hand-cut and hand-painted look for an artisan feel that enhances the rural-style setting and accessorize with chunky chopping boards and fresh herbs tied in bunches This wooden island, expertly crafted by Rupert Bevan makes a feature of the wood's caramel tones and is paired with a generous marble worktop for a touch of luxury A marble divider keeps the integrated appliances from view rows of blue and white plates and hand-painted delft tiles add provencal flair If you are lucky enough to have stone walls and wooden beams in your kitchen Leave stone walls exposed to provide a character backdrop to cabinetry and open shelving Pair with practical and decorative elements collected at vintage fairs and brocantes to add flair to your French country kitchen ideas The table is a centerpiece of a French country kitchen so ensure it is not overlooked A workhorse used for everything from prep to serving and dining it should be a sturdy piece that is able to withstand everything you could possibly throw at it and pair it with rattan-backed chairs for added country charm combining technological expertise with chic design This eye-catching chrome range cooker is the hero of this kitchen designed by deVOL and sings against the navy tongue and groove panelling and matching cabinetry A hanging display of copper pans completes the country style ‘Combining this flora and fauna-inspired wallpaper with naturally weathered oak counter stools and reclaimed parquet flooring creates a real country feel to this light and airy kitchen The country aesthetic is further enhanced by the use of a subtle sage paint on the traditional cabinetry.’ says Jamie Watkins ‘Our beloved Crane Fonda wallpaper features the elegantly fabulous Grey Crowned Crane strolling amongst lush palm trees reminiscent of the French Riviera.’ There are plenty of kitchen wallpaper ideas that are guaranteed to bring color and interest into your French country kitchen Embracing traditional kitchen ideas doesn’t mean you have to compromise on your modern luxuries In this kitchen designed by The Refined Group a French-inspired armoire strikes a classical silhouette against the back wall of this kitchen-diner all is not what it seems as its vintage façade hides a television antique-style brassware brings with it a heritage charm that is perfect for a French-style country kitchen interior Paired with wooden worktops and a white ceramic sink it sings in the sunlight.  It can be hard to dress a kitchen window, even with so many window treatment ideas from which to choose Unlike other rooms of the home where privacy is a key durability and decor are more prominent factors For a classic French look neutral linens are a popular choice blinds offer a canvas onto which you can inject character and personality it works to visually elongate the space while adding texture and contrast to the scheme.  and decor with an antique appearance can all give you the French country style that you want,’ says Indianapolis-based interiors expert ‘Don't shy away from wrought iron or copper either – they’ll add French country flair to your kitchen and give you permission to go antique shopping and go bold with drawer pulls that it doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the design.’ French country kitchen ideas are a chic amalgam of high-end design This kitchen by interior designer Kellie Burke places ornate cabinetry within a barn-style setting.  Heavy beams are offset by a scrolled island A lime-washed finish on the kitchen is contrasted with the faded paint on the ceiling And antique statues are set against sleek appliances and smart fabrics It's an approach common in country decorating ideas A gleaming range cooker is the Chanel handbag of the French country kitchen – a timeless, statement piece that elevates any look. Indeed, it's a staple of country kitchen ideas in the US ‘A range that is the centerpiece of the kitchen,’ agrees Jaqueline Chavanu of The French Design Formula there should be lots of prep space to cook ‘I look for “treasure” finds antique china and artwork,’ says Jaqueline ‘French provincial style has been on our radar for quite some time now, says Texas-based interiors expert,’ Stefan Bucur, from Rhythm of the Home ‘There are some fundamental features that all French country kitchen ideas share whether we’re talking about original rural buildings in France or revival versions in the United States ‘Traditional French country kitchen designs include arched windows while the typical materials used for the facades of the homes are brick or stone Those characteristics give French country kitchen ideas a feeling of texture both indoors and outdoors.  ‘Whether we're talking about an independent outdoors summer kitchen that was built for the purpose of enjoying nature – another strong element of the French country style – or the main kitchen of the home the style balances traditional and some rustic elements with a good dose of sophistication to make the design feel more elegant Because there is such a strong focus on texture the colors are usually chosen carefully to be harmonious with the natural surroundings.’ It’s time to go au naturel when you’re considering your French country kitchen ideas ‘Warmer colors rooted in nature work best for painted cabinetry,’ explains Sarah Barnard an LA-based interior designer who has created numerous French-style kitchens I prefer deep earthy tones of green or warm mushroom grays – colors you may find on a forest floor during a quiet walk milky whites and shades of dove feel bright and familiar and can soften the space.’ Sarah has an interesting take on a key kitchen feature ‘Because range hoods are often so decorative and focal in a French country-style kitchen I like to think of them similarly to statement jewelry They should be beautiful and exciting in their own right but they should also speak to other elements of the space and help bring the kitchen to life.’ either as a complete hood or as accent detailing decorative stone and wood can be an attractive option though I suggest avoiding anything overly ornate or austere – there should still be an approachable quality,’ Sarah says.  This gorgeous monochrome butler's pantry exudes French charm Taking chic white cabinetry as the starting point the scheme features matt black café-style glass racks and a complementary pendant light Gleaming silverware and fresh roses upgrade this simple galley into the epitome of Gallic style This stunning kitchen by Parisian design duo Alon & Betsy Kasha of Kasha Paris harnesses the original stone of this period property to create a simple rustic look Keeping the decor in similar tones creates a serene setting that blends contemporary style with rustic authenticity 'We use traditional French baskets in our schemes to create scale and height,' explains Phoenix-based interior designer, Dana Lyon, principal designer of The Refined Group Placing them on the top of cabinets draws the eye upwards emphasising a high ceiling while also adding natural texture that brings refined rusticism to the scheme 'Integrating antique piece as cabinetry provides a sophisticated country look,' says Dana Lyon from The Refined Group fabric panels inside the glazed cabinets shield the contents from view the look successfully melds refinement with authentic French country style The color associated with the Mediterranean and the South of France brings a classic Provencal look to a country kitchen Keep the look light by using this strong blue as an accent color in tile and accessories or go bold and paint cabinets in the shade.  'French country is an elevated, elegant style with perfectly aged woods, curved silhouettes, and soft colors,' says Glenna Stone from Philadelphia decorators, Glenna Stone Interior Design it walks the line of effortlessness without tipping into messiness  It’s the home design equivalent of a beautifully tailored coat paired with a scarf that's undone just enough to be chic but not sloppy.' When you're translating this look to your own French country kitchen ideas think about pairing rustic timber beams and painted wooden cabinets 'We designed this stunning kitchen with exposed beams leathered quartzite countertops veined with blue and a hand-cut glass mosaic tile backsplash that incorporates blues Setting a range cooker within a chimney breast is a classic touch when you're establishing your French country kitchen ideas But you can elevate the look further with your choice of material 'We like to use antique limestone fireplaces as the hood surround as it adds an authenticity and an architectural element,' shares The Refined Group's Dana Lyon refined surfaces elevate the space – think marble backsplash polished wood flooring and a smart but neatly sized range cooker. This design by interior design firm Kasha Paris puts all the elements in place for a chic but compact space 'When I'm creating a French country kitchen design, I'll use copper or brass instead of nickel or chrome,' says California-based interior designer, Alison Kandler 'It instantly adds warmth to any kitchen.' Lighting is an attractive way to include these rich metallic accents and decorative accents to add this classic French touch to your cooking area The elegant shapes of antique furniture add a touch of refinement to a rustic-style kitchen – even one as elevated as this design by Clive Christian Furniture Co.  the curved wooden chairs echo the color of the polished wood floor bringing both warmth and sophistication to the scheme French style kitchens predominantly adopt an off white or cream base accented by warm tones to soften the palette creating a balance between geometry and structure and a touch of femininity Though we are a British cabinetry designer and maker the sentiment of timelessness is something I would say we share in this space which this kitchen and Heather's design brings to life flowers or landscapes,' suggests interior designer Alison Kandler such as under upper cabinets to hide electrical outlets and add color and charm.' 'Incorporating antique or reclaimed doors into a French country kitchen scheme makes it timeless,' suggests Dana Lyon from The Refined Group Look for glazed doors and beautiful detailing to bring the refinement of the French look you will retain a rustic aesthetic that takes the formality from grander designs Part of the charm is the visible knots and marks of time French country is the sophisticated older cousin who mixes vintage pieces with new and makes it look soft and fabulous,' says interior designer Glenna Stone 'This kitchen space includes a breakfast area with chairs featuring handwoven rope backs and cream upholstery paired with the client’s vintage dining table we added an unfussy chandelier in antique brass with black shades for that “just enough” feeling.' A key idea in French country kitchens is to mix old and new pieces such as French enamelware or old wicker baskets and use them to create a colorful display,' suggests interior designer Alison Kandler For a French country look with a hint of haute couture styling look to add decorative details to your cabinetry and trim kick plinths and pillars all give a more refined look to country kitchens.  'A French kitchen is typified by a feeling of familiarity and elegance in equal measure,' says Oliver Deadman 'Featuring our Architectural cabinetry collection this design by interior designer Heather Hungeling echoes this sentiment French-style kitchens predominantly adopt an off-white or cream base accented by warm tones to soften the palette creating a balance between geometry and structure and a touch of femininity.' Although the French palette is often thought of a subdued the country look can be bolder and brighter – just think of classic Provencal linens 'Don’t be afraid to mix in bold colors,' agrees interior designer Alison Kandler 'I always start with a multicolored fabric that inspires me I pull out all of the colors and create a palette.'  This expert approach is easily replicated when you're refining your own ideas for your French country kitchen look.  Mix historical and modern styles to create a layered 'In a newer kitchen with modern cabinetry, you can achieve this by using patinated hardware, handmade stoneware and antique furnishings,' says Torre Lisi from New York design firm, Bespoke Only which worked on this project by architect Simpson Jacoby Open shelving is a considered way to display your favorite pieces Opt for glazed cabinets instead when you're planning your French country kitchen ideas A strong tile design is a quintessential element for a French country kitchen and a great idea when you have a large area to cover Be brave and don't be afraid to choose a graphic design that will add interest to your scheme – in a soft palette You can pick out the key color and paint your island or peninsula in the same shade Taking the tile up from counter to ceiling creates a coherent we prefer to use wall sconces in lieu of less flattering overhead light,' shares Torre Lisi from Bespoke Only 'This softens the light quality and creates an ambient glow perfect for slow Wall lights can be used to illuminate the dining table 'The heart of any French country kitchen is the dining table,' explains Lisi.  'We like the idea of finding a salvaged table and mixing up the seating with vintage bistro chairs and a bench communal vibe while promoting the sharing nature of country-style dining.' Even if you’re creating your new French-style kitchen from scratch it should look as if it’s evolved over time with an eclectic mix of pieces that could have been passed down as heirlooms If the main kitchen features fitted cabinets ‘Dishes and utensils may be stored in an armoire – the large wooden cupboard found in nearly every French country home,’ says Henrietta Heald author of La Vie est Belle (Ryland Peters & Small) Glazed doors or doors with chicken-wire panels allow the contents to be kept in view.’ Just because your French country kitchen ideas focuses on rustic style doesn’t mean it can’t feature a little chateau chic – in fact it’s this contrast that adds just the right element of je ne sais quoi.  French country kitchens often feature large decorative canopies over the hob and elaborate decorative light fixtures in vintage brass or iron.  Consider suspending an oversized pendant light or antique chandelier over a timeworn farmhouse table for the perfect high-low design mix Think France and you think glorious landscapes and delicious cuisine both of which inspire the country’s kitchen decor.  Color schemes look to the natural landscape – stone accented with soft pastels – or to deliciously rich tones of mustard 'This look suits rich but muted shades such as sage Our new Saffron or Olive seasonal shades would work brilliantly especially when paired with a warm neutral like our Honed Slate.’ You don’t need a converted barn or renovated stables to house a French country-style kitchen but there’s no denying that original architectural features enhance the eclectic ‘Exposed rafters and stone walls with rustic timber open shelves are typical features,’ agrees Tom Howley.  Exposing a small area of brickwork or stone laying the floor with reclaimed flagstones or adding a chunky stone work surface or scarred and scrubbed butchers block will introduce a raw and rustic feel if distinctive period features aren’t a part of your property While an English country kitchen might have an Aga or Rayburn range cooker its French equivalent is likely to feature a stove from Lacanche or La Cornue For the ultimate French country taste test Maxime suggests a set of copper pans hung from a bar above the stove the smell of delicious dishes simmering for the next meal’ ‘The French country kitchen is always softened with textiles – it makes the space feel more relaxed and homely but employs classic patterns such as toiles and stripes,’ says Ben Burbidge, managing director at Kitchen Makers.  You could keep it simple with a classic French glass cloth or tea towel for drying dishes or enhance the look with a linen tablecloth (look for vintage linen sheets in brocantes and flea markets) or a curtain instead of a cabinet door front beneath the sink Centre stage in any French country kitchen is the table – prep area brioche bearer and casserole server…  where painted chairs are often gathered around the table French seating tends to be softly polished wood.  with rush seats and bentwood or ladder back frames – although a pew seat picked up from a country brocante may well make an appearance.  ‘The essence of a French country kitchen is its equipment chopping boards and mixing bowls that make up the batterie de cuisine are displayed on open shelves,’ explains Henrietta Heald.  ‘These often well-worn items are made from natural materials such as stoneware wood and terracotta.’ Despite its culinary promise the look is a million miles from the clinical steeliness of a professional kitchen.  scrubbed wood and stone add warmth and texture while those on-display ingredients add tasty pops of color French country style can include ultra-contemporary elements such as concrete work surfaces and metal-framed windows as much as traditional-style elements.  retro-chic approach is the essence of country kitchens in France,’ confirms Maxime Gossiome of La Cornue.  ‘Think of it as balance between essential elements such as cabinets elegant details including family silver and crystal glasses the kitchen is a place to share meals – and great moments – with friends and family.’ French country kitchens are characterised by an informal elegance,’ explains Ben Burbidge ‘Cabinetry and furniture tends to feature curves and scrolls while kitchen designs make use of a broad range of materials anchored around wood and stone These materials have a feeling of strength honesty and simplicity but are honed to produce a decorative Managing Director at Kitchen Makers.  these devices make the kitchens feel unmistakably French traditional designs and a considered colour palette.’ restful colors such as greys and shades of white are very typical in French country kitchens,’ explains Tom Howley The further south you go and the warmer the weather gets blues and terracotta colours are traditionally used in the Provence region,’ Tom says ‘French country kitchens are often less “put together” than English kitchens,’ says Simon Temprell, Interior Design Manager at Neptune. They put a Gallic accent on traditional kitchen ideas ‘French design relies on “found” pieces and an informal look with freestanding items that hark back to the past English country style can often seem more polished with a cleaner aesthetic and lighter colors.’  Design expertise in your inbox – from inspiring decorating ideas and beautiful celebrity homes to practical gardening advice and shopping round-ups Andrea ChildsSocial Links NavigationAndrea has been immersed in the world of homes interiors and lifestyle since her first job in journalism She went from women's magazine Options to Frank From there it was on to the launch of Red magazine where she stayed for 10 years and became Assistant Editor and spent 14 years writing for everyone from The Telegraph to The Sunday Times She was then offered the job as Editor on Country Homes & Interiors and now combines that role with writing for sister title homesandgardens.com.