Modern Outdoor at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

GOING GREEN: Eco-friendly style is gaining in popularity, but it's not always easy to find. Here in the Valley it can be had at Modern Outdoor, based in Van Nuys. Their furniture has a sleek aesthetic with clean, simple lines. And one key material they use is Ipe, a sustainably harvested wood that's three times as dense as teak. "It's one of the best woods you can use to make outdoor furniture," says company vice president Brett Himmel. "Our furniture is designed for heavy commercial use. A 20-mile-per-hour gust of wind won't blow your chair into the neighbor's yard."

Many flatcars also carry special containers for bulk commodities, such as hopper-type boxes that move ferromanganese and other alloying elements for steel mills. Modern packaging practices—palletizing, wrapping for outdoor storage, and banding for crane loading—give added importance to the flatcar. Such a car represents the lowest first cost to the carrier, and it is the least expensive to load and unload with modern materials-handling equipment. Many materials that once moved in bags, cartons, and barrels are now moving unpackaged. Grain, flour, sugar, cement, fertilizer, and plastic pellets—all of which were shipped packaged in boxcars in the past—are typical of the dry bulk commodities now moving in self-unloading hopper cars.

Set up in 1997, OLAC is located close to Philips' International Competence Centre for Outdoor Lighting. It offers access to Philips' world-class expertise and application know-how in the field of outdoor Lighting and city beautification. By creating this life-size city environment at OLAC, Philips enables visitors to see directly how innovative LED Lighting can add extra dimensions to architecture and create varied, appealing ambiences.