The 1.6 acres of Lake Union Park’s phase 1 opens today. After a year and a half of construction, the park will have it’s grand opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Karen Daubert, executive director of the Seattle Parks Foundation says that “after 100 years of vision, 20 years of land acquisition and five years of fundraising, Lake Union Park is now open to be enjoyed by all.”
Beginning May 1st and going through the 4th is the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival at the University of Washington in Seattle. The 10th annual festival features 50+ films and shorts, speakers, and filmmaking workshops. Festival highlights include: Oil+Water (a story of two kayakers on a biofuels-only roadtrip from Alaska to Argentina) and The Carbon Connection (two communities in Scotland and Brazil affected by the trade in carbon dioxide).
Where: Johnson Hall, University of Washington, Seattle
Getting There: First choice - Metro Trip Planner Second choice - Driving
View complete schedule and buy tickets >>
Mossop + Michaels, a Landscape Architecture firm out of New Orleans, has just received an Award of Excellence from the ASLA for their analysis and planning of the “Viet Village Urban Farm“.
Located in New Orleans East, the Viet Village Urban Farm is a community design response to the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina. Attempting to reestablish the tradition of local farming in this community, the project is focused on providing an economic catalyst for the community and the development of a flexible, strategic plan for seeking funding for it’s execution.
You won’t see this Eye Pod in your local Apple store. Instead, you would have had to visit the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum’s collection of “Secret Gardens.” Back in 2006, Chris Wegscheid’s entry did not include a single plant but rather a “body-sized camera obscura that would bring an ever-changing view of the arboretum into a secret indoor space.”
Conceived by Michelle Kaufmann Designs, this modular Smart Home will be the featured attraction in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry’s new exhibit titled “Smart Home: Green and Wired“. The exhibit, beginning May 8th and running through January 4th, is a celebration of the Museum’s 75th Anniversary year.
Built by All American Homes, the Smart Home (mkSolaire) is just one of multiple designs offered by Kaufmann. This 2,500 square-foot home has been designed to offer healthy, clean and green city living and is perfect for an urban-infill lot. Kaufmann has incorporated the open floor plan with many “green living” features.
Are you ready to get inspired by two brothers (ages 22 and 30) from Portland, Oregon, who are single handedly developing one of the first residential “Living Buildings” in the country?
Dustin and his brother Garrett Moon, whom I saw present last week at the Living Future Unconference in Vancouver B.C., are in the process of raising $200,000 to construct “The Commons“, a project conceived to push the envelope on what it means to live communally and sustainably. Their new home in Southeast Portland will be built in place of an existing inefficient home they bought for $195,000 in 2007 on Craigslist.
According to their website, the Moon brothers have three main goals with The Commons: to answer the Living Building Challenge; to design and develop a communal living space for two families; and to study, learn, exemplify and contribute to the knowledge of sustainable designs and dwellings. They are attempting to accomplish all this by building the house themselves.
By now, I think most of us have heard whisperings about a new form of energy derived from algae. But what you may not know is that this is not a new concept.
The U.S. Department of Energy researched algae production from 1978 to 1996 until the Feds determined that algae oil could never compete economically with fossil fuels. Considering the current price and demand for oil, times have certainly changed.
One company (from oil-based Texas) that is making big waves in this renewed fight is Valcent Products, Inc., who teamed up with Global Green Solutions to launch a joint venture called Vertigro Products, Inc. According to Glen Kertz, President and CEO of Valcent, “algae is the ultimate in renewable energy.” Instead of using ponds, like most energy research and development projects have used, Valcent uses a closed, high density vertical bioreactor system, growing the algae in long rows of moving plastic bags.
Here is a little background and a bit new foreground about Earthday.
Earthday was officially founded on April 22, 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin with the goal of putting environmental issues into the limelight. Nelson announced his nationwide grassroots movement in September of 1969 at a conference in Seattle and later said that “it was a gamble, but it worked.” This tradition has continued annually under the same mission for decades and although our environmental situation today is more desperate than ever, Earthday remains the same grassroots movement it spawned from. It’s time to evolve our thinking about Earthday and think about getting rid of it all together.
I believe that the concept of Earthday is obsolete. If the goal was to bring awareness to the demise of our planet we have certainly reached it. When you turn on the television and see network logos colored in green and big box stores like Wal-Mart announcing their dedication to saving the planet, I would argue that this movement is more than “in the limelight”, it has gone global.
Although I would like to give all the credit to Earthday, I cannot justifiably do so. For me, one of the tipping points (the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable) in this movement was not our beloved Earthday, but rather the box office hit and #1 bestselling book in 2006- An Inconvenient Truth.
Presented by former Vice President Al Gore, this film quickly brought to our attention the true nature of our climate crisis and the realization of what our days on earth might be like in the not so distant future. Do you not agree that after we all saw this movie or heard others talk about it that our pop culture was instantly flooded with terms like “global warming” and products that were labeled “green”? An Inconvenient Truth is not the end-all-be-all but it certainly launched a movement. As we find ourselves at this tipping point we have only one option - to embrace this “momentum for change” with everything we have.
Earthday has had its place in history and has been successful up to this point. With our current scientific knowledge and our undeniable freedom of choice, we must no longer stand idle. This situation demands a life-long daily commitment by each of us if we are to have any hope for our children and grandchildren. Our actions today will set a powerful example for generations to come - our health, happiness and future depend on it. This is a fight we can surely win but we must not only do it every April 22, we must do it everyday.
Earthday IS everyday and our actions need to follow. Let’s save the celebration for when we have begun to see the negative effects of our past actions dissolved by our renewed global vow to live responsibly.
I would love to hear your thoughts? Send your comments.
Steve Glenn, CEO of LivingHomes, has announced a new partnership with KieranTimberlake - the AIA’s 2008 firm of the year. The new line of LivingHomes by KieranTimberlake (KT) cost significantly less than their other designs ($185/sf for multi-family, $215/sf for single). On the LivingHome website you can configure your own KT 1.3 with materials, fixtures and environmental systems and then share your virtual LivingHome with your friends.
With four new KT models, LivingHomes has set a baseline for each of LEED silver. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a third party Green Building Rating System nationally accepted as a benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
So, this is my last entry related to this years Living Future conference up here in Vancouver B.C. It has been a great paper-less “unconference” brilliantly organized to stay intimate, relaxed and organic - very much in contrast to last years Greenbuild Conference in Chicago where more than 20,000 people crowded in chaos to listen to and discuss all things green.
I still have one more day full of interesting discussion and a closing keynote by Sim Van der Ryn - visionary, author, educator, public leader, and internationally distinguished pioneer in ecological design. And although Sim is a professional hero of mine, I really wanted to focus on someone else before I wrap up these great few days in Canada
Claudia Davila did not attend this years’ unconference but she played an integral part during yesterdays session called “15 minutes of brilliance”, where a few people shared with the entire crowd unique and inspiring work. Unlike the other presenters, Claudia’s 15 minutes was taped and broadcast onto large projection screens where she could not be interrupted.
Last night at the Living Future Conference here in Vancouver B.C., I listened to Paul Hawken - environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist and author - give an opening keynote speech inspiring all of us to continue the work we are all doing to respond to our earth’s current health crisis. Hawken believes that our global society is undergoing a social movement of a magnitude and type that has never been seen in our entire history. This movement does not have a name nor a leader - many people might call it ”green” - but it is so much bigger than that.
Today I am on my first US train ride heading up to Vancouver B.C. from Seattle for the Living Future 08 unconference put on by Cascadia Region Green Building Council. In Cascadia’s own words, “Living Future provides a different way of viewing our built environment in a way that requires new tools, new perspectives and better collaboration.”
This will not be like most conferences held where expert figureheads speak of their knowledge and experiences. Quite the opposite, the unconference is intended to be a forum where “deep green” professionals can interact in small groups with a panelist to be actively involved in creating solutions towards Living Buildings and Living Communities.
The ASLA has announced the recipients of its 2008 Professional Awards. With over 500 entries, the jury selected 29 projects to receive awards. The awards will be presented on October 6 at the ASLA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. There are many great designs mentioned here but I wanted to highlight one that I think needs some attention.
Dyesol, the leading supplier of 3rd generation solar technology, has developed a transparent solar cell that can act as both a window and an energy generator in houses and commercial buildings. According to Professor John Bell - a project collaborator from the Queensland University of Technology - “the new solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners’ energy costs and could in fact generate excess energy to be stored and sold”.
Change is beyond belief itself, it relies on new behavior. Al Gore’s new slideshow presents evidence that the current climate change crisis challenges us to act with a “general mission”. How do we turn our recent knowledge into action? - action that emerges from a true belief that we can change. This is our problem…and We Can Solve It.
Source: TED via: Jetson Green
Marmol Radziner
Living Homes
Michelle Kaufmann
Alchemy Architects
