Published on April 9th, 2009
My jaw dropped when I first watched this video tour of a beautiful owner-built green building construction project in Oregon. This particular green building is made entirely out of cob, a mixture of clay, sand, and straw.
Meka Bunch of Wolf Creek, Oregon built this stunning cob house over a four year period. Complete with hand-sculpted furniture, shelves and nooks built directly into the walls, arched windows, and a killer custom staircase, his cob building is a divine artistic achievement.
Check out the video and photos of Meka’s cob cottage for yourself:
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Published on November 12th, 2008
A southeast Portland, Oregon retail store is undergoing renovations intended to help it achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification. If it reaches its goal, it will be the first retail store in Oregon and the first of Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.’s stores to do so.
“In the Northwest, we are immersed in the culture of sustainability, and we’ve been working on establishing sustainable practices for a long time when it comes to issues like energy efficiency, recycling and storm water management,” said Randall Douthit, group vice president for facility engineering for Fred Meyer. “Working toward LEED certification is really a national evolutionary step in our progress.”
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Published on September 16th, 2008
Green building tours are becoming popular in many cities, and are an excellent means of introducing green construction options to professionals and laypeople alike.
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council will host a tour of green buildings on September 25th, 26th, and 28th in the Victoria, Vancouver, and Okanagan regions of British Columbia. British Columbia is the Canadian province with the most LEED-certified buildings per capita, and Cascadia’s Green Skyline tour will include over 25 green buildings. Both residential and commercial tours will be included. They will emphasize what constitutes green design and offer ways to incorporate it into a project, as well as detailing the costs and benefits of building green.
The tours are designed to be walkable, bikeable, and accessible by public transit. Several organized bike tours will also be offered. See the CRGBC website to register.
Photo: The University of Victoria Medical Sciences Building; provided by the University of Victoria
To read about green tours which will come to you, see:
Published on August 15th, 2008
The Heathman Hotel in Portland, Oregon, a member of the Carino Collection and Historic Hotels of America, recently remodeled all 155 of the hotel’s bathrooms, maintaining the standard of luxury that the hotel is famous for, while lowering its environmental footprint. Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects designed the remodel with the goals of being locally responsible, sustainable, and efficient.
Some of the features of the remodel include:
- Preserving existing teak trim, mirrors, stone vanities and tubs.
- Using Forest Stewardship Council certified wood that adheres to all the practices of the Smartwood Rainforest Alliance.
- 40% recycled content tile on the walls and floors.
- Use of LED lighting custom designed by Eleek Lighting and Design.
- Shower heads that reduce water usage by 10 to 20 percent.
- Toilets that will reduce water usage by 50 percent.
- Approximately 95%, by volume, of the debris from the bathroom demolition was donated to Portland’s ReBuilding Center, the largest non-profit building materials resource in North America.
The Heathman is not new to sustainability and conservation. It was one of Portland’s first hotels to receive incentives from the Energy Trust of Oregon for energy efficiency upgrades. It also participates in Pacific Power’s Blue Sky program, purchasing 30 percent of its electricity from Blue Sky renewable sources. Chris Erickson, the Heathman’s general manager, said, “We are thrilled to team with AMAA (Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects), a company that shares our sustainable values and commitment to community. They’ve helped to take our existing sustainability efforts to the next level.”
The Heathman’s guests are invited to see, and experience, how luxury and sustainability can coexist.
Published on July 15th, 2008
“Workforce housing” is a term being heard more and more, used place of the more familiar “affordable housing”. It differentiates between housing that is intended to accommodate people from the lowest income brackets, and housing for the lower middle class, people who have steady employment but have been priced out of the housing market in many areas.
According to Wikipedia, workforce housing has four defining elements:
- Affordability
- Home Ownership
- Key Workforce (in other words, composed of critical members of a community’s workforce such as police officers and teachers), and
- Proximity (to employment centers)
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Published on June 14th, 2008
It started innocently enough. I went to a green home show in Portland, Oregon to learn more about sustainable products for my business. I saw a booth for Penguin Windows, which I had seen advertised on TV, and signed up for a free assessment of my windows.
I own a manufactured home that was manufactured in 2000. I figured I didn’t have too much to worry about. The windows seemed to be working fine, and we had no comfort problems. I was looking forward to learning about their product, and curious as to how much it would cost to replace my windows with more efficient models, purely for research purposes. Little did I know ….
When the salesmen arrived, they started by explaining that they would be looking at the condition of my windows, inside and outside, taking some measurements, then give me a demonstration of their windows, and finish with the estimate for replacing the windows. So, off we went.
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Published on February 5th, 2008
The Pacific Northwest has a reputation for being progressive when it comes to green building, with Washington and Oregon setting the pace. But where does Alaska fit into the picture, and how do its green building efforts measure up?
With regard to the LEED program, Washington and Oregon each have certified or registered projects numbering in the hundreds. By comparison, Alaska has only three LEED certified buildings (A National Weather Service facility, a visitor’s center at Denali Park, and the Homer City Library) and less than 20 projects currently registered. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on January 15th, 2008
Northwest cities do such an impressive job of leading urban America toward more planet-friendly living that it can be easy to overlook the region’s many rural landholders who are also paving the way to a greener future.
Beginning January 27, Portland, Oregon will be hosting farmers, ranchers and other agricultural professionals at Harvesting Clean Energy’s 8th annual conference. With an attendance of over 600 people at its 2007 gathering in Boise, Idaho, Harvesting Clean Energy’s event is growing every year. Read the rest of this entry »
