i love finding good artists

julie morstad

webster duplex

2 winters ago, i started looking for ways to get involved with the green building community

i found Cascadia's Emerging Green Builders and I found Habitat for Humanity
i was eager to become involved with both and made minor attempts to assimilating into both

the EGB's were hosting a natural talent design competition to design a LEED silver duplex on a lot that habitat for humanity owned in the hopes that they would take the design winner and build it

my self-esteem was not in full swing that winter and even though i worked for hours on a duplex design and attended the design charette held at SERA, i didn't submit a proposal. i didn't even make it to a habitat site to volunteer

this was my floor plan

2 years later and i am an active volunteer for habitat for humanity and an intern for a green building construction company and am very excited to announce the completion of the habitat webster duplex

the webster duplex is being dedicated to its two families tomorrow night and is on the path of reaching LEED Platinum Certification! the oregonian featured it on the front page of their "how we live" section last week. you can read more here:

Habitat for Humanity homes in Portland aim for platinum LEED certification

kitchen table

you may not see the connection between title and photo

but let me explain . . .

i drive by this building everyday on my way to work and it recently has gone up for sale/lease and of course i started daydreaming

it's going to be a 24 hour cafe with multiple vendors selling their market niche cuisine for "grab n go" or sit and stay. there will be a random mix of kitchen tables and chairs. and, the best part, a collection of local produce, dairy and meat products. it would be a market for all the local, seasonal farms year round. the families that feel overwhelmed by the CSA bounty, could instead stop by and pick up some fresh rutabagas or grass-finished beef. basically it would be something like an all year, indoor farmer's market.

i've shared my idea with my coworker/mentor who has connections. she thought it sounded great and put me in touch with her friend looking for a music venue. i've emailed back and forth with him and we thought we could easily combine the two dreams but somewhere along the lines he found out I'm just a young dreamer . . .

. . . oh well

maybe he'll do on his own and i can shop and eat there

option 2.
i could use this site as a basis for the 2009 Cascadia Emerging Green Builders Natural Talent Design Competition:

The Program

All entries must adhere to the following guidelines:

• Transportation: The project must confront the issues posed by transportation, seeking a solution alternative to the use of single occupancy fossil-fuel vehicles.


• Public Space or Public Space Adjacency: The project must include an area of public space, or be adjacent to easily accessible public space, forming a core element of the project’s site design.


• Mixed-use: The project must incorporate both private and public space, and consider the interplay between public space and private development.


• Solar Envelope: All projects must consider the solar envelope of the site and the site’s development on adjoining properties.

I'm just going to run with this

Rooftop apartments . . .

doernbecher

when i'm not running around or hanging out, i'm at OHSU, earning a living

i'm a diet aide on weekends and i'm responsible for dropping off and picking up menus at doernbecher children's hostpital. i trek over there, at a minimum, three times a day and hike up three flights to visit all of the rooms in five units.

the stairwell is what started my fascination with the building. it is enclosed, of course, but has windwows all along the East wall and therefore, even in the winter, it is a warm space. this originally gave me the idea to use a stairwell as a solar chimney. The windows face an interior courtyard with a well crafted childrens structure.

I am impressed with every detail of Doernbecher's design and on the walks, I find some new ingenious design that I hadn't previously appreciated.

the color selection of the tiles and the patterns that flow down the halls . . .

the interior windows of patient rooms . . .

the views west of the marquam forest . . .

the playrooms . . .

the list can go on and on and last week I decided to find out a little bit more about how doernbecher came to be.

more importantly about who designed such a well thought out facility and it happens to be none other than local architect firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca; they may be local but they have an impressive international portfolio definitely worth checking out!

enjoy

ecotrust

On Tuesday, my "sustainable construction practices" class toured the ecotrust building located in the Pearl District in Portland. The 1895 building was donated to Ecotrust by Jean Vollum in 1998. It was renovated to meet LEED Gold criteria by Walsh Construction Company and the superintendent of the project, Carrington Barrs, enthusiastically led the tour.

Walking up to the building from the West side, it's as if you are entering a secret garden tucked away in from the showy condos and brick buildings. This secret garden has a ancient ruin brick wall sheilding the rest from the busy street life. And then you step over the damp mote and walk through the stand of young cedars. When you reach the front facade, the wearing brick is sketched in time but lifted by two magnificent steel columns on each side. As you enter the warm interior, raw and rich, the wide plank floor runs right through the center, from arch to arch, the same wooden floor that the horses pulled grain carts through. The brick rises three times, like a house of cards, and large heroic beams stretch across and support the rising atrium. Light, even in the setting sun, drenches the interior, scouring away the dim. People just keep coming and going, passing and pausing, down from the stairs and waiting for tea. This is not only my secret garden but everyone's, who find a little peace.


Carrington started in the atrium, led us outside, down into the basement, up to the rooftop and down into the conference hall. There were stories for every landing both from his experience with his crew and the previous lives the building has lived. The most stunning form of sustainability is the sheer rawness of the interior and exterior but somehow it encompasses warmth and freedom. The moose head is a simple reminder that we belong in the circle of life.


One thing I learned on the tour is that UV rays are the primary reason roofs fail, this is why green roofs have such a long life span, 50 plus years, because the roof is actually never exposed to the sun. Other benefits of ecoroofs include, reduced storm water runoff, cooler ambient and storm water temperatures, greater ceiling insulation and
water filtration. All of these benefits paired with semi-permeable pavement and bioswales, rainwater slowly meanders it's way back to the Willamette River at it's historic pace, free and clear of contaminants and just as cold as the river it feeds.


For more information about the Ecotrust, check out their site

For information on the building, The Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, go here

international womem's day

do you know the significance of March 8th?

it's a day celebrated all over the world: international women's day

yes, i knew march was women's history month but i did not know about march 8th

today my bosnian coworker told me about how she would be celebrating with all of her women friends with a party t0night and tomorrow her sons would be getting her something special, teacher's are brought flowers, employers by their female employees lunch, etc.

how come the US does nothing special for women on this day? (ok, i was invited to go to a women's day fair at PSU tomorrow - but that just isn't the same as an actual holiday/special day)

we are a country that fought for women's rights and succeeded, or did we . . .

. . . women do two-thirds of the world's work but receive only 10% of the world's income

. . . one year out of college women earn 20% less than men and 10 years later 31% less

. . . females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km

. . . pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe

. . . women's education is the most powerful predictor of lower fertility rates

. . . globally women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80

. . . globally women comprise 42% internet users (Italy 37% ... US & Canada 51%)

. . . women spend more time researching before they invest than men do

. . . women control $14 trillion in assets and this should grow to $22 trillion over next 10 years

. . . 56% of women who voted supported Obama compared to only 49% of men voted for Obama

. . . women use 20,000 words a day while men only use 7,000

so go let the women in your life know they are appreciated :)

To find out more about International Women's Day, check out this site

Climate - Can Man Change It?

The Wonders of Science in Modern Life
Volume IX The Reason Why in Science
By Henry Smith Williams
Copyright 1912
pg. 45

"In a volume published by the U.S. Geological Survey, C. R. Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin, predicts an increase of temperature in future all over the world. The prophecy is based on the enormous discharge of carbonic acid into the air, due to the burning of coal. This idea was earlier exprest by Prof. Arrhenius and possibly by others, but it is elaborated by Prof. Van Hise with some interesting statistics.

It is stated that the coal mined and burned in the year 1899 amounted to 723,287,454 metric tons. Ten years earlier the annual production was only 511,518,358 metric tons. This shows how rapid the increase in the use of coal has been, and seems to justify the estimate that the average annual combustion of coal for the ensuing centruy will not be less than 1,000,000,000 tons. On this assumption it is estimated that the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere would be doubled in the course of the ensuing 800 years.

The atmosphere is in effect a blanket about the earth, retarding the radiation of heat. The moon has no atmosphere, and its surface is supposed to maintain practically the zero temperature of empty space. the earth is protected by its gaseous atmospher, and the degree of protection is greatly enhanced by the presence of water-vapor and carbonic acid gas. Arrhenius has calculated that if the carboid dioxid is increased 2.5 to 3 times it's present value, the temperature in the arctic regions must rise on the average 14 degrees to 15 degrees Fahr., producing a climate mild as that of the geological period known as the Eocene. Such a change would resultin a more luxuriant growth of vegetation everywhere, and the quickening of many chemical reactions. It, therefore, appears probable, says Prof. Van Hise, that the burning of coal will result in profound geological changes.

The Scientific American points out that in the few years that have elapsed since Prof. Van Hise's prophecy was made, the world's annual consumption of coal has about doubled, "so that six thousand million tons of carbonic oxid are now being discharged annually into the atmosphere." The inference that the climate has by this means been measurably changed within recent years would probably not bear the test of too close an inspection of accurate wather-records; but that appreciable effects must accrue in the course of time would seems to be inevitable. Even now it is possible that such centers as New York City, which consumes twenty million tons of coal annually, may secure some local advantages of modified climate, tho at the expense of purity of the air-supply."

Current Carbon and Climate Change information can be found at the US Energy Information Administration and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change