Fort Worth BRIT

     My final stop on this Texas tour was the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). This impressive structure was just opened to the public on May 21^st of this year. It was the 2nd LEED Platinum building in the county and only the 8^th ion the entire state. 97% of the previous building that stood on the BRIT site was recycled into other building products. Although, it houses plant specimens that were collected as far back as the 1800’s.  The BRIT started 24 years ago with a small group of people that were interested in collecting and maintaining a herbarium on the Fort Worth area. They currently have over one million specimens in the collection, with more being added each week.

The main lobby of the BRIT is quite impressive. At the far end is a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows that looks out onto a great green space. This area is what the BRIT referred to as their “pocket prairie.” This area was originally part of the footprint of the previous health administration building.  They have taken steps to take out all of the existing concrete and asphalt and replaced it with a layer of new, good soil and came in and planted a large variety of native plant species. These native grasses and other plants have been allowed to grow unhindered. The BRIT is hoping that as the years pass their “pocket” will become more and more like the prairie that was here before land development in the area started. The lobby also showcases an entire wall of reclaimed “sinker cypress.” These trees were harvested almost one hundred years ago or more. They were transported by water from the areas where they were cut and along the way some of them sank or were waylaid in one way or another from reaching the mill. They were then covered with silt and mud for a hundred years. 

During these years the logs were penetrated by the minerals and alloys found in the river bottom. The anaerobic conditions of the river bottom deprive the wood of oxygen, and thus prevent the wood from rotting as it would in other underwater conditions. This process imparts rare and beautiful patters in the wood that is extremely desirable to woodworkers and carpenters alike. The boards made from these trees produce a sustainable product, as their harvesting clears up river and lake bottoms and gets high quality/ high priced lumber to the mill without having to harvest trees that are of equal value that are still growing and making more trees. Besides, in the USA today, you can’t really find trees to turn into lumber like this anymore as we have already cut them all down. 

          The list of green and environmentally friendly building materials doesn’t stop with the lobby. This $45 million building was built with 20% recycled materials and rapidly replenished materials wherever possible. Bamboo ceiling tiles were chosen for their rapidly replenished properties, wool carpet was chosen for its low VOC and multiple harvesting aspects. Recycled rubber flooring covers most of the higher traffic areas, and even the concrete walls were poured and erected on-site to lower fuel and transportation costs. 

          The BRIT also has many intriguing energy savings and generation systems. The rook of one building is a living/green roof that was hand planted with over 40 varieties of native Texas plants. These plants were arranged and raised on the BRIT grounds. Almost 6,000 coconut husk trays were filled with locally harvested soil and planted with the native species. These flats were then allowed to germinate and take root on the BRIT grounds so that they would have a better foot hold by the time they were moved to the roof top. When it was time for the installation the flats were moved by conveyor belt from the ground and placed by hand on the 9 degree sloped roof. This allows the BRIT to lessen their storm water impact while taking advantage of the insulative properties of the grass and soil, raising the R-value of the entire building. The BRIT also makes use of an on-site solar array. This allows them to generate 17% of their power themselves and lessen the amount of electricity that they have to purchase as well as lessen the strain that a building of their size puts on the municipal power load.  They system that they have at BRIT is one that I have never seen before. 

The panel is not set up in the typical fashion, instead of a solid, flat surface; it is made up of solar collecting rods that stretch across the area of the panel. These rods allow a better aspect to collection ratio than its flat counterpart. Also, if there is any damage to any of the individual tubes (like from Texas hail) the damaged tube can be removed and replaced without destroying the entire panel. The tubular design, when combined with a reflective roof treatment allows the rods to generate power on the underside of the rod from the reflective sunlight striking the roof. 

The BRIT also employs a geothermal heat exchange system, which uses the constant temperature below the surface of the earth to heat and cool water that can be circulated throughout the entire building to heat or cool as necessary. The system is made up of over 160 wells drilled into the earth that the water is piped through. This system reduces the heating and cooling requirements of the 70,000 ^ft BRIT by 50%.

          The BRIT also has an extensive water collection and 

management system. They have two 5,000 gallon cisterns located in the rear of the building out by the parking lot. These tanks, along with a collection of gutters and underground piping, catch all of the water runoff from both roofs and channel it into one of the two holding tanks to be used to water the landscaping. Even the parking lot is engineered for responsible water management. The lot is separated into parking lanes, which are separated by “leach fields” where water has a chance to temporally collect and drain replenishing the local aquifers and not just rushing into the municipal storm sewer. These fields are flanked my sidewalks that are made out a pervious material that allows water to flow off of the lots surface and sink into the soil, much like the leach field itself. If there is any additional storm water that is not managed by these installations the BRIT have build a water retention pond that stores water for future months when water is not an plentiful.

Overall, the BRIT is very impressive and is a great example of good design applied to a real world building. The BRIT is a great teaching institute in that wherever you go or look there is something to learn about green building and environmental responsibility, while at the same time succeeding at the original reason it was built, to house the area’s largest herbarium and be a great teaching institute where the people of Fort Worth can come and learn about that plants and responsible plant and planet management and developments can really accomplish.

Houston Day 2

     The second and final day in Houston was most likely my favorite. We went to speak with the folks from Jolie Vue Farm.  Let me start out by saying that Glen and Honi Ann Boudreaux are some of the nicest people that I have come across in a long time. They made us feel welcome as well as gave us quite the educational tour of their place. 

This family farm is impressive for many reasons. They told us about their idea that came to fruition in 1989 when they acquired the 107 acres outside of Houston. The plan was to let the land revert to its natural state, letting the mix of native grasses taking over the unnaturally planted and maintained plants currently on the property.  This ended up being a major success in a few ways, the first of which was their water usage dropped quite significantly. Since the previous grasses were not from the Texas area their water requirements were tremendous. Secondly, they benefited from not having to buy as much corn and grain for their animals. The “traditional” way to raise animals in this area was to feed them a diet of food that had to be trucked in from far away and with the rising price of diesel fuel this feed became more and more expensive. With the addition of native plants, along with creative and responsible pasture rotation they are able to raise five times as many cows on this property as the local agriculture professional thought possible. When thinking about dollars per acre, the “high” end of the scale around other farms in this county is $700-$800, while the Boudreaux’s are pushing $2500.00 or more. Which to say the least surprised the folks in the nearby farming community. This alone makes quite a compelling argument the Jolie Vue must be doing something right.

     In addition to the bottom line they also talked to us about some of the specifics of what they do and why. They raise a specific breed of both cow and pig on this farm. They were able to acquire breeding stock from the originally registered Scottish Angus linage from having someone actually travel to Scotland and back. This cow is smaller framed than the traditional cow for this area. They are more even tempered than other breeds. They also have a good breeding temperament, which helps replenish their herd each month. These cows are moved from one lush pasture to another in rotating succession. The idea of “the cow shouldn’t take a second bite” was new to me. It was explained to me that since the top 1/3 of any grass have the largest amount of sugars and proteins, that ideally you would want the cow to only eat this part of the plant. The accomplish this by keeping the cows in any pasture for only a few days and when they have gotten all of the tops of the grasses, they are moved to the next pasture and the previous field is left to recuperate (with a fresh layer of manure) to regrow their nutritious tops for at least a month and a half before being visited again. 

     They are allowed to stay on the farm eating the freshest of wild grass until they are between 2 and 3 years old. Then they are rounded up into a finishing area, where they are allowed to eat a little more grass and gain some final weight before they are sent off for processing. Even their butchering practices were impressive. They employ quite a different method than the usually. They told us that they are almost Kosher (but without the Shochet). Where the animal is slowly bleed out through the neck in a quite setting, without machines or undue stress. This allows them to treat the animal with more respect and less violence, which may not save any money but it sounds like the right way to do it if you ask me.

The hogs of the farm are managed in quite a similar way. The Berkshire/Duroc hogs are allowed about 1 year on the farm. During that time they are moved from one section of the farms forested land to another. This allows them to feed naturally on acorns and other forest flora as they would in the wild. They are rotated a little slower from one area to the next as they are also a little harder on the land with their rooting habits. They forested areas are allowed several months to recoup before they are allowed to return to the same place. Around harvest time the hogs are gathered up into a smaller pen and finished on a diet of fruits (peaches, figs and pears) from the farm .There are not enough of these fruits to be a viable cash crop, so the feed the hogs the fruit in an effort to naturally add a little weight before processing. As a happy accident, the meat from these animals has an especially desirable taste and they are able to get a premium for their meat. 

         
I was also very interested to learn more about the CSA (community sponsored agriculture) model of distribution and payment that the farm runs on. They have over 150 people that pay $35/year to be registered in their network. Each of these people has the option to sign up for a $200.00 delivery each month. They have about 100 slots to fill, so with the overlap there is almost never any leftover food.  Using this system they have the comfort and security of an almost guaranteed sales list at the start of every month. They don’t have to go to a market and worry if they are going to sell their food in enough quantity in time to keep profits coming in.  They also sell directly to restaurants, except that their commercial customers buy directly from the farm and the monthly boxes of meat remain separate. Both the folks at Jolie Vue and their customers seem to benefit from this business model. The customers get great tasting, humanly treated, local meats. While the Boudreaux’s, have a regular customer base and don’t have to worry (as much) who they will be selling to next month.

Houston Day 1

     We stared out the first day in Houston at the Green Bank where we met with Mark Alan Robinson of Momentum Bay. This guy is a one man sustainability machine. To say that he has lots of irons in the fire is quite an understatement. He is involved in sustainability in all of its aspects. From his home garden to his local solar initiative, he is interested in it all. 

He began about telling us about the Green Bank, where they were able to build to suit LEED Gold certification from the planning stage, and were able to see that idea through to completion. He told us that by using new and improved building materials and by entering a sustainability mindset and applying it to the entire overall design they were able to save 25% of their initial cost to construct the building. The entire time planning and translating a noticeable savings to the month to month operating expenses’ of the building as well. This shows that the idea of building sustainably is not a ideal that only works on paper. This man was able to get real world clients and show them in a real world application where they would benefit from building this way. Not just a “feel good” payback, but actual savings in utilities and operating expenses’ overall.

          There was also an interesting story about how this idea of cost reduction through green practices while keeping an adherence to quality in his personal life. While planning their wedding they decided to ask themselves the questions “How can we make this step have a lessened environmental impact?” In doing so, they threw themselves an entirely green wedding that didn’t waste food or resources unduly and that reused as much of the “disposables” as possible. Also, and maybe just an important, they saved $18,000.00 on the overall cost of the wedding itself.

          He also addressed the idea that sustainability needs a change of branding. Currently, the buzz words of this movement have been “cheap” “green” “responsible” with terms like “short ROI” “fiscal responsibility” taking the forefront. We talked about the idea that other words and ideas are more likely to illicit the desired result in people other than purely business. As an example: “Healthy” electricity showed a 44% positive response while “Green, Responsible” showed only a 4% positive response. The secret is in knowing that these two examples are the same thing, with a little different branding. In either case you would be talking about solar and wind generated power. In the first “Healthy” branded energy, you would talk about how this power is made in a way that will result in healthier customers with fewer cases of asthma and emphysema. While in the second example there are twenty year old catch phrases “Go Green” and “Save the Environment” that Americans have been hearing for the last 20 years and have not chosen to adopt in mass.

          We also talked about how educating children being the most powerful tool in changing the minds and actions of the general populace. The Monarch School in the Houston area is a great success story. It was turned from an aging, wasteful private school into a flagship example of how good environmental design combined with diligent operating practices can have amazing results. 

 

     This school also took the idea of educational importance to heart by teaching its student body, and staff how to reduce energy requirements and utility bills through behavior alone. By changing their operating habits throughout the entire school and its surrounding grounds they were able to reduce their electrical bill by $16,000.00.  This example alone illustrates the importance of educating kids, and how opening their minds early to sustainability can make a big change happen in the minds of adults around them. It also gets the idea of “doing right” and “saving money” are capable of going hand in hand and that they are not mutually exclusive, and that soon there will not be “Green” building standards. There will just be “Best Practices” that take advantage of the changes that we are making today.

          The second and last sustainable visit of the day was the City of Houston Green Building Resource Center. This is a great public space that showcases the available green and energy saving upgrades that are currently available to the people of the Houston area. It has been in operation for two years and is located in a LEED Gold Certified commercial building.

     The space is filled with furniture and other amenities that have been moved from other branches of the Houston government. The furniture is 85% repurposed from the Houston Library Department. The employees of the center also saved the cost of reviewing and accepting contractor bids to finish the construction by doing the build-out themselves. They have installed a working water retention system, complete with working cistern that feeds the onsite landscaping. The landscaping is even outfitted with water sensors that direct the watering system to be as conservative as possible. That was the water is not wasted by poor timing or lack or surplus of available rainwater.

          The actual displays (50+) at the center were very informative and easy to understand. They covered a wide variety of home improvements and areas where homeowners could make green improvements to their property.   

They had displays showing water saving toilets that used the tank receptacle to hold water used in hand washing. There was a display showing the insulative values of different roof treatments and how those treatments could influence the temperature of the attic space that they cover. This is important because the cooler you can keep your home attic space the less heated space insulates your home to require more heating energy. 

I had never seen, but was very interested in the low diameter/ high volume air conditioning unit that they had on display. This system works on the principle that it takes less energy to change the temperature of air in a smaller space that moves at a higher volume than the traditional method. 

They also had a extensive display of wall insulation options, from several varieties of sprayed-in closed cell foam to a system that uses the insulation power of trapped air in hay stalks to provide a straw-bale style wall with a high R-value.

          All in all, this city provided center was very impressive, although a little vendor/retail heavy. Although, I guess you have to have easily accessible and understandable examples for the average consumer. Otherwise, you will only have people who already understand the existing technologies making changes to their homes and not your average Houstonian. This way it is more open and available to the public of Houston in general. I believe that once they move the center to its new location; where they plan to continue their mission to expose as many people as they can to the newly emerging technologies that can improve people’s homes in combination with a centralized location for all of the associated green building plans can be gathered and returned, they will be able to reach more people than ever and continue to spread the idea of green building to the people of Houston.

San Antonio Day 2

     Our Second day in San Antonio began at the converted Pearl Beer Industrial Park. This is a refurbished factory/bottling plant has been changed into a “River Walk” for the citizens of S.A. It is an area of fewer tourists, oriented towards local people, with no hotels nearby with businesses and offices that serve local needs. 

The development has an extensive solar installation, with the ability to generate 200 kilowatts of power. It has a public interaction station that shows the live workings of the generation process and how it all works. Visitors can see how much solar power is currently being generated, as well as the equivalent of how many homes could benefit from using solar. The kiosk also illustrates how much Co2 and Sox can be saved in power generation when compared to old coal burning power plants. Installations like this one make the solar experience more accessible and less foreign to non-science and non-sustainability oriented folks.

          The “River Walk” portion of the conversion was very pretty and was built with a lessened environmental impact in mind. Landscape features are watered by the on-site water which does not need additional treatment. It also contains extensive native plant areas that attract local and native birds and animals. One of the ways they attract local people is a naturally sloped amphitheater with Texas limestone seating with native grasses covering the ground. They have shows with local musicians and performers on as many occasions as they can. 

          The second stop of the day was at the Sustainable Perspectives Group. This was a small firm that specializes in mostly LEED Certification assistance. Their customers are mostly commercial sites, schools and government buildings. In addition to consulting, they offer training and continuing education for groups and individuals.  They are hired by both builders and architects to ensure their buildings qualify for LEED certification. They are one of the only firms in S.A. offering LEED certification, although they told us that many of the larger architectural firms have a LEED Certification person that works for them in-house. In addition they also design waste management systems as well as install and monitor air quality equipment.

          Most of their time is spent problem solving rather than in documentation of their business practices. Each build-site is taken as an individual project with involvement from architects, construction engineers, mechanical engineers, and even landscape architects from time to time. This is a good way to gather resources for their clients in one place.

          They also seemed to spend a lot of their time checking and double checking invoices and work plans. This is a quality assurance aspect of the firm. They are the ones that are physically there to make sure that correct materials are used when they are called for. Making sure that design specifications are carried out by the contractors that are on site, and verify that those features are in the correct place and functioning properly. In this task they act as watchdogs against corner cutting which is the norm in today’s construction practices. This diligence lets their customers feel assured that the designs and materials that were purchased at a premium are used to their maximum potential and that the savings and innovations that are incorporated into their buildings work the way that they were planned.

           

 The final stop of the day was the San Antonio Toyota Tundra Plant.  This truck factory (the sixth in the USA) was built in 2003, with the first Toyota Tundra rolling off the line in 2006.  This plant was designed to be different from the ground up. It was planned to be one of the greenest auto-plants in the country, if not the world. It has been constructed to be a zero landfill contributor. All of the waste from the plant is used here and elsewhere as base materials and usable resources for other manufacturing processes. 

I thought that also followed a good philosophy in building this factory in Texas. “We build trucks where people buy them, and Texans buy a lot of trucks” explains it very well in a single sentence. This idea of having products close to their end-use site carries over into the entire plant. They have many of their vendors installed as warehouse and end route destinations. This means that like the trucks that are both made and sold locally, these vendors are located right on the plant grounds. This gives them an opportunity to capitalize on; that since these vendors distribution centers are on the same land as Toyota they can save money on fuel costs because there products end use is so physically close to its shipping address.

          They also have quite a few amenities that are on site as well. They have opened and continue to run the Toyota Family Medical Center. This allows them the ability to have medical treatment for their employees on-site which would reduce down time and absences from the factory floor. It is also smart to have a quality medical facility so close to such a large industrial site. This way if there were to be an accident (large or small) they would be able respond extremely fast to any sort of medical issue.

          As I mentioned earlier, this plant is a zero landfill waste plant. They have also taken as many steps as possible for this factory to produce as green of a product as they are able. They have changed the paint used in the Tundra to one that is VOC free and water based. This reduces the amount of air pollution that needs to be treated on site as well as the amount of chemicals that are released into the air. They have also changed many of the plastic parts in the vehicle to low VOC plastics and in some cases even going as far as to replace the part entirely with soy based plastics. While these changes might seem small and insignificant at first glance, I believe it is a positive first step to creating a greener manufacturing climate and that these practices combined with Toyotas commitment to zero landfill contribution will someday become the normal and not the exception.

San Antonio Day 1

On to San Antonio!

          After meeting at the Hotel Havana for coffee in the morning we went to our first appointment, Jerry Lammers at Alamo Architects. This firm of 40 people specializes in sustainable design for both residential and commercial properties. We went to their new office space, which has a great story behind it. 

The building started out its life as a custom truck trailer manufacturer, and then was sold to a kitchen equipment dealer and storage warehouse. This office was the second LEED Gold certified building in all of San Antonio.  The firm bought the lot and proceeded to invest 1.3 million dollars in a top to bottom renovation, which stared the reuse of most of the existing building and grounds. They decided to make the most of what was on site. They tore up the existing concrete driveway as most new tenants would; but unlike most new tenants they decided to cut the concrete driveway into large pieces so that they could reuse the slabs as landscape material (stepping stones) as well as in the creation of a decorative garden wall.

This idea of on-site reuse continues throughout the entire space. The interior of the firm was left in its original configuration as a large warehouse/garage space, which worked out great for the office space with high ceilings and open space. They seemed to save as much of the old factory/warehouse as possible. The truck sized roll-up doors were replaced with insulated, low-E glass to flood the interior space with natural light. Much of the metal fixtures and interior structure was also maintained and reused to suit the new function of the space. They also used much of the lumber that was in the original building as accent wood for the interior. Long leaf pine was harvested before 1928 and is only available in reclaimed sections. If you were to buy this wood from a lumber dealer you would pay $5.00/board Ft (if you can find it). This added a fantastic look to much of the interior. They also used metal garage doors, as outdoor columns, trailer testing ballast as landscape stones, and even wooden roll-up doors were converted into cubical walls with built in windows. 

The next stop of the day was a local TRANE dealer, where we attended a USGS C.E. lecture/webinar. This started with a presentation of the Green Communities program. This is the first all green affordable housing project. It is focused on the idea that we can deliver health, economic, and environmental benefits from changing the way that we construct multi-family dwellings that are not priced out of reach of “regular” people who might not know about the advantage of these advances. The USGBC worked with water/power utilities and property owners to collect a great deal of accurate date concerning consumption of resources at developments like the ones they were ready to build. The design they discussed worked out to be a $1900.00 investment that would return $2900.00 over the life of the building.  This might not seem like a great savings; but when compounded by several dozen/hundred units that savings can quickly add up to a substantial amount of money for the entire development.

          I was interested to see that they mentioned water collection systems in this presentation. They pointed out that this system is one of the few green innovations that was low-tech. They also stressed that if a collection system like this is installed and properly maintained it can offer potentially very large savings in water utility bills in throughout the entire life span of the building. They highlighted the fact that water saving and reduction systems have some of the quickest payback times (ROI) of any resource saving systems. The example that sited was a $350.00-$900.00 savings per year, per unit. This would lead to a 2-3 ROI.

          I liked the next part very much; they talked about the importance of knowing the difference between Modeling –vs- Reality. Where Modeling is important to design, you still have to walk the site to make sure that these designs will work with the real world results of the subcontractors constructed building. Also, you can use combine bill tracing with energy modeling over time to determine if the building is actually green or not.

          Their closing point was the new Building Performance Partnership (BPP). This partnership engages commercial and residential LEED building owners and managers in an effort to optimize the performance of buildings through data collection, analysis and action.  The currently they are collecting information about water and power usage from as many LEED buildings as they can. Having a database like this will be invaluable in enabling standardization of reporting metrics and analytics, and establish new performance benchmarks. They spoke about 2012, where BPP will be a LEED certification requirement and the trend of each individual building having energy/water monitoring systems to feed the BPP database.

           

     The third visit of the day was Solar San Antonio.  They described themselves as a “One stop shop for solar in S.A” or “Kind of a BBB for solar.” They had helped with 150 solar installations in the S.A. area, with 150 clients currently wait-listed. With so many clients in need of assistance you would think that is most of what they do here, but in addition to helping people get solar on their homes and businesses, they are also helping to pass three Bills through the state legislature helping limit the strength of Home Owners Associations to restrict and deny the installation and use of solar energy in housing developments, and to help them accept the inevitable need to reduce ever rising utility bills. 

     They are funded by the local utility (CPS) and by Bexar county. Currently, their largest exposure to the public is during their yearly solar expo. This event is a chance for them to showcase what they have to offer in the way of assistance and informational gathering that is available to the public. The highlight of the
Expo is the Solar Home Tour. Each year they tour around a ten private homes to an estimated 500-600 people. This is a fantastic way for them show as many people as they can that they have been successful in helping people see their dream of personal solar ownership become a reality.  

     They are also involved in the construction of several large solar generation farms. These farms are a big part of the future of solar. They will use undesirable land and turn it into areas of worth and redevelopment. Each of these farms will also create hundreds of construction jobs that will translate into the private sector once the farms construction has been completed. The largest of these projects, The Blue Wing is the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in Texas and the third largest PV farm in the U.S.  The amount of generation from the facility is approximately 25,000 megawatt-hours. The constructions of farms like Blue Wing, when combined with aggressive pricing and technological advances will help Solar S.A to see their ideal price point of $1/Kw/Hr become a reality by 2020.

          Our next meeting a short visit with the directors of the Sustainable Business Program at The University of San Antonio. They had a lot of great things to say about the changing face of today’s business. They talked about the triple bottom line of “People, Profit and Planet” where business can still make a profit without destroying part of the planet in the process. It isn’t business as usual anymore. That old model just won’t work today. The modern business model has to take environmental impacts into consideration. They concentrate on Four main aspects of sustainability in business; Sustainable Manufacturing, Business Practices that are forward looking into the distant future and not concentrated solely on a short payback time, Disaster Preparedness, and the Commercialism of sustainability itself. They are able to do so through funding provided after Hurricane Dolly in 2008. A combination of Federal Reserve funds, FEMA and EDA allocated money allowed the university to research a business school model that would be sustainable into the future.

          One of their current undertakings is study of urban sprawl and suburb-ism and its link to high/rising energy prices and unwanted overstress on existing power infrastructure. They were excited to see students that are currently taking an interest in the sustainable energy model that they have been building. One of their hardest obstacles to overcome is expanding the kind of business that they want to practice in areas where people don’t already have a green mindset. One of the ways they hoped to overcome this barrier was implementing an alternative idea to LEED-Type scoring where a client can benefit from their sustainable ideas without regard to size or buying power. Also, where they are able to customize a plan to fit the customer and not have to adhere to a rigid system of points and benchmarks so that a client can see positive change in themselves and their business.

          The last stop of the day was Poteet Architects, where Jim Poteet met with us to talk about himself and his firm. He started the firm 13 years ago, when he moved to S.A from Philly. He had decided to concentrate his work in sustainable remodeling and refurbishment of old/historic buildings while also overseeing new responsible construction that kept the same commitment to quality and design that he stressed.

He talked about the idea he shares with a few select real-estate people, where there is continued responsible development of the S.A. urban corridor and a commitment to rehabilitate many of the derelict downtown buildings. This plan focuses on the repurposing of space to keep the spirit of the area while ushering as new future where once empty space is converted to useful, commercial and residential space that benefits the renter/owner as much as the city the rent/own in.  In the immediate neighborhood there was an old gas service station that had been converted into a high end eatery, a uniform construction/cleaning warehouse that used to spew lint and unpleasant smells into the air was changed into a successful restraint supply gallery that has the space to store, ship and show their products. The addition of more space allows them to consolidate their operation and save on fuel cost and equate this lower cost into savings to their customers. Finally, there is a food products corporation in the shell of the old car dealership. The ample space of the dealer garage was converted into a production floor, while the showroom was changed into an office and small, naturally lighted exhibit area. 

The big project that they were concentrating on was the conversion of the old Hemisphere Park. This multi-decade undertaking is the conversion of an old fairground-display area from an underused part of town with poor infrastructure and underused potential to 60 acres of new homes. The master plan calls for three parks, museums, and plans for several markets for local products. This all will be interspersed with multifamily dwellings. They are going to try and get away from the single family on a single lot idea that has caused such a high price per foot in city real estate in the past. They believe with a more vertical oriented development plan they will able to spread this and other expenses amongst more people and lessen the financial burden all around. 

The coolest house/rehab of the trip would definitely have to be the Poteet Container guesthouse/studio. Although he didn’t get to see it in person, it was still really neat. They converted an 8x40 ft shipping container into a guesthouse/urban retreat. They used as many green and sustainable features and building materials in this project as they could. There is a green roof on a drip watering system. A cantilevered overhang on the rear side is also planted by cacti. 

The foundation structure is made from recycled telephone poles. Floor to ceiling glass doors and windows provide better natural lighting through the container. In addition they installed bamboo flooring, air conditioner and heater, an electric composting toilet, and bamboo wall-covering for the container. Grey water processing system is available and the water is used for watering the garden. Spray foam insulation is also provided to protect the housing from heat and cool conditions. Although this was a “down-time” project for the firm they definitely learned a lot from it, and will continue to implement successes discovered during this retrofit in homes in the future.

Austin Day 2

     Day two of our Austin visit started out at the Mueller Airport development information center parking lot. We had to go to another location before we went to the visitor/information center, as it was not open quite that early. We decided to check out the Austin Sustainable Food Center. This origination, which started in 1993, is a 501c 3 nonprofit that specializes in getting quality sustainably grown food to people in Austin.  

          They have three main programs that they oversee that were very interesting to me. The first of these programs was Farm Direct. This program is divided into three parts; Farm-to-Institution, Farm-to-School and Farm-to-Work. This group of programs is focused on making quality, locally grown food available to these groups so that they may replace the often lower quality/nutrition food that must be trucked in for far away. This is important because very often in these three environments people either don’t have the choice to eat well, they are rushed in their jobs that they can’t take the time to find and prepare food that is actually worth eating or quality food is economically beyond their reach. This leads to a lower quality of life for these people and for our community as a whole. The benefits of eating quality food are often difficult to assign a monetary value. The poor diets of the people in the program often leads to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease as well as a host of other health problems linked to nutrition. When they are able to incorporate good food into even one of their meals these conditions are often more manageable and sometimes eradicated. This means that they are less likely to need medical assistance which we as a community are likely to foot the bill for. 

          Their second program is Grow Local; this is where they organize and run three farmers markets in the greater Austin area. They also work to help people set up community gardens where various groups are able to grow their own food. Currently they have helped to start 16 of the approximately 30 community gardens that are in Austin. This is important in showing people that they have control over the future of their nutrition and health. 

          The third and final program that the SFC runs is the Happy Kitchen. This initiative focuses mostly on the education of lower income families and individuals. It instructs them on how to shop for nutritious foods, how to budget their finances to be able to afford quality food for their families. The final aspect of the Happy Kitchen is actual cooking classes which instruct participants on how to prepare foods in a way that maximizes their nutritional value.

          Finally, they told us about their Farm Talk; this was a different kind of program. This one was specific to farmers. Farm Talk is an open forum where local farmers can talk to other farmers from the area and share tips and farming practices. They also sponsor replication training to spread ideas that one group might be working on or implementing that others might not know about or need some more information to get started.

          After the SFC, we went over the Mueller Development. This area is a 700 acre site that was Austin’s original airport. The airport was closed over a decade ago and the land lay fallow and unused for many years.  As early as 1984, there was a plan that called for a new town in-town, promoting compact and higher density development, compatible with the surrounding single-family neighborhoods. In 1996, a 16-member Task Force representing a complete spectrum of Austin interests reiterated this vision, calling for the creation of a compact and pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use community. Once completed they development hopes to be home to 10,000 people in 4,900 single and multi-family homes, 10,000 employees and to create 10,500 construction jobs. A full 25% of the homes are part of the Muller Affordable Homes Program, which helps out first time home buyers that are in a lower income bracket (80% or below MFI) to purchase a well built home in this new and exciting community.  Seniors on a fixed income are also eligible for this program along with teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters and other essential service professions. 

We were told that all of the homes in the area must be built to a 3-Star Austin Green Building standard, with many of the homes achieving higher ratings.  The development is currently about 1/3 of the way complete with the remainder to be finished in the future. With over 4.5 million Ft² of residential development, it is one of the largest (if not THE largest) developments in Austin’s history.

          While these homes were not quite my style; I can see how they would be very appealing to folks who want a new home constructed out of quality materials. The current mindset in many large developments are only concerned with bottom line numbers, while quality of the product and it’s lifespan are not considered. I see this trend as extremely short sighted and just dumb. Why would you buy something that is poorly made and that will fall apart while you are still using (or living in) it. One thing that I really liked about the layout of the development is the strategic use of alleyways. This keeps the main streets from becoming clogged and congested by street parking with the placement of parking in the rear of the homes. The alleys also allow of municipal trash services to drive down one street and service both sides. This feature, in a small way, means that trash trucks are faster and use less gasoline and can be more efficient in their routes. 

           

     This neighborhood was built with sustainability in mind from the start of the project. The project is located in Central Austin, where the suburban sprawl is growing at an exponential rate. This area was designed to increase the local population density and reduce the amount of time and travel for its occupants. Also, the area is on track to be one of the next stops on the Austin Light-Rail project. This would be a great way to remove thousands of cars on the roadways and reduce (even in a small way) the overall air pollution in Austin. I thought it was also a smart idea to consult with the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center when planning the landscaping aspect of this development. The LJWC is one of the premier native plant research centers in the United States, with live plant labs that test out and experiment with the application of native Texas plants in modern landscaping. They also lead the way in water conservation ideas and work very hard to discriminate this information to as much of the Austin populace as possible. I also like the fact that the builders decided to use a great deal of the existing Tarmac in the construction of the road-bed. This is not only a great reuse of an expensive material; it also keeps thousands of Ft² of non degrading material out of the local landfill. Finally, with such a large neighborhood I think that they are very smart to capture and reuse graywater to irrigate the 140 acres of open green space. This saves water, money and keeps the grounds looks great.

          Our third destination on our second day in Austin was the Ronald McDonald House, located in the Mueller development. This location was the first LEED Platinum building in Austin. The house is a place to stay for families of sick children being treated at the newly constructed Dell Children’s Hospital. 

The families are supplied with extremely affordable rooms ($10/night) with free food and places to shower and wash clothes. The site has a solar array that provides a great deal of power for the building. It was also constructed with environmentally sensitive materials (low VOC paint, non-off-gassing carpeting, etc.) We were also told that the construction was linked to the building of the Denver Airport. Apparently, they used many of the building techniques developed for the Colorado airport.

          The next location was the SOL Sustainable Community in East Austin. We met with Chris Krager the principal designer for KRDB. I really liked the idea behind this little community. It is firstly a plan to in-build and to get away from the urban sprawl that is so common in today’s housing developments. 

          These modestly sized homes were designed to be as sustainable as can be. They were planned as Net-Zero Energy utility homes. While they all of the units may not be a 100% Net-Zero Energy, the idea of having this plan from the beginning is a great start. Overall the homes at SOL use 55% less energy than the usual homes constructed out of typical materials and regular design. Up front these homes are a little more expensive (15%-17%) than they typical home of comparable size. But, on the up side they have amazingly low utilities, including some that are as low as $30 a month. In addition to the use of solar panels on most of the roofs, the community also uses geothermal HVAC units that use the Earth as a heat sink. Not only do these improvements lower utility bills, they also lessen the overall environmental impact of the entire site.

The homes that were built here were a combination of low-income, affordable homes and full priced units. Overall the idea of smaller homes on smaller lots appealed to be as a way to combat the space wasting mindset that is so prevalent in today’s culture of “bigger is better,” where in my mind “better is better.”  Personally, I would rather own and live in a home that was constructed with high quality materials that would last far longer and need less maintenance and repair over its lifetime.  The site has its own water filtration and settlement pond to recharge the local aquifer in a more responsible manner than what is usually done. This is also not the norm for most developments that are built these days. Mostly, it’s “just let that water run into the storm sewer” and that just won’t cut it these days. I also like the fact that many of the lots have shared space like driveways that lead to the rear of both neighboring homes. This idea of shared space and use is also unique in my experience. 

Overall, even though the homes have a little higher price-point up front I am still extremely impressed with the overall design concept and implementation of ideals into the real world.

          Our final visit was the Austin EcoSchool, where we met with Cheryl Kruckberg.  This school of about 32 students and six teachers gives an alternative educational model to today’s public schools. She told us all about the school and their philosophy; to quote from their principals page “We seek to nurture in our children a joyful understanding of themselves as important members of their communities, to empower them to think creatively and critically, and to foster practices that reflect our belief that each person has an important role in protecting the environment and building a positive future. We model and encourage constructive behavior, use positive redirection, and facilitate peaceful conflict resolution.” I was impressed with her passion and dedication to the quality of life she is bringing to the school’s students.  While this school might be too “touchy-feely” for many folks, I believe that the ideas of mutual respect and group cooperation are very important and often lacking from many of today’s educational programs.  Overall, individual worth is focused on and it makes the children behave better and helps them relate to each other better and as equals. While this might not be for everyone, if your child is already possessed of this mindset, I think it would be a great place to learn. 

          The most interesting curriculums used in the school is The Game of Village.  This ongoing year-long game developed in 1971 by Dutch educator Cia Iselin, is an interactive role playing game that lets children make a representative person (peep) in 1/25^th scale. Throughout the school year the child has a chance to develop the peeps life, by building a house on a set budget, wherein borrow money on their land at a land bank, without interest, and seek their fortunes as they will, for a stipulated period of time. It is meant as a way for letting them interact in a harmonious way with the other students. They also have the opportunity to construct governmental bodies such as courts, schools and independent businesses. I think back to when I was a kid; if there was a game like this back then it would have been one of my favorite things about school.

          After a long and interesting day it was time for a little down time, and since Amy’s Ice Cream was just across the street from the school, it was an easy choice. Next stop; San Antonio.