Building Alive, Designing to Thrive

A few weeks ago, I was able to sneak my way into a meeting of the Roselle Park Environmental Committee. A sub committee that advises and informs the Town Council, the Environmental Committee is in dire need of funding, and staff- but certainly not spirit. The agenda, currently lead by councilman Mike Yakubov, included updates on development ideas for several vacant lots in town, an idea for a community garden, recycling discussion, and some neighborly complaints. I was intrigued by the interest and excitement the few members who were able to make the Friday Night meeting had, and saw only possibilities for the possible influence the committee could have. Until now, the major topic the committee has tackled is in town recycling. While this is important, I firstly felt that this should be a simple conversation. We provide an easy way for residents to recycle, and recycle as many products as possible. The residents, in turn, will not have trash taken away if handlers observe recyclables i...

Well, as if there isn't enough to learn within the context of designing a school building and curriculum, I have taken on another position at a new restaurant set to open at the end of October in Union, NJ that will be Farm to Table. The restaurant is called Ursino, paying homage to it's historic neighbor, Liberty Hall Museum, that originally used that name. It is being constructed within some vacant space in the STEM building of Kean University. Although I am not a sustainability consultant within the context of Ursino, my position as a Hostess is giving me incredible insight on restaurant operations, union county food systems, and the cost effectiveness of balancing local, organic and sustainable. I have not yet been able to narrow in anyone who can knowledgeably speak to the sustainable design aspects of the physical restaurant; but, being food people, I have learned a lot about the sustainable food aspect. Under the guidance of executive chef Peter Turso, the restaurant is ...

Good Morning all, and TGIF! It has been a little while since I discussed my current work, there's so many other things going on around the world I found valuable to share! But since the initial intent of this blog was to speak through some of the points of the predesign, design and so on for the Willow School- let's catch everyone up! The Health Wellness, and Nutrition Center will still be within the 20,000 square foot range. The owner is requiring daylight autonomy during school hours- this means that the building needs to be designed to use no artificial light during the average school day. In order to decrease the size of our heating and air conditioning systems- the team and owners agreed to allow a larger range of thermal comfort. Basically, the air won't come on to make the building stay at 72 degrees, it will wait until it's almost 80. Before that, occupants will be encouraged to open the windows. On the other side of the spectrum, the building will be s...

Good Morning Readers. Maybe it's the gloom of the impending Hurricane, but I've got a beef to pick with USGBC and GBCI (Green Building Certification Institute)! As some of you may know, LEED AP professional certification is a valuable tool to have as a green building field worker. I have worked within two LEED project teams now and purchased $90 worth of study materials from USGBC and gave myself 2 months to prepare for a combined exam- which allows me to test for a Green Associates' designation and then a LEED AP, Building Design and Construction specialization. The whole exam takes about 4.5 hours and separate test is 100 questions. After studying the USGBC-published study guide, the LEED 2009 manual, and over 500 pages of supplementary reading- I went to a computerized testing center last week to finally take my LEED exam. Before I even submitted my exam, I knew I had failed. More than half of the questions were not anything similar to the study questions, and they...

My title is inspired by Larry Forcier, a UVM Professor whom used this a part of his definition for an ecosystem in his Natural Resources and Field Ecology Intro course. As one of 200 or so freshmen taking the class, I didn't think how impactful the statement really was at the time. Because knowing or defining humans as a part of an ecosystem, is not common thought. And it ought to be. Last summer, as I convinced my mother to begin composting some of our food waste, she began to voice her concerns. "Compost isn't sanitary" "How does it become dirt" "won't the dirt smell like food and attract animals". And I realized that she did not know that something as simple, vital, and magical as making dirt was not just an ability of people- but a moral responsibility. Humans are the ones who exploited the soils in the name of monoculture and 'progress'. Now we have so many toxics in our landfills that when you throw something 'away' it goe...

Here is book number one from My list of books I need to read: Hungry City- How Food Shapes Our Lives by Carolyn Steel. I really wanted to read this book after hearing her speak at the Willow School's Food For Thought event in April 2011. As a speaker, she has an amazing combination of enthusiasm, sarcasm, fact-based-knowledge, vision, and optimism. Her book reflects much the same. This book began to ring even truer after my very first trip to Whole Foods about a month ago. Needless to say, I was in love with the store. And while I've always actually enjoyed grocery shopping, this was Heaven. However, when I brought the $400 bill home to my mother, I was back to reality. Like Carolyn discusses in her book, modern society is spending less and less of their money on food- when it is the most important thing we need to sustain life, culture and community. The $400 of groceries lasted my family of four almost 3 weeks- which equals out to less than $50 per mouth per week. And this wa...

Yes, sorry mom. Here is yet another thing I am insisting we change in the house. Here's a couple Did-you-knows to help start proving my point (via Greenseal) : 40% of trash in landfills is paper products 30% of the timber harvested annually in the US is used to make paper products And yes mom, I hear your first argument " But when it gets to a landfill, it breaks down eventually. AND it still has to go to a landfill after it's used- recycled or not " First of all, nothing breaks down in landfills anymore. Since the 1960's the US has invested in something called sanitary landfills. Sounds nice, right? Well it means that be basically lead-line all of our landfills so nothing can seep into the soil and contaminate it because of all the toxins inside of things we use everyday: mercury, formaldehyde, BPA, etc. Things that, if they did leak into the soil could reach the water table and make a lot of people very very sick. So they are necessary. However, without...