Steeprock Builders

www.steeprockbuilders.com

My new part time job which will begin in January. I'm very excited to be working for this ecological Design/build firm, which has beautiful attention to detail, and a strong sense of stewardship for natural resources. Their workshop is run off solar power with a biodiesel backup generator. They do the entire process from permitting, to design, to digging the foundation with their biodiesel backhoe, to finishing touches. I will be helping out where help is needed, and hopefully will learn a lot about the entire process from the ground up.

Telluride, CO

My base for the winter. I'm coaching 7-8 year olds skiing, but more importantly have chosen Telluride, because San Miguel County has recently passed a Green Building Code for all residential construction and renovations. The town of Telluride has embraced these codes, but is also looking for ways to make them better, with a rating system like LEED so that there isn't merely a minimum standard to be reached, but an incentive for even better. I"m also looking into open space environmental groups like the Sheep Mountain Alliance, and architects around town who are embracing the "green" attitude, or have been at the forefront of this movement. The town of Telluride is an old mining town, so it's very compact, small houses, and great public buses and a gondola to transport people to Mt. Village (where all the second homes are, and large hotels. . .NOT sustainable lifestyles just over the mountain ridge) The two entities of Telluride and Mt. Village are interesting contrasts to each other. The first night I was here I went to a "green" ski movie, about the fate of backcountry skiing etc. There was a short intro "mockumentary" about the Lost People of Mt. Village. It described the day when the people who live (well at least vacation) up there just disappeared. There isn't even a grocery store or a gas station in town. And the houses with 19 bathrooms became uninhabitable because of the excess of space and lack of community.

It's a very small town, but it's been great getting to know people, and talking with them about my passions. There is a strong "green" community, but the trick is how to balance healthy development (affordable housing as an example) with keeping open space and pristine areas. Most people who live in Telluride did not grow up here, a vivid example of how development will not just stop, so how can we do it in a healthy manner. So very intersting conflicts and solutions are taking root in this small growing community. I have commited to 5 months, and we shall see what happens at the end of that time. In the meantime I'm excited to be gaining a community around me, meeting new people who I will see again the next week, and diving right into town activities. (a Green Building Material forum is taking place in an hour)

I will upload pictures when I can, but the computers available to me have not been cooperating.

Eugene, OR-

U of Oregon has a strong architecture program, and in the forefront is Professor Charlie Brown who does a lot of research on building materials and energy use. Since energy is the largest consumption of resources throughout the building's lifetime it is necessary to begin to reduce the impact and lifecycle costs associated with energy use.

Portland, OR

Portland State University- a very strong urban planning program in a new building with lots of natural light and public spaces.

Office of Sustainable Development www.sustainableportland.org
A government sponsored/run department that is in charge of facilitating recycling, composting, green building, and transportation throughout Portland. A very progressive and sucessful organization that continues to grow and enhance the Portland area.

Portland is interesting because they have an Urban Growth Boundary that inhibits the spread of suburbs out into the farm fields. Because the west coast is relatively young, it is able to put in place these boundaries and so far have been able to entice some developers to work within those guidelines and create beautiful, walkable, diverse neighborhoods. . .One example is Villebois, a planned development in Wilsonville that will become it's own town center, and is well under way taking housing reservations and working of the final site plans.

City Repair- www.cityrepair.org
A group of citizens that want to help transform the public spaces in Portland to promote community development, natural building, and place making. They have helped groups of people sucessfully build cob benches and kiosks in their public spaces. Each spring they also put on the Village Building Convergence, a week long event of workshops, speakers, and community building. A neat organization that is walking it's walk.




Our United Villages and the Rebuilding Center- work in partnership. . .the rebuilding center is a place for used building materials that can then be resold at lower prices, and the revenue goes to Our United Villages, a non-profit, working to foster community outreach within Portland.

"Instead of seeing the rug being pulled out from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet" -Thomas F. Crum

"Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse
while all the others were making ships." -Charles Simic

It's a mean country,
but it's your's and mine
I know it's rugged, but I'm set to see it shine
-East Texas Red


It's a long and rugged road
and we don't know where we're heading
but we know it's gonna get us where we're going

When we find what we're looking for
we'll drop these bags and search no more
It's gonna feel like heaven when we're home.
-The Wailing Jenny's

Davis, CA
Planned residential "suburb" community, that is planned according to the sun. People park on the outsides, and walk around. There is an edible landscape, and homes are oriented for passive solar gain, and active instalations on the roof.

Headed north from Berkeley, visited the Shasta Dam, got a very interesting tour and heard how they have a proposal in the Senate to increase the height of the dam 18 feet, because demand continues to grow on this precious resource. 75% of California's water falls in the northern part of the state. It then gets pumped down to southern California where 75% of the people live. A strange concept that seems unlikely to continue forever.





Visited the Redwood National Park along the coast. Beautiful trees that towered above me. It is very difficult to view the redwoods in a drizzle, because you always want to be looking up and up at them, but then you get raindrops in your eye. It cleared up a bit, and the sun even came out for the end of my day. An epic bike ride took me on an abandoned road through a huge grove, then over the ridge to the costal trail, biking through flooded trails, then around an elk herd, and back up over the ridge. A peaceful off season experience only running into a few other visitors. I couldn't camp in the redwoods because they were so huge and overbearing that I felt small and vulnerable without anyone with me. So I headed north and camped in Smith Wilderness area, the trees are normal sized there.


Into Oregon!
Visited a couple of farms in Grants Pass area, organic and one supplied food to a restaurant on site (Summer Jo's). The traveled to Cottage Grove, OR and Aprovecho, a research and education center. www.aprovecho.net The are working on gardening, forestry, but also appropriate technology, specifically wood burning stoves. These ideas are then shared at stove conferences and throughout the developing world where wood fuel is becoming an important topic. The vision to expand knowledge and promote sustainable living (heading towards regenerative living) is an extremely important and momentum building approach.

North of San Fran.

County Line Farm-organic produce that sells to restaurants in San Fran and at farmers markets. It was great to reconnect with Jeremey and Andrew, and I just happened to time things perfectly with dinner parties :)




Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

A residential community that hosts workshops, interns and community members. Wednesdays are volunteer garden work days, so I got my hands dirty and helped prepare a bed for winter crops. They embody permaculture ideas, so each bed has many different varieties and crops. There are a number of experiemental "solar" houses that were on the property which house participants. It was a beautiful community on beautiful land. The ideas and motivations to live on the land in harmony with natural cycles, and to actually produce a healthier place to live, were inspiring and exciting.

Solar Homes Tour Oct 2nd, I volunteered at the Oakland Solar Homes Tour, stuffing envelopes, then sitting outside a woman's house and telling the passer-bys about her solar panels mounted to her roof. Rebates are constantly changing to make solar instalations more affordable, and if you are grid tied, there is no need for batter storage. Your meter simply moves backwards.

College of Environmental Design- U. Cal. Berkeley
A very prestigious Green architecture program, landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning programs. I talked with many students, saw some presentations, and spoke with professors within the landscape architecture department. Lots of resources in the area, and a very progressive hub no doubt. One trick. ..getting in. Brooke (williams '03) took some classes, then reapplied and was able to get into the program she wanted.



October 21-Green Materials Showcase in San Francisco. Hosted by Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility. A day of presentations, representatives talking about products, and learning about the possibilities in the Bay Area.

Snow Areials in San Francisco. Jonny Mosley hosted the event, they trucked in shaved ice from the fishing warfs, and created a ski jump in the middle of the street. A strange sight to see on the hot sunny day.

Berkeley, CA
An evening with Peter Calthorpe hosted by Livable Berkeley. Calthorpe, a renowned architect/urban planner lives in Berkeley and was discussing some of his projects in Chicago, Salt Lake City, and L.A. He is both a thinker and a practitioner. Starting his career in architecture he began to see that house by house influence was "putting sails on the freight ship" and therefore not accomplishing as much as could be possible by turning that freight ship into a schooner! Regional planning needs to be addressed in order to encompass the network of interactions that occur within urban frameworks.

The four main principles:
1.Diversity and Balance
2.Human and pedestrian scale
3.Conservation and Restoration-the "great" american grid may not be the answer because it disregards the natural aspects of place such as wetlands, streams, etc.
4.Connections and interdependance-no healthy community is in isolation

"Cities survive bad architecture if they have good urbanism"

There was discussion about what can be done in Berkeley to create more neighborhoods (blockades try to reduce traffic by being a hassle, but I've heard people end up driving more because they go in circles!) Redevelopment is happening in old buildings, on old industrial frieght yards, and within the existing structure of the city. A good point was made that cities need to be able to keep their diversity and some "dirty" city streets to the older generation are in fact the lure for the younger generations.

Berkeley is a progressive and liberal city filled with excited students, transients, and the grown up "hippies" with money. A very interesting conglomeration of people.

Yosemite National Park

A healthier adult playground than Las Vegas or even Disney World. The "village center" is full of winding roads, paths, bikers, campsites, and a hotel, but it is fostering a place where people can get outside! Yes some of the beginning hikes are paved 20 foot wide paths that guide you to a lake or waterfall, but if you get a little bit beyond those boundaries you can be completely alone. The excitement and enjoyment for the outdoors was contagious and great to see. Maybe by providing a very comfortable means of experiencing the outdoors more people will.

They have free hybrid shuttles to promote parking your car and getting around the village by other means. Solar paneled water meters was interesting to see in the shaded woods. . .at least they're trying.





watch out for the bears. . .not a good place to be when I had a hole in the side of my car. I parked in the largest parking lot with the most people, and was just fine.

Owen's Valley-East side of the Sierra's. 300 miles from L.A. and they had signs posted "no camping, property of the city of L.A." along this "river" that was being pumped to feed the consumption of the sprawling suburbs of L.A. The underground water supplies are not being refilled with the natural runoff and there are continual battles over water levels. The stubborn or "strong willed" in that area are fighting to maintain the ecosystem and vitality of Owen's Valley that is slowly being drained by the far away beast of yet another sprawling metropolis.

Right is power going to the fenced in pumping station that feeds the river in order to get the blood to L.A.

Mojave, CA-Wind Turbine Farm! EnXco and FPL Energy. The wind was strong and the blades were steadily turning. A powerful example of what can harness our renewable resources. For anyone who has never seen/heard/or gotten anywhere near a wind turbine I say you MUST see them before you start battling them. These structures aren't for every place, but they are not eye sores when you've seen coal power plants spewing soot high into the air, or oil refineries pumping out their stuff.

Which do you prefer?

Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona- Amazing to think that 250 million years ago what is the desert was a vast and dense forest. These petrified trees are now stone and lie in pieces in the sand, large and dramatic remnants of what has been. what will be?


Hoover Dam-A huge engineering feat, and now a terrorist target. Check points greet you before you see it, then the deteriant of parking makes you keep moving over and beyond it. Is this development healthier than the large coal power plants? We need to harness the water if people are going to be occupying the West, so are these large scale dams really the best option?
On another note with water, this is Death Valley, I went SWIMMING in Death Valley, well more like splashing, but you get the point. There is currently standing water there. I strange sight to see a natural lake where their used to be one millions of years ago.

DEATH VALLEY- CA A hot, hot place. Although it only reached 98 when I was there. The barren land was only spotted with green at resorts like this one where the palm trees huged their irrigated land closely and the ones who strayed to far died.

I hiked the sand dunes, splashed in the standing water on the salt flats, attempted to bake cookies on my dash board when I went off hiking and tried to avoid the Germans in their rented RVs.

Las Vegas, Nevada.- So I was going to divert all travels away from the beast they call Las Vegas, but others persuaded me to at least "see" it. And so I took my travels over the Hoover Dam, yes an impressive structure, but no I didn't get to see down the steep side of it because they wanted me to pay $5 to park. Then on to "The Strip" as was marked on the highway sign. One drive up, then one drive down, mouth gapping open the entire time, and hand out the window taking pictures to share with all of you who've never seen the beast for yourself. Then I kept on driving out of town.
So what I saw- A beast, a monster that is diverting power and water from the surrounding area to fuel an adult Disney World. A place where adults go for the thrill of gambling, the sights of topless women, and the taste of martinis. A place that replaces the childhood fantasies of thrills on rollercoasters, mickey mouse, and cotton candy. A strange destination to satisfy our un-real expectations of reality. I couldn't even bring myself to donate a nickel to fuel the fire of the beast, so I can still say I've never gambled and think I shall never set foot in that city again, UNTIL the day it becomes a ghost town being unable to support it's massive structures and wasteful use of water. That will be a sight to see.

Well until then, enrich your place, build your community, and hold strong against the dominant system to push our desires towards unreal realities.

John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, Cal Poly Pomona, CA. http://www.csupomona.edu/~crs/

A beautiful example of creating a sustainable center for classes, living, working, and being. It was a surprising oasis after the clogged and vast superhighways surrounding the Los Angeles area. CRS sits on a hill beyond the agricultural fields of Cal Poly's campus, and is a quiet yet energetic hub. The new Master's program was interesting and according to a few of the students I talked with something they were very excited about. You get to focus in whatever area you want, from environmental education to landscape architecture. A very self-directed study. The edible landscape intriqued me since I have no idea what half of those fruits are, but they were sweet tasting! Including the vine/cactus looking things in the picture below. Behind them on the "hill" are large tubes that are harvesting methane from the recently covered landfill, which is now the "hill". A good way to harvest what we've thrown away, but when can we use it before we consider it trash.

I also got to visit the Claremont Environmental Design Group that my uncle used to be a principal in. They are working on small projects, but also some community size developments. They get to work with their hands and their heads to work from within the development beast that has taken over our country and are trying to create places where humans and wild places can coexist.

Arcosanti, AZ-
an urban laboratory in the desert of central Arizona. A place where Paolo Soleri, an Italian architect, had visions of creating a community able to support 5,000 people on 25 acres, thus leaving the rest open and wild. www.arcosanti.org To date it is 5% complete because they do not hire outside contractors. All of the work is done by individuals in their 5-week courses, or those who wish to live and work there. Most of the structures are concrete, durable, but not wholely sustainable or affordable in these times. The apse design to the right creates a shady outdoor space in the summer and a sunny winter outdoor work space. It can also be used throughout the day as a meeting place, and a concert hall. Every built area has multiple functions and times of day to be used. A very inspirational idea, but at this rate, it is taking more to keep in functioning than able to expand it to really be a feasible alternative for urban sprawl. The tour consisted of mostly showing how their famous wind chims were made, since they are Arcosanti's main source of revenue. A strange little oasis with their own sparkling swimming pool. Luckily it is situated at the mouth of a very large aquifer otherwise since they "only get 12 inches of rain a year, that wouldn't be enough to run this place." That attitude won't get them very far in creating a place that treads lightly on the earth.

New Mexico State Fair-One small display is better than none! Educating about natural resources. I missed the Dollar Rodeo by a day, but got to taste some raspberry pie, and smell some roses.



Yes to the right a woman is selling Lemonade from a Lemon.

Dharma Living Systems-Taos, NM. www.livingmachines.com started as a wastewater treatment and are currently integrating the buildings into their projects to create more site based designs. A typical design firm 80% of the time, with an alternative focus on ecological principles.

El Monte Sagrado-Dharma's showcase ecological resort. A view of the constructed wetlands, that treats the runoff, a VERY top of the line resort, can this be accomplished on the small scale where economics do play a factor?

Angel's Nest-once was an earthship, now a wacked out retreat center. . .I'm not sure a hydrogen fueled stretch hummer is really the embodiment of sustainable living. According to the owner this is how 99% of Americans want to live. If that's true some how I've found myself in the 1% with grounded views on what it will take to "sustain" ourselves as a society. (this structure has 9 bathrooms! in the desert no less, and yes they catch their water, but at times have had to bring water in, no surprise there)

Adobe house, near Taos, NM. Adobe is inbetween being an insulator and a mass. So good for doing both jobs, but not great at doing just one of them. Coupled with other insulation and stone floors it can be appropriate for this dry and sunny climate. It seems that the rich and the poor are building with it, but the middle is building mostly with cement. Interesting. . . .

Here's the "new" adobe construction in Santa Fe, but really could be anywhere around the southwest.

Dream Tree-Taos, NM. A shelter for teens, this is a new residential unit with apartments to transition people from the main building to real apartments. The large gaps aren't doors, they will be Tram walls-glass in front of a cement wall to slowly store heat during the day and slowly release it at night. There is a natural air vent with the "stack" in the back fo the apartment. Also allows daylight to reach the interior. This project was possible through grants and instead of constructing a typical cement block square, the architect really created beautiful buildings that will be more comfortable to live in.

Hike to Williams Lake, with a view of Mt. Wheeler tallest peak in NM (right). A gorgeous day, and oh so much backcountry skiing possibilities. :)

Earthships-Biotecture. near Taos, NM. I volunteered for three days, constructing can walls, digging this huge hole for a blackwater system, and mud plastering some interior walls. These houses use rammed earth tires for retaining walls, and large glass windows seen here for passive solar gain. All the rainwater is collected and energy produced on site. Earth"ship" is fitting since it's self contained within itself.
The use of aluminum cans as structural components to the cement walls is a good way to use trash, but can they be recycled efficiently instead of taking these high embodied energy material out of the industrial stream? We used lots of cement, is there not a permanent alternative that isn't going to increase in cost 30%+ due to Katrina.

Sept 11- Earthships- The Greater World near Taos, New Mexico.

I voluteered for three days helping make can walls, frame the front of the earthship (alternative residential building that has a rammed tire back wall, and south glass wall) They capture all of their water into large cisterns, use a greywater system through planters to filter water from the sinks and shower, and a conventional septic tank then through a series of blackwater planters out front. It's an interesting concept, and the houses are very practical, but take lots of labor! rough figures are $165/ sf and 30% of that is labor costs. It was a fun crew to work on, this coming week I'll be meeting with others around Taos that are working on passive solar design and water reclaimation.

Sweetwater, Navajo Nation- Me and my shadow, traveling this big country of ours. Always with me and always reminding me of who I am. :)