darby – Page 11

Residential Green Building Programs

Each time I hit the road, which is pretty often, I am always interested in the ways that sustainable building and design have affected a place, if at all, and how sustainability has been implemented there. It seems like a herculean task to keep track of the various residential green building programs all over the country, and with USGBC’s LEED for Homes and Energy Star Homes taking a strong hold nationally, I wonder…will we have one comprehensive set of guidelines for residential sustainability (for new home and remodels), or will the guidelines tend to be hyper-local and scattered, creating a splintered affect among building and design practitioners?

States like Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and California have been “building green” for decades now, and while it wasn’t quite mainstream 20 years ago, the interest level of the common consumer in these states was much higher than in other parts of the country. Because of that, many of the green building programs that have taken hold locally are comprehensive and elevated strategies for the residential sector in many of the cities there, like Portland, Seattle, Boulder, and all of California. Add to the list progressive places like Chicago and Austin, and you will find a pool of Architects, builders, and developers who have been practicing sustainability long before Al Gore hit the road with his Inconvenient Truths.

Yesterday, the NAHB launched their National Green Building Program, “an education, verification and certification program that will allow builders anywhere to build green homes”. While this is, on the surface, a positive move towards sustainable building practices becoming the norm rather than the exception, there must be concern for the rigidity of the guidelines and the level at which NAHB considers a building sustainable. While there are many conscientious builders, builders along with developers are the two entities dragging their feet on “green” building, at least in my experience here in the Southeast. Institutions don’t often embrace change, even if that change is good for them. Logistically, it is difficult, and many times, we humans prefer easy. 2008 may turn out to be the year of change, and our ability to embrace it seems the test of our continued success.

Over the course of this year, Project Green Spot will be taking an in-depth look at various residential green building programs, and examine further how the NAHB program has impacted the residential home sector. PGS also intends to examine how the third party verification entities evolve, and how they remain objective in an industry rife with “incentives”. Stay tuned…

Life’s Path

Three years ago yesterday marks the anniversary of my move from Chicago to the Lowcountry, to join my other half who had arrived here two weeks earlier to start his new job.

Since then, our lives have changed considerably. Sometimes for the best, and sometimes not. We left many of our friends and moved to a place where we find it incredibly difficult to make new ones. We miss the music, the architecture, the social fabric, the walkability, and the culture, to name but a few voids we experience here. And while the culture (less) here doesn’t necessarily jive with our flow, it has taught me to be more tolerant and has really tested my belief in compassion and my ability to practice the idea that we are all one. Believe me, while this is fairly simple in theory, moving to a place that predominantly holds the opposite political and social viewpoints as you truly puts you to the test. And I can’t say I am succeeding yet, but I try.

On the flip side, we own a beautiful home that is our sanctuary and have built a life together, where we rely heavily on each other for friendship, companionship, love, understanding, humor, food, entertainment…uh, you get the idea. We basically rely on each other for EVERYTHING. The great part in that is that we have come to understand completely that we are absolutely made for each other, and that we are so damn lucky to have found one another.

In our work, we have excelled, both having reached goals and aspirations that may have taken us much longer to do so in a bigger city. It’s the big fish, small pond thing. And so far, it is working really well for both of us.

A couple of weekends ago, we walked the beach where the ocean is, and it took us 15 minutes to drive there. It was 70 degrees, crystal clear, sunny, and we saw dolphins. In January. Not bad.

It is calm and serene in our day to day lives, and we don’t expend too much energy commuting to work or doing errands. There are lots of wide open spaces, and it is green and lush and spanish moss hangs from the arms of their 200 year old lady hostesses, the live oak trees. We see blue heron, egrets, storks, and other crazy water birds every day. And ‘gators, too, in the spring and summer, and sometimes even in the fall and winter, on unusually warm days. The air is clean but thick in the summer, like bags of dew worn as scarves; sometimes heavy, but cleansing like a steam bath is. The BBQ is good, and makes up for the frustrations in other areas of pubic life here. The BBQ is REALLY good.

And while we may not call it home permanently, we call it home now. It’s where we hang our hats, live our lives, and look to the future. A future I can only hope holds as many gifts as the present. Life is good.

Grammy Gruff

I’m not sure why I even waste my time watching the Grammys, but as soon as the Foo Fighters beat out Wilco AND Bruce for Best Rock Album, I had to change the channel and never come back. As any good music fan knows, the Grammys are not the place to celebrate all of the best artists of the year, so I’m not sure why I was surprised. Although there are definitely many talented artists represented, the field is amok with mediocrity, and mediocrity wins, too. Case in point, The Foo Fighters.

Here are some of the good highlights:
Herbie Hancock won album of the year for The Joni Letters.

Joni Mitchell won for best pop instrumental performance for her One Week Last Summer tune, from the album Shine.

Beastie Boys won best pop instrumental album for The Mix-up.

Bruce won for best solo rock vocal performance for his song Radio Nowhere off the Magic album (Lucinda Williams was also a contender for Come On off of her album West). Bruce also won a bunch of other stuff for Magic.

Icky Thump provided Meg and Jack another award.

Alicia Keys and Prince won for best female and male R&B artists, respectively. I don’t keep up much in this category, but it’s what I was raised on and these two artists are super talented. Also, Chaka Khan and Mary J. Blige won for best R&B performance for a duo. These ladies ROCK THA HOUSE!

Common won, and although I have fallen off the Hip-Hop train because most of it is wiggety-whack and it takes too much time to find good Hip-Hop, I haven’t closely followed Common’s recent work. I am a fan from the days of Resurrection.

Levon Helm, famous for his membership in The Band, took home a Grammy for best traditional folk album.

Steve Earle picked up a statue for best contemporary/folk/americana album with his Washington Square Serenade.

Barack Obama won a Grammy – seriously – in the best spoken word album category.

Cassadega won the Bright Eyes’ art director, Zachary Nipper, an award for best recording package. Perhaps if he has some newfound pull, he can convince the prolific band to NOT RESIZE THEIR SITE when launched. An interwebs taboo, for sure. This album, BTW, is fantastic.

Best historical album went to the Woody Guthrie clan for The Live Wire album.

***And finally, in the best compilation soundtrack album (Film, TV, etc) there were so many fantastic options:
Across the Universe, a collection of Beatles’ tunes redone by the actors and Bono, to name but a few

The Dreamgirls soundtrack, which is SWEET

Hairspray, adapted from John Waters’ famous film, for 2007

Once, the masterful, beautiful and original love story with an equally heartfelt soundtrack, which really, the film was built around. God, these songs are so very pretty

But even though the competition was fierce, the music accompanying the Cirque Du Soleil production called Love, featuring Beatles songs, won the category. George Harrison (perhaps my favorite Beatle…it’s so hard to pick – him or John) began the projects discussion before his death, so I guess it’s nice that Paul, Ringo, and friends won, but these other soundtracks were all phenomenal.

And in case you hadn’t heard, Amy Winehouse won a ton of crap. I say this with a scowl, not because her album, Back to Black, isn’t great. It is. Although she borrows HEAVILY from Motown, she still brings her own talent to the table. Still, were there not tons of other artists that should have been celebrated instead? Last year at SXSW, Winehouse started 20 minutes late and sounded like crap. I am not impressed. Part of the longevity and soul of an artist is reflected in the way they relate with their craft; their professionalism, if you will. And while I love a bunch of wasted drunk and high artists, I never quite like them as much as I did before their demise and disrespect for themselves and their fans.

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