Archive for the ‘sustainability’ Category

October 25, 2011

Placemaking in a Sustainable Urban Core Lecture

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Tomorrow is the Placemaking in a Sustainable Urban Core lecture, the first in a fall/spring series called Sustainable Communities Lecture Series organized by Women Design Arizona and Blooming Rock. The purpose of the lecture series is to bring key sustainability issues in Phoenix, such as urban real estate development, the canals, Latino Urbanism and urban farming to the attention of the general public. The idea behind the lecture series is to raise awareness, to educate and to empower the people of Phoenix about these critical issues in order to help make our city a better place. Through the Sustainable…

October 19, 2011

Trees, Zoning, Urban Heat Island and Social Equity on Monterosa Street

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet “The more money you have, the more vegetation you have and the less urban heat island you experience”, said Chris Martin, a landscape horticulturist and ecosystem stress plant physiologist, at an urban heat island panel discussion I attended yesterday in Tempe organized by ASU’s Sustainable Cities Network. Another panelist, Professor Harvey Bryan, a building technology expert with the ASU School of Sustainability, confirmed Martin’s sentiment saying, “wealthier communities are cooler than poorer ones.” The fact that wealthier communities enjoy a cooler summertime temperatures than their poorer neighbors resonated deeply with me because I see it everyday in my own…

October 12, 2011

A Call to Action: Cultivate Goodness

by: Lysistrata Hall

Tweet This is a special guest post by Lysistrata “Lyssa” Hall, a Landscape Architect I with the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department and one of the principal authors of the Tree and Shade Master Plan as well as the lead designer of the Rio Salado Audubon Center Gardens. Lyssa is an Arizona native that was born and raised in Jerome, Arizona. There is no denying times are tough and resources are limited, this is especially true for pollinators. A pollinator, at it’s most basic, is a living being that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower…

October 11, 2011

Castaway House Begins Construction

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I am happy to announce that the Castaway House, a project that I’m working on with The Ranch Mine, Jeremy Stapleton and RC Green Builders, began construction last week! I am also proud to say that it is the very first project to get permitted through the Phoenix Green Construction Code which is a voluntary program recently adopted by the City of Phoenix that aims to take a holistic approach to rating sustainable projects. I’ll be posting updates on the construction to keep you posted on the progress. Here’s what’s happening on site right now: Demo: All the existing…

September 21, 2011

Valley of the Sunflowers – Enlivening an Empty Lot in Phoenix

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet It’s one thing to complain about the empty lots that plague our city, but it’s a very different thing to actually DO something about it. That’s why I’m so impressed by the A.R.T.S. (Adaptive Reuse of Temporary Space) initiative which aims to activate vacant lots. A.R.T.S. is a project that was spearheaded last April by the Roosevelt CDC and its visionary leaders Cindy Dach and Kenny Barrett. The latest installation of A.R.T.S. is the Valley of the Sunflowers, a field of sunflowers on a 2-acre vacant lot in Downtown Phoenix. Not only will this field be startlingly beautiful in…

September 07, 2011

The Red Mountain Report: Before and After

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Here are some before and after shots of Red Mountain: Exterior Before: After: Note: The landscaping will be part of phase II of the renovations. It’ll be in soon and I’ll show you photos when it’s ready! The west unit’s kitchen: Before: After: The east unit’s kitchen Before: After: The east unit’s main bath: Before: After: The east unit’s half bath Before: After: The east unit’s living room Before: After: The east unit’s bedroom Before: After:

September 06, 2011

The Red Mountain Report

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet These past two weeks I’ve been immersed in the Red Mountain renovations. We were lucky to get a tenant one month in advance, but this meant we had a hard deadline of being move-in ready by September 1. This gave us about a one-month time frame to complete renovations on two units. I learned a lot in this whirlwind of activity. I was not only the owner, the designer and the project manager, but I was also the general contractor. I was responsible for finding, hiring, and managing subcontractors to make the renovation happen well and happen on time….

August 22, 2011

Why We Need to Pay Attention to Pollinators

by: Lane Butler

Tweet Today’s post is by Lane Butler. I heard Lane speak about the importance of pollinators about two weeks ago at the community meeting about a demonstration garden at the Audobon Center. I was blown away by what she said and how little the general public knows about these very important creatures. I asked Lane to summarize her presentation in this guest post so more people can find out what pollinators are and why they are so critical to our future sustainability. Lane is a masters student in Plant Biology at Arizona State University. She is studying how riparian nectar…

August 15, 2011

Phoenix: America’s Desert Metropolis

by: Will Novak

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Will Novak. One of the most exciting things about being a Phoenician is being from a place that looks unlike any other major City in the United States. Very few large American cities are in deserts and only two, Phoenix and Tucson, reside in the world’s most beautiful desert, the Sonoran. Phoenix needs to do a better job embracing the desert and leveraging our unique climate to become America’s and the World’s foremost desert metropolis. Embracing Xeriscaping In Phoenix’s early days its Anglo residents were strangely embarrassed by the Desert and the Arizona…

August 02, 2011

The Red Mountain Report

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This is the 2nd installment of The Red Mountain Report: This past two weeks we’ve spent largely figuring out what to do with the flooring in the east unit of Red Mountain. The original floor was vinyl tile: We definitely wanted to remove it, but were concerned it might be asbestos tile or might have asbestos adhesive. So we got it tested at this place called Fiberquant. They will test a sample you bring in for only $25.00. We tested the flooring in the west unit too, which has ceramic tile, just in case. It was a happy day…