Archive for the ‘sustainability’ Category

May 25, 2011

The Words and Forms of Paolo Soleri

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week I attended a special event organized by the AIA-Arizona an hour north of Phoenix at Arcosanti. I rode up with friends and sustainability wonks Jonce Walker, Joe Zazzera and Jeremy Stapleton in Joe’s Prius. The event included a tour of Arcosanti and a subsequent talk by Paolo Soleri. Mr.Soleri introduced The Lean Linear City concept to us and then proceeded to answer the questions of the various design professionals in the audience. Below is a photo essay of my unforgettable experience at Arcosanti mixed in with Mr. Soleri’s always remarkable thoughts. It’s a shortsighted proposition that we…

May 18, 2011

Peter MacDonagh on the Importance of Green Infrastructure and Old Trees

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet The Marq2 was a 48-block long redevelopment project in downtown Minneapolis. This project utilizes the Silva Cell, to contain large amounts of bioretention underneath the paving. Photo courtesy of The Kestrel Design Group. Do you know what green infrastructure is? It’s the stuff inbetween gray infrastructure (streets, piping, roofs, bridges, drains) and blue infrastructure (the lakes, rivers and other natural bodies of water). Green infrastructure helps filter, clean and minimize the amount of gray infrastructure run-off that goes into our lakes, rivers and natural bodies of water. I learned all this from the brilliant landscape architect Peter MacDonagh, partner…

May 11, 2011

APS Shade Tree Program!

by: Doreen Pollack

Tweet My friend Doreen Pollack, who is the Garden Goddess, an expert in community and residential gardens and someone who serves on the board of the Valley Permaculture Guild, now is coordinating the APS Shade Tree Program. When she told me that you could get up to 3 shade trees FOR FREE from APS, I wanted to hear more and I thought you would too! So she crafted this small announcement about the program. Planting shade trees in your yard can save you up to $50 per year on your energy bill by blocking the sun’s rays and reducing your…

May 03, 2011

Bryan White of Green House Farm, an Architect of Buildings and of Dirt

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Bryan White, sitting in his back yard urban farm with his chicken Polka Dottie Bryan White is an architect gone wild. He and his wife Miro are the owners of an urban farm in the back yard of their home on Osborn and 24th St., in the heart of the city, called Green House Farm. I visited Bryan a while back to interview him and I have to tell you, it was the most pleasant interview I’ve done as of yet. We sat in his back yard, a mini farm, enjoyed the gentle breeze of the spring afternoon, watched…

April 27, 2011

The Costs of Owning a Car

by: Taz Loomans

April 26, 2011

How we can fit all the growth of the next decade on less than 1% of our land and save 400 million gallons of gas doing it.

by: Kevin Kellogg

Tweet Today’s post is by architect/urban planner/thought leader Kevin Kellogg, who, I feel lucky to say, is a regular contributor on the Blooming Rock blog. While the history of Phoenix points to low density, suburban sprawl as the continued norm, it is possible to grow both economically and accommodate more population in a sustainable way by focusing the future growth onto vacant land around light rail stations. Much as the 1985 highway plan has enabled sprawling subdivisions around freeway off-ramps, the light rail line presents a transformative investment that could shape new types of urban places for the Valley: a…

April 11, 2011

A Different View on Shade

by: Mick Dalrymple

Tweet Today’s post is by Mick Dalrymple giving us multiple, holistic strategies to protect ourselves and our buildings from the upcoming summer heat! Mick Dalrymple, MIM, MBA, LEED AP BD+C and HOMES, BPI is the ASU project manager for Energize Phoenix, a $25MM federally-funded program to upgrade the downtown Phoenix core for significant energy efficiency savings. Dalrymple launched into the green building and sustainability movement in 2001 as a pro-active response to U.S. national security and energy supply issues. He co-founded the Arizona Chapter of the US Green Building Council and recently completed two terms on the national board. His…

April 06, 2011

The New Phoenix Green Construction Code Should Take Location More Seriously

by: Cavin Costello

Tweet We are planning on using the brand new Phoenix Green Construction Code on the Castaway House. Today’s post is by Cavin Costello, the designer on Castaway House. He tells us about an important missing factor in this new code: Starting in July, the City of Phoenix will be implementing the new Phoenix Green Construction Code. This code will be voluntary and was created with the following intent: The purpose of this code is to safeguard the environment, public health, safety and general welfare through the establishment of requirements to reduce the negative potential impacts and increase the positive potential…

April 01, 2011

7 Things You Should Know About Stardust Building Supplies

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet 1. How Stardust Building Supplies got started: The stars aligned and two guys who had the same idea at the same time came together and went for it. The first guy, an investment banker, saw his neighbor remodeling his home. He noticed that his neighbor was tossing perfectly good cabinets in the dumpster. When he was driving out and about, through poorer neighborhoods, he thought, what a shame, these people could really have used those cabinets! The second guy was demolishing his house to build a new one. The day he and his wife were moving out, their maid…

March 21, 2011

Proposed Road Diet on Central Between Camelback and Bethany Home Road

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet On Saturday I attended the first Annual Bicycle Summit of Phoenix at the Burton Barr Library put on by the City of Phoenix. It was wonderful to hear about proposed bike infrastructure improvements, existing safety and traffic laws, and programs and events concerning cyclists. It was also a great opportunity for the biking community to get together and be heard. I commend the organizers – City of Phoenix bicycle coordinator Joseph Perez and traffic engineer Kerry Wilcoxon for making a concerted effort to listen to what the bikers of Phoenix need and want. Although the summit this Saturday was…