Grow Community, Bainbridge Island
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Bainbridge considering ban on plastic bags - Kitsap Sun
By Tristan Baurick
Posted December 22, 2011 at 4:24 p.m.
Bainbridge Mayor Kirsten Hytopoulos is crafting a proposed bag prohibition patterned after the one the Seattle City Council unanimously approved on Monday. She will formally propose the measure early next month.
If approved, Bainbridge would become the fifth city in Washington to
ban thin-film plastic bags, after Seattle, Bellingham, Edmonds and
Mukilteo.
"This is a little thing we can do that will have a huge impact," Hytopoulos said.
Hytopoulos said the plastic bags commonly used at grocery stores are wasteful and harmful to the environment.
About 12 percent of the plastic bags used last year went to a
recycling center, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The rest ended up in landfills, waterways and elsewhere...
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
In Kitsap County and statewide, recycling rates nearing 50 percent - Kitsap Sun
KITSAP SUN
By Christopher Dunagan
Posted December 22, 2011 at 6:16 p.m.
PORT ORCHARD —
Kitsap County and Washington state are edging toward a state recycling
goal established more than 20 years ago — a goal that some people
thought could never be reached.
Kitsap County's overall recycling rate for 2010 reached 45 percent,
up 5 percent from the year before. Washington state reached a recycling
rate of 49 percent. The national average stands at 34 percent.
Much of the state's increase in recycling was attributed to the
recycling of organic waste, including wood, yard debris and food scraps.
Municipal areas continue to push organic recycling, and some programs
now compost all types of food waste...
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
New lease on life for old farmhouse on Bainbridge - Kitsap Sun
By Tristan Baurick
Posted October 7, 2011 at 5:43 p.m.
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Over the eight years since the city bought the five-acre Morales Farm, the rolling fields have slowly come alive with pumpkins, grapes, tomatoes and sunflowers.
The old farmhouse, though, has remained as empty and lifeless as the day the Morales family left it.
That could change in the coming months as an ambitious plan gets under way to fully restore the Lovgreen Road home and turn it into living quarters for the island's popular farm internship programs.
Bainbridge farming advocacy group Friends of the Farms has teamed with PHC Construction to tear the three-bedroom, 58-year-old house down to the studs and restore it with new walls, windows, flooring and various interior touches that will make the house a home again. The house will also get revamped electrical, plumbing and water systems, and energy-efficient upgrades, including a heat pump and foam insulation.
Bainbridge-based PHC and its subcontractors are doing the $100,000
project free-of-charge. Friends of the Farms chipped in about $10,000
for building permits and other costs.
Island farmer Brian MacWhorter walked through the house's dilapidated interior as a work crew began breaking into the walls on Friday morning.
"Look at this — it's really an extreme makeover," he said.
The 15 or so island farms offer a total of 12 internships, but
MacWhorter it's often a struggle to find enough room for the young
farmers-in-training to stay. The internship programs doesn't pay much,
making it difficult for the college-age interns to cover the relatively
high-priced rent at island apartments and shared homes.
"Housing is one of the most important things that keeps the internships going," said MacWhorter, who employs four interns. "Whatever we can do that helps (housing) will keep farming sustainable on Bainbridge Island."
While the Friends of the Farms received city approval to do the restoration work, coming to a lease agreement that allows interns to live at the house is a matter for later negotiations.
If all goes well, three or more interns could move in by March, said Friends of the Farms Executive Director Wendy Tyner.
The house could also be used for farm-related classes or as an interpretive center, she added.
The house was once the home of Teddy Morales, who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1929 and farmed on Bainbridge for decades. He and his family grew berries and various vegetables, but the property was best known for producing a bounty of sweet corn.
The city bought the Morales Farm in 2003 for $210,000 with the idea
of preserving it as farmland. The farm and several other properties were
purchased with an $8 million open space bond approved by voters in
2001.
The property is now used by MacWhorter, who grows tomatoes and other warm-weather crops in greenhouses, a wine maker and a part-time farmer who produces a variety of vegetables. Two island schools have plots for use in educational programs.
The city re-roofed the house a few years ago, but nothing has been done to make it habitable.
"It's actually a pretty sound structure," PHC co-owner Marty Sievertson said. "It's got a nice dry roof, and I haven't found any rot."
The exterior's cedar shingles are also in good shape and will likely remain.
"This is the kind of project I've been looking to do for a while," Sievertson said. "I've been building in Kitsap County and Bainbridge for 30 years. It's been good to me. It's time for me to give back."
Posted October 7, 2011 at 5:43 p.m.
 |
Craden Henderson and Clay Johnson, of PHC
Construction, remove one of the windows from the Morales Farm house on
Bainbridge Island on Friday. Once it is habitable again, it could be
used to house interns who work on the island's 15 small farms.
(MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN)
|
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Over the eight years since the city bought the five-acre Morales Farm, the rolling fields have slowly come alive with pumpkins, grapes, tomatoes and sunflowers.
 |
| Ani Kendig, office manager of PHC Construction, removes molding from the
front door during renovation of the Morales Farm house on Bainbridge
Island on Friday. PHC and its subcontractors are not charging for the
work, although a nonprofit is chipping in the cover some material and
permitting costs. (MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN) |
That could change in the coming months as an ambitious plan gets under way to fully restore the Lovgreen Road home and turn it into living quarters for the island's popular farm internship programs.
Bainbridge farming advocacy group Friends of the Farms has teamed with PHC Construction to tear the three-bedroom, 58-year-old house down to the studs and restore it with new walls, windows, flooring and various interior touches that will make the house a home again. The house will also get revamped electrical, plumbing and water systems, and energy-efficient upgrades, including a heat pump and foam insulation.
 |
| Marty Sievertson of PHC Construction removes the drywall in the living
room of the Morales Farm house on Bainbridge Island on Friday. (MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN) |
Island farmer Brian MacWhorter walked through the house's dilapidated interior as a work crew began breaking into the walls on Friday morning.
"Look at this — it's really an extreme makeover," he said.
 |
| Ani Kendig, office manager of PHC Construction, removes molding from around windows Friday. (MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN) |
"Housing is one of the most important things that keeps the internships going," said MacWhorter, who employs four interns. "Whatever we can do that helps (housing) will keep farming sustainable on Bainbridge Island."
While the Friends of the Farms received city approval to do the restoration work, coming to a lease agreement that allows interns to live at the house is a matter for later negotiations.
If all goes well, three or more interns could move in by March, said Friends of the Farms Executive Director Wendy Tyner.
The house could also be used for farm-related classes or as an interpretive center, she added.
The house was once the home of Teddy Morales, who moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1929 and farmed on Bainbridge for decades. He and his family grew berries and various vegetables, but the property was best known for producing a bounty of sweet corn.
 |
| Craden Henderson and Clay Johnson of PHC Construction remove a window at the Morales Farm house on Bainbridge Island on Friday. (MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN) |
The property is now used by MacWhorter, who grows tomatoes and other warm-weather crops in greenhouses, a wine maker and a part-time farmer who produces a variety of vegetables. Two island schools have plots for use in educational programs.
 |
| Renovation of the house at the Morales Farm on Bainbridge Island started Friday. (MEEGAN M. REID/KITSAP SUN) |
"It's actually a pretty sound structure," PHC co-owner Marty Sievertson said. "It's got a nice dry roof, and I haven't found any rot."
The exterior's cedar shingles are also in good shape and will likely remain.
"This is the kind of project I've been looking to do for a while," Sievertson said. "I've been building in Kitsap County and Bainbridge for 30 years. It's been good to me. It's time for me to give back."
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Brand NEW Website!
We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new website. We invite you to check it out at: www.growbi.com
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
New Dwelling Renderings
Thank you to all those who made it out to our Open House last night. If you couldn't make it you can see our new home renderings below or on our brand new website: www.growcommunitybainbridge.com!
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| the Everett - 3 bedroom dwelling |
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| the Aria - 2 bedroom dwelling |
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| the Ocean - 2 master bedroom dwelling |
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| the Tallis - townhouse |
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| the Sky - lofts |
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| the Landon - flats |
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Business spotlight: A home (office) away from home opens on Bainbridge - Kitsap Sun
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| Photo by Larry Steagall |
Click here to read the article in the Kitsap Sun and learn more.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
7 Ways to Cook Up a Sustainable Diet - Yes! Magazine
This is a fantastic article from Yes! Magazine about eating local. And it's not just about why you should eat local, it tackles the HOW! How do we make the things that grow very close to home into meals for our families. Vicki Robin took the plunge and tells of her experience.
........................................
A year ago, I undertook a month-long experiment in making the "idea"
of eating local a daily practice: For one month, I ate only food that
was produced within a 10-mile radius of my home on Whidbey Island,
Washington.
I allowed myself four "exotics"—foods from afar—because living without them would make the experiment a prison I'd never want to visit again. My exotics were olive oil, salt, caffeine and limes (and I discovered while researching my book in progress, Blessing the Hands That Feed Us, that these exceptions—plus chocolate—tend to be everyone's exotics).
The diet forced me to confront my habits, preferences, and obsessions. I had to learn to cook from only what's at hand, and understand my unique place on the earth—with its land and farmers and food—as never before.
Click here to read the rest of the article
........................................
Last year, Vicki Robin lived for a month eating only food
from within a 10-mile radius. She’s back with tips for a planet-friendly
diet.
posted Sep 08, 2011
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| Photo by Martin Cathrae. |
I allowed myself four "exotics"—foods from afar—because living without them would make the experiment a prison I'd never want to visit again. My exotics were olive oil, salt, caffeine and limes (and I discovered while researching my book in progress, Blessing the Hands That Feed Us, that these exceptions—plus chocolate—tend to be everyone's exotics).
The diet forced me to confront my habits, preferences, and obsessions. I had to learn to cook from only what's at hand, and understand my unique place on the earth—with its land and farmers and food—as never before.
Click here to read the rest of the article
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
GROW COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE
Don’t miss our community gathering on Tuesday 27th at Bainbridge Performing Arts 7-9pm, where we will be unveiling models and sharing our home designs for the Grow Community. Join us for some tasty treats and local wines. All are invited. We look forward to seeing you there!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Grow Community Open House!
WE WOULD LIKE YOUR FEEDBACK!
SAVE THE DATE!
GROW COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27th - 7pm
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
4 Misconceptions About the Simple Life...
Oh boy! There are many stereotypes that turn people off the idea of living green. This essay by Duane Elgin tackles four of the major myths, showing us how a simplified life can create thriving, productive communities!
by Duane Elgin
It is important to recognize inaccurate stereotypes about the simple life because they make it seem impractical and ill suited for responding to increasingly critical breakdowns in world systems. Four misconceptions about the simple life are so common they deserve special attention. These are equating simplicity with: poverty, moving back to the land, living without beauty and economic stagnation...
Simplicity Means Poverty
Simplicity Means Rural Living
Simplicity Means Living Without Beauty
Simplicity Means Economic Stagnation
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
URBAN FARMING!
Here’s a fantastic article on innovative urban farming out of necessity. It shows that food production certainly can take place close to home, with a little creativity! With community garden spaces at the Grow Community we'll seek to nurture this kind of connection with our food supply within a communal, semi-urban setting! It can be done!
Urban Farming Movement Sweeps Across Havana, Cuba Providing 50% of Fresh Food
by Helen Morgan, 08/18/11
Urban agriculture is a refreshing sign of people localizing food production by bringing it into the city. But in Havana, Cuba, the farming movement has evolved as an amazing response to the loss of food imports and agricultural inputs towards the end of last century. Following dramatic political changes, and the ensuing economic, ecological and social crisis, agrarian production was seen as key to food security. This movement towards urban cultivation systems continues to sweep across the city, and according to recent reports, now over 50 per cent of the city’s fresh produce is grown with its boundaries.Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Homes Powered by Renewable Energy!
Homes at Grow Community are designed for maximum energy efficiency, needing only 4000-6000 kWh of electricity per year. Solar panels in community systems will allow residents to live in homes powered by renewable energy. As with all aspects of sustainability at the Grow Community, we do the homework for you, so you can live comfortably, knowing that your footprint on the planet is just a bit lighter.Check out this Solar graphic from Jetsongreen to determine how much solar you need.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Grow Community Bike for Pie!
WOW! What a terrific time we had biking for pie today! We had 5 little ones and 8 big ones riding with us. Thanks for joining us. Lets do it again next year!
To show our support of pedal power, the Grow Community put together a team for the annual Bike for Pie family ride on Bainbridge Island. Riding a bike reduces the consumption of fossil fuels, while promoting a healthy lifestyle. That’s what the Grow Community is all about.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Bicycles, Pie and Fresh Bread!
This Sunday is the annual Bike 4 Pie event on Bainbridge Island. Who doesn't love bicycles and pie!
To show our support of pedal power, the Grow Community has put together a team for the family ride! Riding a bike reduces the consumption of fossil fuels, while promoting a healthy lifestyle. That’s what the Grow Community is all about.
Also check out this great New York Times Opinion piece on the Dutch and their commitment to the bike. Although it seems they prefer to bike for bread. Each to his own.
Also check out this great New York Times Opinion piece on the Dutch and their commitment to the bike. Although it seems they prefer to bike for bread. Each to his own.
The Dutch Way: Bicycles and Fresh Bread
The New York Time
By RUSSELL SHORTO
Published: July 30, 2011
As an American who has been living here for several years, I am struck, every time I go home, by the way American cities remain manacled to the car. While Europe is dealing with congestion and greenhouse gas buildup by turning urban centers into pedestrian zones and finding innovative ways to combine driving with public transportation, many American cities are carving out more parking spaces. It’s all the more bewildering because America’s collapsing infrastructure would seem to cry out for new solutions.
Geography partly explains the difference: America is spread out, while European cities predate the car. But Boston and Philadelphia have old centers too, while the peripheral sprawl in London and Barcelona mirrors that of American cities.
More important, I think, is mind-set. Take bicycles. The advent of bike lanes in some American cities may seem like a big step, but merely marking a strip of the road for recreational cycling spectacularly misses the point. In Amsterdam, nearly everyone cycles, and cars, bikes and trams coexist in a complex flow, with dedicated bicycle lanes, traffic lights and parking garages. But this is thanks to a different way of thinking about transportation...
Monday, August 8, 2011
Smart Transit By Choice - YES Magazine
Sustainable Transport is one of the 10 One Planet Principles required for a One Planet Community. The Grow Community's vision is to achieve this principle by encouraging low carbon modes of transport to reduce emissions and reducing the need to travel. Here is a an article on how Seattle hopes to become the world's first climate-neutral city:
Seattle hopes to become the world's first climate-neutral city. It's no small task: The City must account for, and reduce, the carbon footprint of everything from transportation to trash for hundreds of thousands of people. City Council President and YES! Magazine board member Richard Conlin is blogging about the city's efforts.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Health and Happiness is one of the 10 One Planet Principles required for a One Planet Community. The Grow Community's vision is to achieve this principle by encouraging active, sociable, meaningful lives to promote good health and well being. Here is a wonderful article on intentionally designing and developing with our children in mind:
To Save Our Cities, Put Children First
What’s the universal design principle that can make our cities great? Kid-friendliness, says architect Jason McLennan.
YES MAGAZINE
by Jason McLennan
posted Jul 13, 2011
by Jason McLennan
posted Jul 13, 2011
Change is coming to our cities in the next 10-20 years, whether or not our culture is ready for it. As cheap oil disappears and we firmly enter the age of ‘extreme energy’ and additional finite resources diminish to scarce levels, we will be forced to adjust to new ways of building and living with a global population approaching eight billion—almost entirely in urban settings. Even as our cities mushroom in size, the very mega-infrastructure projects that built them—created in a world where cheap energy was substituted for common sense and ethical planning—become obsolete.We know a lot about the ideal environment for a happy whale or a happy mountain gorilla. We’re far less clear about what constitutes an ideal environment for a happy human being. One common measure for how clean a mountain stream, is to look for trout. If you find the trout, the habitat is healthy. It’s the same way with children in a city. Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people.
—Enrique Peñalosa
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| Photo by Flavio Spugna |
That we’ll remake civilization is guaranteed—how we’ll do it is the only question. Will we simply spiral towards the visions found in many science fiction novels and Hollywood movies? Will our cities become versions of an unhealthy, ecologically depleted, crowded, dirty Blade Runner future? Or will we use this opportunity for change as a course correction to create a healthy, vibrant and beautiful living future?
How do we begin to create a future that brings out the best of humanity and safeguards the planet’s fragile ecosystems?
PUTTING KIDS FIRST
As simplistic as it may sound, the best way to plan our cities to function as nurturing, dynamic communities for all people is to design them well as places for children first. Regardless of function or location, all re-development and new planning should be grounded by asking the questions, “Is this good for children?” “Does it relate to a scale that children relate to?”Why is it that so much of the built environment is unfit for our most sensitive and vulnerable citizens? The disturbing answer is that other than dedicated school yards and some city parks, children are mere afterthoughts in the ‘serious business’ that is city and community planning. For the last sixty years we’ve designed our communities first around the scale of the automobile, and secondarily around the scale of adult men and women. By leaving children out, we have left out the best of humanity—and the chance to connect our future leaders with functioning workable urbanism. Whole generations now have no experience with how fantastic well-done urbanism can be. The best cities in the world have a walkable, relatable scale that children and adults alike can relate to. They tend to be safer, more accessible, and more culturally rich. They give us greater opportunities for social interaction as well as chance encounters and educational opportunities.
Think about what makes a place great for kids: a focus on found learning, serendipitous personal interactions with others, opportunities to interact with nature and natural systems (water in particular), right-sized designs that aren’t intimidating and automobile-based, a city with an all-around gentle touch. Now consider a city that extended such considerations to everybody. If communities were built in ways that nurtured children rather than worked around them, all ages would be the better for it. By catering our infrastructure to those among us who have the least control, we actually usher in greater opportunities across multiple demographic segments.
It’s bad enough that typical futuristic images of our cities are ecologically impossible; what’s also crazy is that they never appear to be very nice places for children. It seems that the visionaries who craft these plans of soaring buildings and concrete landscapes—or even present-day housing developments with endless rows of identical homes—have forgotten the importance of what it means to just go outside and play.
Even many much-heralded "eco-developments" seem to contain few genuine child-friendly opportunities, unless one counts the occasional recycled plastic slide in a fenced-in play area.
It’s time to turn our attention back to our children and do what makes sense for them, for us, and for the environment. The good news is that child-centered city planning is not simply generous; it’s practical.
DOING WHAT WE DO BEST—A SUPER-QUICK HISTORY
While its very easy to feel defeated and pessimistic by the overwhelming evidence of energy and water scarcity, climate change, and worldwide economic upheaval, I consider it more useful to look at these significant challenges as opportunities to re-imagine civilization in a way that ensures our long term place in it. Many people have a hard time believing that we can redesign our cities within the span of a few decades, but the truth is it will happen regardless of our intentions. The question is whether we will steer things towards the best possible outcomes or see impacts continue to move in the wrong direction.After all, we’ve done this before. In the period following World War II, virtually every American city, town, and village modified itself to embrace the new realities of the modern age: the rise of suburbia, an expanded reliance on automobiles, and the promise of the “American dream.” In creating the national highway system, we connected our cities—but rammed the interstates through many of their cores to do so. Waterfronts were often cut off and historic urban neighborhoods were carved up, with the most impact disproportionately felt in poor communities. In our quest for the elevated fast lane, we discarded street-level scenes and structures. We exchanged a sense of community for take-out and parking lots. We converted the scale of our communities from a human to a highrise level. The scale of the child has been left behind in most of America.
As we began to rob our cities of structural integrity—while making it easier to travel in and out from them—we very quickly began to abandon the older, central districts of cities and spread outward. Those with means wanted to live at the city’s edge where they pursued what they felt were safer, cleaner, and more spacious surroundings. Larger suburban lots promised more impressive lawns, more substantial garages, more enviable status. Unfortunately the exodus of a large proportion of the middle class took its toll on essentially all American cities. Those who remained in the city tended to be of lower socioeconomic classes, so metropolitan tax revenues plummeted and inner-city development rates dropped off. Urban crime rates began to climb, schools suffered, and communities withered.
Meanwhile, suburban enclaves thrived. Housing developments boomed, shopping malls cropped up in nearly every community, parking lots exploded in number because cars were now a necessity. The new American society was an automobile paradise, built to cater to people—and shoppers—of all ages.
The American dream was here. We had arrived. Or had we?
QUESTIONING THE NEW SUBURBAN NORMAL
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What’s worse, this escape from the city has actually gotten us farther from nature since suburban developments tend to eat up farmland, raze forests, and drain wetlands. Residential houses have gotten bigger and bigger as their occupants have become addicted to debt and surrounded by bland same-ness. Our reliance on inexpensive energy is tied to an erosion of our former sense of place. In the midst of the mid-century, post World War renaissance, there was great optimism for the future of our society as well as our cities. Yet, we were too quick to shed the old ways and urban patterns that built our original communities to make way for the new.
Now nearly every North American community is surrounded by the same list of big-box retailers that stand at the gates welcoming visitors coming in from any direction. And children are left with residential neighborhoods that no longer have the cultural benefits of functioning urbanism or the ecological benefits of functioning ruralism. No wonder they play so many video games!
STEALING FROM THE INNOCENT
Children in every neighborhood—urban and suburban—have been robbed of opportunities as we’ve drained the life out of our cities and created vast sprawl of bland and unhealthy suburbia. Most profoundly, kids across all strata have lost a sense of freedom. City children have sustained a figurative loss as their neighborhoods’ vitality and relevance has faded, leaving many without hope for the future. Suburban kids spend an unhealthy amount of time in the car getting from one spot to another in their over-bland environment, leaving many bored, unengaged, and overweight. When schools are built on inexpensive land on the edge of a community, kids from all segments of the population spend more time on buses than in their own residential surroundings.With automobiles in dominant roles, it is less safe for children to bike, walk, or play outside. Our increased isolation and lack of connection to our neighbors has made us increasingly paranoid (egged on by irresponsible, fear-mongering media), prompting us to restrict our children’s ability to enjoy unstructured time outdoors. Children spend more time in front of screens, substituting virtual connections for personal interaction. Inner-city poverty requires parents (often single) to take on more work hours, leading to lack of supervision for urban kids already at risk. Rates of childhood obesity, depression, and attention deficit disorders are on the rise. Funds supporting public health programs for low-income city kids are quickly diminishing.
These trends feed on themselves and problems only escalate.
The fact is that we’ve been sucking the youthful life out of our children because of the way we’ve designed our communities. It’s the same thesis offered by Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Louv believes – and I agree wholeheartedly – that we are actually damaging our children by disconnecting them from the environment, natural life cycles and the sources of their food. I assert that we shouldn’t have to choose between the city and nature.
Admittedly, we have all suffered. But kids feel the disconnection more acutely not just because they are more vulnerable, but also because many of them know nothing else. They’ve lived either in dying inner cities or in sterile suburban settings their entire lives. Are we raising whole generations of Americans and Canadians who have neither a personal relationship with nature nor appreciation for a thriving urban core? Are we raising a whole generation that does not have a chance to learn naturally what it means to be both a functioning citizen of a community as well as the natural world? Are we in fact robbing our youth of key experiences needed for future maturity?
ADJUSTING TO THE INEVITABLE
The good and bad news is this: the age of cheap oil is almost over. The days of the suburban experiment are numbered. People simply won’t be able to afford driving everywhere and communities won’t be able to sustain the miles of sprawl that were built on speculation in an era of both cheap energy and cheap labor. We now have neither. The only possible response is to return our focus on the urban core and responsible density, and in so doing, bring back the beauty that is also possible in great cities. It will take a commitment to maintain the values necessary to support truly regenerative neighborhoods.Most importantly, it should usher in a new commitment to our children.
But the shift won’t stop in our larger metropolitan areas. I believe the new oil-free society will reinvigorate the small-and mid-sized towns and farming communities from which people have fled for decades. I predict a reverse migration to many rural places where families can support themselves over the course of several generations.
RELYING ON UNIVERSALITY
Universal design offers an excellent parallel to the notion of child-friendly urban planning. Universal design was originally introduced to architectural practices as a way of facilitating access and use to individuals with mobility disabilities. As it became more widely adopted and solutions became more clever, universal design has often proved to improve functionality for everyone, regardless of physical ability or age. Thanks to universal design, many buildings now incorporate systems and designs that cater to any user. (Even an able-bodied person carrying a heavy load is hampered by a traditional doorknob but can easily enter a door by using an elbow to push down on a universally designed door handle.)The beauty of universal design is that it caters to those users who may have more difficulty but benefits users across the spectrum. It asks what the more vulnerable among us need, then creates designs that deliver what we all need.
It’s time to apply universally child-friendly designs to our cities.
PAINTING THE PICTURE
My own experiences as a kid growing up in an industrial community helped shape me as an environmentalist. My current role as a father of four only strengthens my commitment to child-friendly cities. Having spent considerable time in more functioning European cities, I see what our cities can and should be: healthy, safe places that nurture our youth and surround us in natural beauty.What, then, would a children’s city look like? Here is a sampling of what I think we are collectively capable of creating:
- Opportunities for families.
A child-centered city would provide a diversity of housing typologies that suits every variation of family make-up and re-instills a degree of elegance to urban family living. Prices would be manageable across all types of units so that people from a mix of economic backgrounds could afford to rent or own, even when they house multiple generations under one roof. This needs to be done within the context of mixed economic neighborhoods rather than in neighborhoods comprised of uniform socioeconomic status. Housing for working families should combine form and function, not sit like stacks of soulless boxes with token three-foot balconies. Multi-unit structures that achieve ideal urban density should offer adequate acoustic separation as well as genuine (not manufactured) outdoor play spaces.
- Clusters of urban services.
We must return our city neighborhoods to their former glory as diverse multi-use environments. If restaurants, markets, playgrounds, and daycare centers filled in urban spaces, families could find what they need closer to home and we would have no need to look beyond our cities’ borders for basic amenities. Many urban centers lack essential services like grocery stores and daycare centers.
- Inner-city nature.
As we shifted our focus to the suburbs, we abandoned the natural capabilities of our cities. A child-centric city must offer an abundance of nature—features that can offer both practical and environmental advantages while giving children easy access to clean water, climbable trees, and fresh air. Urban tree reforestation programs and the re-emergence of daylit streams bring natural systems within the urban context. The idea here is to call upon nature to do double duty, providing amenities that also support urban infrastructure.
- Educational neighborhoods.
There is a nearly endless number of teaching opportunities in any urban setting. Children’s cities should celebrate the natural relationship between schools and neighborhoods. Teachers and students need only to step outside their classrooms and pay close attention to the natural and built environments in order to explore the science, art, math, and music that surrounds them. As described in Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language, “Shopfront Schools” where children learn within the fabric of community should be encouraged. Every building in a children’s city can offer multiple benefits, as can every citizen. By remembering how to trust our neighbors, we can rely on them to help educate our youth. - Real places to play.
- Children play in Central Park conservatory garden.Photo by Karri Ojanen
- Revealed systems.
Today’s cities bury their infrastructures, hiding water, waste, and food systems from the very citizens who rely on them to survive. Tomorrow’s cities should reveal their operations, giving adults and children alike direct knowledge of their societies’ inner workings. Just consider the relative impact of a dairy farm field trip versus a pamphlet about milk production. The same could be said of daily urban living. We can adhere to modern standards of health and safety without sanitizing away our connections to municipal systems. We could all learn a thing or two from daylit streams, urban farms, community composting programs, and localized wastewater systems.
- Appropriate density.
At the risk of repeating myself, I will return to a subject I’ve previously covered. This time, I’ll touch on the topic of density as it relates to kids. Nobody can truly believe that a skyscraper is an acceptable setting in which to raise children. How can they experience a sense of community when they dwell so high off the ground? How can they connect with nature when they spend more time with potted plants than with wilderness? Children’s cities should offer a saner level of density, in which people interact with the natural world as frequently as they interact with one another. There is a density sweet spot, and it remains closer to the ground.
- A soul.
By thinking first of how urban plans would benefit children, we will naturally design places of greater substance. Places that delight and inform are more likely to be beautiful. And beauty most certainly opens the door to grace—which is something that people can appreciate at any age.
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Jason McLennan serves as the CEO of the Cascadia Green Building Council, a chapter of both the US Green Building Council and the Canadian Green Building Council. He is the author of the Living Building Challenge and co-creator of Pharos, the most advanced building material rating system in North America. He is a former Principal at BNIM Architects, one of the founders of the green design movement in the United States, where he worked on LEED Platinum, Gold, and zero energy projects.
This article by Jason F. McLennan was originally printed in the Summer '11 issue of Trim Tab, the Cascadia Region Green Building Council’s magazine for transformational people and design. To see this and other issues of Trim Tab, go to www.cascadiagbc.org/trimtab.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Zero Waste Efforts in Our Community
Click here to learn about Sustainable Bainbridge’s Zero Waste Initiative. It’s already happening right in our backyard!
Click here to read about how Sustainable Seattle is making this year’s Beer and Film Festival a Zero Waste Event!
Friday, July 15, 2011
CHICKEN CRAZY? 3rd Annual Bainbridge Island Tour de Coop
Some are saying that chickens are the new golden retriever and its certainly true here on Bainbridge Islander. Every spring the local Island feed store, 'Bay Hay and Feed' sell 1550 to 1800 baby chicks and at least 5000 50lb bags of chicken food. They estimate 1/3 of Island households keep chickens. WOW!
Don't miss the Third Annual Bainbridge Island Tour de Coop 2011 Tomorrow: A Self-Guided Tour of Chicken Coops, Saturday, July 16 from 11-4. This year there will be 9 chicken coops on the tour. Tickets are available at Bay Hay and Feed, and Classic Cycle on Bainbridge Island. Check out this great article in the local newspaper to learn more:
Tour de Coop this weekend
By ERIN JENNINGS
North Kitsap Herald Kitsap Week
North Kitsap Herald Kitsap Week
Chicken coops are hatching all over Bainbridge Island.
Some are lavish and include artwork and electricity.
Others are quaint and provide comfortable living quarters.
At this weekend’s third annual Tour de Coop, visitors will get the chance to check out nine coops on a self-guided tour around the island.
It’s the chicken version of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” minus the gilded furniture and luxurious yachts. Instead, you’ll see ventilated egg boxes and high perches for sleeping. Eating quarters consist of water troughs and food dispensers. Chicken bathtubs are made up of a mixture of dirt and sand — perfect for dust bathing. And one coop even has classical music piped in — the owners read that classical music helps keep the chickens calm...
Thursday, July 7, 2011
From the Urban Gardens Blog...
An excerpt from Urban Gardens:
Modern Living house’s architect and the founder of pieceHomes, Jonathan Davis, has plans for Bainbridge Island, Washington. Davis is collaborating with sustainable development and investment company, Asani, in the development of Grow Community, a sustainable neighborhood, incorporating the One Planet Living principles of new urbanism, focusing on energy efficiency , but more importantly, on the creation of an interactive community–a modern eco-friendly commune of sorts. “You can’t just look at the now,” explained Davis, “you’ve got to look at how the community is going to live for years to come.”
click here to read the article
Modern Living house’s architect and the founder of pieceHomes, Jonathan Davis, has plans for Bainbridge Island, Washington. Davis is collaborating with sustainable development and investment company, Asani, in the development of Grow Community, a sustainable neighborhood, incorporating the One Planet Living principles of new urbanism, focusing on energy efficiency , but more importantly, on the creation of an interactive community–a modern eco-friendly commune of sorts. “You can’t just look at the now,” explained Davis, “you’ve got to look at how the community is going to live for years to come.”click here to read the article
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
JUST ADD WATER (and architect): Deep green community to grow outside of Seattle
Mother Nature Network
by Matt Hickman
by Matt Hickman
Eco-living expert blogs about the best ways to go green at home
The architect responsible for the Modern Living Showhouse at Dwell on Design 2011, is a force behind Grow Community, an eco-enclave with shared composting facilities and kayak storage on Bainbridge Island, Wash.
In my post last week about the glammed up, greened out Modern Living Showhouse on display at Dwell on Design 2011, I talked a lot about the eye-catching interiors procured by Zem Joaquin and the team at ecofabulous. Honestly, I could write an entire month of posts just about all of the green goodies I saw jammed into the 520-square foot, currently up-for-auction-on-eBay prefab abode.
While so focused on the great work of Zem and co. I didn’t have much time to explore the architect behind the Modern Living Showhouse: Jonathan Davis of pieceHomes, the modular-centric offshoot of L.A.-based green architecture firm, Davis Studio Architecture + Design. While Davis and pieceHomes are new to me, it didn’t take me long to appreciate his past work — get a load of the Bell Mountain Ranch — and an in-development project that really caught my attention: Grow Community, a zero-carbon neighborhood of 137 solar-powered residences (50 homes and 87 apartments) to be built on Bainbridge Island, Wash. The ambitious project is a joint venture between pieceHomes and eco-developers, Asani.
Seattle’s King5 News calls Grow Community “one of the world’s greenest communities” which is a touch hyperbolic even for this sleepy Seattle commuter island that’s home to two MNN favorites: sustainable design firm Grain and eco-architect Matthew Coates. One thing’s for sure, if all goes as planned this 8-acre "pedestrian-oriented, energy-efficient, multigenerational neighborhood" will be the largest new development in Bainbridge’s recent history. Grow Community will also be one of the only communities in the nation (certainly the first in Washington) to achieve a stamp of approval from One Planet Living's Communities program. This rigorous, 10-tier certification program developed by environmental nonprofit BioRegional Development Group and WWF International focuses on the greenness of neighborhoods instead of individual homes. The project will also seek LEED Gold certification.
Consisting of 5 different single-family home designs — ranging from 1,200 to 1,600–square feet — and apartments — ranging from 450 to 1,200-square feet — designed by Davis and the pieceHomes team, Grow Community will generate all of its own power through solar panels placed atop the residences along with additional panels installed elsewhere on the island. There will also be ample “bike and kayak storage,” organic community gardens (or P-Patches in Seattle-speak), and shared composting and recycling facilities. And, not surprisingly, the community will be so pedestrian-centric that owning more than one car could become a major hassle. Explains The Kitsap Sun:
Vehicle parking would be located in consolidated areas away from homes, making residents more likely to use the development's trail network as their primary means of getting around. The trails, including a main public one, would funnel residents toward Madison Avenue, where a farmers market, a grocery store and various Winslow shops are within easy reach. Only one parking space is planned for each home.
As reported by the Kitsap Sun, the developers expect a full-build out to take about five years and homes within Grow Community won’t be exactly cheap — the developers aren’t aiming for affordable housing status or public funding — but will fall on the lower end of things on the somewhat pricey Bainbridge Island scale: Asani anticipates that the one-, two-and three- bedroom homes will sell for in the ballpark of $250,000 to $390,000. In addition to the homes and apartments, the Waldorf-affiliated Madrona School may relocate to the community.
Find out more about this remarkable deep-green neighborhood over at Asani, on Facebook, and on the development’s informative blog. It's also worth reading more about One Planet Communities, a program that I was, until now, unfamiliar with. And stay tuned for this month's installment of “Evergreen Homes" where I'll feature a gorgeous prefab getaway in the wilds of my native state, Washington, that, like pieceHomes and Grow Community, I found out about at Dwell on Design 2011.
Click here for original article: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/remodeling-design/blogs/just-add-water-and-architect-deep-green-community-to-grow-outside-
Click here for original article: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/remodeling-design/blogs/just-add-water-and-architect-deep-green-community-to-grow-outside-
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