Owner: New American Village URL:http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:54:49 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The New American Village blog discusses the progressive politics of sustainability and green building, along with a healthy dose of info on livable communities and walkable neighborhoods. NAV spears the deadly truth about sprawl and strip development and Site statistics:Click here
Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin - Spring Green, Wisconsin 2008-07-31 01:22:00 Green design isn't new.American architect FrankLloydWright
(1867-1959) illustrated a few of the basic tenants of building green in the construction of his home and studio just south of Spring
Green, Wisconsin
.The house becomes one with the land; neither is master or slave but work together in visual and functional harmony.Indigenous stone, Wisconsin River sand (plaster), and local wood make up m Read more:Green
More Organic Architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright's Meeting House in Madison 2008-07-30 01:42:00 Here are a few more photos of the First Unitarian Society Meeting House
in Madison
, Wisconsin.When construction bids came in "too high" for the church's budget, FrankLloydWright
went to a young contractor - Marshall Erdman - and promised to make him famous if he would build the building for $75,000.Erdman accepted the challenge.And true to his word, Wright talked Erdman up, gave him some additio Read more:Organic
, Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright's Riverview Terrace Restaurant 2008-07-27 07:57:00 The 1950's, FrankLloydWright
's last decade on earth, was his most prolific - at least in terms of buildings constructed.The River Terrace
Restaurant, now the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor's center, is one of those buildings. Perched on the Wisconsin River, this 1953 gem frames magnificent interior views northward over the wide Wisconsin River.An organic spire tops the building giving a nice accen
The High Cost of Sprawl 2008-08-25 10:42:00 This week on the NAV blog: the "sprawl tax." We'll explore the high costs, hidden and not so hidden, resulting directly from strip development and suburban sprawl, and how sprawl works to destroy culture and long-term prosperity.I'm just finishing a book by James Howard Kunstler entitled The Geography of Nowhere. Amazingly, Kunstler, in this 1993 classic, clairvoyantly outlines the consequences
Solar Decathlon 2008-08-15 10:11:00 Every couple of years, the Department of Energy hosts a "Solar
Decathlon." Based on submitted concept proposals, twenty college teams are chosen to compete to see who can design, build, and operate the best all-solar powered home.The arena: the Capitol mall in Washington, DC.Ten areas of judging - architecture, engineering, market viability, communications, comfort, appliances, hot water, lig
Solar Power Plants 2008-08-14 13:11:00 Solar power plants are starting to pop up in some of the strangest places. This plant located in Germany, a country not known for an overabundance of sunny weather, produces 12 megawatts of electricity - enough to power about 12000 homes.Germany has in place a healthy program subsidizing the production of solar power in a proactive effort to encourage new household and commercial investment in so Read more:Solar
, Plants
Solar Powered Bike Trail 2008-08-11 14:00:00 Madison, Wisconsin has long been ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing new ideas.Recently, I noticed that solar powered night lights have been installed along some of the bike trails flanking University Avenue. This is a double-green solution in that solar power is used to light an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation - biking and walking.I suspect these fixtures are a littl Read more:Solar
, Trail
Here Comes the Sun 2008-08-11 13:56:00 This week on the New American Village blog:Solar Energy.Let the sun shine in.
Wright Wrap-Up 2008-08-11 06:51:00 As much as I'd like to continue this series on the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright
, it's time to turn the page and start another chapter.I'll wrap it up with a very cool "Taliesin Timeline" designed by former Taliesin apprentice Val M. Cox. This piece was conceived by Susan Lockhart, a senior apprentice who grew up in a Wright designed usonian house, spent a considerable portion of her
Thomas L. Friedman: The Power of Green 2008-09-15 22:35:00 One day Iraq, our post-9/11 trauma and the divisiveness of the Bush years will all be behind us — and America will need, and want, to get its groove back. We will need to find a way to reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad and restore America to its natural place in the global order — as the beacon of progress, hope and inspiration. I have an idea how. It’s called “green.”more Read more:Thomas
, Friedman
, Green
Drill Baby Drill 2008-09-15 16:01:00 Some people are pitching an old idea with a new mantra.Cameras panning the hall at the recent Republican National Convention captured an astounding scene of frenzied faithful chanting "drill, baby, drill!!!" - with xenophobic fervor.Although there was an uncomfortably delivered and hollow seventh-grade-student-council response to calls for an all-inclusive energy policy - Palin's "like we don't kn Read more:Drill
The Sprawl Tax 2008-09-15 15:23:00 (Newspaper Column, Sept. 15)With all the election chatter about who will or will not raise your taxes, there’s one self-imposed tariff that few people are talking about – the sprawl tax.Our awareness of the added costs of suburban sprawl is not unlike the boiling frog syndrome. You know the story. It is said that a frog will jump out of the pot if thrown in scalding water, but if lukewarm wa
2009 Solar Decathlon - A Case Study 2008-09-30 23:00:00 TEAM BeauSoliel - University of Louisiana at Lafayette
We are honored to have been selected by the new American Village as the Solar
Decathlon 2009 team to be profiled in the weekly blog! As one of only two teams in the south (Rice being the other one) we feel as if we represent not only Louisiana but the Gulf states as a whole. It is our mission to design, build and demonstrate a new para Read more:Study
Ani DiFranco: Subdivision 2008-09-29 23:39:00 Lyrics to Ani DiFranco's composition - Subdivision.White people are so scared of black people.They bulldoze out to the country, and put up houses on little loop-d-loop streets.And while America gets its heart cut right out of its chestThe Berlin wall still runs down main street separating east side from west.And nothing is stirring, not even a mouse, in the boarded up stores and the broken down ho
Amtrak Funding 2008-09-29 22:48:00 Monday the U.S. Senate cleared the way for a Wednesday vote on Amtrak funding.For the past few years, Amtrak - America's only national passenger rail service - has been on starvation rations in terms of funding from the federal government. Typically, the Bush administration proposed eliminating all federal funding in annual budget recommendations; Congress subsequently added back "not enough" mon Read more:Funding
Consumers Among Us 2008-09-29 08:04:00 This week's newspaper column:
When did the term “consumer” replace “citizen” in our national lexicon? The press, politicians, economists, and especially shopping mall marketing professionals now routinely refer to individuals not by their race, creed, sex or nationality, but by their spending habits. When is the last time you heard anyone refer to Americans as anything but consumers?
No title 2008-09-25 09:12:00 Excitement percolates in the design studio as architecture students and professor/architect Geoff Gjertson plan their Solar Decathlon entry.The team is well into the process, having already submitted their design concept and design development drawings, and are now they are setting up shop in a warehouse space near campus where the home will be assembled.But the design process does not stop once t
Solar Decathlon - A Case Study 2008-09-24 08:02:00 A few weeks ago, I posted on the bi-annual solar decathlon.-decathlon.htmlToday, I'm on my way to Lafayette, Louisiana to meet with the UL-Lafayette team. I'll be documenting the planning and construction of their entry over the course of the next year culminating in the set-up and display on the mall in Washington along with the other entries.Stay tuned... Read more:Solar
, Study
Buyer's Market? 2008-09-23 07:27:00 Common sense might have you reasoning that when the price of oil goes up, interest in alternative energies goes up. But the recent spike in crude oil prices was met by falling alt-energy stocks?-ene.htmlWhy?Maybe it has something to do with the uncertainty around tax credits - or the lack of them - for alternative energy-related projects. Tax incentives for the construction of energy-efficien Read more:Buyer
, Market
Candidate's Auto-Carbon Footprint 2008-09-23 06:58:00 How many cars do the presidential candidates have? A Newsweek article - All the Candidate
's Cars - indicates that John McCain and his wife own 13 automobiles; Barack Obama and his wife own 1. Read more:Carbon
, Footprint
SIPS Construction on the BeauSoleil Home 2008-10-21 23:23:00
SIPS is an acronym for structural insulated panel system. This system of construction consists of a 5 ½” inch layer of expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) sandwiched between two sheets of 7/16” oriented strand board (OSB). This system is extremely efficient in that it is produced in a factory setting therefore, reducing the material waste generally associated with typical site built constr Read more:Construction
Farmer in Chief 2008-10-21 08:21:00 Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, penned an open letter in the New York Times Magazine to the next "Farmer in Chief
" outlining the negative consequences of our current food policy and offering up some healthy ideas about how we can bring about positive change in the way we eat - and save the planet along the way.From the article:After cars, the food system uses
The Economics of Biking and Walking 2008-10-20 23:43:00 The Rails to Trails Conservancy has a new report out today entitled Active Transportation for America: A Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking
. The report outlines the roll walking and biking plays in our national transportation system. For the first time, the economics of biking and walking have been quantified (with numbers) as well as quantified.Read the full report Read more:Economics
, Biking
Walking: An Experience - Not An Afterthought 2008-10-20 08:45:00 photo: Samantha Montague, Student Printz NewspaperIt is particularly rewarding to open a newspaper and see a photo of one of your designs taken by someone you don't know for the purpose of painting a beautiful picture of the character of a space.A few years ago, I designed a pedestrian plaza in the center of campus at the University of Southern Mississippi. The idea was to define a critical ser Read more:Walking
Construction Begins on BeauSoleil Home 2008-10-15 00:14:00 The BeauSoleil TEAM moved into their new digs - a United Way warehouse near campus - a couple of months ago, and the buzz is on. The TEAM is gathering materials and mapping out the construction process in anticipation of assembling their design over the next few months.Louisiana System Built Homes, a BeauSoleil manufacturing partner, will begin fabricating the shell and roof structure for the Sol Read more:Construction
Presidential Solar Power 2008-10-09 18:41:00 Both John McCain and Barack Obama have indicated support for the development of wind and solar power.Obama proposes targeting research and development of alternative energies (primarily solar and wind) with $150 billion in seed money over the next 10 years. The goal - energy independence by 2018.McCain expresses support for alternative energies, but refuses to give specifics on how he would foste Read more:Presidential
, Solar
Van Jones: The Green Collar Economy 2008-10-09 09:13:00 The United States has lost a quarter of a million jobs since the first of the year and the stock market has been falling like a rock. Van Jones, in a new green manifesto, talks about how we can turn this financial implosion into a robust economic expansion by pumping up the green economy - and save our planet in the process.Check out his ideas about the potential for a new green economy here:-jon Read more:Green
, Collar
Design: A Response to the Local Environment 2008-10-07 22:55:00 The University of Louisiana at Lafayette TEAM Beausoleil would like to engage in conversation with the public about the issues we are investigating, as they relate to the delivery of our aptly named "Louisiana Solar Home", to the U.S. Department of Energy for the 2009 Solar Decathlon.It is our hope that we can, through interaction and conversation, share with the general public the strategies and Read more:Response
, Local
, Environment
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