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A team of young architects and an engineer from France have developed a concept of modifying existing electrical towers to harvest wind power.
Photo by Elioth + Encore Heureux
The idea is still in its infancy, but I love the fact that they are thinking of ways to produce sustainable power for our society while attempting to utilize existing infrastructure. The team won the 2009 “Next Generation” competition organized by Metropolis Magazine. More information can be found at the following link:
Metropolis Magazine | Harvesting the wind
I was recently contacted by one of our window suppliers recommending that I pass on information about tax incentives in 2009 for replacement of windows, doors and skylights. While I am an advocate for upgrading the efficiency of homes, I also believe that any remodel project should not be undertaken without careful consideration of other factors.
Many of the homes that I work on are historic homes, and often I am ask to evaluate the condition of windows and make suggestions on whether or not the windows should be replaced.
Below are some questions I usually ask myself before making a recommendation:
- Do the windows contribute to the historical character of the home?
- If the answer is “yes” then I take a look at the condition of the windows. If the condition of the existing windows are in poor shape, then I look at replacement options. When looking at replacement options I try to find a manufacturer that is able to manufacture new windows that will most closely match the configuration and mullion pattern of the existing windows.
- Have the windows been painted shut?
- Often times the windows are still in good condition, but they have been painted shut by a past owner. It takes some work, but the paint can typically be cut along the operable areas and the windows can be refurbished to original working condition with much less cost than replacing the windows. Often in older homes we will find a true double hung window with the top panel painted shut and the bottom panel still operable. The original idea behind a double hung window is that in warmer months of the year the top panel can be lowered to allow air flow high in the room. Since heat rises, the operable top panel allows hot air to escape which reduces the need for mechanical cooling. Due to this same theory we sometimes see transom windows in kitchen areas of old homes to allow heat to escape from the hot kitchen to cooler areas of the home.
- Do the windows have single pane glass?
- It is definitely true that old single pane glass windows are not as efficient as newer double pane or even triple pane glazing systems, but the glass may be adding character to your home and that is sometimes overlooked by some homeowners and remodelers.
- Glass is actually a liquid that is being pulled slowly in the direction of gravity. Many of the older homes that I work on have glass that over the years has become thicker at the bottom of the pane than at the top. This gives a “wavy” illusion to objects on the other side of the window when looking through the glazing sometimes called the “bottled glass” effect.
- If your single pane glass adds a character to your home that is irreplaceable you might consider adding storm windows to the home. My own home has custom storm windows that we can easily remove and replace with screens during the summer months. The screens allow for cross-ventilation while keeping insects out of the home during the hot summer months. During the winter months, the extra layer of glass provided by the storm windows keeps the windows from “sweating” and building up condensation. It also helps seal the house and makes it easier for the heating system to maintain a comfortable temperature in the home. It is a bit more maintenance to change out the screens and storm windows each spring and fall, but in my mind it is worth it to be able to keep the original glass. If you are thinking of installing storm windows, there are a few companies such as Van Dykes Restorers that have some nice looking hardware to attach the storm windows to your home.
- If you have still come to the conclusion that you should replace your windows, you are in luck because there are some tax incentives in 2009 that will help to reduce this upgrade.
- Before we get into this though, let’s first look for windows that match your home as we discussed earlier. In addition, windows with wood interior and an aluminum clad exterior will be highly efficient, will have a softer more natural feel than vinyl, will last a lifetime and also be low maintenance.
- I dislike nothing more than walking into an old historic home with beautiful old style woodworking to find that someone has replaced the original wood windows with white vinyl windows. There are a few projects where I have recommended vinyl windows, but they are few and far between and never in a historic home.
- The Tax Credit is for qualifying products that will be installed in 2009 and 2010. The maximum credit will be $1,500 and will be based on 30% of the purchase price and does not include installation. The windows must also be for the person’s primary residence.
- There are also some limitations as to how energy efficient the windows need to be. The windows must have a U factor of 0.30 or less and they must have a SHGC of .30 or less.
- A good website for more information on window efficiency and the tax incentive is The Efficient Windows Collaboratives. There is also a .PDF available at the following link:
Adobe .PDF on Window Replacement Tax Credit
Below is a home we designed for Wallace Custom Design and Renovation. The home was designed for Boise’s East End Historic District and much effort has been made to ensure that the scale and massing of the home respects the surrounding neighborhood. Please click on the image below to see more about the home & the design process.
I received my license to practice Architecture in the State of Colorado today!! Below is a map of all the States I am currently licensed in. Next year I will go for Utah. I am concentrating on States with large ski resorts! :)
Below is a house we did some design options for. They ranged from some fairly modern designs to one that incorporated traditional shapes with some minor modern accents. Click on the image to view the options.
I have been experimenting with the ArchiCAD 3D sketch engine on a modern house I designed for 2106 North 21st Street in the North End. You can see a 3D movie that I made using the sketch engine by clicking the image below.
Our website has been updated to show the building process and the finished home that we designed in Hidden Springs at 12344 Upper Ridge. Special thanks to Sam Jordan of Sun River Custom Homes for making the project possible. To view the latest updates for this project, please click on the the image below.
Karma took me in for a pedicure after work today to show me what is required in a salon to perform manicures and pedicures. She thought it would be a good idea since we are working on the new salon for Scot Christopher and he will have full manicure and pedicure stations in the new plan. Although at first I was a bit reluctant to go, I did have a good time & ended up walking away with 10 sparkley toes :)
Karma and I were invited to visit the Sustainabuilt cabinet shop earlier today. Brad Boggess, the owner, took us on a tour of the cabinet shop and explained how they are using innovative sustainable products to produce top quality cabinetry and furniture. Click on the image below to see a slide show of our visit to the shop.
Demolition started today on our project at 215 N. 24th street. The project is directly behind our house so I have the unique opportunity of documenting the progress of the project fairly easily. Click on the image below to view some photos taken of the early demolition process.
Tim Prentice does some amazing installations. I ran across an installation in Coeur D’ Alene that was done in 2007. Of his installations my favorites are “Biplane” and “Yellow Zinger”.
There will be an Open House from 5:30 to 7:30 at Whittier Elementary School at 301 N. 29th Street in Boise, Idaho on Tuesday, October 28th. Please come out to see the latest plan and have a chance to voice your opinion about a project that will have a huge influence on our community. There will be two formal presentations starting at 6:00 and at 6:45. For more information on the project and a link to the Boise City website, please click on any of the renderings below (Renderings of the 30th street project are from the Boise City website):
I listened to a speech that Wells Fargo Chair Richard Kovacevich gave to the Commonwealth Club of California on Tuesday. Kovacevich gave a brief history of the banking and financial industry from the end of WWII to our current time. One of the more interesting things to me was to make the distinction between an “economic” crisis and a “financial” crisis. Kovacevich explains that we are not in an “economic” crisis. He sites examples of the 1980’s “economic” crisis when we saw interest rates over 20%, a huge numbers of unemployed, and a growing defecit. In his speech he says that our economy is actually doing fairly well with very low interest rates and low unemployment rates. The “crisis” is in the “financial” sector of our system and he targeted banks and the other financial institutions as the cause of the situation.
His description of how the industry has changed through technology, deregulation, and the world market is also intruiging. In the question and answer portion after the speech he is ask about Japan’s financial difficulty over the past several years and he sites that the length of their crisis has been prolonged by the inability of their government to step in. He also discussed “deflation” and how it can snowball much quicker than inflation.
In the construction industry we are seeing signs of this deflationary effect. Architects, designers, contractors, and sub-contractors are lowering their bids and prices just to get work even when their profit margins are very low or non-existent. This is great news for the consumer, but throws the pendulum from one extreme to the other. What I would like to see is a bit more balance in our marketplace. Honest pricing for goods and especially services, I think it goes a long way to helping stabilize the situation from a “ground-up” approach instead of the “trickle-down” effect.
Kovacevich makes one final point that is probably the most important in his speech. It comes down to “people”. Treating others how you would like to be treated, surrounding yourself with talented and innovative people, and providing the tools and means for them to think freely and act on thier ideas.
Below is the link to the speech. “Real Player” is required to play the speech and the run time is about one hour.
There is a lot of hype about building “green” these days. So much that it becomes difficult to decipher who is just jumping on the band wagon to make a quick buck and who is in it for the right reasons and proven their commitment to the green movement. Below are some websites that have done their research and provide great options for green building materials.
http://www.naturalbuilthome.com/
http://www.thenaturalabode.com/
http://www.greenfoundations.com/
The youngest of my three younger sisters recently received her landscape architecture license in Idaho. She graduated from the University of Idaho in 2003 (Go Vandals!!). Alyssa has worked with us on past projects and has done a great job of specifying drought tolerant plants and designing low water consumption irrigation systems. The Idaho Statesman published this article in the business section the other day. I am really proud of Alyssa and her accomplishments. Keep up the great work! Congratulations Alyssa!
Also, in the same section is recognition of a new contract for Drake/Cooper. They were recently selected as the ad agency for the United Dairymen of Idaho. Great job Karma and the rest of the Drake/Cooper team!
I went running with my dog Hank after work last night along the Boise River Greenbelt. We stopped at a beach along the Boise River and he played fetch with a stick he had found. This is the same area that I go fly-fishing after work in the summer. We are so lucky living in Boise with the proximity to wildlife and the outdoors.
As I ran next to the proposed Esther Simplot park, I saw excavation equipment moving dirt & beginning inital grading for the new park. It looks as if construction on the new park is finally underway!! It got me thinking about the plans for the new Whitewater Park along this stretch of river and what a benefit it will be to our community. It will be a great venue for slalom kayak competitions, a whitewater practice course, and will bring more interest and vitality to this area of our City. Best of all, it is within walking distance from my house :) What a great way to spend a hot summer day!…Kayak surfing in the cool, clear water, just out my back door. Idaho really is an amazing place to live.
Click on the links below to see more on the proposed Whitewater Park and the new Esther Simplot park.
http://www.boiseriverpark.com/
When I was in architecture school I worked at the airport to help supplement my tuition and pay for flight time. Often I was allowed to help the A&P mechanics work on the airplanes and perform menial tasks for them. When the mechanics would rebuild or repair portions of the planes they would throw the old pieces into scrap piles and sorting bins I always thought that many of those pieces were art forms in their own right. The forms and curves of airplane parts are absolutely beautiful to me. When I am performing the pre-flight before I fly, the feeling of running your hands across the airfoils and propeller blades somehow makes you feel closer to nature. You can feel the principles and theories developed over the years that we now know as aerodynamics run from the tips of your fingers throughout your body. As we are embarking on this new company that will integrate architecture and aviation I have been researching other companies that incorporate design with aviation and came across this one.
I believe that this company shares the same passion for design and aviation that has shaped my life and career as an architect and a pilot.
interflight studiosI would like to finish today’s blog with a quote from Antoine de Saint Exupery – the famous French Aviator and author.
“Have you ever thought, not only about the airplane but whatever man builds, that all of man’s industrial efforts, all his computations and calculations, all the nights spent working over draughts and blueprints, invariably culminate in the production of a thing whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity? It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of the human breast or shoulder, there must be experimentation of several generations of craftsmen. In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.”
Antoine de Saint ExuperyI have been researching “illusions” that can have an impact on a pilot’s perception and actions and/or reactions. The idea is to gain a better understanding of the “illusions” and the effects they have on the mind and to mitigate symtoms such as “empty field myopia”. I first became interested in these “illusions” while studying under professor Bill Bowler at the University of Idaho. Bill introduced me to some of the art pieces and installations dealing with light and space by James Turrell.
Listen to the commentary at the end of the video below in which the woman says, “When you really start to look, then you start to lose yourself….and that’s when it becomes very…disorienting.” It then shows the woman bumping into the solid matter, “Whoa”.
The empty field is similar to the effect of flying into a cloud or into a dark night sky with no references in IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions. Without a horizon or other objects to relate to, the pilot can easily lose directional control of the aircraft and end up in a spiral dive with the feeling that they are still traveling straight and level (if not paying attention to their instruments). The centripital force of the spinning motion can be misinterpereted giving the pilot the sensation that the airplane is traveling straight and level, when in “reality” the aircraft may be in a spiral towards the ground. As the woman in the video says above. “Whoa”. Click the link below to see what a spiral dive looks like from inside the cockpit with external references in VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions.
From inside the cockpit:
From outside the cockpit:
I was looking into this type of building for a commercial project we are working on. I think it is an interesting and viable method of construcion. The shipping containers are coming into our country literally by the shipload. They are standard sizes and can be stacked in either a horizontal or vertical orientation. Their modular nature has high dimensional tolerances as they are made to be stacked tightly onto ships for transport. In my mind they seem much like giant lego blocks. Using our 3D drafting software makes it really fun to place the containers in different configurations and create interesting interior spaces that reflect contemporary sculpural exterior design elements. The containers can also be easily transported over land by either train or semi-truck tractor trailers. The initial construction process is fast as the units are flown into place with the use of a construction crane giving an instant “shell” building ready to receive interior finishes and cut in windows and doors. The energy required to produce this building material has already been spent which makes the process more environmentally conscious. Below are some links for more information on integrating shipping containers into our built environment: