Building tour showcases benefits of going 'green' GREEN PARADE OF BUILDINGS THIS WEEKEND

Wed Oct 18 06:27:00 PDT 2000

Parade of Green Buildings
Saturday & Sunday
October 21-22, 2000

Sponsored by the Sustainability Project and the Santa Barbara Contractors 
Association

Come See What’s Green!
Learn About Environmentally Sustainable Design and Construction

When: Opening Reception
Friday, October 20, 6:30pm
Cold Spring School, 2243 Sycamore Canyon Road, Montecito

Guest Speaker, Architect Bruce Fowle (designer of Green Skyscraper Four 
Times Square, NYC)

Tour Green Commercial Buildings
Saturday, October 21, 10am  4pm

Tour Green Residential Homes
Sunday, October 22, 10am  4pm

Cost: $25.00 ticket for all three days with Shuttle Bus Transportation or 
Carpool of 3 or more people or by Bicycle
$30.00 ticket for all three days for Tour by Private Cars

Tickets: Tickets Available at 3 Branches of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust
Downtown Main Branch, 20 E. Carrillo Street
La Cumbre Branch, 3910 State Street
Goleta Branch, 299 N. Fairview Avenue

For More Information Contact:
David James 965-4962 or Dennis Allen 682-4305

http://news.newspress.com/toplocal/greenfor1016.htm
<http://news.newspress.com/np_home/fnews.html>

Building tour showcases benefits of going 'green'

Santa Barbara structures recycle, conserve

10/16/00

By RHONDA PARKS MANVILLE

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

<mailto:rparks at newspress.com>rparks at newspress<mailto:rparks at newspress.com>.com

As the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, Santa Barbara is 
proving to be fertile ground for a burgeoning movement to construct "green" 
homes and businesses.

During a special tour in Santa Barbara on Saturday and Sunday, called the 
"Parade of Green Buildings," house-and-garden lookey-loos and folks in the 
construction trades can get an up-close look at 11 homes and offices that 
were built or renovated using nonpolluting, sustainable, environmentally 
friendly designs and materials.

It's the first tour of its kind here, and the sponsors of this event -- The 
Sustainability Project and the Santa Barbara Contractors Association, among 
others -- are hoping it's as popular as it's been elsewhere in the country.

Architect Dennis Allen, who specializes in green projects, and is a member 
of the local Sustainability Project and chair of the building tour, was 
inspired to create a green tour of homes years ago. He was introduced to 
the idea in Colorado, where an annual tour has proved wildly popular with 
the environmentally conscious residents there.

But just a few years ago, Santa Barbara did not have enough green homes to 
make up a tour.

That has changed.

"Now we have enough good projects for the tour -- good, quality projects, 
infused with green elements," he said. "We want people to see, feel and 
touch them, so that they can see what is possible."

Saturday's tour will feature six businesses. On Sunday, five family homes 
will be on display.

Each home and business will have owners, architects, designers, materials 
representatives and builders on hand to answer questions. A kiosk at each 
site will provide literature on each structure, and the materials used.

Sustainable building involves using resources that don't compromise future 
resources. Green projects use renewable, nonpolluting and recycled products 
and materials and technologies that conserve energy.

*¥ ¥

Here is an advance peek at three of the stops on the tour:

Van Atta Design Studios, 235 Palm Ave.: Located on a sliver of land near 
the Garden Street interchange at Highway 101, the structure sits serenely 
amid the grit and noise of the city's light-industrial district. Outside, 
there is a garden with a koi pond, native plants, stone steps and flowering 
vines. Inside, it's cool and quiet, with windows that are high enough to 
frame the mountain views -- and to hide the cars and trucks going by.

The offices were designed by their occupants -- the architectural firm 
Blackbird Associates and the landscape architectural firm Van Atta Design 
Studios. (The principals in those firms are husband and wife Ken Radtkey 
and Susan Van Atta.)

"A lot of people drive by and say they enjoy the moment, waiting at the 
light, looking at the building," Radtkey said. "There is an exchange of 
some kind, and that is positive. The idea is that this building and the 
green around it takes part in this intersection, in this aggressive urban 
environment that serves as a gateway to the city."

Lighting is a major expense in operating an office, and in the Van Atta 
building they almost never turn them on. The structure makes use of natural 
light from the northeast-facing windows and is constructed so that the mass 
of its materials -- concrete block walls and handsome, polished concrete 
floors -- are used as tools in heating and cooling.

The building makes liberal use of sustainable materials, such as flooring 
of bamboo, a crop which is harvested every three years or so, unlike wood 
materials that take decades to grow. There is salvaged marble in the 
bathrooms and kitchen, bamboo storage cupboards and shelves made of poplar 
from managed forests. Nonpolluting paints are used. Outdoor decking is made 
from a product manufactured from recycled milk cartons. On the rooftop 
terrace, recycled, tumbled glass serves as gravel ballast, which glitters 
in the sun after it rains, like the ocean in the distance.

*¥ ¥

The Bear Lodge, 3288 Foothill Road: Busy, noisy Foothill Road lies just 
outside Tim and Glorianna Buynak's 1930s farmhouse. When they first bought 
the place, the traffic noise was so loud it was impossible to have a 
conversation outdoors.

"We had two big problems -- heat and noise," said Glorianna.

But not anymore.

Working with architect Jim Bell, the Buynaks are in the process of making 
the house a cool, quiet enclave. An impressive rock wall outside, using 
stones from the property, helps block the din from the street. And hay 
bales -- placed against the original exterior and covered with stucco -- 
have created walls 30 inches thick in some places, which keep the house 
cool in summer and warm in winter.

"What people don't realize with straw bale, for example, is that you can 
finish it however you like -- as Mission style, French or adobe style," 
Bell said.

A triangle "truth window," which shows a straw bale behind it, is a 
reminder of the organic materials used to renovate the house.

To keep pollution and allergens to a minimum, the house uses radiant 
heating (from hot water flowing through coils) under the tile floors and in 
baseboard heaters elsewhere. The eaves of the windows are low, to block the 
sun. Solar tube lighting is used for light in several rooms, and organic 
cottons are used on bedding and windows throughout.

Some rooms have bamboo floors. All of the double-paned windows in the house 
are recycled -- Glorianna bought a truckload of them from a house that was 
being demolished.

Airkrete, a nontoxic, foam insulating material is used in tight spots of 
the house where hay bales won't fit. The roof is covered in a manufactured, 
fireproof material that looks like slate, but isn't.

"We've tried to look ahead, too, by plumbing the house so that we can catch 
rainwater, and by designing for solar heating and solar electric in the 
future," Bell said. "It's also got separate plumbing for gray water, when 
and if it is ever allowed in the county."

*¥ ¥

The Armstrong Home, 1003 La Senda Road: Not a single tree in the secluded 
oak woodland was cut to make room for the impressive stucco home built by 
its residents, Earl and Leslie Armstrong.

The passive solar house is constructed with a building material known as 
Insteel, which is composed of nontoxic foam panels, steel mesh made from 
recycled cars, and a cement-like fill material. The Insteel framing is a 
substitute for conventional framing materials but is substantially 
stronger, can withstand earthquakes and is fire resistant.

The elimination of hollow wood walls and duct spaces practically eliminates 
places for mold to grow.

The key to the house's solar capability is its thermal mass: The walls and 
ceilings are thick, and the floors are made of heavy colored concrete that 
is mottled to look like stone.

The floors are heated from underneath, by radiant coils carrying hot water, 
but it is only necessary to use the heat about two months of the year, the 
owners say. The house captures heat from the sun, and it is easily cooled 
by opening the windows on the second floor.

The house has a distinctly European feeling -- a sort of understated 
elegance -- with windows, French doors and patios that capture the wooded 
beauty and native plants outdoors. But its owners love it for another 
reason: With floors of concrete and no carpet, it's virtually dust free and 
could be hosed down, if need be.

"For me the benefits are really easy upkeep -- especially with the children 
-- and the other big factor was avoiding allergies," said Leslie Armstrong.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20001018/451e81b8/attachment.html>