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Daily Update: Mortgage Rates Push Slightly Further Into All-Time Lows
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Daily Update: Mortgage Rates Officially Hit New All-Time Lows!
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With AIA 2012 Inside the Beltway, There's No Dodging the Politics
Blog Category:
AIA Convention
The opening keynote at AIA 2012 dishes up a surprisingly politicized main event but transitions smoothly to end on a high note.
Welcome to AIA 2012 in Washington, D.C.Photo Credit: Paula Melton
A lot of things come to mind when I think about the annual AIA Convention; electoral politics isn't one of them. But today's opening keynote put politics front and center in a variety of ways. And judging by the vibes I felt coming off the standing-room-only crowd, the topic was about as welcome here as it is at Thanksgiving dinner when your crazy uncle (regardless of political persuasion) gets started with his conspiracy theories.
Perhaps the most awkward moment was when Mayor Vincent Gray, after an appropriate and lovely speech about D.C. as "a museum of historical design and a living hub of architectural innovation" couldn't resist the urge to bring up D.C. Statehood—an issue most of the people in the room were unlikely to know or care about (as a former resident of the District, I confess applauding, but I was almost alone).
No designated bike lanes in D.C. last time
Then Earl Blumenauer, Hon. AIA—U.S. Representative from Oregon and member of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus—took the stage to address a topic that's a lot closer to home for architects everywhere: livable cities. Did you know that the last time the AIA Convention was held in D.C., there were no designated bike lanes?
A Visit to the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park
Blog Category:
AIA Convention
BuildingGreen goes to town! On our way to D.C. for this year's AIA Convention, we stopped in NYC for a tour of the Bank of America tower that took us from the subterranean depths to the highest heights.
For a number of reasons, the Cook+Fox-designed Bank of America tower at One Bryant Park is an object lesson in how difficult it can be to compare the energy performance of buildings that don't fit neatly into a typical category (is it a data center or a commercial office? a lot of both, and it also has its own power plant).
But for four of us from BuildingGreen, today it was mainly a chance to enjoy the company of the people who care for this building—and to listen to them geek out about cogeneration, ice storage, and the importance of light for the well-being of everyone on staff (not just the people in cubicles). I snapped a few shots while we were there.
We got an incredible view from the 49th floor, where our tour began and ended.Photo Credit: Paula Melton
During our bright and sunny lunch in a Durst Organization conference room on the 49th floor, there was a bit of chatter about the "inverse relationship between daylight and self-loathing," or something along those lines. Unfortunately, of course, the workers who run the cogen plant don't get natural daylighting in their workspace.
But, says Don Winston, P.E., vice president for technical services at Durst (which co-owns the building, along with Bank of America), these workers are not neglected. When asked about lights in maintenance hallways being on 24/7, he told us that these areas are overlighted on purpose. First, there are safety considerations, but there's also "pride of place." Staff members who don't feel like they've been confined to a dungeon or hidden away in a cave feel valued and take pride in their work.
Daily Update: Mortgage Rates Steady At All-Time Lows Thanks To Europe And The Fed
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Crucial State Incentives for Small Wind Turbines Still Need Work
Blog Category:
GreenSpec Insights
As the small wind turbine market feels the pain of temporary holds on state incentive programs, turbine certification could bring the stability and improve the market’s reputation.
New Jersey placed a rebate incentive program on hold due to catastrophic mechanical failures of multiple small wind turbines.Photo Credit: World Future Energy Summit
The reputation of the small wind turbine industry has tended to fluctuate as much as the output of some of its turbines. Consumers seeing the benefits of wind as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels have at times been burned by mechanical failures and less-than-expected power production.
And on their way to “saving the planet,” some turbine installations have been implicated in numerous bird and bat deaths. While there are numerous financial incentives to install wind, several state incentives have recently been put on temporary hold. These setbacks are potentially the most troubling, as incentives are generally regarded as key to increasing turbine installations.
Daily Update: Mortgage Rates Hold Steady At All Time Lows
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Getting Around Without Fossil Fuels
Blog Category:
Energy Solutions
BikeSharing in Toronto. There are dozens of storage areas like this where members of Toronto's bikesharing organization can check out a bike.Photo Credit: Alex Wilson
While challenging, it is possible to get away from our dependence on fossil fuels when it comes to our transportation needs
Last week I laid out some arguments on why we should wean ourselves from fossil fuels, and offered some suggestions of how we could go about doing that in our homes—by superinsulating, switching to oil- and gas-free heating, and converting to renewable electricity. Those steps certainly aren’t easy or inexpensive, but there’s a pretty clear path for doing so.
With transportation it’s a lot more challenging, particularly in non-urban areas where we’re more dependent on automobiles. Petroleum is uniquely suited to fueling our cars and trucks. Gasoline and diesel are highly concentrated fuels that allow a little to go a long way. They are liquid at the conditions where we use them without putting them under pressure, so we can pump them into our fuel tanks relatively easily and with (relatively) low risk.
What are the options if we want to get off fossil fuels?
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