Melissa Hope Matlins

Last fall, shortly after hearing that the famed art/performance venue Galapagos would be closing, Dan and I put together a mock “proposal” for their site as part of the Riviera Real Estate exhibit at the Riviera Gallery. The exhibit pretty convincingly transformed the Gallery space into a real estate office, with agents, keys on the wall and imaginative listings in the window and on their website. And thus The Darwin was born, a new, luxury condominium atop the former Galapagos building, where “only the strong shall thrive.”

The building features a “reclaimed” Uraguayan rainforest in the lobby, in-loft waterfalls, a rooftop zoo, solar concentrators for tanning, and my personal favorite amenity, an in-pool shark tank so you can “swim with the sharks.”

It was a lighthearted way to raise issues about green living, buildings as status symbols, and rampant luxury development, especially in this part of town. I was reminded of our little tongue-in-cheek project when I read on Gothamist that a new performance venue will be moving into the former Galapagos space, and will be called Natural Selection. I’m kind of glad no one took our condo idea seriously. I thought it had a lot of potential.

As a side note, there is a lovely bar, Oulu, with a greenwall facade in Williamsburg now.

Looks like Washington D.C. will be taking the honors as the first stateside city to launch a real bicycle sharing program. After a pilot program in NYC last summer, I was hoping that my hometown would take the lead. Its hard not to get excited about these sleek looking racks and wheels though, very European.

This weekend The Washington Post marvelously captured the general public’s paranoia about new street furniture, bicycling, sharing, socialist enterprises, and new things in general, when they wrote of the new bike racks:

“Yet another homeland security device?
Actually, they are being installed to make us more like people abroad rather than protect us from them.”

Remain calm.

image: via The Washington Post

It pains me to mock sustainability initiatives, even when they are as unambitious and misguided as this one. However the launch of the “green” metrocard, green only in color, has come a little too fast on the heels our failed congestion pricing plan for me to pass up the opportunity. The congestion pricing plan was a holistic, transformative solution, and a prime example of the type of visionary thinking required to combat global climate change. The MTA’s proposed renewable energy initiatives can barely be called a patchwork solution. A close look at the language used shows that the initiatives aren’t even actionable.

For earth day, ONE day, the MTA will burn time and money to stock all vending machines with special “green” metrocards. Not cards made with recycled content. Not cards that are recyclable. Heck, if they are purchased as unlimited cards, they aren’t even reusable. Just special cards. With green logos. For earth day. They didn’t even bother to put a tree or a globe on them, how insensitive to our planet!

The poorly designed cards are meant to be a symbol of MTA’s renewable energy initiatives. Initiative goals include things like drawing a whopping 7% of MTA energy needs from renewable sources. Before 2015. Seven years from now. Other points are not so much goals as suggestions from the MTA to themselves, using language like “will evaluate ways to utilize water harvested from the subway system” and “will examine the feasibility of providing 14% of the power (at one bus depot!) from wind turbines.” Far be it from me to stand defiant in the face of progress, but who wants to buy yet another slip of plastic to commemorate these lackluster initiatives?

Via: Gothamist

The world should have known that the spawn of Jef Raskin, the “father” of the Macintosh computer, would one day revolutionize a genre of his own - office furniture. Enter the Bloxe, interlocking pieces of cardboard that click together like a life-size lego set to form walls, benches and tables. Aside from its green credentials (far superior to the toxic particle board that most office furniture is made of), the air spaces within the Bloxes help to dampen sound, so you won’t ever have to hear your cubicle mate fighting with her fiancee again! Plus the assemble process looks like a bit of fun if you are mechanically inclined.

Via: Green Tech Blog

After lagging behind almost every other major design industry trade organization, the American Institute of Architects has finally announced their own comprehensive sustainability initiative, “Walk the Walk.” While I like the idea of encouraging architects to “Walk the Walk” instead of talking the talk so much (as all you architects out there know we do too often), I think that the tag line “Architects Leading the Sustainable Evolution” is straight up revisionist history. Climatologists, physicists, engineers, industrial designers, and even interior designers led this charge. Us architects are just bringing up the rear, despite the fact that our buildings account for almost 50% of harmful emissions globally.

Much of the information found on their new site is aggregated from diverse sources, including the USGBC and AIA’s own Committee on the Environment (COTE), arguably far better clearing houses for green building information. I was hoping that there would be more resources here that address the number one objection to building green - the cost. While a hard number or percentage is difficult to come by, even for one specific green building project, a benchmark for building types, perhaps based on a large and comprehensive survey, is sorely needed. Colloquial knowledge suggests that the markup for a LEED building at the certified, or even silver level, could be zero. I would love to have data on hand to back this up, as would most architects when faced with this question from potential clients almost daily. AIA where are you? Leave the ambitious emissions targets to the engineers for a moment and lets get some more clients invested in the green buildings process to begin with.

Visit the AIA website for more information.

From the controversial musician Rufus Wainwright comes an evening to remember - on June 21st, from 12pm to 12am, a “Blackout Sabbath.” This would be 12 hours spent by you, and whomever you think you could tolerate for 12 straight hours, without your TV, cellphone, computer, air conditioning or even lights, no electricity use at all. Suggestions for activities include making a list of things that you could do in the coming year to help the environment. I think I might try a picnic. This idea not only resonates with me for sustainable reasons, but because I remember the East Coast blackout and the fun was had without the distractions of electricity. I remember how lovely and quiet and truly dark it was at night! The Blackout Sabbath also recalls the true meaning of the Sabbath, to rest, and to give our busy gadgets that are such extensions of ourselves a break as well. Mark your calendars.

FEMA claims that the temporary trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina victims cost only $14,000. Independent investigations by the GAO show that the real cost is more like $229,000 when you factor in transportation, on-site construction and maintenance. To this already staggering number we can now add another hidden cost - health problems caused by formaldehyde off-gassing of the trailer materials. A new congressional report points the finger at FEMA for downplaying reports of formaldehyde exposure. FEMA claims that their tests concluded that air quality inside the trailers was safe “as long as things were properly ventilated.”

Maybe a better architect, or a FEMA architect, could tell me exactly how you are supposed to ventilate an outsized tin can with four tiny window openings inside four tiny rooms in a humid climate like Louisiana. Sustainably-designed buildings often undergo a “flush-out” period of several weeks to optimize air quality. They are also designed to ventilate naturally, and feature nifty things like fully operable windows, on two adjacent walls even! And porches for shade. A lot of people think that green building is a luxury that only the rich can afford, or that disaster housing cannot be decent housing. A quick review of Rural Studio’s work on the “20K house,” and Shigeru Ban’s cardboard-tube disaster housing illustrates that this is patently untrue. In times of need, architecture can become a redemptive, and sometimes even inspirational force.

Via: The Daily Green and MSNBC

Have you ever noticed an out-sized evergreen tree in your neighborhood that appears to be sprouting antennae? I think we all know that most evergreens don’t grow to be 131 feet - the height necessary to transmit a cell phone signal. Fake evergreens like this one are literal lightening rods for aesthetic and environmental criticism. Ericsson, along with designer Thomas Sandell, have designed a lean, green answer to these great pretenders - The Tower Tube.

Modular concrete construction is used (instead of conventional lattice or tubular steel construction) reducing environmental impact by 40 percent due to material, transportation and energy efficiencies. Natural air convection creates a chimney effect, cooling the interior. All equipment is housed within the slender 16 foot wide structure, eliminating the need for a equipment shed at the base, or an unsightly security fence. It looks like it is time for the cell phone tower to come out of hiding.

Via: Metropolis Magazine and Ericsson

Baby its cold outside, and in case you were wondering how to build an igloo, your friends at Architectureweek have you covered. With a pole, saw, shovel and a little luck, the step by step instructions will have you warm and toasty in no time, and you will even learn some basic principles of physics and sustainable construction in the process. However unless you are in Alaska, Canada or a more exotic locale in the high northern latitudes, you may be out of luck. Suitable dense-packed, dry snow has yet to make its seasonal appearance in my hometown of New York City.

Via: Architectureweek, image by Amelia Bauer

The developers of Dubai World have announced their ambitions to meet sustainability goals for all new construction. Initial requirements will be based on the USGBC LEED rating system. The Dubai World master plan un-ironically includes a fanciful cluster of private islands off of the coast that mimic earth’s land masses. The price for your own private island? Starting at $10 million.

The construction of the islands is expected to finish this year. While moving over 326 million cubic meters of sand is an impressive undertaking, it doesn’t seem particularly green. This looks a lot like dredging to me. There must be some truth to the statement from developers of the World Islands that this feat “will not be repeated again.” New environmental regulations will ban building activities “within 50 feet of the sea.”

Via: BDC, construction photos via: Private Islands Online