Oak Park Garage Exudes Style and Sustainability

By archives on Dec. 8, 2009 | Topics: Modern architecture, Nature | 4 Comments

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Tom Bassett-Dilley recently sent us these photos of his prototype green garage on a 30' wide lot in south Oak Park, Illinois.  The garage was built with FSC-certified lumber, a salvaged concrete slab, locally produced recycled content steel siding, and salvaged cedar siding.  There's also a Live Roof green roof, which was designed to channel water into rain barrels for collection. 

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The local zoning required a two-car garage, but Tom didn't need both spaces.  So instead of enclosing the space, the garage is open with a permeable gravel patio that accommodates an extra car when necessary.  Due to the small lot, the open design also takes less space from the backyard and can be used as a patio area. 

Tom's experience with his own garage led him to create Green Garage Plans, which states: "We see the garage as potentially transformative to the back yard environment and experience … unlike the ubiquitous cheap vinyl garages, the Green Garage is built to last, using as many local resources as are available."

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Photo credits: Tom Bassett-Dilley Architect Ltd. 2009. 


About : This article was contributed by the founder of Jetson Green. With the arrival of new ownership in December 2012, Preston left Jetson Green to pursue other business opportunities. If you have questions or need assistance, contact tips@jetsongreen.com.

  • http://www.plasticrainwaterbarrels.com/ Mike

    What a great idea, it looks good and I like the green roof which presume helps with insulation as well.

  • http://mportlandrealestate.com/ Portland Condo Auctions

    Very cool. We should be building all of our buildings to last, I dont know why we would spend money erecting something that we knew was going to need replacing in a decade or two.

    -Tyler

  • http://www.aquabarrel.com Aquabarrel

    Great idea and looks good too! Thanks for adding the rain barrel – not too many think to do that: http://www.aquabarrel.com/

  • Anonymous

    Sweet ! It looks like it will work behind my Lincoln Square place. A variation anyway. Thanks. Now – How to go about re purposing old garage lumber ? Someone should write a book on that – an e-book. (probably do)

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