Do you live in a house that has so much embedded history and character that it would be a major disaster if something ever happened to it?  There are homes like that.  A long time ago, a Pittsburgh department store businessman named Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., retained Frank Lloyd Wright to design a weekend home.  That home is the famous Fallingwater.  Kaufmann also commissioned Richard Neutra for home in Palm Springs.  That home is the 1946 Kaufmann House, a masterpiece of glass, steel, and stone.  But, as the story goes, it hasn’t always received masterpiece treatment. 

If the house could speak, I think, it would have an interesting story to tell.  Barry Manilow lived in The Kaufmann House for a bit.  It was neglected and abandoned for some duration of time, when Brent and Beth Harris stumbled upon it.  They bought it for a paltry $1.5 million and hired Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner to restore it.  I heard Marmol talk about its restoration about a year ago — they proceeded cautiously and deliberately to bring all the subtle details back.  The Harris couple acquired some surrounding plots of land and brought the glory of the original back to life. 

Read more »

• 50 Ways to Green Your Business
• 7 Steps in the Lifecycle of a Green Product
• Kansas Coal-fired Power Plant rejected over carbon dioxide.
• Cement is crucial for growth in booming economies but an enemy of green.
• UA architecture students set out to prove that energy-efficient dwellings need not be expensive. 
• Scientist James Lovelock says that global warming is irreversible.

It’s pretty unbelievable to see all these cool houses at Solar Decathlon.  I mean, why can’t all houses look like this?  Late yesterday, it was announced that the Technische Universität Darmstadt team from Germany took first prize.  Congratulations!  Word on the street is that this house was consistently swarmed with visitors the entire week.  Rightfully so, too.

Read more »

• Donald Trump’s "Greatest Golf Course" hits bird bunker – seven bird species, and plenty of Scots, hold up $2 Billion development. 
• Morgan Stanley estimates that clean energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels could grow to as much as $1 Trillion a year by 2030. 
• Wind turbine on your roof?  Not so fast.  Obstacles include cost, output, noise, and even damage to your home (but even obstacles are surmountable). 
• It’s a Fab, Fab World – Modular homes are stylish and affordable. 
• Eco-friendly City Branding – Sacramento looking to become green.

You’ve probably heard that Fast Company wrote a recent article about some of the potential problems with the LEED system.  Well, Bob Langert, Vice President of CSR at McDonald’s, just wrote a small response to Fast Company Magazine in an article titled “LEED = Progress for the Environment.“  Starting with the quote, “Perfection is the enemy of good,” Langert continued:

Read more »