Category Archives: Sustainability

There are plenty of new mistakes to make, so why keep repeating the old ones. If someone came up with an idea to build a city below sea level, on the coast how much enthusiasm could we muster to proceed? … Continue reading →

I am staying in a 200 year old home on the coast of Maine. Real old timey place. One of the “modern” amenities is a beautiful old cast iron claw foot tub that has been rigged for a showers with … Continue reading →

This is what happens when there’s not enough reinforcing steel in a concrete assembly: First, the apartment building was constructed. Afterward, the plan called for an underground garage to be dug out. The excavated soil was piled up on the … Continue reading →

Many issues arise in the design,  construction and maintenance of buildings because of our firmly rooted habit of Denial. If we don’t see (know about, ask about, wonder about) it, it isn’t really happening. You may not believe some of … Continue reading →

Commonsense would dictate that structure would have to be adequate to support us and our things against the pull of gravity. There is one notable exception in regions prone to earthquakes where all those physics formulae have to revisited and … Continue reading →

Everything is interconnected. My interest is linked to everyone else’s. Our survival and future are linked. Therefore the destruction of your so-called enemy is actually the destruction of your self….Daily Dalai Lama quote for 7/24/2011. So it is almost a … Continue reading →

Here I sit on the coast of Maine waiting for Hurricane Irene to come calling: Applying common sense is sometimes difficult in the face of adversity, but let’s apply it to insure our own temporary sustainance and sustenance: It’s not … Continue reading →

Tom Wolfe wrote an interesting little book years ago called from Bauhaus to Our House. Decrying the loss of ornament and “homey-ness” of our ascetic architectural style in modern buildings. (“O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, … Continue reading →

Well over a hundred years ago, Chief Seattle  is believed to have said these words: This we know.  The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth. This we know.  All things are connected like the blood … Continue reading →

You probably know by now how I try to find parallels (love that word, remember the parallel “l”s are on the inside, for those who have trouble with enunciation: go to Llewellyns and get a parallel ruler, ask for Lloyd!) … Continue reading →