Registration will be announced soon. If you are ready to book your stay, check out The Hotel Northampton, where a block of rooms is available at a special conference rate. I recommend making arrangements early; the conference will be held during peak foliage, and accommodations may be hard to come by at the last minute. I’ll post additional details as they are available.

Norwottock Rail Trail Bridge

The Western Massachusetts Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (WMAIA) presents a film series each year, usually with some off-beat and quirky selections. The 2011 series looks pretty juicy:

2/7/2011 Trouble the Water (2008, Carl Deal, Tia Lessin) + The River (1938, Pare Lorentz)

3/7/2011 The River (1951, Jean Renoir)

3/28/2011 Apocalypse Now (1971, Francis Ford Coppola)

4/25/2011 Burden of Dreams (1982, Les Blank)

Are you sensing a theme here? The river’s prominent role is coordinated with the Riverscaping project at the Five College Architectural Studies Program. The project is a one and a half year exploration of the river and its impact on community, with the Pioneer Valley and Five Colleges partnering with peers in Hamburg, Germany. From the film series description: “The river is connection and separation. It is passage and obstacle. It is community and battlefield. It is music and noise. It is art and function. It is power and vulnerability. It is local and global. It defines our past and will define our future.”

All of the films are shown at the Pruyne Lecture Hall in Fayerweather Hall (which is an 1894 McKim, Mead, and White building) at Amherst College at 6:30pm. CEUs are available to AIA members.

The Lorax can be purchased at the Springfield Museum store. Check out the Dr Seuss sculpture garden while you are there.

I frequently read The Lorax by Dr Seuss to my son. In the story, The Once-ler develops a new business; chopping down Truffala trees to make Thneads (which everyone needs). As more and more trees are used, the Bar-ba-loots, who depend on the Truffala trees’ fruit, no longer have enough to eat. The Lorax pleads with the Once-ler to stop chopping their trees, but the Once-ler responds “business is buisness! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies you know. I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.”

Last night, I watched our President’s State of the Union Address. As expected, much of the content focused on the economy and job creation. There was no mention of climate change. After noting that China now has the largest solar research facility (non-government) as well as the fastest computer (the Tianhe-1A), he stated: “And now it’s our turn. We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”(Applause.) An admirable goal, and yet it sounded quite a bit like the Once-ler’s desire to keep ‘biggering’ and ‘biggering.’ Economic growth and job creation are critical in our time, but just as critical as avoiding the fate of the Bar-ba-loots.

I’m not a political commentator, but I do experience first hand how government policies impact green buildings. As state incentives and funding for on-site renewable energy has dwindled, clients are opting not to install these systems. When the state of Connecticut began requiring state-funded buildings over certain budget thresholds to meet LEED-Silver or equivalent, there was a trickle down effect. Clients who were not required to meet the standard were still inquiring about it. Last night,  I was relieved to hear these 4 goals and challenges related to green building, technology, and energy. Let’s hope that some of them come to fruition. We should’t keep ‘biggering’ just for ‘biggering’s’ sake.

High Speed Rail in Taiwan

1. “With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. (Applause.)… And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.”

2. “I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources.”

3. “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail.”

4. “We’re selling acres of federal office space that hasn’t been used in years, and we’ll cut through red tape to get rid of more.”

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Our membership base is the area of the Glacial Lake Hitchcock region, which was formed 15,000 years ago when the Laurentide ice sheet began to retreat northward along the Connecticut River. At its maximum extent, Glacial Lake Hitchcock expanded from Rocky Hill, Ct to St. Johnsburry VT. Similarly , our green building community expands beyond the boundaries of the pioneer valley.

This winter we hosted a LEED Green Associate Study Group at UMASS amherst, and our first two graduates passed the LEED GA exam.  We will be announcing spring events and networking opportunities soon. Let us know if you’d like to be included.

By the way, Amherst College’s free Museum of Natural History has a neat exhibit on Glacial Lake Hitchcock.

Wall splatter below a dryer surface mounted on painted wall board.

I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about toilet rooms at work. I’ve had meetings and dedicated to waterless urinals, pressure assisted toilets, and a variety of toilet room smells. The latest round of conference calls has focused on high efficiency hand dryers in several projects.

First, high efficiency hand dryers are the new-ish models that are popping up in restrooms around the country. They are powerful yet efficient, and dry our hands in about 10-12 seconds. Excel and Dyson are 2 of the major manufacturers. Using dryers is more sanitary than paper towel dispensers or push button dryers, and cleaning staff no longer need to clean wet paper towels off of the floors. With lower annual costs when compared to paper towels and lower energy use when compared to standard dryers, there are clear environmental benefits and they are (finally!) becoming industry standard.

Some of my clients are becoming reluctant to install them because of occupant complaints about noise and appearance. In my own travels, I’ve seen many poor installations, and I’ve witnessed quite a few small children cry at the sound of the dryer. After too many conference calls, I’ve come up with this list of easy steps to include high efficiency dryers in toilet rooms without scaring the children or disturbing the adults:

• Include the noise reduction nozzle! This is an option when ordering the Xlerator dryer, and it significantly reduces the noise.  Without it, the device is likely to frighten small children or disrupt conversations in adjacent rooms.
• Inform your users. Excel has a simple online calculator that determines annual cost savings and environmental savings. Many users who complain about the dryers are not aware of their benefits.  Use the calculator and include a small sign that shows the actual savings for your dryers. A sign may read:

“By using these dryers instead of paper towels, we eliminate 550lb of waste, save 12,331 gallons of water, save 10 trees, reduce our carbon footprint by 1278.58 kgs CO2 eq., and save $1,260.00 each year.”

I always carefully consider the tone of any signage and I craft it to be appropriate for the building, client, and users. Most occupants will appreciate being “informed” but will resent being “educated” in a public toilet room.

• Ditch the paper towel dispenser. If you include both a dryer and a paper towel dispenser, many users will choose paper towels. This can negate the cost savings that you will realize if you only install the dryer.
• Pay attention to the wall material. Many small toilet rooms have dryers that are surface mounted on painted wall board. With these dryers, the velocity of air is greater, and water from hands will splash on the wall. Some occupants complain about ‘unsanitary conditions’ when in fact, what they are seeing is this unsightly wall splatter.  I recommend including a stainless wall panel, tile, or other cleanable surface at the location of an Xlerator dryer and training cleaning staff to wipe the surface. The Dyson Airblade is self contained and usually does not have wall splatter problems, but because it is accessed from the top, different mounting heights may be needed in toilet rooms that serve both children and adults.

This paper towel dispenser is conveniently installed on a partition adjacent to the sink.

The Dyson Airblade is on the opposite side of the partition. Shame on them!

Christoph Geilen's photo: Deer Crest II California, 2008

Chris Jordan: Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.

I’ve read a number of transportation reports in the last few months, and this has me thinking quite a bit about my own means of transportation. Last week I attempted a trip on the local bus route, and it was an utter failure. It seems that I’m out of practice.

The American Public Transportation Association issued  a summary of the financial savings realized by public transit riders in 20 major cities. The findings include an average individual savings of $9,242.00 annually. The savings is even greater in cities such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco.

Earlier this week I reviewed a Sustainable Sites LEED credit with a client. They are looking to obtain a credit for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles. In order to obtain the credit, they are providing preferred parking for vehicles that are classified as zero-emission-vehicles (ZEV) and have a green score of 40 or above on the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Annual Vehicle Rating Guide. The review brought out an interesting point that I often take for granted: Hybrid cars are not required to meet the credit. Many large hybrid vehicles do not meet the LEED requirements while many non-hybrid compact or even midsize cars do. For example, the 2010 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid CI500 has a green score of 29, while the 2010 Hyundi Elantra and Nissan Versa each score  43. This actually makes enforcing preferred parking more of a challenge because most users assume that hybrid = greener.

As some of my readers know, before I moved to the Pioneer Valley, I did not own a car. Most of my transportation was human powered: I lived in Philadelphia and biked to work every day. I walked around the city all weekend, and rarely had the need to use a car. Sure, I had a few awkward moments (carrying a new mop home, getting caught in the rain in a  suit), but for the most part, my $165 used Schwinn brought me to business meetings, museums, shops, the orchestra, and even happy hour without trouble. I also used a local printer for architectural drawing sets, and rolls of prints were delivered by bike messenger. When I moved to Western Mass, I made a choice to accept a job some distance away, and that required me to have a car. After 2 weeks of commuting, I thought to myself “how do people live like this?” Three and half years later, I found myself driving 1.8 miles to CVS.

I am now recommitting to using my bike. I’m planning a few adjustments and accessory additions for my bike so that it will be more useful for running errands and getting me to meetings in the area. This is inspired by not by the insightful transportation reports, but by 2 artists’ work: Chrostoph Gielen and Chris Jordan. Both artists have an incredible ability to translate difficult-to-grasp complex ideas or quantities into readable and compelling images. When I view Gielen’s work in particular, I’m determined to escape from the suburban maze. I invite you to check them out.

Chris Jordan’s work is on exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. Running the Numbers: Portraits of Mass Consumption runs through May 9, 2010. Christoph Gielen’s show “Arcadia” was shown at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York  in 2008-2009.

One of the best strong cups of coffee to be had is at Haymarket Cafe on Main Street. There are many reasons why I love this place: The quirky customers, the attentive staff, the good coffee, the soba noodles,  the free wireless, and the compost basket in the toilet room. Yes, that’s right. The compost basket in the toilet room!

Compost in the Toilet Room

As an architect and green building consultant, I tend notice the little things that businesses do in order to be just a little bit greener. Haymarket is doing a number of these little things that I think are worth mentioning:

• The coffee is always organic and fair-trade.
• They give a discount for bringing in a personal travel mug. They even wash out the sticky coffee residue from the previous cup! (Sorry baristas.)
• There are self-serve water stations on both floors with real glasses, not  paper cups.
• Food and bevereges are served on plates and with silverware instead of disposables.
• Haymarket uses local ingredients in many of the food items.
• There are convenient compost and recycling bins near the waste containers. Haymarket has done a great job of fostering a culture of awareness.  I always observe customers sorting their compost and recycling here instead of lazily dumping everything in the waste bins as people do in many other local establishments.
• And my new favorite: There is a compost bin in the toilet room!