designer in exile

Soil Kitchen

2011-04-04T10:50:00.000-04:00

Soil Kitchen art project

While on a stroll down our street last week I came across what looked like just another new hipster food joint. Restaurants seem to be popping up like spring daisies in our Fishtown/Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia, and sometimes I don't even notice.

But this one caught my attention.

A quick wander inside brought me through a colorful, classroom-like environment, with diagrammed chalkboard walls and racks made to hold test tubes and other science related items. There I met a couple of young artists who gave me the scoop.

Learning area.

Soil Kitchen, located on the corner of Second and Girard, is actually not the latest Philly diner, but a remarkable art project, environmental advocacy center, and, well, soup kitchen - at least until Wednesday. It's the first temporary public art project to be commissioned by the City of Philadelphia’s innovative Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy. In fact, the city’s own Mayor Michael A. Nutter was on hand on opening day April 1st.

Soil Kitchen's concept is simple: Philadelphians can enjoy free soup made from locally-sourced food while they wait the twenty minutes it takes to test the soil samples they bring from their neighborhoods. The project is being executed by the artist group FutureFarmers using a grant from the William Penn Foundation.

Image via Wikipedia

The project was planned to coincide with the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Brownfields Conference that will run April 3rd through the 5th at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

Brownfields essentially are lands that have been previously contaminated by industry, and are being detoxified for reuse. The EPA has been involved in a longstanding, comprehensive effort with communities to promote and foster brownfield redevelopment. The Liberty Lands park, only blocks away from Soil Kitchen, is a good example of this partnership. (See the prior post The Good Lands of Liberty for more information).

The windmill-powered building will house the project until April 6th and Soil Kitchen will offer cooking lessons plus free workshops on wind turbine construction, urban agriculture, soil remediation, composting as well as lectures by soil scientists. In addition, they will be creating a Philadelphia brownfields map and soil archive.--D.A. DeMers.

The Good Lands of Liberty

2011-03-14T19:21:00.000-04:00

Childrens garden at Liberty Lands Park

It’s hard to tell that the two acre parcel that is now Liberty Lands Park was once an industrial brownfield. And it's hard to believe that the surrounding Northern Liberties community used to be one of the only neighborhoods in Philadelphia without a public green space. Liberty Lands is now a vibrant, essential part of that community, and a symbol of what resourceful neighbors can do with a few shovels, some environmental know-how, and a commitment to making their community a better place.

What is now a park, community garden, playground and state-of-the-art model for water management was once the Burk Brothers Tannery. This former brownfield or contaminated land was made safe and usable after the hazardous materials were removed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1987.

Image via Wikipedia

After the pollution from the tannery was cleaned up and the contaminated materials were subtracted, biosolids, or nutrient-rich organic materials that are a bi-product from treatment of sewage at water treatment facilities, were used to improve the quality of the land. Biosolids act as a natural fertilizer, enabling the soil to retain more water and nutrients and made it possible for the growth of a community garden, an herb garden, and the more than 180 trees that the park now features.

In 1995, a development company planned to convert the land into loft apartments. When the deal fell through, the land was donated to Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA). Since the community didn’t have a green space, neighbors envisioned and created designs for a park. In 1996, the NLNA and the project received funding from the Philadelphia Urban Resources Project.

A world of fun for kids and adults at Liberty Lands.

Our dog Betsy explores the park on a winter day.

By the spring of 1997, with the help of other generous donations and volunteer labor, Liberty Lands was born. The park now has partnerships with Philadelphia Urban Resources Project, the Philadelphia Horticulture Society (PHS), Philadelphia Water Department, PA-DEP, TreeVitalize, and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

More recently, the park was selected for a storm water management project. The PHS designed the project and was funded by Philadelphia Water Department/PA-DEP with the aim of easing loads on local waste water systems. Additional community support has funded the instillation of a cistern that will allow for water efficiency and conservation as water will be diverted towards irrigation.

The storm water management system establishes methods that could be utilized across the city and once again demonstrates how Liberty Lands is a model of a sustainable green space and an excellent example of grassroots community building.--A.C. Johnson.

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A Few Words with Liberty Lands Park Coordinator Liz Reed

Many people have pitched in to turn the Northern Liberties lots into a green space. Among them is park coordinator Liz Long Reed. She and her husband William Reed, co-owner of the popular restaurant, pub, and entertainment venues The Standard Tap and Johnny Brenda's, have a great history putting together fun events at the park. Designer In Exile recently chatted with Liz about her related experiences:

What do you think is the single most significant function of Liberty Lands?

I think the thing that makes Liberty Lands special is that it is versatile. It's lots of things to lots of people. Even with the addition of the stage and rain garden, we purposely thought about how it would be used when there wasn't a major music or rain event going on. We want people to explore and hang out in that area.

What, if anything, has been the biggest hindrance in making Liberty Lands what it is today?

I suppose that would be lack of funds. Regardless, I think we make the most of our time and our volunteers to keep the park safe and looking its best.

What is your favorite part of the park?

That would have to be where I get to sit back and just enjoy it with my neighbors. A close second is that we own it. If we find the ways and the means to make stuff happen, we can do what we want. Like today, my husband/dedicated park volunteer went out with three extension cords and a giant drill to fix a planter that some enthusiastic bunch tipped over and broke last year. Our neighbor will meet him later in the week with his bobcat to pick the heavy top up and place it so it can be re-cemented in place. It's our park, so we can be as creative with our time and energies as we see fit. It's like a big common back yard.

Does the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association have any new plans in store for the park or any other other green spaces in the area?

Yes to both. We hope to build a "potty shed." A neighbor designed it to house a port-a-potty on one side and a tool shed on the other. The idea is that people then can pay an annual fee to get the combo to use the toilet, and the fees cover the maintenance contract. If, for whatever reason, it doesn't work out, then we end up with one big shed.

In addition, the NLNA got a grant to green the area from 2nd Street to Delaware Avenue along Spring Garden Street. This includes planting 50 trees on April 17th. And the Philadelphia Water Department and Philadelphia Horticulture Society have started revamping the Dough-boy pocket park at 2nd and Spring Garden as we speak. It will include new storm-water amenities.

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The Community Gardens of Fishtown
A guerrilla photo essay of guerrilla gardens.

Last summer I took a little stroll with my camera in search of community gardens in our Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Fishtown is one of the city's oldest areas, and is located only blocks away from the Northern Liberties community mentioned in the articles above. Residents here help beautify their surroundings by taking part in various community diy or guerrilla gardening efforts. Below are pictures of cool stuff I found.--D.A. DeMers.


Neighbors turned this vacant lot into something special.


A local church group put a handy green thumb to this space.

Artisans and gardeners worked together to make this spot extraordinary.

And where there are no green spaces available, we create murals of them!

The Tiny House of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost Revisited

2011-01-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

Being from a sprawling mid-western city, I had never seen anything quite like this before. It was as if I'd walked into a mini doll house. The ground floor had one tiny room. A steep, twisting staircase led up one floor to another tiny room and bathroom, and the staircase led up again to a bedroom. Metal pulls had been installed to help hoist oneself up to each level, as if aboard a submarine. "It's your basic trinity house,” the realtor said. Apparently, this was a uniquely Philadelphia invention.

The locals also call them Father, Son, and Holy Ghost houses.

Philadelphia of the mid-18th century was in an age of an economic boom. As noted on the website of the Independence Hall Association, "artisans and small manufacturers were needed to supply goods and services to a growing population. Those considered to be artisans included cabinetmakers, silversmiths, pewterers, glass blowers, and wagon builders. As the dwellings in center city were owned by prosperous merchants and land speculators, the artisan middle class congregated in enclaves to the north by the (Delaware) river. They prospered with the growth of the city." Read More...

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Home Energy: A Turning Point

Image via Wikipedia

The need to save energy is a notion everyone seems to agree is important these days. Whether you're short, tall, wealthy, poor, liberal, conservative, pink, green, or purple - the idea that you might be burning up dollars for no reason strikes a common nerve.

That's why it's comforting to know that professional guidance for the power to save has come to the Philadelphia region in the form of EnergyWorks, a comprehensive energy solutions program for home and commercial or industrial building owners. EnergyWorks experts help owners find ways to reduce their building’s energy use, and EnergyWorks’ low-interest loans help them pay for the upgrade.

At Energywise PA, a site sponsored by the new Keystone Energy Efficiency Alliance, Deputy Philadelphia Mayor Alan Greenberger describes the program as follows:

"EnergyWorks pays to send auditors to a home or business to pinpoint specific changes that can save energy and money. [For example], say I have a big house in Mount Airy and, even though I'm an architect, I can actually think of 10 things to do, but I don't know which one is the most bang for the buck."

Many homeowners can get a $400 energy audit and only pay $100 for it. Likewise, low-interest loans are available for improvements. The $25 million program is available in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties.

Last month Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Campus Apartments CEO David Adelman announced the first full commercial application of EnergyWorks in the launching of an impressive $50 million hotel project in Philadelphia's University City community.

A press release by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation quotes the Mayor as saying "The city was able to pull levers in a difficult economic climate to obtain financing and make this project happen. By making a smart economic and environmental investment in Philadelphia, this project will bring new, quality jobs for our citizens and a brand-new, environmentally-friendly hotel for visitors. It’s a win for everyone involved.”

Auditor training.

The project will be the largest of its kind to utilize EnergyWorks trained contractors, an aspect that helps guarantee the investment will be fostered by an energy efficient, green-building methodology. That way, the return on the city's dollar is less likely to simply go up the chimney, literally.

In essence, we seem to be at a real turning point in the building trades and with our society in general regarding issues of energy conservation. Notions of saving the environment and saving money have begun to merge at a mainstream level; they are seen as one and the same.

For Energy Coordinating Agency executive director Liz Robinson, the two were never far apart. Her 26 year old organization sprouted from the need for a local community resource to help mitigate issues related to some of the less attuned policies of utility companies and their often unhindered rate hikes.

Describing the ECA's beginnings in an interview with Designer in Exile, Ms. Robinson said "There was a necessity for community outreach and a comprehensive approach to solving energy solutions, and to get utility companies engaged in those solutions."

Some of those solutions are evidenced by the initiation of utility caps at the end of the 1990's, and the current transformation of the utility marketplace through deregulation and a more open market. But most notably it's seen in the growing commitment to energy conservation through various sectors of the local economy.

The evolving possibility of a genuine democratization of energy resources points to a great future for clean energy and the green-building trades. Even now, these sectors show signs of rapid growth in an otherwise stagnant economy. Ms. Robinson emphasized the importance of "helping to elevate the energy literacy" of both energy consumers and contractors during this period.

"In the past," she said, "utility companies made it easy - the public hasn't had to understand everything. Now with more choices at hand, there is a great need for education on the issues for consumers as well as training and other resources for contractors involved in programs such as EnergyWorks."

Throughout previous decades, the ECA has worked amidst the numerous stages of this transformation. Now the organization serves as a virtual lynch-pin for the Philadelphia region's vast array of exciting new energy conservation initiatives - a position they well deserve, and one from which we all can surely benefit.--D.A. DeMers.

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A Heated Debate in the Marcellus Shale

Energy conservation and green-building methods are key to advancing our nation's clean energy future. Equally important is the need to examine issues of where our energy comes from or how it is extracted before it's delivered for use in our homes, schools, and office buildings. With regard to natural gas, an increasingly popular energy source, nothing is burning hotter than the issue of hydraulic fracturing or gas fracking, the drilling technology being employed in the expansive, resource rich region of the Marcellus Shale.

Recently I spoke about this topic with Pennsylvania State Senator Larry Farnese, fresh from his return from a fact finding mission at the Atlas Energy gas drilling site in Fayette County. The senator took part in the tour to get a better understanding of the industry and its issues, as talk continues about a natural gas extraction tax or fee. He hopes to include safety and environmental concerns as an important part of that discussion.

"I have extreme concern for the safety of the men and women involved in this work," he said. "The entire process of extracting gas from the shale is one that is done under extreme high pressure from fluids, and it's important we ensure safeguards are properly in place to protect workers."

Marcellus Shale drilling. GNU image.

The technology essentially involves pumping liquids into the ground to break up the bedrock and thus release gas trapped inside. Some environmentalists claim the method is inherently destructive to the ecosystem because chemicals utilized are said to be volatile and have been known to seep into the waterways. Similarly, questions over uncertain disposal methods continually plague the industry. Gas drillers are protected from full disclosure of their patented chemical recipes, or the amounts utilized, due to a loophole carved in the 2005 US Energy Act that circumvents the landmark Clean Water Act of 1972. The EPA is currently attempting to close the loophole in recent court battles.

Also contentious, at least on the local level, is the issue of a gas severance tax. Pennsylvania is currently the largest state without a drilling extraction fee to recoup possible environmental and oversight costs, or to help fund educational programs needed to ensure that its own citizens benefit from the well paying jobs promised by the boom - not simply professionals brought in from other locations. Reports from the Shale region claim that Texas license plates are present at many drilling sites. Likewise, international oil giant ChevronTexaco recently bought Atlas for an estimated $4.3 billion, making it the largest investment in the area to date. At the same time, Pennsylvania is facing budget shortfalls, especially in areas of job training and education needed to keep pace with these newer drilling methods.

Wikipedia,

But some have made a fierce argument that a gas severance tax would scare away investment, that it is essential to forgo such a fee in order to keep the state competitive in these fragile economic times. I proffered that position to the senator during the interview, but was quickly challenged.

"Absolute hogwash," he declared, displaying his sometimes outspoken, yet personable demeanor. "I talked to experts in top levels of the industry who say this is it. We have one of the nation's greatest energy resources, and the industry is coming here whether there is a fee or not." He emphasized that it is especially crucial to pass the bill now, because the greatest amount of the gas is predicted to be extracted from the region in the first 5-7 years. "We will simply lose out," he said. "It is just absurd."

Sen. Farnese. GNU image.

Despite the decision last October by the state's republican controlled senate to put off a vote on the tax, Senator Farnese feels there is still strong support on both sides of the aisle for such legislation. "To punt on this issue now is simply irresponsible," he said.

He may be right about support for the measure - desire for a tax appears to be rapidly cutting across political boundaries. A poll published this month in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review shows that more than half of registered republicans in the commonwealth now favor of some sort of severance fee. Likewise, more than two-thirds of all Pennsylvania voters say they are for it.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that gas fracking has become an increasingly visible issue on the national level. This awareness was advanced greatly by the recent award winning HBO documentary Gasland, by Pennsylvania native Josh Fox, which stunningly highlights many of the practice's potential environmental hazards.

In addition, a plethora of national and local clean water groups, such as the National Resource Defense Council, and Penn Future, and the diligent protest organization Protecting Our Waters, seem unrelenting. With a new administration in Harrisburg and budget deadline due by Spring, debate on the topic is certain to remain forefront. Stay Tuned.--D.A. DeMers.

"Home Energy: A Turning Point" and "A Heated Debate," were previously published on the associated site Home Science.

Memphis Redux

2010-11-27T16:33:00.000-05:00

Image by Mario Seekr via Flickr

Bookshelf, Ettore Sottsass, 1981

The holiday season tends to bring out the kid in most people. And when I think of kids and design, I'm most reminded historically of one of design's more unusual and whimsical periods - that of the Memphis style movement.

Primarily begun in the 1980's as a product design statement by a group of avant-garde Italian visionaries, including the acclaimed industrial designer Ettore Sottsass, Memphis style went from being shockingly esoteric to the mode du jour in less than a decade. In doing so, it challenged many of the long-standing rules of design, and brought with it a new era of post-modern experimentation and vitality.

The New York Times documented the beginnings of the movement in a related MoMA exhibit review a few years back:

Typwriter, (Valentine), Sottsass, 196

"Memphis was cooked up in Ettore Sottsass's Milan apartment one night in December 1980, when the host, then in his sixties and a grandee of Italian design, invited a group of younger designers to develop a furniture collection to show at the following year's Milan Furniture Fair. It was to be a protest against the dry modernist style that had dominated design for decades, and they called it "Memphis" because Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" was on the record player, and the needle kept sticking (a common problem back in ye olden days of the 1980s) on the last three words of the title."

Some say that Memphis design also put an imaginative spin on Art Deco style of the 1920's, the later of which derived much of its initial influence from Egyptian motifs made popular at the time by the discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb. Hence, the name may play on that foundation as well.

Whatever the case, the movement's bold use of bright primary colors and expressive zig-zag patterns seeped into everyday 1980's fashion and can be traced essentially to Sottsass's vision. The colorful triangular shapes on the pop singer El Debarge's jackets, or the the striking yellow outfits Mick Jagger wore at the time come forefront to memory. The movie Ruthless People, with Jagger's voice commanding the animated intro, gives one a good glimpse of the true playfulness of the style, as shown in the clip below:

But it was more than just color and wit that comprised the sensibilities inherent in Memphis design. There was a clear repudiation of standard assumptions of proportion and shape that stretched a new canvas for creative possibilities. Many of these overturned notions are present in product designs of items such as Apple computers and iPods, giving them an almost perennially futuristic appearance.

Sottsass also experimented heavily on a "utopian" concept of living space. He was an opinionated anti-consumerist, declaring at one point that "I didn’t want to do any more consumerist products, because it was clear that the consumerist attitude was quite dangerous."

"Living Environment" Exhibit, 1972.

Thus he often detoured from furniture design to explore concepts of interior and architecture. His forward-minded "Living Environment" exhibit, consisted of a series of nine compact, modular living compartments, each meant to be easily personalized and pleasant. One compartment contained a kitchen, another a seat/bed, a wardrobe, a toilet, a desk system and even a jukebox. His compartments were all connected to provide water and electricity to each unit.

As we move along into the twenty-first century, our living space is shrinking. In big cities such as Tokyo and Shanghai, his concepts already exist. At the rate we are depleting natural resources and contaminating the earth environment, there may well be a need for all of humanity to live in separate, small, sealed rooms that share power and water.

Totem Vase.

But in terms of mere aesthetics, some claim that we are in the midst of a Memphis style renaissance. As stated nicely by the Times reviewer, recent style is "rebelling against the slickness of megabranding to chase the 'emotional and expressive' qualities in the original Memphis pieces," and design also seems to be "searching for alternatives to the delicate neo-romantic style, which was fashionable in the early 2000s." What could be more suited for that than a reinterpretation of kitschy, flashy Memphis?

Love it or hate it, Memphis style remains one of the more peculiar and startling moments in design history. It was an eruption of modernity, as if modern style were looking back and re-imagining itself as a vibrant, amusing, radical, self-aware, contemplative other face. And as Sottsass said in a 1986 Chicago Tribune interview, "Memphis is like a very strong drug. You cannot take too much. I don't think anyone should put only Memphis around - it's like eating only cake."--D.A. DeMers.

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The Origins of Flight

2010-11-09T16:42:00.000-05:00

A young man's unlikely ascent into the world of design

Image via Wikipedia

Not long ago I was looking through an old magazine and out plopped some photos of lamps I thought were long lost. There's a story linked to them worth telling, so here goes...

Wicker Park Chicago in the 90's was not unlike Greenwich Village in the 60's. The cafes, lounges, and parties resonated with the constant chatter of creative ideas. Music, art, literature, and youth culture had converged on this locale, and in the air was a tremendous zeitgeist shared by everyone, a sense that something quite amazing was happening...and things did.

That's all over now. And I have exiled myself to Philly, where that same spirit of creativity is beginning to burn brightly (and likewise so does the spirit of championship baseball team). Wicker Park now seems nothing but a faraway planet of unauthentic-looking chain bars, ubiquitous trendy restaurants, and stretches of hastily slapped together yuppie condos. Dorothy Parker's famous quote is fitting: "there's no there there."

But for one particular moment in time, it was a special place. And being one who experienced the apex of that moment, I was motivated to do many artistic endeavors. Playing music and being in a variety of bands was one, but more offbeat, perhaps, was the compulsion to make things, especially lamps.

It started with an odd curiosity and study of the "birdmen" who built flying machines in the early 1900s. They seemed particularly fascinating, since many of them had no prior experience with such engineering, yet risked death to see if their contraptions would succeed. The human desire to fly is a legacy steeped in mythology, linked back to humankind's first ambitions. It's the consummate metaphor for freedom on many levels - the dream to defy the shackles of gravity, whatever that may represent...I often felt that gravity profoundly.

When electricity became usable to consumers, many designers, engineers, and architects found an alluring new technology with which to work. From the Arts and Crafts era to Art Deco, a plethora of imaginative lighting designs were created, designs that greatly influenced my flight into this enticing realm.

The French-based Desny design group and lamp artists such as Kola Moser of the Austrian Weiner Werkstaette offered some of the more compelling lighting treasures, utilizing crome and glass in ways that explored their dazzling reflective and refractive properties. There's a magical sense working with an object that emits light that one doesn't quite feel when making a chair or table.

I was drawn to that magic with a child's sense of wonder. I did everything possible to learn how to make such fascinating objects. I learned welding, silver-smithing and jewelry-making, studied design from every aspect, and in 1995 opened an art metalwork and lamp shop called Birdman Studios in the flat-iron arts building at the corners of Milwaukee Ave., North, and Damen - the heart of Wicker Park.

I used whatever materials I could find - reclaimed gas pipes, old cast-iron fittings, discarded sheets of copper, steel, or aluminum. I experimented with all types of glass, then mica, plastic, whatever. So obsessed had I become with these luminous creations that friends seemed more than a bit concerned. I had transformed into, well, a "birdman".

It was difficult to explain how personal these projects had become - they were like my offspring. I recall one crowning moment, an exhaustive late night when I sat back in that little urban studio, sweat and grease smeared across my brow, and gazed at the warm, glowing spectacle of my family of little lamps. I gave so much of myself to making them, and they gave back such a satiable sense of fulfillment and magic...yes magic. I never wanted to let them go.

However, economics is often a buzzkill for artistic passion, and so my wife Anne and I eventually schlepped the creations to gift shows, art fairs, community events, held open studios, did anything and everything to make a living selling those things. Finally I was picked up by an artisan rep who schlepped them for me, and to some very prominent home furnishings and gift shows in New York, Chicago, and Atlanta. Soon enough the lamps found proper homes in museum shops, including New York's MoMa, the Walker Center in Minneapolis, and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

It was quite an unlikely roll of events from there on. One day I got an offer from a major international men's lifestyle magazine to be featured in their series on "cool" lamps. It's still a mystery as to whether my studio was the original intended destination for the reporter's inquiry or whether the lead was actually meant to be for somebody more notable down the hall from me. So be it, fate is a funny thing.

In any case, I was the lucky benefactor, and they chose my sculptural hand-forged aluminum "Moonstation" lamp to be featured in the magazine, juxtaposed with an assortment of non-alike creations by other makers. That exposure, along with a linked mention on NBC's Today Show, would change everything. I received an influx of calls for orders - more than I could possibly execute on my own. Desperate for resolution, I approached a local lamp manufacturer about the possibility of getting them mass-produced.

Instead, I wound up becoming a product designer for the lamp company and for the next decade designed lamps and furniture for some very big retail stores, including Lowes, Target, and Pottery Barn, and in doing so, traveled the world like Marco Polo from China to India to Paris - a mission this humble, small-time lampmaker who began from a tiny studio in Chicago found impossible not to undertake.

I never returned to making one-of-a-kind lamps by hand, something I regret as the years roll by... Perhaps someday, though, the Birdman will fly again.

Above is a page from the March 1999 issue Maxim Magazine that featured one of my lamps. Below are pics I recently found of some of the handmade lamps of the Birdman Studio years 1995-1999. I believe friends still own a few of the firsts.

The Oilmen Cometh

2010-10-06T16:31:00.000-04:00

There are lies, and there is the big lie. I think I've figured out how they are different.

Last week I was about to be very late getting to a customer's home, due to an embarrassing scheduling oversight at my office. When I asked my boss what to say, he looked at me straight and said "do you not know how to lie?"

I was hesitant, and laughed a bit nervously.

He was serious. "Do you not know how to bend the truth a bit to say stuff like 'traffic was a complete mess,' or 'we had an emergency situation that needed fixing,' or 'we are a little short-handed due to the bug that's going around?'"

I thought about it and replied, "well yes, I suppose so." After all, doesn't everyone do that to some degree?

So at that moment, the reason I was late to the customer's home was because it seemed like there was a big accident on the highway and traffic was really backed up. I wasn't entirely comfortable saying that, but it eased a sticky situation, and nobody was hurt by it.

But then there's the big lie.

The big lie is when somebody misleads a people's entire sense of reality or purpose. It's when a little man behind a curtain cons folks into believing that what they're seeing is the ultimate truth. Throughout history we've seen the big lie used to keep the great majority in fear, and the greedy few in power.

Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled the curtain away from a couple of extremely powerful little men in the oil industry who are seeking to repeal some of the state's landmark environmental achievements.

California Proposition 23, which is a ballot showdown come this November, is a repeal initiative financially sponsored by Tea Party allied oil baron billionaires, the Koch brothers. It aims to dismantle pollution regulations and laws that were enacted to defend the planet from decades of industry abuse. Their reasoning for the repeal? To save jobs.

If that were the truth, then the vast array of small business associations across California surely would be in full step with the repeal.

They are not.

As it turns out, over the past 20-30 years a lot of folks have spent industrious hours researching, testing, and implementing alternative energy business ideas and wondrous new methods of saving energy. Hardworking middle-class Joe the plumber entrepreneurs have planted a green tech economy that is blooming into a new era of American ingenuity. Their work may eventually siphon, sift, and shovel away the filthy, ghastly mess of our fossil fuel world.

The end game? No more BP deep-water drilling disasters, no more Marcellus Shale poison drinking water atrocities, no more Coal River Mountain health tragedies, and most relevant - create an expansive wealth of good, ethical, new jobs.

Contrary to conventional thought, it's been the clean energy business world that has endlessly competed against a heavily government subsidized, tax-dodging, oil industry. Only recently has the US Department of Energy begun to seriously explore and fund clean energy alternatives, and only recently has it looked like green business models might finally succeed, despite the fact that the fossilized dirty fuel dynasties are bankrolled nearly 20-1 by both the federal government and Wall Street compared with clean energy. Oil money comes from a deep, dark well. Now that they feel threatened, their stormtroopers have come in full force to put down the competition, to obliterate our new green world for once and for all.

Image: Wikipedia

Enter Governor Schwarzenegger, the Terminator, a moderate conservative who is bucking the far right Tea Party trending GOP. His rebukes of the oilmen pull no punches. He said at a recent rally that proponents of Prop 23 are attempting to subvert the democratic process by using scare tactics. He likened the campaign to a shell game, hiding what he said was the real purpose - "self-serving greed."

"They are creating a shell argument that they are doing this to protect jobs," the governor said. "Does anybody really believe they are doing this out of the goodness of their black oil hearts - spending millions and millions of dollars to save jobs?"

Prop 23 might very well be about jobs. But jobs for whom? The Koch brothers?--D.A. DeMers.

11/10/10 Update - Proposition 23 was soundly defeated by the voters. It's a great victory for green-building design, green jobs, and the environment. Hats off to my colleagues in California.

Hanging Around: Imaginative Lighting Designs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

2010-08-25T06:45:00.000-04:00

An exhibition of modern and contemporary lighting from the Permanent Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Birdie, Ingo Maurer. Image: Wikipedia

In the early twentieth century, with the introduction of electric light, designers began to focus on lighting fixtures, hanging lamps among them. Interest in lighting design experienced a particular surge in the decades after World War II, when many young artists, the American George Nelson among them, responded to a demand for fixtures that were both functional and modern in their aesthetic.

In the 1950s, Poul Henningsen, a Danish industrial designer and architect, created a series of hanging lamps that explored a variety of ways of diffusing and reflecting light. His 1958 PH Artichoke lamp is composed of staggered and stacked reflectors in a configuration that resembles, as its name suggests, an artichoke.

Throughout the late twentieth century, designers worked with a range of materials, some of them new, like plastic, and some of them merely low-tech materials adapted to a new purpose. The Italian artist Bruno Munari's Falkland lamp, conceived in 1964, is an elegant undulating column of elasticized fabric.

In more recent years, designers, most notably Ingo Maurer of Germany, have experimented with new lighting technologies. One of Maurer's most technically advanced creations is the 2003 "Wo bist du, Edison(Where Are You, Edison) lamp. It comprises of a 360-degree holographic image of a light bulb projected onto a transparent cylindrical shade, while the actual source of the lamps light is a halogen bulb hanging above the shade, hidden in a socket in the shape of Thomas Edison's profile.

Hanging Around, drawn from the Museum's extensive collection of modern and contemporary design furniture and lighting designs, features more than twenty hanging lamps. The exhibit is currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until October 10th.

Above content per the Philadelphia Museum of Art. See www.philamuseum.org for more exhibit details, or other information about the artists and designers represented.

For professional home energy saving advice please visit our other site Home Science.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2010-08-05T14:48:00.000-04:00

I've gotten a lot of blog mileage from a recent visit back to my hometown of Chicago, so why stop now? Chicago has always been known for great design, architecture, and near miraculous engineering feats - when the river became a bit too stinky, they simply reversed the direction of its flow so it fed to the Mississippi.
Below are a few images I took to capture the city's creative, progressive and dramatic design essence. Some are a bit abstract. Can you identify their origin?

Images from top: (1 and 2) Helmut Jahn's colorful corridor installation at Ohare International Airport. (3) Rooftop of trainport at Union Station. (4) Glass window high-rise along Wacker drive. (5) Drawbridge along the South Loop section of the Chicago River. (6) Steps to the "El" train in the South Loop at Harrison Lasalle Street. (7) Design pattern on ceiling inside Union Station. (8) Great Hall at Union Station. (9) Union Station's grand Art Deco entrance-way. (10) Cars underneath the "El" tracks along Harrison Street.

All images by Douglas DeMers, free to use via cc license 1.0.

Paradise Preserved: The Magnificence of Chicago's Botanic Garden

2010-07-30T13:59:00.000-04:00

Chicago's greatest urban planner, Daniel Burnham, is famous for saying "make no little plans." And on a recent trip back to the city where I was born and a visit to its world renowned botanic gardens, I realized exactly what he meant.

Located about 20 minutes outside the city, in the north shore suburb of Glencoe, Illinois, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 23 display gardens surrounded by lakes, as well as a prairie and woodlands.

And while Burnham had no connection with its origin, the garden is by no means a "little plan." In fact it is one of the United States' most visited public gardens and a center for learning and scientific research. Each year it has 760,000 visitors. The membership, currently at 50,000, the largest of any U.S. public garden. More than 1,000 volunteers assist with all aspects of the Garden’s mission, from planting and propagating natural areas, to teaching educational programs and staffing public programs and exhibitions. The Chicago Botanic Garden is only one of 10 public gardens accredited by the American Association of Museums, recognizing its living collection of 2.4 million plants.

Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exhibition.

Owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society, the Chicago Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1972 and is home to the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden, offering a classes in plant science, landscape design and gardening arts. The Center for Teaching and Learning brings information on nature and plants to children, teens and teachers. Horticultural Therapy and Community Gardening provide community outreach and service programs. Through the Institutes of Plant Conservation and Ornamental Plant Research, Garden scientists work on plant conservation, research and environmental initiatives.

Specifically, 200 such scientists address threats to endangered flora, train plant conservation leaders and research plant conservation policy. Programs and research focus on the collection, evaluation, introduction and preservation of plants within the context of threats such as climate change, global warming and human impacts.

In 2007, the Chicago Botanic Garden announced plans for a three-phased initiative that would create a 15-acre science campus located at the south end of the Garden. In 2008, the Garden broke ground for a 38,000-square-foot Plant Conservation Science Center, named for Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice. The Rice Center has a sustainable design, with certification at the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold level.

The Center includes a green roof-top garden, seven research labs, an expanded herbarium, a new seed bank area, new classrooms and seminar rooms, twenty offices for research scientists and a public gallery that allows visitors to see behind-the-scenes conservation science at work. A bridge from Evening Island connects the main garden to this new campus.

Fountain alongside a lake.

Visitors are able to see scientists at work in labs, walk to the green roof top garden, and observe the Tall Grass Prairie millennium seed bank. The Rice Plant Conservation Science Center opened in Fall of 2009.

Likewise, the Chicago Botanic Garden was chosen by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as the sole North American host for World Environment Day 2008 with the theme, "CO2 - Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy."

The English Garden.

Japanese House on the Japanese garden's grounds.

On June 5 of each year the Garden and other venues around the world, highlight resources and initiatives that promote low carbon economies and lifestyles, such as improved energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, forest conservation, and eco-friendly consumption.

Art at the Garden

Over thirty non-profit, academic, cultural and environmental organizations participated in the Knowledge and Action Marketplace on the Garden's Esplanade. Displays and representatives discussed products to help green homes, local carpools, volunteer and community conservation programs, classes on green gardening, the use of CFL light bulbs, vehicles that run on used vegetable oil and even appliances that pop popcorn using solar energy.

Organizations participating in the event included the Center for Neighborhood Technology, offering car-sharing information; CNT Energy, working with ComEd to provide information about Watt Spot, a program to assist homeowners who want to pay market price for electricity. Northern Illinois Energy Project, provided free CFL bulbs. Chicago Wilderness and Openlands, provided information about local conservation and restoration programs and Horrigan Urban Forest Products highlighted the best uses for reclaimed wood from urban trees.

Make no little plans? Indeed!--D.A. DeMers

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Images credits: CBG images by Douglas A. DeMers, free to use under CC license 1.0. Other CBG images via Wikipedia share alike license. Columbian Exhibition image via share alike public domain license.

Visit our other site, Home Science, for advice on home energy efficiency tips.

Splendor in the Grass

2010-07-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

A few of my recent posts have been a tad bleak, noted by grim topics about tough economic times and pressing environmental issues. A friend mentioned that even listening to Joy Division songs cheered him up after the reads...

So let us take a little summer break. Let us free our minds and go to a soft, fuzzy place. I'm imagining a 70's style movie clip - a close-up of a sun drenched daisy field, followed by a zoom to a mod-styled Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg strolling gently in the distance to the sounds of easy grooves. Then later in the evening, glasses of Riunti wine are clinking in front of a glowing fireplace, shag rug and all.

Fast-forward a few decades and you'll get that same hip, fuzzy feeling at Grasshopper, a fabulous chic boutique near Philadelphia's Old City area, with all the latest fashions for the new generation of Jane Birkins and Serge Gainsbourgs.

Grasshopper Boutique

The stylish apparel and accessory shop, which is in its 4th year of operation, is the creation of Tracy Lutz and Regina Louise, two young ladies with an amazingly keen and playful fashion sense.

In addition to offering forefront designs from labels around the globe, the shop also features items from an assortment of talented local designers and fashion artists, such as Magic Outlaw apparel by a team of young entrepreneurs at Philadelphia's own Outlaw Printing Company.

Buying from area vendors, or being a locasumer, not only helps the local economy, but can be another small way to cut down on carbon emissions and help the planet (see my post The Art and Soul of Philly). It also puts you at ease knowing that your clothing wasn't the output of some slavish sweat-shop somewhere overseas.

Both Tracy and Regina both met while working at a swank t-shirt design company here in Philadelphia, and though neither were of formal fashion design education - albeit Tracy already had experience in the industry as a fashion model, and Regina worked in the design department at fashion-loaded Urban Outfitters, which is headquartered in Philadelphia - they shared an intuition for style and love of clothes, and decided that opening their own "supertique" would be an ultimate fantasy come true.

Much of their inspiration can be found at their visually dazzling blog Come Spy With Me. But be careful, you may be forever lured into an intriguing world of fashion espionage.

The two ladies also seem to have an uncanny eye for interior design, especially 70's style, evidenced by the hard work they've done on the store's great decor. The walls are decorated with colorful mylar floral and photo prints, the crystal lighting fixtures give a neo-baroque sense of elegance, and the lipstick red metal fireplace and bearskin rug near the dressing rooms adds sexiness and warmth, literally - the wood-burner is their main heat source.

Cheers!

Tracy says she loves to collect items from the '70's because it reminds her of childhood and that she feels like it was a fun decade. She has wonderfully decorated the walls of the store with the numerous super-groovy paintings and drawings of the era that she has collected throughout the years. It gives the space a very personable, but hip feel.

"I didn't want this to be just another vanilla box," she says, referring to standard white-walled boutiques and galleries that house clothes and art. "I wanted the space itself to be art."

Based on the looks of their Grasshopper Boutique, they've made that happen in a fun and beautiful way.--D.A. DeMers.

Ballade de Melody Nelson. Classic hit song by Serge Gainsbourg.

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Grasshopper co-owner Tracy Lutz.

Cozy mod.

Grasshopper's interior with vintage owl wall art.

Grasshopper's interior - vintage photo wallpaper

Accessorize yourself!

A celebration last year at Grasshopper's 3'd anniversary.

Note: This article is an update from my earlier post last September.

Coming soon to designer in exile - the magnificent landscape design of Chicago's Botanic Gardens. Would Daniel Burnham be proud? And be sure to visit my new site, Home Science, for professional energy saving advice on your digs.

Dwelling On Sprucing Your Dwelling? Thrifty Tips.

2010-07-20T15:15:00.000-04:00

Decorating on a budget.

The conventional wisdom that apartments should be minimal, temporary-looking spaces is in no way an absolute - they can easily be made to have the feel of a well lived-in home. Apartment living is a great way to save money and allow for freedom of mobility. Sprucing up your abode cheaply will brighten your mood when you have guests, or simply let you enjoy it better on your own. Here are some ideas and resources to help decorate your apartment nicely on a budget, while also reducing your negative impact on the environment.

Sales and collecting: Yard, garage, and discount stores are the best place to find home furnishings for cheap. Furniture, wall art, and storage items don’t need to be bought brand new. You can find beds and couches and revive them with mattress covers and slip covers. Décor doesn’t even have to be purchased. Do you collect classic vinyl records, movie posters or have a collection of vintage bottles? Why not use them as décor in your apartment? Put them on display walls, in shadow boxes, or on a shelf to bring instant personalized home furnishings to your apartment. You will be surprised how collections can be an innovative focal point for a room.

A friend of my wife was on the Today Show this morning because she represents ranks of people called "hoarders." A lot of Americans seem to be holding on to sentimental things more today than ever, and not necessarily as the result of some newly declared nationwide neurosis. I use more sensitive sounding terms like "enthusiast," or "preservationist," or "collector" to describe them, especially since I'm married to one.

Websites and classifieds: Websites like Craigslist, Backpages, and other free online classifieds are a great resource for finding home furnishings. Not everybody can hold on to belongings these days. People are often moving out of their homes and need to get rid of items fast and cheaply. Here in Philly, one can find online "swap" groups like Philly Freecycle, which is part of a nationwide Freecycle Network started in Tucson in 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson's downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills.

Other resources such as Estate sales are published in online classifieds as well. Estate sales often sell items from someone who has passed away, but they can also be from those who can no longer financially afford their belongings. Take advantage of these because you may discover one of a kind bargains.

The diy planet: It's quite likely that you and some friends may be able to assemble anything you put your mind to. Do it yourself tables, chairs, and entertainment centers can save you money. Ikea, for example, has décor and storage ideas for every budget, and every assembly skill level. They also claim to be eco-friendly because they use a certain amount of recycled materials and less toxic binding agents.

But if you're truly interested in saving the planet's dwindling resources, keep in mind that it requires energy to recycle, so the idea that a cheap, toss-away, recycling culture will get us all off the hook from further degradation of our environment is somewhat misleading. Recycling is good, but Re-use, re-appropriation, and swap is my recommendation, whenever possible. I often shop for antiques, vintage pieces or go to thrift stores, I bring my own re-usable cup to the coffee shop, and use an aluminum water bottle over recyclable/disposable plastic ones... Perhaps, someday, we'll see the return of the milkman and his refilled glass bottles at our doorstep, just like on Leave It To Beaver.

Nicely balanced palette of blues, browns, and neutrals.

To acquire pre-owned furniture, vintage shops like Vintage Modern here in Philadelphia offer a great assortment of quality home furnishings that haven't hit the often pricey 100-year antique mark.

If you prefer something new and can afford more than the Ikea variety, consider investing in furniture that will last for generations - I still utilize my father's beautifully crafted, hand-me-down Eames era desk from the 1950's. Places like Pompanoosuc Mills with its local showroom in Manayunk are great examples of new, built-to-last furniture - and their prices are not off the charts. They make good solid wood pieces, custom made from Vermont Forest Stewardship Council wood sources. They've been at it since 1973, and green before the term was ever conceived as a marketing ploy.

Add and coordinate color: A fresh, nicely thought out color scheme is likely to give to the most prominent indication that you've done a makeover. Adding color to your apartment with bed and bath accessories can change the atmosphere immediately. Coordinating bed linens, curtains, and an area rug can pull together a dull space with minimal effort and expense. Matching towels, bath rugs, and shower curtains will help you feel and look good in your bathroom.

Ikea space saver.

Efficient use of space: If you're downsizing from a larger space, or taking on guests - a reality of these tough economic times - there are several ways to help make the best use of those spaces. Loft beds are a cheap way to accommodate several people in a small space. Loft beds are reminiscent of bunk beds, which take advantage of vertical space. The items can be bought at furniture stores, garage sales, or check college dorm and apartment bulletin boards for quick sales. Even if you don’t have a lot of people in your apartment, the beds can be utilized to straddle a desk area beneath to save valuable space in your bedroom.

Under-bed storage and multi-purpose furniture, such as sofa-beds, or coffee tables that expand and convert into office desks, with filing chambers and more, are great for small space situations. And many of these can be found at affordable stores such as Ikea. A nice series of convertible coffee table/desks is sold through local American Signature Furniture stores.

Likewise, while visiting my mother recently in Chicago at her quaint, efficient condo, she demonstrated how her sunlit kitchen table could easily become an improvised office desk, when needed. This I found especially beneficial because it allows natural light onto the workspace, and brings the office into a generally uplifting environment - the hearth. It also solves the problem of her traditional office desk, as beautiful a piece of Chippendale style furniture you could imagine, from facing a blank wall. She prefers the kitchen table instead because it allows for a variety of seating focal points from which to choose.

There was a time when designers often drew distinct boundaries between eating, sleeping, and work environments. To some degree, events of the last few years have made us rethink those psychological aspects of space planning and proxemics - at least I have.

With the use of the right resources for quality items one can decorate an apartment without having to peel off a lot of Ben Franklins. There is always someone moving in and out of apartments and homes, perhaps more so than ever. These tough times have created many money saving opportunities and resources, as ironic as that might sound. You might as well make use of them to help your wallet and help the environment at the same time.--D.A. DeMers

Coming soon to designer in exile - the magnificent landscape design of Chicago's Botanic Gardens. Would Daniel Burnham be proud?

And be sure to visit my new site, Home Science, for professional energy saving advice on your digs.

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Image credits: Top dining room, share alike license, owner does not necessarily share opinions on this page. Classifieds, share alike license. Craft room, share alike license, owner does not necessarily share opinions on this page. Contemporary room, share alike license. Loft bed, share alike license. Ikea, share alike license. Eco-smart dining table, share alike license.

America's Greenest Ballpark

2010-07-13T17:32:00.000-04:00

Image: Wikipedia

I've often wondered which major league baseball team has the most environmentally friendly ballpark. When it comes to being green, a stadium like the Cub's Wrigley Field seems like the most vividly environmental-looking, with its vast wall of green vines.

I grew up in Chicago, but was a fan of the White Sox, a team, incidentally, that tied the Yankees for having the best post season record in history during their amazing 2005 World Series run. The vines of Wrigley mean little more to me than an overly manicured quaint North Side hedge.

Real ecologically minded stadium design, of course, runs much deeper. It involves lighting, recycling, water usage and eco-smart building materials, as well as good access to mass transit.

So which team gets the vote for having America's greenest ballpark? The winner is, to my surprise, the White Sox's division arch rivals the Minnesota Twins. According to an article in the Star Tribune and the green-building blog Suite 101, Target Field, the Minnesota Twins' new baseball stadium, received a LEED silver rating, certifying it as the greenest ballpark in America.

LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) is a certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The rating levels include certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The certification is based on many facets of sustainability, including energy saving, carbon dioxide emission reduction, water saving, and indoor air quality.

Pre-traded J. Werth, Citizens Bank Park.

Specifically, the designers of Target Field endeavored to create water saving features in the park. Target Field's grass is irrigated with recycled rainwater. An underground system collects and treats rainwater and prepares it for use on the field. This system potentially saves two million gallons of water annually. Likewise, all urinals and toilets in the stadium are low flow, and restroom fixtures at the park use 30 percent less water than traditional ones.

Target Field saves energy by utilizing waste energy from the Hennepin Energy Resource Center to heat most of its indoor spaces and the field. The park uses energy-efficient lighting to illuminate the field and has a power purchase agreement to to make for 70 percent of its energy consumption over a two-year period. The stadium also provides a number of convenient recycling bins.

Not only is the finished product green, but so were the construction methods used to build the stadium. Contaminated soil on the construction site was treated and returned to the ground. Issues with waterway contamination, soil erosion, and dust were mitigated and controlled during the construction process.

Most construction waste was diverted or recycled, and many materials used in construction were made from recycled content. Many of the resources used came from local or nearby sources, including the Mankato, Minnesota limestone which makes up most of the stadium's exterior.

The Twins organization also teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources so that each time a Twins pitcher breaks an opponent's bat, 100 trees are planted in Minnesota parks. Minnesota's baseball team has built a new model for baseball stadiums across the country by showing dedication and concern for the environment.

These achievements all indicate a tremendous leap forward for the green-building movement. But the Twins aren't the only team that's seeing the benefits of sustainable stadium design.

Since I moved to Philadelphia in 2007, it was only a matter of time before I'd be swept by Phillies fever as the team slugged away like Rocky through the miraculous 2008 championship season and beyond. Thus, I've grown increasingly curious - how green is my newly adopted team? As it turns out, the Phillies are near the top of the list.

Home run?

Recycling pick-ups between innings.

The Phillies are the first Major League Baseball team to join the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership Program which motivates organizations across the world to purchase green power in order to minimize environmental impact. They announced on April 30, 2008 that their home field, Citizens Bank Park, would be powered with 20 million kilowatt hours of green energy purchased in Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Certificates.

The EPA stated that this purchase holds the record in professional sports for the largest purchase of 100% renewable energy. Likewise, the Phils are among the top three purchasers of green power in Philadelphia.

Aramark Corporation is the Phillies food and beverage provider at Citizens Bank Park and they are taking major actions in improving the environmental impact of the Phillies stadium. Glass, cardboard, and plastics used during game day are recycled; frying oil is being recycled to produce bio-diesel fuel, and biodegradable, recyclable, and compostable products, serviceware, and plastics have been introduced.


My dog Betsy is a Phillies superfan.

So if you ask me, my vote goes to the Phils for scoring big on every measure. Not only do they have one one of the nation's most environmentally friendly ballparks, it's architecturally pleasant and comfortable (voted 4th best by MLB in 2007), and very accessible for suburban and city folks alike.

They also have a great team.--D.A. DeMers.

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Image credits: Target Field, cc license 2.0, owner does not necessarily share opinions expressed on this page. All others by D.A. DeMers, and free to use under cc license 2.0. Read more at Suite101: Target Field: Greenest Baseball Field in America.

Dreams of a Mad Scientist

2010-07-10T15:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend in Philadelphia, the Tesla Science Foundation is hosting its annual Nikola Tesla Energy Independence Celebration to commemorate the birthday of the influential inventor and his prolific contributions to science and technology. The event, according the foundation's press release, brings together scientists, inventors and enthusiasts for a three-day conference themed to highlight the need for a new energy paradigm.

Tesla turbine system

Tesla was a visionary inventor who lived during the turn of the 20th century. His achievements include the the discovery and development of radio, his experimentation with radiant energy of "invisible" kinds (later named X-rays), establishing the principles of frequency and power level for the first primitive radar units, the implementation of alternating current and the AC motor, wireless technology, and many other significant inventions that are commonplace aspects of the modern age.

Though ultimately stymied by jealous competing inventors and tyranical big business adversaries, Tesla's ideas have endured to the present day, perhaps being more relevant now than ever - especially his dream to bring clean, free energy to the world through advanced wireless technologies and similar concepts.

His extraordinary discoveries and designs related to this field are currently being utilized and researched by many scientists throughout the world, from electro-magnetic wave energy sources to wind turbine construction.

The greatness of his work, done with the betterment of humanity in mind, contrasts starkly with his own tragic personal life story, one of eventual isolation and exile from the world.

Tesla turbine.

Tesla alternating current motor.

The convention kicked off with a celebration "bash" Friday night at Philadelphia's Independence Center, a fitting site for the conference's "energy independence" theme. Lectures and other activities will be featured throughout the weekend at various locations, including a series of speaker forums at the Free Library of Philadelphia (no charge), a reception and dinner at Arch Street Meeting House ($20), and the official Tesla Foundation Conference at Two Liberty Place ($110 entrance fee). More info can be found at the Tesla Science Foundation website.--D.A. DeMers.

Film short: Nikola Tesla - A Tribute to the Forgotten Wizard.

The Architecture of Democracy

2010-07-04T13:55:00.000-04:00

In an old cemetery in New Orleans lies the modest grave of a man people seem to know little about. The site isn't very special-looking. The gravestone is plain and has no exceptional honorary decorations. Simply stated, the inscription reads: Benjamin Latrobe, America's first architect.

Yet beyond those words is a remarkable tale of one of America's most significant heroes of design, and perhaps one of its most forgotten. He's the man who founded the profession of architecture on this soil, who essentially built our nation's capital.

Benjamin Latrobe designed several notable buildings prior to his work on the capital, including the Hammerwood Park country house in Sussex, England, the Baltimore Basilica, and the Bank of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the latter of which was used as a model for revising the design of the Capital.

Bank of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

He was not the first to work on the vast project. William Thornton was President Washington's initial pick. And Washington placed his full faith in Thornton, even after aesthetic and engineering inadequacies became evident, most noted by the collapse of the capital dome. It was Jefferson who eventually authorized Latrobe, a man of clear artistic vision, to come in and help clean up Thornton's mess and give the structure its definition that has lasted to this day.

Jefferson was passionate about architecture. He understood that buildings were symbols, and that the capital was the quintessential symbol of America. He both drove Latrobe and protected him from Thornton and adversaries in order to make that symbol a reality.

With Latrobe on board, the project went forward with a revised aesthetic, utilizing Greek Revival tradition, but without copying it outright. Instead, Latrobe sampled pieces of history for his palette to create a bold, innovative style of Neoclassicism - the American way.

Interior of U.S. Capital dome.

The plans employed two semicircular chambers connected by a glass corridor. In the center was a grand public rotunda, which stood as a conceptual, architectural ideal of democracy. Skylights were cut to filter in natural light from above. Special, ingenious channels were engineered to keep rainwater away from sills and avoid leakage, a precursor to rainwater management design concepts - and one that is relevant today as water departments deal with associated storm-water issues.

The interior was a fluid design bathed in light. There was clarity, with no secrets. Grand and bright, it was a space that came alive, an architectural dance of energy, a symbol of the age of enlightenment.


Early version of U.S. Capital Building.

But in the midst of all this work, Thornton continually conspired against Latrobe, and in many ways, Latrobe became a political failure. His ideas were seen as too extravagant and costly. He was considered too theoretical and professorial. His projects often ran out of money, due to lack of funding from a Congress that saw longevity of architecture as a waste.

At one point Latrobe was arrested for his financial debts. He was driven out of town and he moved to Pittsburgh, in pursuit of a fleeting chance to work on the development of steamboats with Robert Fulton. But again, low on money, he became disillusioned by the reality of his plight. He was forced to sell his furniture to survive. It was a catastrophic reversal of fortune. He was a designer in exile.

Latrobe's White House.

War broke out again between America and the British in 1812. The capital burned and much of the building's architecture was damaged or destroyed. Desperately in need of a skillful master architect, President Monroe rehired Latrobe to rebuild the capital. It was seemingly a coup for the weary designer. No longer would he be constrained by Thornton's designs. He could truly redefine the design of the Capital without interference.

But Latrobe was plagued by his own demons. He was again underfunded, underpaid, and without a staff. Monroe became frustrated with the pace of the work. He wondered what was taking so long, wanted it finished and quickly. Latrobe rebuked the President's demands, and eventually snapped with insubordination. His career was finished.

Plans for the waterworks system of New Orleans by Latrobe.

Yet Latrobe's creative life didn't end there. He was emboldened with a restless American spirit to reinvent himself. He drew upon his fascination for waterways and engineering projects, such as his early work to bring fresh water to Philadelphia - which saved many from outbreaks of typhoid and yellow fever - and eventually went to New Orleans to create a public water system of an even grander scale. In the end, ironically, he became severely ill with yellow fever. Though still penniless, he died leaving behind a wealth of design history for generations to explore and admire.--D.A. DeMers.

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Can you guess what major league baseball team has the greenest ballpark? We've got the answer to that and more here.

Images credits: Benjamin Latrobe portrait, public domain license. Bank of PA, public domain license. US Capital rotunda, CC license 2.0, owner does not necessarily share viewpoints expressed author. US Capital Design, 1825, public domain license. White House, public domain license. Frank Island Lighthouse, public domain license. New Orleans waterworks, public domain license.

Detoxing the American Dream

2010-06-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

EPA at WTC. Image: Wikipedia

While much attention has been focused on attempts to contain the oil spill in the Gulf, government agencies have also been working to limit environmental disasters a bit closer to home - the possibility of lead contamination in your house.

This week was to be the roll-out of an expansive program from the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at protecting children from lead poisoning as a result of insufficient safety precautions of building contractors dealing with lead-based paint.

The bill effects a wide spectrum of home-building trades, including carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers - anyone who might come in contact with lead paint or other lead hazards in homes built before 1978, the year lead paint was prohibited from use in American homes. Real-estate professionals and landlords are also effected by the legislation, requiring them to inform a buyer or renter if lead paint is present on a property they are selling or renting.

The EPA, however, temporarily suspended the plan, after an onslaught of protests from industry groups and congressional Republicans who complained that the the industry was not ready for such changes, and that the safety measures would disrupt small business growth during fragile economic times. The delay is intended to allow contractors until September 30 to sign up for training, and be fully trained by December 31. Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), who pushed hard for the delay, said he was very pleased with the decision, stating emphatically, "we won!"

EPA lead safety guide.

Yet some builders, such as Scranton, PA remodeling contractor Adam Perez, have seen this coming for a long time. In an interview on prweb, Mr. Perez says "this law is certainly needed and long overdue. It sets new requirements for the construction industry to train their employees on the proper handling and elimination of lead-based materials," adding "the construction industry and homeowners have had two years to prepare for the mandates provided in the bill since its passage in 2008."

Likewise, EPA spokesman Dale Kemery recently said that more than a million American children a year are at risk of being poisoned by lead-based paint in their homes. "Two years was adequate time to prepare."

Although Senator Inhofe was cheered by many for stalling the mandate and taking the immediate burden off contractors, he contends that ultimately he supports the measures. His record, though, shows he is an outspoken critic of environmental safety policies, and is most noted for his bold statements claiming global warming to be "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." What's no hoax is that he currently chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, a position due to have substantial influence on environmental policy should the balance of power change at the midterm elections - before the halted new measures are to re-commence.

The EPA's directive is no cakewalk. It calls for unprecedented strict new regulations - Pennsylvania's version would slap a $37,000 fine on anyone violating lead safety guidelines. But there's a strong case for drastic action to be taken.

The lead paint crisis of today is like that of asbestos in the 1980's. Childhood lead poisoning remains a major environmental problem in the U.S, perhaps even more prevalent than asbestos, due to its toxic contamination in so many American homes.

Lead poisoned blood cells.

The presence of lead itself is not necessarily a danger if properly contained and sealed, and the EPA has approved a list of new sealants to help in such situations. It becomes a concern when people work on lead painted surfaces, raising the possibility of loose flakes or lead dust. This situation was exacerbated dramatically with the popularity of rehabbing properties in past decades. Hence, This Old House may really have been This Old Toxic House.

Percent of youth 4-17 w/ ADHD, Nat. Survey of Children's Health, 2003.

On its website, the EPA lists chilling details about the effects of lead poisoning. According to their research, even low level exposures to lead can cause severe harm to children, including nervous system and kidney damage, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, decreased intelligence, speech and language problems, poor muscle coordination, decreased bone growth, and hearing damage.

Exposure to high levels of lead can have devastating effects on children, including seizures, unconsciousness, and, in some cases, death.

FEMA inspects lead paint in home after Hurricane Katrina.

Children are especially susceptible to lead because their growing bodies absorb more of it, and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to its damaging effects. Yet lead can be dangerous for grown-ups too. The site lists fertility problems, high blood pressure, nerve disorders, memory and concentration problems, and muscle and joint pain as top lead toxicity symptoms for adults. Pets are also vulnerable.

Oil-soaked beach.

Zooming out from this particular calamity, a panoramic scope of our nation's attitudes shows one of disparaging opinions when it comes to environmental matters and priorities of public policy. Many people see the troubled economy, deficit, and lack of jobs as top concerns over issues such as clean energy, safety, and rescuing the planet's ecology. The President's recent drilling moratorium for 33 exploratory deep-water oil rigs was met with protests by tea party supporters and industry induced lawsuits, despite that over 1600 rigs in the region are exempt from the motion and presently in full operation.

The general theme behind the resistance is that 'this is not the time' to be halting business for safety investigations, that our economic prosperity is at stake, that there are more sensible and convenient solutions to our current ecologic and economic troubles. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer echoed that sentiment in an Op-ed this week titled Dreams from our president, in which he criticized the White House's clean energy effort, comparing it to the "monumental boondoggle" of the Carter administration's dashed hopes to replace fossil fuels with an assortment of synfuels. He argues the reason we should stick to oil, so to speak, is because "it is very portable, energy-dense, and easy to use."

Perhaps he is right. But compelling arguments are being waged on both sides.

Protecting our water.

People in the green world see our nation at the apex of crisis after years of a relentless war on home and planet from the Bush administration's mad thirst for fossil fuels as part of their risky 2005 Energy Act. Specifically controversial was the policy of opening up vast areas of public lands for mining of oil, coal and natural gas. Many of these mines are near private residences and seem to have weak provisions for deterring people from stumbling upon their potentially hazardous fields.

The recent award winning HBO documentary, Gasland, underlined this notion poignantly, remarkably capturing on camera incidents of residents in Pennsylvania demonstrating that they can light their toxic drinking water on fire (see below clip), a situation claimed to be caused by under-regulated new hydraulic-fracture drilling for natural gas in a vast area called the Marcellus Shale.

The film, made by independent filmmaker and Pennsylvania native Josh Fox, contends that former Vice-President Dick Cheney helped carve a gaping loophole for energy conglomerate Halliburton Co., enabling it to slip through the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Superfund Law, and thus allow volatile mining compounds such as hydrochloric acid, ammonium sulfate, dimethylforrmamide, and potassium chloride to seep into the region's groundwater... That's one playground the kids should definitely avoid!

Click upper left hand corner for full-screen You-Tube video link.

When or if the time ever becomes right to begin the Great Detoxification of America, I'm sure the issue will have gone through a rigorous, extended debate. It's unreasonable to assume that gas, coal, and oil interests will simply hand over the reins of power during this presidency, or even this generation.

The thought of this struggle brings to mind a memory from when I was a boy in Chicago. I was on a drive through the city with my friend and his staunchly conservative father. We passed by a big power plant that was billowing thick clouds of smoke into the air from its smokestacks. I uttered something typical for a child of my generation, something about it being "smelly and bad." My friend's father turned to me and said "you know, there was a time when folks looked at that smoke and saw progress. Today, all you kids see in it is pollution."

In essence, the old adage says that progress in our society is rooted in the ability to pursue and achieve the American dream...last time I checked Webster's, that dream means many different things to different people.--D.A. DeMers

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Image credits: EPA test at WTC site, FEMA Photo, public domain. Lead blood slide, by Herbert Fred and Hendrik van Dijk,"Images of Memorable Cases: Case 81," Connexions, CC license 2.0., owner does not necessarily share views expressed on this page. ADHD map, CDC, public domain. FEMA workers by Marvin Nauman, FEMA photo, public domain. Tap water by Alex Anlicker, GNU License version 1.3. Oil spill, NOAA, public domain.

Home Science

2010-05-27T02:18:00.000-04:00

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand how to make a building more energy efficient. Perhaps a Nobel Prize winning physicist, yes. That's why when the folks at the Energy Coordinating Agency (the Philly green jobs training center) announced last month that Energy Secretary Steven Chu would be dropping in for a visit, everyone in the local sustainability sphere was ecstatic.

The US Department of Energy, and specifically Dr. Chu's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office, EERE, has spawned several critical projects nationwide to assist homeowners and residents combat the alarming challenges of utility rate hikes and to fight continued adverse effects on the environment and depletion of our natural resources.

Secretary Chu with the President.

Spearheading these projects in Philadelphia is the DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), which seeks to help retrofit lower income households for energy efficiency - an issue that could impact on the mortgage crisis and economy in general as energy rates soar. Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, and a few other corporations are funding similar weatherization programs for the market sector. Most of them are being administrated by the ECA.

While many advanced environmentalists are allured by exciting new developments in green-building such as green-roofing, solar power, and other alternative energy sources, it should be noted that the key to moving toward a net-zero home and sustainable housing is in energy efficiency and sealing the "envelope of the home." And that all starts with the home energy audit.

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Through a vast array of specialized diagnostic tools and imagery equipment, energy auditors and analysts are able to detect issues such as heating and cooling loss through air leaks, reduced efficiency of existing heat appliances due to incomplete combustion in the furnace, and problems with proper disbursement of home distribution systems. They also are knowledgeable in efficiency ratings of various household appliances and possess an overall expert understanding of the physics of energy and airflow in buildings.

Once the audit is conducted, a crew of technicians and installers can go to work on making recommended adjustments, or homeowners can choose to do the work themselves. The DOE does offer do-it-yourself home energy calculators on its website, which are helpful, but having an audit done from a Building Performance Institute (BPI) certified professional auditor is likely to give best results in terms of savings recouped as well as safety for the home. BPI auditors are trained to look for potential home environmental safety issues such as carbon monoxide threats, an important concern as the building envelope is tightened. In the WAP program, auditors are trained to check for lead safety levels.

Diagram showing performance testing for oil furnace

The Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook has the home energy auditor listed as one of the fastest growing careers in an otherwise sluggish economy, especially compared to other occupations in the home-building trades. Much funding is being invested in this field in both public and private sectors. Programs for energy auditors, renewable energy installers, building retrofit experts, and more are in place throughout the nation. Yet many people know little about this.

Energy Coordinating Agency

According to a recent Harris poll documented on the website Mother Nature's Network, (MNN), participants interviewed from March 9–11, 2010 showed that although more than 70 percent of Americans know about green jobs, only 29 percent were truly aware of the growing green job market. And likewise, despite the exponential nationwide spike in funding for green jobs training programs, only 1 percent of Americans recently surveyed currently has a green job or is considering one.

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There are many distractions in our culture that often limit advocacy for such programs.

At a recent town hall forum at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, titled Media and Sustainability, an expert panel discussed issues such as how decreasing coverage in the media of science and technology stories has left the public unaware of important discoveries. MIT graduate and scientist Chris Mooney, author of New York Times best seller The Republican War on Science, acknowledged that there is a fundamental problem getting the word out about science related news - whether it's information on innovative new science related careers or significant scientific discoveries. Much of this is due to financial restraints, he says, but a lot seems to be political, and much of it on the right.

It's no surprise that climate change dissenters are at an all time high. The BBC reported today that the public's belief in climate change in the UK is at 29 percent, while at the same time, concern for it in the scientific community has escalated. Similarly, according to Chris Mooney's research, recent studies also indicate that 46 percent of Americans now reject Darwin's theory of evolution!

It's quite possible that the green jobs revolution will not be televised. However, it will appear on blog-sites such as this... Stay tuned for more--D.A DeMers.

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Images made available via Zemanta, including Secretary Chu under CC license 1.0, infrared images via Zemanta and flickr photo sharing attributed to "CBC" under CC license 2.0 - owner does not necessarily share opinions expressed on this page , all others by Douglas DeMers, and free to use.

Wanted and Dangerous: Designer for the Mob

2010-04-21T20:59:00.000-04:00

Image by seier+seier+seier via Flickr

I should have known by the t-shirt he was wearing when he walked in the door. "Philadelphia Homicide Squad," it read. I asked him if he were a police officer. He starred me down with a sarcastic eye, glanced at his elderly father and with a crooked grin said "yeah, right. Homicide is my specialty."

It was my first year at my new job in Philadelphia. I had spent most of the previous 10 years working as a product designer for a Chicago-based importing company, designing lamps and home furnishings for well known American mass-market retailers. I had traveled Asia like Marco Polo, sometimes flying there 8-10 times a year, an occasional trip to Paris, London, India. I lived in extravagant five-star hotels. It was the life of a rock star...perhaps even better.

But in the end, it was all too much. I was everywhere, but nowhere. Always on the go. I had lost a sense of community, and missed the simple things we often take for granted, like going to movies with friends or just casually hanging out with family.

I also began to think a lot about what I was doing and why. I began reading books about the environment and our changing world. About human rights and labor issues. Globalization wasn't exactly working the way President Clinton made it sound like it would. And we really didn't seem to be advancing as a species or as individuals - least not me.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the virtues of a free market system, competition, and hard-nose capitalism. But as time wore on, I began to witness many things overseas that contradicted those notions, things that required me to look away. I was getting paid well, and living like a king, but I felt a terrible weight building on my shoulders - my own Myth of Sisyphus, an existential crisis. Depression deepened the darkness of my eyes. It was time to change my life. I knew I had to simply walk away from it all.

I moved to Philadelphia in early 2007. I sought out a job as a custom furniture designer for a small Vermont-based solid wood furniture maker with a showroom in Manayunk. It was a true "green" company, and one with high ethics. Instead of traveling across the globe 10 times a year to an industrial purgatory to inspect lamps destined for the landfill a few years after purchase, I would take train rides up to a little mill in bucolic Vermont to review beautifully handcrafted furniture made from Forest Stewardship Council wood sources, and built to last a lifetime. I had reduced my carbon footprint from the size of Sasquatch to that of an ant. True, I had traded a nice salary and amazing perks and was now living on very modest means, but the important thing was, I got my soul back...well sorta...

That brings us back to where this story all began. I soon realized that the gentlemen who walked into our lovely Manayunk showroom that afternoon were probably not typical clients. The name was too familiar. It was just a hunch, but after a quick google check, it occurred to me that they might actually be affiliated with an infamous family known to Philly in a Sopranos sort of way.

Now keep in mind that the serious mafia wars in this town had long since ebbed from the days that Nicky Scarfo went on his murderous rampage, which included a series of bomb blasts that went off when his enemies turned on the ignitions of their cars. But I still felt a tad uneasy working with these fellas. Possibly it was the thought of being labeled designer for the mob! Would my picture be on an FBI sheet at the post office along with mob accountants and bookies, just like in the old movies?

Nonetheless, money was tight and I really needed the sale, so I pushed that thought to the back of my head and began working on some sketches for the guys. We ended up with a nice ensemble of transitional, Danish modern styled pieces. The wood selected was a light stained birch, and they choose a Merlot chamois fabric from Robert Allen for the upholstery. Discussing fabrics and fashion trends with mob bosses was something I never quite anticipated in design class. But hey, life is full of surprises.

The consultation was without issue. I recall the elderly man say something like "I like this guy, he's good." They even invited me to their residence to offer interior design advice. As weeks went by prior to delivery date, "the Godfather," as he was referred to by others in the family, phoned me continually for advice on arbitrary matters - like how to remove mysterious stains from seat cushions. He seemed to have a lot of accidents.

I didn't worry much about completion of the deal until one day I checked the mill's production list and realized that a slip-up had occurred - no work had been done on the order nearly 10 weeks after being placed! Soon I started getting calls from various members of the family concerned that something had gone wrong, that maybe I hadn't "handled the job right."

I began to sweat. I had nightmares of being rolled in a rug and tossed in the Schuylkill river - mind you it was an exquisite hand-tufted wool rug, custom designed, imported from Nepal. I had designed several of the kind already. The quality of Himalayan wool is unbeatable, and the workmanship on the rugs is excellent. I highly recommend them.

In any case, I immediately got on the phone to Vermont and explained to those laid-back New England hillbillies that this was Philadelphia. Things happen differently down here, I said. "People can get very upset when stuff doesn't go as planned."

I pleaded desperately for my life, and finally got them to push the order to top priority.

The customer's furniture was only delayed by a few weeks. I'm guessing it really wasn't such a big deal to them, though possibly just enough for the family to lose trust in me as their chosen designer for the mob, which was a good thing, of course, in my mind. I really didn't need another moral crisis in my life... I never heard from them again.

However, I do, on occasion, still get a little jittery when I turn on the ignition of my car.--D.A. DeMers.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2010-03-16T14:37:00.000-04:00

Image by vincent.limshowchen via Flickr

I wanted this post to be about rose bushes. Mostly about how to prune them so they will bud and blossom nicely in the coming weeks. If they don't get pruned and untangled from constraining vines, they may wither and die, which is a shame because roses seem to hold a key to our aesthetic, intellectual, and spiritual satisfaction. Pruning them gives me, in some measure, a great sense of hope for the future.

But as I started writing, I noticed something strange. I clicked on my internet feeds and saw that one of them no longer existed. It was the "green news" link to a major furniture industry trade publication. The journal is essentially the Vogue magazine of home furnishings, and one that virtually commands the direction of the industry. What's more, they have been part of a media conglomerate that owns a vast array of websites and publications related to the furniture industry and building trades.

That's a mighty powerful position to be in.

I looked deeper and noticed that nearly every reference to environmentalism had been purged from the entire database. It was Orwellian, as if I'd awakened to find the word democracy erased from the lexicon - something that mysteriously happened occasionally while searching the internet on business trips to China.

This all seemed inexplicable, until finally I reached a blog post on the publication's site that contained a remarkable conversation filled with boardroom chatter from industry professionals. The comments were as follows: "The profit margin is simply not large enough for us to promote these (environmentally friendly) type of products," and "it's time we begin putting profits before earth." I was befuddled, not just because of the hard-line business talk, but because in reality, the profit margin for these products has been steadily trending upward. The outlook is quite bright.

A source affiliated with the media group, who asked not to be identified, affirmed my knowledge on this matter, saying that the eco-smart product marketplace is thriving and very profitable, but that there are people within the furniture industry with agendas and interests different from that of the sustainability movement.

The timing of this coincides conveniently with the current mortal storm of thought that is dismissing the theory of climate change. In fact, look at what some of the great emerging minds in the anti-sustainability world are saying here on this recent blog, with provocative notions such as "Earth Hour" shows "the environmental movement's distaste for modernity," in which a blogger seems to claim that the Earth Hour protest was an assault on the sanctity of the industrial world, electricity, and the economy. With astonishing sincerity and pathos, he essentially equates utility companies with freedom. The message seems to be "don't tread on my electric grid."

I challenge these misinformed contrarians to examine some common sense concepts about this "daunting" brave new green world. Sustainability is ultimately about upgrading the quality of peoples lives. It is about reducing inefficiency and is a methodology of logic and ingenuity that both gathers from and informs human intellectual and ethical progress -which includes economics. Despite occasional relapses, the human race tends to move toward this definition of progress.

At a recent symposium at the Academy of Sciences here in Philadelphia, giant corporations such as Dow Chemical and others discussed the new mode of sustainability in corporate thinking from the top down, in contrast to the more commonly viewed grass-roots perspective. Big players are beginning to see the green writing on the wall. Keeping their workers healthy saves money. Being less dependent on the petrol-chemical market and being more energy efficient saves money. To think otherwise is detrimental to capital investment and the survival of the free market, especially as energy rates soar and resources are depleted. Even Walmart, as recent as last week, adopted major measures toward sustainability.

This is not mere green-washing, this is the bottom line. Ironically, some of these companies have even been low key about their moves to become energy efficient and green, because they fear a backlash from the new anti-green mob that is rising like the ocean levels. And oddly enough, I find myself in the awkward position of cheering on some multi-nationals I protested against years ago who are now taking steps to change.

In the end, both grass-roots and corporate sides must converge and for all the right reasons to make environmental sustainability truly sustainable. But meanwhile, who's gonna tell a multi-billion dollar company like Dow Chemical or Walmart that they can't go green? And why fight them?

Some occasional pruning is needed for this movement, that is undeniable - just like with my rose bushes. That can only help. But it surely that doesn't mean it is bound to wither and die...

Funny how my mind wanders sometimes. And since this post has become as loaded with earthy metaphors as Chauncey Gardner, let us get back to where we started - helpful tips on caring for roses in your garden. Here's some great advice from 5minute Videos. So enough of this gloom and doom, let your garden bloom, bloom, bloom! --D.A. DeMers.

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(Update: all links to "green news" for the publication mentioned above have been recently restored. The publication is now under new ownership, and I have chosen to keep it anonymous since it is not the central focus of this post).

Image credits: Pink Rose Bush, Martha Washington, CC License 1.0 . Frank Gehry recycled cardboard chair, CC License 1.0. All others by D.A DeMers, and free to use under CC license 1.0.

LEEDing to a Brighter Future

2010-01-27T02:41:00.000-05:00

Wind farm. Image: Wikipedia

"It was like a time bomb went off," Matt Edler said in a recent article in the Inquirer. For 10 years he worked at the Valero oil refinery in Delaware City. In late November the company announced they would close its operation, putting 550 people out of work.

"My grandfather worked there, my father, and I worked there," he said. "We were all doing the best we could to keep the place alive. That's our life."

It was the second refinery shutdown in the region since October, when Sunoco idled its Eagle Point refinery, just opposite South Philadelphia, along the oft murky waters of the Delaware River. The industry is in trouble, not just from the Great Recession, but due to the belief that U.S. gasoline demand will never return to the highs of a few years back.

Oil Refinery. Image: Wikipedia

The displacement of workers is always tragic. And Philly has seen some of the worst of that throughout the ages. We are at a pivotal moment in history, not unlike the discovery of oil itself. Renewable energy and energy conservation industries are emerging rapidly, and jobs based around them are coming into view clear as water - clean water, that is, not the kind from the Delaware River.

Last week Mayor Michael Nutter announced a $1.4 million green jobs training program and a plan to reduce energy consumption in the city's public buildings 30 percent by 2015. The conservation plan includes retrofitting existing structures with updated energy efficient materials and systems, and is designed to be virtually self-funded, in that estimated savings will offset implementation costs and generate revenue for other services like under-funded libraries, schools and related jobs, while simultaneously creating immediate work for contractors in the construction, home-building and related trades.

The funding for jobs training is from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, including $100,000 of which will go to Connection Training Services to develop curriculum, course materials and competency models to meet the needs of employers in green industries, $140,000 to a pre-apprentice program at the Energy Coordinating Agency, and $150,000 to the Carpenters Joint Apprentice Committee to fund a program on green construction practices and procedures.

The Mayor shows no lack of boldness in stating his goal. He declares that Philadelphia will be "the greenest city in America." He says on the city's Greenworks website that "reaching it will be an opportunity to reposition and repurpose Philadelphia as a city of the future.

"For the first time in decades, changes beyond our borders—primarily rising energy prices, but also climate change and an emerging green economy—are increasing the value of our urban assets. Philadelphia’s dense and durable stock of housing, infrastructure and amenities position us to prosper in a carbon-constrained future."

Phila. Mayor Michel Nutter

To enforce such standards the city is utilizing the LEED certification authority. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. The name is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Its certified auditors, consultants, and contractors are quickly growing to be signature career professionals in the green jobs sector. In fact, even the real estate appraisal industry has caught on to this and is including LEED specification training in portions of the Appraisal Institute's professional practice standards valuation guidance. The worth of a home may no longer simply be location, location, location. A building's heating and cooling system, efficiency rating, and insulation type might also be a factor.

Not all green jobs need be so technical and seemingly inaccessible. Some are traditional careers. Mayor Nutter includes local farmers in the category, brewery workers such as those at the Philadelphia Brewing Company who work with organic and locally grown ingredients, teachers who teach sustainability issues and eco-friendly design - even SEPTA bus drivers are green jobbers, he says, due to their providing public transportation for the city (however infrequent that may be, and when not on strike).

What's most inspiring is to see that young people are getting excited about this bold new world of work. A recent article in the local Star community newspaper titled Building for a Brighter Future describes how a consortium of professional and technical societies and major U.S. corporations such as Bentley Systems Inc., Ford Motor Company and Shell are teaming up with many area schools to boost science, biology, and engineering aptitude for kids.

Technical assistance classes.

At St. Cecilia School in Fox Chase the task for the seventh and eighth-grade participants and their professional mentors is to design and build a model of a viable city, featuring affordable housing with an emphasis on energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. They must plan the community from the ground up, as if accommodating a mass influx of refugees from a natural disaster, like the New Orleans flood, or a financial emergency, such as the subprime mortgage foreclosure crisis.

The local Philadelphia Sheet Metal Workers Union will host the finals of the regional competition on Saturday. The winner of that event will qualify for the national finals in Washington, D.C. in February.

Come to think of it, there's another category that could be considered a green job - writers who blog about green jobs. --D.A. DeMers.

Images compliments of Zemanta and Creative Commons free share license organization.

The Tiny House of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

2010-01-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

Efreth's Alley. Image Wikipedia.

Being from a sprawling mid-western city, I had never seen anything quite like this before. It was as if I'd walked into a mini doll house. The ground floor had one tiny room. A steep, twisting staircase led up one floor to another tiny room and bathroom, and the staircase led up again to a bedroom. Metal pulls had been installed to help hoist oneself up to each level, as if aboard a submarine. "It's your basic trinity house,” the realtor said, apparently, a uniquely Philadelphia invention.

The locals also call them Father, Son, and Holy Ghost houses.

Philadelphia of the mid-18th century was in an age of an economic boom. As noted on the website of the Independence Hall Association, "artisans and small manufacturers were needed to supply goods and services to a growing population. Those considered to be artisans included cabinetmakers, silversmiths, pewterers, glass blowers, and wagon builders. As the dwellings in center city were owned by prosperous merchants and land speculators, the artisan middle class congregated in enclaves to the north by the (Delaware) river. They prospered with the growth of the city."

Trinity house.

One area especially known for having examples of trinity style houses is called Elfreth's Alley, located near 2nd and Arch streets, with some homes dating back as far as 1720. In addition to artisans, the location was also residence to teachers, merchants, and clergy, who often conducted business out of their homes.

Descriptions of the trinity's true form vary. They are generally known as city’s oldest houses, usually over 100 years old, cozy, often built off a pedestrian alley, and sometimes described as Georgian style, evidenced by gabled roofs and pedimented dormers, or in some instances, simple, thin, geometric 3-story designs with decorated cornices. Space was so compact that the kitchens were often located in the basement. They seemed suitable for a small single family, but not so much for the poor who often crowded into them. However, over time, additions were built onto the rear of many trinities.

Georgian style.

While the density factor of trinity houses did not rival the crowding issues of large-scale tenement housing in New York, and were advantageous in promoting home ownership and propriety, sanitation issues did lead to significant cases of diseases such as yellow fever, small pox, typhoid and tuberculosis. Some of these problems were alleviated by the waterworks and sanitation ingenuity of Philadelphia architect and urban planner Benjamin Latrobe, who later applied himself to magnificent but thankless design-work on the US Capital building as documented in our earlier post The Architecture of Democracy.

These problems are virtually non-existent in our era, and trinity houses might appear to many as simply odd aspects of a bygone period in our architectural history. Yet something beneficial could come from studying the design and utility of such compartmentalized, small-space structures - both in terms of energy efficiency and aesthetics.

Author and urban planning specialist Rob Goodspeed wrote about this fact in his insightful, recent blog In Search of the Trinity Houses of Philadelphia:

"It is no small irony that the extremely dense urban fabric that constituted an urban problem in the 18th century is precisely the antidote to 21st century ones: sprawl, housing un-affordability, and auto dependence. Now may be the right time to learn from Philadelphia’s trinities, to study their dimensions and construction, as we seek to learn how to build more humane, resource-efficient urban homes and neighborhoods."

As we move further and further away from the copious, Romanesque age of McMansions and gas-guzzling SUVs, we may also discover that the key to our future lies in the examination of our innovative past.--D.A. DeMers.

Small space buildings in Philadelphia:

Classic Philadelphia trinity house.

Classic brick trinity house.

Trinity house.

Georgian style row-home.

Galley way.


Philadelphia larger "sandbox" row-homes.

Modern trinity?

Trinity interior stairwell.

Related articles

Vintage Smart

2009-12-23T04:05:00.000-05:00

James Miller's Vintage Modern

In an era when furniture has become an increasingly disposable commodity and is cluttering the landfills, often forgotten is the notion that buying something made to last is as ecologically sustainable an idea as any - especially if it's a second hand item. At Vintage Modern in Philadelphia's buzzing Northern Liberties neighborhood that's precisely what you can find - and with exceptional style as well.

Exquisite clean looks..

Owner James Miller has a long trajectory of collecting and trading quality vintage home furnishings, starting with furnishing a home in Harrisburg in the '70's, to forages in the flea market business, to inevitably opening his own store at 2nd and Poplar - now in its fifth year of operation. He also spent time as a visual merchandiser in various retail stores, which is apparent by his keen eye for putting together compelling vignettes for his own store.

The shop hosts an impressive collection of 20th century relics, including a beautifully crafted Danish Modern dining room table, a fabulous burl-wood Art Deco style dresser, and a very elegant, mod-looking wall unit. Likewise, he has put together a fashionable assortment of lamps and fixtures to compliment the furniture. In addition, Vintage Modern also features artwork from local artists including Ron Johnson, James Oliver, and Rebecca McCloskey.

James Miller.

Mr. Miller describes his business as "luxury recycling," saying that much of what's being made today is ready to head for the dump within a few years, in contrast to the profusion of well-made furniture from yesteryear. "Who the heck wants to buy used Ikea?" he elaborated.

Ikea, like much of the furniture industry with its recent marketing battles to claim eco-friendly compliance, contends that most of its furniture is made from non-toxic recycled and or recyclable materials, implying that they proffer a truly eco-sustainable product as a result, despite the general consumer consensus that their merchandise has a life expectancy of only a few years.

While their claims of purity and recycle-ability may not be without merit, one thing to consider is that it takes a good amount of energy to fully recycle a product and make it into something that looks newly manufactured, especially when done in less regulated foreign places such as China or Eastern Europe and then shipped across the world to be stocked in warehouse sized energy inefficient stores. But what's really at issue here is that their merchant methodology seems to perpetuate a throw-away sensibility in our culture that sharply contradicts the ethos of conservation and sustainability concepts.

Danish modern dining table

High style contemporary setting.

Here in Philadelphia, communities linked via the web are at the cusp of challenging the predicated ways of the disposable lifestyle. Concepts of re-use and swap have gained considerable strength recently, as proven by groups such as Philly Freecycle. These groups offer alternatives to rampant consumerism and unreasonable consumption, and to some degree contrast with the realities of our prevalent mode of capitalism - all perplexing thoughts as we steer into the environmentally troublesome waters of future decades.

An Oasis of Beauty on Girard.

Fishtown's Plume Salon

Another business not far from Vintage Modern also features work from local artists - though this one seems an unlikely spot to be home to a gallery. Nonetheless, Plume, a sleek new hair salon opened by stylist Tina Antonelli in nearby Fishtown has done just that, and the results are impressive.

The shop opened up in October, and while their sole focus is the art of the coiffure, Ms Antonelli decided to use her extra wall space to promote works from local painters, artisans, jewelry and accessory makers - an act designed to support the arts, become interwoven with its community, and to liven up the decor of her salon.

Stylist at work.

All proceeds from sales of the items go to the artists. The concept seems to have succeeded nicely for the shop. Her business is thriving, despite the slow economic climate. And the idea makes a great statement for Fishtown, which is increasingly becoming the epicenter of Philadelphia's art community.

Ms Antonelli knows that, and she knows she good service she provides to the neighborhood. She doesn't flaunt her philanthropy - she simply contends that she's happy to have their work as part of the salon's interior design. That way she's given the opportunity to "change the walls and keep things interesting for the clients," something evident at the time of this interview with Designer in Exile, as clients could be seen peering across the walls of the the various artful items while her staff performed their own artful craft - snip, snipping away at locks of hair.--D.A. DeMers.

Wall art for sale from local artists.

He Who Taketh Shall Giveth Back

2009-12-13T18:05:00.000-05:00

Last year the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story on how the high market price for metals was triggering another era of metal "harvesting" in the city. One incident described a situation at a Port Richmond scrap metal recycling center where the manager turned away a customer who wanted to sell a particular brass object: A funeral urn.

The man said there were more where that came from.

"I said, 'Yeah, but you have to dump the ashes,' " the manager said in an interview. "They're stealing everything they can get their hands on."

In these economically troubled times you'd think people would be doing just about anything to get some extra money - and they are. But even decades ago when urban blight and drugs first began to plague American cities, stripping buildings of copper pipes, wires, even rooftops, for cash was widespread throughout these old industrial Philadelphia neighborhoods. The exponential leap in price of scrap metals in recent years has made it especially common.

Fortune Magazine, for all its glory, printed a veritable how-to guide on how to pick and choose the choice items in the publo-sphere with a feature titled The Dark Side of Metal Madness. The article included listings of expected prices one could get for the items from copper wire to beer kegs to manhole covers - most of which it is assumed would be dismantled and hauled away illegally.

According to the magazine, the price of copper, aluminum, lead, tin, and zinc since 2005 has been up 95%, which has prompted a rally in a different market barometer. Call it the petty larceny index. In 2006 more than 24,000 manhole covers were stolen from the streets of Shanghai. And while brass urns started disappearing from grave-sites in Philadelphia, that same year, at a high school football field in Washington, D.C., 750 pounds of aluminum bleachers went missing.

Copper hit a peak of $3.66 a pound on the COMEX exchange about a year and a half ago. Likewise, aluminum, zinc, bronze and stainless steel all have been commanding high prices. These may seem like novel facts until one more novel fact is added; that is, a lot of public infrastructure is made out of these metals. Enterprising folks have been literally ripping off anything that isn't nailed down - bleachers for example. Beer kegs aren't being returned, and some police departments can't get ammunition.

Verizon, the telecom provider, has been bleeding from every pore. Vandals stole over $300,000 in copper from their cell phone towers in 2007, and that was just in California. In Michigan, Anheuser-Busch noticed the disappearance of enough of its stainless-steel kegs to take action: the beer giant persuaded the state liquor commission to triple the required security deposit from $10 to $30, because a lot of kegs appearantly weren't coming back.

For petty thieves the rewards can outweigh the risks. While a manhole might fetch just $20, a single catalytic converter, wrestled from an SUV, is a metals trifecta. It contains platinum, palladium, and rhodium worth $150. For professional thieves the big hauls, like truckloads of copper wire pilfered from construction sites, can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To some degree this crime boom is cyclical. The silver bubble of the early 1980s led to multimillion-dollar heists from the London Metal Exchange's warehouse and in New York City's Diamond District. But the current crimewave, which began four years ago and has escalated since, has been markedly worse.

The illegal metal plays are not without risk. In New Hampshire recently, two thieves were electrocuted while pilfering copper wire from a transformer.

One key aspect of the recent wave is that the US has been shipping $61 Billion in scrap to China each year. That demand, along with the soaring price is what really made the recipe for the rise in metal theft. However, that may well be starting to subside due the price of shipping as gas prices remain high - a point economist Jeff Rubin makes in his new book Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller.

Likewise, now it seems people are looking for other materials to re-appropriate, and many of these materials are not so intrinsically tied to global trade. For example, the photos below by architecture/urban researcher Bob Powers document the scavenging bricks from abandoned buildings in St Louis.

And though an unsupervised removal bricks from the foundation of an abandoned building is not advised by this writer - especially for safety reasons - a better, more inclusive process of salvaging such materials could be valuable for historic preservation and ecologic sustainability - for example cities with old, historic structures.

European countries often utilize vintage bricks, called "seconds" (second hand bricks) as part of planning by local councils when constructing new buildings or preserving existing ones. Without this constant reuse of building materials some of the most beautiful buildings would have been long ago ruined with a poor choice of materials.

While much of the theft aspects of urban materials harvesting grabs the typical crime-obsessed news headlines, many people fail to recognize the virtues and increasing importance of its legal side, such as people who scavenge public alleys for aluminum cans or discarded iron. In Philadelphia, like many cities, the city does not have enough resources to do this on its own - these citizens often function as a resourceful, natural part of the recycling loop, and not just shadowy figures in the night.--D.A. DeMers.

The Art and Soul of Philly

2009-11-25T21:44:00.000-05:00

Milkcrate Cafe in Fishtown.

A few years back National Geographic tagged Philadelphia as "the next great city." In many ways, it already is. Here in Fishtown there's electricity in the air, new businesses are starting up, the gears of creativity are turning, and people here - once known for being the workshop for the world - are thinking local, while acting global. This year why not skip gift-shopping at the mall and take a stroll down Girard Avenue? Be a locasumer.

One great place to start is a new little coffee shop/record store named Milkcrate Cafe, at the corner of Columbia and Girard. Being a collector of vintage vinyl and a coffee guzzler, the concept alone was enough to peak my interest. But what really impressed me was the cool design feature of having an entire wall of colorful, collectible record covers serve as the main focal point for the cafe's decor. The rest of the interior is fairly minimal and mod, which helps balance the colorful, dazzling mosaic of albums.

Owner Adam Porter hails from a legacy work in multi-media oriented coffee houses such as Chicago's notorious Earwax, as well as notable cafes in down in the bustle New Orleans. He also put in some DJ time at Philadelphia's renowned Five Spot club, which closed due to fire years ago, a legacy woefully remembered by the club crowd.

The records at Milkcrate are all for purchase, including a vast business of online sales of funk, jazz, soul, rock and rarities from their dynamic website. And the coffee is from Philadelphia's great La Colombe coffee - my favorite of the city's gourmet coffee roasters.

Though only at lift-off stage now, plans for the shop include an extensive food menu and expansion of the record store into the downstairs level, as well as turntables spun for entertainment.

From the looks of the record collection I may not be needing to order from Dusty Groove to get my fill of rare soul.

UpCycle

Speaking of groove, just few blocks down the street is the VGroove studio of artist and lampmaker Victor Perez and his "upcycled" handmade skateboard lamps.

Victor makes some very moderne-looking lamp sculptures utilizing old skateboards. He cuts them apart, sands them down, reassembles, and retrofits, until they become something quite extraordinary - not really looking like skateboards anymore, though one can still sense their original essence. His one-of-a-kind lamps have been the buzz around Fishtown lately, with his work appearing in variety of area shows.

His lamps will be on exhibit this weekend in a show with friends at his studio on 306 East Girard in Fishtown.

Fishtown Airways

A block or so further down is the Fishtown Airways artist collective and market, which proffers a plethora of works from local artists and artisans. Here you can find truly unique art items, crafts, and accessories that definitely wont be on the racks or in bins of mass produced crud at the mall. Fishtown Airways opened up earlier this summer and has generated an offshoot gallery called Piranha Betty's Art Market on 2472 Frankford Avenue.

Johnny Brendas

Kitty-corner from Fishtown Airways, you can rest from your days worth of locasumer activity and grab a bite to eat at Johnny Brenda's, one of the area's hubs for good food, brew, and entertainment. Have a pint of Kenzinger from the Philadelphia Brewing Company, made blocks away in nearby Kensington, and with hops provided by (in some batches) the neighborhood's urban green spot, Greensgrow Farms. And while you're there at JB's, stick around and see one of Philly's great local bands perform in the upstairs concert hall, which has become a primary venue for the music scene...

Wow, this sure sounds like fun, and all with a carbon footprint the size of my little toe. See you there! --D.A. DeMers

---------------

Additional images:

Milkcrate Cafe after dark.

The "great wall" of records.

Rare Leroy Hutson record from the '70's.

Vast record collection, with more downstairs.

The Robots We've Grown to Love

2009-11-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

Robot Painting

Not long ago I attended a gallery event at Philadelphia's Fishtown Airways artist collective on Girard Ave, (now apparently splintered off into Piranha Betty's Art Market, at another location on Frankford Ave). Outside was a table featuring the playful, colorful robot paintings of local artist Evan Cairo. I was captivated by the work, and bought one of the paintings. I recall the artist saying his robots were "a lot like humans." They do seem that way...nice humans.

Evan Cairo

I placed the robot painting on a shelf in my bedroom. Each day I woke up and looked at it. As time went by, I began feeling a bit strange. It was as if a sensor had been activated within me, a circuit flipped on.

It's difficult to remember the events that followed, but one vivid occurrence remains - there was a constant pulsating flash of images in my mind, specifically of childhood memories. For days I scrambled to find similar representations of those images. I knew they were in the house somewhere - perhaps they were in books, maybe drawings I'd done, objects I'd collected.

Japanese toy robot.

Soon enough boxes had been plundered through, drawers tossed about, papers scattered everywhere. I didn't sleep or eat until I found what I needed...or maybe, what I was being commanded to find. Was it Evan's robot that was directing me? I couldn't be sure.

Whatever it was, it had gotten out of hand, especially for my wife, Anne, who'd been away during all this. I recall hearing the front door open, her calling my name, and then footsteps clacking as she slowly walked up our wood stairs to the attic where I was secluded. There I sat crouched on the floor, a three day beard on my face, everything in shambles, and showing a frenzied, maddened grin. In my hands was a shoe-box filled with little toys. The robots of my youth. The wonderful human-like droids that had inspired me to create and design my own universe.

Anne didn't exactly share the same euphoria for my re-found stuff, at least not right then. One reason could've been because dinner guests were due within the hour, and the house looked like a nor-easter had blown by. I quickly found myself wearing that special shoe-box on my head and heard a cursing emitted of which only humans are capable.

Japanese toy rocketship.

But the point is that robots have stirred the human immagination for eras. The tale above might include a smidge of fantasy, nonetheless, these mechanical beings were an unequivocal force in my aspiration to make art and to eventually become a product designer. People tend to personify machines. Possibly it's just a childlike nostalgia for playing with toys.

Or perhaps it's something deeper and universally compelling, something long embedded in the human psyche - a desire to bring to life things that are by nature unanimated, cold, and non-human. Whichever the case, that fascination still glows within me today...sort of like, well, a flickering LED light. --D.A DeMers

Below: robot-like "Moon Rover" task lamp I designed in 2004. My company proffered it to Crate and Barrel's mod furnishings company, CB2, during a meeting at the IHFC's High Point Market. They rejected it... I actually made the prototype by hand.

Below: dog and elephant toy robots, circa 1960s. Anonymous.

Philly Mischief - Keepin' it Clean

2009-11-03T21:21:00.000-05:00

Tips for de-egging.

Mischief Night, Halloween, and the World Series season can pose irksome challenges for the average Philadelphia homeowner. You very well may find yourself cleaning eggs off your house or car and TP from your trees - tasks that can certainly be frustrating to tackle, but since it only happens once a year, don't let it get you in a bad mood.

Here is some helpful how-to advice for cleaning up, as well as a few tips on keeping your home and possessions safe when the looting and riots begin after a Phillies World Series victory.

If the eggs that your neighborhood kids pelted your house with hit a window, you'll need the items listed below. Most of these items can be easily purchased at your local hardware store:

1. A clean rag and bucket of warm soapy water, preferably a non-toxic formula.

2. A toothbrush and wire grill brush.

3. A soft bristle broom and a dust pan.

Wipe the egged glass with a generous amount of warm sudsy water. If the eggs have been there for a few days and dried, the work can be a bit of a bugger at first, but eventually they should emulsify and come off fairly easy. You may need to pick the crusty shells off with your fingers if the rag doesn't wipe them away.

Use wire brush.

To clean the yellow goo from your screens, I suggest wetting them and then using a combo of both the toothbrush and wire grill brush to pick away at the mess and scrub it out.

If you live in the Fishtown part of Philly, like me, you may have been completely besieged by a full-on arsenal of eggs, so be aware that this job may be time-consuming. Egging is a long-standing tradition here, so have a chuckle about it, put on your ipod and have fun wiping the crud away. Don't be grumpy!

When all is done, simply sweep up the eggshells from your sidewalk. I recommend a soft bristle broom to easily get down into the cracks and crevices of the city's neglected, unrepaired concrete.

Sweep eggshells from sidewalk.

After the Phillies win the World Series, as always, be vigilant and take necessary precautions to prevent harm to your home and property. Especially watch out for the possibility of your car being overturned and set on fire.

Below is a picture I took today of what I believe is a mother demonstrating to her children how to get a car right-side-up. I don't suggest attempting this yourself. It's best to simply call the police immediately, and allow them to handle it. Attempting to right an overturned car can be very dangerous, especially if you haven't done it before. So stay calm and let's all have a safe post-victory night of chaos this time around.

Mother with children in Fishtown neighborhood.

All clear and flyin' the Phlag.

To see stats on the Phillies in the sustainable stadium race, see our post America's Greenest Ballpark. Go Phillies!

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