Making Sustainability Visible

Photographs are after the text.

On Thursday 3 September 2008 we met at the Windup Spot on West North Avenue. Below are the notes which I took. We would love to see you at our next get together.

Mark Cameron: We hope to have these once a month, probably the first Wednesday of the month. People who are interested in making Baltimore a better place a chance to come together.

Fred Sham talked about a bike rack competition. He showed us photos of some in other cities. We want to put eight bike racks here on the streets in the Station North area. The RP is in draft form right now. The winner will receive $4,000 to make the bike racks. They hope that fabrication will be in March.

Elizabeth is a journalist. Architect is anything from a t-shirt to a sky scrapper.

In Portland OR every project must be LEED structure or higher. They are building a 30-story high rise. It will be Leed Platinum. The architect convinced the developer to go LEED Plantinum and showed them that it can be cheap.

As many public architects already know, LEED in the public sector is here to stay. The U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED ) Green Building Rating System has been adopted as a standard or guideline by dozens of state, local, and federal agencies. Today, these groups alone have registered almost 750 new construction projects, totaling over 83 million square feet.

Public Architecture and LEED: Making It Green AND Fair by By Jonathan Herz, AIA, LEED

"The concept of sustainability has broader applicability than the environmental arena. In fact, like" good governance, sustainability is fast becoming a cornerstone of public sector management."

--J. W. Cameron, Auditor-General, State of Victoria, Australia

The State of Oregon offers a tax incentive for specs of LEED.

A school district in Las Vegas created a design competition. They charged architect to develop a school with 50% less cost and designed to help learning. They will also be 50% energy saving.

Oregon and Washington offered composing. This is included in their recycling. In one city they offer home owners compost bans for food [somewhat like the garbage cans in the past? Elizabeth is too young to know about garbage cans being different than trash cans.]

Arabs were born out of needs. People who did not have markets had the food brought to them.

In some cities people started to buy lots next to their property and doing interesting things with them.

Potentially we can bring the Greek Continental Congress to Baltimore. Seventy-five percent of San Francisco's downtown space was dedicated to private vehicles. A group paid a parking meter for two hours and turned it into a park.

Brad Rogers. His company only does green work. They are getting a ton of people calling about affordable green design.

There is a huge lack of understanding with companies that make modular houses.

Spence does this for fun. Green building is a no brainer. There is a lot of hidden park space throughout Baltimore. Druid Hill Park is one. Many neighborhoods that suffer through population loss have public squares. Harlem Park is one of them.

Janet talked about green maps, an international system of icons. She has a web site and anybody can nominate sites for this map. They have a printed map coming out in a couple of weeks.

Ryan Patterson has an art show coming up at Lincoln Park this September.

Beth Stommen, Mayor's Office of Sustainability. The City is developing a sustainability plan. They had their first round of public meetings. A lot of people have not heard of sustainability. On 17 September 2008 aat 19:00 at City Hall is the Mayor's Night In. The mayor will be there. Plus there is something on 28 October 2008.

Craig Purcell said that maybe Baltimore is turning now. Maybe the population is increasing. This group will be key in that regrowth. He is the undergraduate director for Morgan State School of Architecture. He is looking for interaction with firms and ways the students can interact with the City.

Gabriel Coren made some comments.

Bill Levett, Elizabeth's father, said that people like her have linked the green movement with social justice. We often don't want to look at a neighborhood where the people live. We are a city that is two-third black and does not reflect in this room. This is an element that needs to enter into our thinking.

Since he raised the subject, I have been saying this for some time and I have heard this at many meetings. I am convinced that many black people are still mentally on the Plantation and they try to keep others from leaving. Often when I am with two or more black men, the one thing that I hear is how the "white man" is keeping us back. Obviously I do not agree with this, especially since I am a deacon at a Russian Orthodox Church and I am the only black person in my church and I am perfectly at home there. I do not feel out of place because this is my place. The people in the parish know it and I know and they won't let me forget it.

Margaret Martin, chief of engineer, State Department of Transportation, has been with DOT for two years. DOT is learning to spell green and tree and they are different multi-modular. They are redoing the roads and sidewalks.

Baltimore has turned the corner.

Mariane Gillis said that the Homestead Plan distinguishes Baltimore from other cities.

Jamel is an architect. He suggested that at the next meeting bring some noise and bring somebody whom you think does not belong here.

We can get a design idea into the Urbanlite every issue.

Mark Reynolds, known as the "garbage architect," will be speaking at the Neighborhood Design Center on 6 November 2008.

On Friday 12 September 2008 there will be a new art show here at the Windup Space.

Please forgive me for misspelling people's names. When the report is sent out, I will then correct the names. But the most important thing is to get the information to you and to identify people as best as I can.

Deacon Michael

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