Above is an aerial photo of Baltimore showing some official green space and some potential alley green space - in green - quite a web if coordinated to work together!
‘Community Greens‘ is an organization which supports the ‘development of shared green spaces inside residential blocks in cities across the United States’ by taking the stand [...]
‘Community Greens’: Greening Baltimore’s Alleys
The Physics-Sun: A Solar Laser in Uzbekistan
A few machines are stunningly beautiful. Some because of their function. Some because of their scale. Some because of their materiality. Some because of their purity of design.
The physics-sun solar laser in Uzbekistan is one of those beautiful machines. The 40 meter tall machine uses 62 large individually controllable mirrors arrayed in a concave shape [...]
Playing the Building: Harmonics and Transparency of Building Systems
David Byrne, co-founder of the Talking Heads, has turned the New York Battery Maritime Building into a musical instrument. Sitting at a old pipe organ, any ‘musician’ is able to sonically explore the complexity of the building’s system without ever leaving the composers seat. A heavy sound may be for structure. A light sound could [...]
Mobius Climber: Playground Equipment of the Future
The Mobius Climber (of course a name play on the mobius strip) by Landscape Structures is an amazing new design for playground equipment. The designers used a textured annodized aluminum sheet as the mobius strip structure that does not become excessively slippery when wet. The aluminum frame also resists excess heat gain so the equipment [...]
Sustainability in an Automobile: Efficient Material Use
Here is a great example of efficient material use in an automotive application.
Building America: Developing Energy Efficient Homes in the US
Building America is a private/public partnership, organized by the US Department of Energy, designed to develop and promote energy solutions for new and existing homes “that can be implemented on a production basis.” Stated goals of the project include:
Producing homes on a community scale that use on average 30% to 90% less energy
Integrate onsite power [...]
A Note from the Editor…
My apologies for the extended hiatus from posting on Greenline. My team has been finishing up the construction document for a small school dining hall. The diminutive project is attempting LEED Silver and is the first project we have drawn from start to finish in Revit Architecture, so in the end it was quite challenging. [...]
Baltimore Green Map Launched
Here’s a great new interactive resource for the residents of Baltimore: the Baltimore Green Map. It’s an online interactive map where residents can research or input ‘green living’ hot-spots in the City. If you’re looking for the best urban hike, look no further! How about a place to buy local produce or products? It’s [...]
Sustainability at the Museum of Art
Recently I was asked to do a presentation on ‘Sustainability’ as it relates to a Museum of Art. The presentation was geared to the museum facility board and included the definition of sustainability, sustainable decision making, unique considerations special to museums, case studies and a conclusion about sustainable metrics and LEED. My co presenter, Mike [...]
Baltimore, place of Yes and Yes
ZigerSnead’s very own Fred Scharmen has a great article on Archinect! The article is titled ‘Baltimore, place of Yes and Yes‘ and is described as a ‘love letter to Baltimore.’ He uses the post as a platform to present an honest and personal assessment of the city complete with its potentials and pitfalls.
The posting [...]
BLDGBLOG Comes to Baltimore
This week Geoff Manaugh, creator of BLDGBLOG among other things, lectured here in Baltimore. He was invited to speak through the AIA’s Michael F. Trostel Lecture sponsored by Preservation Maryland. The lecture was generally angled to cover historic preservation, but to my delight, Manaugh managed to move the discussion well outside the traditional boundaries [...]
Exploding Wind Turbine Video
Here is a great video of a wind turbine self destructing during a wind storm. The strong wind causes the turbine to spin very quickly and eventually bends the blades backward, hitting the support structure. The result is a frightening example of what a poorly designed or malfunctioning wind turbine can do. Turbines are actually [...]
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The long sighted Scandinavians have done it again. In an effort to plan for major global food crises, planetary catastrophe, or species extinction, the Nordic ministries have built the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to safeguard specimens of the world’s seeds. A Noah’s Ark for plant species. The Vault is located on the extremely secluded Spitsbergen [...]
Bottled Water Gets the Boot
On March 13, 2008, the mayor of Seattle signed executive order #02-08, banning the use of city funds to pay for bottled water. Seattle wasn’t the first to ban the bottle either: San Francisco, Los Angeles and Ann Arbor have all restricted city spending on bottled water. Numerous other cities, such as [...]
The Great Crisco Debacle: Baltimore 2007
The fall/winter of 2007 was a trying time for the Baltimore Biodiesel Co-op. Started just one year earlier as a way to help the biodiesel fans of Baltimore find a fuel source, the group had experienced no major problems and membership was booming! (in biodiesel terms) Things are reported to have gone smoothly within the [...]