Using Deconstruction & Design to Reduce Blight, Divert Waste & Create Jobs
via Reclaim Omaha: Goodbye Waste & Blight, Hello Jobs | Indiegogo. Find them at Reclaimed Enterprises too.
Reclaimed wood furniture that uncovers the inherent beauty of the Delta while cleaning up communities and creating jobs in the process.
via Reclaimed Helena Furniture by Jan Feldman — Kickstarter.
A large section of the U.S. population is currently regaining a taste for urban living and moving from suburbs back into redeveloped cities. Many of these individuals are attracted to buildings that maintain historical elements and character, features that cannot be built from the ground up. This is true across all kinds of real estate, but none more so than office. As companies compete to attract the best talent possible, locating in a redeveloped building — with its character, charm, and amenities — is becoming a key part of recruitment and retention strategies.
via In Focus: Adaptive Reuse Gaining Traction in the Office Market – Area Development.
The Seattle City Council adopted a goal for recycling 70 percent of construction waste by 2020 — the driving force behind the new requirements. We are confident this is achievable.
The City of Portland Water Bureau owns the property, structures, and infrastructure at 7025 N Willamette Boulevard. The Water Bureau no longer needs the property, structures, and infrastructure for on-going operations.
via Alma Tank (7025 N Willamette Blvd.) | North Portland | The City of Portland, Oregon.
Sanoesa Macbook Briefcase edition.
Made out of reclaimed wood, carefully made to fit your beloved macbook, or even ipad with a ecofashion statement.
via Handmade reclaimed wood briefcase / messanger bag / by Sanoesa.
See this entire project and steps on how to do it at Cordwood Construction. 
Prepare surface by sweeping and mopping clean. We are gluing directly onto our concrete slab. Sand both sides using a belt sander. Begin to layout disks on the floor. Try to get them as close as possible. Work in 2′ sections.
via Cordwood Flooring by Sunny in sunny Arizona | Cordwood Construction.
Designer Uli Schallenberg has proven that these forgotten buildings can be made useful again without even changing their basic structure.
via Decaying Wooden Barn Made Over Into Dreamy Living Space | Designs & Ideas on Dornob.
“The house up the street has stuff coming out of it. It keeps piling up. Where is the ticket for that? It just doesn’t make sense.” Devlin said.
In November, 7 Action News Reporter Ronnie Dahl exposed dozens of blighted properties owned by Perfecting Church. Some are vacant lots with illegally dumped debris. Others are abandoned homes, sitting wide open. One house, close to a school, was being used as a drug den.
via Detroit urban farm owner cited for blight says she’s being unfairly targeted – WXYZ.com.
The city is giving a new organization a chance to scour structures ready to be razed to see if worthwhile materials can be salvaged. Those materials can be re-purposed or recycled instead of taking up space in a landfill.
“We’re offering a solution to a problem as we see it,” said Thomas Wester, who leads the nascent Peoria Architectural Salvage Co.
Wester’s group and the city are undertaking this one-year, limited program. For two years, the city has been searching for a partner.
A city agreement with Peoria Architectural Salvage could be finalized next week, Wester said. The City Council approved the plan last month. No municipal money is involved.
Photo by Staff File Photo/Times Free Press.
Using hydraulic compression, the Chattanooga company’s technology aims to take discarded demolition and construction material and turn it into interlocking building blocks.
“They stack up like Legos,” said David White, RamRock’s co-founder and CEO.
Only the tower’s top level is still a bedroom, now with reclaimed fir floors, handcrafted mahogany bed and window frames, and whimsical oak dresser. (Collin Andrew/The Register-Guard)
“But what I like to do with all of those things, is try to select out the stuff so that it doesn’t look like a salvaged house,” Pollack ruminates. “I never wanted it to look that way. I wanted it to look like everything was selected from a top-notch building supply store … but it wasn’t.”
via The carte blanche carpenter’s house | Home & Garden | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon.
Brendan M. salvaged part of his neighbor’s 100 year old white oak tree scheduled for removal. He transformed it into this beautiful bookcase.
The Salina Turda Salt Mines of Romania have been converted to the world’s largest salt mining museum, but this is no dry historical tour – there’s weird wooden architecture, a playground and even a ferris wheel.
via Salt Mines Converted to Stunning Subterranean Museum | Urbanist.
The designers at FOCUSED have been teaming up with skate shops and factories all throughout Europe to collect old skateboards, and give them new life as beautifully crafted tables.
The pair (Ashley & Zoe) turn upcycled rubber inner tubes from bike tires into floggers, whips, riding crops, and other kinky toys.
via Get your Valentine’s Day kink on with these sex toys made of upcycled bike tires | Grist.
This one is for you Mike!
Parisian office Modal Architecture has created a bright white artist’s studio with a wall of golden plywood cupboards behind the thick stone walls of a 17th-century barn in Brittany
In a timely Valentine’s Day unveiling, Milan design studio Veneziano+Team debuted a heart-shaped wooden stool, created for Italian brand Riva 20, at last month’s IMM Cologne trade fair.
via ‘One Love’ Stool from Milan’s Veneziano+Team | 2Modern Blog.
When we think of sustainable solutions for buildings, new wood is not the first thing that comes to mind. WholeTrees Architecture and Structures however is an innovator in sustainable wood use and creates some beautiful buildings. Lead architect, Roald Gundersen, has been building with round timbers for over 20 years. He utilizes small diameter trees and branching members, bi-products of sustainably managed forests that are often passed off as unmillable low-value pulpwood. Roald’s partner, Amelia Baxter, saw the opening market for a resurgence of sustainable wood use based on the warm reception of Gundersen’s designs at the time. In 2010, Baxter and Gundersen co-founded WholeTrees and the results are cost-efficient, green, and biophilic structural systems to compete with steel, concrete, and dimensional lumber.
Round timber building is a framing system that incorporates the inherent beauty of the tree. This natural form supplies impeccable strength because the external pre-tensioned fibers that are milled away in dimensional lumber stay intact. WholeTrees goes beyond traditional heavy-timber framing and has engineered modern truss designs to compete in the commercial market with the help of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory through Small Business Innovation Grants. The benefits of using an abundant non-toxic material that is considered waste are vast. By adding value to this resource, WholeTrees is encouraging sustainable forest management that allow the forests to perform better as carbon sinks and yield higher production, as well as create rural jobs. Additionally, WholeTrees uses many invasive species, such as black locust, to allow for natural habitat regrowth and promote biodiversity within our woodlands. When we sequester CO2 in gorgeous structures we work with what the earth provides as well as give back.
Gundersen’s sustainable design does not stop at round timbers. He has been a long proponent of material reuse, recycling and non-toxic building techniques. His efficient designs have incorporated reclaimed carpet for ceilings, reused doors and windows, straw bale walls, passive solar principles, and more. Recently, WholeTrees has begun work with Madison to use the city’s Ash trees before they succumb to the Emerald Ash Borer and insure new trees are planted. Interest in the local trees has sparked among clientele.
WholeTrees Architecture and Structures hopes that the world starts seeing trees and is pioneering this concept through their desirable design and state-of-the-art research.
J.C. Callam had his kitchen counters made from a fallen tree. (Andrew Harnik/For The Washington Post)
It’s not necessary to be handy with tools to make use of salvaged lumber. Several companies in and around the District will create custom furniture and other household items for homeowners who provide the wood.
The bathroom door on the first floor of J.C. Callam and David Soo’s Eckington neighborhood D.C. rowhouse uses reclaimed old-growth wood. Callam made the door from wood discarded when the home was renovated. Andrew Harnik/For The Washington Post
via Remodeling boom in D.C. area brings to light rich veins of old-growth lumber – The Washington Post.
The home at 3407 West 35th St., Vancouver, before demolition… All photos by Caroline Adderson
The city hopes to prevent demolition by offering incentives to keep a house, if it’s deemed to have heritage value. Builders already have the option of adding a laneway house or basement suite, for example. If the owner insists on demolition, they are now required to recycle or reuse 90 per cent of the material, a pain for developers because it slows the job down and costs more, especially since most aren’t familiar with the process. Even if a pre-1940 house isn’t deemed of particular heritage value, developers are still required to divert 75 per cent of the waste from landfills.
via Vancouver bylaw meant to slow demolitions sends old homes to the chipper – The Globe and Mail.
The developer has been working on the deal since 2009 and wants to make room for a mixed use development.
“These are pretty significant, interesting buildings. I think properly restored and incorporated into the site, they would make Buckingham Palace look like a Burger King, they’re pretty neat buildings,” said Scott Jolliffe from the Calgary Heritage Authority.
via Controversy brewing over demolition of historic buildings | CTV Calgary News.
Rowan University unveils development plans for the new Rowan University Art Gallery, Monday, Feb. 9, 2015. The building, located at 301 West High Street, will also feature smart classrooms, office space, a conference room, and student lounge areas. (Tim Hawk | South Jersey Times)
The building at 301 High St. in downtown Glassboro was once intended to hold several condominiums. As the years went by, however, the structure, built right around the 2008 economic downturn, sat empty.
For the first time on Monday, Glassboro and Rowan University officials opened the doors of the half-finished structure to unveil their plans for the space, which will serve as the home of Rowan’s art gallery in addition to offices and classrooms.
via Glassboro, Rowan University officials unveil plans for High Street art gallery | NJ.com.
Ezra Builders is setting a new standard in Northern Arizona for sustainability through Passivhaus design. As a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC), Tom has been trained by the certifying and training authority of the United States, the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS). He has had a direct involvement in two of the completed passive house projects in the Portland, OR area. At the Karuna Passive House, he acted as one of the Quality Control personnel during the insulation phase. Spending more time in the field at the Pumpkin Ridge Passive House, he worked on the structural framing, air barrier install, door and window install. Through his exposure and experience he believes the passivhaus (passive house) standard is one of the few ways to truly build sustainably and is setting out to do just that.
In order to realize Brecce’s project I wanted to take inspiration from the research of natural objects that, in some ways, have reached their final step in the life cycle. They are for example sawmill’s outlets, pieces of urban architecture, logs carried by the river, firewood…
I have tried to give these pieces a second chance, tempting to make the light come out from the material and to amplify the sensorial experience.
All photos courtesy of We Are The Next
Rispoli is the executive director of We Are The Next (Next) a pending non-profit based in downtown, one that aims to educate communities about ties between sustainability and historic resources and to shift the mindset of future generations. Changing the way people think now and helping them recognize value and connect with architecture can change the tenor of future conservation efforts; if she can get today’s youth to fall in love with architecture, tomorrow’s City Council members and developers might have a greater penchant for preservation. That’s part of the reason she started the Next.
via We Are The Next: Saving the Past By Focusing on the Future.
Once an electrical substation at RAF Bicester, this is now a three-bedroom house up for sale
You may think this [upcycling] is just an American word for recycling but it was German engineer Reiner Pilz who invented the term in 1994 when complaining about EU directives that led to Germany’s disused buildings being totally demolished.
Building projects requiring reclaimed materials had to be imported from the UK. Since then upcycling has become a clarion call for Europe’s Green movement, although in Britain we also upcycle old properties just because we like them.
Robin Chatwin, head of Savills South West London, says: “We first saw abandoned former industrial buildings being converted into homes on a significant scale in the 1980s, which started with the vast old warehouses along the Thames around the old working docks.
“The trend for turning these buildings from industrial to residential use probably began slightly earlier in New York but it was a real departure in how we approached unconventional spaces and how they could be re-configured to be lived in.
“Over the years we’ve become very good at it.
via Chapels and churches upcycled into houses for sale | Property | Life & Style | Daily Express.
Reducing blight and preventing its spread is best achieved when the solution incorporates the interest and input of active and engaged citizens. Whether it’s reporting abandoned houses to local authorities via an app or participating in public meetings to find the best way cities or neighborhoods can utilize vacant lots, solving these problems is best served from the bottom-up.
Technology is helping citizen engagement find a solution to urban decay. And many cities are starting to harness innovative civic tech products to begin to repair and rebuild some of the country’s most severely affected areas.
via Restoring the Concrete Jungle: How to Address Urban Blight in 2015 – TechWire.net.
EARLY, EARLY, EARLY CALL FOR ENTRIES
Seeking Inspired Art Made With Recycled/Repurposed Materials
17th Annual Trash Art Show, May 1-3, 2015 at the NCRD Gallery
Ticketed Opening (with the artists) Friday, May 1, 5-8 pm
Open to the public May 2, 10 am to 4 pm, and May 3, 10 am to 1 pm
ART INTAKE DATE: April 29, 1 – 5 pm
Maggie Rudy’s 100% trash sturgeon.
Nehalem, Manzanita, Wheeler, North Coast, SW Washington, Portland, etc.
It’s never too soon to start. Get out your cool junk—it’s time to make trash art. CARTMs annual Trash Art Show is all about working with that irresistibly interesting stuff you’ve been collecting and wanting to create something with.
All the rules are made to be broken when creating trash art. From beautiful mosaics made from broken dishes, to kinetic sculpture created with broken lawn mower parts to—everything is fair game.
The Trash Art Show is a unique local tradition and creative fundraiser for CARTM. This year’s event, our seventeenth, will be at the Gallery at NCRD, the show’s new permanent location in Nehalem, with lots of open and well lit space for your art, and plenty of parking for art lovers.
Artists may submit up to three pieces of work for the show. There is no entry fee and the only stipulations are that all artwork must be created with recycled, repurposed or reused materials and must fit through a standard size door. The work must be for sale. Sales receipts are split evenly between the artist(s) and CARTM.
All work needs to be submitted to the Gallery at the NCRD on April 29 between 1 and 5 pm. Each submitted piece must have a title and be ready with appropriate hardware for hanging or display.
CARTM, www.cartm.org, is a 501c(3) non-profit organization and is a registered partner with the Oregon Cultural Trust.
For more information contact: Carl Vandervoort (carlvandervoort@mac.com)
In 1864, the church became the first black church in town and remained a center of religious activity for the local black community until it was removed from active use in 1994.
The Town Council and staff are very interested in the community’s ideas about how this wonderful structure might be used to the benefit of the town.
Workers remove carpet tiles from the Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 Second Ave. S., as part of a renovation project. The tiles are available for purchase at Habitat for Humanity ReStores in Willmar and Mankato. (Submitted photo)
The tiles will be available for purchase at Habitat for Humanity ReStores in Willmar and Mankato, said Nathan Benjamin, who heads up the Kansas City-based firm’s new Global Reuse Services operation.
About four semi-truck loads of the tiles have been taken out of the building for new uses, Benjamin said. It’s a big deal, because cushion-backed carpet tiles like those can’t be recycled, he said.
via No landfill for convention center’s old carpet | Finance & Commerce.
Ferran Vizoso Architects created a new roof for the building that gave it new life while preserving its historic presence. The roof is an enormous transparent skylight that fills the church’s interior with natural light.
via Clear Roof Breathes New Life Into Historic Spanish Church | Designs & Ideas on Dornob.
making in London, october of 2014, with Mando (amanda marie) seeyouthroughit
i make stuff from junk. i pick up one mess, one pile, and make another mess, and another pile. i use the junk from the city, i use the stuff from the field, i use the bits in the forest, and the things in the trash. i hunt, i collect, i gather, but only what i need for the work, for the play. color, shape, composition. some lost stuff gets found again.
‘Light Moves’ Lost Object piece in Beacon, New York. Part of the Beautiful Times tour with Amanda Marie. Our friends Dan and Kelene from Thundercut / Open Space Beacon / Electric Windows made it possible.
via the lost object.
“Our new contractor services program is designed to give local builders better access to CARTM, making it easy and affordable to dispose of construction and demolition (C&D) debris, and to divert valuable materials from that debris for reuse and recycling.”
“We realized in the aftermath of the China’s “green fence” last year, when the markets for recycled materials disappeared almost overnight—and are still recovering—that staying proactive and nimble to opportunity is the name of the game,” said Karen. “CARTM has a strong, dynamic board who is committed to the challenge of Leading Our Community To Zero Waste—they mean it, and I am ready to evangelize for it!”
The demolition of Linda Faulkner’s downtown Duncan building began earlier this month after five year’s of wrangling that still has be settled in court. — Image Credit: File
The city ordered the demolition of the 107-year-old building — located at the corner of Station and Craig — in September, five years after a protracted process that began when the building was damaged when it was hit by a Duncan snowplow.
Citing safety and nuisance reasons after Worksafe BC closed the site, the city eventually rejected a bid by Faulkner to negotiate a deal to repair and save the building.
via Old Red Balloon building demolition underway – Cowichan News Leader Pictorial.
The notion is inherently eco-conscious, upcycling structures that would otherwise be destroyed or left to the elements. But there’s also a notion of salvaging infrastructure so solid that it’s lasted years without help, sometimes relics but architectural marvels that have withstood the test of time.
These old boats became a winery in Baja, Mexico. (Taller de Arquitectura Contextual)
via PHOTOS: 12 Architectural Wonders and Spaces Reclaimed – weather.com.
Grant Koenig, Philip Bruckbauer and Blain Mikkonen, from left to right, own Grain Designs in West Fargo and sell furniture from reclaimed wood including the bleachers from the NDSU Bison Sports Arena. Dave Wallis
“When we first started, we’d go tear down a barn and build as much from it as we could,” Mikkonen said. “That’s kind of what we still do. We don’t necessarily tear down the barns ourselves anymore, but we’ll buy reclaimed lumber.”
The partners are strong believers in using sustainable materials for environmental reasons, but they also find value in the history and the story reclaimed wood gives a project.
Bison designs and logos made at Grain Designs in West Fargo. Photo by Dave Wallis
via Reclaimed wood company Grain Designs building on success of NDSU memorabilia | West Fargo Pioneer.
Milan’s rawest yet most refined restaurant, Carlo e Camilla in Segheria, is located in a former 1930s sawmill (segheria is Italian for sawmill).
Sharp and sleek, the glossy white surface of this futuristic desk design is crafted from a reclaimed Boeing airplane wing.
via High Flying Design: Boeing Wing Recycled into Futuristic Desk | Designs & Ideas on Dornob.
Not only were some frames attached to the new front facade of the West Village townhouse as super unique bay windows, they were also used to build a sophisticated penthouse surrounded by a thriving rooftop garden.
via LOT-EK uses recycled truck bodies to create a rooftop penthouse in NYC | Inhabitat New York City.
For construction and demolition waste the DoD set a goal of 58 percent to be recycled – Fort Leonard Wood exceeded that by diverting 79 percent of that waste from landfills.
via Fort Leonard Wood goes beyond Army green | Local – KY3.com.
Antonio “Shades” Agee holding up a student’s artwork STEPHANIE BATTAGLIA
Shades acknowledges what might be considered a unique situation, given his commercial success in the urban art: “I’m blessed. I’m an artist. People are paying me for what I do with a God-given talent. So there’s no problem with me giving back,” the graffiti artist said, chuckling. “Any child that gets to see anyone of success doing art … is awesome. Kids love that.”
At the heart of this village sits the dome home designed by british furniture manufacturers timothy oulton, used as a creative space where people can interact and consequently innovate new design ideas. The structure, as well as the supporting village created around it, were both built almost entirely of reclaimed material.
via timothy oulton erects the dome home from reclaimed material.
This line of stylish headphones made with reclaimed wood also has a deeper mission – to help restore hearing to a person in need.
via Beautiful headphones made with reclaimed wood help to fund hearing restoration : TreeHugger.
The space is located within a two-storey building by the city’s South Bund dockyard, described by the firm as the “gangsters’ warehouse” in reference to its former proprietor.
via Historic Shanghai “gangsters’ warehouse” renovated into office.
“As far as we’ve been able to tell, there are not actually any antiblight clinics that operate this way,” said Schaffzin, a clinical professor at the law school. “The goal is for students to understand blight from a policy perspective and from a neighborhood-impact perspective.”
via Law Students Combat Urban Blight in Memphis | National Law Journal.
Coney Island’s Boardwalk is scheduled to have the rest of its wood ripped out. So for NYC designers looking to get their hands on some, it’ll soon be time to start sniffing around.
Officers say he didn’t remove any of the household items such as furniture, food and belongings. Instead, he dumped everything into large construction debris bins.
via New York Man demolishes home without telling wife, police say | Fox News.
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