Put simply, logging is not a carbon solution. All told, the logging industry is the largest fossil fuel emitter in our state. In 2016, the Oregon Global Warming Commission reported that the wood products sector itself contributed 50% more pollution than the transportation and energy sector combined.
Heather – ALBERTA STREET GALLERY EVENT CALENDAR
Heather’s wood art and furniture is truly made from Portland, utilizing found wood and materials from deconstructed or abandoned homes in the Portland area. She incorporates recognizable reclaimed wood pieces such as lath, decorative edging and moulding into one-of-a-kind designs.
Re-Evaluating Heritage Waste: Sustaining Material Values through Deconstruction and Reuse: The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice: Vol 0, No 0 – by Susan M. Ross
This article explores how heritage values can be productively sustained or transformed by processes of building deconstruction and materials reuse, which address the increasing magnitude of demolition waste, landfill and resource use in urban development. The article starts by examining literature in heritage studies, sustainable building, and discard studies, then presents two examples from Vancouver, a Canadian city under intense development pressure, to help frame questions from project and policy contex
Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have – – The Adirondack Almanack
Illustrations: Above, the symbol for the Embedawatt, as envisioned by AARCH staff; and below a Medium Sized House Energy Chart courtesy of Jerry Jenkins (from Climate Change in the Adirondacks).
Assuming the new house is more energy efficient than an existing house, it still takes an average of 40 years for an energy efficient new house to recover the energy and carbon expended in the construction of the house (Empty Homes Agency, 2008).
Source: Embedawatt: Valuing What We Have – – The Adirondack Almanack
079.00 Re.Wind Camping | Flickr
079.00 Re.Wind Camping 15 photos · 1,807 views By: Superuse Studios
What the world’s most expensive Irish whiskey tastes like | CNN Travel
Presented in a handblown Waterford Crystal decanter and displayed in a wooden cabinet made from reclaimed whiskey vats, there are just 48 bottles in the world. The price tag for this rare wonder is $40,000.
Source: What the world’s most expensive Irish whiskey tastes like | CNN Travel
Hennepin County offering ‘Green Grants’ to help with cost of deconstruction | KSTP.com
Hennepin County has a total of about $100,000 in deconstruction grants available for 2020.
Source: Hennepin County offering ‘Green Grants’ to help with cost of deconstruction | KSTP.com
What if we never demolished another building? | News | Archinect
“It requires a fundamental shift in our attitude to materials.”
Source: What if we never demolished another building? | News | Archinect
A Portland Software Engineer Is Bringing the Pay Phone Back, Minus the “Pay” Part – Willamette Week
IMAGE: Mick Hangland-Skill
“The way I describe it is that it’s ‘radically accessible,'” he says. “All you need to be able to do is hear and talk.” Through grants, Anderson has expanded Futel to 10 booths in Portland, as well as Detroit and Ypsilanti, Mich., and Seaview, Wash., using hardware salvaged from Craigslist.
Source: A Portland Software Engineer Is Bringing the Pay Phone Back, Minus the “Pay” Part – Willamette Week
Reclaimed Concorde Cufflinks – Motor Sport Magazine
A stylish pair of Concorde cufflinks, casted using metal from the air intake assembly of Concorde 101
Perkins and Will StudioIDS Office Shows the Impact of Adaptive Reuse
Credit: ASID
Excess tabletops from the old office were cut to make adjustable shelving in the gallery wall, and millwork was reused in the print and model shop rooms. Overall, 16% of the total material cost for the project was salvaged and repurposed from the old office. 68% of the furniture was also reused (amounting to $100,000 savings).
Source: Perkins and Will StudioIDS Office Shows the Impact of Adaptive Reuse
Demolition uncovers antique log building in Pennsylvania | WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio
WNEP
“After our demolition contractor started pulling the outsides of the building off, (we) discovered there was a log cabin in there,” said council president Frank Dombroski.
Portland Street Artists Turned a Doomed Building Into a Temporary Work of Art – Willamette Week
IMAGE: Mick Hangland-Skill.
New owners Eastbank Development are planning to raze the site and turn it into apartments—but before doing so, they offered it to the nonprofit Portland Street Art Alliance to use as a canvas. Since last spring, more than 50 artists have contributed to the project, covering all four of the building’s outer walls with cows, bears, Sasquatches and hyper-bright 3-D lettering.
Source: Portland Street Artists Turned a Doomed Building Into a Temporary Work of Art – Willamette Week
Pixidermy – Where pixelation & taxidermy meet. By Kentaro Yamada on Etsy
Pixidermy Where pixelation & taxidermy meet. Future of sculpture.
Source: Where pixelation & taxidermy meet. Future of by Pixidermy on Etsy
Chicago’s 10 most senseless demolitions, mapped
“Great architecture has only two natural enemies,” said Nickel. “Water and stupid men.”
Second Mexico monarch butterfly activist found dead – BBC News
Hundreds of people have been mourning the butterfly activists. AFP
Mr Gómez’s body was found in a well on 29 January. His family said that prior to his disappearance, the activist had received threats warning him to stop his campaign against illegal logging.
Source: Second Mexico monarch butterfly activist found dead – BBC News
Cakebread Debuts a Sustainable and Gorgeous New Winery – Robb Report
The new visitor’s center.
The wood cladding is made from reclaimed redwood wine tank staves, an homage to the origins of winemaking in Napa, and custom light fixtures are also made from staves of retired Cakebread casks.
Source: Cakebread Debuts a Sustainable and Gorgeous New Winery – Robb Report
A sustainable teardown in Lake Oswego – Pamplin Media Group –
PHOTO: CLARA HOWELL – Workers have started building vertical on the new City Hall building.
Redevelopment Manager Sidaro Sin said contractors were able to recycle 90% of the two existing buildings — a former medical office and doggy day care — that were on the property where the new City Hall is being built. That was about 15% more than the contractors’ original goal.
Source: Pamplin Media Group – A sustainable teardown in Lake Oswego
Reclaimed Renovation – Reclaimed Woman
Sara Morel, founder of Reclaimed Woman
One foot in fashion, one foot in salvage, often up to my knees in reclaimed building materials, but refusing to part with my knee-high boots, whilst dancing in mud with reclaimed radiators from the roaring 20s.
Broaden the scope of of contractor education | Columnists | missoulian.com
A 2017 UN Environment report estimated the building sector contributes 49 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thus making it the single largest contributor to climate change. Globally, building operations account for 28 percent of GHG emissions and the embodied carbon of building materials–the emissions generated in the production, transport, and assembly of materials such as wood, concrete, and steel–accounts for another 11 percent.
Source: Broaden the scope of of contractor education | Columnists | missoulian.com
St. Raphael steeple getting the barn treatment so it can live on in pieces of art | Local News | madison.com
Jeremiah Logemann rummages through a storage locker Friday to show off some of the parts from the St. Raphael steeple that he plans to turn into pieces of art. St. Raphael in Downtown Madison was destroyed by fire in 2005. Since its demolition in 2008, the steeple has been kept in a lot along East Washington Avenue, but Logemann assumed ownership of the spire in June when the Madison Diocese was looking for a way to dispose of the 18-ton structure. STEVE APPS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
“I’ve been busy as hell since that day. It’s kind of miraculous,” Logemann said. “There are a lot of people in Madison that either just want art to make their place look cooler or they like the story of the steeple or a barn or they’re philanthropists. It doesn’t matter where their heart is at. We’ve got the material and I have the drive to make it. We can make great public art all over this city.”
Amid forestry struggles, panel finds ‘surprising’ consensus on old-growth logging concerns in B.C. | The Narwhal
“We’re seeing these forests disappear overnight. It’s happening so fast, and there’s very little old growth left in this part of B.C. It’s an environmental crisis that’s no less tragic than the loss of coral reefs and tropical rainforests.”
Equihen Plage: Village Of Upside Down Boat Houses – Unusual Places
Back at the beginning of the 1900s, Equihen Plage was known, as one of the best spots for fishing. As many boats were left to be destroyed on the shore, local fishermen used them as roofs for their handmade shelters. At the time, the area was called Quartier des Quilles en l’Air: the neighborhood of keels in the air.
Source: Equihen Plage: Village Of Upside Down Boat Houses – Unusual Places
University may demolish historic homes to make way for new College of Pharmacy building | The Michigan Daily
One of the historical houses on E. Huron St. that could be demolished to make way for a new College of Pharmacy building. Natalie Stephens/Daily
“There haven’t been any proposals submitted to purchase, and if that remains to be the case, over the summer they would be demolished,” Broekhuizen said.
Eclectic decor fills Eberly restaurant and tavern in central Austin
The Eberly occupies a 1970s brick building that formerly housed a print shop.
Source: Eclectic decor fills Eberly restaurant and tavern in central Austin
World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes a year | Environment | The Guardian
Half of the 100.6bn tonnes of materials were sand, clay, gravel and cement for building, plus minerals quarried for fertiliser. Photograph: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy
The lion’s share of the materials – 40% – is turned into housing.
Source: World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes a year | Environment | The Guardian
Meet the ‘Renovators’: These people are breathing new life into Buffalo’s past – The Buffalo News
PUSH Buffalo Executive Director Rahwa Ghirmatzion, center, with PUSH members and community advocates Luz Velez, left, and Providencia Carrion at the Wash Project. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)
She now oversees the organization’s programs and operations, which include housing construction, solar installation, job training and a youth center, in addition to advocacy efforts. PUSH employs 40, and has renovated more than 100 homes in the past seven years.
Source: Meet the ‘Renovators’: These people are breathing new life into Buffalo’s past – The Buffalo News
Tax Court Demolishes Deconstruction Deduction
Worker removes plaster from a brick wall with a perforatorGETTY
If the salvageable material from deconstructing your house is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should not need to pay somebody to take the house apart so that you can give the pieces to charity. There should be people waving money in front of your face to come in and take it apart.
St. Louis Begins Taking Apart Buildings To Salvage Valuable Brick And Lumber | St. Louis Public Radio
For about six months last year, the St. Louis Development Corporation hired workers to carefully take apart a former storage warehouse in the Vandeventer neighborhood and saved lumber, brick and other materials for reuse.
DAVID KOVALUK | ST. LOUIS PUBLIC RADIO
“Each job is like a cadaver. You get to dissect the building, see how it was put together, how it worked, how it could fail,” Schwarz said. “And each job is different. You don’t always know going into it what exactly is going to be there.”
Sustainable building: The hottest new material is, uh, wood – Vox
The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, at the University of British Columbia, showing off some timber. CIRS
Slabs of wood this large can match or exceed the performance of concrete and steel. CLT can be used to make floors, walls, ceilings — entire buildings. The world’s tallest mass timber structure, at 18 stories and over 280 feet, was recently built in Norway; there’s an 80-story wooden tower proposed for Chicago.
Source: Sustainable building: The hottest new material is, uh, wood – Vox
Humanity Risking ‘Global Disaster’ as Material Consumption Passes 100 Billion Tons Annually | Common Dreams News
Deforestation is one factor contributing to unprecedented consumption of materials in recent years. (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/Flickr/cc)
Half of the materials used each year are clay, gravel, sand, and other materials used for construction, and about 40% of the materials used are turned into housing—yet according to the Homeless World Cup Foundation, an estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless and as many as 1.6 billion people have inadequate housing.
‘Garbage Depot’ Protested at Canceled Public Hearing — ecoRI News
Nearly 100 opponents of the proposed waste facility on Allens Avenue in Providence raise their hands in silent protest at the Jan. 21 meeting of the City Plan Commission. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News)
During the rally, City Council member Pedro Espinal described how the addition of about 200 trucks per day heading to and from the proposed waste-processing facility would impact the five schools in neighborhood. “This facility will only increase the pollution and contaminants of South Providence,” Espinal said.
Source: ‘Garbage Depot’ Protested at Canceled Public Hearing — ecoRI News
Recycling helped Ken build his dream home from items destined for the dump – ABC News
PHOTO: Mr Aitken says the main stairs are made with wood from a settler’s hut built in the 1880s. (ABC News: Anna Hartley)
The landscape architect, now 70, salvaged centuries-old stones and wooden beams from historical buildings, including the city’s courthouses, jails and flour mills which have since been lost.
Google, Spruce Goose | ZGF
ZGF partnered with Google to transform the landmark Spruce Goose Hangar in Playa Vista, California. A 450,000+ SF, four-level “building-within-a-building” was developed inside the seven-story, 750-foot-long historic wooden structure. Built by Howard Hughes in 1943 for the construction of the Hercules IV airplane (aka the “Spruce Goose”), the hangar now comprises office, meeting, food service and event spaces, and employee amenity spaces.
Source: Google, Spruce Goose | ZGF
How an Irvington Company Salvaged a Century-Old Barn | NJ Monthly
Dismantling a historic barn is an exacting process, requiring weeks of logistical planning. Because the team hopes to repurpose every piece of wood, most work is done by hand, with the occasional support of heavy machinery. “The barn has its own plan,” says manager Anthony Saraceno. “There are always surprises.” Photo by Joe Polillio
Each salvage job is unique. In the case of Pitney Farm, a portion of the grounds is to be converted into a public park. Some of the salvaged wood was set aside to build benches for the park. Real Antique Wood will repurpose the rest. “I’ve probably made 25 mantels from the beams of that barn already,” says Anthony Saraceno, who manages the mill and Real Antique Wood.
Source: How an Irvington Company Salvaged a Century-Old Barn | NJ Monthly
Company Collects 80% of City’s Recyclable Plastics and Turns It All into Lumber
Photos by Mike Chassie
Roughly 80% of the plastic recyclables collected throughout Halifax, Nova Scotia are now being processed by Goodwood Plastic Products Ltd so they can be turned into building blocks.
Source: Company Collects 80% of City’s Recyclable Plastics and Turns It All into Lumber
NASA Wants to Grow a Moon Base Out of Mushrooms
If the research pans out, it would allow future astronauts to construct off-world settlements without needing to carry expensive, heavy building materials with them all the way from Earth — a game-changer in the plan to colonize space.
Virtuous circles: Can reusing building materials in new projects go mainstream? | News | Architects Journal
‘To me, this indicates the need to further question the current practices of the construction sector. How is it that something so simple and obvious as keeping reusable resources intact and in circulation can have become so complicated to put into practice?’
Tower Road heritage building may be up for demolition | The Signal
Seven people spoke out at a heritage advisory committee meeting Wednesday. None of them were in favour of the proposed demolition of the 202-year-old building at 1029 Tower Rd.
Source: Tower Road heritage building may be up for demolition | The Signal
Casper Regional Landfill begins burying turbine blades
A semi-truck hauls a turbine blade to the Casper Regional Landfill to be disposed of.
They are making a pretty large profit from the deal; $675,485 to be exact. “So the revenue from the special projects, um, that go in the unlined area, help with the whole cost of our facility so it keeps all of our rates low. Helping with the revenue source, so absolutely, we’re making money on it.”
Source: Casper Regional Landfill begins burying turbine blades
Recycled Wind Turbine Blades Make This Dutch Playground Fun | TreeHugger
Rotterdam-based architectural firm 2012Architecten took this playful association further in doing this neat renovation of a derelict playground, using recycled wind turbine parts.
Source: Recycled Wind Turbine Blades Make This Dutch Playground Fun | TreeHugger
Demolishing rectory in Owen Sound bad for conservation, environment: ACO | Owen Sound Sun Times
The historic St. Mary’s Catholic Church rectory in Owen Sound. The empire-style building was constructed in 1872. A wraparound porch was added in 1917 and was enclosed, as it appears today, in 1965. Denis Langlois
“Not only would we be destroying building materials superior in quality to what we can easily obtain today, we would be burning fossil fuels to transport these wasted materials to the landfill,” Elgie said. “Replacing these building materials extracts a huge toll on our natural environment – the fossil fuels burned, the greenhouse gases emitted, the air and water pollutants generated when new iron ore is mined, new steel smelted, new girders manufactured and transported to warehouses and ultimately Owen Sound – to mention just a few of the greenhouse gas-emitting steps in the construction process.”
Source: Demolishing rectory in Owen Sound bad for conservation, environment: ACO | Owen Sound Sun Times
New Vancouver Island ‘deconstruction’ company breaks down heritage houses by hand – Sooke News Mirror
The crews carefully deconstruct old homes to rescue as many reusable materials as possible, including old growth timber.
(Unbuilders photo)
With the climate crisis in our face, and the need to keep forests in the ground, Corneil recognized an opportunity for a holistic approach to demolition. He shifted his Vancouver construction business two years ago into a deconstruction company called the Unbuilders, and business is good.
40,000 bricks for Whangārei’s Hundertwasser – NZ Herald
The volunteer group started recycling the bricks from the former Harbour Board building in 2018.
A community effort to recycle material from Whangārei’s old Harbour Board building has come to a close and after two and a half years of chipping, project leader Andrew Garratt is counting nearly 40,000 bricks to be used in the new Hundertwasser Arts Centre.
Source: 40,000 bricks for Whangārei’s Hundertwasser – NZ Herald
Why tomorrow’s architecture will use yesterday’s materials | Financial Times
A team of workers demounts ceramic tiles in the Institut de Génie Civil in Liège © OPHOTO
“We see this as a pilot project, research,” Devlieger says. “[We are] testing methods for the professionalisation of reuse. Architects sometimes don’t understand the power they have. They are diverting huge streams of money towards new materials when they specify and there are social, environmental and economic consequences of those decisions.”
Source: Why tomorrow’s architecture will use yesterday’s materials | Financial Times
US cities are losing 36 million trees a year. Here’s why it matters and how you can stop it – CNN
“Every time we put a road down, we put a building and we cut a tree or add a tree, it not only affects that site, it affects the region. The study placed a value on tree loss based on trees’ role in air pollution removal and energy conservation.
The lost value amounted to $96 million a year.”
Source: US cities are losing 36 million trees a year. Here’s why it matters and how you can stop it – CNN
The case for … never demolishing another building | Cities | The Guardian
Ethical bank Triodos claim their new headquarters is the world’s first totally demountable office building. Photograph: Ossip van Duivenbode
With a structure made entirely from wood, it has been designed with mechanical fixings so that every element can be reused, with all material logged and designed for easy disassembly.
Source: The case for … never demolishing another building | Cities | The Guardian
Barn salvaged for art | Englewood Sun | yoursun.com
Dale Galvin grinds nails from roofing along Old Englewood Road. Some of the roofing will be used to create artwork by artists Lisa McQueen and Gary Carlberg. Sun Photos by Sandy Macys
“People are stopping by asking for a piece of it because it’s a part of their childhood,” Parks said. “It was a part of my life. This is my grandmother’s homestead. My mother was born in 1924 and was raised here.”
TWA Hotel Pool Turns into a Rooftop Ski Chalet for the Winter – Untapped New York
The bar has been decked out in red and blue and tartan and you can sit on sheepskin in front of the vintage fireplace.
Source: TWA Hotel Pool Turns into a Rooftop Ski Chalet for the Winter – Untapped New York
With fate of LCUSD-owned Batchelder fireplace in limbo, old tiles are made new – Los Angeles Times
Alan Batchelder, during a 2018 visit to a building owned by La Cañada Unified School District, poses with a fireplace made in 1923 by his grandfather, Arts and Crafts tile artist Ernest Allan Batchelder.
(File Photo)
“We’re trying to get ideas from tile preservationists about what it would take to move and restore it,” said LCUSD Assistant Supt. Mark Evans. “The house is going to have to come down, so we’re looking at how do we salvage it and is there a home for it?”
Source: With fate of LCUSD-owned Batchelder fireplace in limbo, old tiles are made new – Los Angeles Times