KAREN | AdobeStock
Pittsburgh officials aim to remove blight in neighborhoods by deconstructing city-owned properties that are condemned but not slated for demolition. The deconstruction will involve stripping buildings of useful materials to preserve their integrity so that they can be used in other building applications, according to the city.
Source: Deconstruction – Construction & Demolition Recycling
A female carpenter is facing a $15 million defamation lawsuit after posting criticisms of a Canadian construction podcast’s comments about catcalling to social media.
Source: Female Carpenter Faces $15M Lawsuit for Criticizing Construction Podcast Catcalling
Lower Granite Dam seen on the Snake River in Pomeroy, Washington. Photograph: Mason Trinca/The Guardian
In 2016, it was reported that the four dams were producing on average over 1,000 megawatts of energy each year – or enough to power 800,000 American homes. But as the renewable energy sector continues to shift and hydropower competes against low-cost renewable energy, including solar and wind, there is some uncertainty when it comes to what the future will look like for the industry. Against this backdrop, more than $17bn has been spent in recent decades as part of federal salmon recovery efforts.
Source: Salmon face extinction throughout the US west. Blame these four dams | Fish | The Guardian
This March 3, 2020, file photo, shows the Iron Gate Dam, powerhouse and spillway on the lower Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)AP
If the dams remained, PacifiCorp would likely have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit the structures to comply with today’s environmental laws. As it is, the utility has said the electricity generated by the dams no longer makes up a significant part of its power portfolio.
Source: Plan to remove 4 dams near Oregon-California border clears major hurdle – oregonlive.com
This is the 3rd video in the Strong Towns series, and is probably the most important core topic: the fact that American car-dependant cities are financially insolvent, and function like a Ponzi scheme. This is the reason most American cities are bankrupt.
“Carbon emissions from dams had been significantly underestimated,” wrote Matthias Koschorreck, a biogeochemist and the study’s senior author, in a press release. Where climate policymakers had once considered them a carbon sink, he argues, they should now be thought of as a source.
Source: Dams may release about twice as much carbon as they store | Popular Science
Governor Newsom, Cal Fire, and the California Natural Resources Agency continue to pay lip service to the climate emergency while promoting commercial logging and road building as appropriate responses to the wildfire crisis. They spend millions of dollars on a PR campaign for Nature-Based Solutions, but move forward with business as usual, promoting and approving the logging of millions of acres across the state, burning massive quantities of fossil fuel just to destroy our best ally in our fight to have
Source: Mendocino Trail Stewards
The new collection, Trucioli – a thin, curly piece of material shaved from a bigger piece – takes these brass shavings, coats them in gold and hand paints them in epoxy resin for joyful and sustainable designs.
Brass jewellery from Italian brand So-Le Studio makes good use of metal offcuts
Source: Buckets of discarded brass shavings inspire these chic earrings
Anchorage, Alaska, resident Hans Dow built his own sawmill and began milling his own boards after lumber prices skyrocketed over the past year.
Emily Schwing for NPR
“You can’t pay these kind of prices,” he says. “It’s like going to the grocery store and spending $200 and leaving with one bag of groceries.”
The U.S. Department of Commerce says it will seek to double tariff rates on most Canadian softwood lumber, angering home builders.
Ever wondered what happens to all your stuff when you throw it out? A lot of it – from sauce sachets to mobile phones – ends up in landfill or gets burned. Or it ends up in our environment, causing damage to the natural world on which we depend.
Growing Underground Cambridge University/YouTube
Since 2015, London-based Growing Underground has been using one of London’s eight underground World War Two bomb shelters to grow fresh produce indoors in an environment where no pesticide is required.
Source: London Wartime Bunkers Offer Essential Vertical Farm Space | IE
Macy’s, 2018. Image © Jesse Rieser
“I’ve seen the economic development happen to our community — it’s frustrating on a local level,” he said. “But, at the same time, I see a regular list of articles about Amazon building here and Amazon building there. I’m not sure any of us really fully understand the implications because it’s happening so so fast.”
Source: Amazon is buying up dead malls–adaptive reuse, or just eating its prey? | News | Archinect
WILL SWANSON FOR KOMAZA
“Trees are nature’s technology to handle carbon removal,” says Jackson, who was the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2013. “We want to show how to do it the right way, and we want it to be profitable.”
Source: Apple Launches Restore Fund | Reforestation and Carbon Removal
Thousands of logs seen from overhead at a timber terminal. Sweden is the world’s third biggest exporter of pulp, paper and sawn timber
‘Natural forests are not renewable. Trees can be planted, but not forests.’ They added: ‘If you plant pine trees, you get a timber field, not a forest. Real forests are complex ecosystems, a bedrock of a multitude of life and home for many species’
Source: ‘Forests are not renewable’: the felling of Sweden’s ancient trees | Environment | The Guardian
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have introduced a “Green New Deal for Public Housing” that would provide $172 billion to retrofit existing housing.
Source: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez introduce ‘Green New Deal for Public Housing’ | TheHill
Courtesy of Kraft Heinz
As manufacturers are working to reuse their waste products — both through upcycled products that save food items from the trash and manufacturing processes that use waste for energy — a successful test result could put Kraft Heinz in a class of its own. The company could potentially renovate its factories with its own post-consumer waste, which would be impactful.
Source: Kraft Heinz pilots recycled plastic packaging for roofs | Construction Dive
Engineered by 3D printing specialists WASP and designed by Mario Cucinella Architects, the first prototype of TECLA in Ravenna is built entirely using reusable and recyclable materials.
By becoming the first eco-habitat to be built using Crane WASP (world’s first modular and multilevel 3D printer designed to collectively build singular and large-scale architectural works), the structure takes inspiration from potter wasp, founded on the principles of a circular economy and digital fabrication.
Source: TECLA: 3D printed eco-habitat by WASP and Mario Cucinella Architects in Italy
A Google Street view of Shreveport, LA downtown area abruptly ending where it meets the highway.
US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is among those who have spoken out on the history of Black neighborhoods being disproportionately divided by highway projects, and has called for righting those wrongs.
Source: Highways that destroyed Black neighborhoods are crumbling. Some want to undo that legacy – CNN
Parishioners at Christ Church in Eccleston, Lancashire, were left “horrified and grieving” after 40 pieces of stone were taken, said the vicar, the Rev Sonya Doragh
More than £400,000 worth of paving slabs has been stolen from historic churchyards and buildings over the past five years, causing “grief and horror” among parishioners.
Source: Heritage crime: Thieves target historic church slabs for patios | News | The Times
More than 90 per cent of the 230,000 tons of construction waste ReEnergy accepted in 2019 came from out-of-state, according to its annual report. After processing, ReEnergy said it sent 93 per cent of the imported trash to the Juniper Ridge landfill, which while owned by the state is operated by a private company, New England Waste Service of Maine, a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems. Casella collects a “tipping fee” from ReEnergy for taking its waste. Fees for construction and demolition debris vary, but range from US$33 to US$95 per ton, according to the state’s environmental agency.
Forgotten sections of Chicago’s south side Englewood neighborhood are, however briefly, made visible again by members of the community.
The consultant, Tap International, says the Construction and Demolition Waste Diversion Program Program needs improvement to ensure that the City’s requirements and the intentions of the program are met.
In December 2020, Victoria council voted to approve an ambitious plan to reduce city waste by 50 per cent by 2040. “If we diverted all the construction waste currently going into the landfill, that would take us 10 per cent of the way to our targets,” said Helps. In an effort to cut red tape for companies like Unbuilders, city staff are in the final stages of drafting a deconstruction bylaw.
Source: Victoria pens new bylaw to cut red tape for green demolition | CTV News
Courtesy Stijn Poelstra/Zecc Architecten
Some of these interventions are so sensitive and surgical that they might be seen as prototypes for similar spaces all over the world, making a case for reusing structures instead of tearing them down.
Source: 6 Projects That Made the Netherlands a World Capital of Adaptive Reuse
The yellow pine that was used to build Baltimore’s rowhouses came from old-growth forests, and is more dense and rot-resistant than faster-growing new lumber; a century of oxidation has given it a handsome, dark patina. Furniture-makers and interior designers play up its provenance, designing items around its joist- and plank-shaped pieces, some of them pocked with nail holes and saw marks.
Source: Rescued charm – Baltimore’s abandoned homes are being recycled | United States | The Economist
Through a city program, almost the entire amount of material from the demolished YMCA building in south Lethbridge was diverted from the landfill.
Romeril said they have no projects lined up at the moment but, depending on what the project is, hope that the next one may reach even higher than the 98 per cent they achieved this time around.
Source: Lethbridge deconstruction program reaches record high waste reduction | CTV News
Attic beams at the former Massier family home at 321 W. Franklin Ave. in Naperville were notched out of timbers, perhaps in the 1880s. (Suzanne Baker / Naperville Sun)
Reichert said it would only be fitting to have lumber from the home recycled as furniture since Massier and his father and brother worked as furniture makers at Kroehler Manufacturing Co., which was once Naperville’s largest employer and, in the 1940s, the second-largest furniture maker in the United States.
There has also been a shift towards repurposed or ethically sourced, natural materials. “Homeowners should keep this in mind when doing any renovations. Over time, likely, homes with environmentally friendly features, such as built-in cupboards made from reclaimed wood, solar panels, water-saving faucets, will become increasingly desirable, especially among younger buyers.
Source: Popular home décor trends for 2021 | Bedfordview Edenvale News
600,000 Tonnes of Floor Covering Goes to Landfill Each Year in UK – What Can We Learn from Holland?
Marine Serre spring 2021Photo: Courtesy of Marine Serre
Marine Serre’s Magic Carpets:
A handful of Marine Serre’s burgundy jackets, skirts, and dresses were made from reclaimed carpets; each is one-of-a-kind.
Source: Shop the Sustainable Fashion Highlights of the Spring 2021 Collections | Vogue
Gershow Recycling Corp. is asking Brookhaven Town for approvals to build a waste transfer station near Long Island Rail Road tracks. Credit: Barry Sloan
“Any sustainable waste plan must include efforts to actually bring down waste,” said Abena Asare of Brookhaven hamlet, a member of the Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group. The community group supports alternatives to landfills that they say disproportionately are sited in minority and low-income communities.
Source: Brookhaven residents: We don’t want to become ‘garbage capital’ | Newsday
The whole of Providence was included on the 2021 list because of the many climate-change challenges the city faces. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)
“We’ve been talking behind the scenes about how to infuse our preservation work with this mindset, and of course preservation is an inherently green practice, particularly with adaptive reuse of old buildings. So, this really gave us a great way to marry preservation and sustainability. It just gave us a great jumping-off point.”
Luna Oiwa
Climate change is the one of the most important issues of our time. Yet most of us don’t know how to think about it or what to do about it. I’ve made this site as an outlet for my thoughts on and journey through this topic, specifically within the context of the building industry — an industry that fascinates me because it is so tied to who we are as a modern society and because it has enormous potential to reduce environmental impact on a global scale.
Source: Luna Oiwa | Blog
[Photo: Room & Board]
The Forest Service is eager to support efforts to reclaim wood because it means fewer trees will be felled; it now coordinates with the city of Baltimore to identify properties destined for demolition and sends in crews from companies with expertise in deconstruction, including Brick+Board.
Source: Room & Board’s most beautiful furniture uses 400-year-old wood
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Finbar Charleson / ACAN
Reuse existing buildings: Pursuing a strategy of retrofit, refurbishment, extension, and reuse over demolition and new build.
Source: Architects Climate Action Network Calls for Regulation of Embodied Carbon
A flower is visible behind a piece of the transparent material. (Qinqin Xia, University of Maryland/Science Advances)
Researchers at the University of Maryland have turned ordinary sheets of wood into transparent material that is nearly as clear as glass, but stronger and with better insulating properties. It could become an energy efficient building material in the future.
Source: Scientists develop transparent wood that is stronger and lighter than glass | CBC Radio
“It’s too good to throw away.”
Source: Treasures saved during a life of demolition | Stuff.co.nz
SQ4D’s completed proof of concept and demo home. SQ4D says it is the world’s largest permitted 3D printed home at 1,900 square feet.
“The cost of construction is 50% cheaper than the cost of comparable newly-constructed homes in Riverhead, New York, and 10 times faster,” said Stephen King, the Zillow Premier agent who has the 3D house listing. The 3D printed house will include 1,407 square feet of living space and will be built with concrete.
Source: 3D printed house: Builders say the method will reduce new home construction costs – CNN
be responsible and protect ecological environment, GETTY
If you are donating a “whole house” the house will be relocated off your property. Otherwise you are donating pieces of the house. Material destroyed in the deconstruction is not part of what you get credit for in valuing your deduction.
Source: Mann Case Sets Precedent For Building Material Reuse Tax Charitable Valuation
Cliff Williams / The Outlook Firefighters from the Eagle Creek Volunteer Fire Department served as pallbearers at the funeral of Leonard Cannie Mckelvey Thursday.
McKelvey was laid to rest in a casket made from reclaimed barn wood looking over the Eagle Creek Baptist Church and the Eagle Creek Volunteer Fire Department, both of which the carpenter helped build.
The production building, which covers 1.5 acres of the site, is slated to be torn down, according to an update provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District. Photo by J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune
Building deconstruction greatly reduces the amount of dust generated and prevents the spread of airborne contamination. Deconstruction of the former production building and disposal of the debris is expected to take approximately seven months.
Source: Buildings start to come down at Luckey site | News | sent-trib.com
“I know it might seem small to you but to get two pallets of napkins I’m not gonna have to buy napkins for two years from the Salvation Army and we serve more than 300 meals a day,” said Captain Andy Miller, the area commander of the Salvation Army in Tampa.
Source: What happens to all the material after the Super Bowl?
An ArcelorMittal steel plant. Photo courtesy of ArcelorMittal
Despite the recycling success, however, the steel industry is increasingly facing pressure to decarbonize. Recycling steel is still both energy- and cost-intensive, and both steelmakers and their customers must go further to reduce environmental impacts. One way to do this is to shift to a reuse model.
Source: Proposed model shows potential for circular practices in construction steel | Greenbiz
This Swiftwater Films time lapse, produced by director Shane Anderson and filmed and edited by Jesse Andrew Clark, shows the monthslong process of deconstructing the Nooksack Dam on the Middle Fork of Washington’s Nooksack River. This restoration will repair 16 miles of habitat for threatened salmon and steelhead.
Source: A Four-Month Time Lapse of the Nooksack Dam Removal | Outside Online
Unbuilders Reconstruction’s Niall Todd removes nails from a board at a house in North Vancouver in December 2018. The company demolishes homes by-hand and repurposes the reclaimed building materials. PHOTO BY JASON PAYNE /PNG
Across Canada, about 84 per cent, or four million tonnes of construction waste, ends up in landfills each year. Even in a forward-thinking jurisdiction like Metro Vancouver, less than one per cent of construction and demolition materials are reused. With the deconstruction industry in its infancy, the pandemic recovery is a chance to foster its long-term growth.
Source: Canada deconstruction industry should be part of ‘build back better’ | Vancouver Sun
The barn, built in 1912, once deconstructed, was found to have some of its timber from many years before.
Inside a northwestern Connecticut home there’s now timber from an ancient “deconstructed” Branford barn, purchased to match the existing 19th century floorboards. In a house in the state’s northeastern corner, the barn’s 110-year-old doors now live. And, an artist purchased pieces of the barn built in 1912 for their studio.
Source: ‘Deconstructed’ Century Old Barn Lives On In Other CT Homes | Branford, CT Patch
Photograph by Aaron Colussi
Working with architect Collin Kemberlin, the couple transformed the silo—part of a Temple Buell–designed World War II medical supply depot built in 1942—into two living spaces that adjoin their main residence, a former boiler house.
This option focuses on reduction and diversion of construction and demolition waste, including gypsum wallboard, treated wood, reclaimed asphalt shingles, carpet tiles and construction plastics. The RFA has more information.
Buildings just north of the main Camas paper mill site sit vacant on Jan. 7. (Joshua Hart/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
Nine of the buildings to be demolished were built between 1929 and 1970, according to G-P’s demolition plan. They include a two-story, 31,360-square-foot development lab; a four-story, 31,000-square-foot nonwovens manufacturing building; a three-story, 11,000-square-foot office building; a two-story water treatment building; two warehouses; a 3,500-square-foot library; and a one-story microscopy laboratory.
Source: Georgia-Pacific to raze 11 unused buildings near downtown Camas – The Columbian