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PORTLAND, OR (MARKET WIRE) Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM), a global leader in the outdoor apparel and footwear industries, and Tanner Creek Energy today announced that the companies have begun installation of a 100 KW grid-tied solar electric system at Columbia’s Portland, Oregon headquarters. News widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com
BEDFORD, MA – October 14, 2008 – Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules and cells worldwide, today announced that Spire has won a contract to provide certain elements of the Spi-LineT 25TF turnkey factory to produce 25 megawatts (MW) of amorphous thin film modules to XsunX in Portland, Oregon. This will be XsunX’s first factory in full production of their unique thin film technology. RSS feeds and News widgets on Feedzilla.com
The contest recognized affordable home designs that achieve sustainability in creative ways. Juror Robert M. Rogers, FAIA, of Roger Marvel Architects states in a press release on the AIA website, “We were especially intrigued with projects that executed beautiful design ideas and were inherently green by concept. From small ideas for the kitchen, to a way of life, the winners embodied these principles.” Grand Prize WinnerRyan Walsh of DRW Design Build in Portland, Oregon, won the Grand Prize for his project entitled, “Recycled Aesthetic.” Walsh assembled salvaged materials that he had collected over a period of five years to create a finished home. According to text accompanying the project submission, Walsh reversed the usual process of determining an aesthetic and then purchasing materials to fit that aesthetic; he took inspiration from the existing materials, and allowed the home’s design to evolve from them. (The photo above is a view of the home’s loft and its railing made of reclaimed wood.) Runners-UpMatthew Woodruff & Clinton Cuddington of Measured Architecture in Vancouver, British Columbia created “Gulf Islands House.” This two bedroom house had “a normal program, a normal budget, and a normal site for a normal family,” according to the project submission. The project utilized the site’s natural advantages, orienting the building to optimize both sunlight and shade. Over the course of the year during which the house has been in use, it has required only about 25% of the energy that it would have if these passive design strategies had not been used. Ryan Mankoski of Ninebark Studio and Chad Schneider of ArchiLab Design in Seattle, Washington, also used salvaged materials. For their project, called “Salvaged Cedar,” they took stop sign posts and milled them on-site to create siding. Other salvaged fir items were milled on-site, and reapplied as various finishings inside the new home. A slideshow of the contest winners (including honorable mentions) can be viewed on green.msn. All contest entries can be seen on the dwell website. Image Courtesy of: Blue Practice: Communications for a Sustainable World Read about a green homes contest sponsored by New York House magazine, or a Do-It-Yourself contest co-sponsored by Popular Science magazine.    
A couple of weeks back we did a feature on the great trend of green condo developments taking off all over the country– and we covered many developments in the East and South. Click here to learn about Green Condos in the Eastern U.S. A green condo can be a wonderful alternative for (the vast majority of) those of us who cannot afford to build a new green single-family home. We want sustainable design, solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and so much more, but we can’t afford to build. Viola– the green condo! This week we cover many of the excellent green condos available in the Western United States. There are so many to choose from it’s tough to pick just a selection to highlight here! In the Los Angeles Area Evo South is an exciting development in the heart of downtown LA. It is an urban tower of steel and glass– 23 stories with 311 residences. They are in the process of seeking LEED certification for the building. The units feature such eco-friendly elements as Bosch Energy Star appliances, low-flow water fixtures, Nature’s Choice carpeting and more.
In the San Francisco Bay Area The Arterra is a relatively new development in the Mission Bay district. Arterra is also seeking LEED Certification. The Arterra has three sections: “sky”, a 16 story tower with city and bay views; “city”, a 9-level building with city views and green roof; and “park,” a 6-level building with two-story residences that come with private outdoor spaces. Altogether there are 269 units in the Arterra, and apparently 55% of them are already sold. The Green City Lofts in Emeryville have 62 units of Energy Star Certified living. The steel superstructure and interior framing contains 25-90% post-consumer recycled content creating a more durable, earthquake-resistant, fire-resistant, rot-resistant, mold-resistant, and pest-resistant building. The units have radiant heating, no-VOC paints, double-pane windows, and cool metal roofs. In Seattle Enso is a thrilling condo development in Seattle. They are seeking LEED Gold certification. Units are for sale now and will be available in Spring 2009. The building is gorgeous and the units feature such eco-elements as concrete counters, sun shades, 100% recycled content carpet, no-VOC paints, and Ecoresin panels. The building also uses heat-pump technology, which is a very energy-efficient option for heating and cooling. The Veer Lofts are bringing a kicky spirit to Seattle. They have three styles of lofts for sale– the “Flexi-loft” is 1 and 1/2 stories; The Full Loft is two stories and The Flat is a one-story. They are seeking LEED Certification and the units include daylighting, water-conserving fixtures, recycled building materials and drought-tolerant landscaping. Check out the funky website– it’s very fun! In Portland
In Denver Just a few blocks from Coors Field in downtown Denver, 20|20 Lawrence Street features 60 residential condos atop an exciting mix of ground-level retailers. The development is LEED Gold (no small accomplishment!) The 50,000 watts of electrical power that will be produced from a roof-mounted photovoltaic system will represent one of the largest solar photovoltaic arrays in Colorado. The individual units feature sustainable hardwoods and low-VOC carpets and paints.     
In 1993, the sorority purchased an abandoned service station and, using volunteer labor, made it into a functional gathering space. Expanding the building will create additional meeting rooms, as well as areas for after school programs and daytime programming for senior citizens. The community center will serve as a demonstration project, using 50-70% recycled materials. In addition to using salvaged and recycled materials obtained from companies and businesses, the building will incorporate surplus metal cargo shipping containers into its structure. The Portland Office of Sustainable Development explains, “Once products are shipped across the ocean, the steel containers that keep materials safe are usually left behind at the port to be recycled or reused for other applications.” And according to literature made available from the sorority, “Metal cargo shipping containers are an international salvage source that can be used for environmentally sensible building materials.” Using cargo containers to make habitable structures is a process being refined by the company HyBrid in Seattle, Washington, who coined the term “cargotecture”. (For articles on HyBrid’s cargo container architecture, see “Cargotecture Finds Home in Northeast Portland” from the Portland Daily Journal of Commerce, and “Seattle Architects Making Homes From Cargo Containers” on the weblog Citizen Rain. The weblog Spluch has photographs of a museum project by architect Shigeru Ban that used stacked 152 cargo containers to create a moveable exhibit space.) For the June Key Delta House, Sienna will combine several containers, and make them into a permanent structure. Since the project is registered with the Living Building Challenge, it will be sustainable in other ways, as well: it will incorporate a water recycling system and an innovative heating and cooling system; natural daylighting will light the space; and landscaping will utilize permeable paving and native plants. Construction is scheduled to begin in August, with an intended completion date of December 2008. Project updates can be viewed on the Portland Office of Sustainable Development website. Image Credit: Parsons PR For more articles on recycled materials, see:
    
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