| GreenClips.109 12.02.98 DECONSTRUCTION TESTED AT FORT ORD The Ford Ord Reuse Authority has dismantled several buildings at the former US Army base near California's Monterey Bay as part of a pilot deconstruction project that shows how carefully taking buildings apart can recover valuable materials for reuse. About 1,200 of Fort Ord's 7,000 buildings don't meet building codes and contain hazardous materials. Demolishing them and disposing of the materials, estimates say, would cost well over $100 million. To study a less expensive and less wasteful alternative, a $200,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation funded deconstruction of four buildings on the base last year. Built in the 1940s, the deconstructed buildings add up to about 11,000 square feet and include a mess hall or health clinic-type building, barracks, and garages. The buildings took from ten days to four weeks each to dismantle. Workers salvaged roof boards, framing lumber, tongue- and-groove Douglas fir flooring, subflooring, and unpainted drywall (reclaimed for composting). Exterior siding boards of Douglas fir are warehoused until an inexpensive way is found to remove their lead-based paint. "If the boards were clean and relatively new," says FORA project manager Stan Cook, "they'd be worth about $4 million." All told, salvagers reclaimed up to 90 percent of the materials. "That's higher than what would be feasible long-term in the commercial market," notes Dale Stansbury, assistant dean of economic development at the University of California-Santa Cruz. "If recovery went down to 75 percent, the cost would be about half as much. Economic analysis," he explains, "indicates where the line of demarcation is between deconstruction and demolition." The project confirmed Stansbury's belief that deconstruction is the best option in the vast majority of scenarios. Cook evaluates feasibility by considering, in order, available time, quality of materials, and volume of materials. [For more on FORA's activities, visit <http://www.fora.org>.] - BioCycle, Nov 98, p 46, by Dave Block. PITTSBURGH EYES DISTRIBUTED STORMWATER MANAGEMENT In October, the Rocky Mountain Institute and the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry held a multidisciplinary design workshop to explore on-site retrofit possibilities for stormwater management in the Pittsburgh area's Nine Mile Run watershed. As in many cities, Pittsburgh's rainwater runs into the same pipes that carry sewage to treatment plants. With increasing urbanization and more impervious surfaces, stormwater frequently floods the city's sewers, spilling excess sewage and storm runoff into local rivers. Such combined sewer overflow, called CSO, carries feces, oil, dirt, heavy metals, and other contaminants. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that CSOs discharge 1.2 trillion gallons into American waters every year, and the agency is requiring towns to come up with long-term CSO control plans. Facing conventional engineering solutions that could cost as much as $1 billion, Pittsburgh is looking at distributed stormwater management approaches that absorb rainwater where it falls and then release it slowly, as nature does. Techniques like tree planting, narrow streets to reduce impervious pavement, parking lot infiltration islands, ponds, water gardens, cisterns, and underground storage and dispersal systems can reduce or eliminate damaging pulses of stormwater. Results of the recent workshop will tell if this approach costs less than the roughly $2 a gallon that conventional detention systems would cost. - Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter, Fall-Winter 98, p 1, by Auden Schendler. POLYAL PANELS FROM YOGURT CONTAINERS Polyal looks like terrazzo, but its matrix and flecks of color come from recycled yogurt container scraps. Recycling factory scraps of aluminum foil bound to polystyrene proved difficult until researchers developed a method of heating and compressing all the waste particles together into one recycled product. The aluminum, they discovered, increases the strength of the polystyrene, creating a strong new surface material. Panels of Polyal measure 4 by 10 feet, come in thicknesses ranging from 8mm to 30mm, and have a matte finish. Designers specify Polyal mainly for horizontal applications like transaction tops, tables, workstation desktops, sink surrounds, and shelves. It also works vertically as wall panels, baseboards, and bath partitions. But as a flooring product, Polyal is only appropriate in light traffic areas like residential bathrooms. DecorCable Innovations in Chicago maintains a full stock of the German-made product. [For more information, email <sales@decorcable.com>.] - Interiors, Nov 98, p 54, by Katherine Day Sutton. GREEN BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR SELF-BUILDERS Do-it-yourself home builders can learn how to build green from architects, craftsmen, or builders at environmental building schools. Some schools offer eco-home tours; some organize lessons around specific budgets or material constraints. Others rely on hands-on experience. [The Ecological Design Education Network's Eco-Schools Directory] has details on 35 US building schools <http://www.ecodesign.org/edi/eden>. Yestermorrow Design School offers classes ranging from timber framing, cabinetry, and rustic furniture to straw- bale construction and old-house assessment. Classes at the Vermont school cost $250 to $1,450 and last two days to two weeks [<http://www.yestermorrow.org>]. The Canelo Project in Arizona offers straw-bale and earthen-floor workshops <http://www.deatech.com/canelo>. Solar Energy International in Colorado offers workshops on photovoltaic panel installation, solar home design, micro-hydro power, wind power, solar cooking, and adobe, as well as online courses <http://www.solarenergy.org>. And Fox Maple School of Traditional Building in Maine has classes on thatch, radiant heat systems, and timber framing [<http://www.nxi.com/www/joinersquarterly>]. - E Magazine, Nov-Dec 98, p 44, by Tracey C. Rembert. TAMALPAIS TIMBERWORKS Tamalpais TimberWorks offers Arts and Culture, a line of tables, bed frames, and benches made from certified sustainable forests. The furniture's ArtUnion Assembly metal plates and connecting bolts let the company customize the modular designs. "This line will be especially attractive," says its designer Bill Callahan, "to people who want their furniture to be a reflection of the things they love and value - particularly art, nature and the environment." [For more information, visit <http://www.tamalpais.com>.] - E Magazine, Nov- Dec 98, p 55, by Nicole M. DiDomenico. Correction to VERMONT LAW SCHOOL BUILDS GREEN in GreenClips.107 Environmental Building News has published a correction to its article on Oakes Hall at the Vermont Law School. Engineer Marc Rosenbaum estimates that the building's enthalpy wheel reduces the peak cooling load by 2.1 tons per 1,000 cfm, cutting the building's total load from 43 to 24 tons on the 9,000 cfm airflow - a 19-ton reduction that's significantly better than the 2-ton drop first reported. - Environmental Building News, Nov 98, p 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GreenClips is free of charge thanks to these sponsors - EPA'S ENVIRONMENTALLY-PREFERABLE PURCHASING PROGRAM |