INNOVATIVE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT WINS TOWN'S FAVOR
After nixing a large-scale subdivision three years ago, the city council of Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota has unanimously approved a plan for an atypical development called Jackson Meadow that's twice as big. The Minneapolis landscape architecture firm Coen + Stumpf created its innovative site plan for developers Harold Teasdale and Bob Durfey. "Instead of large houses looming on the hilltops," says landscape architect Shane Coen, "the houses are going to be integrated into the topography and set back into the woods. I truly believe in time this will be a piece of Marine rather than the subdivision on the hill." Mayor Gordon Maltby says Jackson Meadow exceeds the spirit of the town's new zoning code, preserving 70 percent of the site's land as open space rather than the required 50 percent and grouping houses on smaller lots than called for. Instead of spreading 64 new houses across its 336 acres on large lots, the site plan consolidates them on 104 acres. What's left will remain open space or agricultural land protected from future development by conservation easements. There will also be a city park. While most new suburban houses start around 3,000 square feet, the smallest house in Jackson Meadow may be 900 square feet; most will be 1,500 to 2,000 square feet. Some houses face each other across a pedestrian greenway rather than a street. Others cluster around a meadow. To reduce paving, the developers negotiated narrower roads than the required 24 feet and will grass rather than pave the site's five miles of trails. Most of the trails will be open to the public, so homeowners will be able to walk or ski to town. Instead of 64 separate septic systems, an innovative wetland system will treat waste water. Coen says consolidating the septic systems was critical to preserving the open space. "You can't do third-acre lots if everyone has a drainfield in their lot." Teasdale expects house prices to range from $200,000 to $400,000. - (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, 6 Apr 98, p B1, by Linda Mack.

BOULDER'S GREEN BUILDING PROGRAM MANDATORY
To get a building permit for a new home or addition in Boulder, Colorado, an applicant's project must earn a minimum number of points for energy- and resource-efficient features. The city rolled out its mandatory Green Points program in March 1997. Proposed projects can earn Green Points in eight categories - land use, framing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, HVAC, solar energy, and indoor air quality. Some green measures require city inspection; applicants self-certify others. The number of Green Points needed for a permit follows a sliding scale based on the project's size - larger ones must be more resource efficient. A 24-page booklet clearly details what the program requires to earn the points for each measure and describes the benefits of each, making the program a valuable educational tool. Boulder has just introduced a similar voluntary program for remodeling and small addition projects. For more information, call Mike Weil, City of Boulder Office of Environmental Affairs, 303.441.4191. - Environmental Building News, Mar 98, p 3.

"A PETTING ZOO FOR NEW MATERIALS"
Material ConneXion is a designer's clearinghouse for the innovative industrial materials emerging almost daily from corporate plants and scientific laboratories around the world. Designer, educator, and entrepreneur George M. Beylerian set up Material ConneXion at New York City's 4 Columbus Circle with support from office furnishings maker Steelcase. Design thrives on interdisciplinary collaborations, says Beylerian, in which a working knowledge of science, technology, and ecology invariably stimulates innovation. His company offers a gallery space and an archive and database of new materials to architects, designers, environmentalists, contractors, industrial designers, educators, and students who join Material ConneXion. Yearly membership fees range from a few hundred dollars to over $10,000, depending on status as student, professional, or corporation. Beylerian's bins hold 2,800 sample bricks, blocks, chunks, tiles, and swatches of everything from exotic horsehair textiles treated with synthetic finishes to reconstituted aluminum chips to sheets of carbon tissue. Each month, a panel of architects, designers, material specialists, engineers, and ecologists vote about 50 new samples into the archive. Designers not in New York can use Material ConneXion's electronic database to search for obscure materials. The database offers each material's properties, outlining factors from sustainability to tensile strength, fire resistance, and elasticity. [Visit <http://www.materialconnexion.com>.] - The New York Times Magazine's Home Design, 5 Apr 98, p 68, by Akiko Busch.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN AUSTIN'S GREEN BUILDING PROGRAM
Short-staffed, the City of Austin's Green Building Program is searching for people to fill several positions - a residential program representative and possibly a commercial program representative. Candidates should have strong experience in architecture/construction management and green building. For more information, email jmayfield@greenbuilder.com. - Green Building News, Mar-Apr 98, p 4.

GREEN MEANS. . . CONVERTIBILITY?
Guest room shortages and soft markets for older office space in many US cities are prompting owners of 20- to 70-year-old office buildings to consider converting them to hotels. Brennan Beer Gorman/Architects is redesigning a 100,000-square-foot office building in Washington, DC into an eight-story, 158-room Marriott Courtyard hotel. Two of the firm's partners offer these considerations for office-to-hotel conversions. - Building footprint. Does the building have a workable floor plate with column spacing that accommodates an optimum room width of 12 to 15 feet? Does the building have a core-to- facade dimension of 30 to 40 feet? Unusual L, T, or W footprint shapes hinder efficient and flexible office layouts but can work well for guest room modules. - Window module. Are existing windows operable? Many codes require operable windows in guest rooms; many office buildings have fixed windows. Does the existing window module align with the proposed guest room module inside, or will the facade need extensive reworking? - Floor-to-ceiling height. Office buildings with ceilings that are too low for today's market may work well as hotels with eight-foot guest room ceilings. - Structural system. Can the structure easily and economically accommodate stair relocations and the tremendous number of floor penetrations that hotels require for ductwork and piping? - Urban Land, Jan 98, p 45, by Henry H. Brennan and Mark Boekenheide.

COMPANY TRIMS WOOD WASTE DISPOSAL COSTS
Westmark Products, Inc. makes commercial cabinets, drawers, and shelves for school laboratories, classrooms, and libraries. Looking at its waste stream, the Tacoma, Washington wood products company found it was spending 50 cents per square foot on particle board, then 17 cents per square foot to get rid of the waste. Now, under a performance-based five-year contract with Corporate Recycling Services, Inc. - a local firm that specializes in reducing disposal costs - Westmark has reached a 98 percent recycling rate. Using laminates and remanufactured woods presented a recycling dilemma for Westmark - laminate and resins can't be incinerated and the wood fiber from waste particle board is too short to be repulped for plywood. But CRS located a local composter who could use Westmark's mixed residuals including laminates. Fife Sand and Gravel grinds the materials for use as feedstock, blending the tiny scraps of Westmark's laminate in its topsoil products. Westmark and CRS improved recycling of regular wood waste, too. The company significantly increased the volume of wood scraps it sends to another nearby composter while returning four to five tons of pallets to vendors each month. - BioCycle, Feb 98, p 36, by Adrienne P. Touart.

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