This is BeachHaus I in the White Rock area of British Columbia.  The home (like the neighbor, BeachHaus II) is on the market, should you have an interest in a luxe, modern, prefabricated home with incredible views.  BeachHaus — located at 15611 Columbia Avenue — is waiting for LEED certification from the CAGBC and has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, two half bathrooms, a two-car garage, and about 2,085 square feet.

BeachHaus is listed for sale at $1,350,000, which includes a clean design by noted architectural firm Pb Elemental, a factory-built structure of four modules by Method Homes, and the full project development by InHaus Development.

To keep energy in check, BeachHaus has dual-pane low-E windows, Control4 home automation, an air-to-water heat exchange system, energy monitoring, soy-based spray foam insulation, an automatic skylight, Bosch appliances, and ultra-efficient laundry with steam dry, etc.

For water conservation, the green prefab includes an integrated rainwater harvesting system, dual-flush Toto toilets, and xeriscape low-maintenance landscaping.  Other green products and materials include FSC-certified wenge cabinetry, carbonized bamboo hardwoods, an open bamboo staircase, and a HEPA-filtered HRV, etc.

To see more of BeachHaus I, check out this video on YouTube.

[+] More about BeachHaus I Prefab by InHaus Development.

Credits courtesy: Pb Elemental.

Article tags: InHaus Development, Method Homes, Pb Elemental, residential

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jetson_green/~3/0hJAn_WAGfs/leed-beachhaus-i-prefab-in-white-rock.html

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western Pennsylvania, alleges that “despite several demands that it do so, Jeld-Wen has failed to make its required periodic royalty payments.”   PPG is seeking damages in excess of $75,000, plus the cost of the lawsuit.

Jeld-Wen has declined to comment on the suit. 

In spring of 2011, Jeld-Wen filed suit against AGC America Inc., Guardian Industries Corp., Pilkington North America and PPG Industries alleging price-fixing. That case is still pending.

Article source: http://www.windowanddoor.com/news-item/companies/ppg-sues-jeld-wen-license-fees

Available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the app is also said to provide additional high-value functionality including a running history of recent calculations, a customizable list of favorite calculations for quick and easy access to those used most often, and the ability to instantly email calculation results. Customization options also provide for trade-specific calculations and formulas, the supplier notes.  Add-ons will be available at an additional cost in the areas of business and finance, conversions and math, site work, finish work, concrete and masonry; carpentry and more.

“We have partnered with Dewalt on a wide array of reference and training products, but the creation of this mobile app has evolved our relationship to a new level of creativity and innovation,” says Greg Clayton, Delmar VP. “This app will offer immediate results for hundreds of difficult construction calculations along with valuable reference content and many other convenient features. We aim to provide the highest quality product available, at a cost that will make it easily attainable for our customers–which is why Dewalt Mobile Pro will provide an abundance of free content, valued at over $30, and many additional low-priced, trade specific add-ons.”
 

Article source: http://www.windowanddoor.com/news-item/companies/dewalt-offers-free-construction-app

  Deceuninck’s Phil Morton demonstrating the dual-sash design.

This creates an additional bonus air space between the two sash members and results in an extremely effective barrier to thermal energy flow. In addition, a unique thermal-activated ventilation system serves as an integral part of the window’s design, turning the unit into an energy generator by automatically venting solar-heated air into the building interior in the winter and venting it to the outside in the summer, the company reports.

“Innovation is at the forefront of our business, and the Genius system is destined to be one of the most innovative products in the fenestration industry today,” said Filip Geeraert, president and CEO of Deceuninck North America. “It is the epitome of form meeting function.”

Beyond energy efficiency, the window provides for ease of operation, extreme structural wind load resistance (range of DP-130 or more), STC ratings in the low 50s, and superior resistance to water and air infiltration, according to the company.

“We selected the AIA Convention and Expo to unveil the Genius system because architects attending the show were looking for the latest innovations that can take their future building projects to the next level,” Geeraert noted. “In our view, Genius has now reset the bar for window systems in terms of thermal performance and functionality.”
 

Article source: http://www.windowanddoor.com/news-item/companies/deceuninck-unveils-dual-sash-design-aia

A compact, energetic Texan, Romano is — typically speaking — the type to take the view not merely that the glass is half-full but that it would look a lot prettier if only you moved it over there to the lacquered table next to the reproduction Louis XV fauteuil from Maison Jansen.

“My first thought was to paint it gray and fill it with corn,” Romano said glumly of a dining room whose daunting proportions — about 13 by 17 by 21 feet high — were more suggestive of a silo than an elegant multimillion-dollar penthouse with panoramic views of the Hudson and whatever they call that place on the other side.

This was in late April. Roughly 10 days earlier Romano had been invited to participate in the 40th annual edition of the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, one of 30-odd members of that underrated profession who volunteer each year to work wizardry on rooms in houses donated for the purpose, all to benefit the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.

For most of its history the Kips Bay Decorator Show House has been staged in one or another Manhattan brownstone or town house. But this year there were no town houses to be found. And so the developer of the Aldyn, a 40-story condominium building at the south end of the former Trump development above the old Penn Central rail yards, offered the charity the use of two adjacent unsold duplexes, each more than 6,000 square feet (priced at $15.9 and $16.9 million) and each equally unpromising in architectural terms.

There are the views, of course. But a person cannot live in a view. You need a sofa.

The first time she saw the room allotted her at the show house, she felt like Mary Poppins, the decorator Susan Zises Green said: “I felt you could fly right through the windows.”

Romano entertained similar notions, although the flight he contemplated was in the opposite direction, straight out of Dodge.

But, as previously suggested, Romano is no quitter. And his is not the kind of profession anymore — if ever it was — whose practitioners can afford to turn up their noses at awkward, boxy high-rise developer apartments, places with bump-outs, overhanging soffits and air-conditioning vents located, for no apparent reason, in the middle of dining room walls.

“I almost threw up my hands,” Romano said, throwing up his hands. “I stood in the space and thought, ‘I don’t get it.’ And then it came to me, which nine times out of 10 is what happens. I walk into a room and the space, the geography or the architecture gives me a path and a story.”

The narrative that suggested itself to Romano involved a gallery. He would treat the ungainly dining room as a space well suited to die-hard Manhattanites of a type that, as Marlene Dietrich once noted, tend to be hungry for everything except food.B

He would alter the proportions and the mood of the too-tall room by painting the walls a nocturnal hue, a color he called aubergine.

Aubergine, of course, is French for eggplant, and one of the enduringly charming traits of those in the decorating trade is that, being in the fancying-up business, they seldom prefer a dull English word when a swanky-sounding foreign one is ready at hand. (Take, for example, that Louis XV armchair — uh, fauteuil.)

Romano knew instantly, or semi-instantly, that he would cover the walls with big modern paintings by Rachel Hovnanian and Marc Van Cauwenbergh and hang a faceted poison-green 1960s Italian mirror, and that he would place in the middle of the neutralizing sisal rug an octagonal Alessandro Albrizzi table, with room to seat six to eight people, an ideal number for dinner because, he said, “Less is boring and with more you get no general conversation.”

He would arrange around the table French Empire chairs because, he said, referring to himself in the third person in a way that somehow seems unstudied, “there will always be a French chair in a Todd Alexander Romano room.”

He would borrow from Guy Regal at Newel Antiques an immense 42-arm 1940s Venetian chandelier, using it to anchor the space. He would add a pair of ivory “Bunny” porcelain lamps from Christopher Spitzmiller atop a white-painted, 19th-century English console table. For an added touch of whimsy, or possibly madness, he would mount a monumental brass giraffe bust by the Mexican sculptor Sergio Bustamante high on one wall.

He would accessorize the space with amethyst geode cathedrals and a bomb-sized hunk of terra cotta in the shape of a pineapple and, when he was finished with all that, the imaginary family Romano conjured up to inhabit the room might feel when dining as if they were appearing nightly in a remake of “Boom” and not merely sitting down to General Tso’s chicken eaten straight from the container.

This, perhaps, is the place for a reporter to declare himself. I love decorators. ). I admire their skills, their professional lore, their gifts as psychologists and mind-readers called on to enter strangers’ houses and help those strangers feel somehow more at home. It must take moxie to convince others you have better taste than they do, since taste, after all, is little more than habit and can be acquired.

There is something else. The decorators of this city, people tend to forget, keep thousands of local crafts and tradespeople employed, not the least of these the woman who lives in Far Rockaway and makes by hand the paper lampshades Romano places in the houses of clients around the world.

I love, too, the element of a decorator’s ability that is innate and cannot easily be explained.

“The regular Joe or Carol doesn’t have the magic,” said Mario Buatta, an industry stalwart who for years was a Kips Bay Decorator Show House regular. “It’s great that everybody can go to Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn and buy the furniture, but how to make the proportions right and put it together is what most people just don’t get.”

Years ago, Buatta said, the decorator Albert Hadley — a beloved industry eminence who recently died, at 91, and to whom this year’s show house is, loosely speaking, an homage — visited the apartment where Buatta then lived, above Swifty’s.

“There was a tub chair in the room,” he said. “And after we were there for a while, Albert said, ‘Do you mind if I do something?’ And he got up and moved the chair two inches and it completely changed the feeling of that room.”

Before going out on her own years ago, Bunny Williams, the chairwoman of this year’s show house, spent more than a decade learning the trade as an associate at Parish-Hadley, the decorating firm of Hadley and Mrs. Henry Parish II, universally known as Sister.

“When I first started, all of us worked for firms,” Williams said. “We trained. We were assistants. It never occurred to us to just begin decorating.”

Now, in this age of self-promotion and dubious stylists and the dreary reality of DIY, “everyone wants to be a famous decorator by the time they’re 30,” Williams added. “That has diminished our profession tremendously.”

The gluttony and greed of a bygone boomtown era also took a heavy toll on the profession. “Nothing was harder hit than the interior design industry,” she said, by both the recession and by widespread suspicion of business practices throughout the industry. “And now we’re in a more realistic time.”

Reality, however, as Williams conceded, is hardly what visitors pay admission to see in a decorator show house. They come for the “fantasy, the playfulness, the flair of artistry.”

They come to project themselves, in an altogether pleasurable and voyeuristic manner, into Romano’s aubergine dining room.

Article source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2018232758_kipsbayhome17.html?syndication=rss

The annuals and perennials on my heat-lovers list need very little special care. Start with great, compost rich soil, and then a good weekly soaking and deadheading to remove spent blooms is about all they ask.

Plants like coreopsis, rudbeckia, echinacea and liatris get a little ragged-looking as their blooms fade or they develop seed heads; others stop making new flowers once insects have pollinated the plant. Deadheading redirects energy into making new flowers.

In my book, zinnias are a favorite for taking the heat with the best of them. With a little deadheading or cutting back periodically, they’ll put on an amazing display all summer long.

Exactly where to snip when deadheading isn’t always clear. The plant’s appearance should be your guide. You could just pinch off coreopsis’ buttons, for example, but that would leave brown stalks sticking up above the foliage. Snip at the base of the flower stem, above a pair of leaves, instead.

There are also several annuals and perennials in the list, like the poppy, spider flower and lantana, that don’t need deadheading. Stake the taller perennials like rudbeckia and liatris to keep them standing tall.

Some hot-weather plants, like perennial butterfly weed, don’t like to be transplanted once they’ve settled into their sites; they’ll allow transplanting from their original containers, but don’t try moving them later.

Some annuals, like California poppy, don’t tolerate transplanting, either. Sow their seeds by placing, not scattering, two or three seeds in holes the recommended distance apart. After they emerge, thin the seedlings, leaving only the healthiest one.

Heat-loving flowers will do even better if they’re mulched. Mulch keeps plant roots cool and lets rain and irrigation water soak slowly into the soil rather than running off. Mulch also slows evaporation. Organic mulch also improves the soil. Scatter 2 to 3 inches over the bed, being careful to avoid burying low-growing plants like golden fleece.

A heat-lovers sampler:

• California poppy. Striking, cup-shaped flowers in scarlet, rose, pink and gold over silvery-green foliage; 12 inches tall; full sun; well-drained soil; reseeding annual; Zones 6-10.

• Butterfly weed. Tiny clusters of intense orange, red or yellow flowers on 18- to 36-inch stalks; full sun to part shade; tolerates humidity; supports monarch butterfly larvae; Zones 3-9.

• Rudbeckia. Season-long, bright yellow daisy-like flowers; 2-3 feet tall; full sun; tolerates humidity; great for cut flowers, striking planted in drifts; Zones 3-7.

• Spider flower. Rose, white, pink and violet crowns of flowers; 4 feet tall; full sun to part shade; tolerates humidity; rampant self-seeder can take over the garden; prickles along the stems; annual; Zones 2-11.

• Gayfeather. Shaggy purple spikes bloom from the top down; full sun; well-drained soil; tolerates humidity but not wet, soggy winters; 18-24 inches tall, great vertical accent; Zones 3-8.

• Coreopsis “Jethro Tull.” Compact 2-inch golden-yellow flowers with tube-shape petals; 12-18 inches tall; full sun; well-drained soil; tolerates humidity, resists mildew; Zones 5-9.

• Purple coneflower. Drooping purple petals surround large, spiny “hedgehog” center cones; 3-4 feet tall; full sun to part shade; well-drained soil; tolerates poor soil and humidity; divide clumps every 3-4 years; will self-seed if not deadheaded; Zones 3-8.

• Golden fleece. Tiny, half-inch, yellow daisy-like flowers and aromatic, finely divided foliage; 6 inches tall; full sun; well-drained to sandy soil; excellent, spreading ground cover, rock garden plant or front of border filler; grown as an annual, Zones 9-10.

Joe Lamp’l, host of “Growing a Greener World” on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. For more information visit www.joegardener.com. If you’re not sure what plants may be invasive in your area, check with your local garden or horticultural center.

Article source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2018232906_gardenerwithin18.html?syndication=rss

CLICK HERE to view the video on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to view some of our staff’s favorite spots from around the city to enjoy during your stay here in the nation’s capitol.

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Article source: http://www.dwmmag.com/index.php/aia-convention-opens-to-launches-of-new-glazing-fenestration-products/

The stage was set for rowdy debate of the tensions between mechanical and passive green building techniques at the recent Congress of the New Urbansim.  Steve Mouzon, designer and author of The Original Green, Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green, Ann Daigle of the Princes Foundation, and Daniel Sloan of McGuire Woods, moderated by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, a founder of CNU, principal of DPZ and Dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture.

The dialogue began with inquiring on the premise of, will we be able to invent ourselves out of problems without causing more?  For example the fluorescent bulb replacing the incandescent created a toxic waste problem with mercury, while helping our energy efficiency problem.

Steve Mouzon outlined a fundamental issue with additive rating systems such as LEED, in that it creates a mentality that more is better while teams are adding systems to gain points.  Instead shouldn’t we be rewarded for frugality?  We should in fact work to condition people better to live in various climates more than conditioning our buildings all to 72 degrees.  Mouzon also added there needs to be a stronger emphasis on preservation and re-use.  Why use material with recycled content when you can re-use materials?

Ann Diagle put some of Mouzon’s examples into action discussing projects supported by the Princes Foundation which implemented a full array of passive strategies.  Currently one of the Princes Foundation’s is working on the “Natural House” [PDF] with a goal to reach for zero carbon living.

Bill Browning brought the conversation to a larger and commercial scale describing lauded green building projects such as the Bank of America tower in NYC or NREL’s new headquarters in Colorado, the most energy efficient office building to date.  Given the scale, use, and demand of these projects, mechanical solutions were required.  However, as the cost of energy continues to rise, how would skyscraper operations be effected with reliance on elevators and no operable windows?  Newer projects are now including mixed-mode capability to rely on passive solutions part of the year.

Daniel Sloan focused back on the residential scale and argued that in order to maintain the quality of life the market demands, mechanical strategies will continue to be needed.  He pointed out that we also need to be moving towards regenerate buildings to help repair what we have done to the world already.

So what’s the answer to this debate?

Both! The panel agreed that one should maximize passive strategies before implementing mechanical ones.  Focus on orientation, site, and envelope before thinking about systems.  Prioritize passive strategies such as natural ventilation, day lighting, natural materials, and increased insulation.  However, to put an end to the debate we settled on something everything agrees with; there is a bit of a timeline to deal with the problems we are facing.

Article tags: CNU, CNU 20

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jetson_green/~3/y1YLy2-gj_I/debate-mechanical-vs-passive-strategies.html

The stage was set for rowdy debate of the tensions between mechanical and passive green building techniques at the recent Congress of the New Urbansim.  Steve Mouzon, designer and author of The Original Green, Bill Browning of Terrapin Bright Green, Ann Daigle of the Princes Foundation, and Daniel Sloan of McGuire Woods, moderated by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, a founder of CNU, principal of DPZ and Dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture.

The dialogue began with inquiring on the premise of, will we be able to invent ourselves out of problems without causing more?  For example the fluorescent bulb replacing the incandescent created a toxic waste problem with mercury, while helping our energy efficiency problem.

Steve Mouzon outlined a fundamental issue with additive rating systems such as LEED, in that it creates a mentality that more is better while teams are adding systems to gain points.  Instead shouldn’t we be rewarded for frugality?  We should in fact work to condition people better to live in various climates more than conditioning our buildings all to 72 degrees.  Mouzon also added there needs to be a stronger emphasis on preservation and re-use.  Why use material with recycled content when you can re-use materials?

Ann Diagle put some of Mouzon’s examples into action discussing projects supported by the Princes Foundation which implemented a full array of passive strategies.  Currently one of the Princes Foundation’s is working on the “Natural House” [PDF] with a goal to reach for zero carbon living.

Bill Browning brought the conversation to a larger and commercial scale describing lauded green building projects such as the Bank of America tower in NYC or NREL’s new headquarters in Colorado, the most energy efficient office building to date.  Given the scale, use, and demand of these projects, mechanical solutions were required.  However, as the cost of energy continues to rise, how would skyscraper operations be effected with reliance on elevators and no operable windows?  Newer projects are now including mixed-mode capability to rely on passive solutions part of the year.

Daniel Sloan focused back on the residential scale and argued that in order to maintain the quality of life the market demands, mechanical strategies will continue to be needed.  He pointed out that we also need to be moving towards regenerate buildings to help repair what we have done to the world already.

So what’s the answer to this debate?

Both! The panel agreed that one should maximize passive strategies before implementing mechanical ones.  Focus on orientation, site, and envelope before thinking about systems.  Prioritize passive strategies such as natural ventilation, day lighting, natural materials, and increased insulation.  However, to put an end to the debate we settled on something everything agrees with; there is a bit of a timeline to deal with the problems we are facing.

Article tags: CNU, CNU 20

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jetson_green/~3/y1YLy2-gj_I/debate-mechanical-vs-passive-strategies.html

  Ribon-cutting ceremonies at Crystal-Pacific

The grand opening event featured welcoming remarks on behalf of the Crystal family of companies by Steve Chen, executive vice president and son of company owner and founder Thomas Chen. Other speakers included Riverside City Councilmember Mike Gardner and Riverside Chamber of Commerce Chairman Brian Hawley, who respectively presented certificates on behalf of Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge and U.S. Congressman Ken Calvert.

The new Crystal Pacific is “not just the opening of another run-of-the-mill business,” said Steve Chen, during his remarks. “A major new factory and business venture is especially significant in light of the continued poor national economy and the still-struggling fenestration industry. For this successful East Coast manufacturer to put a several million dollar stake in the ground to produce windows for the remodeling and new construction markets is a signal that the real estate, construction and building materials industries in the region are on the upswing.”

“While other window manufacturers continue to close factories and curtail operations, I’m extremely pleased that Crystal can announce expansion, growth and job creation,” added Thomas Chen.

 Crystal’s Thomas Chen, left, was given a certificate of recognition from Riverside City Council Member Mike Gardner. 

Housed in a 116,000-square-foot industrial building, the new Crystal Paficic factory currently employs about 30 workers. Guests at the opening event, including home improvement contractors, builders, building product distributors and suppliers, saw demonstrations of vinyl window production using the Crystal Pacific’s state-of-the-art automated welding, corner cleaning and IG fabrication equipment.

Crystal Pacific owner and founder Thomas Chen also owns Crystal Window Door Systems. Based in New York City, the company operates vinyl and aluminum window production and aluminum extrusion facilities in New York, Chicago and the St. Louis area. The affiliated companies now employ approximately 600 people nationally.

Article source: http://www.windowanddoor.com/news-item/companies/crystal-pacific-celebrates-grand-opening