On Wednesday evening, the lobby of Williams Tower held court to an exclusive book launch event for The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment and the Bottom Line, authored by HOK Vice President, Leigh Stringer. The event was in every way HOK-centric — a book written by an HOK board member, presented at HOK’s Houston headquarters, and co-hosted by the company — risking the impression that the book is primarily a method of branding a corporation as a leader in green design.
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Rice University ZEROHOUSE integrates line drying laundry in the sun [Photo Stefano Paltera, U.S. Department of Energy; all other photos Christof Spieler]
At the end of day five, the Rice Solar Decathlon team is in third place behind Team Germany and Team California. The Rice entry tied for first in the hot water category, and came in second for both architecture and market viability. For updates on scores, visit the Solar Decathlon website.
Today, on the National Mall, in front of the Museum of Natural History, there’s a house built by Rice students. It’s one of 20 entries in the Solar Decathlon, a Department of Energy-sponsored competition to build a highly efficient yet livable solar-powered house. I came to DC for the installation as the structural engineer for the house.
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The proposed use of stimulus funds to build Segment E of the Grand Parkway through farmland and prairie is doomed according to a Chronicle report. Other major headlines from the last month include new momentum to establish high-speed and commuter rail lines (1, 2, 3). The old Savoy Hotel in Downtown Houston was demolished but the Flagship Hotel on the Galveston Seawall remains. Montrose is named a top ten neighborhood nationally by the American Planning Association. And listen to the NPR series on Houston by Steve Inskeep if you haven’t already.
Friday October 9
Grand Parkway stretch in W. Harris Co. not so shovel-ready after all “Harris County officials will ask the state to shift $181 million in federal stimulus funding from a controversial toll road portion of the Grand Parkway to other local projects, citing delays obtaining federal permits that ‘might never be issued’….’This is stupendous news’ said David Crossley, president of the non-profit Houston Tomorrow.”
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Rice Solar Decathlon House on National Mall [Photo Eric Hester, darnart.com]
Students from Rice University are putting the final touches on their entry for the 2009 Solar Decathlon. I spoke with one of the lead student designers, David Dewane, to get an update.
RM: What’s it like putting a house together on the National Mall with Lincoln staring down at you?
DD: It’s pretty exciting because you do it 24-7. You are there [on the Mall] in the middle of the night, when the moon is rising, when the sun is rising. A lot of energy. A lot of public wandering by who are curious and excited. You are symbolically in the middle of the country.
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Galerías Mall, Maracaibo, Venezuela, courtesy Wilfredo R. Rodriguez H.
Imagine driving across the United States, from San José to New York City, without speaking to anyone. Sounds difficult, right? Credit card swipe machines, internet check-ins, and automated food ordering allowed Andrew Wood to accomplish this feat with only uttering four words, all in the first day of his cross country drive. The journey, among the stories in his seventh book, City Ubiquitous: Place, Communication, and the Rise of Omnitopia, portrays our social landscape as generic and provides the foundation for his thesis: our world “has become condensed into an enclosure of the same place.”
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According to a FEMA official, about 700 homes along the Bolivar Peninsula will be bought out and the land “returned to nature.”
“People will be relocated,” said Nitja McGrane, community education and outreach coordinator for FEMA’s Region VI mitigation division. She did not offer any further details or timeline for the buyouts.
McGrane joined Cumaraswamy Vipulanandan, Ph.D., director of the Texas Hurricane Center for Innovative Technology at the University of Houston, at the final of three civic forum talks sponsored by the Rice Design Alliance. The series focused on Hurricane Ike and its aftermath.
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Storm surge barriers for The Netherlands [Image Courtesy William Merrill]
Now what?
Almost as soon as the immediate danger from Hurricane Ike subsided, experts and government officials began asking themselves how to prevent the devastation from happening again.
The proposals have been varied but have shared certain characteristics—billion-dollar price tags and ambitious scope. One plan extends an enormous dike across the bay. Another would turn large parts of the coast into a nature reserve. The Rice Design Alliance gathered prominent voices in the Post-Ike discussion for the second of its series of three civic forums focusing on the hurricane and its aftermath. If you missed the event, download the Powerpoint presentations and listen to audio recordings below.
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Projected 22.4 foot surge [Courtesy Gordon Wells, University of Texas]
The Rice Design Alliance, the organization behind this blog, held the first of a two-part forum on Post-Hurricane Ike Planning. Eric Berger, the SciGuy of the Houston Chronicle, moderated the July 15 event, which featured some big-time scientists and engineers, the kind of people mayors and governors call when a hurricane is heading for their town. I left shaken. Their message was clear. We dodged the bullet with Ike. The period after the hurricane, as bad as it was, could have been far, far worse.
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Cite 71 was sandwiched in-between several hurricanes. Published in the summer of 2007 — after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and before Hurricane Ike — the issue managed to digest the still-raw lessons learned from the devastation in New Orleans and offered a prescient analysis before the arrival of Ike.
The issue asked experts what the worst-case scenario would be for Houston and what would happen if the region’s petro-chemical infrastructure flooded. Cite 71 explored designing buildings that would better withstand storm surges and winds. The issue also looked into the economic damage of hurricanes.Two years later, the issue continues to resonate as Houston and the Gulf Coast braves the latest hurricane season. So, here’s a look back at the Hurricane Issue. Click on the links below for downloadable PDFs of articles.
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"Bicycle Freedom," an art work made from Hurricane Ike debris by Nicholas Auger and hung on the Hazard street bridge over I-59
In Amsterdam, Berlin, or Shanghai, masses of men, women, and children bicycling together would be nothing unusual. Why not Houston? Though the climate and flat terrain are ideal for bicycling, inadequate accommodations on Houston’s abundant roadways limit their use by “vehicular cyclists.”
An update of the City of Houston’s comprehensive Bikeway Plan is under way to boost Houston’s efforts to become a bicycling-friendly community.
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