LOCUS Architecture BLOG

Short post for today. Clark Bremer, owner of Northern Lights Timber Framing, is auctioning off a small timber frame he made recently with a handful of students in his shop. It’s about 12′ X 16′ X 14′ high, perfect for a very small cabin, tea house, screen porch, or just a room to sit and meditate. He is asking for a minimum of $1,900 (price of the materials) when it goes on eBay today.

Snap it up!

Looking for an event to take your sweetie for a pre-Valentine’s Day date? Drop by the Circa Gallery in Minneapolis on Saturday, February 6th from 6-9 pm for the opening reception of a show featuring the work of Rebecca Crowell & Maren Kloppmann.

Maren is a friend and neighbor here in the Northrup King Building, as well as a gifted ceramic artist. She shows her work in galleries nationwide, and recently received a 2009/2010 McKnight Foundation Ceramic Artist Fellowship. In the past year, she installed a nifty piece in the lobby of the Westin Hotel at the Edina Galleria (behind the main reception). When you’re out returning holiday gifts at Southdale, stop in and have a look.

Maren at the Westin

This past November, Maren co-delivered a lecture at the Locus studios with Mark Wheat, the evening DJ at MPR’s 89.3 The Current. The two of them talked about the creative process, their relationship, and how they influence each other. If the work she presented is any indication, the Circa Gallery’s show should be well worth a trip. You might even get a glass of wine if you behave yourself.

See you in February at the Circa!

Friends Steve Appelhans and Azin Adjoudani recently approached Locus to ask if we’d be willing to host their Movie Night gatherings. “Sure!” we said. The Locus Movie Night era premiered in December with one of Steve’s picks, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, a “neo-noir” “science fiction thriller” (Wikipedia). Rock Hudson, no Doris Day, in a surreal chain of events that left me nostalgic about my teenage years watching Twilight Zone marathons.

With only one Locus gathering in the bin, MPR’s Art Hounds segment asked composer and educator Randall Davidson what he’s doing this weekend (1/16/10). Going to Locus Architecture for Movie Night! Obviously.

Movie night is part social hour, part Midwestern potluck, part movie club. No membership necessary, anyone is welcome. We convene at 6pm for food and drinks (BYO food and drinks), watch a film at 7pm (chosen by the membership a few weeks prior in an email instant-run-off-voting format), with discussion afterwards. When the wine runs out, people inexplicably head for the exits.

This month’s screening comes courtesy of Melody Gilbert, a local filmmaker. She follows other locals Barry Kimm (Meteor) and Barbara Wiener (Ida’s Story) in presenting personal work at Movie Night.

Interested in future gatherings? Add your name to the email list by sending a note to movienight@igrok.com. In your note, make sure to thank Steve and Azin for having the passion to keep the momentum behind Movie Night going.

This post is for Scott in La Crosse. He’s been thirsty for a new one. Thanks too, to Margaret, for use of a couple of her photographs.

With the economy in free fall, mirroring my net worth, my wife Linda and I decided to join four friends in Mendoza, Argentina. We figured we could always stay there, if there was a run on the banks stateside. Sip wine, nap through the afternoon, lounge in mineral spas, choke down slabs of beef around midnight, and gawk at modern architecture around Gran Mendoza. Could be worse.

A little geography. Mendoza is in central west Argentina, at the base of the Andes. Santiago, Chile is due west on the other slope, closer than Buenos Aires. Winter here, summer there, drain swirls the other way, sun in the northern sky, etc.

MALBEC
After acclimating to the relentless sunlight by drinking chilled wine and consuming pints of ice cream from Helados de Chacras in Chacras de Coria (where we stayed), we emerged on Day 3 to visit wineries and taste more seriously. With our able wine guide Santiago in the front seat, we headed to the Uco Valley to visit O. Fournier & Salentein, two wineries designed by Mendoza modernists, Bormida y Yanzon.

O. Fournier's Main Building

We started at O. Fournier, which one could argue, is a bold stroke for 21st century winery architecture. Monumental, imposing, masculine, dramatic, impressive, and to my taste, ultimately a little heavy-handed. I couldn’t shake the impression that a nasty troll with a Russian accent was going to emerge from a shadow, snub nosed pistol in hand, and announce that No. 3 at SPECTRE was awaiting our company in the downstairs vault.

Terrace

The manmade pond on the property was particularly unsympathetic to the climate. With water a valued and scarce resource in this desert, a shallow pool felt luxurious, not to mention incongruous, to the industrial feel of the site. The gesture struck me as arrogant.

On the upside, the rusting steel formwork used to cast the concrete waffle-slab ceiling in the barrel room – now scattered around the site as planters – were beautiful reused discards. The art inside the building was stark and harshly lit, which worked well with the spaces.

Barrel Room

We then drove to Salentein, another Bormida y Yanzon complex. Three named buildings serve the winery’s different functions; wine making in Salentein; visitor’s center, art gallery, and restaurant in Killka; and the chapel at Capilla de la Gratitud.

Salentein

Entry Court

I thought the chapel the best building of the three, although the pool and entry sequence at Killka impressed the group. All of the buildings share a severe language, yet the chapel represented the rugged landscape without sentimentality or nostalgia. It was my favorite of all the Bormida y Yanzon buildings that we visited. The olive wood furniture in the chapel was spectacular.

In the art gallery, there was a small body of exquisite sculptural work from an Argentine artist working with sheet metal.

If you’re used to wine tasting in the U.S., be warned. Most of the wineries producing the higher quality vintages require a reservation for a tour, tasting, or a meal. The armed guards out at the road appear serious, and aren’t necessarily swayed by a smiling mouth that speaks English. Comprende?

MATE (MAH-TAY, not Mmm + ATE)
Many Argentines drink mate throughout the day, a tea-like brew made from the leaves and stems of the stubby yerba mate tree. Caffeine? Yes, but doesn’t give the jitters like coffee. Bitter? Yes, like a strong tea. Benefits? Supposedly a mellower stimulant, aiding weight loss, increasing energy level, and even fighting bad breath.

My friend Zach embraced the mate ritual, which is a bit like a smoker constantly fiddling with the bowl of a pipe. We have no idea if Zach knows what he was doing, but he was convinced enough to buy a 25 lb. bag of yerba mate when he returned to Minneapolis.

Zach with his mate

Make your own at home!

1. “Cure” new gourd (you can find out how on the ‘net)
2. Place yerba mate (looks like shredded tea leaves) in gourd
3. Add other flavors if desired (orange rinds, mint leaves)
4. Fill with hot, not boiling, water – add cool water to drink, if desired
5. Drink mate through straw you bought with the gourd (Traditionally, you’d share your gourd with friends and/or strangers; this stretched our party’s comfort level)
6. Refill frequently, adusting the amount of yerba mate, hot water, rinsing straw, etc. Make sure it takes plenty of time, with much gesticulating
7. Rinse gourd, compost spent mate, dry gourd upside down until next time

MUTTS
In the city of Mendoza, most of the dogs we saw were groomed and on leash. In Chacras, they roamed the streets like some kind of canine Pamplona. With three enthusiasts in our group, half of the dogs in town followed us around the city on our daily jaunts, much to the disgust of the locals (and some in our party). On the last day, Linda tried to talk the local butchers into selling her a few bones for her favorite pals, Uno & Dos. Nada. When Marta, the mother of one of the owners of the house where we stayed, saw Linda with the dogs outside the house, she panicked, “You didn’t let THEM in, did you?” Linda confided in me that she had not only considered letting them in, but was going to let them swim in the pool, you know, “to get clean.”

Uno y Dos

Not all were friendly

MOUNTAINS
The highlight of the trip was our trip into the Andes. We did a short hike in the National Park at the base of Aconcagua, the highest peak outside of the Himalayas. It made me wish we’d dedicated more of our trip to getting around the mountains. If you find yourself up near Aconcagua, keep warm with an Alpaca scarf from the high altitude flea market opposite the Puente del Inca.

Aconcagua!

Outpost at Puente del Inca

MEAT (Vegetarians need go no further)
Every article ever written about Argentina must mention meat in passing, and I will not break the chain. Mendoza is supposed to be a good place to eat goat, but we couldn’t find any – not for lack of trying. The best beef I had was at 1884, chef Francis Mallman’s place in Godoy Cruz just outside Mendoza. The garden where we ate was immaculately manicured and the wait staff efficient and professionally formal. If not for a particularly rude encounter with our bar waiter, the evening would have been perfect.

Beef on frisbee-sized Potato Chip at 1884

While waiting for one of our party to use the bathroom, I scanned the jacket of Mallman’s book Seven Fires, Grilling the Argentine Way. I had to giggle when I read Mallman’s quote that he “tired of making fancy French food for wealthy customers in Buenos Aires.” Based on what I saw at 1884, he’s now making fancy Argentine food for wealthy customers in Mendoza.

A couple of other highlights from our 10-day food orgy. Vegetables were in short supply, but the food really was outstanding for the most part, and relatively inexpensive.

Not for the squeamish

The Argentines, like the foodies in this country, like their food sculptural. There was plenty of stacking and layering, towers and slabs, including this architectural offering.

Some recommendations for your trip to Mendoza:

1. Despite what the locals tell you, you CAN ride the bus. It’s quick, you mix with the locals, and the bus drivers don’t try to fleece you.
2. Go see the modern architecture of Bormida y Yanzon (see above). All the old buildings of the city were leveled by an earthquake in 1861 anyway.
3. Shop at Ni Chicha Ni Limonada. Great accessory store run by an architect.
4. Enjoy a Fernet Branca con Coke. Tasty.
5. REUSE plastic bags – The Argentine landscape already has too many blowing around.
6. If two little girls knock on your door with empanadas for sale, BUY!
7. If wine tasting, get out of town to the Uco Valley.
8. Go to the mountains, see Aconcagua. Climb it!
9. Spend a day walking around Mendoza, and stop in at Kato Cafe for a Gancia Batido.
10. Consider staying at the place we did, it’s beautiful. Pool, meat across the street, empanadas (see above), modern, very comfortable, and no dogs have ever been in the pool.

Friday, November 13th from 1:30-3:00 pm
Stassen Room, Humphrey Center, University of Minnesota West Bank

This is copied from an email I received from Sophia Ginis in the System Dynamics Interest Group. If you’re interested, come see.

Are biofuels sustainable considering the world’s need for food? How do biofuels contribute to greenhouse gas emissions? How have biofuels been helpful? Finally, how do we develop policies that actually encourage rather than stifle development of truly sustainable biofuels? John Sheenan will present his work in modeling on the effects of biofuels and help answer some of the existing land management issues.

John Sheehan is the Institute on the Environment’s scientific program coordinator for biofuels and the global environment, Sheehan’s work focuses on the multifaceted question of biofuels and their sustainability as a future energy source. Sheehan joined the University of Minnesota in February 2009, after spending nearly two decades working on biofuels. For 17 years, he worked as a project manager and analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. Initially trained as a biochemical engineer, he quickly developed an interest and expertise in the life-cycle assessment of biofuels. While at NREL, Sheehan also led research on the production and conversion of algae to biofuels; a technology that is now receiving a great deal of attention.

What do these have in common? Well, nothing I can speak about intelligently, but I’ve been confined to my car quite a bit these past two weeks listening to the radio. Sure, I’ve listened to a few innings of Twins games, but most of the time the usual; the Minnesota-centric staple of the tea-drinking, dog-walking, Volvo-driving, liberal-talking, weather-obsessed, Prairie Home Companion-loving, responsible-without-being-inflammatory crowd; our beloved MPR.

A few items caught my ear.

Got a Hennepin County library card? Check out (in both senses of the word) a Power Energy Meter . Plug in any appliance you own and you can monitor voltage, electricity cost, and power consumption. Have you ever wondered if your KitchenAid actually meets the standards on that yellow EnergyGuide sticker you threw out?

Dr. Mark Seeley, who has the most comforting voice of any climatologist I’ve ever met, wakes me up every Friday morning with a collection of weather data and facts. Today on air and on the Minnesota WeatherTalk Newsletter, he noted the annual Kuehnast Lecture coming up on October 15th. Dr. Dennis Baldocchi will speak on “Breathing of the Biosphere: How Physics Sets the Limits and Biology Does the Work”. Exactly. Dr. Baldocchi teaches at U. C. Berkeley, my alma mater, and that of Dr. Seeley as well. Seeing as we beat the Gophers a couple weeks back in the new stadium, it’s looking like there might be a Cal tsunami sweeping the North Star State….

…including an invasion of solar collectors. Not just for the deserts of Nevada and California any more, or at least not in the minds of the Brothers at St. John’s who are installing the largest solar farm in the upper Midwest. I’m skeptical this type of electricity generation makes sense here, given the land required and our climate (short days in winter, cloud coverage, and, oh yeah, plenty of wind), but St. John’s leadership has a history of making bold statements with results. (see: Marcel Breuer’s Abbey, Richard Breshanen’s pottery, VJAA’s recent buildings)

Onto the consumer goods front.

We just ran out of office paper. Calling XpedX, I was surprised to learn a ream of medium weight office paper with 30% post-consumer recycled content was going to run $180. Cheapo, clear-cut forest paper sure to endanger a handful of species, on the other hand, was about forty bucks. Desperate, we cleared out some old client files, and threw used paper in the tray, printing on the blank side. To the internet. In minutes, we found Eureka! Recycling right here in NE Minneapolis runs a paper Co-op. 100% post consumer recycled white paper for $41 a ream! See you later XpedX! Fall deadline to order is October 15th. Order now! Your goods won’t come until December, so clear out those file cabinets.

And finally, some politics.

Saw this week’s City Pages cover story featured the darling-of-all-architects-and-developers, Minneapolis Council Member Lisa Goodman. Some exquisite quotations in that article. Also read our lovely downtown pillow is going to be sponsored by Minnesota’s shopping mecca, Mall of America Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. This lead me to wonder if the new planted roof at the Target Center – should we thank or harass Lisa for that? – might fuel a new round of naming. My vote is Roundup Roof at Target Center.

I spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on a trade mission. Our group of Minnesotans – four architects, one home builder, and three representatives of a window distributor – spent two days in Steinbach and Winnipeg, meeting with Canadian manufacturers and architects working with sustainable materials. After I spent Sunday biking around Winnipeg, I met up with the mission Monday.

We departed for Steinbach, Manitoba from the historic (and allegedly haunted) Fort Garry Hotel. For those of you living beneath the 49th parallel, you’ll be relieved to know that summer road construction is not limited to our interstates. We were kept to one lane, pretty much the 65 km from Winnipeg to Steinbach. Fortunately for us, the woman driving our van was a native Austrian, and like most Europeans, knows how to get the most out of a rented Dodge minivan.

We poured out of the vans into the Loewen parking lot around 9. For the next five hours, we watched douglas fir and mahogany get shaped, cut, culled, inspected, clamped, hammered, fitted with aluminum extrusions, and outfitted with hardware and glass in Loewen’s 580,000 square foot facility (that’s 13+ acres). We talked about custom sizes and shapes, quality and optimization, specifying FSC wood (which can be had for about a 20% premium), sustainability, and how Loewen assembles their own glass on the premises. At Locus, we’ve bought Loewen for a half dozen years (through Doug Truax, now of Synergy Products) and have been pleased with the product line. Part of the tour outlined how waste material was handled in the process. Wood offcuts heat the plant in winter, sawdust is collected and sold as animal bedding, and aluminum and glass offcuts are sorted and recycled. We were told even the water used for storm and pressure testing in the research lab is collected and reused. It all makes financial sense of course, but comforting to see it in action.

Loewen Windows in a recent Locus project

On Tuesday morning, we met with other product manufacturers and inventors in Winnipeg. In a rapid-fire-10-minute-dating type format, we met with other Canadian manufacturing interests. We’ve not used any of these, so the following isn’t an endorsement, but I think we will be following up with these companies.

J Neufeld, Wood Anchor
J offers wood flooring and mouldings from wood that has been reclaimed, landfill diverted, or from trees cut down in urban areas. We’ve been looking for someone that is already doing this for years. Most of the manufacturing is done in Minnesota, at a mill in Cook, north of Virginia.

Neil Krovats & Kristina Yurkiw, Clearline Technologies
Neil & Kristina will unveil a line of products this year at Greenbuild in Phoenix (the link above will show the products after November 2009). Will we see particle board and acoustic tile made from hemp fiber or “hempsulation” in the aisles of Home Depot in the near future? How about hemp cement? These two would like to see it happen with products they are currently bringing to market. As you might expect, Neil had to say, as he handed me the hempsulation sample, “You can’t smoke it.”

Ryan Schade, Terry Johnstone, & Paul Loewen, Accurate Dorwin
Al Dueck, Duxton Windows & Doors
Accurate Dorwin and Duxton (two separate companies) both manufacture windows and doors using pultruded fiberglass. Fiberglass manufacturers argue that the material inherently makes for a window that is more energy efficient, structurally stable, less expensive, and longer lasting than their clad aluminum and wood-based competition. In theory, all these claims may well be true. In a residential application where the window is to be painted, fiberglass is definitely an option to consider, with U-values (inverse of R value) lower than wood and aluminum versions. In our office, we’re more excited by the commercial potential of fiberglass windows and doors in storefronts and curtain walls. Fiberglass conducts much less heat than the more prevalent aluminum.

Special thanks to Pam Olson, Christa Andraos, & Charles Hatzipanayis (Canadian consulate & trade) for transportation, setting up our meetings, making sure we were properly fed and caffeinated, and keeping the conversation stimulating.

Lastly, if you find yourself without your skateboard in Winnipeg (it could happen), stop by the Green Apple skate shop. When I stopped, Mike McDermott, a pro boarder and shop owner, came out from the back to show off his new space. We talked about business while he rung up a couple of autographed Green Apple T-shirts for my boys. As we walked out on Sunday evening, Mike joked while pointing at his sign, “If it doesn’t make it, I’ll just change the word ’skateshop’ to ‘pub’ and I’ll have plenty of business.” Seems Winnipeg has something in common with Wisconsin.

A couple of ideas for September. Come and see us, say hello, we’ll give you a hug.

9/10 – Housing Crisis Presentations (with cold beverages!)
West Bank Social Center
7pm
The housing crisis has transformed once vibrant neighborhoods into vacant landscapes of foreclosure and collapse. Much attention has been given to the financial causes of the crisis but few projects have gone beyond that. In the exhibit “Unbundling the Housing Crisis,”, just closing at the Form + Content Gallery in downtown Minneapolis, 8 interdisciplinary groups of artists, designers, writers, scientists, and thinkers were asked to collaborate, research, create and present projects examining all aspects of the housing crisis.

These 8 groups come together in person to present their projects, discuss their process, and share their creative approaches to understanding and unbundling the housing crisis.

Short presentations on:
+ Money on the Block: Mapping neighborhood financial flows in the Hawthorn neighborhood
+ The flora of of a condemned property at 3001 James Ave. N
+ A machine to decipher the housing crisis through interactive discovery and play
+ Locus Architecture’s PPoD: A flexible housing system – pay as you build, build as you grow, and grow (or shrink) as you need.
+ Houses that work with their climate; thoughts on sustainable housing and community
+ gen(h)ome: From a pool of slime to a McMansion in only 3,700,000,000 years!
+ Complexities of the urban fabric
+ Ghosts and Shadows; A physical examination of 26 square blocks in North Minneapolis

A panel discussion led by curator/artist/architect Jay H. Isenberg, AIA will follow.

Vinje in 1961 at a prior dedication

9/12 & 9/13 – Vinje Lutheran Church Dedication
Willmar, MN
Open House Saturday 3-6pm
Worship Sunday at 8:30 & 10:45am
Locus designed an addition for this modern icon in Willmar, MN, including a gathering space and youth expansion on the west side of the original complex. This follows a painstaking renovation of the original Sanctuary designed by Sewell J. Mathre of SMSQ. It’s quite a dramatic structure, with an exoskeleton steel frame, unusual in this climate, supporting the worship space.

Vinje's Original Floor Plan - in person

9/18 – PARK(ing) Day 2009
Nationwide/Minneapolis
All day
1. Pick a parking spot
2. Feed the meter
3. You’ve paid for the space, set up some chairs, hang around, socialize.
We plan to set up shop and work. We’ll let you know where we’ll be. Come and visit. Maybe we’ll even give you some advice – free of charge.

9/20-22 – Canadian Trade Mission
Winnipeg, Manitoba
OK, not at the personal invitation of Stephen Harper, but as guests of Loewen Windows of Steinbach. Going to tour the plant, and spend a few days bicycling around Winnipeg. Send us your favorite things to do at the confluence of the Red & Assiniboine.

This morning I was listening to an interview with an insurance expert on NPR. The interview centered around homeowners not having enough insurance to rebuild their homes in the event of a catastrophe – in this case the wildfires burning in the southern part of California.

The insurance expert made some reasonable claims, noting that some homeowners try to keep rates down by not “advising” their insurance companies when renovating or adding to their homes, something that can come back to bite if the house burns to the ground later. The thing that caught my ear – like a fishhook – was the next thing he said.

I’m paraphrasing here, “Most homeowners should insure their homes for at least $250 per square foot, $300 per square foot to be safe, to rebuild.” Granted, the figure represents Los Angeles prices, and may include furnishings and contents, but it confirmed what I’ve been telling clients for at least five or six years. The elusive $100 number is pretty much dead (dead, dead, DEAD!) for single-family one-off homes in the U.S. There are a handful of exceptions, sure. Upon investigation, most are built by truly spartan individuals who are also handy enough to install a 100 amp panel unaided, know the difference between a ground fault circuit interruptor and a heat pump, and can quickly explain what board-feet means. How many of those people do you know?

Many couples come to Locus expecting to build a house for $100 per square foot. After telling me what they want, I hate to have to tell them the house they describe is likely to exceed $200.

Having said that, when I find the contractor that does excellent work at half the hourly rate others are charging, puts in 50 hours of hard work for the cost of 30, cuts no corners, drives a pickup that’s been converted to run on solar power, and brings organic fruit to the jobsite for the owner’s kids every day, I’ll post the contact information right here as soon as my new home is built.

Where the hell has Locus been, you might be wondering. Or is anyone still listening? After the two month effort to produce PPoD for the Unbundling the Housing Crisis show at the Form + Content Gallery, we left town for August. If it’s OK on the Italian peninsula, it’s OK by us.

From Santa Barbara to San Francisco to Lake Tahoe to the Black Hills to the Boundary Waters, we’ve covered some serious ground. A short list of recommendations:

Detail - Mission La Purisima

California
MIssion San Juan Bautista (rent Vertigo the night before)
Pedal around 17-Mile Drive (if speed is your drug, return to Monterey via Aguajito Road)
Purisima Mission State Park (skip Hwy. 246 from Buellton, slow down and take a more bucolic route just south, using Santa Rosa Road)
Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shoreline between Incline Village & Hwy. 50
Palo Alto to Pescadero via Alpine Rd./Portola Rd./Old La Honda Rd./Skyline Blvd./Alpine Rd./Pescadero Creek Rd.
San Miguel to Hollister via Indian Valley Rd./Peach Tree Rd./Hwy. 25

Portola Valley Town Center

Portola Valley Town Center
Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland
Eat at Range, a restaurant in the Mission in San Francisco

Cathedral of Christ the Light

Bighorn Mountains/Black Hills
Hike to Mistymoon Lake in the Cloud Peak Wilderness
Devil’s Tower
Needles Highway through Custer State Park
Corn Palace

You’re ahead of us if you think ahead far enough to:
1. Avoid wildfires inconveniently closing scenic rural roads along the Big Sur coastline of CA.
2. Avoid S.D. the same week as the Sturgis Rally (unless you enjoy the roar of a Harley – all day).
3. Skip Deadwood, S.D.
4. Bring enough fresh water.

Big Sur Surf

We’ll try to post once a week or more this fall.

Check us out on Sprout, a new green website. While you’re there, add us as a favorite or write a review.

PPoD (pronounced “peapod”), another flexible housing system designed by LOCUS (see SNUGhouse) offers a common sense alternative to current housing and lending gluttony. PPod builds upon the SNUGhouse idea of affordable living, but also allows families to modulate dwelling size according to available financial resources and changing needs.

Pay as you build.
Build as you grow.
Grow – or shrink – as you need.

Delivering a new pod

Contrast this concept with the prevalent build-now/pay-later system that, within our culture of unchecked consumption, produced the current housing crisis and ultimately the freefall of global capital markets. In America, we’ve come to accept the risk of leveraged debt without a second thought. Since we often get today what we intend to pay for tomorrow, our decisions are not constrained in real time. Big decisions – say, taking on a loan with a 30-year obligation – tend to be made in optimistic times. The influence of financial hardship in making these decisions tends to be downplayed and is significantly delayed, ignoring unexpected everyday events such as job loss, childbirth, heath problems, travel, second homes, death, retirement, and marriage.

Come see the show, and meet Jan & Jan (in the virtual world), and their family’s PPoD. You can also see seven other projects from collaborative teams.

Follow the Jans through 70 years of ups and downs to see how the PPoD concept responds to change. Starting with a compact core, The Dock, designed for a single person or couple, the Jans plug and unplug pods, responding to changing income, family size, and age. PPoD can grow – as most homes can – but more importantly it can shrink quickly and easily (“I’m selling Jenny’s bedroom on eBay!”) as family members move or income shrinks. The typical U.S. home does not downsize well. Even as the American family size dwindles, homes continue to swell to meet the perceived peak-space-need of the generation. This model cannot be sustained indefinitely. PPoD is tailored to fit dwelling needs over time, expanding and contracting in harmony with the dynamics of life.

Flexible.
Affordable.
Sustainable.

We’ll be releasing a YouTube video explaining more details of the PPoD concept after the show opening. Stay tuned!

TEAM PPoD

Locus Architecture, Ltd.: Architecture, Narrative
Adam Jonas
Viktorija Kristupaitis
Paul Neseth
Charley Umbarger
Wynne Yelland

Toss Film & Design: Video, Graphic Design
Paul Guthrie

Robert Meier – Photographs, Voice

Thanks also to these folks for their help with PPoD:
Wing Young Huie, Robert Feyereisen, Kevin Nelson, & Steven Rajninger

LECTURE
Friday July 17, 7 – 9 pm
MCAD: 2501 Stevens Avenue (Auditorium)

Myths will be dispelled, pros and cons will be defined, and many lessons learned as we hear the construction story of a bale-building that surpasses LEED standards.

WORKSHOP
Saturday July 18, 9 am – 12 pm

Friday’s lecture will be put to practice by sculpting, sawing, slicing and stuccoing straw bales benches. The finished product will provide a public place of respite for community gardeners in North Minneapolis.

Lecture $10
Lecture + Workshop $40
Details & Registration at:
http://www.pricoldclimate.org/event/straw_bale_and_plaster_building_workshop

Come to the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis on Wednesday night, June 17th, at 9:00 pm to see Locus Architecture’s big screen debut in “For the Love of Film”.

nowHaus evening

“Sound ready? Camera ready? Scene 27, take 3!” My son Carter snapped the clapboard crisply and ducking out of the camera’s line of sight, backed away from an idling red Jetta. Moments later, Steve Appelhans, the film’s director, jumped out of the passenger side door, DVD clutched in his hand, and ran out into the street. He was immediately leveled and dispatched by a good sized Volvo, driven by a distracted, Quizno-eating motorist.

At least, that’s how it will appear.

This past weekend, Linda and I offered our home, designed and built by Locus Architecture as “nowHaus”, to be the main location for Steve’s film. The 48-Hour Film Project challenges filmmakers to produce a 4 to 7 minute short film, script to final edit, using only volunteers, in just 48 hours. To keep advance-filming-cheating to a minimum, 48-Hour organizers require certain elements in the movie, including a specific line of dialogue (“I hope they decide soon”), character name (Kevin or Kathy Schnabel), and prop (sandwich). Lastly, at a ceremony Friday night, each team is required to pick a genre out of a hat. Steve pulled “Romance.”

Linda and I woke up Saturday morning to a full cast and crew pacing the sidewalk outside our house, purposefully disposing of the morning’s coffee. By 7:30, about 500 pounds of equipment had been packed into our house and by 8:30 Steve was busy blocking out the film’s first shot with cinematographer Adrian Danciu. I was tapped for a few early sequences, playing Kevin Schaebel, Architect, although you will be relieved to learn most of the rest of the cast and crew were local Twin Cities pros.

After a full 12 hours of shooting, some late night margaritas, and another jammed day of editing, Steve’s partner Azin zoomed across town while Steve burned the final cut onto a DVD. With a hard deadline of 7:30, they were breathing a bit easier after swerving into the parking lot at 7:20. The computer, uncooperative, was still lazily disgorging bytes. Deciding to remain in the parking lot to let the laptop work rather than run in, computer in hand yelling “We’re done, we’re done!”, Steve and Azin patiently encouraged the machine (“What the HELL is taking so long!”), willing it to go faster. Steve dashed from the car just after 7:30. The submission was logged at 7:36, exactly one minute after the five-minute grace period. Now only eligible for the “Audience Favorite” award, “For the Love of Film” will not be considered for the Best Of 48-Hour Film Project.

Locus needs your help; come see the movie and vote for “For the Love of Film”!

I heard William McDonough speak in Minneapolis at the Governor’s Awards, if I recall correctly, years ago. His name floats through the air at cocktail party discussions about sustainability, but his nobody-is-as-green-as-I-am persona has generally rubbed me the wrong way and left me deaf to his sermons.

Reading a back issue of ARCHITECTURE magazine yesterday, editor Ned Cramer seemed to share some of my reservations. Cramer’s piece prompted me to look up “Green Guru Gone Wrong”, a recent article about McDonough in Fast Company magazine. If you haven’t read it already, might be worth a look before you recommend McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle, to a friend.

This past weekend, we were at the Living Green Expo at the MN State Fairgrounds. At the show, there were workshops (from How to Choose a Greener Car to Backyard Chickens & Livestock), a large exhibit floor (about 300 booths), and exhibits (cars powered by cooking oil and electricity) devoted to green topics. All in all, a wide range of great information on numerous topics.

Nevertheless, this year I was struck by some of the exhibitors, including Segway, Walmart, Chipotle, and even Whole Foods. All these companies no doubt have legitimate claims to green-ness, but I’ve always thought of the Living Green Expo as more regional; a little gritty, grassroots powered, CSA-grown, and definitely bike-powered.

This got me thinking about architecture and building. When we began designing and building homes for clients in 1995, we didn’t talk much about material reuse and energy efficiency. It wasn’t the buzz, we did it because it made sense. Now, all manner of architects and builders are embracing green as a “growth sector.” Seems like there isn’t a firm out there without an indoor-air-quality or recycled-content-materials expert.

So, in the new green marketplace, what makes LOCUS different? I think it’s our deep knowledge of construction, our length of experience in green building, and our commitment to a comprehensive approach. Green building is more than using Paperstone counters and milk paint.

Paul and I went through some past projects and wrote down a quick list of things we’ve done in our practice. Items preceded by * we’ve integrated into projects we designed AND built; items preceded by ** we’ve integrated into our own homes (which we also designed and built). I’ll admit we haven’t found all the answers, but we’ll continue to look for them through research and ingenuity.

Site
**Composting
*Design to reprogram existing building – to limit project expansion
**Infill urban houses
**Low impact landscaping, using native species or limited irrigation
*Permeable paving (parking lot/patio)
Prairie restoration
**Rainwater collection
(more…)

Two weeks ago, we let you know we’d be at the Living Green Expo. It’s here. MN State Fair Grounds. Saturday, May 2nd, 10-6; Sunday, 10-5. FREE! At the show, there will be kids’ activities, food, music, workshops, and AVEDA founder Horst Rechelbacher’s Tesla. This would be the vehicle for green car enthusiasts who simply cannot live without a vehicle that can reach 60 MPH in under 4 seconds. Me, I’ll be pedaling my bike. Free bus passes available at the Living Green link above. Oh, you can recycle all those CFL bulbs piling up in your garage too.

Make a weekend of it; Family Free day at the Walker on Saturday, Living Green Expo Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning, MayDay Parade & Festival in Powderhorn Park Sunday afternoon. You’ll go to work Monday exhausted but fulfilled.

Living Green Expo

With barely enough time to catch our breath, we’re hosting an open house at our studio on Thursday, May 7th 5-9pm for First Thursdays in the Arts District. We’ll be making some more bicycle tread signatures, and offering free design consultations.

Finally, stop by our studio as your launching point to visit any number of other open artist studios during Art-A-Whirl, NE Minneapolis’ annual art crawl, May 15-17. Friday 5-10 pm, Saturday 12-8, Sunday 12-5. We are hosting a reception on Saturday night for the end of the Full Cycle Project (see bicycle tread signature link above) from 6-8.

Art-A-Whirl catalog

With so many chances to gain your support for Locus Architecture in the coming weeks, there’s surely no need for us to go begging for stimulus package funds.

We’ve put in two geothermal systems in the past two years for clients in Minneapolis, both remodels, and with mixed results. For anyone considering geothermal, understand it is not an inexpensive up front option (say, $20,000 and up for an installed system sized for a 1,600 square foot well-insulated home). Geothermal installers often talk up the green aspects of the systems, but we feel the green advantages are not so clear. A few things are worth noting if you’re thinking geothermal.

Just in case you’re not familiar with how these systems work, I offer the following three-sentence, grossly simplified summary. Geothermal systems exchange heat with the ground via liquid – usually a glycol solution – flowing through sub-grade tubing loops (like a radiant floor but in the ground). The tubes are placed at least 5′ below the ground surface, in vertical wells or horizontal fields, where temperatures remain relatively constant at about 50-55 degrees. A heat pump, which operates much like the compression/expansion loop on your refrigerator (but can run both ways), extracts heat from the ground in heating months and dumps it when cooling. If you are looking for the science behind all of that, it’s available on the web; I’ll just say that geothermal systems have potential for obvious environmental benefits.

The downside? The heat pump – the brawn of the system – uses a fair amount of electricity. Remember the refrigerator comparison? (more…)

Blades on the Rails

On Friday, Tom Hedberg from Hedberg Maps – down the hall from our office – came in breathlessly after running up the stairs, “you guys should come take a look at this!” Big white blades for large scale wind turbines were sitting idle on the rail line 100 yards from our building – close enough for a little tactile inspection. The new energy economy appears to be in the distribution pipeline. That was fast!

I’ve been drawn to these turbines for as long as I can remember. There was a wind farm near my boyhood home; I would stare out the car window at these big things, moving slowly, with a mixture of awe and dread. I always felt they were beautiful and eerie at once – perhaps because the big industrial forms are in such stark contrast to the desolate windswept landscapes where they are often deployed. Oddly, I feel much the same way passing through oil fields, the unmanned derricks endlessly pumping. For a surreal experience, drive US 101 through the oil fields outside of King City in CA.

I feel an odd pull to freight trains too. If I didn’t have young children and a cautious spouse, I just might have climbed on board this one to see where these gleaming fabrications were headed. It would no doubt be fascinating to see how one is put together.

Living Green Expo

LOCUS will join the usual suspects at the 2009 Living Green Expo at the MN State Fairgrounds Grandstand, May 2nd and 3rd. The expo focuses on a wide range of green topics, from food to building to energy to transportation. If you’ve not been before, it’s definitely worth your time and it’s FREE!

There’s two main components to the Expo. 1. The show floor. There’s a couple hundred exhibitors displaying all manner of green wares, systems, and ideas. It’s more easily digested and definitely more targeted than the Home Show – with all the chaff about teeth whitening, leaf-free-gutters, and infomercial-worthy junk. Even so, some of the exhibitors may cause you to wonder, “What’s green about that?” 2. Workshops. If you want to renovate your basement using non-toxic products or just want to learn how to raise chickens in your back yard, there’s a workshop to catch your attention.

We’re in the construction area on the east end, near such green stalwarts as Natural Built Home, Innovative Power Systems (IPS), Clay Squared to Infinity, and The Reuse Center.

The Expo is kid friendly, there will be live music, and green food. Well, not all the edibles will be literally green, but you know what I mean. Extra credit to those of you who bike or ride the bus there.

Prior to ARTCRANK, a cycling poster show, LOCUS Architecture brought together Twin Cities cyclists to make their mark and make a difference. Participants bunny-hopped, spun, skidded, and cruised over prints, recording individual tread signatures in order to raise money for Full Cycle, a Minneapolis outreach program that provicdes free and healthy transportation to homeless and at-risk youth. Some of the signatures – from the notorious Geno to local advocates like Bill Dossett to artists like Caroline Yang – are below.

We debuted the series at ARTCRANK on March 4th, but there’s more to do before the show ends at LOCUS offices on May 16. We’re trying to raise as much money as we can for Full Cycle; the more prints sold, the more funds we can send to the kids. We need your support in the following four ways.

ONE
The original prints are on display now through May 16, at the LOCUS Architecture studio.
Stop by, and implore your friends to do the same, to view tread eye candy (M-F; 10-4)
Northrup King Building, Suite 333,
1500 Jackson St. NE, Minneapolis

TWO
LOCUS will have extended hours at the studio for the May 7 edition of First Thursdays in the Arts District. We’ll be here 5-9 pm, along with a few more tread signers. Chris Zito, Hurl, Peace Coffee, and a few other surprises have promised to come-a-tread-signing, enjoy a beer, and support the cause. Why not come out and witness art being made? There are dozens of other open studios here at the Northrup King Building to entice you if hanging with us isn’t enough.

THREE
Save May 16 on your calendar for the Full Cycle final reception. Locus will be hosting the closing party 6-8 pm (again, at the studio) in conjunction with Art-A-Whirl. Join us, dragging others who like art and/or bikes with you. Any remaining prints not pre-sold will be sold via silent auction at that time.

FOUR
Buy one of these original prints and/or help us promote these events. At $89 each, these monoprints are a steal for original art, and the money goes to a good cause.

The poster-making process, as photographed by Caroline Yang, is also viewable at ARTCRANK and LOCUS.