Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful local event. Put on by the USGBC California Central Coast Chapter, or C4, it was an art show highlighting green building and design. I haven't heard of too many projects doing this, at least locally, and it seemed to fit very well with the Santa Barbara crowd.

Half of the works on display were finalists from our local entries submitted to the Natural Talent Design Competition. This is put on by the USGBC to challenge emerging professionals to come up with great sustainable designs. This year's topic is focused on the rebuilding of New Orleans, specifically within the Broadmoor neighborhood, and a few finalists picked from all over the US will be sent to Greenbuild to be showcased. The other half on display was a cube decorated on all sides with architectural renderings, drawings, and photographs of building and design from all over the world.

Looking online this morning I read a piece talking about revitalizing cities, and how this can be done with landscape. The specific way mentioned revolved around the creation of parkland in urban areas and the dire need for more of this type of space. Landscape architecture can be wielded to create publicly-accessible, beautiful, and calm spaces for people to relax in and offset the troubles of the urban environment.

Since the economic downturn cities everywhere have seen a dramatic drop in new construction. This has led to areas reducing their investment in public green spaces and a rise in community support and outreach. Cities now more than ever need to reinvest in these areas to offset the impact of the built environment.

Bamboo is a plant that’s origin dates back to prehistoric times. Many years and many uses later, bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. It is technically a grass found on nearly every continent; it can grow in the mountains, the tropics and even in the Southern United States. There are nearly 1600 different species of bamboo.

Bamboo, although at times resembles trees, differs from them in growth patterns and plant structure. Bamboo has two growth patterns; clumping and running root systems. These root systems create a natural bio filter for storm water runoff; while staying in natural clumped balls prevents soil erosion. Bamboo also produces 30% more oxygen than a like sized timber forest area. These differences allow bamboo to grow faster and straighter than any known tree species. Bamboo reaches the degree of its size in height and circumference in its 1st or 2nd year of life.

Here's a good article about our exclusive project delivery method, Total Project Management.

http://www.hoffman.net/attachments/Total_Project_Management_Greener.pdf

Let me know your thoughts!
Pete