Another top ten award for Pringle Creek

Our Pringle Creek Cottage won an award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
AIA Seattle's contest, called "What Makes It Green," judged 60 submissions from all over the northwest and pacific regions--entries from from Montana to Hong Kong. About the Cottage Home the jury said:

This project has it all. The individual strengths of the project (small footprint, cistern) and the use of green infrastructure on a community level makes this an exemplary exercise in sustainable development.

Click here for the 34-page online magazine (pdf). The "Top Ten Regional Green Awards" article is on page 25, the Pringle Creek item is on page 29.

About the contest: "In an age where green is on everyone’s mind, finding answers to the question “what makes it green?” has moved beyond a simple introduction of green building practice to become an insistent drive for excellence. . .
Jury members began looking beyond certification metrics to focus on how regenerative the project was in its entirety, environmentally and for communities. Questions included: How does the project use a variety of innovative yet replicable strategies to reduce energy consumption and its carbon footprint, to generate its own power or move towards zero energy consumption and climate health? Do we hold all projects to the same standard or should they be considered in context of local precedents? Which projects provide opportunities for continual learning, both for the users and for the larger design, planning and engineering community? What do they or will they provide in terms of “collective wisdom?”

Here are the ten winners, in alphabetical order:

Bertschi School, Seattle WA
Center for Urban Waters, Tacoma WA
Corvallis CoHousing, Corvallis OR
Home on the Range, Billings MT
Kitsap SEED, Bremerton WA
Lake Sammamish Park, Issaquah WA
Mosler Lofts, Seattle WA
Portland City Storage, Portland OR
Pringle Creek, Salem OR
Staley-Vidas Residence, Bend OR

Statesman Journal's green business section

The Salem Statesman Journal devoted their recent "Inside Business" section to articles about greening businesses. Prominent was this piece written by Pringle Creek Masterplan Coordinator Tony Nielsen. In the article Tony praised a number of the local businesses that have been part of the project. Tony mentioned DeSantis Landscaping ("a leader in green landscapes and maintenance services"), Evolution Paving Resources ("a leader in pervious concrete applications"), O'Neil Pine Co. and Withers Lumber ("partnering to ensure a steady flow of Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber"), North Santiam Paving (which "demonstrated ingenuity when it came up with the idea of reusing some concrete beams to build a small bridge over the creek"), and builders Blake and Larry Bilyeu and Spectra Construction (who "have brought knowledge and passion for green building techniques to the homes at Pringle Creek").

Web article praises community-building at Pringle Creek

A new web article on the Worldchanging site, "Outside Ideas: Sustainable Community at Pringle Creek" is very complimentary:

But these building components do not themselves alone create communities that are exciting, inclusive and rooted places for people to live. In my own experience as a professional planner, I have been involved with a number of green building projects and innovative neighborhood developments, but when it comes to successfully creating a sustainable community, only one stands above the rest.

The Pringle Creek sustainable development in Salem, Ore. offers much more than your conventional residential subdivision; it offers individuals the chance to be part of a community.

The author of the article, Ashley Deforest, used to work as a planner for the City of Salem. She is now up in Seattle and writes a blog called Urban Musings. Thanks, Ashley.

September 28 event, you're invited!

Prepare yourselves for . . .
BATTLE OF THE LOCAVORE!

Join SALEM LOCAVORES for a local food potluck and cooking competition!

When: Sunday, September 28th at 4 p.m.
Where: Pringle Creek Community, 2110 Strong Rd. SE, Salem, OR 97302

Here’s what you do:
1. Prepare a dish of any kind, made with as many local ingredients as you can, to share with others at an awesome party.
2. If you would like to enter the competition for some very nice prizes you will also need to provide an ingredient list and brief narrative about your dish!

People’s Choice Awards given to:
● Battle of the Locavore Award (First, Second and Third Places)
● Best All-Marion County Award (100% ingredients sourced from Marion County only)
● Best Hunter-Gatherer-Grower Award (100% ingredients grown, gathered or hunted by contestant)
● Best Local Dessert Award

How to register:
RSVP and join SALEM LOCAVORES at http://groups.google.com/group/Salem-Locavores or you can RSVP by emailing Salem-Locavores@googlegroups.com or by leaving a message at 503-763-1770. You must RSVP to enter the competition!

What is a locavore?
People who prefer to eat food that is grown and purchased as close to home as possible (around 100 mile radius).

Why eat local?
1. Strengthens our economy
2. Reduces our carbon footprint
3. Builds a stronger community
4. Tastes way better!

Resources to help:
● Oregon Farmers' Markets: directory listing of all farmers' markets by region & city http://www.oregonfarmersmarkets.org
● Local Harvest: searchable directory to find family farms and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area http://www.localharvest.org
● Oregon Tilth: searchable directory of certified organic farms and processors http://www.tilth.org
Seasonal Recipes: http://www.wisefoodways.com/recipes/
● A 100-mile radius map: http://100milediet.org/get-started/map
● The Locavore website: http://www.locavores.com/

This event brought to you by SALEM LOCAVORES, a group of food enthusiasts supporting local farms and economies, eating fresh seasonal foods, and providing opportunities for education and community celebration. To join, share recipes and local food sources, and for more information, go to http://groups.google.com/group/Salem-Locavores

Pringle Creek featured in Environmental Design + Construction magazine

Here is the latest magazine article about Pringle Creek Community.
It is in a special issue of Environmental Design + Construction magazine, their annual "LEED" issue. The article focuses on Pringle Creek's LEED Platinum (and award-winning) Cottage Home.

SDI went all out for the first house completed at the development, known as the Learning Home. It was the first house in the Pacific Northwest to earn LEED Platinum certification and just the sixth in the country. It earned 103 points, which was, as of June 2007, a record. The house also won a silver EnergyValue Housing Award in the Custom home category at the February 2008 ceremony in Orlando.

The Learning Home, a “cottage style” house (other styles in the development include row homes, live/work studio lofts, single family homes, attached houses and “tall” houses), is currently being monitored for performance by the Oregon Department of Energy.

The article is also available online in “magazine format.” Click here and see that the front cover is the elegant photo below of the Cottage House, taken by professional photographer Visko Hatfield. The article is pages 108 to 116 (in the "LEED Guide" part of the magazine). To get there quick, put your cursor in the page number at the top (0/148) and type in “108” and you’ll go right to it.

Photo log

These detached garages will serve the small cluster of five cottages. They will have cedar siding and a green roof, to be installed this fall.

This is the pump house for the ground source district heating and cooling system (those are pressure tanks on the inside). It will also have cedar siding and a green roof.

Artichokes in the garden!

We are currently restoring these incredible greenhouses, which were built by Lord & Burnham in the '20s or '30s. This is the trench for the utilities.

We’ll begin installing glass in mid-July, to be completed by this Fall in time to extend the growing season indoors. Come by and check it out!

These massive catalpas are in bloom right now. The catalpa is not native to the NW but is a great shade tree (perfect for cooling the greenhouses) and is very fragrant this time of year.

santiago

The house-designers of the future

You might recall a previous item in which Santiago told us about West Linn fifth graders that visited Pringle Creek. They were working on a project to design "the house of the future." The kids' efforts have gotten some coverage in the Wilsonville Spokesman. The article, "Building spaces," talks about advantages of the project-based learning method--and the visit to Pringle Creek:

. . . Over 100 students in all are currently engaged in the research, mathematics and problem-solving skills required to design and construct a house with a footprint no bigger than 2,000 square feet.

The students are not designing and building just any homes, either. Instead, the project is inspired by the Pringle Creek Community, a sustainable planned development currently being undertaken in Salem by a team of designers and architects from Salem, Portland and even Vancouver, B.C.

The project integrates the latest green building technologies, with at least some of the homes being so-called net-zero dwellings because of their capacity to produce more electricity through solar panels than they consume.

Students visited Pringle Creek to examine what a green community actually looks like. Afterward, they began viewing their own homes and communities with the same issues in mind.

“The kids really got into the research as they’ve seen these issues in a personal way,” Locke said.

Even more recent photos

First strawberry of the season! Local and organic, fresh picked…
Strawberries and mint growing together in the community garden.
Lupine & iris in the gardens, with the greenhouses in the background.
Elephant garlic planted last fall popping up.
Potatoes for Marion Polk Foodshare are coming out.
Native landscaping alongside the LEED-H Platinum Cottage – less weeding and watering and no chemicals.
Local Father-Son duo Larry and Blake Bilyeu of Bilyeu Homes are building this cottage in the background.
Blake up on the roof during the roof installation.
Roofing supplied by Taylor Metal, a local metal roofing company.
The most recent photo of the Tall House, which is about 2 weeks from move-in.
The second floor kitchen and dining room of the Tall House, almost done! Floors are getting finished.
The leaves on all the Oregon White Oak trees have come out, making a nice canopy in the rain.
A close-up of the red-tail hawk.
Regular shot of the red-tail hawk, up in the same tree. Lots of birds this time of year.

More recent photos

All the camas planted in the rain gardens are in full bloom, deep purple.

A view of the new custom cottage showing the front porch. They are putting on the rigid insulation, a component of the rain screen system that is one of our green building standards for all homes.

The injection well is being drilled this week for the ground-source geothermal system. After the water is used in the ground-source geo district heating/cooling system, it irrigates the orchards, community gardens and parks. All the excess is re-injected back into the aquifer.

A close-up of sedums we have growing in xeriscape areas. We will be using sedums for greenroofs on multiple community-use buildings and for residents.

Flowers in the rain gardens--everything is in bloom.

A close-up of the fruit trees in bloom. So far we have put in over 300 fruit trees of all types, and over 150 blueberry bushes.

Clumps of wild camas growing alongside Pringle Creek, near the orchards. Camas is a native, edible bulb.

Santiago

Recent photos

We’re keeping the trunks for benches--local company Nexterra is grinding branches and stumps into chips for use for soil improvement and walking paths.

Front stairs and sidewalk being poured at the Wilsons' tallhouse, which is almost ready for move-in.

New custom cottage getting framed up--cathedral ceiling upstairs, all FSC wood.

The view out the upstairs window of the creek and wetland areas--the residents will see a lot of the Great Blue Heron that fishes on this stretch of the creek.

Santiago