Licensure

Today I finally received notice that my licensure application was approved. I am now Landscape Architect #290 in the State of Colorado. This is a follow up to my earlier ranting about the State government misplacing my application!

Computer Woes

It must be Murphy's law, the best laid plans of mice and men. Yesterday I had a big deadline trying to get 3 home plans out the door to structural engineers. I had my whole day planned out, with no meetings scheduled. The day started at 5:30 am when my daughter came in crying with an ear infection. Since my wife was a teach parent at the preschool with my son that day, I was the one who had to take our daughter to the doctor. So I got on my computer to work on my deadline, and I couldn't get into CAD. After trying several times, I came to the conclusion that my hard drive was failing. I realized this, because this has happened to everyone one of our laptops. So instead of working on my deadline, I spent the day backing everything up (which I do anyway), and getting my back up computer up and running again. Fortunately, I didn't lose anything, and I did manage to get everything out, though a few hours late!

Home Building Green vs LEED

Recently a friend of mine and I were discussing what I was going to do with my LEED accreditation and discussing LEED in general. I actually have thought about this, and what I would like to do is specialize in LEED for New Developments, as well as New Home Construction. This will be in addition to what we do for commercial projects, but I want to specialize in the residential end.

With new development, particularly residential neighborhoods, there are very few standards for green development, other than doing what is right to minimize the impacts of development and creating them to be more sustainable than the current development patterns. In this respect, I think LEED-ND will be very beneficial and I want to be in the forefront of this. Convincing developers to go this route will not be easy, and it will also require municipalities, utility providers, and contractors to all think differently. One of the first projects I want to test with this will be own development. Right now, LEED-ND is in the pilot process, and will not be brought online until early 2009, so we will follow the pilot guidelines and hopefully become certified as we go to construction.

LEED for homes is an entirely different matter. There are many green building standards for residential construction. Locally, we have the Built Green program administered by the Metro Denver HBA, Energystar, the upcoming ANSI national standards, and some others. All are good programs with varying degrees of market acceptance. When I was building several years ago, I followed the Built Green program, and even listed some of the homes. At the time, that program was unknown in Fort Collins and it had little market viability.

Both the Built Green and Energy Star programs focus more on the building, mostly favoring energy and water consumption. I think where LEED might be different is that it looks at a more comprehensive picture from site development all the way through indoor air quality. It is also designed to dovetail with LEED-ND. With our development, we will also require the builders to follow some kind of green standard. Whether we want to dictate which standard, or allow flexibility we will have to decide. Of the measures that we will have to evaluate will be market acceptance of the various standards, and the cost of implementing those standards. LEED in particular can be quite expensive. Just the fees paid to USGBC and to have a third party rater involved can run from $3-7,000 per home depending upon the level of certification (taken from Green Builder magazine, July 2007). This is pretty steep for the typical home where every dollar counts for affordability and buyers compare prices per square foot more than features. That being said, there could be some economy of scale achieved if a builder has stock plans that are repeated several times, or uses the same materials and specs from home to home. This would in theory reduce the paperwork that is incurred. I don't know if this is possible, but will look into it further. If USGBC wants LEED to be a viable standard for home building, they will have to address the cost issues.

LEED Exam

Hey I passed! The actual test was nothing like all the practice ones I took. I can't say it was easier or harder, just different. Anyway, no more testing for awhile...

Today is the Day

Today is the day of the big LEED test. I think I am ready, I have been studying and cramming for the last two weeks, and my head is full.

Frustrations with Licensing

Most of you probably know that Colorado finally passes a licensure law this year for Landscape Architects. Colorado was one of only two states in the nation that did not license Landscape Architects. Anyway, the law was passed this year in June, and it state that everyone had to be licensed by January 1 in order to call themselves Landscape Architects. Problem is, the licensure applications wern't made available until late October. At first I didn't think much about it, but when they became available I thought it would be fun to get license #1, or at lest in the top 10. So I hauled butt, got my application together, got my references, got my transcripts, paid the fee, fedexed it to the state, and had it back into them in 4 days.

Then nothing....for over 6 weeks.

I saw online that several other professionals had become licensed, but nothing on mine.
So this week I started calling people. First I called the phone number on the web page. Of course, that doesn't allow you to talk to a real person. Then I called the director of the whole thing, since I had his card. He had someone else call me back, and who left a message. She gave me the email address of the person to contact. So I emailed her Wednesday morning...and never heard back. Finally, yesterday I was able to get hold of the program director directly, explained everything. I could tell he was not pleased. 5 minutes later I finally get a call back from the person who was handling my application. Since mine was the first one she had gotten, she had questions on it (more from the general process), so she set it aside...then forgot about it.

So it was only because I raised a fuss, that my application is being approved at all. Fortunately, there are no issues with my application, and it will be approved, but why did I bother to rush to get it in, only to be penalized for it. Arrggghhhh.

LEED Exam

I have been spending all of my spare time the last couple of weeks studying to take the exam to become a LEED accredited professional. For those of you who don't know, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Currently, this is all the rage for public and commercial buildings. In very simplified terms, it is a way to design buildings, and the site around them more sustainibly that traditional practices. All kinds of things are looked at such as energy consumption, daylighting, off-gassing, material selections, landscaping etc. Projects have to earn a certain number of points to achieve various certification levels. Of course, the higher the certification level, the more "green" the building is. This all has positive merits of course, and is the way things should just be done. It should be the standard, rather than an option.

Anyway, this is no easy test to study for. This is a complicated program, and the test itself is not open book. I don't think I have studied so hard since I took my licensing exam way back when. The test is this Friday, so I will let you know how I do. Fortunately, you do get the results right away.

Rendevouz

I thought I would take a few minutes to update everyone on the progress of my development project. My partner and I have have been spending a lot of time over the course of the last few days looking at layout options, sorting out how much property we are actually purchasing, and looking at performas. The idea we are shooting for is to do something a little different than the norm. We don't want to plop a street through the middle of the property, and place lots lots on both sides, instead we want to create a community. We want to have the homes face outdoor spaces that are created by the homes themselves. We want the garages accessed by alleys, with the fronts of the homes facing greenbelts. Our inspriation are the projects created by The Cottage Company. I have included a picture here from one of their projects.

Last week, before Thanksgiving we had a meeting with the county. This will be an interesting project, as it will be entitled in the county, but since it is within the growth management area, we have to follow city rules. We are also under the guidance of the northwest sub-area plan. In general, I think the county is supportive of our idea, but it will take some variances as the county hasn't seen a project quite like this. I have taken there comments in mind and have continued refining our concept plan to keep the spirit of what we want to do, but make it a little easier to entitle. The biggest comment we had was for the need for a public street access for the project. I wasn't totally surprised by this, but was hoping we could get away without a public street.

I will keep you all informed of the progress.

It just occurred to me, that I have never shown the final product for the Rigden Farm townhomes. To the left are several pictures taken at the dedication last spring. The landscape was not finished yet, but the units were a hit with everyone in attendance. The carriage units also sold fairly quickly. Next spring or summer I will take pictures of the final product with the landscaping all green!

Award Time!

On Friday night, at an awards ceremony at the local Marriot Hotel, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity received two awards for its entry in the parade of homes this past fall. They received Best Floor Plan and Best Exterior Design and Landscaping in the under $300k category. This is a home that was designed by myself at Vignette Studios. This home has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living and dining great room and open kitchen all packed into 1,250 square feet. This home was designed with a 2 car garage, which was required by the nighborhood covenants (pretty common here), as well as stone wainscotting. Because this particular home was on a corner lot, and was in the parade of homes, we did splurge on a wrap around porch, though we do include front porches on all habitat homes.


This is another plan in a long line of homes I have designed for Habitat where I have strived to show that affordable homes don't have to skimp on design or style. Below is a picture of another home I have designed for them, a 1,500 square foot 4 bedroom 2-story home. Since Habitat Homes don't come with Air Conditioning, sometimes homeowners install window sized coolers.

New Project

Some of you know that my business partner and myself have trying to find a piece of property to develop for the past year. We took a run at a great piece of property earlier this spring that would have been a very ambitious project. Ultimately we didn't get the property, which was probably a good thing. Shortly afterwards, we found a great 5 acre piece of ground in North Fort Collins. It is located within the northwest subarea plan of both the county and the City of Fort Collins.

By zoning, we can only get 9-10 units on this property, including the existing home. I am excited about this project as it will allow us to do some experimentation with a development style this town has not yet seen. We also want to be as green as possible with this development, while still being fiscally responsible. Some of our ideas are a community wide geothermal system, or photoveltic system. We shall see. I will keep the readers abreast of the process as well as some of our ideas.

Public Approval Process

I have always found the public approval process to be an interesting process. You spend months working with various staff members, other consultants, neighbors, and anyone else involved in a development project. During this time most if not all issues are worked out, clients spend large sums of money, and usually you get staff to support your project, working through the issues, etc. Then you go to a public hearing. Since these public hearings are usually quasi-judicial, the applicant is not allowed to speak or work with either a planning commission member, city council member, or what have you.

You get to the public hearing, and you get 15-30 minutes to make your case after months of hard work and negotiations. There is also public input, some discourse among the ruling body, then they make a decision. In some jurisdictions, this goes totally against the grain of the direction you have gotten from staff, and you get denied. Sometimes it goes the other way, and staff gets overruled.

I have been thinking lately, that this process is a little unfair. Why spend all the time, trouble, and money to work through all the issues for months, only to get derailed in a short hour or two public hearing. Why can't you work with the ruling body throughout the process so they are involved, and truly understand what is going on. This does happen with public projects. There are always workshops with staff and city council (or other body), meetings, etc. But with private developers, there is no such options.

Seems to me this process needs to change.

Campgrounds - September fuglies!

This past weekend we went camping for our last trip of the season. We happen to have a tent trailer, which we love for camping. I don't know how many of you go camping, but those of you that do know that all campgrounds have one way loops in them. That is fine, but in the vast majority of the sites we camp in, we have to back the trailer into them. Not a big deal, but invariably, the back in spaces are designed in the opposite direction of the one way loop...so you have to go around the loop in the wrong direction to have a prayers chance of getting into the camp site. I find this idiotic, but have resigned myself to it. Now this particular camping site took the cake...it was actually pretty easy to get into it, but after I backed in, I realized the whole campsite was totally backwards! RV's are universally designed to have the doors on the right side (when you are facing to the front of the trailer) with hookups and such on the left side. This campsite was backwards. The picnic table area was on the left side of the trailer, with the hookups on the right! This was the first time I had run into this. Of course, I had to borrow an extension cord to hookup. Walking around the campground, I notice a considerable number of campsites that were backwards. I am ashamed to admit that it is largely people in my profession that design campgrounds...and obviously, the ones who design them, don't camp! Guess I need to figure out how to get some of these projects.

Biking into work

Week of July 23rd. Man was it hot this week! I only made it in once, but made that one count. With meetings and such, made it about 15 miles that day.

Biking into work

A quick update on my trips into work.

Week of June 25th: (bike to work week) I managed to ride in twice that week.
Week of July 1: None, a lot of meetings and the holiday
Week of July 9: Made it in two days in a row! Course, that was all she wrote that week, though I did squeeze in a 15 mile ride up in Aspen.
Weed of July 16th: I made it twice this week.

Bike to Work week

My friend Amy and I have been having a friendly discussion going about commuters who ride there bike. Currently, she is carless, lives in Boulder, and works from home, so she has an advantage. Myself, my commute is not that long by most people, about 5 miles each way. However, with my job I do end up driving quite a bit to meetings and such. For the past few years, I have riden my bike to work probably a dozen times or so over the course of the summer. A week ago, I finally broke down and bought a new bike. I wanted something that was an around town bike, but I do traverse hills. I ended up getting a Giant Cypress bike that is a combination cruiser style bike and mountain bike. It is great because you ride upright, and it has 21 gears for hill climbing. My challenge from Amy is to keep track of how many times I commute on my bike. For the week of June 18th I rode to work 1 time. This is bike to work week, so I will shoot for more times! For the record though, so far this season I have bike commuted about a dozen times already.

Fuglies June 2007

I found this "lovely" home in a new community today...and I couldn't believe it! What builder, in there right mind, would build a home where the street front was all garage door and driveway! Could you imagine coming home to this...with this being the first thing you saw? What amazes me even more...this home is already sold! It must be spetacular inside! Nahhh...

Spring Break 2007 Part 7

Friday started out pretty warm, but again I didn’t get started until about 9. Mom, Lalie and the kids decided to go shopping for Hannah’s birthday, which left me to my own devices for awhile. Today was strictly assembly day. The next fence section had to have rails cut to length for it, but I decided to skip that one for now, as it provided convenient access. So I worked on a few other sections. Finally, it came to the point where I had to re-dig a post hole, moving it a couple of feet. I also worked on removing one of the existing posts. After that was done, I had no choice, but to start cutting rails I worked on that for a bit, then headed off to Lowe’s, partly for a break, and partly to get more bags of concrete. I got back around 2, and finished cutting the rails that I had to cut. After that, assembly went pretty quick. I wrapped up the garden area about 4. Since we still had supplies and posts, I worked on a few sections along the driveway, leaving out the sections right around the gates. We are going to have one of the fence companies build and install the gates for us. I wrapped this up about 6:30, and was very tired and sore. I also had to get ready for company coming over for an early birthday party for Hannah.

Saturday was scheduled for some mopping up, attaching the wire to the fence, and then heading home. All in all, it was a fun trip, with a lot of hard work. My muscles are sore!

Spring Break 2007 Part 6

Thursday started out a little chilly from the mini-storm that went through the night before, so I didn’t get started until around 9 a.m. I decided to just start drilling post holes and get as many done as we could before we had to return the machine. Of course this wasn’t all that easy, since I had to work around the grape vines and other obstacles. Lalie and Mom worked hard at tearing out as much of the existing fence as they could. The digging was surprisingly easy, hitting mostly sand. I was expecting a lot more in the way of rocks. The hardest part was actually getting the post digger into position which for being a one man post hole digger, it wasn’t all that maneuverable. All in all, it went faster than I was expecting. We stopped for lunch around 1:30. I only had to do a couple more holes around the garden, which was my goal to get finished. But since we still had time on the meter, I dug as many I could along the side of the back driveway. Finally at about 3, I was finished. We hitched it back up to the car, and returned it. Of course we were all pretty sore and tired by then. Mom and I picked up some KFC for dinner. After we got back, I worked on assembling the first few sections of fence, and cementing in the first posts.

Spring Break 2007 Part 5

The day started out a little cooler, with a bit of an overcast sky. This was our last morning at the condo. Mid morning, the kids and I went to a bakery downtown for some coffee and breakfast, and I could get some decent internet. Nice relaxing morning. Afterwards, we rode the bike trail again to the park, letting Ben play for a bit. Finally, we returned, and dropped off the bike trailer at the rental shop, before heading back to the condo. We packed up, and left around 1 pm. We came back the same way we went, stopping at the Castle Creek Winery to pick up some pretty good wine. We arrived back in Grand Junction around 3 pm. On the way back, we listened to another tape of our Desperation book. It is getting weirder and weirder.

After we got back to moms, we unloaded the Durango, then mom and I headed out to get supplies. First we went to Lowe’s to pick up some concrete and other misc. stuff. Then we headed to the opposite side of town to pick up the post hole digger. Finally we went back to Lowe’s to pick up the wire mesh for the fence that we forgot the first time around. We finally got back around 4:30, and we set to work. By 7:30, we had torn out the first section of fence, and had drilled the first 4 holes. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the digging was. I figured we would be hitting all kinds of rocks remembering the days I helped landscape this yard in the first place.

I was a little sore in the evening, having used my arm muscles that I haven’t really had to use for awhile. Lalie cooked a wonderful stir fry for us, and then we played Farkel. Finally, we passed out, and I actually slept through the night! The first time in several days.