Jeff Wilson Everyday DIY Blog

At the 2011 International Builders’ Show, teams participating in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon gathered to showcase their designs and to spread the word about the competition. While in attendance at the show, we had the opportunity to meet the Appalachian State University team and learn more about the Solar Homestead, their entry into Solar Decathlon 2011. Collaboration and excitement at the opportunity to change the way homes are built were apparent. Join us as we follow the Appalachian State University team in the first of a series of videos documenting the Solar Homestead project.

When finished, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will provide visitors with multi-faceted enjoyment. “The water features are intended to give an alternate experience to the art exhibits,” says Hugh Phillips, R.A., the project manager and a principal at Safdie Architects, the Museum’s architectural design firm. “We had the choice to keep the stream natural with its frequent low flow or to construct ponds and provide a larger body of water to make the water more significant.” Although both were good choices, given the natural beauty of this narrow valley about a mile northeast of downtown Bentonville, Arkansas, Safdie Architects elected to go with the larger water feature.

The Harris Boulevard House in Austin, Texas, provides a nice counterpoint to some of the more formulaic house types that dot the landscape. Its owners wished to create an amalgamation of their favorite architectural styles, which brought a certain rigor to the design process. During the couple's extensive travels in Asia, they developed a liking for Pacific Rim architecture, where the International Style is influenced by local building types. Additionally, the wife was born in Houston and then moved to Nebraska, so she has a fondness for the more classic homes of the Midwest.

Not long ago, 1100 Lincoln Road was just another city block in Florida, with all the trappings one would expect: heavy traffic, wide medians, and lots of palm trees. Developer Robert Wennett saw that it had potential -- especially considering its history as Miami’s one-time commercial center (its revitalization occurred in the 1990s) and its link to the city’s most well-known architect, Morris Lapidus. The site is at the western end of Lincoln Road’s eight-block promenade, which runs perpendicular to the waterfront. Known as 1111 Lincoln Road, the main part of the urban redevelopment consists of a plaza flanked by three major buildings.

The $484 million renaissance of Denver’s Union Station will cement its standing as an important transportation hub for the entire Denver metropolitan region. Union Station is not only the connection from downtown Denver to a variety of ground transportations, but it is catalyzing downtown Denver’s continued growth as a hip, walkable, diverse regional center. Union Station will serve local and national travelers via everything from pedicabs and shared cars to light rail and Amtrak. Construction is well underway, is on budget, and (just like the buses and trains of its well oiled Regional Transportation District) is on schedule.

Many older homes have brick masonry fireplaces that can date a room. Short of removing the brick, what can you do to create a more modern look? One common method is to give the fireplace a new coat of paint. Join our host, Jeff Wilson, and guest Joe Grywalski, of JNG Painting, for a tutorial on painting a brick masonry fireplace.

In recent years, the world of real estate has focused on sustainability, and rightfully so. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings account for 40% of primary energy use in the United States, as well as 39% of its carbon dioxide emissions. These numbers have played a part in the industry’s drive toward green building. Owners are no longer content with traditional energy use and the negative impact that it has. Building owners have identified tangible returns to going green, including increased marketability, decreased operating costs, and the halo effect. These returns create an opportunity for carbon offset investments.

2010 was a rollercoaster year for Spain. Hit hard by the economic crisis, a real estate implosion, and a surging unemployment rate, the country just couldn’t seem to catch a break. However, in this bleak economic landscape, one sign of promising growth stands out. The Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso building has reached 100% capacity for the first time since its completion in 2007. The Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso is one of the so-called “Four Towers” belonging to Madrid’s new Cuatro Torres Business Area, the brainchild of Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón.

Often dubbed a trenchless technology, pipe bursting involves the replacement of an old pipeline with a same or larger diameter pipe that destroys the original pipe as the new one is installed. The pipe bursting tool, which is pulled through the sewer by a winch or rod located at the upstream manhole, forces its way through existing pipe materials by fragmenting the pipe and compressing the broken pieces into the soil as it progresses.

If you had to run to the store a few blocks down to pick up a gallon of milk, would you throw on your walking shoes, or would you drive? Some will relish the opportunity to get a little fresh air and exercise. More often than not, however, the majority of us will drive. If parking cost a dollar at the grocery store, however, would you make the same decision? This is the phenomenon being explored by many urban planning experts these days, including Donald Shoup, author of The High Cost of Free Parking and staunch critic of the policies dictating those expansive asphalt plains covering urban areas throughout the United States. Shoup decries parking requirements for a variety of reasons, and his 681-page volume can hardly be summarized in this article. Some key points, however, are of great interest to anyone interested in the sustainability of our urban areas, our citizens, or the environment at large.

David Adjaye, the designer of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington DC, also designed some of the most affordable housing in Manhattan. Harlem's Sugar Hill Housing Development by Adjaye Associates is now accepting applications.

Broadway Housing Communities, a nonprofit developer of supportive housing, alters the urban landscape of northern Manhattan by building affordable housing projects that showcase the work of local artists. They selected London-based Adjaye Associates -- founded by David Adjaye, who is leading the team behind the Smithsonian African American Museum of History and Culture on the Washington Mall -- to design their seventh housing project in Sugar Hill, a historic district of Harlem.

Improvements in horizontal well drilling and subsurface rock fracturing technologies have greatly enhanced natural gas production in North America over the past several years. These technologies have significantly increased our known natural gas reserves in shale plays across the U.S., the largest in many ways being the Marcellus Shale. Natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale formation throughout southern New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, western Maryland, and most of West Virginia can now be economically recovered and marketed. The Marcellus Shale formation serves as a good illustration for this industry boom. Jim Daley of Greenhorne & O’Mara Consulting Engineers helped Buildipedia.com investigate the basic engineering considerations of natural gas drilling and collection systems, along with the more traditional construction tasks required by this industry: surveys and stormwater management, as well as road, bridge, and pipeline construction.