GreenBean

GreenBean Growth & Transition

To our loyal readers, thank you for your continued interest in GreenBean. As I prepare for my own career transition, I have focused the last several months on making GreenBean a more sustainable site – our own operations need to be as sustainable as the projects we cover!

I am pleased to announce that although I am leaving Chicago, GreenBean will continue to thrive and grow with a new team. I will remain as Publisher and Founder. Wendy Berger Shapiro, President of WBS Equities, LLC, will join me as Co-Publisher and Managing Editor.

Among our goals over the next 30 days will be to publish reviews of several new projects. We know you’ve been awaiting more content and will keep the projects coming during this transition period.

We will also continue to build the GreenBean team. By the end of summer we will launch an enhanced version of the site which will include more green resources, a directory of professionals, and links to important information about the Chicago-area green community. This content will complement our core mission of providing a trusted, reliable, insider’s perspective on local green building projects.

If you are interested in writing reviews of projects, researching technologies or contributing to the growth of GreenBean, please send an email with your resume to wendy@greenbeanchicago.com.

We look forward to your comments, ideas, and more great projects!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Erik

GreenBean Hiatus / Seeking New Editor

The time has come for me to admit that I must put additional posts to GreenBean on hiatus for the next couple months because of a confluence of events. In May I will be leaving the City of Chicago and in June I will be joining Transsolar Climate Engineering. I'll be relocating to Stuttgart, Germany for 6-12 months, then to New York City. In addition to this, we're expecting our first child in April.

Between preparing for the move, selling our home, preparing for baby, wrapping things up at the City, and studying German, there isn't time left in the day (or weekend) for GreenBean.

I'm looking for a committed individual (or individuals) to take over daily operation of GreenBean. I've really enjoyed making this contribution to the green building community for the last two years, and hope the site can keep going as I transition to a new life stage. I'm imagining one or two more senior or experienced folks serving as editors of the site overall, and a larger group of writers contributing posts.

If you are interested in joining this transition team, please email me.

Erik

Whitehead-Elniski Residence

Location
1313 W. Ohio, Chicago Map

Owner
Frances Whitehead and James Elniski

Architect
James & Kutyla Architecture

1313 W. Ohio is one of the first in the current wave of custom single-family homes seeking to be the greenest in Chicago. The project includes an unusually extensive laundry list of green features, going above and beyond the standard green measures in every category, from energy to materials to landscape. In addition, it includes inherent design features just making their way into green awareness. As with the Mauceri Residence, the home is live-work - the first floor houses studio space for the artist owners. In addition, the first floor is fully accessible, with an at-grade entry, ramps for elevation changes, and an accessible bathroom - items rarely included in a single-family home.

Pearsall Residence

Location
1840 N. Leavitt, Chicago Map

Owner
Alex Pearsall

Architect
Norsman Architects

1840 N. Leavitt is an existing 100 year old multi-unit residential building being converted to a single family residence with 6,000 sf above grade and 3,000 sf below grade of habitable space, totaling 6 bedrooms and 5 baths. This is another example of the jumbo-sized home that works to counteract its large size with a variety of green measures. The project is seeking Chicago Green Homes and Energy Star certification.

Heppner Residence

Location
8628 S. Marquette, Chicago Map

Owner
Charles and Timothy Heppner

The Heppner Residence is an example of extreme do-it-yourself green renovation. This existing 100 year-old wood frame single family home is being rebuilt by Tim and Charles Heppner, two brothers, with Tim acting as architect and performing most construction work himself. The home is on a double lot with the southern half vacant, providing lots of opportunity for outdoor green as well. The Heppner brothers are seeking Energy Star and Chicago Green Homes certification for their new home.

Call for Suburban Contributors

With the busy holiday season here, it is painfully obvious how the pace of our posts has slowed. On top of that, earlier this year we lost our suburban contributor to New York City. So, we're renewing the call to action! Volunteer for GreenBean and help us expand the scope and depth of our coverage!

Candidates should be knowledgable of the suburban green building market, have sufficient technical expertise to evaluate the validity and novelty of green building claims, and be capable of preparing concise but insightful project analyses. If that sounds like you, please submit a writing sample and qualifications no later than January 18, 2008 to Erik Olsen.

Greener Homes For Belmont-Cragin

Location
5010 W. Wolfram, Chicago Map

Developer
Historic Chicago Bungalow Association

5010 W. Wolfrom is the model home for the Historic Chicago Bungalow Association's (HCBA) Greener Homes For Belmont-Cragin program, the group's third green model block (the first was completed in 2002, and another in Auburn-Gresham last year). As part of a broader block-wide education program, the HCBA leased this home from the homeowners and performed a major rehab. During the construction process, the home was used as a learning lab, instructing residents on techniques for restoring windows, insulation and air sealing, and landscaping.

Yannell Residence

Location
4895 N. Ravenswoood, Chicago Map

Owner
Michael Yannell

Architect
Farr Associates

The Yannell Residence is a new two-story plus basement, 2,675 sf home seeking LEED for Homes Platinum certification. We haven't seen many LEED for Homes projects in Chicago (the Mauceri Residence recently earned a Gold certification), mostly because the program has been in pilot phase for years, but the USGBC has finally sent it for final member approval. The home also seeks to be one of Chicago's first zero net energy homes - a challenging goal that can only be demonstrated by studying a year's worth of utility data after the home is completed.

1314 N. Moorman

Location
1314 N. Moorman, Chicago Map

Owner
House Plant, Inc.

Architect
Norsman Architects

1314 N. Moorman is a 2,600 sf (3,600 sf with basement) speculative single family home with many basic energy efficiency features and a bit of 'green bling'. Although it is certainly in the class of high-end spec homes, with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths it isn't nearly as large as some of the custom homes we see. This is another example of an owner new to development using green as a way to differentiate their product - I love that their company name works as a triple entendre.

Chicago Magazine Green Awards

Normally we stay away from event announcements, but this item isn't really an event and comes via special request. Chicago Magazine has opened nominations for their second annual green awards. Last year's winners, a diverse and worthy crew, include Ori Sivan and Joe Silver, owners of Greenmaker Supply listed in our sidebar. This year's nominations are due December 15, so start thinking now about who you'd like to see recognized in the green community.

ChiCobCo

Location
Varies - shown is 722 W. Grand Map

Artist
Miguel Elliott

For this post we're changing pace and not discussing a single building but a company and technique that can be seen in a variety of locations around town: cob. Miguel Elliott is owner of ChiCobCo, which has produced a variety of cob sculptures and structures, of which the most elaborate is the interior and exterior of the Butterfly Social Club shown here. Other projects include a community garden bench in Cabrini Green, a bench outside of True Nature Foods, and Elliott's own Yoga Now studio.

Welcome Greenbuild 2007!

This week 20,000 green building professionals are descending on Chicago for the U.S. Green Building Council's annual Greenbuild conference. The show is at the new McCormick Place West building, which is expected to earn a LEED certification. We won't focus on detailed conference coverage - Inhabitat has proved a good resource for this in the past - but here's a shout-out to all our out-of-town readers dropping in this week.

The mayor kicked off conference events Saturday with a ribbon-cutting for the new Green Building Resource Center at the Chicago Center for Green Technology. This is the legacy project for Greenbuild and is beautiful and dramatic expansion of the space formerly housed in a hallway (literally) at Green Tech. We'll provide a detailed review in the next few weeks, but for now, get out there and check out the space!