Lawns provide many benefits — both aesthetic and practical — but they also require a lot of water. In fact, lawns use two to three times more water than do other plants in the landscape. Improper lawn watering can waste up to 50% of the water coming out of your sprinkler through evaporation, runoff, over-spraying, and over-watering. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

While traveling around town it is easy to notice creative uses for recycled articles that have had a previous life with another purpose. Portland is especially great for this because we recycle everything. Almost all things can have a second life and that a good thing. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

A Place for Inspiration + Education Located on the corner of SE 6th and Main, just a few blocks from local retailers Rejuvenation and Ecohaus, sits the showroom, shop, and warehouse of Endurawood. Serving the Portland area for 10 years, Endurawood continues to offer an assortment of sustainable wood products to both local homeowners, builders, and designers. This is just a preview...Read the rest... Read More →

Hippo Hardware & Trading Company Hippo has long been a resource for historic and hard-to-find hardware, plumbing, doors and windows, light fixtures, moldings — just about anything that can be salvaged and/or restored. So, whether you’re undertaking a major renovation and hoping to maintain the original architectural integrity of your project, want to replace that vintage door handle or glass globe, or just spend some time peeking into the past — make Hippo one of your destinations. This... more

Today’s musings from across the architect’s drawing board ponder a city’s support for sustainable ideas and the hurdles one must sometimes cross when proposing cutting-edge green ideas. Once a policy is defined, rules are adopted to put the policy in motion. A project may comply completely with the policy’s intent, but run into rough water when measured against the policy’s written rules. A cute little mother-in-law project I designed illustrates this perfectly. Accessory Dwelling Units... more

I have been recycling, re-using, and repurposing furniture and fabrics for as long as I have had my business, and even before then in my personal life, but it is really exciting to see the array of sustainable furniture that has been introduced into the home marketplace in the last few years. Using sustainable products and furniture used to be almost exclusive to commercial interiors. It used to be that the only green thing people did in their homes was recycle. Bringing sustainable materials into... more