COMMUNITY FORKLIFT: DECONSTRUCTION & REUSE

(Image courtesy of Community Forklift blog)

Know the old saying, reduce, reuse, recycle? Well the nonprofit, Community Forklift, has been a leading organization in the area for reducing the amount of construction waste from commercial and residential renovations. Plus they stock a ton of vintage items perfect for your older home or just easier on your pocket.

Community Forklift is a nonprofit reuse center for home improvement supplies. We pick up donations of unwanted and salvaged building materials throughout the metro DC region. Then, we make the building materials available to the public at low cost, and provide vintage materials for restoring old homes. We also offer public education about reuse, and distribute free supplies to local nonprofits and neighbors in need.

See upcoming events on their website Community Forklift.

DC CHIEF RESILIENCE OFFICER TALKS ABOUT FLOODS

(Image from WTOP/Dave Dildine)

In an article in Washingtonian Magazine this past summer, How DC’s First Chief Resilience Officer is Planning for Disaster, Kevin Bush was interviewed about his job. As the DC’s first Chief Resiliency Officer, he works to strengthen the different systems in the city so that if we are faced with a catastrophe we can absorb the shock and/or have a plan in place to respond effectively. Here are some interesting excerpts from the article.

What types of risks are you looking at in Washington?

Shocks and stresses. Shocks are the big, acute, sudden things. A terrorist attack, a hurricane, and also non-emergency-management shocks: If there is a 2½-week federal-government shutdown, that’s a major shock to the system. The stresses are things you might think of as the everyday disasters—things that weaken our fabric. In DC, that’s the high cost of housing and stressed transportation networks.

What about flooding?

I don’t think most people in DC realize this, but we are a deltal city, so we have to deal with sea-level rises. The Potomac and the Anacostia are tidal rivers, and 70 percent of the land is coastal plain. Because DC was developed along a major fault line, we have a rate of soil subsidence. Those factors come together, and we actually have the fastest rate of sea-level rise along the East Coast. That’s important because if a hurricane makes a westward turn, like Sandy did, that would mean that storm surge would come up the Chesapeake and into all of the tidal rivers.

What’s your personal emergency plan? Do you have some kind of bunker under your house?

No, but when we bought our house, the first thing I did was air-seal and insulate it with R60 insulation. We also put in a wood-stove insert. The most common thing that might happen, perhaps during a derecho storm, is that the power would go out. If the power goes out in the winter, you’re welcome to come over to my house. I have a fully stocked liquor cabinet and plenty of heat.

Want to find out what you can do? Attend the Designing for Extremes: Building a Resilient City symposium, Feb. 07, 2019, at AIA|DC.

Visit Washingtonian Magazine for more articles about the area.

DON’T MISS ‘EVICTED’ AT THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

Photo Aug 10, 11 54 48 AM (1).jpg

After taking a dip in the Snarkitecture ‘ball’ pool at the National Building Museum, take an educational walk through ‘Evicted’.

…an immersive new exhibition based on Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer prize-winning book. Using recently released data researched by the Eviction Lab, the first nationwide database of evictions, Evicted brings visitors to the intimate, frustrating, painful, and often repeated process of losing everything—furniture, food, heat, school supplies—as a family starts all over, over and over again. Evicted opens April 14, 2018 and runs through May 19, 2019…

Located on the first level near the bookstore, this exhibit has free admission and is open to the public. See more at the National Building Museum.

NEW COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER OPENS DC OFFICE – BUILDING COMMUNITY WORKSHOP

Image courtesy of [bc] website showing project Crossing the Street | Activating Ivy City

Texas based nonprofit community design center, buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, or [bc] for short, has brought their talents to Washington DC. The organization seeks to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design and making.

We enrich the lives of citizens by bringing design thinking to areas of our cities where resources are most scarce. To do so, [bc] recognizes that it must first understand the social, economic, and environmental issues facing a community before beginning work.

Read more about their DC-based project Crossing the Street | Activating Ivy City.

PARK(ING) DAY 2015 – OBSERVED

Oculus PARK(ing) Day 2015

HKS PARK(ing) Day 2015

ZGF PARK(ing) Day 2015

DPR PARK(ing) Day 2015

This year I participated in PARK(ing) Day by visiting as many sites as I could while grabbing coffee with a friend. Has anyone planned a bike tour for these? There were so many that popped-up around DC!

Best advice for building your PARK(ing) Day park:

Plan in advance. These mini parks take a lot of creative thinking and material gathering so it’s best to start early.

See more about PARK(ing) Day here.

ATTEND: HAPPY HOUR EVENT AT MAPLE ON 11TH ST FOR SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN

Patio at Maple

Join Inscape Publico and AFHdc Tuesday July 28, 2015 for a relaxing and enjoyable evening on Maple’s back patio to socialize and learn about Inscape Publico’s latest project, the St. John’s Episcopal School in Honduras. AFHdc Directors will announce their new chapter subcommittees and share other updates from the international chapter network. You won’t want to miss this great networking event with leaders in Social Impact Design in DC!

RSVP for the event here. Can’t make the event but still want to learn more and/or contribute to the school in Honduras? Check out Inscape Publico’s Crowdrise campaign.

Inscape Publico is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit architecture firm with the mission to provide professional architecture service for other nonprofits and the people they serve. Their understanding of the nonprofit community not only fosters excellence in design, but creates architecture that represents the vision, goals and sensibilities of each of its nonprofit partners. Inscape Publico serves as a catalyst and jumpstarts nonprofit projects by providing valuable visioning sessions and design services through a unique business model to help nonprofits understand their design needs to meet their goals and aspirations.

AFHdc is a volunteer organization that works to solve social justice issues through sustainable design. Formerly operating for 10 years as the DC Chapter of Architecture for Humanity, AFHdc has provided pro bono design services for organizations locally and abroad.

HOMELESS FACILITY IN COLUMBIA HEIGHTS

Built on the site of a former halfway house across the street from the popular Columbia Heights Target, is a new prototype for homeless facilities by Studio Twenty Seven Architecture and Leo A Daly JV. The ground level is open and inviting with studio units on the upper floors.

LA CASA is a new prototype for homeless care in the Nation’s Capital. Rather than function as a shelter, where clients are housed at night and asked to leave during the day, La Casa provides round-the-clock permanent housing for forty men. Each living unit is designed as a single person efficiency. This permanent housing will provide stability and predictability for the men as they re-immerse themselves into day-to-day living. Permanent Supportive Housing is a significant step in the transition from full time care to independent living.

PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN INSTITUTE COMES TO DC!

Bryan Bell, design activist and founder of Design Corps, will lead a 2 day Public Interest Design Institute in Washington DC from January 16-17 (Friday & Saturday). A mix of local and national speakers ranging from grass roots PID projects to federal government initiated projects are listed on the PIDI website. The range will give participants in depth knowledge on how to pursue these project types and what resources there are at all scales to get them off the ground.

Participants will also receive a SEED certification plus 11+ HSW CEUs and learn more about the Social, Economic, and Environmental Design rating system which helps prepare projects for grants applications. Speakers include DC’s very own public interest design firm Make DC along with the nonprofit/for profit combo firm Inscape Publico and volunteer group Architecture for Humanity DC. Larger organizations, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Enterprise Community Partners may be participating as well.

AIA and AfH members get an early bird discount by Dec 17. Register soon with Public Interest Design Institute, space is limited! Event will be at the District Architecture Center.