Upcoming Renovation Events

Are you interested in developing, designing or rehabilitating older buildings? Have you ever wanted to be an observer inside a construction project? Do you just enjoy a good story and making new friends? Well, clear your calendars because there are exciting renovation events happening this weekend in Sherman Hill.

The Green & Main building site is a real mess at the moment. There are geothermal tubes sticking out of the muddy terrain, the stairs have all been ripped out and the windows are covered with plywood – the perfect time to get an insider’s look at the building’s progress before the skeleton becomes hidden! Project developer Chaden Halfhill will be on-site to share his stories while working on the Green & Main project.

See where they unearthed a 500-gallon tank and happened upon a buried and long-forgotten trolley line. Feel the texture of the original window glass and wooden window sill while hearing expert advice on how we can restore these items while simultaneously making them ‘green.’

Experts in Attendance

Judy McClure, AIA, a preservation architect who was Iowa’s Rehabilitation Tax Credit reviewer for many years (including starting the State Tax Credit program), will share her knowledge of the challenges of incorporating sustainability with restoration. As a woman who wears many hats in her historic Sherman Hill neighborhood, she might even be able to tell you about the grocery store that existed before Green & Main (long rumored for selling underage kids alcohol and cigarettes).

Green educator and builder Bill McAnally will be on-site to share his experience in completely gutting and rehabbing a large building in Fort Dodge that turned into a highly energy-efficient community center for seniors. Working with local contractors and carpentry students, he will be sharing the objects they uncovered as well as explaining how to take down brick walls using ‘Viking’ technology.

The events this weekend will be informative and interactive; a perfect place to bring your own renovation questions to get them answered by local experts. Come explore the progress at Green & Main and network among some of the best in historic green renovation.

The events have been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in conjunction with Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation and Development. Sponsored in part by Silent Rivers Design + Build. Our thanks go to these groups.

– Michelle Peiffer is director of communications strategy for Indigo Dawn.

Are you interested in developing, designing or rehabilitating older buildings? Join us to hear a panel of experts discussing green historic renovation as they come together to share the inter-connectivity between historic preservation and green building.

From design details to financing hurdles, this will be an interactive presentation for those looking for hands-on solutions or a supportive conversation about saving our existing buildings. Bring your questions about your own projects and chat with the presenters after the tour. Preservationists, rehabbers, building owners, construction professionals and everyone interested in this topic are all welcome.

This event will run concurrently with the second weekend of the Sherman Hill Neighborhood’s Historic Homes Tour. Help us kick off this year’s inaugural Green Building Forum and then stay around the neighborhood to celebrate their ongoing progress towards restoring the neighborhood.

This event has been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in conjunction with Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation and Development. Our thanks go to these groups.

Location: Starts at Smokey Row Coffee House, 19^th and Crocker, Des Moines

Time:    8:30am – 12:00pm Panel Forum from 8:30am – 9:30 am. Hands-on Round Table and Interactive Conversations from 9:30 am – 11:00 a.m.

* Tour of the Green & Main Building at 800 19^th Street – 11:00 am – 12:00 pm *

Admission: $10

RSVP: Please reply to Tizzy Hyatt, Program Coordinator at tizzy@indigo-dawn.com or  (515) 681-6781.

Panel: Bill McAnally, Builder, Educator and host of Iowa Public Radio’s “Building In Iowa.” Judy McClure, Preservation Architect from the American Institute of Architects. ChadenHalfhil, Green & Main Pilot Project Developer.

– Michelle Peiffer is director of communications strategy for Indigo Dawn.

On-Site Networking Event with Leaders in Green Renovation and Design

Join us for an early evening gathering to meet and engage in thoughtful conversations about sustainable historic renovation, using the Green & Main Pilot Project as the backdrop for discussion.

Green educator and builder, Bill McAnally, is teaming up with Judy McClure, a Preservation Architect from the American Institute of Architects, to provide a lively presentation about greening historic buildings, engaging in a Question & Answer session afterwards. They will be joined by Chaden Halfhill, the developer for the Green & Main project.

Come early, stay late, and enjoy some green tea connections to inspire your weekend.

***

This event will run concurrently with the second weekend of the Sherman Hill Neighborhood’s Historic Homes Tour. Come and meet other like-minded members of your community and then celebrate their ongoing progress restoring the neighborhood throughout the weekend.

This event has been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in conjunction with Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation and Development. Our thanks go to these groups.

Location: 800 19^th Street, Des Moines

Time: 4:30pm – 7:00pm. Presentation and Q & A from 5:30pm – 6:30pm

Admission: FREE

RSVP: Please reply to Tizzy Hyatt, Program Coordinator at tizzy@indigo-dawn.com or (515) 681-6781.

– Michelle Peiffer is director of communications strategy at Indigo Dawn.

Chaden Halfhill speaking with Tim Reinders, Design Consultant with Main Street Iowa.

The National Main Streets Conference

The National Main Streets Conference opened earlier this week in Des Moines. Events ranged from tours to evening outings while the central meet-up point was the Polk County Convention Center where 1,300 people convened over a four-day period.

Sunday offered a free session on the Main Street Four Point Approach, created through the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington D.C. The Four Point Approach is characterized by Design, Organization, Promotion and Economic Restructuring. It is a very specific template to follow in order to be considered a Main Street Community through the National Trust’s program.

A pilot project began in 1977 through the Chicago office. Three communities throughout the Midwest were chosen and the Trust pledged to work with them for three years to assist with strategies that identified assets and impediments to ultimately leverage the good stuff for downtown economic revitalization. A book grew out of this experience and currently 40 U.S. states have active Main Street programs and communities, the direct outcome of which is new business, physical improvements and community vitality.

Banners representing Iowa’s 45 Main Street communities as displayed at the National Main Streets Conference.

What is a Main Street Community?

So what is a Main Street Community? As over a hundred of us sat in a large conference room, we learned it is a shared vision with a tremendous amount of work. The outcomes, however, are incredible and far reaching. There are 45 active Main Street Communities in Iowa, including Woodbine, Spencer, West Union, Marshalltown, Ames, West Branch, Central City, Burlington, Osceola, Iowa Falls, West Des Moines and the 6th Street Corridor in Des Moines.

In 1985 the Iowa Legislature adopted the program and placed it within the purview of the Iowa Department of Economic Development in order to

…improve the social and economic well-being of Iowa’s communities by assisting selected communities to capitalize on the unique identity, assets and character of their historic commercial district. Main Street is economic development within the context of historic preservation.

The National Main Street Community Criteria that is followed are ten-fold:

1. Have broad-based public and private support

2. Vision and mission statements

3. Comprehensive work plan

4. Historic preservation ethic

5. Active board and committees

6. Adequate operating budget

7. Paid, professional program director

8. On-going training for staff and volunteers

9. Reporting of key statistics

10. Current member of National Main Street Network

Economic & Cultural Development presentation.

Volunteers & Community

The formula is comprehensive and community-driven. It seeks to flesh out and leverage traditions and expertise of a town or region meeting needs for economic stability, growth and solid expectations about a vital future.

There are an untold number of volunteers around the state who see that their future will one day be somebody’s present. These are motivated people who want their extensive efforts for the cultural and economic revitalization of their communities to be a solid footing on which many others can learn, grow, contribute and thrive.

– Jean Danielson is director of operations for Indigo Dawn. She likes sidewalks and walking down them while window shopping. And then buying things.

Green & Main Sustainable Renovation Workshop

What do we mean by Green Design or Sustainable Design? It includes a variety of areas such as community design, energy efficiency, water-use efficiency, resource conservation and indoor environmental air quality.

As developer Chaden Halfhill states, “The practical is where it happens.” This is where we began last Friday at our first Green & Main Sustainable Renovation Workshop put on by Center for Sustainable Communities (COSC). We met on the early side of 9 a.m. at the Mickle Center located about three blocks away from our pilot project, the retrofitting and renovation of a multi-use building on 19^th Street in Sherman Hill.

About twenty people attended the workshop, lead by Jacob Kvinlaug of Jacob Kvinlaug Design & Construction, and Chaden Halfhill, head of the Green & Main Pilot Project. We took a couple of minutes to introduce ourselves and say why we were there. It turned out that many disciplines were represented: a general contractor who is looking for practical information; a coordinator of deconstruction and energy efficiency goals who is seeking to develop curriculum for his constituency; a grant writer in areas of sustainability and public policy wanting to learn more about how to tailor projects to green street initiatives; and a consultant who is continuing to educate himself on how to best guide clients who are buying older or historical houses.

Mr. Kvinlaug spoke at length on principals for green construction and green remodeling, referencing his 30 years of experience. He stated that the principles for green construction and green remodeling were the same, and once you know these, the direction forward becomes clearer. What is central to both is to take a whole systems approach. This approach sees the interdependence of all decisions within the construction and design trades. “Iowa weather is extreme,” he says. Temperatures can fluctuate between 100 degrees plus to 30 below zero with all sorts of weather events in between. This must be taken into account when one seeks to make a house more energy efficient.

First, Mr. Kvinlaug says, improve the building envelope. Make the building use less, then after that put in energy efficient technologies. This means tighten up the house. Seal up the attic floor, tighten up the windows. “Seal, seal, seal. Do this first then assess the situation. See what it does to your utility bills. Don’t get enamored with technology unless it makes sense.”

Mr. Halfhill spoke of sustainability within the fabric of an urban area, looking at the urban core and building use within this context. For his project, the vast majority of the choices that have been made and will be made hinge upon the integrating of historical requirements and energy efficiency requirements into a workable, sustainable whole. It is thinking through the design process in relation to preservation issues.

There are two main ways to make decisions about deconstruction, construction, retrofitting and building rehabilitation, he states. One is the environmental impact of the choice, the other is choice based on cost. The Green & Main Pilot Project is a demonstration building. “It is about the stretch,” he states. Mr. Halfhill is driven more by the environmental goals and the educational opportunities inherent in such an endeavor. “The goal,” he continues, “is to pattern and simplify the process without the hurdles. The hurdles are where the time goes and once these have been eliminated, [the process becomes] more economically viable.”

– Jean Danielson is director of operations for Indigo Dawn. She does not like making replicas of the Iowa Capitol complex using match sticks.

People who identify themselves as living healthfully and sustainably include not only the areas of green building and energy efficiency, but areas of choice that surround household products, electrical and hybrid vehicles, fair trade purchases, organic and locally owned food sources, medical choices and socially responsible investing.

Here in the Green & Main community, we have frequent discussions regarding choice and action, as it just seems to be in the air that we breathe. In fact, one of my favorite quotes from Chaden Halfhill was made off-the-cuff when we were at a meeting with the Office of Energy Independence in downtown Des Moines last year. As we were discussing the enormity of the project that is before us, its complexities and nuances, Chaden pauses and says, “Design well, live simply. That’s what it comes down to.”

This is a magnificent goal, and to that end I had a discussion recently with Johanna Hoffman, one of the people making this weekend’s Healthy Living Expo happen. Johanna is a very enthusiastic and engaged member of the LOHAS community, though I don’t know if she would identify herself as such. Her approach to the community and world she lives in is closer to the chest, it seems, than a label that one applies to their choices. It, too, is in the air that she breathes.

Johanna tells me, “What people don’t realize is that everything in their life involves health. The mental aspects of what we do in our life impact the physical.” Johanna and others who are putting together the Healthy Living Expo wanted to create an event that encourages the development of community wellness. We will do this, she says, through holding events that educate in fitness, personal care, traditional and alternative health care information, products and services.

The Expo will be at Hy-Vee Hall on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and will include a New Year’s Resolution Run with all proceeds from the run going to Special Olympics Iowa, a Healthy Living Expo Roller Race Championship presented by the Smart Honda Women’s Race Team, a Winter Farmer’s Market and a Healthy Kid’s Zone. A listing of the many classes and workshops can be found at www.healthylivingexpoia.com with each one lasting about an hour each. See the pdf here >> HLE 2011 Classes & Workshops

Before Johanna needed to leave for her next meeting, she left these words with me: “When you feel you are contributing to the world, your outlook is richer.”

I wholeheartedly agree.

– Jean Danielson is director of operations for Indigo Dawn. She likes watching people being healthy on TV.

Colorful shovels lined up, ready for shoveling

We wanted to do something symbolic at our September 23rd Pilot Project groundbreaking ceremony that everyone could participate in. So here’s what we came up with…

All guests can use one of the shiny green shovels (courtesy of COSC) to add some dirt to an urn. All of the dirt collected will be used in our rainscape garden, which will help the building properly manage its stormwater.

We’ll also have special grass seed note cards on which you can write comments of sustainability inspiration, your name or what this project means to you. The note cards will then be planted on site as a symbol for the community of support Green & Main Pilot Project has received as we work to establish sustainable communities.

We look forward to seeing you at the groundbreaking! Thursday, September 23 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 800 19th Street in Des Moines.

– Sara Crouse is a writer and marketing strategist who lives in Des Moines, Iowa.