they weren't very effective at communicating that the EGB forum was moved to navy pier. by the time I found out, it was too late to make it over there. i missed the EGB forum and thus the meetup. :( i'll have to catch up tomorrow night. they haven't been very effective at communicating in general. you're just supposed to follow the herd.
the expo is creaking under the strain of so many folks - I didn't learn of the navy pier location till just before the buses were leaving - but I had to check out the chinese sustainable city presentation. Made it to the pier by driving from the $16/day parking to the $19/day parking. the EGB presentation by cameron rocked and the poetry by Youth Speaks rocked too. Walked with the EGBers to their after party at Elm & State, then tried to get to the archinect meet up but gave the taxi the wrong street corner - so walked another 10 blocks to get there. by the time I showed up, no sign of folks with corbusier glasses, or architecture pallor. bummer. then walked back up to the magnificent mile in search of some food, and made it up to the sears tower before my feet started complaining. grabbed a cab back to the pier, tried to crash the party but couldn't sweet talk my way inside....
8am RD01
10am OR04
lunch - post a note here if you want to eat together
a few hours of expo hall exploration.
and then the big quandary at 4pm:
YL13 Jaime Lerner - mayor of Curitiba
or YL11 Ecoliteracy in Architecture Education
or YL18 Sustainable Sites Initiative???
the last is the one that I most likely will attend since I know the presenters (and ate dinner with them last night)...
Then I get an Ed Mazria fix at:
How Can Architecture Help Avoid a Climate Change Crisis?
Please join the USGBC and Autodesk at the Field Museum for an exclusive screening of "Architecture 2030". This episode is from the second season of the Autodesk-sponsored series e2 design, which is distributed internationally and releasing on PBS this fall. After the screening, stay for an informative panel discussion about this important topic moderated by Susan Szenasy, Editor in Chief, Metropolis Magazine. The panel will feature:
S. Richard Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chairman of the USGBC
Phil Bernstein, VP AEC Industry and Strategy Relations, Autodesk
Edward Mazria, Executive Director, Architecture 2030
Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environmental Officer, Mayor's Office, City of Chicago
Agenda:
5:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Check-in
6:00 - 6:30 p.m.
"Architecture 2030"
James Simpson Theatre, West Entrance
6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Panel discussion
James Simpson Theatre, West Entrance
7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Reception
East Atrium, East Entrance
Where: The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago IL 60605
of course this isn't listed in the program... see ya'll there!
I was there with you guys in spirit tonight....at about the same time you were doing your EGB thing, I was watching a talk by Dr. Chris Luebkeman, remember him? He was the really cool dude with the bow tie who gave a talk during the Architecture 2030 web cast earlier this year. And he was great again tonight! I'm going to go blog about it. :o)
Im at City Hall most of the day - Im on for the meetup tonight - 6pm at Cavanaughs I believe. I have to live the Green Build experiance vicariously through you.
I thought the Cavanaugh's meetup was yesterday. Today I'm hoping for a post architecture 2030 film screening at the field museum.
Just saw some amazing London 2012 Olympic graphics from the london office of EDAW. I'm starting to realize that the greatest limitation to achieving carbon neutrality and a sustainable future is the client or who ever controls the money behind the project.
Slight change in my schedule is that I'm in OR07 - 'starting from zero: a masterplan for a carbon-neutral community' with grimshaw and billing jackson exploring infrastructure and landscapes.
ahhhh, lunch, a $8.75 chicken blt wrap and $3.25 coke since the usgbc doesn't want to feed the media more then they have too. I've noticed that most convention centers never have enough seating in the hallways and breakout spaces, so i'm enjoying the zen of the press room.
Grimshaw rocks! they may be the best architecture firm that does sustainability and design without compromise. They seem to develop the most innovative solutions especially when compared to the incremental-applying-standard-ideas-in-(slightly)-new-ways approach of most sustainable design firms like McDonough or design-centric folks like Thom.
I want to build a water theater too! While coastal california cities may not be arid enough for the solar desalination physics to work well, the salt water greenhouse concept may be viable in the desert southwest.
Now I get a few hours in the expo hall if my sore feet will withstand the abuse of wearing nice shoes for the day. (my sneakers are in my car).
my suffering feet were softened by the voc-spewing-convention-hall- standard-low-plush-cheap-ass-beige-carpet as I criss-crossed the expo hall from row 100 to booth 1542. Most of the exhibitors were your garden variety buildings product mfr pitching the same stuff that you find at the AIA expo or any other architectural products show. Only one utilikilt was spotted in the booth of a granola crunchy publisher selling books that any serious professional would ignore.
The most tactile spot was the bioglass booth were every passerby couldn't resist rubbing the table made of this [rul=http://coveringsetc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=21] stuff[/url]:
made from 100% recycled glass.
I was baffled by the crowd at the rainwater harvesting parts company and had to fight my way through five-deep to learn more about their first flush bypass and filtration system. Maybe the tipping point has been reached.
In terms of schwag (this is for you heather), frisbees were the best give away seen, but somebody had a keg in the depths of their booth. Bowls of candy, pens, pencils, and product literature was the typical haul avoided. A few places had drawings for things like ipods - but no cars beyond the wall sized photograph in the GM booth hiding behind all the macintoshes (which I first thought was an apple computer booth till I saw the chevy logo).
20,517attendees was tally this morning and the usgbc staff are definitely overwhelmed by the crush of folks. Hope next year they have better planning, no change of venue, and more staff to smooth the experience.
Sneakers will be put on before I head over to the field museum for the architecture 2030 screening and party. Off to sustainable sites initiative.
As posted elsewhere, the sustainable sites initiative discussion was very interesting (to me). My choices for that time slot were made easier by the cancellation of Jaime Lerner's talk.
I just checked the original press notification and I'm not going crazy or have drifted out-of-phase with the space/time continuum, the screening of Arch 2030 was originally scheduled for tonight. It was shown yesterday and nobody at the convention info desk seemed to know anything and no additional press notification.
So as I was enjoying cameron's show to the EGB, Ed was railing against coal and pressing for carbon neutrality at what was most likely a good party.
Because of the continuing transportation issues, I walked the half hour up to the Field Museum since the line for taxis was over an hour long. Got to the museum and it was deserted with the guards also clueless. So grabbed a cab back to McCormick place and as I was getting out of the cab at 6:55, the women I was standing next to in line for a cab an hour earlier was at the head of the line for cabs - very apropo.
on the wayback to the hotel found an excellent pho joint along broadway in what must be little saigon of the north side. good stuff.
friday's plan (i'm getting tired of having stuff change at the last minute) is to attend PL11- Leadership in Ecological Applications and Functions by Rana Creek's Paul Kephart; then the Plenary Closing Session; then hit the road back to home.
Of course there is one more thing that just caught my eye the Clinton Climate Change Initiative session that runs 1:30 to 5:00- ok where else is this described then in the conference schedule. Gotta bitch that the conference program writers didn't cross reference anything. But if I stayed for this, I wouldn't get home till 2am and that isn't gonna fly...
I had fun at the meetup last night. Awesome meeting some archinecters face to face. I should've stuck around longer - by the time I got to the party at the merch mart it was pretty much over. early crowd.
Anyone still around and free tonight? I can't stay out too late but I will be ready for some dinner / drinks before I head outta town.
Listening to Mayor Daley and others pass along the wisdom of being a mayor to a full house. I finally learned how to pronounce Szenasy (and I got it on tape)! Its interesting to witness the shift from federal power to the local states and cities for environmental issues.
'its nice to save the planet!' the mayor of Albuquerque.
A few final thoughts as I wrap up my greenbuild adventure. Still have a few pictures to post once I get home and a few scribbled notes to transcribe.
Would I recommend going to greenbuild next year? Yeah! Compared to the AIA expo and ASLA Expo, the diversity of the audience and range of education session created a more vibrant experience. that diversity fostered an amazing exchange of ideas and serendipitous connections with interesting folks. For the students and emerging professionals,next year the EGB community is going to be a central theme for Greenbuild Boston 2008.
I want thank all the archinecteurs checking out my adventures at greenbuild and those folks posting comments - the fact that this thread has 1491 views (as of 12 noon friday) makes the efforts of hauling this old school heavy laptop around worthwhile. Even if I missed the meet-up (and I really needed a beer last night), glad to hear that it was fun.
If you want to represent archinect (and get a press pass to future events) drop paul an email about what it takes.
I'm also interested in organizing an archinect/postopolis style education session at upcoming greenbuilds/aia expo/asla expo and other venues. We (the online community) represent a new method of communication, organization, and collaboration that needs to be shared with the greater audience. drop me a note with your ideas...
Today is the day of reckoning. I'm submitting my expense report and calculating my carbon emissions from this trip.
If I had flown to chicago (about 355 miles each way), then I would have been responsible for 640lbs of CO2 at 0.9 lbs CO2/mile of air travel.
Then would have been all the cab rides (say 100 miles for the entire week) in a chevy caprice (only saw one cab that wasn't) at 15mpg would be another 130lbs of CO2 at the EPA value of 19.4lbs CO2/gallon of gasoline
Ok, I could have taken public transit, but as discussed elsewhere, my hotel wasn't near the metro and the tight schedule of events kept me from even trying...
But I drove, and the total trip distance was 944 miles (822 miles for the interstate round trip). From my gas receipts, i burned about 31 gallons (+/-30mph) generating about 600lbs of CO2 for the entire weeks transportation.
Didn't measure my hotels emissions, but since it was such a cheap place there should have been less compared to a four star establishment. those scratchy thin towels don't need much hot water for washing...
My expense report contains $578.47 for the five days of travel, parking, food, and lodging. (another $40 went to cabs and never got receipts for those).
the greenbuild membership would have cost $725 as a non-member/session reviewer/early registrant/international forum. But thanks to archinect, the press pass was FREE- just didn't get boxed lunches and had to sit in the press ghetto for Clinton's keynote...
See ya'll next year in Boston and Phoenix in 2009!
I have attended Greenbuild for the past three years. I was very impressed that this year's conference seemed to focus more on big ideas and universal themes than previous conferences. I felt that the previous conferences got too caught up in the minutiae of things like waterless urinals, energy star appliances, and recycled content in carpet without really confronting the larger issue of why this is all so important. This year the speakers and sessions were much better at showing the larger environmental, cultural, social, and economic benefits that can be achieved through using green products, services, and methods.
On the downside, communication was horrible. I missed the EGB forum due to the last minute change of venue. I wanted to do the CAF boat tour on Friday. The conference program made it sound like you just needed to show up at Michigan & Wacker at 2 PM and would get on. That was not the case – advance reservations were needed. I felt like I would not have known where to go for breakfasts and lunches if it wasn’t just for just seeing a massive herd of people and following them.
All in all I was very happy with the conference but USGBC needs to get their act together when it comes to being more upfront with information.
Today San Francisco is 95˚
I wake up feeling trusting
check the heat chart in the paper and the country is blushing
I melt; never felt so sticky in this city
I haven’t seen fog in damn near a month and I’m wondering
what happened to my hometown.
I’m hoping that it’s just someone upstairs expressing their
sunny disposition
but seven people died from yesterday’s heat wave
and I’m trying real hard not to wrap my mind around exponential
Hoping that every scientist in the world forgot to carry the one
And it’s true— right now it’s absolutely gorgeous
lemonade weather,
but it too will sour.
Gorgeous works different in San Francisco
and I am most found in this city
when I can’t see five feet in front of me
And I don’t think I have the words to explain fog to my children
To tell my grandkids what snow was like
It’s hot today
and you could fry an egg on the hood of our karma.
We’re driving ourselves off a cliff with a bag of money in the trunk—
our dollars read
In God we trust
I went to Wells Fargo today cause my fog bank went bust
I’ve got thick skin—
been inside the whale with Jonah
(he told me he was going to stay there for a while to avoid the melanoma)
And Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever spent
was a summer in San Francisco,
but he wasn’t in this city.
You can watch the news
read the proof
I don’t care how many times you see an Inconvenient Truth
and don’t believe
say The camera puts on ten degrees
tell me this is petty
tell New Orleans that coincidence destroyed the levies
but just look up at your sky back home;
our cities are changing.
When Manhattan becomes Venice,
Venice becomes
Atlantis,
Atlanta is 100˚ in the shade
and no one notices the wind in Chicago anymore.
This is not a matter of forgetting to put two and two together,
of dividing me and you
by red and blue
This equation can be solved
and as long as we are standing we can
carry the one
who falls
carry the ones
who forget
care for the friend
you haven’t met
the child
who isn’t yours
the tomorrow
you may not live to see,
carry the one you believe in
the city you love
the Brooklyn Bridge
carry the 9th Ward
the rain in Seattle
the Rockies
the sound the trees make when they freeze in Vermont
a Montana winter
a Michigan football game,
I will carry the fog.
Carry the one
that sends shivers down my spine
the one
that’s mine
the one
I find tugging us all forward
Come with me
lift with your legs
your mind
your heart
Let us carry the one
that we can no longer ignore.
Communication was horrible, too many things rescheduled, relocated at the last minute with no notice given to the attendees - I'll accept that the venue change complicated everything and can be blamed for most cases. The expo staff did an excellent job trying to pull off a 20,000 person show in 6 months. other complaint was the greenbuild transit service - not enough busses, and most were running late. more then one departure time is needed to get folks to offsite events (like the EGB forum), and better scheduling of return trips needs to be implemented. it doesn't look good when the board members are left waiting 30 minutes for a ride back after lunch.
I too, totally grooved on the big picture issues - that is part due to growing sophistication of the session reviewers that screened all the abstracts and proposals along with the program committer. Other praise gotta go to the presenters, only one really lame speaker slipped into the sessions I was at.
The expo vendors were sort of lame - no pie-in-the-sky fantasy products or companies. At least they weren't granola, but I want more sexy technology and materials.
This was my first GreenBuild, so I have nothing to compare it to. I appreciated the broad stoke/big picture issues, but I was expecting something with more teeth, technology breakthroughs, and in-depth discussions. The presentations I went to did little more than scratch the surface of a lot of the issues that I was interested in learning about.
I made sure to get to events very early, and I'm glad that I did. It was a madhouse trying to get into/out of the major events & meals. I had zero transportation problems as well - the shuttle buses worked flawlessly in my case.
The expo floor was lame - I saw no cutting edge products and most everything there has already been seen in the magazines. I too was expecting some "pie in the sky" stuff. I was further disappointed by the reps lack of knowledge... The upcoming Autodesk product that seamlessly links your BIM model to LEED stuff looks impressive though...
I was a bit freaked about walking around with an RFID device (name badge) on me at all times...
Most of the speakers were outstanding, but one guy before the Hawken speech (can't remember his name) seemed very preachy and very angry. I could've done without the YouthSpeaks stuff - I actually chuckled out loud at all of them. But that's my opinion - I'm not into poetry/spoken word slams. Just seems like they take themselves waaaaaay too seriously.
As stated previously, the expo floor was stagnant at best. Did anyone else notice an extremely disproportional amount of waterless urinals and low flow toilets? There were probably 8 vendors for toilets!
The presentations were rudimentary and basic. I don't need to know the benefits of rainwater collection! Show me something new, something better.
And then there's the whole situation surrounding those who registered as Student / EGB Members. All of you second-class citizens who were wearing yellow name tags like me know what I'm talking about. We might as well have been wearing Stars of David in Nazi Germany.
1 - no tote bags, which also contained ALL of the pertinent info for the entire conference.
2 - literally being yelled at in line by USGBC staffers, while waiting to see Bill Clinton. I was told I would have to wait in the loser corral with the other youngsters in case there weren't enough seats and breakfast food. (We all got in, there were PLENTY of seats and TONS of extra breakfast food)
3 - zero respect from vendors on the expo floor. you think just because i am wearing this yellow name tag I have no say in what products we spec at my firm?
4 - No ticket for the Leadership Awards party.
I was in Denver last year, and we received all of these things. Plus, we didn't have to suffer the indignity of wearing those stupid yellow name tags.
The EGB session on Wednesday was by far the best part of the week and it went completely unrecognized by the rest of the conference, and was relegated to some dark crappy conference room at the farthest end of the Navy Pier.
It's ironic to me because one of the "themes" of this year's conference was green schools and creating positive futures for the younger generation. Well hey, USGBC, we may not be in elementary school any more, but WE ARE YOUR YOUNGER GENERATION. practice what you preach, take care of us.
I put "themes" in quotation marks because the only discernible theme I could comprehend from this conference was making money and touting their big corporate sponsors.
most expo floors are. companies are going to show products that are currently available for sale. it's hard for them to justify showing products that are experimental or still in the development phase. there's little to no profit potential in that and it's hugely expensive to participate in shows. there has to be some potential for return. i also imagine some of the companies doing cutting edge stuff don't have the time or the money to staff a table at Greenbuild even if they wanted to.
Did anyone else notice an extremely disproportional amount of waterless urinals and low flow toilets?
i would not say extremely disproportional, but there were quite a lot. since every building needs at least one toilet, toilet companies have the money to show up at these expos. plus, water is becoming a big issue across the country, so it only makes sense.
The presentations were rudimentary and basic
it's hard to go beyond the basics when you have less than 90 minutes and you're speaking to a mixed audience. the presentations are designed to whet one's appetite to learn more about the subject matter, not to provide an all-encompassing education. some things take years of education and/or experience to master and it's impossible to convey it all in a short time frame. that said, i do think in the future it would be good for USGBC to create some "advanced" sessions.
Show me something new, something better
maybe the lack thereof just goes to show we're putting too much faith in new technology to get us out of this mess.
the only discernible theme I could comprehend from this conference was making money and touting their big corporate sponsors.
it makes me just as uncomfortable as anyone to see companies like GM showing up at Greenbuild, but if it weren't for big corporate sponsors there would be no USGBC, no LEED, and no Greenbuild. unlike some other environmental organizations, USGBC does not assume an anti-capitalist position. i would argue that environmental organizations that are anti-capitalist are generally nowhere as successful as USGBC. change has to come from within the established economic system. it won't be overthrown, it'll be slowly undermined.
There are so many presentations offered and so many people in attendance, i agree that they should be conducted at varying skill / knowledge levels so people can pick between beginner and advanced topics.
By far, my biggest gripe was with the way the EGB members were treated. I realize we only paid $100 to attend the conference compared to upwards of $900 for full-paying attendees, but last year I had the same registration and was given all the benefits of a full registrant.
I would completely understand not being given full benefit based on the low fee we paid, but nowhere was this written or spelled out. It's like the USGBC saw the overwhelming response to this year's conference and decided to just take the benefits away from EGBers without reason or consistency.
and I do plan on addressing someone at the USGBC (more tactfully) about these problems. it's not just a random bashing on an anonymous website.
GREENBUILD 2007
A bunch of folks from my office spent the afternoon there -
they weren't very effective at communicating that the EGB forum was moved to navy pier. by the time I found out, it was too late to make it over there. i missed the EGB forum and thus the meetup. :( i'll have to catch up tomorrow night. they haven't been very effective at communicating in general. you're just supposed to follow the herd.
Ive heard the attendance is way disproportional to the advanced registration - many more folks are just showing at the door than anyone thought
the expo is creaking under the strain of so many folks - I didn't learn of the navy pier location till just before the buses were leaving - but I had to check out the chinese sustainable city presentation. Made it to the pier by driving from the $16/day parking to the $19/day parking. the EGB presentation by cameron rocked and the poetry by Youth Speaks rocked too. Walked with the EGBers to their after party at Elm & State, then tried to get to the archinect meet up but gave the taxi the wrong street corner - so walked another 10 blocks to get there. by the time I showed up, no sign of folks with corbusier glasses, or architecture pallor. bummer. then walked back up to the magnificent mile in search of some food, and made it up to the sears tower before my feet started complaining. grabbed a cab back to the pier, tried to crash the party but couldn't sweet talk my way inside....
so back to the hotel to post to archinect.
Hi evilp;-)
my plan for tomorrow (not that I'll keep it:
8am RD01
10am OR04
lunch - post a note here if you want to eat together
a few hours of expo hall exploration.
and then the big quandary at 4pm:
YL13 Jaime Lerner - mayor of Curitiba
or YL11 Ecoliteracy in Architecture Education
or YL18 Sustainable Sites Initiative???
the last is the one that I most likely will attend since I know the presenters (and ate dinner with them last night)...
Then I get an Ed Mazria fix at:
How Can Architecture Help Avoid a Climate Change Crisis?
Please join the USGBC and Autodesk at the Field Museum for an exclusive screening of "Architecture 2030". This episode is from the second season of the Autodesk-sponsored series e2 design, which is distributed internationally and releasing on PBS this fall. After the screening, stay for an informative panel discussion about this important topic moderated by Susan Szenasy, Editor in Chief, Metropolis Magazine. The panel will feature:
S. Richard Fedrizzi, President, CEO and Founding Chairman of the USGBC
Phil Bernstein, VP AEC Industry and Strategy Relations, Autodesk
Edward Mazria, Executive Director, Architecture 2030
Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environmental Officer, Mayor's Office, City of Chicago
Agenda:
5:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Check-in
6:00 - 6:30 p.m.
"Architecture 2030"
James Simpson Theatre, West Entrance
6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Panel discussion
James Simpson Theatre, West Entrance
7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Reception
East Atrium, East Entrance
Where: The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago IL 60605
of course this isn't listed in the program... see ya'll there!
I was there with you guys in spirit tonight....at about the same time you were doing your EGB thing, I was watching a talk by Dr. Chris Luebkeman, remember him? He was the really cool dude with the bow tie who gave a talk during the Architecture 2030 web cast earlier this year. And he was great again tonight! I'm going to go blog about it. :o)
Im at City Hall most of the day - Im on for the meetup tonight - 6pm at Cavanaughs I believe. I have to live the Green Build experiance vicariously through you.
I thought the Cavanaugh's meetup was yesterday. Today I'm hoping for a post architecture 2030 film screening at the field museum.
Just saw some amazing London 2012 Olympic graphics from the london office of EDAW. I'm starting to realize that the greatest limitation to achieving carbon neutrality and a sustainable future is the client or who ever controls the money behind the project.
Slight change in my schedule is that I'm in OR07 - 'starting from zero: a masterplan for a carbon-neutral community' with grimshaw and billing jackson exploring infrastructure and landscapes.
ahhhh, lunch, a $8.75 chicken blt wrap and $3.25 coke since the usgbc doesn't want to feed the media more then they have too. I've noticed that most convention centers never have enough seating in the hallways and breakout spaces, so i'm enjoying the zen of the press room.
Grimshaw rocks! they may be the best architecture firm that does sustainability and design without compromise. They seem to develop the most innovative solutions especially when compared to the incremental-applying-standard-ideas-in-(slightly)-new-ways approach of most sustainable design firms like McDonough or design-centric folks like Thom.
I want to build a water theater too! While coastal california cities may not be arid enough for the solar desalination physics to work well, the salt water greenhouse concept may be viable in the desert southwest.
Now I get a few hours in the expo hall if my sore feet will withstand the abuse of wearing nice shoes for the day. (my sneakers are in my car).
it's about time you put on your sneakers and start to offend some people out there!
my suffering feet were softened by the voc-spewing-convention-hall- standard-low-plush-cheap-ass-beige-carpet as I criss-crossed the expo hall from row 100 to booth 1542. Most of the exhibitors were your garden variety buildings product mfr pitching the same stuff that you find at the AIA expo or any other architectural products show. Only one utilikilt was spotted in the booth of a granola crunchy publisher selling books that any serious professional would ignore.
The most tactile spot was the bioglass booth were every passerby couldn't resist rubbing the table made of this [rul=http://coveringsetc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=21] stuff[/url]:
made from 100% recycled glass.
I was baffled by the crowd at the rainwater harvesting parts company and had to fight my way through five-deep to learn more about their first flush bypass and filtration system. Maybe the tipping point has been reached.
In terms of schwag (this is for you heather), frisbees were the best give away seen, but somebody had a keg in the depths of their booth. Bowls of candy, pens, pencils, and product literature was the typical haul avoided. A few places had drawings for things like ipods - but no cars beyond the wall sized photograph in the GM booth hiding behind all the macintoshes (which I first thought was an apple computer booth till I saw the chevy logo).
20,517attendees was tally this morning and the usgbc staff are definitely overwhelmed by the crush of folks. Hope next year they have better planning, no change of venue, and more staff to smooth the experience.
Sneakers will be put on before I head over to the field museum for the architecture 2030 screening and party. Off to sustainable sites initiative.
As posted elsewhere, the sustainable sites initiative discussion was very interesting (to me). My choices for that time slot were made easier by the cancellation of Jaime Lerner's talk.
I just checked the original press notification and I'm not going crazy or have drifted out-of-phase with the space/time continuum, the screening of Arch 2030 was originally scheduled for tonight. It was shown yesterday and nobody at the convention info desk seemed to know anything and no additional press notification.
So as I was enjoying cameron's show to the EGB, Ed was railing against coal and pressing for carbon neutrality at what was most likely a good party.
Because of the continuing transportation issues, I walked the half hour up to the Field Museum since the line for taxis was over an hour long. Got to the museum and it was deserted with the guards also clueless. So grabbed a cab back to McCormick place and as I was getting out of the cab at 6:55, the women I was standing next to in line for a cab an hour earlier was at the head of the line for cabs - very apropo.
on the wayback to the hotel found an excellent pho joint along broadway in what must be little saigon of the north side. good stuff.
friday's plan (i'm getting tired of having stuff change at the last minute) is to attend PL11- Leadership in Ecological Applications and Functions by Rana Creek's Paul Kephart; then the Plenary Closing Session; then hit the road back to home.
Of course there is one more thing that just caught my eye the Clinton Climate Change Initiative session that runs 1:30 to 5:00- ok where else is this described then in the conference schedule. Gotta bitch that the conference program writers didn't cross reference anything. But if I stayed for this, I wouldn't get home till 2am and that isn't gonna fly...
I had fun at the meetup last night. Awesome meeting some archinecters face to face. I should've stuck around longer - by the time I got to the party at the merch mart it was pretty much over. early crowd.
Anyone still around and free tonight? I can't stay out too late but I will be ready for some dinner / drinks before I head outta town.
sorry 4arch - Im nursing a bit of a hangover as it is and I have an exam tomorrow. Nice meeting you though. Hope you had a good time in the city.
SKYLINE BALLROOM - Final Plenary Session
Listening to Mayor Daley and others pass along the wisdom of being a mayor to a full house. I finally learned how to pronounce Szenasy (and I got it on tape)! Its interesting to witness the shift from federal power to the local states and cities for environmental issues.
'its nice to save the planet!' the mayor of Albuquerque.
A few final thoughts as I wrap up my greenbuild adventure. Still have a few pictures to post once I get home and a few scribbled notes to transcribe.
Would I recommend going to greenbuild next year? Yeah! Compared to the AIA expo and ASLA Expo, the diversity of the audience and range of education session created a more vibrant experience. that diversity fostered an amazing exchange of ideas and serendipitous connections with interesting folks. For the students and emerging professionals,next year the EGB community is going to be a central theme for Greenbuild Boston 2008.
I want thank all the archinecteurs checking out my adventures at greenbuild and those folks posting comments - the fact that this thread has 1491 views (as of 12 noon friday) makes the efforts of hauling this old school heavy laptop around worthwhile. Even if I missed the meet-up (and I really needed a beer last night), glad to hear that it was fun.
If you want to represent archinect (and get a press pass to future events) drop paul an email about what it takes.
I'm also interested in organizing an archinect/postopolis style education session at upcoming greenbuilds/aia expo/asla expo and other venues. We (the online community) represent a new method of communication, organization, and collaboration that needs to be shared with the greater audience. drop me a note with your ideas...
I gotta eat, too hungry to type anymore. Bye chicago!!!
I got back home about an hour ago. I stayed over the weekend and caused some trouble with my friends that live there.
Good bye Chicago, Hello Dirty South.
Today is the day of reckoning. I'm submitting my expense report and calculating my carbon emissions from this trip.
If I had flown to chicago (about 355 miles each way), then I would have been responsible for 640lbs of CO2 at 0.9 lbs CO2/mile of air travel.
Then would have been all the cab rides (say 100 miles for the entire week) in a chevy caprice (only saw one cab that wasn't) at 15mpg would be another 130lbs of CO2 at the EPA value of 19.4lbs CO2/gallon of gasoline
Ok, I could have taken public transit, but as discussed elsewhere, my hotel wasn't near the metro and the tight schedule of events kept me from even trying...
But I drove, and the total trip distance was 944 miles (822 miles for the interstate round trip). From my gas receipts, i burned about 31 gallons (+/-30mph) generating about 600lbs of CO2 for the entire weeks transportation.
Didn't measure my hotels emissions, but since it was such a cheap place there should have been less compared to a four star establishment. those scratchy thin towels don't need much hot water for washing...
My expense report contains $578.47 for the five days of travel, parking, food, and lodging. (another $40 went to cabs and never got receipts for those).
the greenbuild membership would have cost $725 as a non-member/session reviewer/early registrant/international forum. But thanks to archinect, the press pass was FREE- just didn't get boxed lunches and had to sit in the press ghetto for Clinton's keynote...
See ya'll next year in Boston and Phoenix in 2009!
Here’s my review of Greenbuild 07:
I have attended Greenbuild for the past three years. I was very impressed that this year's conference seemed to focus more on big ideas and universal themes than previous conferences. I felt that the previous conferences got too caught up in the minutiae of things like waterless urinals, energy star appliances, and recycled content in carpet without really confronting the larger issue of why this is all so important. This year the speakers and sessions were much better at showing the larger environmental, cultural, social, and economic benefits that can be achieved through using green products, services, and methods.
On the downside, communication was horrible. I missed the EGB forum due to the last minute change of venue. I wanted to do the CAF boat tour on Friday. The conference program made it sound like you just needed to show up at Michigan & Wacker at 2 PM and would get on. That was not the case – advance reservations were needed. I felt like I would not have known where to go for breakfasts and lunches if it wasn’t just for just seeing a massive herd of people and following them.
All in all I was very happy with the conference but USGBC needs to get their act together when it comes to being more upfront with information.
as slammed just before clinton took the stage:
carry the one
by George Watsky
Today San Francisco is 95˚
I wake up feeling trusting
check the heat chart in the paper and the country is blushing
I melt; never felt so sticky in this city
I haven’t seen fog in damn near a month and I’m wondering
what happened to my hometown.
I’m hoping that it’s just someone upstairs expressing their
sunny disposition
but seven people died from yesterday’s heat wave
and I’m trying real hard not to wrap my mind around exponential
Hoping that every scientist in the world forgot to carry the one
And it’s true— right now it’s absolutely gorgeous
lemonade weather,
but it too will sour.
Gorgeous works different in San Francisco
and I am most found in this city
when I can’t see five feet in front of me
And I don’t think I have the words to explain fog to my children
To tell my grandkids what snow was like
It’s hot today
and you could fry an egg on the hood of our karma.
We’re driving ourselves off a cliff with a bag of money in the trunk—
our dollars read
In God we trust
I went to Wells Fargo today cause my fog bank went bust
I’ve got thick skin—
been inside the whale with Jonah
(he told me he was going to stay there for a while to avoid the melanoma)
And Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever spent
was a summer in San Francisco,
but he wasn’t in this city.
You can watch the news
read the proof
I don’t care how many times you see an Inconvenient Truth
and don’t believe
say The camera puts on ten degrees
tell me this is petty
tell New Orleans that coincidence destroyed the levies
but just look up at your sky back home;
our cities are changing.
When Manhattan becomes Venice,
Venice becomes
Atlantis,
Atlanta is 100˚ in the shade
and no one notices the wind in Chicago anymore.
This is not a matter of forgetting to put two and two together,
of dividing me and you
by red and blue
This equation can be solved
and as long as we are standing we can
carry the one
who falls
carry the ones
who forget
care for the friend
you haven’t met
the child
who isn’t yours
the tomorrow
you may not live to see,
carry the one you believe in
the city you love
the Brooklyn Bridge
carry the 9th Ward
the rain in Seattle
the Rockies
the sound the trees make when they freeze in Vermont
a Montana winter
a Michigan football game,
I will carry the fog.
Carry the one
that sends shivers down my spine
the one
that’s mine
the one
I find tugging us all forward
Come with me
lift with your legs
your mind
your heart
Let us carry the one
that we can no longer ignore.
4arch- I second the assessment.
Communication was horrible, too many things rescheduled, relocated at the last minute with no notice given to the attendees - I'll accept that the venue change complicated everything and can be blamed for most cases. The expo staff did an excellent job trying to pull off a 20,000 person show in 6 months. other complaint was the greenbuild transit service - not enough busses, and most were running late. more then one departure time is needed to get folks to offsite events (like the EGB forum), and better scheduling of return trips needs to be implemented. it doesn't look good when the board members are left waiting 30 minutes for a ride back after lunch.
I too, totally grooved on the big picture issues - that is part due to growing sophistication of the session reviewers that screened all the abstracts and proposals along with the program committer. Other praise gotta go to the presenters, only one really lame speaker slipped into the sessions I was at.
The expo vendors were sort of lame - no pie-in-the-sky fantasy products or companies. At least they weren't granola, but I want more sexy technology and materials.
This was my first GreenBuild, so I have nothing to compare it to. I appreciated the broad stoke/big picture issues, but I was expecting something with more teeth, technology breakthroughs, and in-depth discussions. The presentations I went to did little more than scratch the surface of a lot of the issues that I was interested in learning about.
I made sure to get to events very early, and I'm glad that I did. It was a madhouse trying to get into/out of the major events & meals. I had zero transportation problems as well - the shuttle buses worked flawlessly in my case.
The expo floor was lame - I saw no cutting edge products and most everything there has already been seen in the magazines. I too was expecting some "pie in the sky" stuff. I was further disappointed by the reps lack of knowledge... The upcoming Autodesk product that seamlessly links your BIM model to LEED stuff looks impressive though...
I was a bit freaked about walking around with an RFID device (name badge) on me at all times...
Most of the speakers were outstanding, but one guy before the Hawken speech (can't remember his name) seemed very preachy and very angry. I could've done without the YouthSpeaks stuff - I actually chuckled out loud at all of them. But that's my opinion - I'm not into poetry/spoken word slams. Just seems like they take themselves waaaaaay too seriously.
Greenbuild was not good. Not at all.
As stated previously, the expo floor was stagnant at best. Did anyone else notice an extremely disproportional amount of waterless urinals and low flow toilets? There were probably 8 vendors for toilets!
The presentations were rudimentary and basic. I don't need to know the benefits of rainwater collection! Show me something new, something better.
And then there's the whole situation surrounding those who registered as Student / EGB Members. All of you second-class citizens who were wearing yellow name tags like me know what I'm talking about. We might as well have been wearing Stars of David in Nazi Germany.
1 - no tote bags, which also contained ALL of the pertinent info for the entire conference.
2 - literally being yelled at in line by USGBC staffers, while waiting to see Bill Clinton. I was told I would have to wait in the loser corral with the other youngsters in case there weren't enough seats and breakfast food. (We all got in, there were PLENTY of seats and TONS of extra breakfast food)
3 - zero respect from vendors on the expo floor. you think just because i am wearing this yellow name tag I have no say in what products we spec at my firm?
4 - No ticket for the Leadership Awards party.
I was in Denver last year, and we received all of these things. Plus, we didn't have to suffer the indignity of wearing those stupid yellow name tags.
The EGB session on Wednesday was by far the best part of the week and it went completely unrecognized by the rest of the conference, and was relegated to some dark crappy conference room at the farthest end of the Navy Pier.
It's ironic to me because one of the "themes" of this year's conference was green schools and creating positive futures for the younger generation. Well hey, USGBC, we may not be in elementary school any more, but WE ARE YOUR YOUNGER GENERATION. practice what you preach, take care of us.
I put "themes" in quotation marks because the only discernible theme I could comprehend from this conference was making money and touting their big corporate sponsors.
T D,
i think you are being more than a little harsh.
the expo floor was stagnant at best
most expo floors are. companies are going to show products that are currently available for sale. it's hard for them to justify showing products that are experimental or still in the development phase. there's little to no profit potential in that and it's hugely expensive to participate in shows. there has to be some potential for return. i also imagine some of the companies doing cutting edge stuff don't have the time or the money to staff a table at Greenbuild even if they wanted to.
Did anyone else notice an extremely disproportional amount of waterless urinals and low flow toilets?
i would not say extremely disproportional, but there were quite a lot. since every building needs at least one toilet, toilet companies have the money to show up at these expos. plus, water is becoming a big issue across the country, so it only makes sense.
The presentations were rudimentary and basic
it's hard to go beyond the basics when you have less than 90 minutes and you're speaking to a mixed audience. the presentations are designed to whet one's appetite to learn more about the subject matter, not to provide an all-encompassing education. some things take years of education and/or experience to master and it's impossible to convey it all in a short time frame. that said, i do think in the future it would be good for USGBC to create some "advanced" sessions.
Show me something new, something better
maybe the lack thereof just goes to show we're putting too much faith in new technology to get us out of this mess.
the only discernible theme I could comprehend from this conference was making money and touting their big corporate sponsors.
it makes me just as uncomfortable as anyone to see companies like GM showing up at Greenbuild, but if it weren't for big corporate sponsors there would be no USGBC, no LEED, and no Greenbuild. unlike some other environmental organizations, USGBC does not assume an anti-capitalist position. i would argue that environmental organizations that are anti-capitalist are generally nowhere as successful as USGBC. change has to come from within the established economic system. it won't be overthrown, it'll be slowly undermined.
There are so many presentations offered and so many people in attendance, i agree that they should be conducted at varying skill / knowledge levels so people can pick between beginner and advanced topics.
By far, my biggest gripe was with the way the EGB members were treated. I realize we only paid $100 to attend the conference compared to upwards of $900 for full-paying attendees, but last year I had the same registration and was given all the benefits of a full registrant.
I would completely understand not being given full benefit based on the low fee we paid, but nowhere was this written or spelled out. It's like the USGBC saw the overwhelming response to this year's conference and decided to just take the benefits away from EGBers without reason or consistency.
and I do plan on addressing someone at the USGBC (more tactfully) about these problems. it's not just a random bashing on an anonymous website.
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