The sun didn’t come out for this annual tour, but the people sure did.  It was a full house at the large EWEB room for the introductory session, with many standing along the aisles and back.  Our sustainably-minded mayor, Kitty Piercy, gave a rousing  pep-talk for the solar power projects already installed in the city - producing enough electricity to power 1,500 homes for a year.  

Mayor Piercy gave over the podium to a design and planning team workng on an EWEB Greenpower consumer selected project:  two solar-powered charging stations for electric cars at Lane Community College (LCC) main campus.  These stations will have a 75 to 80 KW capacity, enough juice to recharge as many as 36 parked electric cars at one time.  It kind of gave me a little charge to imagine the time when those stations will be up and running and there are enough electric cars on the road to fill those charging spots.  Hopefully that is only a few years down the road. 

After the presentations, we all left on our various tours.  This year to accomodate both the number of people and the number of projects on the tour, everyone was assigned to take a tour that included only three or four of the eight projects.  There was a North (Eugene) Loop Tour, and two variations of a South (Eugene) Loop Tour.  Each had four projects, with little overlap.  There was also a bike tour, which I understand had just three projects that  were all close in to EWEB.  As you might have guessed,  I was not among the hearty souls who braved the weather for the bike tour.   Perhaps next year.   Instead, I went on variation two of the South Loop tour in my fully fossil-fuel powered vehicle.  To ameliorate my guilt, I made one or two necessary delivery stops for Natural Choice Directory between tour stops.

My tour included four projects.  The first was a spectacular, but not overly large home (about 2,050 square feet) in the East Hills of Eugene. Set to take advantage of the western view of a large and permanent open space across the street, the site was literally carved out of a hillside.  An innovative and far more cost-effectient Gabion retaining wall was used. Essentially the wall looks like hundreds of tons of rocks in cages, stacked in a very high terrace in the back yard.  The system will allow the owners to grow vines all the way up this retaining wall.  Once done the now monolithic presence will become a green and beautiful view through the rear windows and outdoor patio.  Light-filled, this Central Blvd home incorporates many green building features including radiant-heat floors, passive solar design, PV & solar hot water.  Energy conserving measures also included air-tight insulated walls, an advanced heat recovery system that brings in fresh air while heating it, and triple pane windows. There is also a high efficiency air-to-water heat pump.  This home is Earth Advantage certified. 

The downside to all these features is cost.  Few would be able to afford a home such as this, that architect Jan Fillinger indicated was in the range of $300 -$400 a square foot.  Likely the cost was at the top end of that range. And no, that doesn’t include the cost of the land purchase. However, he also indicated that if you remove the very costly site preparation (ie: hillside prep and retaining wall), and many of the architectual touches including the triple-pane wood windows, you could build something closer in the range of $200 to $250 a square foot range and still maintain many of the sustainability features.  Which brings the price into affordable range  for many more people, but certainly not most.  As is, this is a stunning example of what can be done when the owners say, “I want to build as sustainably as possible” and cost is not the primary concern.

The builder was James McDonald of the EcoBuilding Collaborative and the solar hot water system was provided by Eugene’s Green Store.

Nexst stop was a downtown live/work community at 265 W. 8th St.  Although I’d been on this block many times before the bulk of this affordable housing complex was mostly hidden from my consciousness.  Consistenting mostly of 102 units of affordable housing, this Earth Advantage certified project, also has 9 units of live/work spaces, with retail/office space at street level.  One of six affordable housing communities run by the non-profit Metro Affordable Housing, West Town on 8th Ave incorporates passive solar, natural ventilation, recycled steel framing, water efficient plantings, eco-roof tops, and Energy Star applicances.  Completed in September 2008, these very pleasant downtown apartments are available only to those who qualify with low or moderate incomes.  The only spaces where you do not have to income qualify are the live/work spaces.  For those looking for a studio, office, or retail space, there are currently three such spaces available, and they currently run at about $1 square foot.  Residing in the space is an option, not a requirement. 

Perhaps my favorite building on the tour was a detached  mother-in-law cottage built in a Whitaker area backyard.  Custom-built to the mother-in-law’s specifications, this cottage incorporates many sustainability features including being residential in-fill close to a bike path, site orientation to maximize passive solar benefits, a rainwater catchment system, tankless water heater, wood/fiberglass hybrid windows, and a dual flush toilet.   Although the space felt light, spacious and airy, the single person home is only around 525 square feet.  Both the bathroom and kitchen felt luxurious, lots of windows, easy access with no stairs contribute to the long term livability of this place for the owner who plans to continue living here for the remaining years of her life.  Designed and built by Rainbow Valley Design & Construction.

Final stop on my South Loop tour was a single family home expansion in the South Unversity district, adding more than 1,000 square feet to the previous 750 square foot home.  The home is still under construction with much work still to be done before the owners can move in.  The new construction reflects the vintage character of the surrounding homes in the neighborhood.  Sustainability features include or will include use of existing foundation & basement, construction waste management, solar hot water panels, rainwater cisterns to collect water for use in toilets & washer, bio-swale & native plantings, hybrid insulation, deep roof overhangs for shading, and engineering to handle the extra weight and demands of a green roof.  The owner explained that the home will be PV ready, but due to cost considerations no PV panels will be installed initially.  Nir Pearlson is the architect on the project, Tree Born Carpentry the builder, with help from the owner.  Solar Assist is responsible for the solar water and PV ready systems.

All the tours completed at the same spot – La Perla Pizzeria – for a reception.  Nir Pearlson  was also the architect for this commercial project that opened in 2008, a conversion of the old ice-cream parlor building into an authentic Neoapolitan pizzeria, Pearlson incorporated a PV array, high-efficientcy lgihting & daylighting techniques, a super insulated roof, and a number of other features into a lively restaurant design on the corner of 13th & Pearl.  Two seperate solar arrays were installed by two different Eugene solar companies, Solar Assist and Energy Design.   -  Larry K. Fried