Our moderator was the ever charming Cathy Baranger (with me above), one of the founding members of the USGBC chapter in Orange County.

Our setting was the beautiful Room & Board store at South Coast Plaza Village.  Love those recycled aluminum Emeco chairs.  So sharp!

They really pulled out all the stops to accommodate us, including setting up a terrific room for our panel discussion.

There was the wonderfully casual setup for our panel (we used the blank wall above to project a PowerPoint presentation).

And then checkout what they did with the audience chairs,… they arranged them in shaded rows starting with white and ending in charcoal.  I love it when people think of little details like that.  Makes all the difference.

I spent a little time walking around and checking out some of their sustainable offerings.  Take a look at a few of the things I found…

Love the cheery, fresh green of these great recycled plastic chairs from Loll.

These Toka baskets are individually hand woven by women in Zambia, from the roots of the makenge bush.

Beautiful handscreened prints!  Titled the Tree Series Linden, they are a limited edition collaboration between KleinReid and iconic modernist, Eva Zeisel.

This handsome sectional is upholstered in fabric made of 60% recycled cotton.

Wish I had the wall space for this great, vintage British trolley sign!  I have no idea how they managed to score these, but kudos to the person who thought to make them into wall art.

Wow.  Just wow.  For this, I’d MAKE the wall space.  This is one of 42 street banners celebrating a 2008 exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco on contemporary Japanese fashion.  Banners for museums and events are always so beautiful.  What a great idea to re-use them for wall art!

All in all, it was a fun event, in a lovely, inspiring setting.  Room & Board store manager, John Fox, and his terrific staff made sure everything went smoothly.  All the wonderful USGBC people working on the event were patient with me as I struggled through my jet lag.  And of course, my fellow panelists were informative, engaging, and even pretty funny.  Thanks everyone!

Dan Thomsen, The Building Doctors, Building Performance
Brion Jeannette, Architect, Brion Jeannette Architecture
Dean Hill, Landscape Architect, Green Screen

Cathy Baranger (LEED-AP Consultant and Residential Green Building Advocate) will moderate.

And (drumroll please),… there are PRIZES!  All attendees will be entered into drawings for both a $500 gift certificate to Room & Board, and a Toto Soiree toilet.

For more information, please check the USGBC Orange County website

Hope to see some of you there!

That being said, there were still a few cool things to look at, like the work of L.A. Box Collective…

I’m planning on a whole post on this great group of wood artisans soon, so I won’t get into too much detail.  Suffice to say, their exhibit asking you to match which raw, reclaimed wood was the source for which beautiful piece of furniture, was by far the most interesting and fun space at AltBuild.  Thanks Leigh for answering all my questions and showing me how much I still need to learn about wood!

I was also pleased to meet Sarah from Pacific Coast Teak, the U.S. importers of ProTeak, which I posted about a while back.  They had a nice display of some of the beautiful kitchen carts made from the FSC certified teak lumber.  Really lovely.

I’m going to have tot ake a closer look at this Woca oil I ran across.  It looks like a nice line of wood oils and stains that are extremely low odor and non-toxic.  Have any of you, dear readers, tried it before?  I’d love to hear what you thought of it.  I’m especially intrigued by the “color oil” stains.

Here’s an idea.  Take fast growing, FSC certified softwood, and then use a non-toxic technology to give it the properties of more durable hardwood.  That’s what the folks at Accoya have managed to do with their exterior grade product.  I saw a sample, and it really is quite remarkable.

And, last but not least, I give you the EnviroLoo – “a new American-made solar heated evaporative human waste system”!

And you thought I was only going to write about furniture and stuff…

Cabbage Chair, prototype. Oki Sato, Photo: Masayuki Hayash

If you’re going to be in New York between May 14th, 2010 and January 9th, 2011, you must go to see “National Design Triennial – Why Design Now?” , at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

Intended to explore the role of design in solving the problems of our world, “Why Design Now?”

“… will explore the work of designers addressing human and environmental problems across many fields of design from architecture and product design to fashion, graphics, new media and landscape design. Organized by Cooper-Hewitt curators Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid and Cynthia Smith, the Triennial will be global in reach for the first time, reflecting the connectedness of design practices and the need for international cooperation to solve the world’s problems.”

Heath Ceramics Tableware. Photo: Jeffery Cross

The exhibit will address eight different areas of design innovation:

Energy

Mobility

Community

Materials

Prosperity

Health

Communication

Simplicity

SunShade prototype. Rendering: Lianne van Genugten

A nice additional feature of this exhibit will be iPod Touches, with one-to-one interviews and behind-the-scene footage to supplement your experience.  They will be available for use free of charge.

Veil Curtain. Photo: Woodnotes OY

Begun in the year 2000, the Triennial Series showcases the most innovative designs from the previous 3 years.  In this, the fourth exhibition, they will show 125 projects exemplifying the best in environmental stewardship, social equity, accessibility and creative capital.

To learn more about the Cooper-Hewitt, and for hours and directions to get there, click here.

If you are in the Los Angeles area in the next few weeks, and you love artisan furniture as much as I do, you will not want to miss this show at New Puppy Gallery!  Featuring the work of many accomplished local furniture makers, reduxiture is concieved as a place to “see how to responsibly and elegantly furnish your home with reused materials”.

Just look at some of the great pieces that will be there:

Brandon Morrison - Light

William Stranger - Light Gets In table and chair

Nesting Coffee Tables - wood from wine barrels

Maria Chair

There is a free opening reception tonight, October 2nd, from 8-11 PM.  The show will run October 3-25, Wednesday – Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

New Puppy Gallery is at:
2808 Elm Street
Unit 1
Los Angeles, CA 90065

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