With their line of wallcoverings, Weitzner Limited neatly puts all that nonsense to rest.

Although certainly luxurious in the sense of being well-crafted, Weitzner’s creations are also, by turns, whimsical, arresting, soothing, classical, or all of these at once.

“We like to challenge our client’s perception of what a wallcovering can be by creating innovative materials that evoke curiosity, calm and beauty,” touts the company website.  “Then we add environmental consciousness and performance (class A ratings) into the mix.”

On offer are more than a hundred wallcoverings that contribute to LEED points.  Many of the styles contain recycled pulp or rapidly renewable materials (derived from plants that are harvested on a ten-year or shorter cycle).

A star among these styles is Newsworthy, which is 100% recycled and recyclable.  Newsprint strips are hand-woven on a loom and then paperbacked to make the product wall-ready.  As an unexpected alternative to traditional grasscloth Newsworthy has many charms, among them true variability – the weave teases the senses and, on close examination, the brain, for all the thousands of tiny textual snippets beg to tell their stories.

Movie lovers will enjoy Cinema Posters, a similar product woven from reclaimed movie posters.

My personal favorites are Currents, which looks stunning framed between glass, and Eden, with which a designer could achieve some pleasing effects with light and shadow.

Special care must be taken while cutting all these products – Weitzner recommends using a new, clean blade for each cut – and several require dry cleaning. The website contains specifics on each design.  It also features a specialized clickable search engine to help designers find the exact look they need.

~ Emerald

This is the first tour for the Newport Beach Green Home.

As you can see, this project is still in the early stages of construction.

Man, have you ever seen more beautiful framing?  Seriously, this stuff is a work of art.  Almost a shame to cover it up with drywall.  Of course, if we didn’t, I sorta wouldn’t have a job, would I?

Lots of people showed up.

Here is John Steed, the builder/general contractor, telling an admiring crowd about that awesome framing.  We also had Laura Minott Sanders, the project manager from Jeff Jeanette Architects, the homeowners Wayne and Shannon, and yours truly there to explain our respective parts of the project.  We all got to answer a lot of good questions, which is always fun.

Here is my little contribution to the tour.  A table full of shiny, pretty things!  Samples are so much fun, no?

Oh, and you know how I was just going on about how fantastic the framing was?  Well, if you thought that was great, check out this TEMPORARY staircase.

Now that’s a topflight flight of stairs!

By the way, we were actually having a debate about what to cover that adjacent wall with.  Although the solution is at hand, I thought it also might be fun to see what my readers could come up with.  So here are the parameters:

The staircase will be made of steel with strand bamboo treads.  The flooring will also be strand bamboo, in a medium tone.  We are looking for a material that is durable, cleanable, sustainable (of course), and has a great visual impact – without being too busy.  There will be a lot of light coming from a window wall above.

So, get out your thinking caps, and see what you can come up with!

To find out more about this project, visit the Newport Green Home website, or follow the project on Facebook.

Here is the information:

Guided Tour and Open House
Saturday, October 22nd, from 10am to 12pm

Tour a LEED for Homes registered custom home in Newport Beach while it’s still under construction with exposed studs. Builder John Steed of Maverick Home Builders, Project Manager Laura Sanders of Jeannette Architects in Long Beach, Interior Designer Rachel Hulan of Path Design, Consultant Evan Little of Permaculture Properties and other design team members as well as USGBC-OC volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and lead two scheduled tours through this cutting edge home. Targeted certification level is Platinum. Targeted certification level is Platinum. Light refreshments will be served.

10:15am – 1st guided tour begins
11:15am – 2nd guided tour begins

Parking:
Street parking is limited. Try parking at Grant Howard Park off Heliotrope and 5th.

Cost:
$5 Students
$5 USGBC-OC Members
$15 Non-Members

Registration:
Tickets are limited, so make sure to reserve your spot early. Contact the USGBC-OC chapter at 714-832-3616 for more information or go to our website at www.usgbc-oc.org to register.

Thanks for visiting, and hope to see you there!

Rachel

The foundations have been poured and the framing is going up!  I’m excited to see this LEED project take form.

Here is the link to the home’s website where you can follow the progress – Newport Beach Green Home.

image by John Steed

I wear many work hats: blogger, teacher, writer, occasional speaker.  However, all of those hats became mine due to my “real” job as an interior designer.  It is literally the foundation of all that I do.  So I thought I would start sharing a little more about my “day job” in a weekly post called Working Wednesday.

I figure there is no better place to start than the image above.  I’m so excited to see the foundation go in for this amazing single family residence, which is on schedule for LEED Platinum certification!  I was brought in in the early stages of the project (yay for design charrettes and being part of a team!), and have been immersed in it ever since.  The owners are lovely to work with, the architect, Jeff Jeanette, is both incredibly nice AND very talented, and the general contractor, John Steed, just generally rocks!

You’ll see a lot more on this project here as things move forward, including some of the interior materials and the thought processes behind their use.  The project will also have its own website, going live soon, where you can get regular updates on the general progress and watch the construction unfold.

This house will be knock your socks off beautiful, so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting!

Rachel

Of course, that means my son will be bringing home loads and loads of old school papers, most of which we really don’t need to keep.  Perhaps we should get this multifunctional paper shredder/coffee table?  Actually, with the way things are going for BP in the Gulf, they might want to invest in a bunch of them for all their executives soon.  Just sayin’.  (Design Sponge)

Sadly, I point you now to the final installment of the Cardboard Fort Architecture series.  This scholarly set of posts has been full of architectural achievement and analysis the likes of which you rarely see.  OK.  Actually, it’s just damn hilarious – and the kids are SO cute! (Build Blog)

So what do you think about the recent study claiming LEED certification does nothing to ensure the interior environment isn’t still toxic? (re-nest)

I was so happy to see my friends at L.A. Box Collective mentioned on Inhabitat!  If you are in SoCal, you should check out their new show. (Inhabitat)

The new issue of Lonny is here!  Now if I could only get an iPad to read it on, my life would be (almost) complete. (Table Tonic)

And speaking of iPads, if I ever do get one, this is what I’m going to put it in. (Inhabitat)

That’s it for now.  Wishing you a blissful weekend!

OK.  So I’m a little late to the party.  Just over a year tardy actually.  However, the new California Academy of Sciences museum was well worth the wait.

Awarded LEED Platinum certification in October of 2008, the Academy is considered the largest green museum in the world.   Using a simplified palette of concrete, steel and wood, the building itself could come across as rather bleak, if it weren’t for the amazingly rich greens and blues of the living systems housed within.

Containing its own planetarium, a 4 story rainforest, and an aquarium with over 38,000 different animals, this building took a considerable amount of planning.  According to the academy’s website, their sustainable achievements towards LEED certification included:

• 90% of all demolition materials were recycled
• 32,000 tons of sand from foundation excavation applied to dune restoration projects in San Francisco
• 95% of all steel from recycled sources
• 15% fly ash (a recycled coal by-product), 35% slag in concrete
• 50% of lumber harvested from sustainable-yield forests
• 68% of insulation comes from recycled blue jeans
• 90% of office space will have natural light and ventilation
• 60,000 photovoltaic cells; 213,000 kilowatt-hours
• 30% less energy consumption than federal code requirement

I was lucky in that we had a beautiful, sunny day in San Francisco to enjoy the play of light and shadow within the building.  The central open area acts as a light well for the rest of the building, and cleverly integrated sound baffling prevents you from feeling you are in a giant tin can.  Not always the easiest thing to achieve in a concrete, steel and glass building!

A band of photovoltaic cells along the edge of the building’s canopy provides up to 10% of the energy needs for the facility, as well as being a nice design element.

Of course, the star of the show to many architects and designers is the amazing green roof.  Here, I was lucky I had to wait a year to visit, for the plants are now well established and, even in November the humming of bees was everywhere.

With hills and dales reflecting the rise and fall of the interior ceiling, the rolling green softness of the roof creates a sense of optimism in me.  Here is something man created that gives back to the environment, rather than taking away.

Perhaps though, I’m just reminded of another place of simple, happy joys…