See and be (green) seen

Maybe it's hype (probably). Maybe I have green envy (definitely). But if other cities have sustainable bars and clubs...where's Portland's green-built-bartender-powered-zero-waste watering hole?

Flumeoxed

Interesting things on the internets:

• Entries in Living Future 07 are now downloadable in PDF form, Ethan Timm of Worldchanging Portland points out. Entries include North Portland projects by SERA and Sienna.
• Nancy Keates is chronicling the teardown-rebuild of her Portland home, which is being designed by Dave Giulietti of Giulietti/Schouten, for the Wall Street Journal. And she has been for months and months...I'm just ultra slow on the uptake.
• And in the real, reading-leads-to-paper cuts world, the Spring 2007 issue of Oregon Land showed up on my desk last week. I'm pleased to report that it contains the phrase "turd flume," as well as an neat mix of essays on Laurie Olin, the downtown waterfront, and water in the city (all of this goodness is available for download).

Keeping up with the Spitzers

The New York governor's mansion is getting a green overhaul.

So, Ted, how green is your mansion?

I've got a call in to the gov's office...

TV guide

Dennis Wilde's making his big small screen debut tonight at 9 p.m. on the Sundance Channel.

It's something ugly buildings say

Does being green automatically make a building beautiful, or does what's on the outside count too? The Washington Post gives a little thought to the question of whether looks matter here.

And because beauty and inspiration are one of the 16 prerequisites that have to be met for projects to become uber-sustainable Living Buildings (through the Cascadia Region Green Building Council's Living Building Challenge), the question also came up during last week's Cascadia/AIA Seattle Living Future conference.

General feeling: buildings aren't just beautiful because they're green. But while a beauty and inspiration brainstorming session churned up a lot of "what is beauty?" "who can define what beauty is?" and "does beauty even exist?" Philosophy 101-type questions, it also turned up a lot of questions about how something that can't necessarily be planned or touched can be proved during a certification process.

Awesome solution: Building must give one in 50 visitors the chills, bring one in 300 visitors to tears, inspire one in 1,000 visitors to break into interpretive dance on sight, etc. etc.

Even more awesome solution: Can't beauty just be the one thing that doesn't get a hundred-item checklist and a pile of paperwork?