Landfill Art Project

http://www.landfillart.org/

I just got my hub-cap in the mail; a nice shiny-ish buick cap....got some cool ideas floating around already.... This is a pretty cool project: artists from all over the world are given a hub-cap to transform into a work of art; in all there will be over 1000 of them... Favorites will be chosen & a book will be published with pics & an exhibition of the finished works will travel around the country. It's all about recycling & being creative; so when Ken contacted me, I said "cool; count me in."

Check out the website for more info on the project & also see the myspace page at: http://myspace.com/landfillart

I'll post pics when finished :)

Amber

Meridian City Hall-update

Plans are coming along for the city hall project; I'll be signing the contract today, & moving forward with plans... The last couple weeks have been full of design work, & adding in the detail elements to the original design: also figuring out how it's actually going to be constructed and how it's going to hang, without swinging or rotating....it's been challenging, but I'm happy with the plan. Here's a sneak peek...

3-D renderings by; Eric Narad---having the design rendered in 3-d has been amazingly helpful in figuring out attach points, support structure, scale, etc.
Next, we will meet with the city on the 11th to get final approval of the design, & figure out a pretty detailed timeline. Still have quite a few details to figure out; the whole piece has to be built in small part that can be assembled on site. And then we have to actually get it in place; it will hang about 20 feet above the floor.

It's going to be stunning when it's done; the renderings do show the color, but in real life, it will be so much more....and more details too! Will post more soon :)

Amber

Overcoming the Hurtles of Solar Power

From the sunny olive groves of Spain comes a encouraging story of the advancements in solar power. At the beginning of 2008, the government of Spain enacted the law Real Decreto 661/2007, effective for one year offering cash to installers so that they could sell solar power at competitive rates. It also offered subsidies to utilities if they would buy at premium rates. This made solar power more completion with other sources. Because one of the biggest hurtles of going solar is the expensive start up costs of renting and installing the equipment, with this entry barrier tempered the playing field was leveled a bit. The result is this quote from Yahoo News.

“An enormous explosion in installed solar capacity, over 3 gigawatts in one year, enough to displace up to five coal-fired power plants. This number was far higher than analysts had predicted, but it comes at a significant cost, and not just to people's electricity bills.”


Unintended consequences now that the subsidy is being rolled back, is that the artificially inflated market is now unsteady, with deadlines being fudged, cases of fraud turning up, and installers finding less and less work.

Some solutions to this problem could be to follow Germany’s lead and making the subsidies effective for ten years, by that time the initial investment would be paid off and the foundation more solid. Also because the installation costs are such a hurtle using increased incentives, discounts and tax breaks for implementation of solar and other clean energy technology may also improve the situation.
by Alex Borsody

These picture my friends sent me from Spain







solar panels in an orange field in Spain.





solar panels in olive fields in Barcelona






the bottom image is a giant solar panel in a Barcelona park

Coca-Cola Hybrid Delivery Fleet to Become Biggest in North America

First the Military now Coke? it seems like every unlikely candidate for caring about just about anything or anybody has taken the initiative to be green, at least in transportation. Corporate responsibility is stepping up now that they see 4 years of Obama maybe? who knows, but they do plan to adding 185 hybrid booklet electric trucks.

http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/01/16/coca-cola-enterprises-hybrid-fleet

Meridian City Hall

Well, it's official---my proposal was chosen to grace the entrance to the new City Hall....I'm very excited about the project! I'll be posting the proposal, press releases, & more info on my website soon....

It's going to be a suspended sculpture; to be hanging from the ceiling of the entrance lobby; when you walk in through the main doors; it will be right there! The design in based on antique surveyor's equipment, & refers to the principal surveyor's meridian of Idaho, which runs down Meridian road: and which the city was named after. Materials will be steel, lots of copper, brass, stainless steel, & some glass. The concept has been approved, but I still have a lot of detail planning/design to do!! The entire piece is going to be approx 18 feet across & almost that tall :)

I'll be meeting with the city on Feb 11th to go over plans & for final approval before fabrication & I'm hoping to start building right after that; the deadline is June, & I hope to have it installed well before then.

I'm planning on documenting the whole process here, so check back for progress reports :)

2009 The Year of the Electric Car

The U.S Army recently announced the acquisition of 4,000 neighborhood electric vehicles, coming in both sedan and light truck models and can charge their batteries at any household three pronged. Six Neighborhood Electric Cars (NEVs) were unveiled by the U.S. Army on Jan. 12 at Fort Myer, Va. (U.S. Army), The first six cars were made by Global Electric Motorcars, a Chrysler subsidiary, to be followed by 800 more this year. The 30-mph, lead-acid battery-powered cars are projected to save 11.5 million gallons of fuel over the next six years.

Leaders were already thinking of expanding the program.

"These are the first of the 4,000 we plan to lease over the next three years, but we have 28,000 sedans that we operate in the Army," said Army Secretary Pete Geren. "As we move ahead we will look for more opportunities to take gasoline-powered vehicles off the road and replace them with electrical systems. This is the first step. Across all of our vehicles we are looking at ways to achieve greater fuel efficiency, not just on installations which these are used for but for deployed forces."

2009 is shaping up to truly be the year the electric car is revived as models are rolling out, with this year America’s automakers getting into the race, at the North American Auto Show. Also Mercedes BlueZERO trio (electric car, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell) by Mercedes are now production-ready and will be turning out on the market for low Volume runs during 2010.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3898211

Picture from http://www.defensenews.com

edit

General Motors EV1 TV Commercial

so who did kill the electric car? When General Moters was forced to make electric cars under California law, they came out with this ominous video to "sell" the car. at least partial responsibility falls on automakers, though we can't place all blame. The voiceover sounds so much more frightened or nervous that the intrigued or excited tone you would expect when promoting a product like this.

Cool pics of the old farm

Thought I'de share some pics I took last night; we stopped by the farm with our Engineer to take a look at the shops & do a bit of planning. The silo's are definately out of the question, as far as salvaging----way to dangerous to take down....but I got some cool shots of them....

A big recycling project!

These shops are just up the street from us; an old farm that's been bought out by a developer...Kevin decided to stop one day & find out what the deal is. So, we just found out that we can purchase the 2 shops & the little grain silo!!! The price is good enough that I just can't see passing up the opportunity; even though I have no place to put a shop at the moment... The plan is to take down both, sell the green one to cover the costs & keep the silver one for the future. It has a 14 foot roll up door, & ceiling height is about 16 ft clear!! Very cool; shops like these are really costly, & to know that I have one ready to go up whenever I find some property is great; for now, it will be stored in the back of our big box truck at my parents house....


I've been wanting one of these; so cute!!! Will use it for a storage shed, maybe in the garden.....

These huge silos are also going to be torn down; they're concrete; built in little pieces, like legos; would love to get my hands on one of them; even just the round roof!!! But, they're really tall; would require a pretty big crane to get them apart.... I don't know if we can swing it; even though I could see using them for outbuildings or something, they would be quite the undertaking.... At this moment, I can't afford to invest the $$ it would require.

We're going to meet with our engineer this evening to talk about it---the 2 shops have to be gone w/in 3 months, I assume the same for the big silos. I'll be sad if they just get demolished; seems like such a waste....I'd love to be able to put them to use somewhere....will have to try to come up with a creative solution..... hmmmm

Idaho Statesman

I'm in the paper!!! On the front page... Check out the article here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/620210.html

A very nice write-up about the Meridian City Hall project & public art in growing communities... Thanks so much, Dana for a great article!!