The Green Garage

Friday lunch recap 10/18/13: Designing a treehouse

Let's say you're designing a treehouse. What would you like to see in it? Are there any features you remember from a favorite childhood treehouse you'd like to see included (or updated)? How would you design it so that it could fill multiple purposes for multiple kinds of people (kids and grown-ups alike)?

We were considering questions like this during our Friday lunch community design session on 10/18 lead by designer-in-residence Kevin Gardner. Kevin's working on the design of a treehouse that we're thinking about building on the site of the El Moore, our residential project down the street from the Green Garage. (For more info on the El Moore, visit our wiki and check in the bottom left corner of the homepage.)

 

Kevin's early in the design phase and wanted to turn to the community for input, as we have on many occasions at the GG. He gave a bit of background on the project, then asked for suggestions and sketched as we talked. Given the opportunity to think like kids again, the community's ideas flowed freely. They included:

• Make it bi-level: create at least two distinct spaces inside the treehouse.
• Expand the space with fabric and light -- create a tent formation in the trees above the house accessible by a ladder.
• Add skylights for more natural light.
• Since the site is very close to the sidewalk/street, connect the house to the street somehow. Create a swing out of reused materials, for instance, that reaches down almost to ground level.
• Create some lookout spots for kids to be "sneaky" and spy on the neighborhood goings-on. Install a periscope? 
• Build in bookshelves and invite kids in the neighborhood to contribute to the book collection.
• Keep simple toys inside that inspire creativity: wooden blocks, for instance. Encourage them to use the blocks to design and build their own mini-buildings.
• Build some of the walls in such a way that they can be drawn or painted on.
• Plant more trees on the site so that eventually, it'll be more of a hideaway, nestled in greenery.
• Encourage kids to bring blankets and sticks so that they can make temporary treehouses in the trees above and around the built structure, making it a temporary treehouse village.

Who's ready to move in?

 

Back again

I'm back to writing this blog after a hiatus of about 8 months. Part of the reason for the break was the busy construction schedule, but the main reason was the fact that I felt that adding a blog to website reporting and facebook updates seemed....well, a little redundant. Recently, however, I've spoken with people who indicated that not only did they read the blog, but that it came right up near the top of Google results when typing in 'green garage detroit.' Interesting. In addition, they mentioned that for many people, when they want to know the latest that's happening somewhere, they look for the blog as the best information source. I was curious, so I opened my blog today, dusted aside the cobwebs, looked at the stats, and found that a surprising number of people are still reading it even though the last post is from July 11 of last year. I guess it's got staying power.

Since we're moving from construction mode to business mode, this is probably a good time to get this narrative resurrected. Let me update you on the most recent work. First, the floor is officially done! It took 6 months of work, most of which involved leveling the sleepers (the boards on which the final floor will rest).  Generally, in construction, floors will be leveled with a cement base. We bucked the trend and decided to skip the cement and hand level the sleepers, for a couple of reasons. First, cement has a high embodied energy component (it takes a lot of energy to make cement), and that's not efficient (although the guys that did the hand leveling could make a good argument as to which method involved more energy). Second, and to be completely honest, we didn't realize it would take so long to do hand leveling.

These are pretty complicated floors - our heating, cooling and electrical systems all reside under them. Here is a picture of the floor before the final wood planks were put down - the pex tubing will carry the water that will heat and cool the building.

On top of the tubing, we put down our wood floor, which is comprised of wood from fallen oak and ash trees from southeast Michigan and dried in a solar kiln in Troy. It was a happy day last week when the final planks were put in place. Eduardo had to lay down and celebrate!

We're also getting the showers tiled. The floor tiles have 60% recycled content. The wall tiles have only 40% recycled content, but we are going to add tiles we received as 'seconds' from the Michigan Design Center as accent pieces. Here's Juan doing tile work last Friday.

We are enjoying visitors from everywhere, many of whom have been following the progress of the Green Garage from a distance. I gave a tour to the Mowle family on Friday - they are in town from Ontario and added a tour of our building to their vacation schedule. I'm begining to find that Kevin's wall is our #1 photo op spot!

Next week we'll be continuing work on heating and cooling and bathrooms. We'll also be constructing the wall that will cover the tanks in the annex (reminder: the tanks store the water that will heat or cool the building). Also, happily, we have a meeting with the people that will be coming in to do the first clean of the building (the first clean has to happen before the painting can begin).

For you blog readers, I promise it won't take me 8 months to write the next post! I'll get something out at least once a week.

Full construction mode (and a little history lesson)

We're in full construction mode right now, and you don't need to enter the building to sense the scale of what is happening. Walking down Second Avenue, you hear the sounds of construction a couple of blocks away. As you approach, the smell of welding and drilling fills the air. Once inside, it's difficult to hold any sort of extensive conversation because crews are working in pretty much every area within the building (so we speak with a lot of pauses). If you are ambitious enough to open your laptop and attempt work, as Joe, Tom and Kirsten do every day, you need to clean off the grit before packing it up at the end of the day. I tend to record everything on film and get it up at home!

So let me get you up to date. Last week we began opening up the beautiful front windows that had been bricked since 1968. In case you are unfamiliar with the story of these windows, they were bricked up the year after the riots, in 1968, after the insurance company told the owners that they would no longer be insured if they did not cover the windows. When we began taking out the inside bricks last year, we were surprised to find the original windows still intact. So we took those windows out, cut them up, and have stored them for use when we build our greenhouse. We will be using the frames for interior windows. Here is a photo of the first window opened at the end of the day last Friday.

During our Friday meeting, we spent some time talking about the significance of this, and a little about the history of the building. Marilyn Beckham joined us, whose grandfather, Samuel Kanners (of Kanners and Patrize) spent decades working in the building in the shoe supply business. For us, it was a good time to pause in our construction and think about who had been in this building and how their lives had been affected by what was happening in the city...and what was to come.

This week the rest of the windows have been removed, and right now crews are working to get the openings ready for the new windows (which are waiting inside).

In other construction-related news, the framing has begun for the walls.

Kevin Gardner is making progress on the wood wall that will surround our new stairway. The wall is made from wood scraps that we have no other use for.

The alley is progressing on schedule. Here is how it looked Wednesday, with sections of concrete and sections of historic brick. The brick will get power washed to restore its beauty, but you can get a sense of the look. We go to pick up the plants from Native Plant Nursery in Mason, MI, next Monday. Planting should be on the 1st and the 2nd of July.

Dan Scarsella of Motor City Brewing Works brought over his hi-lo on Wednesday to move the pavers from inside the building to the alley, with a little help from GG people to balance the weight.

In other news, we had 2 film crews out Wednesday. The first is an independent group who are developing a film about post-industrial cities and how they are reconfiguring themselves, particularly in relation to green business. They are trying to sell this as a series to the Discovery Channel. The Green Garage will be featured in their pilot. Here I am doing some filming by the alley.

We also met with Ron Williams and his Free Speech TV crew Wednesday afternoon. They are here with the US Social Forum, and talked with us about the genesis of our idea and what we hope our work will accomplish. I did feel for the sound men yesterday, as they had some pretty difficult challenges with all the construction noise.

Some of us are spending some time off site right now, learning all we can about the history of this property. For a few hours every Thursday, mostly at the Detroit Public Library, we are tracing the roots of this property to see who lived or worked here in the past. Our building history page shows you some of this work. We have traced ownership of the general Cass farms area back to before the American Revolution (Charles Courtois, Francois Berthelet and Charles Beaubien owned it at the time). Some other points of interest:

• Lewis Cass purchased the property in 1816 for $12,000, and it became known as Cass Farms
• In the late 1900's, as Detroit became a leading manufacturing center, this area became home to wealthy Detroiters, with property bordering Woodward Avenue housing the wealthiest
• By the early 1920's, with the advent of the automobile, this property was home to many of the first automobile dealerships, including the parcel where the GG now stands
• The Depression of the '30's greatly affected the area, and the magnificent large homes were turned into multiple family residences
• We found the first family to own a home on our property was the Mulliken family (John, Emma and sons Harry and George), from 1882-1896. John was a general manager at the Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railroad, and the Chicago & West Michigan Railway. After John died at age 55 in 1892, Emma lived in the home until 1896, when she moved to Farnsworth St.
• We traced ownership through subsequent families (the Ross family, the Doyle family, Samuel Jacobs and Fred Reissman) until 1919, when the homes must have been destroyed in order to erect the building we are in now.
• Our building was built in 1920, with the DeFord Motor Truck Company as the first tenant in 1921. A series of automotive-related businesses passed through the doors until 1941, when Sam Kanners brought his shoe supply business to the building, and stayed until around 1996.

In digging up the foundation for our greenhouse (on the alley side of the building), we have found numerous artifacts that must have come from these previous residences, such as a fork, medicine bottles (possibly related to a chemical company that listed residence there for a year), bones (dog?), and foundation bricks.

We have more research to do, as we just discovered that 3 residences were on the site, not just the one we supposed was there. So back to the library! And eventually we'd like to trace the site back to indigenous owners, before the western world made an imprint.

June 11 Construction Update

The main action right now involves alley and the windows. If you live near to the alley, you are well aware that it's in full construction mode right now. This past week Redford Cement finished removing the cement and grading both the alley and the back of our property. Classic Landscape stepped in next to apply the sub-base. First they laid down a permeable geo-textile material that looks like a tarp. It will allow water to filter through but will prevent the stones from becoming embedded into the clay.

Next, Classic Landscape had to move this pile of stones into the alley....

using this little front-end loader.

By Friday morning, the alley looked like this:

Smaller stones came next. This is a good spot to mention that this is back-breaking work for these crews. Most of the initial shoveling and spreading was done by hand, as shown below.

When this layer is completed, Redford Cement will be back to lay the cement portions of the alley, and then Classic returns to lay down the historic bricks. This will be followed by the permeable pavers, and finally the compost for the gardens. If you have forgotten what the ally design will look like, here's a cross-section done by Woody Melcher of Woodbury Associates.

Regarding the windows, we now have almost all of the windows in except for the historic front windows. The first western-facing windows went into the annex this week.

Next Friday at noon we will begin removing the bricks from the beautiful arched windows out front, and we will have a gathering to commemorate the occasion. Anyone is welcome to attend.

In other news, we have contracted with a wood smith from Troy named Lon Ullman to develop the wood for our floors. Lon has a network of tree operators who confiscate fallen trees and cut them on site with their portable sawmill. The wood is dried in his solar kiln (drying wood prevents it from buckling and developing gaps after installation). We'll be using a variety of woods for our floor, but the majority will be ash. Below, Lon is showing us a sample during our Friday meeting.

In our quest to find used materials, Kirsten found a great source for 2x6 boards (8 ft long) on Craigslist. We need quite a number of these boards for framing, and she located a shipping company in Brownstown Twsp. that collects these regularly from their shipments. They usually go to a landfill, but now they are saving them for us. They will cost us $1.50 apiece (regular price: $3-$4). Kirsten makes weekly trips with Joe's truck to pick them up.

One last picture of the stair risers going in....

Mid-May update

It's time for an update. I have to apologize for the lack of posts -- I was knocked down for a few weeks with a persistent virus that prevented me from getting out and doing some reporting. But my immune system has kicked back in, and I do have some information I can share.

In a sense, it's been a good time to be gone, because we have continued to deliberately slow the pace of work at the GG until we receive Brownfield accreditation. Once we receive accreditation, and are declared obsolete, we will move quickly to finish the building by early fall. The good news is that we have 2 Brownfield meetings scheduled in the next couple of weeks, one with a sub-committee of the City Council (on May 20th), and one with the entire City Council (May 25th), which should be the end of the process. 

Just because the Brownfield has kept us from full-tilt construction doesn't mean that we haven't been busy. We have completed all of our detail design work except for the PV panels (that will help provide electricity), and that work will be done next Friday.

We are also big into materials sourcing right now. Kirsten Lyons is working with Joe Gallagher to find what we need. Our goal is for 50% of the new materials we need to bring into the building to come from the U S waste stream. Kirsten was over at Architectural Salvage Warehouse this week with Tom, looking for internal doors. One thing we can tell you right now -- even though there is quite a bit of deconstruction happening in the city, accessing materials for reuse is still pretty hard. Not much is on Craigslist coming from the City of Detroit as far as materials are concerned. However, we have become friends with some people working in the construction industry who call us periodically when materials become available.

Another thing we are doing to reduce the number of materials we bring in is to look at what materials we have, then make a design, rather than vice-versa. For example, we're having Dormouse, a metal fabricating company, make our stairway out of our old steam pipes.

The Green Alley is moving full steam ahead. Water main leaks have been repaired, the sewer leaks have been repaired, and a new liner is almost completely in the sewer (will be completed Monday). Redford Cement, our excavation company, will start removing cement early this coming week. The sewer work took one week longer than expected, so we have adjusted the planting from Memorial Day weekend to the second week of June.

One last thing. Laurie Catey and Kirsten Lyons have been working for some weeks now on our application for rebates in the DTE Energy Savings (YES) program. This program offers rebates in 3 tiers, based on a 10%, 20% or 30% efficiency you will have when you add energy saving features to your home. We used their modeling tool and found that we were 80% more efficient. In other words, we are off the charts, or way too efficient. So the initial estimates found that we didn't qualify for a rebate because we're too efficient. Somehow Laurie and Kirsten figured out a way for us to participate, and I'll interview them this coming Friday and post their explanation for you to see.

I always like to post a picture, so here is one from the Art Center Community Garden Build on Saturday, which we participated in. 90-plus raised bed gardens!

Getting the details right

We spent about 1 1/2 years working through the building design, energy efficiency, business plans, etc. Now that construction is upon us, we need to look at some specific areas - 23 in all - and do some final detail work. Three of those meetings took place this week - HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), bathrooms and solar panels.

Regarding our HVAC systems, Laurie will be working on our sequence of operations and Dan Bertolini of Aero Heating and Cooling will do detailed shop drawings, and we'll be good to go. For those with an interest, here is our HVACdesign criteria.

And here is our final heating and cooling design.

Bathrooms might seem simpler, but Tom told us it took him 6 hours to do the initial research into the final design details of the women's restroom alone. Remember, we're not just hiring a contractor, selecting materials and having them build it out. We are considering used materials, what the code says, handicap accessibility, etc. Many factors are involved in every decision.

Today's solar panel review was comparably simple - not to many changes in the original design. If you'd like to see our work in this area, see our Solar Thermal Collectors page. Once again, Dan B. will do the shop drawings for us to review. We'll start a photovoltaic group soon.

Dormouse has been converting our old steam piping into a staircase that will lead to our rooftop patio/garden. They are doing the large work at their shop and will do the finish work here. Here is a picture of some of the work they're doing. This shows the landing of the staircase, upside down. They will be trying to incorporate other objects salvaged from the building into the stairs, such as the faucet you see.

Next week's detail design meetings will involve a final refinement of the earth room (located in the basement - it will help with heating and cooling) and the public area, including the awnings, kitchen and mezzanine. Meetings are on Wednesdays and Fridays - the exact schedule will be sent by e-mail, and I'll post it on Facebook.

Finally, the archives group got a lot of old Model T metal cleaned up and sent off to a curator to determine what it all exactly is. We also cleaned up the letters that had graced the front of the building for at least 50 years - KANNERS AND PATRIZE. Here are Mitzi, Martha and Helen with our lettering. This was also packed up, along with everything else, and taken out of the building so nothing would get damaged in the upcoming construction.

Update on our progress

Tom and I just returned from vacation, and we are now viewing this trip as the separation point between our previous work in the building and what is coming ahead. All of the work prior to now has been at a nice steady pace, but we are no longer there. Joe, Eduardo and Heladio have done an excellent job getting the roof done, gathering materials and prepping the building for what is to come. Now the heavy work is upon us.

Since this building is being carefully designed to be as energy efficient as possible, and we are doing a no-waste project, nothing is as easy as it looks. Take, for example, our window systems. Our goals are:

• .1 air infiltration
• 45 R
• 100-year durability
• no waste

In addition, each wall in the building is different, and will require a unique design (a south vs east wall, fitting differently into different ceilings, etc). We are evaluating the purpose of each layer of each wall - how far will we be carrying each element? Is it necessary for each part of the wall system to achieve 100% efficiency, or is some of it irrelevant? We are breaking down each wall system into steps, and the steps will be posted for the crews that will be doing the installation. If you'd like a look at the complexity of just our windows, go to our Wall Sequence Spreadsheet.

So while we are going full speed ahead, we are also working to get the final details right. For the next few weeks, we'll be holding detail design sessions. Coming up this week:

• Wednesday, March 31st -
• 10:00 - noon - Geo-Solar  Hybrid Heating / Cooling / Ventilation System Detail Review
• 1:00 - 3:00pm - Restroom / Kitchen Detail Design Review

• Friday, April 2 -
• 10:00 - noon - Solar  Hot Water Heating

In other news, the steel frames for our greenhouse windows (that we obtained from the Ottawa Power Plant in Canada) are cleaned up and ready for glass. As it turns out, Dalgleish Cadillac has closed and we will be obtaining the glass from them. So we have Cadillac-quality glass in our building - brings a bit of class to the place. And then there is the issue of this building's history with Ford, but, hey, we're taking the glass where we can get it from.

Finally, last Friday we were in a wicked mood and decided to hold a cupcake bake-off of sorts. Anyone who wanted to could bring in their cupcakes for the group to critique. Here's a sampling of what came in:

Laurie Catey, however, brought our Cupcake Fest to a whole new level. Laurie has been a member of our highly technical Net Zero Energy team (and is herself a mechanical engineer), and for the past year and a half has been learning what I might term the "Green Garage method" of problem solving (or, most likely, teaching us hers). The problem she had was that she knew she wouldn't have the most spectacular cupcakes at our fest, so how to distinguish herself? Powerpoint! So we all gathered to watch her Cupcake Fest PPT, and I have it made into a movie below. Make sure you pause the movie to read all of the slides. By the way, when you get to Big Idea 3.0, yes, that is a Holly Hobbie Easy Bake Oven. Have we brainwashed her or what!?! Good job, Laurie! All that's missing is her wonderfully dry delivery. If anyone would like insight into our systems of operating, this gives as good a description as anything I've come across. Enjoy.

Moving along

We got good news this past week...the building been officially declared 'functionally obsolete,' qualifying us for Brownfield Tax Credits, which could amount to 20% of the costs of construction. This means full speed ahead. That's a good thing, because we have been accumulating the materials needed to construct the interior walls, and we're running out of space! Here's a view of our future office space from the mezzanine as of last Friday:

 

The majority of what you see there is rigid polyisoinsulation, which will be the foundation of our insulated wall system.

Eduardo and Heladio began prepping the walls in the annex this week. First they caulked any gaps.

Then they cut up pieces of polyiso...

 

...for placement on the walls. These small pieces will pull the larger boards of insulation off the wall (otherwise moisture would build up in the cavity and turn to mold).

 

Also, our order has gone in to Kelly Windows - they should be completed within 5-7 weeks. Believe it or not, even though the number of windows is around 30, the number of separate window pieces ordered was over 170 (each window being comprised of a number of window pieces). We'll be putting windows in the annex first, and then the historic building. Also on the windows front, we are developing a relatively large interior greenhouse at the entrance of the building from the alley and had found windows from the Ottawa Power Plant in Canada that was being deconstructed. We hired Mike Kelly to clean the asbestos off the windows, and they are all done as of this week.

At our Friday meeting, Billy West from Dormouse took us through the design of our new staircase (which will lead to our roof garden). He is a metal fabricator, and is taking all of our old piping, mainly steam piping, and turning it into a staircase. The sketch below gives an indication of what it will look like. Missing is the brick wall that will bisect it (so the section above the landing will not be visible from this perspective). Billy & Co will do about half of the work in their shop, and it will be installed the first week of April - should take 6-7 days.

Upcoming events for the Green Garage:

• On Wednesday, March 10th, at 2 and 4 pm, we'll be at 2 Brownfield hearings, the first at the City Council and the second at the Brownfield and Planning Commission.
• We'll be participating in a panel discussion on the creative corridor in Midtown Detroit at MOCAD when NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman comes to Midtown on Wednesday, March 23rd. 
• Also at MOCAD, we'll be sponsoring a showing of a movie on Jane Jacobs, a pioneer writer and urban theorist, some time late this summer.
• And of course, we are set to open for business in July!

Construction update

A look at what's been happening:

• As part of the Phase II portion of our Brownfield application, which involved soil sampling, we learned that our soil contains a lot of lead in the front of our building. As a result, when we dig and remove soil to put a drainage field in our parking lot, we'll have to take that soil to a landfill.
• Also on the Brownfield, we have to appear before the Brownfield Committee of the City Council on March 10th and 24th. After that, 2 assessors have to come and determine if the building is obsolete, then we appear before the City Council once again before the Mayor signs us off.
• We've begun archiving historical materials that were found, mostly in the attic, during deconstruction. We're cleaning delicate materials off, first with a soft brush, then microfiber cloths, and finally eraser particles that do a gentle final clean. We make note of each item, its date and condition, and finally store it away in acid-free paper in an acid-free box. These materials will one day be displayed in the building.

• On the windows front, we have finally have all of the details of our green windows fleshed out (highly efficient glass from Cardinal Glass; FSC-certified wood as trim; Benjamin Moore Aura Paint, which is low VOC), and we're finishing the details of the warranties before sending the order in next week.
• On to wood: Floor boards are coming from someone in Ohio who obtained them from a deconstructed county building. We have a nice stock of other wood for walls, but are still in need of about 50 used 2x4's in the 16 ft range, in case anyone knows of a source.
• On Friday, Jim and Dominic from Aquatherm gave us a demonstration of their Greenpipe product. We would use this product for our potable hot and cold water, for compressed air, and to take the water to and from the solar panels and storage tanks and feed to our plex radiant pipes. The pipes are zero VOC, non-toxic, very quiet, smell/taste neutral and opaque so bacteria are discouraged from growing. In the picture below, Jim is showing Laurie Catey how to repair a pipe.

• And speaking of the pipes, we have an early radiant floor design. You'll see that the heating/cooling tubes will be placed at the perimeter of the rooms, for the most part. This idea is banking on the fact that the heat/cool air will penetrate into the interior sufficiently, just like an apartment placed in the middle of a large building will use the heat emanating from the apartments adjacent to it. We will design this so that if we need to add more tubes toward the interior of the building, we can.

• We have also developed a modified version of our geo-solar hybrid heating and cooling system. Remember this drawing of our heating system?

• Since making this plan, we discovered that the geothermal portion would be used only used for peak loads (50,000 BTUs for heating, 40,000 for cooling), and that this represented only 2% of our total usage. Geothermal was simply too big and too expensive for such a small use, so we came up with another idea...using a tankless hot water heater. Details will follow. Similar changes will be made to the cooling system, which will involve an air to water heat pump.
• Eduardo and Heladio finished sealing the ceiling with Defy Clear Wood Stain. They even found a way to use old pieces of foam for the application. The ceiling looks amazing.

A loud week with walnuts

I'm guessing most of you reading this have never done walnut blasting before. Last week at the GG we cleaned up our historic wood ceiling and some of the walls using a process called blasting. We originally thought we'd do the most common form of blasting, sand blasting, but we learned that sand is a carcinogen when used this way, so for obvious reasons decided against it. Then we moved to soda blasting, until we learned that we'd be seeing baking soda in our building for years to come. Again we passed. After consulting with Ron Wells of Grand Northern Products, we decided on walnut blasting. The big advantage was that the ground walnuts were hard enough to reuse, so we needed less product.

Last Monday began with Ron inspecting the site and training Eduardo and Heladio on blasting technique. Ron is pictures below.

Here's a picture of the blaster...

...and here's a sample of the crushed walnut shells...

The blasting took 6 days. Here, Eduardo is doing some blasting on the first section. The picture is not out of focus - that's the amount of dust these walnuts generated.

To get a sense of the results, here's a section half completed:

When the residue came down, Eduardo Jr was in charge of sweeping it up, sifting it, and loading it back into the blaster. Here he is demonstrating the sifting process:

We are more than pleased with the results. We weren't sure we'd have to seal the wood with a stain, but as you can see, it's not necessary at all. Success!

 

And by the way, I'll ask again a question I have asked before: Is there anything Eduardo and Heladio CAN'T do? We haven't found it yet!