Local and Green: The New Brinkmann Hardware Store

Many years ago, BPA started its practice in Sayville, NY, so we were quite familiar with Brinkmann's local hardware and paint store. In fact, we still own and use the barbecue grill they recommended to us twenty years ago.  Helpful service and high-quality products make it quite easy to support this family-owned business. Combatting an era of impersonal corporate big-box stores, Brinkmann's Hardware Store has grown and is currently working with BPA to create a store that will reflect its values: tradition, community, and environmental responsibility.  The 18,000 square foot space will now house hardware, paint, and office space under one solar roof.  Yes, 120 KW of photovoltaic panels combined with a geo-thermal system will set this building on the path to net-zero energy, creating an efficient building which will serve as a model for both its consumers and other commercial buildings.  With one foot planted in the family tradition and the other in the alternative energy future, it is very exciting for us to chronicle this project from start to finish.  Stay tuned!

Oak Beach Project in Green Builder Mag

On Friday, USA Today printed a front page story about the mass manufacturing of homes that, by using alternative energy, create more energy than they use. The concept is one that James has been working on for several years now. Green Builder Magazine decided to use Bouler Architecture's Oak Beach project and YouTube video to showcase how a net-zero energy home can be achieved through passive design and photovoltaic and geothermal systems. If we are going to move this country forward, sustainability will be the key to our success.

Bayshore: In the Details

Building trim is a lot like a necktie. By covering joined edges, it gives a building a polished finish. Here, James is looking at the mockup of a bracket design for the exterior trim on this waterfront Bayshore residence. Interior trim is equally important in the aesthetics of a space. Crown moulding and base trim, once intended to protect the fragile edges of paster walls, now give a complete look to a space, a framing detail to a blank wall. As to the efficiency of this building, it took a giant leap forward recently when its ground-mounted array of photovoltaic panels, which will provide solar energy for the geothermal heating system, was approved by the town board.

Lido Beach Update

Lido Beach is moving forward. Despite the glacial pace of local building departments, Bouler Architecture is hopeful that this spring will bring groundbreaking activity for this waterfront home. The mix of design elements, photovoltaic and geothermal systems will create an energy-efficient residence that capitalizes on its oceanfront site. By using computer generated models, roof lines for the home were developed to cut down on solar gain in the summer while allowing heat gain in the winter. I'm looking forward to chronicling the progress of this project in the near future.
By the way, Bouler Architecture now has a fan page on Facebook.

Bay Shore Residence: Progress Continues

The waterfront Bay Shore home is nearing completion. The cedar shingles, dipped in weathering oil, will turn into a silvering grey over time. Stainless steel cable rails are also ready to be installed, with IPE decking on the master bedroom balcony, cabana, and the first floor's wraparound deck. The mechanical systems are up and running, with geothermal, radiant heating on the first floor, and a solar array ready to be in place for spring.

Bouler Architecture: New Sketches

Bouler Architecture is starting a new project in West Islip, on the Great South Bay. We had a successful meeting last night with our new client, and this is the sketch of the rear, water-facing elevation. The lower curve is a covered, exposed structure that covers the water side patio. Above the patio is the master bedroom balcony. Inside the master bedroom, we are proposing a third level mezzanine, with an interior stair that will also serve to seperate the master bedroom's sleeping area from the sitting room.
We also have wonderful south facing roof over the garage, where we will incorporate a 10KW solar panel system. We are also using a geo-thermal heat pump. Our goal, after intstalling spray in insulation, energy-efficient windows, is to be 80% more efficient... or very close to Zero Energy.

Bay Shore Site Visit

The Bay Shore waterfront home is framed up and looking more like the computer-generated images Bouler Architecture's Nicholas Pfluger animated for the client. The home will use a geothermal system with an array of solar panels to offset its carbon footprint.

US Department of Energy

In preparation for our meetings this week, I spent a good part of the day perusing the the Department of Energy website which offers completely up-to-date initiatives adopted by the department under the direction of Secretary Chu. I was pleased to find a variety of initiatives and rebates encouraging citizens to adopt renewable energy products. For example, I had no idea that the rebate for a geothermal system was 30% of the cost with no cap. We received a tax credit for our pellet stoves, and the Oak Beach project was eligible for multiple credits. Making renewable energy a viable option for the average homeowner is truly a change I can believe in.

Green Systems

Being green can be a beautiful thing, both literally and figuratively. With the development of technology, alternative energy systems don't have to compromise the aesthetics of a building. Both residences seen here are designed to capitalize on great sunlight exposure.The Bayshore project now under construction will use a geothermal system coupled with a ground-mounted solar array that will generate 11KW for its energy needs, while the Southampton project seen below, has been using shingle-style photovoltaic panels in addition to its geothermal system. As the demand for clean energy grows, one can only imagine the builiding innovations that will follow.

Lido Beach: The Next Step

Bouler Architecture's Lido Beach project moves forward. Here are the final renderings of this 4,000 square foot waterfront home. Being fueled by photovoltaic panels and a geothermal system, along the passive system of overhangs to prevent solar gain will work together to create a home that treads lightly on the earth in terms of its carbon footprint. By using the Oak Beach project as an example of efficiency, we hope this house will also produce more energy than it consumed.

Our Water

Here's a shot of a barge sailing under the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on the Hudson River. Industry and waterfronts go hand in hand with easy access to transport goods by sea. But after the disaster in the Gulf, I began to wonder about environmental issues happening in NY's water system that I might not even know about. NYH2O is a watchdog organization that protects our drinking water and our waterways from pollutants and natural gas drilling. Needless to say, I joined their organization and their facebook fan page.

I find it hard to believe that drilling for gas or oil is a more financially profitable way to gain energy than investing in solar and wind. Catastrophic disasters aside (as if I could put it out of my mind), how much does it cost to lobby to change policy, pay off the MMS, drill a mile below the surface, build and maintain the rig-- that figure alone is something like 800 million a rig. Imagine how much further along we might be as a society if the oil industry hadn't set up all the rules for their own benefit?

Bayshore, NY: The Big Pour

Imagine yourself a busy architect jetting from one appointment to the next and on the way to the next site visit, you are practically run off the road by a caravan of cement trucks leaving your project. Enter the world of James Bouler. Check out that crane for Pete's sake. The complexity of the floor plan sets the groundwork for the parallel complexity of the roofline, so in order to get to all parts of the foundation on a waterfront job, the concrete had to be suspended overhead. With the rebar in place inside the wall forms, the snowstorm held out long enough for the concrete to be poured and set in time. The house will use a geo-thermal heating system, and the client says with the federal government incentives, it was an economical option.

Architecture in Harmony with Nature

What could be a more economical housing situation than one you carry around on your back? I take it as a good sign that several snails took up residence in our garden, as well as a family of house sparrows in our bird house.
And what could be a more primal need than that of shelter? To Viennese architect Friedrich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), buildings meant protection and security, but also color and whimsy. One could argue he held the mole as the father of all architects, admiring its predilection to using the ground in establishing shelter. Hundertwasser began integrating nature into his buildings through window plantings, rooftop gardens, and earth roofs. The earth roof is incredibly efficient, using the earth's own cooling and heating properties to help regulate temperature. Achieved on a large scale in his Blumau Hot Springs Village in Styria, he was ahead of his time in promoting a more integrated notion of architecture: one that connects to nature, not distances people from it. This idea is gaining traction. Yesterday's New York Times had an article about the possibilities of using green roofing on low income housing in the Bronx. It seems that those living in the high rise buildings really appreciated the increased dose of greenery and the decrease in allergens in the building.
After years of designing homes with no sense of climate context nor direct connection to the earth itself, integrating those elements into the design of the building seems natural enough.

Lido Beach

As with just about everything in life, I am drawn to polar opposites. Not only do I love old homes, the newness of a building can be equally astounding. To see something emerge from nothing is awe-inspiring, especially if you've seen the building go from sketch, to drawing, to finished product. The renderings above are the second round of the Lido Beach project, which went from a renovation to a total redo. The result is a cohesive 4,000 square foot design set right on the Atlantic Ocean, and utilizes overhangs for passive solar screening, as well as photovoltaic and geo-thermal systems for sustainable energy. It looks as if the project is going from rendering to reality.

Off The Grid

Life on Long Island can be busy, congested, expensive, and rather strip-mall ugly. The trade off? Fire Island. A beautiful stretch of beach with its own varied eco-system, it's hard to imagine a place where one can live so connected to the natural environment. The complexity of building on a barrier island, which changes literally with the tide, coupled with green technology and a forward thinking design produced this project currently under construction in a small beach community just off Ocean Parkway. Its ocean views offer amazing sunlight, but also pose issues for material wear. Wind and salt water can be a challenge to traditional materials, so every inch of this building had to be considered in several different ways. Once completed, the building will feature a geo-thermal system and photo-voltaic panels to provide most of the power for the moderately sized residential structure. This is a project that is also a testament to a collaborative process-- which includes having a client who wants better design and better materials, and a builder who supports that vision.