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By Bryan Anderson
With a last name like Anderson and a good Lutheran upbringing, it would seem improbable that I would have no standing traditions at “The Great Minnesota Get-Together,” but, in fact, I don’t. With the exception of visiting the morbidly obese pig and the “Birthing Barn” two years in a row because I had a friend in the veterinary program at the University of Minnesota, I can’t really count anything else as tradition. I’ve seen the butter heads and I think once, when I was little and my parents had tired of the guilt of depriving their only son of cheese curds and midway rides, I got to ride the big yellow wave slide. Once.
Despite my inconsistent history with the State Fair, I have merged with the grease-scented throngs the last two years with a singular destination in mind: the Eco-Experience Exhibit. Despite the real-world existence of the technology, somehow approaching the Eco-Experience building with its wind-power-generating “blade” and large photo-voltaic array is a little like approaching Oz in a “TIE Fighter.” Inside, the well-funded exhibit boasts colorful and organized signage featuring local farms and food producers, transit options, energy sources, and sustainable products. Both of my trips have been prompted by the Eco-House (it being a design contribution of my employer).
The Eco-House is a full-scale example of eco-friendly practices in residential construction. The home’s design integrates passive solar heating and cross ventilation for cooling, fundamental principles of comfort since our moving out of caves. The home is constructed using Structural Insulated Panels (SIP), in lieu of standard framing, for increased R-value and minimized heat loss through structural members. Windows are triple-pane with two layers of low-E coating for an R-value surpassing that of the walls of many century-old Minneapolis homes. And should anyone question the “greenness” of constructing a full-scale mock-up, it should be noted that the Eco-House was modeled after an actual project that will benefit from the disassembled components being reused in the construction of that particular house.
Interior finishes were selected to showcase a diversity of “green” products. Flooring selections included finished concrete (necessary for thermal mass in passive heating), bamboo, cork and linoleum. Featured were Energy Star appliances, LED light fixtures and urea-formaldehyde-free cabinet boxes. One recycled glass-and-concrete countertop drew so many people to its colorful polished surface that no one could open the cabinet underneath it to find the recycling center. Therein lies a particularly challenging issue: It is easy to grab people’s attention with specific features, but much harder to educate them on a sustainable lifestyle.
Talking with homeowners in the Eco-House, it was incredibly clear that many were eager to make “green” choices in their homes but overwhelmed with the options they were presented with in the marketplace. I spoke with one couple that was interested in replacing their original hardwood floor with a new “green” product, not immediately realizing that refinishing their existing solid wood floor with a low-VOC finish was the environmentally friendly choice. This confusion is certainly not the fault of these particular homeowners; contradictions are everywhere. Next door to the Eco-House, samples of organic soymilk were being offered in plastic cups that could not be recycled in the receptacles at the Eco-Experience!
While the Eco-House may not please everyone’s individual aesthetic, and the Eco-Experience still needs to fine-tune its agenda, both operate in an excellent educational venue to inform homeowners and Fair-goers alike of the breadth of choices that exist in green building and in creating a holistic approach to a sustainable way of life that ensures a future of Fair traditions, new and old.
Bryan Anderson lives in Stevens Square. He works for SALA Architects on East Hennepin.
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Letters to the editor
By Southwest Journal readers
Praise for the ‘A Lake Harriet Legend’As a regular member of the Lake Harriet early morning walkers community, I want to thank Nick Halter for the wonderful article he wrote about “A Lake Harriet Legend.” Having been a walker since August 1985, I have seen many changes in the “community,” but the warm camaraderie among the walkers has never changed. Many years ago one of the dog walkers had a birthday party for her 12 year-old dog at the bandshell — a real social event. Then one year a regular walker, Don Olson, who knew everybody, had a heart attack while on vacation in Maui, Hawaii. The word got around and he was sent many cards. One walker even called him in Honolulu at the hospital. Don
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Gearing up for another school year
By Bernadeia Johnson
We are busy preparing to welcome students in grades 1–12 back to school on Aug. 30 and welcome our new kindergarten students on Sept. 1. Families often ask me what they can do to help their children do their very best. Families play a critical role in their child’s academic progress. You can help your child prepare to learn each day. Help your child get ready in the morning so he or she arrives on time and ready to learn. Ask your child what he or she learns in school each day. Set aside time each night to help your child with his or her homework. Visit the open house at your child’s school before the first day. Your child will come to school confident and eager to succeed. We are working hard to make
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A vacation state of mind
By Terre Thomas
I envisioned one or two long luxurious and/or adventure packed weeks of vacation for this summer. Since I’m no longer to busy with the storefront Fairy Godmother, and my online store can be run virtually (figuratively and literally) from anywhere, I planned to go to South Dakota, spending a week mining for rose quartz and enjoying the Black Hills with my high school daughter and her best friend, then later in the summer heading up to Cross Lake with the whole family to play cards and splash-paddleball and luxuriate with a book in a lawn chair firmly planted out in the sandy edge of the lake with lapping waves splashing my feet. But conflicting work schedules, tight family finances with an unexpected $3,000 transmission repair bill for our minivan, and a
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Crickets in the night
By Jim Walsh
The crickets were loud over the lakes neighborhoods of South Minneapolis Saturday night-Sunday morning, knowing as they do that their lives are short, three months to be exact, so as the summer goes on, those desperate little crickets beat their legs faster and faster, raging against the dying cricket light, which is the sound we hear when we hear that heated whistling chorus that whirls everywhere after dark these hot August nights. The sound of death, in other words, but also of a life spent singing all the way to the grave. The sun came up over 46th and Grand at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. Paul Douglas assured nothing but blue skies all day, the universe was cooperating; people were nervous and excited. Kings owners Molly and Sam ate breakfast with their kids and boyfriends in
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