All Posts Tagged With: "Design"

On New Year’s Day, we received an email from our good friend, Michael Furbish, who owns the Furbish Company , a green builder whose work we have profiled recently . They are clear about their mission on their website: "Furbish Company designs, sells, installs, and maintains plant-based building systems. We view plants as living machines. Set up properly, they enhance building performance while providing aesthetic beauty." In other words, they are change agents.

In our first post for the New Year, I wanted to welcome our new visitors, and remind our regulars about our purpose here. Since Michael says it so well, I’ll just use his words:

"Your site is absolutely wonderful. Every time I visit, it is deeper and richer. My one regret is that I spend too little time enjoying this space. As you articulate so well, appreciating the empty space . In many ways, your site is just that. It is the space that invites thinking about what can be."

I love that – we not only create space to think about what can be, we highlight what is, already. There are so many businesses and organizations that are doing wonderful, thoughtful, meaningful work around here. We intend to continue presenting their great work. We are the go-to resource for change agents to learn about each other and to refuel on inspiration when they are feeling drained by the challenges of being on the cutting edge of change.

We will also post more often about general, universal themes. Julie’s work as a green design and sustainability consultant, as well as her involvement in the community, provides much material. Alyssa will write more about her urban gardening and DIY projects. As an artist, her hands-on creative urges are boundless!

So, sit back and enjoy. Subscribe to our RSS. Tell your friends, especially your change-agent friends. Find us on Facebook , Twitter , Flickr , and Virb .

The Neighborhood Design Center works throughout the Baltimore and Prince George’s County area helping residents, small non-profit organizations, and community development corporations do what they typically otherwise couldn’t: improve their communties. These communities many times are seeking to improve blocks and homes, renovate parks and school grounds, reclaim abandoned structures for new community uses, improve neighborhood commercial districts, etc., but simply lack the means. The Neighborhood Design Center helps by offering multiple free services: conceptual building and site plans, preliminary feasability studies and cost estimates, neighborhood master plans, and community development guidance. As the center itself is a non-profit, it does all this by mobilizing volunteer architects, planners, landscape architects, engineers, and other design professionals who donate their professional services to help neighborhoods in their initial revitalization efforts. Through their work the center hopes to strengthen community participation in neighborhood improvement efforts, educate the public about the value of good design, and serve as a catalyst for increased investment in neighborhood development.

What’s Working is a team of professionals brought together by green building expert David Johnston who have worked in the field of green building and sustainable program design since the early 90s. They serve customers with practical, effective services in green building program design, policy development, strategic planning, resource tool development, design and materials consultation, marketing, facilitation and training. Whether a business, a municipality, a developer, an architect, a supplier/ manufacturer, or simply a homeowner, What’s Working can assist you.

Tilt Studio, Inc . is a design firm that works to solve a variety of design problems, while specializing in earth-friendly design practices. Tilt utilizes an artistic sensitivity to visual communication that will positively impact the future growth of your business, small or large.

Biohabitats combines sound science with integrated design to protect and restore natural habitats around the world, driven by the belief that it “not only repairs degraded ecosystems, but renews economic opportunities and reconnects communities to the landscape.” They seek to inspire communities to rediscover a sense of place by preserving indigenous ecosystems, restoring biological diversity, and inspiring ecological stewardship. Highlighting conservation planning, ecological restoration, and regenerative design, their site also features volunteer opportunities as well as news and a list of events and conferences.