Visionwall Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency curtain-wall glazing systems (see University of Victoria Engineering Laboratory case study in

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Vol. 6, No. 7), went into receivership on February 24, 2000. Customers should see little effect from this action, however, as Visionwall Corporation has taken... Read more

Seattle-based Sellen Construction Co. has been honored as 1999 Contractor of the Year by the International Erosion Control Association (IECA). Sellen was lauded for its use of best management practices and state-of-the-art technologies to control erosion and prevent sediment runoff in challenging and sensitive situations. Specific practices... Read more

Version 4.0 of the popular E Build Library CD-ROM is now in production, with copies expected to ship starting in early May. The comprehensive archive features all 57 back issues of

Environmental Building News from the first, in 1992, through 1999. The text is fully searchable using Adobe Acrobat® text search or via hotlinks from the... Read more

The Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors is serious about stemming sprawl. They have set up a $1 million legal defense fund to protect the county against court challenges by home builders, according to an article in the January 5

Washington Post. Loudoun County is the third fastest growing county in the nation, and it gained... Read more

A call-for-entries has gone out for the 2000 Aurora Awards competition for residential design and construction (both single- and multifamily) from the Southeast Building Conference. Projects located within the 11 southeastern states are eligible for the Awards, which cover a whopping 75 categories, including water conservation, energy... Read more

I was not so convinced by the case for building commissioning as I expected to be when I began reading the article in

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Vol. 9, No. 2.

Steelcase, the office furniture manufacturer, is set to break ground on a new wood furniture plant in Gaines Township, Michigan. The new facility, designed by William McDonough + Partners, will be the first manufacturing building of its size rated by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program. Projected emissions reductions of 70% as... Read more

The Metropolitan Forum Project of Los Angeles is seeking to reshape the way the city designs and builds public schools. Instead of huge schools serving 5,000-plus students, the “New Schools, Better Neighborhoods” project is proposing neighborhood-scaled schools serving around 500 students. Along with reducing the extensive public school... Read more

Collins Products LLC, a division of The Collins Companies, has developed a new line of concrete forming panels that will be available with FSC-certified wood. (A seasonal scarcity of certified logs has limited current production to non-certified product.) The line includes four products: ValuForm, Apex, Apex II, and Apex III. All of the forming... Read more

Black and Vernooy Architects of Austin, Texas won a Southern Home Award for new construction from

Southern Living magazine. The long back porch of the May residence, located at Lake Austin, was carefully designed to follow the sun, and indigenous materials from the surrounding Texas landscape were used for interior and exterior... Read more

Vermiculite has been widely used as an insulation material, a lightweight aggregate in concrete and plaster, a soil conditioner, and a carrier for fertilizers and other chemicals. It is used in an expanded or

exfoliated form—the raw micaceous vermiculite flakes are rapidly heated, thus vaporizing water between the mica layers and... Read more

On March 3, 2000 Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced $133 million in support for state weatherization programs to improve the energy efficiency of low-income households. Services that might be provided or subsidized under the various state and tribal programs include insulation, sealing ducts, adding weatherstripping, installing... Read more

The carbohydrate economy is moving a little closer to reality with the announcement in January that Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical are teaming up to build the first large-scale “renewable” plastics plant. Completion of the 140,000 metric-ton, $300 million plant in Blair, Nebraska is scheduled for late 2001. Natural plant sugars... Read more

Heliotrope General, Inc., a 25-year-old manufacturer of solar water heating components (see

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Vol. 8, No. 7/8), suffered a devastating fire at its Spring Valley, California facility on January 11. As a result of the fire, company founder and president, Sam Dawson, has decided to retire from the solar industry, and he has sold... Read more

After several years of sporadic publication, the newsletter Building with Nature: Placemaking that Supports Life has seen its last issue. Editor Carol Venolia was an original

EBN Advisory Board member, and her newsletter was an excellent complement to

EBN, addressing more of the spiritual and intuitive aspects of environmentally... Read more

Despite the

cooling expected from the weather phenomenon La Niña, 1999 was still the fifth hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In related news, NOAA scientists suggest in an article in the March 1 issue of

Geophysical Research Letters that the string of record... Read more

by J. David Odom and George DuBose of CH2M-HILL, in cooperation with Disney Development Company. Available from CH2M-HILL, 225 E. Robinson St., Ste. 505, Orlando, FL 32801; 407/423-0030, 407/839-5901 (fax), jodom@ch2m.com (e-mail). Spiral-bound, 100 pages, $70.

We’re very excited to announce that Peter Yost of the NAHB Research Center will be joining our staff as research director and senior editor of

Environmental Building News. In addition to contributing to

EBN’s content, Peter will share responsibility for many of our research, writing, and consulting services. A former high-school... Read more

A “Sun Wall” national design competition has been announced for an aesthetic and practical solar energy system for the huge South wall of the Department of Energy’s Forrestal Building in Washington, D.C. DOE estimates that the roughly 28,000 ft2 (2,600 m2) can generate as much as 200 peak kilowatts of electricity. The competition is cosponsored... Read more