ADPSR West Coast Architectural Resource Guide

ADPSR West Coast Architectural Resource Guide

David Kibbey, editor, Northern California ADPSR, P.O. Box 9126, Berkeley, CA 94709-0126; 510/273-2428. Paperback or diskette for use with Filemaker Pro, $18 each, $27 for both.

The latest green building product directory to come our way is the work of a handful of dedicated volunteers at the Northern California chapter of Architect/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility. The directory is a work-in-progress—it currently has about 900 listings, organized in the 16-divisions of the Uniform Specifications System. Each division is introduced with a short essay putting the choices for that division in context.

As might be expected, the directory is especially strong in products made in or near the Northern California region. Also making this directory especially useful for regional practitioners is the fact that many product listings include contact information for a distributor in the area. The listings are a bit rough, however, including some that are out-of-date, and others that are questionable as an environmentally preferable choice. Functionally, both the print and diskette versions of the directory are clean and fairly easy to use. The print version would benefit from an index cross-referencing the products by manufacturer, for those times when one knows the company name but not the precise category of the product in question.

If your business is in the western states, this directory is a worthwhile tool to have and also a good deal. Others might prefer to wait until it has been further refined.