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Participants from the Urban Curators project recently transformed derelict areas of downtown Providence into an outdoor gallery space when they took to the streets and indulged in a little impromptu ‘curating.’ Passing residents were pleasantly bewildered when they stumbled upon a series of gold-painted frames haphazardly taped to graffiti-covered walls and the crumbling exteriors of abandoned sites. The intention of the group, which initially assembled as a collective after participating in RISD’s Semiotic Disobedience workshop last fall, was to highlight the urban ‘beauty’ of locales that most would condemn as decrepit and unsightly.

Via Metropolis Magazine

Read More URBAN CURATORS PROJECT In Downtown Providence

The LEED Platinum rated Genzyme Center, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, plays host to over 900 of the biotech company’s employees and more than 400 weekly visitors. While it is easy to go on about the building’s high performance curtainwall glazing system, the 32% water consumption offset, or extensive indoor gardens, one of the most impressive aspects of the Genzyme Center is its 12-story central atrium. The grand open-air atrium serves as both large return air duct and light shaft, allowing more than 75% of the employee workforce to work using natural light and yielding a 42% savings in electricity costs.

Read More GREEN BUILDING: Genzyme Center LEEDS the Way

NEW ORLEANS - In the neighborhood President Bush visited right after Hurricane Katrina, the U.

With its simplified, silouhette-like form, soft glow, and ingenious function, Maria Hamprecht’s SW° Solar Lamp really does shine- metaphorically AND literally. Leave the “lamp” on a sunny window sill and let it absorb sunlight all day long; and come home to a lovely glowing lamp at night that has no need for plugs or electricity.

+ Maria Hamprecht

Via Yanko Design

Read More MARIA HAMPRECHT’s SW° Solar Lamp

WASHINGTON -- Housing is proving to be one of the biggest wild cards in the economy in 2007 as analysts are deeply divided about whether the worst in the downturn is over or there is much more pain to go.

The highlight of New York Fashion Week for sustainable style aficionados had to be the SANS show, which took place this Saturday at the Daryl Roth theatre in Union Square. We loved SANS’ spring line so much, we couldn’t help but have the highest hopes for the Fall collection of eco-friendly fashion, which utilizes all organic and sustainable materials such as bamboo, tussah silk, and organic cotton and wool, in innovative, deconstructed shapes. As anticipated, the SANS show didn’t disappoint. Read on for highlights from the fall collection…

Read More SEEING GREEN AT NY FASHION WEEK: SANS Fall 2007

Los Angeles based eco-designer Linda Loudermilk showed here in NYC on Thursday just before the official start of Fashion Week. The designer presented forty-three looks that seemed to leave no manifestation of eco-fiber unexplored. The collection included bamboo wool, wood pulp, Ingeo, hemp, organic cotton fur, Sea Cell, reclaimed textiles, silk and Oeko-Tex fabrications. Loudermilk even used human hair as trim, which we don’t know whether to classify as an innovative or odd interpretation of sustainability.

Read More SEEING GREEN AT NY FASHION WEEK: Linda Loudermilk Fall 2007

Feb. 4--Six weeks ago, Dan Logan moved into a new house where he never hears noisy skateboarders on the sidewalk or teen drivers racing cars and motorcycles.

Feb. 4--Last year, Kellogg School Superintendent Sandra Pommerening couldn't hire some of her top choices for new teachers.

It is rare to find materials that rapidly restore themselves and provide extensive aesthetic range in their simplest, purest state. The Woven Company picked up on this idea nearly 25 years ago, when they first began using reeds, bamboos, grasses, woods, and palms to create window treatments with such a variety of patterns and textures that choosing one for a space is like choosing a work of art.

Read More THE WOVEN COMPANY: Green Window Treatments

Prefab is notorious for being a whole lot of concept and not much follow-through. So it’s no wonder that the early buzz about the new Jeriko House rings with skepticism. Lloyd Alter’s review at Treehugger pointed out that this thing sounds almost too good to be true. But since we don’t know yet whether it is, might as well ooh and aah at just how good it does sound…

Jeriko claims to bring the best of all worlds together. They eliminate the waste of material, energy, and money that conventional construction incurs, while bringing the homeowner a simple, ideal combination of flexibility, sustainability, and affordability.

Read More PREFAB FRIDAY: Jeriko House

An oven that cooks 15 times faster than a conventional one.

Our last installment of Chris Burton’s “upcycled” furniture is his Stellation chair series, which is both simple in form and poetic in concept. Constructed from the abundant short wood cut-offs from construction sites, Burton repurposes an overlooked resource that would otherwise be discarded and sent to a landfill. The three chairs shown at his exhibition at Red Kite Studio are made from pine 2×4’s, heart pine, and a glue-laminated beam.

Read More CHRIS BURTON’s UPCYCLING: Stellation Chairs

Acclaimed in the design world as a ‘champion of the supernormal,’ Naoto Fukasawa once again proceeds to wow us - this time with his exciting lighting design for Swarovski , the all too well-known purveyor of crystals. Aptly dubbed Cosmos 1 and 2, Fukasawa’s electroluminescent lights generate the impression of illuminated ‘after-images” when one utilizes them to draw circles in the air. The effect was literally blinding when Fukasawa lit up the Swarovski Crystal Palace in London during Design Week last year by studding the route of the ‘after-images’ with, what else, a line of Swarovski crystals. Fukasawa, who was reportedly pleased with the results, said “It is as if the light comes from the stick of wizards.”

Read More ELECTROLUMINESCENT COSMOS CHANDELIER by Fukasawa

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson unveiled the Bush administration's 2008 budget $35.

Tulsa area contrasts sharply with national plunge Though house construction didn't break a record last year, Tulsa- area residential real estate reached a different milestone -- home sales hit the highest point ever.

It's rare in American life that a developer roots for the new Democratic Congress and supports inclusionary zoning, but such is the case with J.

NEW YORK - Prices for U.S. Treasury bonds were dragged down Thursday by a report that suggested the housing market was stabilizing.

ATLANTA, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Home Depot(R), the world's largest home improvement retailer, today announced that Frank Fernandez, executive vice president, secretary and general counsel, and Dennis Donovan, executive vice president, Human Resources, have resigned, effective February 14.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday and suggested it was more apt to raise rates in the near-term than cut them.