Pollinator Improvement Plan – a bee-eautiful idea comes to Grow

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Bees are the unsung heroes of a healthy ecosystem.

By supporting flowering agricultural crops and orchards, they and their fellow pollinators butterflies and birds are responsible for as much as one-third of the human food supply.

Enjoy tasty local cucumbers, strawberries, apples or even onions? Thank your neighborhood bee.

grow-beeGrow Community joins the effort to promote our island’s pollinator populations through the Pollinator Improvement Plan (PiP), now under way at Commodore Options School.

The goal: to create a network of pollinator-friendly micro-environments around the island, aiding the industrious apiformes as they seek out nourishment and shelter.

The landscape plan at Grow Community phase 2, the Grove, will include pollinator-friendly native plants with a sequential bloom season to provide food and habitat through the year for pollinators – from hazelnut in late winter/early spring to Oceanspray in late summer. These plants are located throughout the project, not just in the planting beds planted with the “pollinator mix.”

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Grow also features multiple canopy layers in trees, shrubs and perennials, to provide shelter options for pollinators.

Planting under the direction of renowned firm PLACE landscape architects is now underway on the site, even as we round out the first buildings nearby for residency this fall.

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“Bees might not be among our ‘homeowners’ per se, but we want them to be regular visitors,” said Greg Lotakis, Grow Community project manager. “Community gardens have been one of the signature features at Grow from the start, and we want to share those gardens and fruit trees with pollinators who are more reliant on them still.”

PiP is a joint project of Commodore Options program and the City of Bainbridge Island.

During the yearlong program, students will learn about the importance of bees and other pollinators to the natural environment as well as the various threats – overuse of garden chemicals, loss of habitat – their fragile populations presently face.

grow-village-kids1The multiage curriculum will include mapping of local bee habitats and production of a “Bee’s Eye View” video, to promote bee-friendly planting at homes and neighborhoods throughout the island.

The video will be shown on Earth Day 2016.

Participants will also work with the city to review local landscaping and pesticide policies, to make local public lands pollinator friendly. Students will be part of this community discussion.

“Our COS students are currently conducting the research needed to produce an educational slide show about pollinators. This is a first step to educate themselves about the process, developing a depth of knowledge that will add support throughout the project,” said Carl Lindbloom, project coordinator. “Commodore Options School’s focus is on project based curriculum and community service, so PIP is the perfect fit.”

Watch for more news about Grow Community’s bee-eautiful plantings here in the coming weeks.

HouseSmarts finds smart homes at Grow

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Intentionally designed for unintentional connections – that’s Grow Community.

Lou Manfredini (NBC’s Today Show, WGN Radio) and the crew of HouseSmarts visited Grow this past spring, interviewing residents and exploring what is now Washington’s largest solar community just a few steps from Winslow town center.

Manfredini liked what he found at Grow, praising the community for its modern design, neighborhood spirit, and forward-thinking renewable energy features.

“These types of ideas, we can place anywhere in the U.S.,” the host says.

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Grow and PHC earn Built Green Hammer award – again!

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For the second straight year, Grow Community and PHC Construction have earned the prestigious Built Green Hammer Award.

Sponsored by the Master Builders Association, the awards recognize outstanding, environmentally sustainable residential projects. Grow Community earned top honors in the Builder, Multifamily 1-50 Units category.

The award was presented this week at the annual Built Green Conference at Shoreline Community College.

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“We’re doubly proud to win a Built Green Hammer Award for the second straight year,” said PHC’s Marty Sievertson. “Our goal has always been to show what’s possible in top-quality, environmentally conscious construction. As Grow Community’s second phase, the Grove, sees occupancy this fall, we think buyers will really appreciate the care we’ve put into the project and that the Master Builders have recognized once again.”

Added Greg Lotakis, project manager for developer Asani:

“This award means a great deal to us because the Master Builders organization and Built Green program are local. We compete with the very best builders in our region for Built Green recognition, and all the builders involved provide support and encouragement to each other to help move our industry toward a sustainable future.”

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The Built Green program is designed to help buyers find quality, affordable homes that protect the health of their families and the Northwest environment. Built Green homes are designed to provide homeowners with comfortable, durable, environmentally friendly homes that are cost-effective to own and maintain.

For more information, see builtgreen.net.

Going up, and going fast: Only 8 homes left for November move-in

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Fall is rapidly approaching, and only eight homes remain for November move-in at the Grove (Grow Community, phase 2).  More homes will be available for early spring 2016 move-in.

Homebuyers come to Grow looking for community, and through the dust and noise of the summer construction, they can see our vision – and they want to be a part of it.

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Buyers who reserved their homes a year ago are now going into contract.  It won’t be long until they’re living in their new homes!

On the horizon: final floor plans for the Tsuga, the last building in the Grove neighborhood.  Homes are still available for sale and will be ready for move-in early Spring 2016.

Watch for more exciting announcements as Grow Community phase 2, the Grove, continues to take shape.

 

August Construction Update: Under every roof, a different story. Sometimes the roof is the story.

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Work proceeds apace around the Grow phase 2 worksite this month, with eight buildings underway and in different stages of completion. Framing, drywall and roofing are the story at the Salal, Juniper and Elan buildings, those closest to occupancy projected for this fall.

At the Tsuga, the concrete deck will be completed the first week of September with framing to follow. Three of four single-family homes now have their foundations and floors ready to go, again with framing to begin soon.

In the middle of it all, we’re about to begin grading for the Grove, our newest neighborhood’s signature central greenway. We’re excited to begin planting this beautiful space, the centerpiece of Grow Community phase 2.

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Très bien! French programme Écho-Logis visits Grow Community for television feature

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A film crew from the French production house TV Only visited Grow Community last week, shooting a half-hour feature for the magazine show Écho-Logis.

camera2The program features the best examples of sustainable architecture and construction around the globe – so naturally they found their way to Bainbridge Island and Grow.

“We were looking for the greenest places in the U.S.,” says Anthony Da Silva, TV Only journaliste, who admits that while he and the producers had scouted out Grow Community online and were confident it would make a good subject, they were still startled by what they found.

“When we arrived, we were really surprised that it was much more beautiful than the pictures we saw on the web,” Da Silva says, praising Grow for building not just eco-friendly homes but also a whole simpler, low-impact lifestyle.

“It’s not only putting solar panels up and respecting the landscape where you put your house,” he says. “It’s also a feeling. For me, it’s a system, a way to work and to build and to live.”

The four-man production team spent four days on the island after filming an eco-friendly home in Los Angeles the previous week.

interview1Da Silva interviewed Jonathan Davis, architect of Grow Community’s phase one, the Village, along with project manager Greg Lotakis and various residents.

Interviews were conducted inside homes and around the Grow Community grounds and shared P-patch gardens.

A drone-mounted camera buzzed around the neighborhood throughout, zooming down pathways before soaring skyward for dramatic aerial shots of Grow’s solar energy-producing rooftops.

“It was an honor to have the Écho-Logis film crew here,” Lotakis says. “To be able to share a bit of the vision, and have the community’s voice as part of the show, was wonderful. It was a great reminder of how much has been done here that can inspire other communities.”

Écho-Logis presents “beautiful and innovative green projects all around the world by featuring the people who have conceived it, those who live in and interact with it,” producers say, while showing the environmental advantages that come with “an ethical way of building.”

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After returning to France, the team will decamp for Romania and their next feature: a woodland lodge replete with solar power and a system for recycling water.

Now in its fourth season, the Écho-Logis program can be seen on France’s TV5Monde network, available in more than 200 countries.

The Grow Community feature is expected to run late this year as part of the current 40-episode run.

Previous Écho-Logis episodes can be viewed online here.

Grow a paragon of the ‘New Urbanism,’ Professional Builder magazine says

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screen-shot-2015-08-03-at-12-19-37-pm-857x1024Public engagement, eco-friendly designs, affordable options, and diversity of home styles and offerings are hallmarks of the New Urbanism, the most significant planning movement of recent times.

Grow Community is a paragon of this forward-thinking ethos, Professional Builder magazine says in its new issue.

In the article “The Seaside Effect” (a nod to the first New Urbanist community, Seaside, built in Florida in 1980), Pro Builder fetes Grow for such enlightened features as shared pea-patch gardens, energy-efficient construction and rooftop solar power.

Proximity to Winslow town center – just a 5-minute walk from the heart of the neighborhood – allowed project designers and now residents to move beyond the demands of an automobile-centric lifestyle, toward healthier and more sustainable alternatives.

“We didn’t need to provide anything other than a residential fabric,” Jonathan Davis, Grow’s phase 1 architect, tells the magazine.

Read more about how Grow Community measures up to New Urbanist principles in Professional Builder’s July 2015 edition here – see pages 30-35.

No summertime blues at Grow phase 2

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Framing for the Juniper building is kicking into high gear as the Grow Community skyline goes skyward. We’re getting set to pour the topping concrete for the Woodland Homes foundations, and soon the Tsuga will have a floor from which we’ll start building up.

The warm temperatures outside won’t last, but thanks to canny construction, our buildings will be snug all year-round. The Salal has its weatherproof jacket (the brown-hued Prosoco “Cat-5” water-and-air barrier) nearly all applied, to ensure protection for the building and residents alike.

Top-quality windows are more than halfway installed, and the interior rough-in of systems is takings shape. The Elan townhomes are following close behind the Salal.

Most exciting of all is our prep work for our next round of landscaping, which will make Grow phase 2, the Grove, look as if we will drop a beautiful portion of a young Grand Forest right into the heart of the neighborhood.

Cap that off with some early preparations for the rooftop solar component, and it’s been one hot summer.

Watch Grow Community continue to take shape each time you pass by the site, and we’ll see you in September.

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See Grow on HouseSmarts TV

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Grow Community will be featured on HouseSmarts, the “reality show for real homeowners,” Aug. 1 on KONG-TV in the Seattle area.

The HouseSmarts crew and contractor/host Lou Manfredini (NBC’s Today Show, WGN Radio) visited Grow for a day this past spring and really liked what they saw.

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The popular 30-minute weekly home improvement program “answers the questions homeowners really want to know,” the producers say. “Nobody adds on a room in one weekend, or lets their neighbors decorate their living room. HouseSmarts follows the progress of real people and lessons learned.”

HouseSmarts’ Grow Community segment airs at 10 a.m. Aug. 1.

For information see www.housesmartstv.com, and you can find the KONG-TV programming guide here.

 

New outlines on the Winslow skyline are the shape of progress.

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Construction on Grow Community’s new phase, the Grove, is moving onward – and upward. The Salal building’s third floor has taken shape, with roof work starting very soon. Next door at the Elan, the second floor is under way.

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Concrete work continues elsewhere on the site, the Juniper building is all but complete while the walls, footings and pouring of the Woodland Homes and Tsuga are now well underway.

With the hot, dry weather of summer upon us, crews will be watering down the site periodically to minimize dust – definitely a challenge, so we ask our residents’ and neighbors’ forbearance.

For all the activity around the site, our crews are running up an impressive safety record – 15,000 hours (and counting) without an injury. Great job, construction team!