Thoughts on design

Musings on architecture and landscape design

D&L glass in Denver, isle one of three!

Got the glass for the lights!  There were probably a thousand or so different types and I took a good look at all the ones that looked promising.  And after all that I went with the color I’d picked out on line!  Except they have two versions of it and this one had some texture to the glass that should refract nicely when light is shining trough it.

Now I should mention when I called them they said that they did not carry the glass I found on Armstrong’s web site, but as it turns out Armstrong apparently changed their numbering system and while the first couple of digits were different the last ones where the same.

D and L Glass ships so if you are interested here is the link  http://www.dlstainedglass.com/index.cfm

Now what I found was interesting is that after I paid the for the glass the sales guy informed me that they were not allowed to wrap it up for me but that I could do it myself.  These people ship glass, what’s the big deal?

Anyway it got home in one piece so I guess that’s what counts.

And the winner is!

I attended an interesting meeting last night.  It was the kick off meeting for the “Green Building Renovation: Smarter, Safer, Greener House Competition” which will take place this summer here in Longmont. Quite a title, but the basic idea is to find reasonably low priced, options for making homes more efficient and possibly even net energy produces.

We are talking about homes here, so reasonably priced in this case means $25,000; which if you think about it is not a whole lot when you are dealing with installing energy producing and storage systems, possibly replacing all windows, adding new insulation to the walls, floors, and ceilings, oh and installing extremely energy efficient appliances and equipment.

The folks running this competition are from DaVinci Quest, which is a tech heavy company interested in promoting innovation in a number of fields.  This Tech interest is quite evident in the judging criteria, I.E. power generation is the most heavily weighted.

After talking with some of the guys running the competition I get the impression that what they really are hoping for is to find inventers working on the next generation of alternative energy equipment; one that will offer the possibility of generating power cheaply in a residential setting.   They want to bring those ideas out of the closet by providing an opportunity for the ideas to be tested in real world conditions.

To that end, they are trying to get funding for this competition from donors who can assist with design and production of new equipment.  Given that intent, the design end of the competition should be running equal to or possibly several times as much as the final installed cost to the homeowners.  At least that’s the story the numbers and my conversations with some of the DaVinci guy’s seams to be telling at the moment.

The time frame and money amounts seem a bit tight for their end goals but I like and applaud the spirit of the endeavor.

There were quite a few comments given at the meeting about the criteria and testing for the contest, and at the moment all those aspects are in flux and will need some serious attention.  I’m not all that sure how much change that can provide given their current schedule, but I’m assuming the next competion season will be a bit more rigorous and they will have there ducks more in a row.

If you want to learn more about it here is the link to the competition site:

http://www.davinciquest.com/innovation-contests/greener-house

Light for Garage

I love Ironwork!  We are putting up new outside lights for the garage and barn.  Finding a large scale good looking light is next to impossible if you are anywhere near as picky as I am. So I drew up this one and a couple other similar ones for the project.  This is the first one, which is almost complete for the steel work. Some parts for the next three are sitting on the table behind it.  Oh and the wire mesh head on the wall is a dragon he has been working on. I’m heading down to Denver tomorrow to pick up amber art glass for them.