Difference between revisions of "The building"
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Revision as of 19:54, 9 April 2014
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The building is a former Model T showroom built in 1920 that has landed in the 21st century as a net-zero energy building helping to develop triple-bottom-line businesses. We have traced the history of the building and its occupants, beginning in 1920 with the DeFord Motor Company, all the way to our purchase in 2007. For those who have an interest in this area, we have even researched the history of the property where the building stands, all the way back to pre-American Revolution days. For more detail, see our building history page.
Tom and Peggy Brennan bought the building on December 31st, 2007. The next 2 years were spent in design discussions with over 200 volunteers dedicating their time to helping us develop this building into what it is today. The discussions covered everything from net-zero energy design, Alexander design (based on the work of Christopher Alexander), water management, gardens, materials management, etc. To view some of our design work, see our One Earth Patterns pages, which delineate the work done in dozens of areas.
After design work, we turned in our building plans to the City of Detroit and they were quickly approved. We worked with a number of contractors over the 2 years of construction, and their contact information is found on our building community page. We are currently working on As Built pages that describe our building systems as they were completed.
We chronicled the construction work on 4 pages, beginning in October of 2009 and lasting until November of 2011. To view these pages, see our construction archives page.
To see some pictures of the building before and after construction, see our Before and After: A Look at the Green Garage Before and After Construction slideshow.
