The building
The Green Garage, 4444 Second Avenue, Detroit, Mi, 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 sets, 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. Construction took 2 years, and each week photos were taken that showed the process step-by-step. See our construction page to see the photos. 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.
