Ecological Oxymoron 3 comments


This house was built using the latest ‘green’ construction techniques and I laud the owner, designer and contractor for that effort:
klein_house.jpg
This is also, in case you can’t tell from the picture, a large house:

This hilltop site in Corte Madera was once home to the late rock impresario Bill Graham.
Today it holds what its designer says is probably the largest “green” – ecologically correct – house in America.
Designed by Inverness architect Sim Van der Ryn and under construction for more than five years, the 15,000-square-foot house was built for owner Michael Klein, a passionate environmentalist and board member of the Rain Forest Action Network. It replaces the Graham house, which has been razed.

Exactly why is a passionate environmentalist building a 15,000 square foot house? Yes, he can afford it but surely a wealthy passionate environmentalist would set an example for both commoners and his wealthy peers. He would use green building techniques and also build a home appropriate to a human family in the 21st century. I do not believe a case can be made that all 6,492,046,339 of us (as of 01/18/06 at 00:09 GMT) should be living in homes this size as nuclear familys.
It may be a great show place for green building techniques but unless it is to be the home of 30-40 people there is little about it that is ecologically correct.

Via Knockin’ On The Golden Door via Grateful Dead News.


3 thoughts on “Ecological Oxymoron

  • Mark

    Hey there! Thanks for the trackback. You make a salient point about this house being an ecological oxymoron.
    As a contractor working in this strata (and not getting paid in a timely fashion by those building such grandiose digs, my own home is exactly 1,187 sq. ft. A very comfortable size for me, my wife, her grandmother and our two beagles and one cat.
    I intend to live here indefinitely.
    On thje house in question on which I was recently working, I witnessed other hypocrisy in building which I will blog about in future episodes of Contractors Who Gert Bent Over By The (Green) Man.
    Stay tuned!

  • Knockin' On The Golden Door

    Ecological Blunder

    “The Modulator” tracked back to my story about the Great Cosmic Fucking I am receiving right now, and makes a salient point about mini-mansions being built by the filthy rich, who aren’t just Republicans anymore (insert sardonic chukle): Exactly why…

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