EcoHouse in the News

The Berkeley Voice
March 18, 1999

'Ecohouse' gets city assist

North Berkeley neighbors will get a neighborhood meeting room in a house the city will help buy for use as an ecological demonstration house.

The $186,000, single-family dwelling at Hopkins Street and Peralta Avenue will be purchased by private neighborhood investors, but the City Council voted 6-0 with three abstentions Tuesday to guarantee the loans. Supporters of the project say they hope to get public and private grant money to pay for an additional $50,000 in needed repairs, and turn the house into a living museum of energy saving technologies. The structure is located within 100 feet from where BART emerges from its tunnel beneath Berkeley.

Project supporters, including Councilwoman Linda Maio, who represents the area around the home, said the city in all likelihood will not be left holding the financial bag. Maio said that if the grants don't come through within two years, investors will put the house on the market. Maio estimated that with the improvements the home should be worth $240,000. If the real estate market falters, the city will have to pay back investors.

"I think this is both a muddy and muddled item," objected Councilwoman Diane Woofley. "I don't think we're getting a very clear accounting. I don't think it's a very quick and easy thing and I don't feel comfortable with it."

"Is it so important to take this building off the market when there are so many young people out there willing to take over these wrecks and have them fix it up and return some money to the tax rolls?" said Councilwoman Betty Olds. Olds, Woolley and Mayor Shirley Dean abstained on the vote.

Maio assured council members the home will not be taken off the market. The house will be rented out to a caretaker with the exception of one room that will be set aside for neighbors involved in two adjacent community gardens.

At a press conference at the house last Friday, environmentalists promoted the home as a future demonstration of how people can live in balance with nature. "Hopefully everything will be made out of recycled wood," said architect Andrea Montalbano.

"There will be a greenhouse attached for heating, low-energy appliances and we hope someone will donate photo-voltaic cells for the roof. In the short term it's more expensive to construct, but in the long term it pays off."

"The thing that makes it so special is that it's so close to the gardens," said Maio. "It will be a great community resource. There's so much potential, we can do anything."

Project supporters said repairs will be made once the building is purchased. The community room will be ready immediately, and environmentally sound features will be added once grants and donations begin accruing.

"Berkeley can really set an example for the world (on how to add) ecological and environmental stability into our homes," said environmental activist Claire Greensfelder.

Community activist Karl Linn said the home and nearby gardens may have a therapeutic effect on the community. "People were complete strangers, even on the same block until we built this garden. We are building community block by block, garden by garden," he said.

The vacant home looks like many others, but to environmental carpenter Babak Tondre, the house is a clean slate, ready to incorporate ecological ideas.

"We're basically going to demonstrate all these ecological techniques from composting to energy. As much as possible we want to teach as we do. The point is not to hire a contractor and have the work done in a day--the project will get everyone involved and teach, it will be a learning process," Tondre said.

Walls may be knocked out and replaced with glass to catch the southern winter sun. Vines growing in front of the windows may block summer heat with leaves, but shed foliage in time to gain heat in the winter.

"We're going to get more solar energy into the house. Thermal mass like a slab of concrete, a tank of water or a wall of rock painted black all work well," Babak said. As the sun beats down on rock during the day the heat is slowly absorbed. Late in the day and through the night, the rock, concrete or water will give off heat.

A planned attached greenhouse would also heat the home and provide a perfect location for growing herbs. A low flow or composting toilet would reduce water consumption and sewer usage. A gray water system could be installed to treat sink runoff and allow the water to be reused.

Tondre said composting gardening and even the food bill of the house could be aided by feeding rabbits and chickens kitchen scraps.

Rabbit and chicken dropping could be used as fertilizer, while the chickens and rabbits could provide fur and meat, an idea that might not sit well with animal activists.

Project backers said a windmill may not be considered, saying eco-friendly wind energy may raise noise objections from neighbors.

Illustrating the distance on the learning curve still to be covered even by Berkeley's top environmentalists, all of the press conference's 20 or so participants, aside from a reporter and two others, left the event in motor vehicles.