It was identified that as the Bullitt cargo bike is ultimately intended to replace environmentally, socially, and economically degrading automobiles, the most important component of Larry vs Harry’s development is to grow their market as rapidly as possible. Cultural and infrastructural barriers proved to be the greatest hurdles in Larry vs Harry’s broader success, but with many cities throughout the world advancing bike ridership and supporting legislation, the Bullitt is poised to take a leading role in the global cargo bike market.

For more information on the legendary Bullitt, check out this fantastic video profile below by Cities for Cyclists or via Larry vs Harry’s website HERE.

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Photography by Andrews Photography

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This guide (viewable below) acts as a general resource to help city planners, entrepreneurs, community developers and agricultural enthusiasts better understand the role rooftop agriculture (RA) can play in moving urban regions towards sustainability. It is not a technical resource with detailed data, but provides readers with a firm understanding of the various types of RA, their unique benefits, how to approach a site for development, and basic plant recommendations.

Please contact Thrive if you would like more information on this guide or if interested in partnering to get an agriculture project of your own off the ground (literally)!

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Our primary objective for the project was to create a fresh and effective online presence that would be inviting and informative for viewers interested in biomimicry and business transformation. To accomplish this, we redesigned BCI’s website (www.businessinspiredbynature.com) using WordPress, a content management system that allows each BCI contributor to easily add content to the site’s various pages.

In support of this web makeover, we also updated BCI’s logo and marketing collateral and co-created a vision for greater engagement and outreach potential. The end result speaks for itself – a functional and aesthetically pleasing website that effectively displays the impressive body of resources that BCI has developed over the years.  All in all, we are very pleased with this project, and believe it exemplifies our mission of using design to help individuals and organizations thrive.

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Utilizing several eco-friendly materials, including 3form ecoresins and LED lighting, Thrive created a minimal yet elegant streetscape for the upscale jewelry shop. The design effectively cemented the retail space into the neighborhood, creating a dynamic relationship with the adjacent facades.  The signage is as efficient as it is beautiful, running off of only 50 watts of electricity!

More information on T Lee’s beautiful, ethical, and ‘sophisticated yet friendly’ jewelry can be found on her website HERE.

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The existing kitchen/dining space needed quite a bit of love… white Corian countertops, dated cabinets, a ceramic tiled island, and an oversized vent hood filled the space with an 80′s vibe.  Appliances and lighting fixtures matched the era of finished materials (a before picture here).  The overall layout was sound however, with a nice open plan designed for entertaining and soaking in views of the backyard…

In addition to updating finished materials and appliances, we wanted to rethink the storage situation in the kitchen.  The countertop along the back wall became the permanent home for the microwave, toaster, coffee maker and various other kitchen necessities… sure, all these elements were accessible, but the visual clutter certainly did not contribute to a piece of mind, and without that, what have ya got?… A walk-in closet next to the fridge was also an opportunity for improving storage.  The thing was nice and big, but the vast majority of its space was gone to waste by a person standing in the middle of it.  We opted for two huge pull-out pantries that held the same amount of goods as the walk-in, while freeing up enough space on the back side to create a full closet off the hall… a nice bonus!

With this remodel being primarily cosmetic, the selection of finished materials became our primary object.  We spent several weeks going over options, from FSC-Certified woods, 3form eco-resins, metallic paints, to concrete and recycled paper countertops.  The client and I took a field trip over to the NorthStar Surfaces showroom in St. Paul to check out some of their counter and cabinet options.  We instantly fell in love with a vanity on display there that featured a richly textured bamboo material paired with a deep brown counter.  Initially we were visualizing lighter cabs and counters for the kitchen, but once we saw this display, we both felt that our search was over.  And that was a really fantastic moment, having that connection with those materials… we felt that they presented a very elegant, earthy and modern solution, exactly what we were going for!

The cabinet facing turned out to be a gorgeous bamboo product made by Smith & Fong called Plyboo… Plyboo comes as both flooring and as plywood sheets.  It is formaldehyde-free and has several finish options to choose from, but what we saw and were drawn to was the Neopolitan finish, a highly textured mix of light and dark strands of bamboo… very rich and luxurious! The countertop we went with was equally unique as the Plyboo… it was a brand new product called ECO by Cosentino, and to say that we were excited about it would be an understatement.  ECO is an incredibly innovative product that has the perfect characteristics to really bring a bright green countertop to the mainstream… it is comprised of 75% post-consumer recycled materials and is one of a very limited number of ambitious products that has reached Cradle to Cradle Certification (which means that its entire life cycle is sustainable)… It is made from bits of porcelain, glass, crystallized ash and mirror and is bound together by a corn-based resin.  Also, 94% of the water used during the manufacturing process of ECO is recycled…  An absolutely amazing product that looks, performs and costs about the same as stone slabs that we are used to using.. it could really be a game changer!

Appliances were also important elements of the remodel… basically every existing appliance was at the age of needing to be replaced.  We researched and selected an Energy Star compliant oven, dishwasher, vent hood and microwave.  For the cooktop, we were considering the uber-efficient induction option, but didn’t pull the trigger on that due to the added expense of needing a corresponding set of steel pots.  We instead went with a sleek Siemens electric top, which was quite efficient itself…

And speaking of efficiency, for lighting we selected an LED solution for under the cabinets.  Thrive had worked with Environmental Lights on several other projects before, so we felt comfortable going forward with them again… their undercabinet light bars are extremely efficient (less than 10 watts for a 36″ strip!), are dimmable, and produce a beautiful warm light that is virtually identical to the light quality of a traditional incandescent bulb.  And meandering along the ceiling of the kitchen we placed a new track light that adds a biomorphic element to the room, helping to balance all the hard corners and right angles seen throughout the rest of the space… The plan has been to eventually replace each of these track bulbs with LED MR16s, but we’re waiting for the bulb costs to drop a bit before we do so…

To best highlight the gorgeous plyboo, ECO, and new stainless appliances, we designed several features into the kitchen.  We built a nook into the cabinets to house the microwave, taking it off of the counter.  Below the microwave we added a stainless tambour door, creating a nice storage space and further decluttering the work surface from small appliances and various other gadgets.  Above the fridge, we placed a custom wine rack, because what’s a finished kitchen without a wine rack, eh?

I’m sure you won’t argue if we were to say that the Plyboo steals the show… it certainly draws a lot of attention!  In our design we wer sensitive to not have the Plyboo be too overwhelming, so we offered a bit of visual relief by having the back wall of upper cabinets be made of a much more neutral material.  Aluminum and frosted glass offered the perfect solution, becoming visually weightless while tying in to the stainless appliances…

While most of the action took place in the kitchen, the dining room got a nice splash of love as well… by lowering the kitchen island from bar height to counter height and selecting a much smaller vent hood, we successfully opened up the space separating the two rooms.  This helped to synergize the space as a whole, but we had to walk a fine line of how much attention to place in the dining room since the bamboo in the kitchen was so visually dominant.  We spent several weeks scouring the web for the perfect dining table and couldn’t find one, so the client pulled the trigger and hired our cabinet guys (Rust Brothers) to build us a custom table.  The result was absolutely dynamite!  Made from the wood of local ash, the minimal table with matching benches was above and beyond what we saw available on the retail market… its natural wood finish complimented the floors while the benches allow guests to sit either facing the activity of the kitchen or be apart of the table conversation… (for a view of dining are before, click here).

With a gorgeous build out as a base to work from, we needed furniture, art and accessories to act as the icing on the cake.  We went with Minneapolis-based furniture company Blu Dot and selected their Knicker chairs and stools.  Their entire lineup is fantastic, but what drew us to the Knicker was its use of upholstery, which effectively pulled in the grays from the walls and stainless elements in the kitchen.  It also helped to soften the overall feel of the space as there were no other textiles used in the design… Art behind the table was provided by a good friend of Thrive’s, Ray Becoskie… this guy creates amazing art!  Like Blu Dot, his mission is to bring good design to the masses and consciously keeps his work very affordable.  Behind the painting, we used Sherwin Williams Harmony paint, which is one of their low-VOC products, in a soft blue hue…

So that is an inside scoop to our project in Theo Wirth… it was definitely a successful outcome and many have resonated with the design.  The project has been picked up by several media outlets, including Sherwin Williams’ STIR magazine, Minneapolis Star Tribune, HGTV.com, Plyboo’s website, and Jetson Green, the #1 green building blog.

Photography by Holmberg Studios

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We also did a major renovation on the basement level family room, reinsulating the exterior walls, installing a Marmoleum floor and utilizing cutting edge LED lighting technologies to save on energy costs.

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Josh’s Introduction to Sustainable Design offers a comprehensive look at various hands-on and holistic approaches to sustainability and covers a wide range of subjects, from leading sustainability frameworks and design principles, to alternative progress indicators, analysis of economic, social and environmental sustainability, effective ways of communicating and marketing sustainability, and regenerative principles that extend beyond sustainability. More information on the program can be access HERE.

The following captures some of the feedback for Josh’s course, which were included in an anonymous course evaluation:

I was expecting a general introduction and overview to sustainability. Josh provided this and so much more.  The amount of truly informational, educational, and most importantly, inspirational material was simply over the top. I would literally walk away from readings and assignments with joy, inspiration and motivation (rather than drudgery and thoughts of “ugh, I’m glad I got that assignment off of my plate”). Granted, the topics were sometimes not so light-hearted, after all – sustainability is not always uplifting. But Josh did such an amazing job of presenting so many different pieces of the puzzle that each week you walked away with numerous new insights into a topic and the eagerness to learn and build on that knowledge in the coming weeks.

Simply put, Josh presented so much amazing content. It was evident how much time he spent organizing the course each week so that it was digestible, and in a way that each week would build on the next. It has truly been an amazing learning experience.

The course content blew anything I could have imagined out of the water. It was specific, memorable and valuable on personal and applied levels. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

This course was very challenging and thought provoking, and the material moved a long at a very quick pace so that things stayed interesting.

I just want to thank Josh for being such an inspiration this semester and putting so much work into the course.  He made the experience of an online course feel very personal – from the way he was so approachable to the way he designed assignments to help all of us get to know one another.  Really a fabulous semester of learning.

As a core component of the course, Joshua has created a series of weekly video lessons and has shared them publicly on his YouTube station… below is the first in the series, which will ultimately encompass 7 separate lessons exploring the essential components of sustainable design. Please follow the link here, or click the YouTube icon to the left to gain access to the others (and quick note… videos are best viewed in HD).

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In the kitchen we rearranged all of the cabinetry, saving valuable time, resources, and money.  We refaced the cupboards with formaldahyde-free MDF and coated them with a Zero-VOC metallic paint.  New recycled-content porcelain tile was installed on the floor. The counters are EcoTop, a brand new surface made of FSC certified bamboo and recycled paper, arguably the greenest market-based countertop in the world.  This happens to be the first residential install of EcoTop in the country!

The living room recieved the ‘Thrive’ treatment as well.  We created a modern-yet-inviting space for the homeowners, introducing sustainably harvested furnishings and a fresh coat of Zero-VOC paint for the walls.  The fireplace was completely redesigned as well, pulling in the porcelain and glass tile from the kitchen.  All in all, a pretty significant transformation from a drab ‘McDonalds’ looking environment to one that was modern, sophisticated, eco-friendly and full of life.

Photography by Andrews Photography

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This project was featured in the September 2008 edition of Environmental Design + Construction as an example of how insulated concrete form construction can be warm and inviting.

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