When Borton and Welsh found 90 acres bordering a national forest near Whitehall, Montana, they parked a trailer, dug in, and began building Sage Mountain Center, a combination of cordwood and straw bale, powered off-grid by the sun and wind.
At the Sage Mountain Center, timber frames the main building, whose north and west walls are straw-bale infill with an insulation value of about R-40. R-value is a material's measure of resistance, per inch, to heat flow. At its best, straw bales measure about R-2 per inch when a bale is placed on its side in the wall, averaging about 20 inches in width. The south and east walls are cordwood, at R-25, with an interior eight-inch bed of sawdust. Positioning cordwood in the south wall-along with the thick layer of insulation-creates a high thermal mass that stores energy "like a battery" throughout the 24-hour cycle of large fluctuations in temperature, says Welsh.
Sage Mountain's energy feeds from a combination of solar and wind power, which, along with wood-burning stoves in the winter, heats the center's air and water and powers the electrical appliances. The structures consist of the main building, where they conduct classes, a one-and-a-half story guest cottage, and a one-room cottage, named Tilting Tree Cottage due to the angle of a large nearby tree.
The current economic meltdown, and specifically the housing-market crash that is casting thousands of homeowners out of their homes, gives owner-builders an additional, acute reason-on top of climate meltdown-to consider building sustainably. Much like the illusion of security that became endemic throughout the home-financing world during the first decade of the 21st century, the buildings in which we typically spend vast amounts of time do not meet the basic needs of the surrounding ecosystem. And such a statement in itself leads to the question what does sustainable mean?
Thanks to Simmons Buntin
FULL STORY: Building and Dwelling in the Mountains: The Sage Mountain Center Story

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Half of Post-Fire Altadena Home Sales Were to Corporations
Large investors are quietly buying up dozens of properties in Altadena, California, where a devastating wildfire destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.

Opinion: What San Francisco’s Proposed ‘Family Zoning’ Could Really Mean
Mayor Lurie is using ‘family zoning’ to encourage denser development and upzoning — but could the concept actually foster community and more human-scale public spaces?

Jacksonville Launches First Autonomous Transit Shuttle in US
A fleet of 14 fully autonomous vehicles will serve a 3.5-mile downtown Jacksonville route with 12 stops.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont