In the last five years the question I was asked the most was. “How are you doing this?” What they were asking was always about the countless articles and awards that LJ Urban was getting. We used to have a joke, if its been more than a week with no mention in the news of LJ Urban, something is wrong… I have been thinking a lot about that lately and weather or not I should tell about our secret weapon, I debated if I would be giving it all away or… Anyhow, I decided its best to just tell you and get it out there.

Without a doubt one of the biggest reasons that we were able to do what we were able to do was the guys at EMRL Floyd and Stephen are working on another level from the rest of us when it comes to getting a story told, they built this website and helped craft the vision for LJ Urban.  That is not to say that we were not authentic, that is just what is so amazing about them, its like they sat down with us and found the passion that was deep inside and pulled it out and brought it to life.  They should not call themselves an advertising company but rather a Business Consultant / Shrink.  They get to the bottom of who you are and tell the story like no one else can.

I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all they did for LJ Urban.  I know that they will play a major role in the next version of what we become…

Go check out their site www.EMRL.com

Levi

This is adaptive reuse!

I think this might be the best email I have gotten in a while… It’s from the guys over at EMRL.

What the heck were the toy designers thinking?

Sometimes you just need to move around a bit, you know that itchy ‘I have to move’ feeling you get but ignore because your stuff and life is so organized. I think I may have found the solution to your problems while searching internet today. It’s the modern train car house!

Now moving is easy, simply get the kids and dog into the house and hitch up to the nearest engine and head on out. Does the train car house have you interested? Well it could be yours for a mere $225,000. Finished by a group of designers in Portland the house is now on the market. What other home boasts no property taxes or lawn maintenance?

Levi Benkert

We had a community meeting Monday night to review our design guidelines we have prepared for the Habitat and Simple projects in the Washington Neighborhood. It went pretty well I think. We got some questions about parking which I hope we answered. We got some questions about why the City couldn’t provide streetlights for the neighborhood surrounding our proposed projects. We told them the lights would come with the development but that we would like to decrease their frequency from those in other developments due to the light pollution.

People asked about the historic character of the neighborhood and how we would rate our projects “integrity” to that character. Kind of a nebulous question, but one every architect and developer is faced with. We described how our guidelines would help ensure that historical themes would be carried through our projects but not necessarily replication of exact Victorian architecture.

But the question of the night had to be about OSB. What is OSB you ask,well I am sure you can Google it just like I did and find out the good and the bad about it. I wanted to throw it up here to show that it has advantages and disadvantages but I was just as interested in proving that we are building quality housing while using it. Below is a list of its advantages in comparison to conventional plywood. [Read more →]

Today marks a big occasion for the LJ Urban blog. This post you are reading is our 600th bringing a total of 1627 comments. I know that may not mean a lot to you but to us who started this thing not knowing where it would take us and why we were even doing this its a huge deal. The first post was on October 3rd 2006 and was done by Jason Presley. Jason was an incredible writer and spent months leading up to the launch of the blog deciding what our message would be. Once we did launch Jason tirelessly tweaked and retweaked the design with EMRL ultimately landing on the site you see today. He liked to call it a “playground” every component of the site is interchangeable and always in motion.

Anyway, I know its sappy to hear someone write about looking back and how far they have come. But I am darn proud of what the site here has become and can not wait to see what the next 600 posts bring.

And since we are getting all sentimental here are a few of my favorite posts out of the last 600.

- The 800 Pound Gorilla
- Optimism
- The Myth of Quantity over Quality
- Alice in wonderland

There are lots more good ones I am sure but that is all I can seem to dig up that is resonating with me right now…

Levi Benkert

I like good simple design especially when its done with an eye towards sustainability. The best designs disappear into your surroundings and subtly make things easier. I recently heard about a movie that the local designer Matthew Lechowick is working on getting The Crest to show – its called Objectified and by the looks of the trailer its a really well done look at the people behind the products. The thing is, Matthew needs our help convincing the Crest to show the film. So… want to help out? All you need to do is send an email to Sid Heberger over at the Crest to let him know you want to see it. Sid’s email is Sid@thecrest.com.

Sitting on the top right of this page for the last year or so, our little mini bio has been a sort of first glance sign to new visitors that this is something different. Its a way for us to tell people that yeah we sell houses and develop property but not like anything you have seen before. We are here because we believe in a better way to do things and that basically what got us to where we are today as a society will not get us to where we need to go tomorrow. We see our projects as a sort of test model for the way things are going to be in the future. Green, small, well designed, smart… Its the anti-suburb, a new vision for life.

So with that in mind we always want to look at everything we do in a new way, things like advertising just don’t feel like a fit for a company such as ours. This blog has been our answer to that feeling, it’s relevant, and more importantly honest and transparent. Recently we have been having another thought that I wanted to throw your way to see what you think. And you have to promise to be honest with your reply. Got it? Promise? Ok.

We are in the early stages of planning an event at the Good project in March. We are thinking its going to be called “What Makes Good.” It’s going to be an inside look at all the components that went into the Good project, with several tours on different topics given by our consultants. People will be able to hear about our marketing program from the folks at EMRL and all about the LEED ND certification and what all we had to do to be certified, also our friends from GreenBuilt will be there talking about what a green construction site looks like and how it works.

Anyway, we have been thinking of ways to let people know about the event and were wondering if you all might want to help out. This is just a thought at this point but I wanted to throw it out there right away and see what you all think. So that is my question. Want to help spread the word? We would provide downloadable flyers and links for your blog maybe even emails to send out. It’s sort of a guerilla marketing campaign at the most grass roots level. Thoughts…..?

Levi Benkert

I like when good things get better, sort of like the when the iPhone 3G was released or even better when Toyota announced the totally redone Prius for 09′. It’s great, something that is very good already gets tweaked and rethought to make it more efficient and even better.

When we started getting ready for phase 2 of the Good project we decided it was time to do a little upgrading ourselves. So without any further ado….. its with great pleasure that I introduce to you Good, the 09′ models.

We spent the last several months listening to comments and talking with engineers about areas we can push the limits of sustainability. We tweaked everything we could, added more storage and took an already efficient design and made it even more efficient. Some of the changes are big, and some are just little touches to make the homes more user-friendly, many you would never even know about unless you were digging behind the cabinets or peeling back the drywall. (which we do not encourage). All in all Good just got better and we are darn proud of it.

• Solar – We love solar power, its clean efficient and here in Northern California we have sun light-a-plenty. So why not use it to generate your own electricity, right? The problem is the solar array costs so much to install you won’t start getting a return on your investment for several years. We think we have found the answer! We like what the folks over at Sun Run are doing. What they do is install the system at their cost and all you do is pay them for the electricity at a very discounted rate. So you get good clean power without paying the big bucks! Simple, efficient, clean, it’s sort of a theme for us.

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