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This is adaptive reuse!

Many people have asked about the Good project and what is going to happen to it with all the changes going on around here so I thought I would do a post on the topic and see if we can’t spell it all out.

Basically we have hit a wall with pricing where the current market has gone below what it costs us to build the product we believe so strongly in. So what we are going to do is finish and sell a few more houses that we already started and put the project on hold for a bit while we wait out the storm. It’s no secret that the market has taken a huge hit in the past year and our project although still faring better than others has been hit and is now in a spot.

There is one good thing about all this….If you want a good home, we are going to be selling the few that are under construction at below the cost to build them! So you could come in and get a killer deal on what I still believe to be the best example of Eco-Urban housing anywhere in the world.

We hope to be able to resume construction soon on the remaining lots and are already seeing signs that the market has bottomed out and is leveling off. Inventory has been in steady decline for the past 5 months which is typically the precursor to a recovery. At least that is what has always happened in the past.

So that is the story of Good.

to be continued…

Levi

We recently had the idea of putting our current office space to better use and we have two choices: (1) to have two new tenants come into the space and share it with, or (2) Open up the space to many of you who value the ability to work alongside people with shared values to work in a green space — along with us and our friends at Green Sacramento — that encourages collaboration and creativity. And, let’s face it: the second option sounds like a lot more fun.

The co-working model is nothing new — okay, it’s pretty new — and we have mentioned what Citizen Space is doing before. When done correctly, a co-working space will “have many of the advantages of a coffee house environment (social, energetic, creative) without sacrificing the best elements of an office environment (productive and functional) and gives indie professional an affordable and collaborative environment to work in”.

Okay, we are a bit biased, but we really do think our workspace is one of the coolest in Midtown Sacramento. For those of you who haven’t visited, we are located in a 1930s brick warehouse with 20′ (ish) ceilings and brick walls that has a modern/industrial feel with concrete floors and hand-made steel desks and tables. No, this is not your father’s office space. There is a conference room (with a gigantic steel conference table) and a brainstorming room (basically, a smaller conference room) that will be available for our members. Our members would also be free to organize evening events in the space, for their clients, partners, etc.

We are looking to rent out desks (part-time and full-time) and entire personal offices, as well as offer low-cost memberships to the occasional user and stopper-by-er. The building has free wireless internet throughout (as well as hard-wired internet) and a ridiculously expensive fax/copy machine (don’t ask how much it cost) that members can use. We plan on having coffee and tea always available.

We aim to officially open in June, but will be accepting applications for membership before then for early-adopters (and will be giving the first passionate handful their first month free as we “beta” test the idea). The space is located at 1931 H Street. If you are interested, leave a comment, email Brandon at Brandon[at]LJUrban[dot]com, or call us at 916-930-9400 ext.0.

Should we do this? Do you want to share an eco-urban space with us? We would love to get your feedback. Our decision whether or not to move forward with this will in large part be determined by the level of interest we receive.

I was interviewed today by Tina Vasquez a writer who is working on a new website about home design. I am sure she is going to take the interview and turn it into an article but I liked her questions and had fun answering them so I thought I might share them with you here. Warning, there is a bit of a spoiler on our next announcement in the last question…

T.V. What are “eco-urbanists?”
L.B. We actually came up with the term in 2004. We were searching for a way to identify ourselves and our passion for both sustainability and urban living and finally landed on eco-urbanists.  An eco urbanist is someone who cares and decided its time to make a difference. Its someone who wants to lower their footprint on the earth but does not necessarily want to drive a vegetable oil powered Volvo.  They are people who realized that living out in the country consumes more energy and that cities are worth making better.

T.V. How did LJ Urban come to be?
L.B.Back when it all started in 2003 we were called Asante Homes. A development company who did land entitlement work out in the suburbs. But one day we woke up and saw that we did not like the end product. We were not proud of what we were creating and decided to come to the urban core. In doing so we needed to remake ourselves into a builder/developer. We wanted everything we built to be as sustainable environmentally as possible and found that we had to do everything ourselves to do it all right. LJ Urban was born and we are still striving today to do things the same way. [Read more →]

Ok we did it. After getting all the little bugs out and adding new layers to the LJ Urban site we are finally able to launch our new toy. What is that toy you say? Well hmm, should I tell you or let you guess a little longer?

It would be really fun to poll all of you and see if anyone comes up with the right answer on what it actually is we are doing. Or I can just tell you, that is easier.

Alright here goes, we believe that eco-urbanism is not just a mindset but a conversation. It’s a dance between people who are trying to learn how to be more eco conscience while embracing the community around them. We thought of many different ways to start more conversations, big eco parties, community websites, congressional bills, you know basically anything that got people thinking and we finally came up with something really basic and simple. Wear your beliefs. Yeah,  that’s it…we are making T Shirts so you can tell the world what you believe. It’s a way for all of the readers here on the blog in Topeka, Kansas or Little Rock Arkansas to get in on what LJ Urban is trying to do. Enough of you told us that you believed in what we were doing and wanted to see us in your city building houses (someday I promise) and we thought in the meantime it was best to give you a way to do something now.

[Read more →]

I received an email a few days ago from our insurance guy and wanted to share it here. This is one of the things that we have always been excited about with LJ Urban. You could call it the ripple effect or if you wanted to get fancy the domino effect. (OK lame attempt at humor there). Whatever you call it it’s part of what we are looking for and why we decided early on to Blog as part of our business. We want not only to change the world ourselves but inspire others to do the same. We believe that in the end our greatest contribution will not be that which we have accomplished ourselves but what we have caused others to do by opening them up to dream big.

Here it is..

Good morning Levi,

My name is Matt Byers and I work for Stonecrest Insurance (we currently handle your insurance for LJ Urban). I subscribed to the RSS Feed on your blog about a month ago and I have found it to be very intriguing. Since I have been reading it, I have become much more interested in sustainable building and your eco-urban approach. I am in the insurance business by trade, but I think that actually puts me in a unique position to contribute to what you and the other sustainable building developers are working on by learning more about your business and developing a program to specifically address your unique needs. I have been doing research on green building and sustainability, with an emphasis on the LEED program, and I am considering becoming LEED certified and developing a program to cater specifically to the green building community. I know you are very busy, but I was wondering if you would take the time to meet with me, at your convenience, to talk about the unique challenges facing your company and if there would be any value in having an insurance agent that was LEED certified.

Reading your blog has inspired me to try and be more aware and involved in the movement toward more sustainable building practices and I would truly appreciate any time you can spare to discuss what you and the other leaders in the industry are doing and how I can help.

Matt

We had a few seats open up today for the Saturday Eco-Urban 101 dinner. If you are interested email me at Levi(at)LJUrban(dot)com and I will get you in.

We have been having a great time at the dinners getting to know like minded people. It’s a good time to dig into what its going to take to get people thinking about making cities better.

I am a long time fan of Wikipedia, but I noticed something on there today that made me think of an idea.  There is no entry for LJ Urban…. But there should be… Right?   In the effort to not self promote I want to see if anyone out there wants to start a page and describe LJ Urban on Wikipedia.  More importantly I want someone to describe their understanding of Eco-Urbanism and our push towards its recognition and acceptance.  The more people understand the importance of living an urban sustainable lifestyle the better off the world will be.   Eco-Urban = Lower footprint, better quality of life, Less traffic more living.

Any takers?   And if you do make an entry come back here and comment about it so that others can go in and add their piece.

Levi

I sort of start talking fast when I talk about things that I am passionate about and the Good project is definitely one of those things. Here is a video we made about the Good project. We are going to have an open house on Wednesday from 11 – 3 and again Saturday from 12-4.

The big sales event day we have all been waiting for is finally going to happen on Saturday the 19th of July.  So far we have been telling people who want to buy that they have to wait for us to finish our final with the city and now that we have it all we are going to be moving forward! I can not begin to tell you how exciting this is for us…It’s a huge deal to finally be able to move people in to our Eco-Urban houses.

If you are interested in purchasing one just get a hold of me at 916-930-9400 and I will help you get all the paperwork in order to submit an offer on the 19th. We are not pre-selling the other lots, so all that will be available is the first phase and they will go quick so its up to you to be ready before hand.

Enjoy my fast talking…..

Levi

How cool would it be if we were to one day figure out how to build a fully sustainable fully off the grid home?  I know that the houses birds build are actually more sustainable than these are but Inhabitat has a fun post up today about building bird houses out of garbage.

On the flip side of that concept, Barbara who I met at the last Eco-Urban dinner sent me a book called Biomimicry and it is really neat.  I love the concept of looking at nature for cues on how to design and manufacture things in our lives. (Thanks Barbara!)

Levi