Spring 2022 Update

Greetings all…I hope this finds you all well and healthy. I wanted to update you on a few exciting things in our world.

New High Performance Homes

We are excited to announce that we designed and built 2 new High Performance homes this past year. Both will be featured in Sustainable Connections 2022 Green Home Tour and both feature super insulated high efficiency exterior walls, cutting edge heating/cooling systems and universal interior design to insure they are around for a very, very long time. You can read more about them here.

 

Net-Positive Faswall and Structural Insulated Panel Home

 

Some Additions to our Readerboard

It became clear to us after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests regarding continuing inequality and marginalization of so many parts of our community, that we needed to make it clear where we stood as a coop and as a business in this community. We want all to know they are welcome in our office and we especially want those in our community that have felt oppression, bigotry, and violence to know it is safe here. We have no tolerance for words or actions that originate in hate, white supremacy, or systemic racism.

 
 
 

Community Partnerships

Bellingham Public Schools
We are happy to have been a Community Partner with the Bellingham Public Schools and the Family Resource Center for the past 2 years. We received a surprise award this last month for some past projects. You can read about it here.

 
 

Whatcom Million Trees Project
Every project we do requires wood. We are continually challenging ourselves to find alternatives, or use less or repurpose, or find suppliers that do things with a small and sustainable footprint, and while this is worth the effort, I cannot get away from the idea that what we do, in its current form, is simply NOT sustainable. Once I arrived at that conclusion, my thinking about sustainability in the built environment changed and I realized that everything we do has to originate from a place of stewardship. We must be ever more responsible with our use of building materials in all their forms.

To this end, we have decided to partner with Whatcom Million Trees Project to offset the use of wood in all future projects. Starting in January of this year we will be offsetting 100% of the construction wood used in our projects by funding the planting of trees locally with WMTP.

Unlike construction timber, the trees will not be harvested and will continue to grow in protected local forests to provide numerous benefits such as cleaning our water/air, capturing carbon from the atmosphere, improving local habitat, and enhancing the health & resilience of our local community.

Upcoming Volunteer Projects

It was our intention when we formed a worker-owned cooperative, to contribute 10% of our net proceeds to community organizations and activities. We are happy to report that since July of 2017 we have exceeded that amount every year. Going into 2022, we have several volunteer projects lined up:

  • We have designed and will be building wooden bed frames for the Bellingham Public Schools Family Resource Center in the spring.

  • We will be working this summer with the new Alderwood school to design and build a garden facility and outdoor learning area for the staff and students.

  • We will be designing and building boardwalks and interpretive signage with the Whatcom Million Trees Project in the coming 2 years.

  • We plan to finish the design and begin construction of Project ZeNETH for the W.W.U. Institute for Energy Studies.

We welcome community members and clients to help us with these community projects. If you would like to be informed of work parties and or installation dates, please let me know at patrick@a1designbuild.coop

Many Thanks

To our many clients and local partners, employees, vendors, and specialty trades…we are so grateful to you all.

  • Thank you for sticking with us over the last 2 years

  • Thank you for believing in our coop as an alternative business model

  • Thanks for your hard work and bravery in such uncertain and scary times

  • Thank you for welcoming us into your homes

  • and thank you so much for appreciating and honoring our craft…it is so dear and important to every member of our team.

Patrick Martin