parkco.net
06 May 2007
Big Show
09 May 2007, 03:07 PM Filed in: parkco news
The AIA Expo In San Antonio was unbelievably huge. We had allocated about four hours to tour all of the booths. In the first four hours, we had covered about a third of the show. The photo shows one of the three main rooms of the expo. We took brochures from hundreds of exhibitors on materials and equipment. It was a conspicuous overload of information, but very helpful.
One thing that occurred to all three of us was how resource intensive this whole show was. There was an incredible amount of energy and materials invested in transportation, setup, and display. Some of it was noble - we learned a lot about sustainable materials, but some of it was a bunch of the same old stuff.
I'll make posts and references to some of the interesting things we picked up very soon. Each exhibitor swiped our cards for our info. We'll be receiving email and product literature over the next couple of weeks. I'll share as it comes in.
24,000 Architects and Al Gore
07 May 2007, 09:34 PM Filed in: parkco news
We're back from the convention and exhausted. We're fired-up too.
We were told that there were 24,000 in attendance - I'm sure they weren't all architects, but that's a lot of folks. There was an enormous emphasis on the crisis of global warming throughout the entire convention. The closing speaker of the final General Session was Al Gore. He was great - incredibly funny and inspiring. The news is pretty bad, of course. Lots of melting ice and carbon dioxide. Buildings contribute somewhere around 40% to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It's up to architects to find an implement better ways of building. That is an unbelievable challenge. Look for some changes from us in the near future. Also, check out our 'green' page for some ideas that you can implement on a daily basis. We can choose to fail or act to make a difference. Here's the link to the AIA's article about Al Gore's Address.