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Archive for the ‘Meteek News’ Category

IENE – the Infra Eco Network Europe

Posted October 25, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

Yes, but what is an IENE, you ask???

IENE is a biennal gathering of folks interested in mitigating the deleterious effects of infrastructure on the habitats we build it in and on.

And what does that mean???

We have built infrastructure--roads, railways, power transmission lines, pipelines--in a way that creates barriers to the daily, seasonal or breeding migration of all sorts of animals, including humans. The most obvious indication of the habitat infringement and fragmentation this creates is roadkill.

In areas without measures to assist in crossing infrastructure barriers, all kinds of animals are squashed daily, and nightly, from beetles, snakes and turtles to deer, herons and bats. Less obviously, some animals stop attempting to cross these barriers, and the resulting land for daily foraging, and for seasonal mating, gets systematically diminished as we build more roads and develop more residential and industrial areas.

This year the IENE conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, and included presentations, posters and field trips. The images below are from a bus trip to view various sites that are part of an ecological network in the state of Brandenburg, including a just-completed wildlife overpass on the A9 with establishing vegetation and motion-activated video cameras powered by solar panels.

Conference attendees include biologists, highway engineers, ecologists, designers and project managers interested in creating robust ecological habitats in the midst of infrastructures that fragment the landscape. Folks came from all over Europe, as well as countries in Asia, South America, and North America, to discuss research, strategies and projects.

Cynthia presented two posters, one on the class she teaches in the Netherlands about water, ecology and infrastructure to emerging professionals, and one about an ongoing documentation of a site where a habitat corridor is planned near Almere, also in the Netherlands.

Meteek hopes to spport and participate in projects that reconnect our fragmented habitats, for other animals and for humans.

There is a complementary biennial conference in North America, ICOET, which was held in Duluth in 2009. At that conference, filmmaker Eric Bendick showed his award-winning documentary "Division Street," on how roads can fragment habitat and featuring projects that are mitigating these effects in Florida, Montana and Canada.

Here is the trailer for Division Street:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPnUu84osE?wmode=transparent]

The Chickens’ New Home

Posted October 12, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

Our first snowfall was the perfect portend to our chickens' move into their new fully-functional coop.

While our Icelandic chickens were faring well in the open "tractor" coop that was generously leant to us in conjunction with the chickens' arrival into our lives, they need an enclosed coop to take them through the winter.

Team Meteek was up to the challenge, and put together an ingenious design of passive light (fiberglass panels) and passive solar heat gained on the south side of our shop.

We constructed the coop with lumber on-hand and reused various materials left over from other projects. The coop includes a run, where the chickens can hunt and peck outside on warm days.

Two chickens do not quite make a flock--we hope to add a few hens to increse their number. And next summer we'll build a new "chicken tractor," a mobile coop we can move around on our front meadow, where they can forage for insects, mice, and other tasty morsels...

Hanging Out with Tracy Metz

Posted October 5, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

We had a thrilling weeked in Minneapolis with Tracy Metz and her husband Baptist Brayé. We toured architectural and cultural highlights and had engaging conversation with some UMN Landscape Architecture faculty.

At the Guthrie Theater, Mill City Museum and Minneapolis Library

Meeting with Vince deBritto and Jamuna Golden, instructors from the UMN Department of Landscape Architecture:

On Monday we sat in on second- and third-year Graduate Design studios from the Landscape Architecture and Architecture programs.

Visiting Matt Tucker's second year Graduate Design studio

and a combined Architecture and Landscape Architecture third year Graduate Design studio

Tracy's lecture Monday evening in Rapson Hall was intriguing and well-attended, with many good questions from a broad audience of students, pracitioners and general community members.

You can view Tracy's lecture here
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYP93Chb8js?wmode=transparent]

We observed many conversations and ideas surfacing through Tracy's direct contact with faculty and students, as well as discussion about the broader issues addressed by her talk and book, Sweet&Salt. It was a pleasure to host her visit, and partner with the organizations that made her Minnesota visit possible!

Tracy Metz in Minneapolis!

Posted September 28, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

Tracy Metz is a writer, cultural critic, US-expat in Amsterdam, Harvard Loeb Fellow, world citizen, engaging and generous person, and a friend of Meteek & Co.

This Monday, October 1 at 6:00 pm in Rapson Hall on the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus, Tracy Metz will give a lecture about her book, "Sweet&Salt: Water and the Dutch." There will be a reception and book signing afterwards.

"Sweet&Salt", co-authored with Maartje van den Huevel and published by NAi, is a combination of inspiring essays and dramatic pieces of art from the history and future of the Dutch relationship to water.Her lecture is part of the "Next Generation of Parks" series supported by the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, ASLA-MN and the Walker Art Center. These partners, along with the University of Minnesota's Landscape Architecture program and Meteek & Co., have gotten together to sponsor Tracy's lecture and visit.

Here are some pages from the book:

Go to the lecture Monday night in Minneapolis, or let someone there know about it who would be interested!

Below are a bunch of links to more information and a book review:

Announcements:
https://events.umn.edu/Sweet-and-Salt-Water-and-the-Dutch-021698.htm

http://mplsparksfoundation.org/2012/09/26/design-qa-preview-mondays-sweet-sal...

Design Q&A:
http://mplsparksfoundation.org/2012/09/11/event-next-generation-of-parks-mond...

Book Review:
http://blogs.gsd.harvard.edu/loeb-fellows/water-is-their-frenemy/

Duluth Graduate Design Studio

Posted September 26, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

How does Duluth create more resilient physical, economic and social infrastructures? What might Duluth need in the next 20, 50 or 100 years? These are a few of the complex questions a group of graduate students from the UMN Minneapolis campus will address this semsester as they use Duluth as their design focus.

We hosted the group of 36 students and three instructors from Landscape Architecture and Architecture during their three-day visit of the city and environs. They toured the landscape and structure of the city, and heard presentations from the Port Authority, city officials including Mayor Don Ness, UMD campus planning, and about the underlying geomorphology of the area.

The students have much to think about for their upcoming analysis of Duluth. This information will then be used in teams on selected projects and sites within Duluth, culminating in design presentations at the end of the semester. We are looking forward to seeing what they create!

Thanks to all the presenters and folks who assisted in organizing the visit. At the City: Mayor Don Ness, Jessica Tillman, Chris Kleist, DyAnn Andybur, Chuck Froseth, Steven Robertson, Pakou Ly. At the Port Authority, Ron Johnson and Adele Yorde. At UMD, John Rashid, John Green, Erik Brown and Christine Strom.

Circle Touring

Posted September 17, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

We were excited to host three cyclists from Western Michigan on day 7 of their Lake Superior Circle Tour. Tara, Jill and Emma are braving the chilly autumn temperatures of the North Shore and plan to complete their trip in a couple more weeks.

Duluth is conveniently located at the "corner" of Lake Superior, where the South Shore (sandy and flat) and the North Shore (rocky and hilly) meet. Having started in Marquette, Michigan, they will be trading headwinds for hills as they ride up Highway 61 towards Thunder Bay and beyond. For Jill and Tara, this is their second lake circle tour--they rode around Lake Michigan last year, and plan to do Ontario next. After all the Great Lakes, they plan to ride the Continental Divide trail--a very impressive itinerary.

Stay superstrengthified and power to the pedal! Good luck and ride safe!

The bike shop where Jill works: http://www.adabike.com/

The bike shop where Tara works: http://centraldcyclery.com/
and updates about their trip: http://www.facebook.com/centraldcyclery

Emma writes for this magazine: http://www.grmag.com/home.htm

The Chickens Have Landed

Posted September 14, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

People say that in Duluth everyone knows everyone. Sometimes even everyone knows that you need chickens.

Andrea and Jim, local chicken enablers, stopped by Meteek today to drop off a couple of chickens for us. They hatched an extra rooster and knew they wouldn't keep him, and since he was such good friends with Matilde, they came as a pair.

We didn't know Andrea and Jim were bringing them over. We didn't know they had an extra rooster. We didn't even know that Andrea and Jim kept chickens. But they heard we had been thinking about getting chickens. Someday. And someday is today.

We also found out that not only do chickens eat tomatoes, they also eat mice. We put Kazoo and Matilde out in the meadow in the chicken tractor that Andrea and Jim conveniently brought over for us. Kazoo found a mouse, Matilde took it from him and body-bocked him for about five minutes, then Kazoo got it back. Two pecks and a gulp, and it was down the gullet. Perhaps this is why the CSI shows are so popular--not enough people have their own chickens to watch.

[wpvideo RmiGZkqs]

https://vimeo.com/49477331

DuluthTraverse at Clyde Iron

Posted September 13, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

COGGS (Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores) hosted a great event at Clyde Iron tonight about the Duluth Traverse trail system.

The meeting was an update on the project, opened by Mayor Ness on a rousing note. COGGS chair Adam Sundberg, Environmental Scientist Kit Grayson, IMBA representative Hansi Johnson and Duluth coordinator of trees, trails, and volunteers Judy Gibbs presented some great information on the background of the project, the current state of funding, state of the environmental assessment process, and a construction schedule for next year. It was a great use of the event space at Clyde Iron, and their huge screen.

The Duluth Traverse is an awesome vison of a all-levels multi-use connecting trail ranging from Jay Cooke State Park to the Lester River. Other bike and multi-use trails will be constructed within the system, and potentially, other municipalities will link in to the system later on.

It is obvious that thousands of hours have gone into brining the project to this point. Nice work to all who have co-created this vision and are bringing it into reality! Can't wait to use it, and assist in maintaining the trail system!

Gravity Wins

Posted September 7, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

Back in October last year, we installed a new sign in front of the shop with a technique that printed on a sustrate that was then bonded to glass. We heard great things about the technique so thought we'd try it out in Duluth.

A couple months into the test, we noticed some discoloration in the white areas of the sign. Some browning was happening, but structurally it looked o.k.

This Spring we noticed some areas starting to delaminate, where the printed substrate was pulling away from the glass. Last week the sign disappeared--clear glass was all you could see. The printed substrate had completely separated from the glass. Gravity wins!

We will be looking for more robust methods of printing on glass when we travel next month to Glasstec, the biannual global trade show for all things glass in Düsseldorf, Germany.

We Know Choo Choo Bob’s Dad

Posted August 31, 2012 by Cynthia Lapp

Really, we do--Choo Choo Bob's dad is Mitch Heyn, our long-time Crystal cabinetry rep. We have liked working with Crystal through the years because they make good stuff, and they seem to keep wanting to innovate--for the employees who build their cabinets and the customers who buy them.

One of the things Crystal offers is a full line of "green" options--FSC certified woods and all-plywood or solid wood construction. In addition, the plywood they do use has no added urea formaldehyde, and a bonding agent made from mussles and soy that is highly resistent to water.

And we like working with Mitch because he's always got a good spin on things. Which must have rubbed off on the kids--if you don't know who Choo Choo Bob is, check him out here! http://choochoobobs.com

And to wrap up an odd string of transportation-related affiliations, we were treated to another classy American vehicle this week when Jay Hanson from Superior Scuba stopped by for some cable and swage work with his Victory motorcycle. Swanky wheels are in style. Jay is gearing up to work with National Geographic up at Isle Royale--safe diving Jay!

4218 Enterprise Circle,
Duluth, MN
55811

tel: 218-722-7599
email: randy@meteek.com

MN Builders License: #1486