Spring 2008

Earth Day is just around the corner.  Allen Associates will be participating in a number of local Earth Day events.  Learn more about these events below.  We hope to see you at one of them!

Green Building Workshops Scheduled for Goleta and Ventura in April
Thinking about remodeling your home or building a new one?

Allen Associates held two very successful green building workshops in February.  We were happy to see 45 people attend our first workshop in Los Olivos and another 35 people attend our workshop in Ventura.  Participants included architects, interior designers, suppliers, existing Allen Associate clients, and those looking to remodel their existing home or build a new one.  Two more workshops are scheduled in April:

• April 17: 7 - 9 p.m. at the Goleta Valley Library, 500 N. Fairview
• April 22: 7 - 9 p.m. at the E.P. Foster Library, 651 E. Main in Ventura

Both workshops will talk about specific green options when building or remodeling by examining what was done on recent green projects.  Come learn how these homes are energy misers, water misers, and have saved their owners money. 

The Goleta workshop will showcase a recently completed green home remodel on Berkeley Avenue.  This remodel opened the kitchen, dining and living rooms to each other.  In order to create a secondary living space for the owner’s daughter, who is moving into the home to care for her mother as she ages, the remodel also added a new 5th bedroom and 3rd bathroom. Working together with their architect and us, their builder, these owners were able to achieve their dream of creating an exemplary green home.  The homeowner and project architect will also be on hand to answer questions.  As a result of the extensive “greenness” of this home, it will be featured on The Discovery Channel’s “Greenovate” television show in Summer 2008.

The Ventura workshop will showcase two green projects - a new home constructed with SIPS framing in Santa Paula and the whole house remodel of a beach house in the Pierpont Lanes area of Ventura.

Workshop sponsors:

Ventura to Celebrate Earth Day with a Green Home & Garden Tour on April 19
Come visit an Allen Associates Project on the Tour

Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, the Midtown Community Group is sponsoring their first Green Home and Garden Tour.  Tickets for the event are $10 and will allow you to visit seven green homes and gardens in Ventura.  Tickets can be purchased on the day of the event at the Earth Day Expo at the Sanjon Maintenance Yard, 336 Sanjon Road, or prior to the event at Arketype Architects Inc., 275 S. San Clemente St., Cafe Racer, 2016 E. Main St., and KB Cards & Gifts, 2415 E. Main St.

Homes on the tour, including one built by Allen Associates, are:  a recently built modern hillside home using extensive green practices; a home that has been remodeled to add a second story; a home with a roof deck addition; a home with expanded rooms and many new green retrofits; and, a home almost completely redesigned and remodeled using green building practices.  Two other homes are on the tour for their gardens.

Click here to learn more.

Santa Barbara's Earth Day to Help People Reduce Their Ecological Footprint
Come Visit the Allen Associates' Booth and Learn How Improving Your Home's Performance Can Reduce Your Ecological Footprint

The Community Environmental Council presents the South Coast Earth Day Festival on Sunday, April 20 at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens. The 2008 Earth Day Festival theme is "Reduce your Eco-Footprint." At the festival, follow the footsteps to the eco-footprint tent where volunteers from The Sustainability Project will help you measure your demand on the Earth using a bank of solar-powered computers. Experts will then help you create a personal plan for enhancing your quality of life while treading more lightly upon the planet.

Allen Associates’ booth will feature ways that you can reduce your ecological footprint by improving your home’s energy performance.  These simple, cost effective measures will also make your home more comfortable while reducing your utility bills. 

For information on the South Coast Earth Day festival, visit www.SBEarthDay.org
For information on taking the bus for free to Earth Day, visit www.SantaBarbaraCarFree.org

We look forward to seeing you in April at one of our green building workshops or at an Earth Day event in Ventura, Santa Barbara or Goleta.