Site Work Begins...The Good Friday Surprise

While this project has been one twist and turn after another, we were hoping that once construction actually began it would finally be “full steam ahead.” However, only into the second day of earthwork we hit what we’ve come to call “Our Good Friday Surprise.”

We “unofficially” broke ground on the construction phase of the project on March 29th. First on site was the grading crew to remove a section of the commercial grade retaining wall left by an earlier owner but that we wished to build into our house plan. The concept seemed simple enough. We would pull out a small section of the wall (cinder block, filled with concrete and re-bar) and dig footers with a below-grade section of the Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) to follow. These would then link the garage – below the wall – to the crawl space at ground level.

The grading crew found that their equipment was little match for the wall. They ended up digging the desired section completely out and then cutting it before achieving success. That gave us a greater degree of confidence that the remainder of the wall, which would form the inside wall of our garage and be a support to a major section of the house, would actually stand the test of time.

Early Good Friday morning as the crew was digging its last section for footings, they uncovered what appeared to be a buried portion of the earlier home. Getting a call to meet your builder at the site because the grading crew has “uncovered a problem” is not the most pleasant of news for a planned day off.

Getting to the site, before builder Keith Rodgers arrived, I looked over the site several times with the crew. Finally, I asked Brian, the equipment operator to go ahead and dig a bit deeper. When he did we discovered several pieces of black plastic drain pipe – obviously something that hadn’t been a part of an early 19th century home. Thus, we learned that when the site had been filled previously, someone had deposited an unknown amount of construction waste and then conveniently covered it with about eighteen inches of dirt.

While waiting for Keith, I asked Randy Hensley, the grading company owner, what he thought the chances were that the waste was limited. He wisely surmised that we’d never know until they dug further. After turning this new challenge over in my mind a few times, I asked what he thought about just taking all of the dirt out and putting in a basement as opposed to stopping with a crawl space – there goes the financial meter spinning again!!

He allowed as how that’s what he’d probably do if he were in my shoes. At least then we’d know the extent of the problem and be assured that we’d gotten the footings on solid ground.

When Keith finally arrived, I shared the idea (at my cost of course) of just making lemonade out of the lemons and going with a basement. He too agreed that such was probably the best option given the unknowns.

Here we are in the first couple of days of plan execution and we’ve already made a major change – going from a simple crawl space with limited dirt to be moved, to a big shift with other issues to follow. Little did I know that such a simple decision would then lead to the dilemma of what to do with perhaps 350-400 cubic yards of now excess dirt. The Good Friday surprise was followed by a stressful Monday as we tried to find an economically viable option for moving the dirt. From a point where we’d first been concerned about having to haul additional fill into the site we now had dirt coming out our ears.

The saga continued. I had a client who needed the dirt on a site less than two miles from the project. However, their permit to store dirt on the site had expired and would take days or weeks to clarify. The gentleman who was going to haul the dirt for my client said he’d be happy to use it on his farm some 17 miles away. But, with that distance he’d only get 4 loads daily and thus we’d be hauling and keeping a crew on site for perhaps a week. Not an economic option.

A major interstate reconstruction project less than a quarter-mile away offered another option. Yet, when the “Dirt Superintendent” (big companies have lots of layers) explored our offering, he said there was too much debris in our dirt for his standards. Our dirt, while good, was just “too dirty” for his project.

Likewise, a remodeling project just three buildings up the street was in need of the dirt…in about two to six weeks. No help there.

A quick call to our partners at the City. The City of Greenville had a spot not three-hundred yards from our project where they desperately needed the dirt…yet a pending lawsuit between a neighboring owner and the SC Department of Transportation clouded our ability to cross the owner’s property for fear that such might negate the landowner’s claim or bring us – me and the City – into the lawsuit (just what I needed). By the time they did find a spot that we could take the dirt, some three miles away (good considering the 17 mile option), we decided to just do what we could to dig the foundation and store the dirt on site and see what we’d have to move later.

The stress subsided only to be re-stirred a bit later when we found that the amount of waste in the site was relatively small and that we could have likely done what we needed to for the crawl space fairly easily. But that’s hindsight. We now had an excavated basement and mounds of red dirt everywhere.

Off to such a great start!

Wresting Control from Foreign Invaders

Sometimes by plan and other by circumstance we have drastically changed the face of America’s natural occupants. We’d not only displaced plants and animals with our development, but we’ve further degraded natural ecosystems by introducing exotics.

When we first acquired these properties in mid-2003 they had been abandoned for many years. The original home site (now to support Upstate House) and the adjoining virgin lot (the planned Woodland Garden) were dense vegetative mats of underbrush, vines and growth of all kinds – many unfriendly, such as the all-too-native poison ivy that in some places was of near commercial size. Carlton Owen spent the better part of two months using late summer evening light and weekends to clear the downed limbs, poison ivy stands and the vicious patches of wait-a-minute vine – Smilax sp.

But that’s just the beginning of the story. This property, like many others in the U.S., boasts a long list of exotic species – some brought intentionally by former property owners; others that have just hitched their way aboard. Before we could begin any serious efforts to restore native vegetation we would have to remove exotic vegetation – the dominate vegetation in both the mid-story and under-story of both properties.

Many are beginning to realize the impact that exotic animals and plants are having on native ecosystems. To understand the magnitude of the problem we need only look to birdlife in our cities to see pigeons, English house sparrows and starlings as the most common of all birds or to our yards where English ivy, periwinkle and Japanese privet thrive. All are highly competitive species that were introduced either intentionally or unintentionally.

The Upstate House and Woodland Garden are poster sites for invasive exotics. In fact if we had conducted a scavenger hunt for species on the South Carolina list of Invasive plants (http://swcs.tripod.com/invasiveplants.htm) we would have had a great start without going anywhere else. Of the 61 plants (trees, vines, shrubs, grasses and herbs) on the list, our site held 13 at first count. Below is a listing of species found on the site thus far, noted by their type and threat category.

Trees
Significant Threat:
Ailanthus altissima, Tree-of-Heaven

Shrubs
Severe Threat:
Ligustrum japonicum, Japanese Privet
Rosa multiflora, Multiflora Rose

Significant Threat:
Mahonia bealei, Leatherleaf Mahonia
Nandina domestica, Nadina or Sacred Bamboo

Vines
Severe Threat:
Lonicera japonica, Japanese Honeysuckle
Pueraria lobata, Kudzu
Wisteria sinensis, Chinese Wisteria

Significant Threat:
Hedera helix, English Ivy

Grasses, sedges
Significant Threat:
Phyllostachys aurea, Bamboo

Herbs
Watch:
Liriope muscari, Liriope or Monkey Grass
Vinca minor, Common Periwinkle

Other Exotics Abound
While bamboo, common periwinkle, wisteria and kudzu were among the most common of undesirables, there were a number of other significant plants that were not on the invasive exotic lists but perhaps should be.

Chinese mulberry, a tree that is causing such severe allergy problems in Pakistan that the government there has dictated their removal in all cases except where grown in plantations for commercial purposes, is common in the mid-story. The tree produces a white or near colorless berry similar in appearance to our native, and more tasty, relative. Japanese buckwheat, a prolific plant grew in dense stands on sunny portion of the property with other stands along nearby Richland Creek. Scattered specimens of Yucca sp. from the southwestern U.S. and money plant (Lunaria annua) noted for its beautiful purple flowers and attractive “silver dollar” seedpod are also present.

The Plan of Attack
Our first goal will be to remove some of the more invasive of species – those that threaten to continue their spread. Among the first targets are Tree-of-Heaven, bamboo, kudzu, periwinkle and monkey grass. It will likely take a couple of years or more to completely eradicate undesirable species from the site and slowly implement our restoration strategy.

Working with Nature for Tree Preservation

Among our first challenges in working with two city neighborhood properties was to protect the best of the native vegetation on the site and then develop a plan to restore ecological balance going forward. We set as a goal “to protect all native, mature trees of significance, remove exotic vegetation and promote the growth of native trees, shrubs and plants.”

Prior to any construction we conducted a complete inventory of all canopy and most mid-story trees. Foresters with the Pinnacle Consulting Group (http://www.pincongrp.com/) conducted the inventory and developed appropriate site maps. This inventory was then transferred to Arborist Scott Carlson of Schneider Tree Care (http://www.schneidertree.com/) for implementation.

Guidelines for Our Tree Conservation Plan
We developed the outlines of a “tree conservation plan” based upon the following:

– In the main construction zone – an area previously occupied by a structure – there were neither any canopy trees nor native trees.

– Initial site work necessitated the removal of a half-dozen Chinese mulberry and Tree-of-Heaven mid-story trees all of which would have been removed as exotics even if not required for construction.

– Special emphasis will be placed on retaining two oaks (one red; one water) of exceptional size and character – nearly three-feet in diameter. No work will occur in the root zones. Both trees will be pruned to remove overhanging limbs that will threaten the house and to remove dead or diseased limbs.

– The only native trees planned for removal from the site are three mid-story sycamores which are ill formed and in an undesirable location.

– Emphasis will be placed on removing Chinese mulberry and Tree-of-Heaven from throughout the site. After construction is complete, several oaks or other deciduous hardwoods will be planted in an area that currently contains no trees so as to offer summer shading on the south aspect of the house.

Submitting the Plan for Certification
As an option under the EarthCraft House standard, we chose to seek certification of our tree conservation plan with the National Association of Home Builder’s “Building With Trees” program. The program is administered by the National Arbor Day Foundation (http://www.arborday.org/). The builder signed an application completed by our arborist who then submitted the tree conservation plan and application.

From a Single House to a Building Movement

What began as a plan to build a single home evolved into a concept to form a partnership in hopes of having broader impacts on the building community and the environment. In a model for economic and environmental progress, Upstate Forever reached out to the area's Homebuilders to extend the idea’s potential. … read more …

Only in looking back can one see that delays often happen for a reason. If we had been able to jump right on our original plan of building a more environmentally friendly house in 2000, that likely would have been the end of the story -- a single house. As it would happen when we resurrected the idea in the early spring of 2003 some other things were in the works that led us to dramatically expand the vision.

On September 16, 2003, Upstate Forever co-sponsored a conference on “Affordable Housing” with the Home Builders Association of Greenville. One of the speakers at the conference was Jim Hackler of Southface Institute in Atlanta, co-sponsor with the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association in the EarthCraft House (www.earthcrafthouse.org) program. We were so impressed with what we learned about a successful green building standard with more than three years of track record that we decided to make a “field trip” to Atlanta to meet with the folks at Southface.

Upstate Forever rented a van and we took an eclectic group to Atlanta for a day. Among the participants were Brad Wyche and Diane Eldridge of the Upstate Forever staff; Scott Johnston of Johnston Design Group; Mitch Harvey of Greer Builders Supply; two Upstate Forever members, Bill & Mary West; Tom Kester of the Upstate Forever Board and Carlton Owen. After meeting with the Southface folks at their offices in Atlanta we visited several residential construction projects with green components. Among them were a number of EarthCraft certified houses of all price ranges from entry-level to a home that Ted Turner’s Captain Planet Foundation built. The latter “had it all” – traditional, solar and geothermal energy; rainwater harvesting systems and the top-of-the-line of everything. In the “small world” category, 'the owner of that home – Sona Chambers – formerly with Captain Planet Foundation later came to work with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (www.nfwf.org) where I serve as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The Atlanta trip solidified the vision that EarthCraft House provided the perfect building concept for Upstate House. Too, the fact that it followed close on the heels of the first joint-effort between Upstate Forever and the Home Builders Association of Greenville (HBAG) offered another opportunity. What if we could get the Home Builders to partner in Upstate House? Could we also get them on-board for the broader EarthCraft House concept?

We quickly followed our Atlanta visit with a call and visit to Eston Rodgers, HBAG’s CEO. Eston was very supportive of the idea of pitching the Upstate House/EarthCraft House concept to his Executive Committee and Board of Directors. After a number of “staff-to-staff” meetings, Eston arranged for Carlton Owen to meet with the HBAG Board of Directors in December of 2003. Owen’s presentation entitled, “Reaching New Markets Through Environmentally Sensitive Building: Doing Well by Doing Good,” pointed to the potential for all involved -- conservationists as well as business interests – to gain from cooperation. That session followed by many months of meetings and a “road trip” by some of the homebuilders to meet with their peers in Atlanta, finally led to HBAG and Upstate Forever signing a partnership agreement. This time, there would be formal participation in Upstate House with financial gains – the difference between what the Owen’s would pay for the completed house and the value of donations of materials and services going 40% to support the general purposes of Upstate Forever and 60% being used as an education/promotion fund for the EarthCraft House standard in the Upstate.

This unlikely partnership – a non-profit group promoting sensible growth & protection of special places and a local homebuilders association – offers perhaps the greatest hope for addressing the myriad of environmental challenges facing our global society. The potential is unlimited when diverse interests team to address common issues.

Finding the Right Site

One would think that finding a small building site on a “recycled” lot near the urban center of a fairly large city wouldn’t be much of an issue. Yet, like every other aspect of this project, finding that site proved to be time consuming and a journey with many turns. … read more …

As the house was to serve as my family’s home and my professional office, I set about finding a suitable site. We started with an aerial photograph of downtown Greenville and concentric circles that reached out from Main Street in ¼ and 1/2 mile increments. The plan was to stay within one-mile of the center of town if at all possible. The idea was to provide something that would be easily accessible and visible to the downtown market and for my wife and I to experience new urban living. (I must admit here that the desire to move closer to the city, while accepted by my spouse, wasn’t something that she shared with bubbling enthusiasm. Her vision was more along the lines of a log cabin on 40 acres somewhere in the mountains).

We looked at Hampton-Pinkney, the Augusta Road area, Haynie-Sirrine and Stone Avenue – all older neighborhoods that were either experiencing or on the verge of revitalization. We finally set our sights on something that would abut or be very close to Cleveland Park – Greenville’s oldest and largest city park at more than 120 acres. (With walking my passion, to give-up the nearly five miles of jogging trails in River Walk near Simpsonville, I wanted to replace that with something in-kind).

We found ourselves learning a great deal about Greenville as we spent avialable evenings and afternoons just driving through various neighborhoods looking for a suitable open property or even a lot with a structure that could be removed.

Two sites topped the list – one an open lot on Ridgeland Drive (the owner wouldn’t sell) and another on Hope Street that contained a condemned house (even if the owner would sell, the price for the lot was almost one-half of what we had hoped to invest in the entire project -- lot AND house.) Finally, we came across a property on the lower end of Pettigru Street near its former intersection with Stone Avenue.

A Site That Had it All
The Pettigru Street site met not only our initial search criteria but it also offered the chance to build on several other attributes:

1. The lot was well within a mile of the heart of downtown;
2. It was on a “recycled lot” – one that had supported a home many years before;
3. It sat on a ridge overlooking Richland Creek, a major tributary to the Reedy River and a “finger” of Cleveland Park;
4. It adjoined an open lot – the only virgin lot in the entire Pettigru District;
5. The open lot adjoined a never-used city street easement that hosted a hidden and totally overgrown access trail to Cleveland Park and a footbridge crossing Richland Creek;
6. The City had just begun to cul-de-sac the lower end of Pettigru, drastically reducing the amount of truck and car traffic; and
7. While the Pettigru Historic District had seen many rehabilitation projects, this particular section was among the most needy for further positive investment.

With the help of Tommy Wyche and his not-for-profit, Naturaland Trust, we were able to purchase not only the planned building lot, but the adjacent open lot, as well. The vision (as it continued to evolve) was to build on the previously used lot – this would avoid new sewer impact fees and would take advantage of previous site work. Then we’d place a conservation easement on the open lot and turn it into a native plant woodland garden. These plans, along with rehabilitation of the trail access that would create a new auxiliary entrance to Cleveland Park, would add another jewel in the greenway corridor emerging along Upstate South Carolina's Reedy River.

A Journey Begins With a Simple Vision

What began as a simple decision by one family desiring to “downsize” and demonstrate a more environmentally friendly lifestyle launched a five-plus-year journey that morphed into an alliance between unlikely partners, led to South Carolina’s adoption of a green building standard and yielded a unique and complex fund-raising project that includes local government, business and multi-national corporations. … read more …


In “The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day,” John Maxwell speaks of the ability for leaders to see “their destination, … understand what it will take to get there, know who they’ll need on the team to be successful, and recognize the obstacles long before they appear.” What a picture of leadership! Yet, that's not how this venture began.

The idea behind what has become known as Upstate House had very modest beginnings. It stemmed from some middle-aged thoughts about an approaching empty nest, a desire to simplify life and to put into action many of the concepts and commitments that are part of professional life as a forester and wildlife biologist. Those thoughts took premature flight in early 2000 when at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the newly chartered not-for-profit, Upstate Forever (www.upstateforever.org) , I suggested that we consider a demonstration project that would help others to understand our concepts of “sensible growth” and sustainable development and perhaps provide a unique fundraising opportunity for the fledgling organization. I even boldly stated my interest in being the guinea pig for the project thus taking away the biggest obstacle for any such project – a financial backer.

As Ecclesiastes states' and my life has so often taught, “there is a time and a season for everything.” The spring of 2000 wasn’t to be the time nor would it be the season for me demonstrate anything except patience in the face of change. Less than 60 days after beginning to think through how such a project might be done, my life was turned upside down by a hostile corporate takeover. From what appeared to be a relatively successful life as a Vice President with a Fortune 500 company, I quickly moved to uncertainty and finally self-inflicted unemployment when I chose not to accept a position with my new employer.

As I tried to get my working life back together the idea of a green demonstration house moved to the back burner, or more aptly, cold storage. There it stayed for two years until two others decided to resurrect the idea. Then came that fateful call when Brad Wyche, Upstate Forever’s Executive Director suggested I join a meeting that he was having with Scott Johnston, principal of Johnston Design Group, and Mark Augspurger, a partner with Pinnacle Consulting Group. Once there I learned that these gentlemen wished to pursue the idea of a green demonstration home ... yet they were lacking one simple element – someone to shoulder the bulk of the financial load. I recall saying, “And I’ve been invited to this meeting to what end?”

The concept was once again alive. We extended the group to include marketing expertise to help think through how to ensure that the project could have some educational and broader market impact. Then we tabbed a builder who was working in the “in-fill” market. In each case we asked those involved to share their time and talent pro-bono for the greater cause.

After a flurry of meetings we agreed on some broad concepts:

1. The project would be called “Upstate House” with a goal of “demonstrating environmentally friendly living;”
2. We’d look for an in-fill building site to highlight the gains from taking advantage of existing infrastructure and services and avoiding further sprawl; and
3. We’d develop a design that would help point the way to a more cost effective, energy efficient future.