Page 74 - Green Builder Jan-Feb 2022 Issue

TAILGATE

New Offerings for the Sustainable Minded

Make Way

for Miracles

Ron Jones
Co-Founder and President
®
Green Builder Media
ron.jones@greenbuildermedia.com

N OCCASIONS THAT ARE FAR TOO RARE, By extension, the place where the builder works is much
a reader is fortunate enough to experience like the page on which the writer lays down the words. But
a piece of written wisdom, sometimes a unlike the blank sheet or empty screen, that location, that
single sentence, that causes him or her site, will forever be an essential and integral aspect of what
to stop, go back, read it again, and then gets built there. I suppose we could debate whether or not
be unable to move on from the profound this would apply to an orbiting space station, for example,
simplicity that has been expressed. but I would argue that it occupies a specific place and
A few months ago, I received as a gift exists in the context of where it is at any given moment
a copy of “The Overstory,” a novel that in time.
O earned author Richard Powers the 2019 Back on the ground, what we observe as common practice
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. I am told that more than one of my are sites being prepared with convenience, uniformity and
acquaintances had recommended bringing it to my attention, expediency in mind. Tracts are routinely stripped, leveled
for which I am humbly grateful. and processed to maximize profitability, with little or
As expressed by one of the characters in the book, Powers no regard for what naturally existed there. Topographic
wrote, “when you cut down a tree, what you make from it features, geologic anomalies and any and all forms of flora
should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down.” and fauna are summarily bladed away to make room for
Over the years I have come to realize that writers and homogenization.
builders have much in common. A writer, at least one The greater misfortune, however, may be the loss of
working in English, attempts to create a meaningful message creative opportunity that this model of development fosters.
by taking the 26 letters of the alphabet and arranging them Maybe that’s why we are left with monotonous, repetitive,
on a page in a particular combination and order that has not uninspired subdivisions and communities that are not
been seen before—something I have struggled to do many much more than glorified warehouses for people to occupy.
times, with limited success. It defines the disconnect between the built environment and
Similarly, a builder selects from a finite list of materials the natural world.
and products in an effort to assemble something worthwhile, Like the writer, the builder can opt to aspire to a higher
a structure that meets a predetermined set of outcomes and expression of his or her craft, but it does require making a
that will have value. This process requires the skill, talent, conscious choice. It’s the difference between memorable and
resources and determination of a great many people, but in forgettable. With apologies to the author Powers, I’d like to
the end, the results, like the written words, are there for all suggest that whatever you build on a site should be at least
to see. As with the writer, the builder alone is responsible as miraculous as what you have to remove to make room
for the final product. for it. GB

72 GREEN BUILDER January/February 2022 www.greenbuildermedia.com