You can set your watch by it!

PHC’s latest project will cast a long shadow.

Our crews are now building the concrete foundation and pedestal for an enormous sundial sculpture being constructed in Battle Point Park.

The dial’s swooping crescents are being crafted by a local metal fabricator, with installation to be completed in the new year.

When finished, the 10-foot, metal and stone sundial will demonstrate the ancient art of chronometry by actually keeping time.

The project has been in the works by the Battle Point Astronomical Association for nearly five years, and will sit on the berm just north of the Ritchie Observatory.

You can track the sundial’s progress at the BPAA’s website, where regular updates and photographs are posted.

Grow Community earns prestigious “Green Home of the Year” award

Grow Community has been honored with a coveted "Green Home of the Year Award” in the "Best Community Project" category for 2014 by Green Builder magazine.

In a feature headlined “Holistic Homes,” the magazine praises Grow for “connect[ing] health and happiness with sustainability” through every element of design and construction.

The magazine highlights Grow’s advanced framing techniques, weather-tight building envelopes, and locally sourced solar products among other distinguishing features. Grow is already the largest planned solar community in Washington state, with a solar component also planned for the next two phases, the Grove and the Park.

An expert panel of judges considered nearly 40 projects on criteria including overall sustainability, resilience, affordability, synergy with the environment and surrounding neighborhood, and depth of building science employed.

“Our winners combine the best of tradition and technology — homes of great beauty that are also resilient and flexible,” the editors write to introduce the awards.

Jonathan Davis, architect for Grow’s first phase, the Village, tells Green Builder that all the principles of One Planet Living on which the Village was designed supported the goals of health and happiness.

“When my kids go out the door, I know they’re safe,” says Davis, now a resident of the Village.

Read this great feature on the Green Building website page 22.
 

Grow Community has been honored with a coveted “Green Home of the Year Award” for 2014 by Green Builder magazine.
Grow is honored in the “Best Community Project” Category in the magazine’s year-end edition, on newsstands now.
In a feature headlined “Holistic Homes,” the magazine praises Grow for “connect[ing] health and happiness with sustainability” through every element of design and construction.

The magazine highlights Grow’s advanced framing techniques, weather-tight building envelopes, and locally sourced solar products among other distinguishing features. Grow is already the largest planned solar community in Washington state, with a solar component also planned for the next two phases, the Grove and the Park.
An expert panel of judges considered nearly 40 projects on criteria including overall sustainability, resilience, affordability, synergy with the environment and surrounding neighborhood, and depth of building science employed.
“Our winners combine the best of tradition and technology — homes of great beauty that are also resilient and flexible,” the editors write to introduce the awards.
Jonathan Davis, architect for Grow’s first phase, the Village, tells Green Builder that all the principles of One Planet Living on which the Village was designed supported the goals of health and happiness.
“When my kids go out the door, I know they’re safe,” says Davis, now a resident of the Village.
Read this great feature on the Green Building website page 22.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.Y2WKE68T.dpuf

Grow Community has been honored with a coveted “Green Home of the Year Award” for 2014 by Green Builder magazine.
Grow is honored in the “Best Community Project” Category in the magazine’s year-end edition, on newsstands now.
In a feature headlined “Holistic Homes,” the magazine praises Grow for “connect[ing] health and happiness with sustainability” through every element of design and construction.

The magazine highlights Grow’s advanced framing techniques, weather-tight building envelopes, and locally sourced solar products among other distinguishing features. Grow is already the largest planned solar community in Washington state, with a solar component also planned for the next two phases, the Grove and the Park.
An expert panel of judges considered nearly 40 projects on criteria including overall sustainability, resilience, affordability, synergy with the environment and surrounding neighborhood, and depth of building science employed.
“Our winners combine the best of tradition and technology — homes of great beauty that are also resilient and flexible,” the editors write to introduce the awards.
Jonathan Davis, architect for Grow’s first phase, the Village, tells Green Builder that all the principles of One Planet Living on which the Village was designed supported the goals of health and happiness.
“When my kids go out the door, I know they’re safe,” says Davis, now a resident of the Village.
Read this great feature on the Green Building website page 22.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.Y2WKE68T.dpuf

As the saying goes: We all live downstream

That’s literally true for the rich sea life of Eagle Harbor and Puget Sound. Sediments and other runoff from land can have a harmful effect on their ecosystem, smothering fish eggs, increasing ocean acidity, or carrying heavier pollution (like plastics) into their — our —  precious waters.

So as we continue site work for Grow Community phase 2, we’re making sure we don’t send any pollutants off into the harbor.

We’ve commissioned “Rain for Rent,” an innovative, portable filtration system that captures and treats our runoff before it leaves the work site. The process looks like this:

First, water is channeled across the entire site and into a large sediment pond at the south end of the grounds. After heavy rains and once the water level reaches a certain point, our “pond" is pumped into the treatment system.

Then the blue "Rain for Rent" tanks run the site water through sand filters that remove sediment and pollutants, and balance pH levels to assure the water we finally discharge is cleaner than what landed on our site to begin with.

With Eagle Harbor less than a mile downstream from our several-acre worksite, we’re committed to giving it all the protection it deserves. After all, lives are at stake.

Completed Eagle Harbor Market Building - Bainbridge Island

Photography by David Cohen

Photos of Completed Washington State Ferry Terminal

Photography by David Cohen

2014 Roof-Mount Project of the Year Runner-Up: Grow Community

Grow is a runner-up in Solar Builder magazine’s 2014 Project of the Year contest in the roof-mount systems category. The project earned a nice feature in the glossy magazine’s new issue, and you can read the story online here or scroll down.

“We wanted to deliver a product that both was designed to be extremely energy efficient but also had the idea of solar in mind at the time of design,” project manager Greg Lotakis tells Solar Builder. “We started at the roof, asked how many panels we could get on it, designed the roof for that, [estimated] what we expected [to] produce, and then we used that energy budget and worked backwards into the house. What we are really striving to do: deliver a really healthy, energy-efficient home that has the ability to be net zero with solar.”

It worked! Grow is already the largest planned solar community in Washington, with more solar on the way in our next two neighborhoods, the Grove and the Park.

It’s also a great success for local manufacturing. Grow Community uses Made In Washington solar components including microinverters by Blue Frog/APS and solar modules by itek Energy.

Oh, by the way: The winning project is Solar For Seals, a rooftop system powering a Luguna Beach, CA, environmental center that rescues and rehabilitates injured marine mammals. We don’t mind finishing second to those guys!

Click here to read the article.

Business spotlight: Suquamish Tribe's seafood business to expand with new building - KITSAP SUN

KITSAP SUN

Tad Sooter

4:20 PM, Oct 12, 2014

SUQUAMISH — The lifeblood of the Suquamish Tribe’s seafood business can be found deep under the mud of Puget Sound.

Tribal divers harvest nearly 500,000 pounds of burrowing geoducks each year. The giant clams, popular in Asia, represent 99 percent of business for the tribe’s Suquamish Seafoods LLC. But that’s about to change.

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

A 16,000-square-foot processing plant under construction off Sandy Hook Road will give the company flexibility to package and market a host of other marine species, including oysters, manila clams, crab and salmon. Suquamish Seafoods General Manager Tony Forsman expects geoduck to account for about 40 percent of the company’s business 10 years from now.

Expanding product lines should open new opportunities for harvesters while bringing in millions of dollars in new revenue, he said.

“The tribe has been wanting to diversify for quite a long time,” Forsman said.

Construction of the long-planned $2 million processing plant began over the summer. The facility will replace the aging 2,000-square-foot building Suquamish Seafoods used to pack geoducks.

Contractor PHC Construction will wrap up work in March, in time for the start of the 2015 harvest season.

The two-story building will house an array of processing equipment. Live tanks fed with fresh water from Agate Passage will keep harvested marine life fresh while it’s in holding. New chilled storage and processing rooms will give the company space to increase production. Air blast freezers will freeze shellfish solid in a matter of minutes. Eventually, other equipment like fish smokers and clam sorters could add value to the tribe’s harvested products.

The tribe is still considering how best to take advantage the new facility, Forsman said. Tribal fishermen began a crab harvest this year. Next will likely be a foray into cultured (farmed) oysters, which Forsman said could be grown on the tribe’s existing tidelands, and an expansion of the tribe’s clam seeding program. Cultured geoducks are also a possibility, though that proposal is controversial.
“There are some issues there the tribe has to reconcile,” Forsman said.

Whatever form the expansion takes, Forsman said the new plant will allow Suquamish Seafoods to work with more harvesters and even buy product from other tribes.

Suquamish’s tribally-chartered seafood business is a rarity among Western Washington tribes. In the case of geoducks, most tribes divide their harvest quota between divers. Suquamish manages its entire quota and shares revenue among its divers. Suquamish Seafoods uses the volume of the combined harvest to negotiate higher prices for geoducks and provide a consistent, year-round supply for buyers.

“It’s a win for us and the buyers,” Forsman said.

For now, nearly all those buyers are in China. By diversifying its business, Forsman believes Suquamish Seafoods will tap into new markets and work with more local customers. There is even discussion of opening a retail seafood market to sell directly to the public.

For now, Forsman is content to watch the metal framework for the new processing plant take shape off Sandy Hook Road.

“It feels good to see it go vertical,” Forsman said.

Suquamish Seafoods is online at www.suquamishseafoods.com.

PHC team accepting their Built Green Hammer Award for Grow Community

Glu Lam Install on Grow Community Apartments

Photos by David Cohen

CNN lauds Bainbridge Island Museum of Art among nation’s best

The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, constructed by PHC, gets a shout-out from CNN this week, named one of America’s Best Small-Town Museums.

"BIMA's curators aren't concerned with any big-city competition,” the writer notes. "They've honed in with a laser-like focus on contemporary fine arts and crafts from a very small radius: the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and the Western Puget Sound region ... in a dazzling glass building that reflects the region's eco-friendly spirit.”

A small town like Bainbridge Island is the perfect spot for a good art museum, CNN says, as "coastal hamlets, mountaintop villages and desert whistle-stops have inspired American artists for generations."

Read the whole story at CNN.com

PHC Construction highlighted for ferry terminal work

PHC Construction’s work on the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal is touted on the website constructionequipmentguide.com this week.

The $4.7 million renovation includes a seismic retrofit and other improvements, including new public restrooms; demolition of inside tollbooths for better pedestrian flow; an inside space for the popular Commuter Comforts coffee stand; and a new heating and ventilation system.

The building is also getting a new roof and sliding doors, energy-efficient lighting and windows, and a revamped electrical system.

Keeping the busy terminal open and accessible throughout construction has been key to the project, Hadley Rodero, WSDOT spokesperson, tells the website. PHC was up to the challenge.

“As PHC became familiar with the terminal's operational needs, they streamlined their schedule and phased construction activity to maintain progress, while keeping the terminal open and functional,” Rodero says, adding that this reduced the total project completion time by six weeks and has kept it on schedule.

Read the whole story here. 

One Planet Lunch for PHC Crew

PHC contractors in the Grow Community construction team were treated to a locally grown luncheon on the job site last week. All food for the noontime repast was grown on Bainbridge and North Kitsap farms. Local agriculture, sustainability and health are always on the menu at Grow!

 

PHC Construction earns Built Green Hammer award for Grow Community Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

August 22, 2014

SEATTLE - PHC Construction of Bainbridge Island has been honored as a 2014 Built Green Hammer award by the Master Builders Association.

The award recognizes Built Green members for outstanding projects from the previous year.

PHC Construction is being honored in the "Builder, Small Production" category for the Grow Community project in Winslow.

“We’re very honored to receive this prestigious recognition,” said Marty Sievertson, PHC Construction principal. “Our goal has been to make help make Grow Community the healthiest, most environmentally friendly project possible, and to show what’s possible in sustainable construction. This award is a great endorsement of how a sustainable project can be a success.”

The eight-acre Grow Community is the largest planned solar community in Washington state, with ultra-efficient, net-zero energy homes, neighborhood gardens and green spaces, healthy transportation options and other sustainable features. The community offers intentional, intergenerational living and a new "aging in place" focus on accessibility.

The project's first phase, the Village, is nearing completion, with groundbreaking this past week on its next two neighborhoods, the Grove and the Park.

Built Green is a program of the Master Builders Association in partnership with local counties.

The program is designed to help homebuyers find quality, affordable homes that offer opportunities to protect the health of their families and the Northwest environment. Built Green homes are designed to provide homeowners with comfortable, durable, environmentally friendly homes that are cost-effective to own and maintain. 

The award will be presented at the 2014 Built Green Conference, Sept. 18 in Seattle.

What does Washington’s largest planned solar community look like from the air?

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Grow Community phase 1, the Village, and its remarkable concentration of energy-producing rooftops.

Grow Community homes are now producing 85-105 percent of their energy needs, eliminating residents' power bills and earning financial credits through Washington’s strong solar incentives.

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Grow Community phase 1, the Village, and its remarkable concentration of energy-producing rooftops.
Grow Community homes are now producing 85-105 percent of their energy needs, eliminating residents’ power bills and earning financial credits through Washington’s strong solar incentives.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.hK6KvaP7.dpuf

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Grow Community phase 1, the Village, and its remarkable concentration of energy-producing rooftops.
Grow Community homes are now producing 85-105 percent of their energy needs, eliminating residents’ power bills and earning financial credits through Washington’s strong solar incentives.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.hK6KvaP7.dpuf

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Grow Community phase 1, the Village, and its remarkable concentration of energy-producing rooftops.
Grow Community homes are now producing 85-105 percent of their energy needs, eliminating residents’ power bills and earning financial credits through Washington’s strong solar incentives.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.hK6KvaP7.dpuf

Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Grow Community phase 1, the Village, and its remarkable concentration of energy-producing rooftops.
Grow Community homes are now producing 85-105 percent of their energy needs, eliminating residents’ power bills and earning financial credits through Washington’s strong solar incentives.
- See more at: http://blog.growbainbridge.com/#sthash.hK6KvaP7.dpuf

Site preparation work gets under way this week at new Grow Community Grove and Park neighborhoods

We’ll do our best to keep the dust down, and the noise. But bear with us for a few days, and we think you’ll like what comes next.

Site preparation work gets under way this week at our new Grove and Park neighborhoods, beginning with removal of the old military housing along John Adams Way. We’ll be recycling as much of the material as we can, although lead paint unfortunately will prevent reuse of some debris.

You’ll also see some tree harvesting around the five-acre site, but significant stands and individual trees will be retained for the new neighborhoods to come.

Trees that are taken down will be salvaged by the good craftspeople of Bainbridge Island’s Coyote Wood Shop, to be milled and repurposed as fine furniture. Maybe for future homes in the Grove! Next comes the good stuff. As part of site development, we’ll be planting more than 250 more trees than are lost. These healthy new specimens will define and enhance the Grove’s signature green corridors, help neighborhood stormwater retention, and play a big role in carbon sequestration for future generations.

We expect onsite tree salvage to go through the week, and demolition of old structures to run about a week after that. Watch this site for updates, and then look forward to watching the Grove neighborhood GROW.

Construction Status at the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal

PHC Construction was hired by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to renovate the existing Bainbridge Ferry terminal building to enhance earthquake safety, upgrade the public restrooms, and replace many aging building components.

Here are some recent photos from the construction site and additional information about the project can be found here on the WSDOT website.

Introducing the Grove & the Park

Urban living with nature at every doorstep.

Grow Community’s first neighborhood, the Village, set a new standard for comfortable, sustainable urban living with its cluster of beautifully designed, energy-efficient single-family homes. Now come the Grove and the Park, two new neighborhoods of high-quality, sustainable homes surrounding lush public greens and a shared community center. The garden spaces, healthy transportation options and low-carbon designs of the Village are here too — along with those solar-ready roofs -- this time in a thoughtful new mix of designs including townhomes and single-level homes. 

The Grove and the Park also promote intergenerational living. Sixty percent of the homes will be fully accessible, and the community center will invite year-round sharing among our current and future residents over many generations.  

Very soon we will begin pre-selling homes in the Grove and are opening a sales office at 180 Olympic Drive SE on Bainbridge Island - just a 2 minute walk from the ferry terminal. We invite you to come and learn about this beautiful new phase of Grow Community. 

We hope you'll join us for our Grand Opening weekend - July 12 & 13th, 12-5pm. 

 

Google Maps Generator by www.map-embed.com

PHC now seeking subcontractors and suppliers for the Grow Community phase 2 development on Bainbridge Island.

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


BAINBRIDGE ISLAND - PHC Construction is now seeking building trades subcontractors and suppliers (plumbing, electrical, roofing, etc.) for the Grow Community phase 2 development on Bainbridge Island.

The project phase will see construction of 88 luxury town homes, flats, single-family homes and a community building in Winslow town center near the ferry terminal. Construction is expected to begin late summer 2014.

Grow Community homes are designed to the highest standards of craftsmanship, quality and energy efficiency. The project’s first phase, already the largest solar-ready community in Washington and currently nearing completion with all homes sold out, is the first residential development in the US to be One Planet Living certified for sustainable design and construction.

The nationally recognized development is a project of PHC Construction & Asani, whose credits include the Vineyard Lane, Island Gateway and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art projects, among others.

Bainbridge Island-based PHC Construction brings together seasoned professionals sharing the same goal: to build efficient, sustainable spaces that meet our clients’ needs and enhance the community.

Bids/statements of qualifications from subcontractors and suppliers are being accepted through 6/25/14 using PHC Construction’s new software, Plan Room. 

See www.growbainbridge.com and www.phc-construction.com for information.

Trusses Going on Apartment Building at Grow Community

Photos by David Cohen

Bainbridge's Gateway development ready to welcome people to Winslow - Kitsap Sun

By Tad Sooter
Posted April 20, 2014 at 5:19 p.m.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — A familiar bakery and a new tavern are among the businesses setting up shop this spring on Bainbridge Island’s busiest street corner.

Contractors are putting finishing touches on the last building in the Island Gateway development at Winslow Way and Highway 305. Interior finish work, driveway paving, landscaping and signage are all that remain to complete the five-year project, said Andrew Lonseth of development firm Asani.

Photo by Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun 

Andrew Lonseth talks about lights to illuminate the Eagle Harbor Market sign that is part of the Island Gateway development at Winslow Way and Highway 305.

Island Gateway already is home to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Kids Discovery Museum and tech firm Avalara. The final two-story building on Winslow Way is filling fast.

Bainbridge Bakers, a popular café in Winslow Green, will open a second location this week on the ground floor. The bakery will be joined in late June by the Ale House on Winslow, a planned craft beer taproom. Avalara expanded into the top floor of the building. A rooftop event deck will be available for rent.

Photo by Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun

Andrew Lonseth exits the rooftop Thursday of the Island Gateway development on Bainbridge Island.

One street-front retail space in the building remains to be filled. Lonseth said he is in discussions with several potential tenants but nothing has been finalized.

“We’d like a tenant that brings interest and excitement,” Lonseth said. “It’s important to us that we have a destination community.”

Bainbridge Bakers owner Mike Loudon said he’d had his eye on the corner location since well before the Gateway project broke ground.

“It’s the realization of a pretty long dream,” Loudon said Friday.

The new Bainbridge Bakers has seating for 85. Like the original location, it serves coffee, baked goods and food. Beer and wine will be added to the mix later this year.

The café also can double as a venue for theatrical and musical performances. Loudon, an avid community theater booster, said seating can be rearranged to accommodate 150 guests.

“I’m so excited about having it filled with music and people and light,” he said. “It’s going to be something pretty special for the island.”

Bakery customers might well mosey next door after those evening performances. The neighboring Ale House on Winslow aims to fill a niche as a craft beer taproom and late-night hangout.

Photo by Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun

Andrew Lonseth talks Thursday about the remaining construction to take place in the space that will house the Ale House on Winslow in the Island Gateway development on Bainbridge Island.

Travis Samson, one of four partners in the venture, said the Ale House will be outfitted with 16 taps and a wide variety of bottled beer and wine. They plan to stock a large number of local brews, alongside a sampling of domestic brands and a few imports.

“I’d like to make Bainbridge more of a destination for beer geeks,” Samson said. “Our overall goal is to have a beer there for everyone,”

Samson, 27, worked at Silver City Brewery before deciding to go into business with a group of college friends. They still have ambitions to start a microbrewery in Seattle, but Samson said the chance to create a tavern in the Island Gateway was too good to pass up.

Photo by Meegan M. Reid, Kitsap Sun

The Ale House on Winslow sign Thursday adorns one of the windows of the Island Gateway development at Winslow Way and Highway 305.

“It’s literally the first thing you’ll see coming off the ferry,” he said.

The Gateway project rapidly transformed the island’s main entry over the past five years, filling the 5-acre corner with a cluster of distinctly modern structures.

The final building in the development was constructed on the site of the Eagle Harbor Market, a small grocery opened by the Nakata family in the 1940s. The new Gateway building now bears the same name.

“It’s a little historical gesture,” Lonseth said.

Read the article here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2014/apr/20/bainbridges-gateway-development-ready-to-welcome/#ixzz2zg20panI

Bainbridge Ferry Terminal Building Rehabilitation

PHC Construction was hired by Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to renovate the existing Bainbridge Ferry terminal building to enhance earthquake safety, upgrade the public restrooms, and replace many aging building components. 

Here are some recent photos from the construction site and some additional information about the project from the WSDOT website.

Why is WSDOT rehabilitating the Bainbridge Island terminal building?
The existing terminal building was built in 1955 and does not meet current seismic design codes, other building codes and energy efficiency guidelines. The public restrooms are inadequate and do not meet American Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines.

The End Result
The exterior walls of the terminal building will be stronger.  Customers will notice the following:
- The public restrooms will be larger, in a new location and meet current codes.
- The inside tollbooths will be demolished, improving passenger flow through the building.
- Space will be created inside the building for the WSF vendor Commuter Comforts presently operating outside.
- The building will have all new exterior windows and sliding doors, a new roof, a new electrical panel, new light fixtures, and a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit.

Project Benefits
This project will improve safety during an earthquake by retrofitting the building to current design codes. The main public restrooms will be enlarged to provide more capacity and meet design codes and ADA guidelines. The new roof will eliminate leaks. The new electrical panel will increase reliability and reduce maintenance on the panel, as well as allow a potential vendor to lease space inside the building. The overall energy efficiency of the building will increase with more efficient lighting and windows.

What is the project timeline?

• Jan. 2014 - Began construction
• Sept. 2014 - Project expected to be complete

For more information contact:
Nicole McIntosh
WSF Terminal Design Engineering Manager

Hadley Rodero
WSF Communications
206-515-3411
roderoh@wsdot.wa.gov

Bainbridge Bakers marks 28th anniversary with a preview peek of new second location - BI Review

by CECILIA GARZA,  Bainbridge Island Review Staff Writer 
Mar 21, 2014 at 11:29AM

After 28 years of serving coffee and baked goods on Bainbridge, it’s time for Bainbridge Bakers to spread its wings — that is, to the other end of Winslow.

The bakery will celebrate its 28th anniversary this Sunday with music and a “peek-a-boo preview” tour of their new location near the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

“The establishment of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and the Kids Discovery Museum is one of the most important and notable events to occur on the island in many years,” said bakery owner Mike Loudon. “We are proud and honored to be able to support the patrons and visitors of these fine new facilities.”

Bainbridge Bakers will continue business at its original location at the Winslow Green, but come April, it will begin pouring coffee on the other end of Winslow Way, too.

At Island Gateway, nestled next door to Avalara and the museums, will be a full bakery and cafe serving all of the same Bainbridge Bakers favorites.

The bakery invites residents to join in its 28th anniversary celebration this Sunday, March 23 by welcoming the upcoming opening of its new location.

The party will kick off at 10 a.m. with kiddie karaoke until noon at the original Bainbridge Bakers location.

Island band Paundy will take the floor from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for a live performance at the new location.

Their performance will be followed by local singer/songwriter Zach Fleury for another round of music back at the original Bainbridge Bakers from 1 to 3 p.m.

The party will continue until 6 p.m. at the bakery’s Winslow Green location.

Cake and preview tours of the new bakery will be provided.

CECILIA GARZA,  Bainbridge Island Review Staff Writer 
cgarza@bainbridgereview.com or 206-842-6613

Installation Notes: Welcome To The Net-Zero Neighborhood - Solar Power World

March 11, 2014: By Andrew Merecicky

Residents of Bainbridge Island, Wash., led by Asani Development Initiatives, are re-imagining what a residential community could be. Even more impressive than its community gardens and car share program, the Grow Community is on track to be the largest planned solar-ready neighborhood in Washington State.

The housing development is designed to be a net-zero energy community, and is one of seven such endorsed projects by the One Planet Living program. Asani has also partnered with two Washington-based companies, BlueFrog Solar and A&R Solar, to develop an installation-ready solar package around which each home in the Grow Community is specifically designed.

The solar systems are intended to provide 100% of the energy demand of each house. The roofs of each structure were carefully designed to support the required number of solar panels. The installation package available to homebuyers features the Washington-based itek Energy‘s PV panels and APS America‘s microinverters.

Model homes on Grow Avenue NW. September 26, 2012. Credit: Anthony Rich

“The variety of rooflines that make a project like Grow so visually interesting can be a challenge for solar systems, which rely on PV arrays being optimally oriented toward the sun,” says Kelly Samson CEO of APS America. “Unlike regular ‘string’ inverters, APS microinverters maximize output and allow monitoring of individual panels, optimizing the productivity of the whole array at all points in the sun’s daily arc across the sky.”

The project will be completed in three phases. The first phase, which is presently nearing completion, will contain 18 single-family homes, six town houses and 20 multi-family rental units. Two more neighborhoods, referred to as “neighborhood 2.0″ and “3.0″ respectively, are still in the design stages. Homeowners have the standing option to install a solar system or not, providing customers with flexibile options regarding installation timing and financing.

“The project is being constructed in three phases to reduce risk and to allow the development team to apply lessons learned in each phase to the subsequent phase,” says Marja Preston, president of Asani Development. “We were confident that the solar community would work as we had a long interest list prior to placing the homes on the market. All of the homes were presold before construction began, an indication that there is strong interest, not only in solar homes, but in solar homes in a connected, walkable community.”

The first solar modules installed on Grow model homes. July 13, 2012.
Credit: Jonathan Davis

Phase II, containing neighborhood 2.0 and 3.0, will involve building 88 more homes. Housing options will consist of a mix of two-story town houses, single-level houses and apartments in three-story buildings. Additionally, residential parking will be underground to maximize the community’s green space. The second phase is also going to include the community center building and a childcare facility in its construction. Every structure in the community is built solar-ready.

The ultimate goal of the project was to design a repeatable model for a net-zero energy housing development, a task which, Preston says, was accomplished.

 “The biggest challenge for our team was to design a net-zero energy single-family home that could be built and sold for a reasonable price. The goal for the project was to demonstrate a profitable and therefore replicable net-zero energy residential real estate development. We absolutely met that challenge,” Preston says.

Bainbridge is an ideal location for such an innovative project, because tax rebates in Washington make possible an affordably-priced solar option. This is one of the reasons Preston sees a promising future for Grow and similar green community development in Washington.

“The fact that almost all the homebuyers have chosen the solar option is an indication that the strategy for adding solar that we created with BlueFrog and A&R has been successful and is entirely replicable in other housing developments in the state.”

Installation Notes:  

Panel type: 240 and 270W itek Energy  
Microinverters: YC200, YC500 APS America  
Racking and Mounting: SunModo Racking Systems  
Monitoring: APS Energy Communication Unit/Energy Monitoring and Analysis Output: 2.9 kW to 8.9 kW per housing unit.
Installation Crew: A&R Solar  
Installation Dates: June 2012 – ongoing project

Read article here:   http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2014/03/installation-notes-welcome-net-zero-neighborhood/