Historypin Puts Neighborhood History in the Palm of Your Hand

Post by the Hawthorne Hawkman, videos from the Historypin Youtube channel.

Historypin.com may just be the web- and smartphone-based feature I've been searching my whole life for.  (I realize smartphones have not existed for the entirety of my life.  Don't ruin my moment.)  A few months ago, I explored the idea of making community history more accessible through QR codes.  For website or text information, that could still work.  But let's say you're walking down the street and you think to yourself, "I wonder what this place looked like fifty years ago?"  Imagine being able to hold your phone up like you were taking a picture of a historic building, and then being able to see a decades-old image of that location right next to what it looks like in the present day.

That, in essence, is what Historypin does.  You can upload photos to it, and overlay those pictures onto Google Street, and then go to the place where the photos are pinned to.  The Historypin application is available for free download on Android phones.  I picture this program as an ideal supplement to neighborhood historic walking tours.  So naturally I tried this out on...

Historic Housing in Yankton Spurs Ideas for NoMi

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

While vacationing with my family in Yankton, South Dakota this Easter, I was left with a few hours to kill on a lazy Saturday afternoon.  My sister-in-law and newborn nephew would be my tour guides, but let's be honest here, Yankton is not a bustling metropolis with a host of activities at the ready.  So although many people would struggle to find things to do, I knew immediately what I wanted.  I turned to her and decisively said, "Take me to the crappy part of town with nice houses."

And what I love most about saying that was that she knew exactly what I meant.  "Oh, that area would be...

Changes to LEED Certification Promote Preservation!

LEED-certified new construction

Rehab in process, exact certification not yet determined.

Post and second photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  First photo from www.minnpost.com

Regarding that title, I'll admit I'm one of the few people who would deem something that wonkish to be worthy of an exclamation point.  Still, this is a potential game-changer for how "green" housing development is viewed.  Among other preservationist friends, we've often lamented that many green standards for construction fail to take into account the environmental costs of a demolition putting tons of waste into a landfill, or the energy costs of creating new (or recycled/reused) raw material, transporting it, and building anew.  This isn't to devalue groundbreaking new kinds of construction such as what was used in the first LEED-certified home built in the Hawthorne EcoVillage (top photo).  Instead, we wondered how green construction might be evaluated when taking such things into consideration.

Thanks to some proposed changes by the US Green Building Council, it looks like things are heading in that direction.  These changes are only proposed at this time, and there is an initial public comment period through January 14, 2011.  Click here to submit comments you might have.  The most important change has to do with giving credit for the preservation of historic buildings.  Tell the USGBC that you absolutely LOVE this credit.  And it gets better!  According to the Preservation Nation website, there is a credit "directly encouraging users to save historic windows and they are specifically looking for feedback that confirms this is a good thing."  (emphasis mine, but I feel rather strongly about this issue)

The new LEED standards do need some tweaking though.  For instance...