Cost is a very real concern, and played heavily in our recent architect choice. We first narrowed the field down to two candidates.

We loved the design aesthetic of our initial front-runner. He had some green design experience, but all of his previous green work had been on large projects with correspondingly large budgets. No doubt he would have designed us a beautiful eco-home, but a demonstration home that costs three-quarters of a million dollars to build (nevermind appraisal value after the fact) isn’t really demonstrating the right things IMO.

In the end, we went with an architect who has much more experience in residential green building. Her name is Jane Thompson. Her previous projects were much more sane price-wise, and in line with what we are planning to do. Our one nagging concern, however, was the lack of any obvious design elements that linked her projects together….the lack of a “Jane Thompson” signature, if you will. We chalked this up to her ability to design what the client wanted rather than imposing her own aesthetic, but we didn’t want to completely sacrifice form at the altar of function. Why bother even hiring an architect if all you want is a super-insulated box?

Late in our architect decision process, we visited her firm’s new office, currently under renovation in New Edinburgh. The new office incorporates an impressive array of green building principles that we expected — mixed-use space at street level (apartment dwellings + green building community resource centre), library and office space on upper levels, top-notch insulation and passive solar planning, and a multi-level green roof with rain water collection — but the roof also follows a beautiful, huge, glorious curve that spans the entire back half of the structure. We were pretty much sold, right then and there.

She’s not hurting for work, but we’re still pushing her to get a website going. It’s in the works, apparently.

This is quite similar to one of my favorite spots in Paris: the Promenade Plantée in the 12th arrondissement. I love it when cities decide to re-purpose surplus infrastructure like this rather than simply tearing it down.

This is a false dichotomy. For the atheist, there is no one book but many, written by many philosophers and scientists over the ages, each of which undoes a small part of the religious web. My problem historically has been how to arm myself appropriately against such religious inquiry by reading the most important and seminal of those works. How easy it must be to rely on just one book? It would certainly cut down on library fines, not to mention my Amazon bill.

Over the past decade or so, prominent atheists have taken up that charge. Authors like Richard Dawkins have done much to popularize the atheist “cause.” My most recent discovery is Christopher Hitchens whose book, God Is Not Great, has given me some serious pause for thought. I will also confess that I was turned on to Hitchens by his appearance on The Daily Show and The Hour. See, book tours really do work!

Whereas Dawkins may advocate for “brights” and our need to stick together, Hitchens simply lays it all out: arguments presented by various religious organizations, along with why they are at best wrong and internally inconsistent, and at worst, dangerous. As a reading list, an atheist could do much worse than to use Hitchens’ references section as a starting point. His style isn’t for everyone, though, so if you’re interested in pursuing the matter further, I recommend his Authors@Google talk on YouTube as a starting point. Some basic searching will turn up other priceless nuggets if you’re then so inclined.

Let me reiterate that conversion is not my goal here, I’m merely arming myself with defensive knowledge, sad though it may be that I feel the need to couch it in those particular terms. In no way am I ashamed of my beliefs, but atheists don’t have much of a lobby group.

• Elsewhere in Canada: Wind Power Certificates
• USA: DOE Green Power Network
• UK: Ecotricity
• EU: Eugene Standard

If we can apply this same logic to general childhood development, can people please stop trying to sanitize life for their children? I know you mean well, but if you’re not careful, your child is likely to be felled by the first powerful idea they encounter.

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