We're moving to Belvedere, a new LEED-certified neighborhood in Charlottesville, VA, and having a new Earthcraft house built there. We talk about the home building process, and the connections to the natural world that make this project special.
Belvedere (and all Charlottesville) got hit with a huge snowstorm just the weekend before Christmas. We were out last night cheering on the show and having a block-long snowball battle. This morning we all shoveled, and decided it was actually too deep for sledding. So it's inside to bake cookies and watch a few movies, then hopefully later we can try to build a huge snow fort.
Snow is nice when you feel like you're the only living human for miles, but it's also hugely fun with neighbors!
I am sitting at my desk remembering the feelings of the early days of Belvedere. The design phase was extremely exciting and I became very committed to the project, every corner, every brick, every facet. Then came the execution phase, or rather the "doing," and the recession hit the new building sector as hard as it had been hit since the Great Depression. As we turned into that part of the story, I began to called the developer Jumping Mouse.
Do you all know that story? A small mouse hears a noise. It is the sound of the river that he has never seen and gathers courage to go and see it. While he is there he meets a magical frog who encourages him to have a vision and follow it. Against all pressures to stay the same and in the same place, the small mouse, now renamed Jumping Mouse, follows his vision. As he jumped, he saw the mountains in the distance and vowed to go there. But first he must cross the plain where he is vulnerable to predators. Along the way, he meets creatures that protect him only after he has made a sacrifice. In the end, he reaps the benefits of his sacrifice and gains new heights of experience and life goals.
I love this story and joked with Frank Stoner that Stonehaus was a Jumping Mouse. The developer and the builders had a vision, one that is different from the surrounding developments. Pelted by reporters, critics, naysayers, and holier-than-thous, Belvedere got started and then work stopped as the elegant builder Church Hill was folded into Eagle, and the banks halted work by Hauser Homes. Jumping Mouse, I said, you are in the plains, vulnerable to predators. Surely, there is a lot I don't know about the allies the developer found along the way. I am aware of the sacrifices as I watched Stonehaus let go employees and whittle itself down to a skeleton crew. I know that Church Hill and Hauser subcontractors also suffered. I listened to Bob Hauser passionately talk about his life as a builder at a meeting of Belvedere residents. I got tired of listening to and reading the critics of everything Belvedere, and am still hoping that one reporter will have the courage to write about the project for its innovation and its commitment to sustainability and community.
Yes, I am still here. Yes, I still think the project is going to pan out. Yes, I still believe in it. I think the project changed and is changing, adapting to the sacrifices that had to happen for the development to survive.
I have a new metaphor for you Frank Stoner and Bob Hauser, and everyone who is still here, still working, still believing, and emodying the vision. I have heard people say that Belvedere is a jewel among development projects. Yes, I agree. It is a beauty. I love the small city homes, elegant and small. They are like the old homes of the cities I travel in when I work. I see the same patterns. I love the bigger homes as well and look forward to really seeing the empty spaces fill in. Belvedere is truly not like any neighborhood I have been in anywhere. It is a beauty, at least to my eyes. It doesn't have lots of big yards that Americans are used to. But it does have sweet homes, community, green space, nature, and other amenities that really make it a home. A home is more than a house. A home is an experience.
Real jewels are a long time in the making, especially diamonds. It takes a lot of pressure to make a precious stone. And different ingredients. In the jewel metaphor, I would say that this phase of Belvedere is the pressure phase. The making of a diamond involved melting, chemistry and pressure. I think all that is here for Belvedere. The chemistry is the combination of the design and those of us that inhabit it. Committed Belvedereans put up their own playground while waiting for the design and building of the new playground. We are working on being a community with and for each other. Stonehaus and the various builders are working on new home designs that are affordable and beautiful. The original design still stands.
So, Stonehaus, keep going. I can see the outline of the jewel as it is being formed. Soon, there will be the mining phase, and critics, I know what you are going to say, and this is what I say to you: Any business owner is in business to make a living. That is, in part, what is happening here for those who are designing, building and selling. But Belvedere is more than houses, more than builders. It is a gutsy design with human development in mind, and includes a more-than-human world. I will hold Stonehaus to that if I can. I urge critics to think Big Picture. I would love to see what your creative minds can see and comment on, if you move beyond the tendancy to take apart and complain.
I pledge to write more and record more about Belvedere in 2010. AND, I need to get back to tracking!
I have had many visitors lately, and they all say, "This is the only place in town that seems prosperous!" or "This is the only place in town I see new houses being built!" Yup. That's us. Belvedere. There only place in town!
I have the sweetest little massage studio in Belvedere. This morning, another resident and I climbed up the steps of my carriage unit where my studio is for an early massage. With the chilly wet outside, the inside seemed warm, cozy, welcoming, and unique. I am certainly hoping that I can get my small massage and craniosacral practice going in that special place. I offer high quality massage garnered over years of experience and training. I still need to finish the blue stone walkway out to the gate, but I hope to make that studio my professional home for the years to come.
After the massage, my client went off to work and I walked across the yard to my home. How sweet it is!
Do you want to know what it is like to live in a place where Everyone Wants To Be Here! It's AWESOME! We are all so happy, even if the newspapers and blog and real estate agents want to think of this development as stalled. AND it is NOT stalled. Man, we are selling houses. New houses. And there are great families that live here. It is multi-cultural, multi-generational, and integrated with both cats AND dogs. There are all kinds of people who live here, and we don't all own those fancy hybrid cars either.
Not everyone on the planet wants to be here. Some are really adamant they hate being alive. Others are quite ambivalent about it. And then there are those who want to be here. Belvedere is attracting that group. Come and enjoy being ALIVE . . . . at Belvedere.
Spent some time in the nice early morning light trying to catch images that show off the neighborhood. The link below is to a Flickr photo set I made. Photos of Belvedere August 2009
