EVRP - EcoVillage at Ithaca Research Overview
This blog will offer an overview of the preparing research done on EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), exploring the various foundational, organizational, and sustainable elements. The abundance of information below was gathered from the EVI website, which is truly informative!
For more detailed information (and more attractive formatting!) you can check out:
· The D.r.e.e.m. Reality EVRP study page
· The EVI Website
For more detailed information (and more attractive formatting!) you can check out:
· The D.r.e.e.m. Reality EVRP study page
· The EVI Website
I. Foundation
· Founded: 1992 by Joan Bokaer and Liz Walker, first resident site building ’95, first fams in Oct 96, 2nd resident built 2001,
· Location: Finger Lakes region of upsate New York
· Geographical Information: 175 acres
· Infrastructure: 3 Co-housing neighborhoods (60 homes, 2 Common Houses), carports, berry farm, barn on 20-acre organic farm
II. Organization
· Legal Structure: Educational Non-Profit Organization (and Intentional Community)
· Decision Making: Consensus
· Income Structure: Independent Income, on site resident businesses
III. Visitation Information
· Tours:
o Free Public Tour – Last Sat of each month at 3:00pm (meet at FROG Common House)
o Private Tour - Mon & Sat morns. 1.5 hrs. $35 indiv, $50 households. Other days $47 indiv, $62 household. $25 cancel fee (email visit-coordinator@)
o Group Tour – students, community groups, professional orgs, etc. Provide broad overview of project & chance to tour facilities. Can be tailored to specific interests of group
· Workshops: Introduction to EcoVillage (1 day), EcoVillage Experience Weekends (Fri afternoon – Sun afternoon), Creating Sustainable Communities: The Social Dimension (Weeklong)
· Accommodations: Overnight visits & Common House Meals
IV. Social
A. Membership
● Present Members: 150 adults & children
● Membership Process: Structured learning process before decision to live at EVI
● Community Service Requirement: Volunteer 2-3 hrs/wk on various work teams:
B. Community Life
● Meals: Share common dinners several times per week in 2 Common Houses
● Community Events and Social Life:
o Various annual celebrations to mark season, ad hoc parties, music jams and concerts, talent shows
o Study and Support Groups – Men’s & women’s groups; activity groups - photography club, garden club, handworkers group; classes in yoga, swing dance, new economics, etc; Cooperative home-schooling (soccer, art, science club, etc); Kid’s fun (chess, stamps, crafts); Workshops (consensus, meeting facilitation, food preservation); Teen Group; Deepening Relationships group; Meditation Circles; Political Discussion evenings
● Children and Families: Cooperative Homeschooling
● Housing/Neighborhoods: Two 30-home cohousing neighborhoods (FROG & SONG), third in planning stage (TREE)
o FROG Neighborhood – completed in Aug 1997 (first cohousing proj in NY)
+ 3 acres, 30 homes (15 duplexes) lining pedestrian street, one-acre pond, community garden, playgrounds, centralized compost bins, open fields.
+ Shared facilities: Common House – dining/cooking area, dish room, kids play room, sitting room, private offices, guest room, muli-use room, teen room, laundry, storage. Carport structures have full-featured wood shop, metal shop, recycling/bike shed
+ Eneregy: passive solar on all homes, insulated with 6-7” dense-pack cellulose (recycled newspaper), triple-paned fiberglass windows, south-facing arbors, shared hot-water system for heat, 1 gas boiler per cluster of 6-8 homes.
+ Legal Structure: Housing Cooperative (EcoVillage Cohousing Coop) – members purchase shares associated with their unit through proprietary lease.
o SONG Neighborhood – completed in 2004 (Common House in 2006)
+ 30 homes, 55 adults, 30 kids. Common House, Kitchen Garden, and Community Garden
+ Green building- passive solar, photovoltaics, solar hot water, high-efficiency condensing gas boilers, Eco-Block foundations, Durisol foundations, Structural Insulated Panels, super-insulated roofs, high-performance windows, straw bale insulation, rainwater collection, composting toilets, drain heat recovery, salvaged materials
o TREE Neighborhood- to be completed in 2012- 40 homes, designed to accommodate different-sized households, shared & private gardens and other outdoor spaces
● Spiritual Focus: Varied
V. Environmental
A. Energy, Transport, and Water
● Energy: Passive & Active solar system to support each neighborhood’s need
o Future Goals: village-scale wind power,
● Automobiles: Future Goals: onsite biodiesel/vegetable-oil fuel production
B. Agriculture
● Farms & Gardens: 2 CSA farms (veggie & berry). Over 80% of 175 acres planned to remain green space – 55 acres in conservation easement held by Finger Lakes Land Trust (www.fllt.org)
o Future Goals: Organic orchards, roadside farm stand, biomas energy crops
C. Architecture
● Building Materials and Methods: Details of Technology and building practices for TREE Neighborhood (http://www.toolbase.org/Home-Building-Topics/Indoor-Air-Quality/EcoVillage-at-Ithaca)
● Land Development: Land Partnership Committee – focuses on land-use and resource inventory to make informed choices regarding placement of future projects
● Future Goals: Education Center, natural cemetery
D. Waste Management
VI. Economic
A. Assets vs. Liability
● Legal Entity: Own land and assets
B. Business and Income
● Sources of Income: CSA veggie and U-Pick berry farm, Office spaces for cottage industry, Donations/Membership
● Members Methods of Income: Not connected to non-profit EcoVillage or EcoVillage/CTA
o Beadwork, BeingChange (art & story), Blink Digital Graphics, Carpenter, RMG Choice Software, Cresent Moon Creative Communication, Dr. Deanna Hope Berman (Midwife, naturopathic, health store), Ecolibrium Financial Planning, Frog’s Way Bed & Breakfast, Hands on Gourds (homegrown lamps & banjos), Ithaca Piano (lessons), yoga, many others
● Education Opportunities: Experiential, project-based learning, workshops
VII. Further Questions
Thank you for reading! (For a more eye-on-the-eyes formatting, please visit here)
~Dani
· Founded: 1992 by Joan Bokaer and Liz Walker, first resident site building ’95, first fams in Oct 96, 2nd resident built 2001,
· Location: Finger Lakes region of upsate New York
· Geographical Information: 175 acres
· Infrastructure: 3 Co-housing neighborhoods (60 homes, 2 Common Houses), carports, berry farm, barn on 20-acre organic farm
II. Organization
· Legal Structure: Educational Non-Profit Organization (and Intentional Community)
· Decision Making: Consensus
· Income Structure: Independent Income, on site resident businesses
III. Visitation Information
· Tours:
o Free Public Tour – Last Sat of each month at 3:00pm (meet at FROG Common House)
o Private Tour - Mon & Sat morns. 1.5 hrs. $35 indiv, $50 households. Other days $47 indiv, $62 household. $25 cancel fee (email visit-coordinator@)
o Group Tour – students, community groups, professional orgs, etc. Provide broad overview of project & chance to tour facilities. Can be tailored to specific interests of group
· Workshops: Introduction to EcoVillage (1 day), EcoVillage Experience Weekends (Fri afternoon – Sun afternoon), Creating Sustainable Communities: The Social Dimension (Weeklong)
· Accommodations: Overnight visits & Common House Meals
IV. Social
A. Membership
● Present Members: 150 adults & children
● Membership Process: Structured learning process before decision to live at EVI
● Community Service Requirement: Volunteer 2-3 hrs/wk on various work teams:
B. Community Life
● Meals: Share common dinners several times per week in 2 Common Houses
● Community Events and Social Life:
o Various annual celebrations to mark season, ad hoc parties, music jams and concerts, talent shows
o Study and Support Groups – Men’s & women’s groups; activity groups - photography club, garden club, handworkers group; classes in yoga, swing dance, new economics, etc; Cooperative home-schooling (soccer, art, science club, etc); Kid’s fun (chess, stamps, crafts); Workshops (consensus, meeting facilitation, food preservation); Teen Group; Deepening Relationships group; Meditation Circles; Political Discussion evenings
● Children and Families: Cooperative Homeschooling
● Housing/Neighborhoods: Two 30-home cohousing neighborhoods (FROG & SONG), third in planning stage (TREE)
o FROG Neighborhood – completed in Aug 1997 (first cohousing proj in NY)
+ 3 acres, 30 homes (15 duplexes) lining pedestrian street, one-acre pond, community garden, playgrounds, centralized compost bins, open fields.
+ Shared facilities: Common House – dining/cooking area, dish room, kids play room, sitting room, private offices, guest room, muli-use room, teen room, laundry, storage. Carport structures have full-featured wood shop, metal shop, recycling/bike shed
+ Eneregy: passive solar on all homes, insulated with 6-7” dense-pack cellulose (recycled newspaper), triple-paned fiberglass windows, south-facing arbors, shared hot-water system for heat, 1 gas boiler per cluster of 6-8 homes.
+ Legal Structure: Housing Cooperative (EcoVillage Cohousing Coop) – members purchase shares associated with their unit through proprietary lease.
o SONG Neighborhood – completed in 2004 (Common House in 2006)
+ 30 homes, 55 adults, 30 kids. Common House, Kitchen Garden, and Community Garden
+ Green building- passive solar, photovoltaics, solar hot water, high-efficiency condensing gas boilers, Eco-Block foundations, Durisol foundations, Structural Insulated Panels, super-insulated roofs, high-performance windows, straw bale insulation, rainwater collection, composting toilets, drain heat recovery, salvaged materials
o TREE Neighborhood- to be completed in 2012- 40 homes, designed to accommodate different-sized households, shared & private gardens and other outdoor spaces
● Spiritual Focus: Varied
V. Environmental
A. Energy, Transport, and Water
● Energy: Passive & Active solar system to support each neighborhood’s need
o Future Goals: village-scale wind power,
● Automobiles: Future Goals: onsite biodiesel/vegetable-oil fuel production
B. Agriculture
● Farms & Gardens: 2 CSA farms (veggie & berry). Over 80% of 175 acres planned to remain green space – 55 acres in conservation easement held by Finger Lakes Land Trust (www.fllt.org)
o Future Goals: Organic orchards, roadside farm stand, biomas energy crops
C. Architecture
● Building Materials and Methods: Details of Technology and building practices for TREE Neighborhood (http://www.toolbase.org/Home-Building-Topics/Indoor-Air-Quality/EcoVillage-at-Ithaca)
● Land Development: Land Partnership Committee – focuses on land-use and resource inventory to make informed choices regarding placement of future projects
● Future Goals: Education Center, natural cemetery
D. Waste Management
VI. Economic
A. Assets vs. Liability
● Legal Entity: Own land and assets
B. Business and Income
● Sources of Income: CSA veggie and U-Pick berry farm, Office spaces for cottage industry, Donations/Membership
● Members Methods of Income: Not connected to non-profit EcoVillage or EcoVillage/CTA
o Beadwork, BeingChange (art & story), Blink Digital Graphics, Carpenter, RMG Choice Software, Cresent Moon Creative Communication, Dr. Deanna Hope Berman (Midwife, naturopathic, health store), Ecolibrium Financial Planning, Frog’s Way Bed & Breakfast, Hands on Gourds (homegrown lamps & banjos), Ithaca Piano (lessons), yoga, many others
● Education Opportunities: Experiential, project-based learning, workshops
VII. Further Questions
Thank you for reading! (For a more eye-on-the-eyes formatting, please visit here)
~Dani
posted by D.r.e.e.m. Reality @ 4:07 PM
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