Ribbon Cutting Parking Reminder

The time is growing very near and we would like to coordinate a bit of logistics for the ribbon cutting tomorrow. Please see the below parking diagram to aid in the orderly arrival of lots of guests. Please be mindful not to block anyone's driveway or park on the Oak Road where the street is quite narrow.

Public bathrooms will be available at the pavilion across from the museum, located at 1 Norris Square.

Hope to see everyone there tomorrow at 4:30!

Ribbon Cutting and Open House

I am pleased to announce the formal ribbon cutting for the New Norris House project will be next week, the afternoon of Thursday the 25th. If anyone is in the area, please mark your calenders! This event is the culmination of 2.5 years of work, and will kick off the year long live-in evaluation period.

There will be a formal opening, a few words by university administration and project partners, and of course tours of the home. In addition, a few historical Norris homes will be opening for viewing/comparison, as well as a small exhibit in the city museum.

Hope to see you all there! If you live in Norris, then we want to see you there for sure!

Monitoring Equipment

Thanks to Tony and Philip with ORNL for their all their help to setup our monitoring efforts for the house! Data is coming in and we hope to share some tidbits soon!

Exterior Photo

What a difference a cleaned up driveway and [nearly] completed landscape makes! Great job team!

(Photo credited to Ken McCown-- follow along here)

it was all a dream.

Honestly, I’m not concerned about what people think of the chair bed in the Norris House. For me it was about the process. Claire and I worked hard on the design and completion of the furniture and managed to make a chair that works, but we struggled. Only through collaboration with Professor Stuth, Levi Hooten, Matt Hall, Sam Bouck, Chris Melander and Professor Rose was this possible. We all thought to make a chair that worked and looked good. We did it. We had a hard time doing it, but we did it.

Something I've discovered this semester is the art of working collaboratively. More importantly, working collaboratively on a design build project. A lot of my peers building the actual house could speak much more knowledgeably on the subject, but I was able to take a small part in the process. Designing this chair and subsequently building it has taught me that the most important thing to do is just that: do something. Oftentimes Claire and I would be talking about possibilities for the chair and throwing out ideas and were advised to try them. And we did. Mock ups of the give of plywood, hardware details and stain options. It all seems obvious now, and eventually, halfway through the semester we got it. Just do something.

So here’s to you, Norris, for dooming me to never want to work solely behind a computer screen again, for enjoying collaborative work, and for allowing me to learn more than I have to date in my college career.Thanks to Professor French, Professor Stuth, Sam, Levi, Matt, and everyone else who contributed to making the project possible, because sincerely, I’m grateful to have been a part, albeit small, of the project.

photo courtesy of ken mccown

Mini-Term, week 1 Recap

The New Norris mini-term course (5 days a week intensive course for 3 weeks) is under way and made considerable progress this past week.

On the bio-retention bed front, the five beds have now been planted full of native water loving goodness! The greywater bed is piped in, but can't be turned on until city ordinances allowing it have passed in June. The rainwater beds (beds 2-5) have all been planted, but won't be piped in until next week. Currently our rainwater is being diverted into a pile of gravel in the yard, but once the system is all put together all excess rainwater will eventually make it's way to through these beds!

The vegetable beds have also begun, though are progressing slower than expected. Thanks to Blake French for doing the primary excavating last weekend and to Mark Whitson (neighbor) for helping with manual excavation. We have dug quite a hole in the ground (to say the least) and the 200-gallon garden cistern fits perfectly. We are excited to see it put to use soon!

Many thanks to all parties involved! We solider on!

Open House: May 2011

This weekend our team hosted a "soft opening" of the New Norris House to celebrate the completion of major construction. There is lots more to do and details to resolve, but this event was a welcomed termination of two semesters of work by design|build studio/seminar participants.

Many parents, supporters, and community members were in attendance for this event and we look forward to hosting many more in the future.