Posted by Joe Barnes on August 18th, 2010 in Architecture and Design, Education and Inspiration, General, Green Building, Project Updates
One of the underlying goals of Bundoran Farm is to preserve the character and use of this legacy Charlottesville property. Extraordinary measures were taken in locating homesites and roads so they worked with and blended into the landscape.
In addition having the roads “lay lightly” on the land within the boundaries of Bundoran Farm, we took [...]
Posted by Joe Barnes on June 11th, 2010 in Agriculture, Architecture and Design, General, Green Building, Nature/Environment, Project Updates
Bundoran Farm was the subject of a feature article in the June/July 2010 Issue of Virginia Sportsman magazine. Written by Hay Hardy, the article provides an excellent overview of the Bundoran Farm’s three fold vision of protecting the character and use of the working agrarian landscape, provide for ongoing environmental stewardship and create opportunities for families who [...]
Posted by Joe Barnes on May 1st, 2010 in Architecture and Design, Bundoran Farm Events and Occasions, General
Bundoran Farm and more importantly, the Heimgartner Family, reach another significant milestone yesterday. Construction started on Ken and Ida Heimgarnter’s new home at Bundoran Farm.
Situated on a knoll over looking Plank Road and the surrounding protected pastures and forested ridges of this Albemarle Virginia rural real estate, the Heimgartner’s homesite is perhaps one of the [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on March 18th, 2010 in Architecture and Design, Baldwin Center for Preservation, General, Green Building
And from the same source, this article detailing the struggle of U2 guitarist “The Edge,” who’s attempting to build a “luxury green” community of a handful of 7,000-12,000 square foot homes in the Santa Monica Mountains, above Malibu, California. Environmental groups, regulatory agencies, and rock stars are definitely not seeing eye-to-eye on the project. The [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on February 3rd, 2010 in Architecture and Design, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration, General, Green Building, Project Updates
In belated honor of J.D. Salinger, a deceptively simple observation on homes, by Joyce Maynard:
“A good home must be made, not bought.”
Taken a bit out of context, this assertion is, when you think about it, pretty radical. We buy homes, like we buy cars and home theater systems, though usually with a bigger loan, and [...]
Posted by Joe Barnes on January 29th, 2010 in Architecture and Design, Education and Inspiration, General, Project Updates
Virginia Public Radio recently aired a segment on Bundoran Farmand our efforts to preserve the character and use of the 2,300 acres of this legacy landscape, promote ongoing environmental stewardship and craft a great place for people to live in and enjoy the countryside of Charlottesville, Virginia and Albemarle County region. Click here to for [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on January 18th, 2010 in Architecture and Design, General
From the “Things We Covet” file: Sanyo’s new E-Bike. This is a standard, good-looking bicycle with a quiet 250 watt motor that kicks in on hills. The idea’s not new, but the execution this time is good. They’ve had practice, selling “tens of millions” of hybrid bikes in China.
The Bundoran Farm team suggests that this might be a [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on January 15th, 2010 in Agriculture, Architecture and Design, Education and Inspiration, General, Nature/Environment
The Piedmont Virginian is a lovely magazine focusing on history, culture and preservation of Virginia’s rural heritage. It’s always a good read, especially when they do the occaisional feature on Bundoran Farm or someone we know in the Charlottesville area. This winter, Thomas Randolph has begun a fascinating new feature callled Deep Background. In each [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on November 30th, 2009 in Architecture and Design, General, Green Building
I’m taking some time this fall to complete my LEED-AP certification (this is the primary credential of the U.S. Green Building Council). I was about to take the darned test a couple of days before we submitted our Preliminary Plat for Bundoran Farm, a few years back, and somehow haven’t found the time since joining [...]
Posted by David Hamilton on November 30th, 2009 in Architecture and Design, Baldwin Center for Preservation, Education and Inspiration, General
Here at the Baldwin Center, we subscribe to several web news feeds that track studies, stories and statistics on farmland and development pressure. The remarkable similarity of many of these stories (“Planning Commission Supports Additional Farmland Protection Measures”) illustrates how universal are the issues we’ve chosen to address with this foundation.
Recently, however, as so many fast-growing [...]