By Scott Boylston | photos by Jess Paterson
The Growing Edge Community Garden for Green Groceries officially opened the doors to its shade house today with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The structure is perfect embodiment of Emergent Structures’ vision of diverting construction and demolition waste from landfills and toward innovative projects that serve the community, and we are proud to have led the design/build of the shade house.
A mountain of gratitude goes to our design and construction partners Greenline Architecture and Rives E. Worrell/JE Dunn. If you’ve been reading this blog you know that the shade house is built on the grounds of the fabulous West Broad Street YMCA, as a part of a LIVE WELL, BE WELL grant from Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.
The groundbreaking featured songs from the kindergarten class at the W. Broad Y, and the unveiling of the Growing Edge Community Garden for Green Groceries mobile food truck. Although Emergent Structures’ official role in this collective impact endeavor has come to a close with the completion of the shade house, we are excited about the next big steps for the 15-agency collaboration, which includes a major renovation of the West Broad YMCA kitchen, and educational programming across the food production spectrum.
We’ve applauded the work of Andy McGarrity of Rives E. Worrel many ties through this process, and there are no words to appropriately thank him for his focus, determination and creativity throughout the construction process! But we’d also like to acknowledge the other companies that stepped up to the plate at the behest of Rives E. Worrell to make this project what it is: Bonitz of Georgia, Coastal Concrete Southeast, Coastal Grinding, CMG, Eastern Excavating Co., J&L Glass, New South Construction Supply, Outdoor Accents, Dan J.Sheehan Co., Sherwin Williams,Tidewater Landscape Management, Morris Mechanical, and VOS Electric Co. Thank you to all!
And for those who are interested, here are the origins of the construction materials, you can either check out our plaque on site, or get the information here:
ORIGINS OF THE VINYL WINDOW SASH : The vinyl window sash were reclaimed from the old Tybee Island Police Station on Van Horne Street, which was demolished in 2013 to make way for the new police station.
ORIGINS OF THE CINDER BLOCK: The cinder block used for this structure was reclaimed from three different sites in Savannah by RK Construction. 1) A car dealership built in the 1960s that was deconstructed in 2004 as a part of the Abercorn Commons redevelopment project, the country’s first LEED certified retail center. 2) The deconstruction of a turn-of-the-century building on Liberty and Price that housed Liberty Plumbing. 3) A renovation at 1611 Habersham Street that is presently home to Blowin’ Smoke restaurant.
ORIGINS OF THE GLASS DOORS: In 2012, the two glass doors were reclaimed from a home on Wilmington Island built in the 1970s. Other materials reclaimed from the home included antique pine that was repurposed for the owner’s new home. The antique pine had been installed in the original 1970s home from reclaimed sources.
ORIGINS OF THE SINK: The double sink was originally installed at Betty Bombers restaurant on Hunter Army Airfield which closed its doors in 2014 after a fire at the Forsyth Park location of the same restaurant.
ORIGINS OF THE PAVERS: Rives E. Worrell Construction salvaged the sand, gravel and pavers from an earlier construction site.
ORIGINS OF THE TEMPERED PLATE GLASS: Emergent Structures has partnered with DIRTT Environmental Solutions in the company’s pursuit of a zero-to-landfill manufacturing operation in Savannah by creatively repurposing waste glass in structures such as this one.
