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Pawning Penguins
Penguins in Savannah have been sighted once again! And we had so much fun challenging our readers to come up with a good tag line or speech/thought bubble this past May, that we thought we would do it again.
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Bee Cause of the Wonderful Things They Do!
The Bee Cause is a non-profit endeavor to place 1,000 observational honeybee hives into schools across the nation as a means of educating children on the benefits of honey bees. Ted Dennard of the Savannah Bee Company founded the organization, and Emergent Structures is extremely pleased to be helping the cause by supplying reclaimed wood […]
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Whole Foundation!
With the grand opening of Savannah’s Whole Foods Market in one week, Emergent Structures is extremely proud and fortunate, to have hosted Whole Foods Market and Young Contracting at E.34, the Design for Ability greenhouse site. After several weeks of planning, Whole Foods and Young Contracting brought a crew from the Savannah Whole Foods building site […]
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Into the Clearing
Irony’s not far around the corner when one of the last obstacles in the way of creating a structure from reclaimed lumber is another pile of reclaimed lumber, but Southern Pine Co. is so serious about their sustainability efforts to reclaim building materials, that their property is piled high with the stuff.
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Reclaiming Savannah Gardens through Public Art (3)
Last week, we caught you up on the background of the Savannah Gardens public art project, and from this point forward we’ll keep providing updates until the official unveiling this fall. In the above photograph, Jerome Meadows hold a check from Emergent Structures for $1,800. We’ve been so committed to this project, that we are […]
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The Lap Lap is Back
By Scott Boylston Last summer, we shared stories of ingenious re-use that took place at Shuman Elementary School as the result of our construction of an educational garden. We were particularly happy to share the ways in which we cut the lap from the red cedar shiplap (we call it The Lap Lap), and transformed it […]
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Materialanthropy
By Scott Boylston | photography by Pimprae Hiranprueck Philanthropy is a powerful force for good. While we celebrate individuals who donate money, however, we sometimes forget how wealthy we are when it comes to material goods that can be donated. Emergent Structures’ MATERIALANTROPHY program is designed to celebrate people who open their doors to our […]
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W.M. Penguins (Vol. 6): Insta-Penguins
Ah…Springtime in Savannah. The weather is warmer, the daylight, longer. Our fountains are flowing with green and the azaleas are in full bloom. Tourists are flooding the squares, and it’s all building up to the biggest event of the year: St. Patrick’s Day.
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W.M.Penguins (Vol. 5): Spring Training
“The Penguins are gonna have a heck of a farm team, this year, Bennie-Boy.” ________________________________________________________ Stay tuned every Wednesday afternoon for another edition of… PENGUINS IN SAVANNAH
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W.M. Penguins (Vol. 4): A Woodwork Orange
________________________________________________________ Stay tuned every Wednesday afternoon for another edition of… PENGUINS IN SAVANNAH
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W.M.Penguins (Vol. 3): A New rePurpose
Where do penguins come from? The southern hemisphere, mostly. But these guys? Well, they were found in dumpsters, alleyways, curbsides and attics. They were found on the street. Saved from landfills. Now just a bunch of goofballs waddling around the streets and squares of Savannah.
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Thank you, Metropolitan Savannah Rotary!
Our first volunteer event on the greenhouse site was a great success, thanks to the Metropolitan Savannah Rotary! More windows for the greenhouse were scraped, sanded and primed. In just a few hours, 6 reclaimed window sash from Savannah Gardens were prepped and primed, and another 10 were prepped to be primed.
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Harmony Shacks + Kickstarters
By Scott Boylston WE DID IT!!! Thanks to 78 super-generous individuals around the country, we exceeded our Kickstarter goal for helping fund the Design for Ability greenhouse! WOW! What an incredible number of civic-minded and giving individuals—thank you for your extraordinary generosity!
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Yes: There!
By now you probably realize that, not only does Emergent Structures believe in the power of transformation, but we exist as an organization to shove it into existence. The set of photos below presents a ‘before-and-after’ scenario for Shuman Elementary, our most recent design-build project (and things were actually worse before we took that first […]
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The Jones Street Waltz: What a Long and Sweet Dance it has Been!
By Scott Boylston Almost exactly two years ago, Debra and Chuck Caldwell invited us into their recently purchased 1866 home on East Jones Street in Savannah; a majestic, yet previously neglected corner-lot house on Savannah’s most beloved street. At that time Emergent Structures was a still-yet-fully formed idea centered almost exclusively around the Savannah Gardens […]
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Keeping Pace
Teddy Roosevelt once said “Believe you can and you’re halfway there,” and because of your belief in us, we are, indeed, halfway there! We just surpassed the 50% mark for our Kickstarter fund-raising campaign, and that milestone arrived with a tremendously generous splash! We have three more weeks to go, and understanding that we procured […]
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When We Build, Let Us Think We Build Forever
By Scott Boylston Happy 2013! We’re starting the new year with a milestone, and a thought about the nature of permanence and the built environment. First the milestone: We are over 25% of the way to meeting our Kickstarter goal! As of earlier today, we surpassed the $2,000 mark, and with 29 days left, things […]
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Elevating Our Game
We’re one step closer to harmonizing the reclaimed material streams that we’ve harvested with the form and function of our Design for Ability greenhouse! There is now a detailed template for our ramshackle piles of discarded lumber and stacks of reclaimed, 70-year old window sash to follow. With the combined, expertise of Catie Pizzichemi, and […]
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Place, Identity, and a Reverence for Transformation
By Scott Boylston YOU KNOW …if you had already joined our Kickstarter campaign, you’d be done reading this already! (before you read on, join it NOW!) First, thank you to all of our early supporters! This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship! We are all new to each other, so a good place to […]
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Now is the time to join the Emergent Structures team: KICK START US!
We invite you to become a part of the Design for Ability greenhouse project by donating to our newly launched Kickstarter campaign! Now you can join the likes of IKEA, Hardin Construction and Southern Pine Company by officially contributing to the greenhouse construction! The Design for Ability greenhouse, to be located on E.34 Street, will […]
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Aging Gracefully, In Deed!
By Scott Boylston Two years ago, in one of our very first material harvest events, over 80 people—volunteers, paid apprentices, and employees from TrussMart, NorSouth, Southern Pine Co., and Mercy Housing—convened at the Savannah Gardens redevelopment site to pull nails from reclaimed studs and tongue and groove roof sheathing. That material, and similar material prepared […]
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Frame by Frame (by frame by frame…)
Thank you, Emergent Structures volunteers for coming out again, and refurbishing the window sash for the Design for Ability greenhouse! As you can see from the picture above, we’ve really got a great re-assembly line in place.
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Window Cleaners Unite! (that means you volunteers)
It’s that time again! Come on out to Savannah Tech this Thursday afternoon, or next…OR BOTH! Join us 5:30-7:30 to help prepare reclaimed window sash for the Design for Ability Greenhouse. They’re looking great so far, and we need your help to finish them up. Email [email protected] for more info and to sign up!
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