Row House to Ranch House

According to Lawrence Livermore Labs 36% of the country’s energy use is attributable to buildings and two thirds of that is in the residential sector. This research combines building energy modeling with energy consumption data in transportation and infrastructure sectors to examine energy use implications of habitation patterns. We compared CO2 footprints of three different patterns of typical American habitation: post-Second World War non-urban, 19th century urban, and highly urban. From drawings, utility bills, and occupant data, we used TREAT (Targeted Retrofit Energy Analysis Tool) to model the energy use of three buildings of very different constructions, comparing in the process the impact on energy use of envelope and size. Because buildings don’t exist as isolated energy-using entities, we added the CO2 footprint contributions of location/density, reflected by infrastructure: numbers of miles of paving required to place a building in the landscape, miles of pipe for water and waste and the energy required by pumps to make it work. Finally, people move between buildings, so we added a transportation component to account for occupants’ daily travel. Since buildings don’t use energy (people do) we divided total CO2 footprints by number of occupants for per capita CO2. The final analysis quantifies the impact on an individual’s CO2 production of habitation (dense urban, historic urban, or non-urban) and how much impact energy conservation measures can have once the selection of a dwelling location is made. Our analyses demonstrate that reduction of building energy use through improved construction affects only a small percentage of total energy usage. Instead, choice of where to live determines individual CO2 footprints far more than building-related components. We found nearly a threefold difference in individual energy consumption from a New York City apartment dweller to a “close-in” suburban ranch house occupant with only minor differences between building-associated energy use. The bulk of the difference is attributable to differences in transportation utilization and infrastructure-related energy consumption. Even as technical and legislative advances continue, our work demonstrates a broader societal dialogue about fundamental big picture issues, including sustainable densities, is critical.

Making Theatre Art: David Levine's Habit

David Levine's 2012 production of Habit is a theatrical installation of Jason Grote's The Children of Kings. Performed on repeat for eight hours a day and staged inside an enclosed set built to look like the interior of a suburban ranch house, it challenges the boundaries of what viewers perceive to be theatre.

Nuclear Waste

I gazed over the railing into the crystal clear cooling pool glowing with blue Cherenkov light caused by particulate radiation traveling faster than the speed of light in water. I can see a matrix of square objects through the water, filling more than half of the pool. It looks like you could take a quick dip into the water, like an indoor swimming pool, but that would not be a good idea! It is amazing to think that this pool, about the size of a ranch house, is holding all of the spent fuel from powering the Wolf Creek nuclear reactor in Burlington, Kansas, for 27 years. The reactor was just refueled about a month before my visit, so 80 of the used fuel rod assemblies were removed from the reactor and replaced with new ones. The used fuel rods were moved underwater into the cooling pool, joining the approximately 1,500 already there. There is sufficient space for the next 15 years of reactor operation. There is no danger from standing at the edge of this pool looking in, though the levels of radon tend to be somewhat elevated and may electrostatically attach to my hard hat, as indeed some did. What I am gazing at is what has stirred much of the controversy over nuclear power and is what must ultimately be dealt with if nuclear power is to grow in the future—the spent nuclear fuel waste associated with nuclear power. What is the hidden danger that I am staring at? Am I looking at the unleashed power of Hephaestus, the mythical Greek god of fi re and metallurgy? Or is this a more benign product of energy production that can be managed safely? What exactly is in this waste? And is it really waste, or is it a resource? To answer that question, we have to understand the fuel that reactors burn. The fuel rods that provide the heat from nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor contain fuel pellets of uranium, an element that has an atomic number of 92 (the number of protons and also the number of electrons).

The Ranch House in Georgia: A Case for Collaboration

This essay introduces the agencies and firms that collaborated in the development of guidelines for the National Register of Historic Places evaluation of ranch houses in Georgia. Remarks from each provide an understanding of the process for this ground-breaking venture and afford a view into the ways in which public history is practiced.

Did Insecure Property Rights Slow Economic Development? Some Lessons from Economic History

Not long ago, a 43-year-old Wonder Bread deliveryman named John Dugger logged on to eBay and, as people sometimes do these days, bought himself a house. Not a shabby one, either. Nine rooms, three stories, rooftop patio, walls of solid stonework—it wasn't quite a castle, but it put to shame the modest redbrick ranch house Dugger came home to every weeknight after a long day stocking the supermarket shelves of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Excellent location, too; nestled at the foot of a quiet coastal hillside, the house was just a hike away from a quaint seaside village and a quick commute from two bustling cosmopolitan cities. It was perfect, in short, except for one detail: The house was imaginary.