Sunday, October 31, 2010

GVW Brownfields


Near my hometown, there's this great project starting where they're taking land that has been previously developed on(and has since been abandoned, idled or contaminated), and doing extensive environmental cleanup- essentially "recycling" the land- and preparing it for new uses. They're calling the used land "Brownfields", its opposite being "Greenfields."

There are many advantages to using Brownfields rather than Greenfields. Some advantages are that there is already an existing support infrastructure, community improvement, cost avoidance (for construction), job creation, and reduction of urban sprawl. There are so many benefits to recycling Brownfields, but one of the most notable is the preservation of agricultural farmland, (which, my wonderful boyfriend Shandon tells me is being lost at a rate of 2 acres per minute in the United States)

Shandon got involved in this green-initiative and he's been going through a lot of training courses that will prepare him to sample, study, and decomtaminate the land and buildings of various types of pollutants. (In a way, he's learning how to be a more effective 21st century Adam, learning to take care of and keep the land we've been given- which was the first instruction God ever gave man.)

He has gotten me interested in what he's learning and a few weeks ago, he drove me around in Graniteville and showed me some of the old buildings and mills that are (hopefully) going to be restored to a usable and safe environment. Here's one of the buildings we visited. It's name is Hickman Hall and it was built in 1907.

1 comment:

Telly said...

This is exactly the kind of illustration that a friend of mine is looking to go on a pillow for downtown rock hill. I don't know what she's willing to pay, but might you consider drawing up a couple things if I sent you picture-fied inspiration?