Nest — Fall 2017

home design real estate

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Living together: Bristol Village Cohousing

Liberty House opens in Burlington

LIghting up at the Lamp Shop

How to cut energy use and costs

Conifers shape a winter garden

There’snonoplace placelike likehome... home...

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Change is in the autumn air It may be Indian summer now, but cooler days are on the way. And so we begin to think about cozy interiors, lighting the darkness and, inevitably, facing our heating bills. That’s why in this issue we visit two brand-new housing developments — with historic ties — and a colorful lamp store. We also check out a program that helps Burlington residents cut energy use and costs. And for good measure, we explore ways to make our backyards prettier in winter. One word, people: conifers.

T C E F R E P E H T A R O F E PLAC ARMING GIFT. HOUSEW

Happy Together ....................... 8

An old street in Bristol is revitalized with infill cohousing

BY M O LLY WAL S H

On the Rise ...............................12

From orphanage to college to 65 apartments: Liberty House opens in Burlington

BY A M Y LI L LY

Funky, cool and retro, the Lamp Shop is turned on

BY CA R O LY N S H AP IR O

8

How to Be a Champ.................21

Estimated costs for energy-efficiency improvements in a Burlington single-family home

Planning for your winter garden

24 ON THE COVER The Lamp Shop in Burlington PHOTO: MATTHEW THORSEN 12 Liberty House opens in Burlington

16 LIghting up at the Lamp Shop

How to cut energy use and costs

Conifers shape a winter garden

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8 Living together: Bristol Village Cohousing

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For the Love of Light ..............16

An old street in Bristol is revitalized with infill cohousing

BY MO L LY WAL S H

PHOTOS: MATTHEW THORSEN

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Happy Together

Top: The Bristol Village Cohousing complex. Bottom: Interiors of various houses in the complex.

HO US I NG

Mollie German was making chocolate chip cookies in her spotless new kitchen when she realized she was out of vanilla — and quickly dispatched her 13-year-old son to buy some at the grocery store a block away on Bristol’s Main Street. common house for group meals and He completed the errand on foot, to gatherings, its several bedrooms as his mother’s delight. Pedestrian access and independence are among the things guest quarters.

The rest of the cohousing complex German wanted for her two children consists of five new single-family homes when she moved in August from a big and a new fourplex, a duplex and a house on a rural lot in Warren. Her triplex carved out of older homes, two new home: a 1,232-square-foot triplex old barns, 23 uncovered parking spaces, at Vermont’s newest cohousing comand a lot for a big community garden. munity in historic Bristol village.

The entire site is 2.5 acres.

“I was looking for somewhere we All but two of the units could walk, a more conhave been sold, with prices densed community,” exranging from $271,000 plained German, a potter to $351,000. Residents and graduate student. She moved in this summer from also craved the emphasis Burlington, the Mad River on community that is a Valley, Maine, Brooklyn and cohousing trademark. She San Diego. Among them are a appreciates, too, that her nurse, a carpenter, a massage ultra-energy-efficient digs therapist, young parents, are brand-new but share empty nesters and retirees. a street with 19th-century Governance is a collective homes with slate roofs, PEG KAME NS affair, and each household wavy glass windows, gets a vote on the community wrought-iron fencing and board. columned porches.

All of the units were designed to “This is a sweet little spot,” German use about 70 percent less energy than said. “I feel very grateful.” a typical home. The roofs have solar Vermont is home to at least seven panels, and the heavily insulated walls residential developments that meet the are 13 inches thick. Heat pumps keep rough definition of cohousing — the the interiors warm or cool. Cedar-slat Scandinavian-pioneered concept in sunscreens, somewhat similar in shape which private homeowners share green to awnings, are attached to exterior spaces, maintenance or gardening walls above southern-facing windows to equipment, and sometimes a common reduce overheating but let in light. house where they gab over weekly In the kitchens, the stoves use potlucks, pick up their mail and put up energy-saving induction heat, which their guests. boils water “crazy fast,” explained Niko Most cohousing in Vermont is on rural parcels. The 14-unit Bristol Village Pruesse. The massage and healing arts teacher moved with her husband, Mark Cohousing, which opened in August, Adams, from Burlington to Bristol stands out in several ways. For one, Village Cohousing this summer. residents are close to Main Street and Their 1,530-square-foot duplex is within earshot of the town band that open and bright, with sage and lavender plays every Wednesday in a gazebo on walls, original hardwood floors, and the village green. Also unusual: The vintage tiles and pedestal sink in the big development is a mix of rehabbed upstairs bathroom. Pruesse’s in-laws rehistoric homes and new construction, cently moved from San Diego and share laid out around a rectangular common the house. The former Californians fashioned from the backyards of the appreciate the proximity of the library, older homes. post office, restaurants and neighboring One of the latter, at 16 North Street, houses. is an 1860s beauty with 10-foot ceilings, “It’s so great that they can just walk a porte cochère, distinctive brackets everywhere,” she said. and other handsome details; it was featured in the 1988 film The Wizard of Loneliness. This now serves as the HAPPY TOGETHER » P.10

WE CALL OURSELVES A VILLAGE WITHIN A VILLAGE.

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Above: Exterior of one of the updated buildings in the complex

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On a recent evening, children rode their bicycles on the gravel path around the common and swung the tetherball suspended from a pole in the center of the grassy area. Their parents carried lasagna and blueberry pie to the weekly potluck in the common house.

To the east, the outline of the Bristol Ledges and Hogback Mountain loomed like a green shelf. To the south, cars moved slowly past the shops and restaurants on Main Street, the mood of the town serene.

“We call ourselves a village within a village,” said Peg Kamens, who cofounded Bristol Village Cohousing with her husband, Jim Mendell.

The duo decided they wanted to develop this type of community about eight years ago. They’d gained experience in real estate financing, environmentally conscious construction and collaborative governance at the Common Ground Center, the nonprofit retreat and family center they’d created in nearby Starksboro.

But it was difficult to find the right parcel of land for cohousing, the couple said, and some of their early partners in the effort dropped out. Things came together when they learned that three historic residences and an empty lot were for sale on Bristol’s North Street.

Kamens and Mendell bought the whole stretch for about $750,000 in 2013 and took out a construction loan for $3.4 million, mortgaging their own house in the process. Permitting took six months, which the couple considers a relatively short time given the complexity of the proposal.

Although the house at 16 North Street was in solid shape, the other properties were sagging or vacant. The decay helped convince town appointees that the newfangled cohousing development would be a good thing. “It was kind of like a creepy, run-down area of a very sweet little town,” said Kamens.

Though she had moments of worry — realizing that if the units didn’t sell quickly, she and her husband would be on the hook for property taxes and other holding costs — Mendell remained optimistic.

He marketed the units without using a real estate agent and didn’t worry too much about the risks. “People come because they love cohousing, so it wasn’t really that scary,” Mendell said. He and Kamens, who raised three children in a big house on a dirt road in southern Chittenden County, say they love their new cottage at Bristol Village Cohousing and aren’t looking back.

PHOTOS: MATTHEW THORSEN

SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Happy Together « P.9

Top: An 1800s house on North Street serves as a gathering place for weekly meals and mail pickup.

Bottom: Residents gather for a potluck dinner at the common house.

Essex Junction-based Stewart Construction began work on the project in September 2016 and finished up in August. Some Bristol residents watching the progress were skeptical at first.

“They were not all that receptive early on,” said Aaron Stewart, vice president and senior project manager of the construction company. “A lot of people had odd ideas about what was going on. There were thoughts that it was a gated community on one hand,

and, on the other, people thought it was low-income housing.”

But as the work progressed, “people really started to like it,” Stewart continued. “They commented on it regularly. They would compliment the workers who were doing the exteriors of the buildings.”

Project architect Jean Terwilliger of Middlebury worked with Mendell and Kamens to save and restore historic elements: a star-pattern fanlight over one door, delicate iron fencing along a

stretch of sidewalk, columns, interior hardwood floors and working fireplaces.

The architect also worked to angle decks, porches and windows in a way that would allow views of the outdoors but maintain privacy inside. Bringing the new into the old neighborhood was easier than one might think, Terwilliger said.

“Because it was the existing lot with the three houses that were there, in my mind, we had a head start,” she observed. “It sort of gave us some structure to work within.”

The units range in size from 890 to 1,530 square feet. For German, that meant considerable downsizing of her family’s stuff — most of which she doesn’t miss. Her duplex is bright and warm and uncluttered, and she likes it that way.

“For me, I really just love the simplicity,” German said.

Contact: molly@sevendaysvt.com

INFO

The Bristol Village Cohousing grand opening is Sunday, October 1, 2 to 5 p.m., with refreshments and tours of the project. A yard sale begins at 10 a.m. bristolcohousing.com

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Onthe Rise

AR CHI T ECT UR E

From orphanage to college to 65 apartments: Liberty House opens in Burlington

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Whatever Burlingtonians might think of the city’s largest-ever planned housing development — the 14-building, 739-unit Cambrian Rise at 329 to 375 North Avenue — it’s hard not to admire its first finished building.

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B Y A M Y L I L LY

Top: Interior of a Liberty House apartment Bottom: Artist rendering of Cambrian Rise

TA RY N B A R R ET T

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A shower at the Liberty House

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THE SCALE AND MASS OF IT ARE PRETTY GRAND.

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ON THE RISE

THERE AREN’T A LOT OF OPPORTUNITIES TO WORK ON A BUILDING LIKE THIS.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM

to former boys’ and girls’ bathrooms on each floor. Forty-two skylights were inserted, including in the chapel wing, which projects westward toward the lake. And the gabled roof of that arm of the building was sliced off to install a veranda. A shorter, private veranda for the cupola apartment hovers above.

When Laura Trieschmann, the state historic preservation officer, saw the verandas, she was initially alarmed — until she got closer, and then stood on them. “You see why he did that,” she said appreciatively.

Preservation review of Liberty House hadn’t originally been required.

It comes into play when Act 250 is required, and the latter doesn’t apply to developments in designated Neighborhood Development Areas, of which the orphanage was one, with fewer than 275 units. When Farrell’s plan expanded to 739 units, requiring Act 250, rehabilitation of Liberty House was largely complete. But Farrell invited Trieschmann and Jamie Duggan, the state senior historic preservation review coordinator, to include the building in their assessment of the entire development. Preservation’s involvement protects the building going forward, requiring future changes to undergo review, noted Duggan.

Trieschmann and Duggan said that changes such as the verandas may not have passed muster as constructed had Liberty House been reviewed as a preservation project. But in general the two were admiring. “I thought it was a wonderful solution to get a very large building back into service and to provide housing,” said Trieschmann.

Inside, nearly every inch of the available 55,000 square feet has been used, including the former attic. The building contains 65 apartments, of which 50 have been rented. In two attic apartments, exposed, massive beam trusses — formerly visible only when storage was accessed — now add visual interest; some horizontal, structural beams at floor level are capped with benches. The basement level, formerly the orphanage’s laundry and utilities space and now an appealingly furnished entry lobby, is lined with metal columns topped with ornate capitals.

Other apartments feature interior walls of exposed brick or interesting lintels. The apartments’ sleek, graytoned bathrooms, white walls and stainless-steel appliances complement the historic details.

Original wainscoting lining the main floor’s hallway was regrettably stripped away, said Barrett. But the change exposed 13-foot-high red-brick walls,

PHOTOS: MATTHEW THORSEN

Liberty House, as developer Eric Farrell named it, has amazing lake views; a separate bike entrance with indoor bays for tuning, washing and storing bikes; a pet wash-and-dry room beside the main entry; free laundry machines; a craft room; a gym; a CarShare Vermont car named Rufus, for which one-year memberships are subsidized for all residents; and a common-area rooftop veranda with expansive views of the lake in both directions.

But what makes Liberty House a stunner, arguably, is the building itself.

Built by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in 1882, the former Providence Orphan Asylum — named for the Sisters of Providence from Montréal who cared for the children — is a four-story, red brick structure spanning 170 feet. Bands of white on the façade run the width of the building, visually linking each floor’s arched windows. The building’s redstone foundation is so high that the first-floor entry was once reached via a sweeping stone staircase. Chimneys have disappeared, but a stately cupola still tops a roof lined with attic dormer windows.

The orphanage, renamed St. Joseph’s Child Center in 1962, served children for 100 years, from 1884 through 1983.

It also housed a bishop, starting in 1978, and the church’s administrative offices, starting in the early 1980s, until Burlington College purchased it in 2010.

When the college closed in 2016 — school officials cited the weight of debt from the land and building purchase as a major cause — the building was showing signs of neglect.

Farrell engaged Duncan Wisniewski Architecture to restore the building’s exterior largely to its original look.

Architect Taryn Barrett, who worked with Bob Duncan on the project, says the team found ghosting of the original street-side entry canopy after removing a glass-enclosed, A-frame front entry that had been added in 1962. They used historic photos to re-create its massing and to rebuild the curved double staircase. One of those photos, showing the steps filled with children in 1954, is framed inside the street entrance.

Barrett was thrilled to tackle the project. “There aren’t a lot of opportunities to work on a building like this. The scale and mass of it are pretty grand,” she enthused.

Farrell showed this reporter around, starting at the back of the building, which is now the main entrance. The structure was in “great shape” when he bought it, he said, but the brick needed “a monster amount of re-pointing.” He showed that the project had replaced all of the single-pane windows with double-panes and had added windows

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COMPROMISING FOR COMMUNITY

On the Rise « P.13

I THOUGHT IT WAS A WONDERFUL SOLUTION TO GET

A VERY LARGE BUILDING BACK INTO SERVICE AND TO PROVIDE HOUSING. L AUR A TR IE S C H MANN

SEVENDAYSVT.COM FALL 2017 SEVEN DAYS

topped by a wooden ceiling restored during the project. (Another floor’s pressed-tin ceiling was also preserved.) Original door openings weren’t wide enough to meet current accessibility codes, so the architects had them closed up, using bricks removed from walls to create openings for new doorways. Bricks where doors used to be are recessed by one inch, indicating the floor’s original layout.

The brickwork won over both preservation officers. Said Duggan, a former bricklayer, it shows the building’s “embodied energy — the amount of effort it takes to make bricks, dig up the clay, fire them, lay them. The walls get to tell you that themselves.”

For Trieschmann, the setbacks leave intriguing traces of the building’s history. “It’s documented right there,” she said.

At the suggestion of his friend Charlie Pughe, Farrell named Liberty House after a ship that Benedict Arnold confiscated from the British. The building has stood solo on its promontory overlooking Lake Champlain for 135 years. It’s now set to weather many more years of use — but no longer alone. As buildings rise around it, its view and anchor position in the development will be maintained, according to site plans, but it will inevitably lose some of its solitary grandeur.

Yet the former orphanage could have been abandoned to neglect.

Farrell hadn’t planned to buy it; the banks required him to append it to the land deal when Burlington College’s viability came into question. And rehabilitations cost more than a new building, said the developer. Farrell’s projects include the Olympiad, a residential building in South Burlington that is also 55,000 square feet on five floors.

That building cost 30 percent less to build from the ground up than the orphanage cost to rehab.

Asked how he felt about spending that much on Liberty House, Farrell answers, “It was too spectacular not to.”

Two community groups opposed to the development, Coalition for a Livable City and Save Open Space - Burlington, raised environmental concerns about Cambrian Rise. Among them was the potential impact of developing what was originally 33.6 acres of lakeside land. As reported by Katie Jickling in a July 19 story in Seven Days, the concerns led developer Eric Farrell to sell 12 of the acres to the City of Burlington, facilitated by the Vermont Land Trust.

The 12-acre lakeside swath, which ends in an L around Cambrian Rise’s southern edge, will be a public park, most of which will remain “urban wilds.”

The park includes Texaco Beach — a moniker from its pre-1970s days as a tank farm for the oil company — and an 1882 stone structure that was built as a sanitarium by Dr. John Murray Clarke, who trained at the University of Vermont medical school.

Farrell had planned to divide the 12 acres into 17 single-family lots. In exchange for the loss, he said, the development’s remaining 21.6 acres were rezoned for denser development.

The development agreement addresses a number of environmental concerns. All stormwater runoff from the development will be managed on-site, with underground retention chambers, rather than by the city’s sewer system. (The latter already receives more runoff during storms than it can handle.)

The park creates a permeable buffer between development and lake of up to 560 feet at its widest, according to Farrell Real Estate’s development director, Owiso Makuku.

Additionally, two-thirds of Cambrian Rise’s parking is underground, and landscaping plans call for an orchard as one of several features that will offset the amount of impermeable surface being built.

Farrell’s company worked with the Burlington Electric Department to choose energyefficient appliances and air systems. And solar panels are planned for most new buildings, said Farrell.

Contact: lilly@sevendaysvt.com

Learn more about Liberty House at cambrianrisevt.com.

Top: The back deck of the Liberty House Bottom: Developer Eric Farrell shows a picture of the former Providence Orphan Asylum, which used to operate at the site of Liberty House.

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PHOTOS: MATTHEW THORSEN

Above: The Lamp Shop owner Liz Segal at her store on Pine Street in Burlington

HO ME DÉCO R

For the

Love of

Light

Funky, cool and retro, the Lamp Shop is turned on

BY CAROLY N SHAPIRO

Liz Segal unwinds the bubble wrap from a chandelier encircled with orange and red plastic tiles, like a carousel around a brass center. It’s one of a matching pair of ’50s-era dangling lamps that she discovered in upstate New York on her latest buying trip.

L I Z S EG A L

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IT’S AMAZING WHAT HAPPENS WITH OUR BUSINESS.

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FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT

THE SECOND THE CLOCKS SHIFT TO DARKNESS,

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Italianate floral chandeliers that fly out the door.

In general, Segal looks for “anything that’s different, funky and cool.”

The Lamp Shop embodies all three qualities. It’s jam-packed, a jungle of lighting fixtures. Chandeliers crowd the ceiling, grouped by style. Constellations of crystal twinkle over an arrangement of living room chairs and tables. Floral fixtures cluster like overhead bouquets near the counter. Midcentury globes and groovy colored-glass enhancements hang on another side of the shop. Art-deco pendants hover over the center, along with large fixtures such as a wagon-wheel-size ring of lights that would look right at home over a banquet table in “Game of Thrones.”

Table lamps perch on nearly every surface, including a group of ceramic bust bases by a local sculptor. Floor lamps bunch like flocks of flamingos.

More lampstands, awaiting repairs, sit in a storage room on the north side of the shop. Every style of sconce adorns the walls.

Open shelves hold stacks of lampshades in a multitude of shapes, sizes and

SEVENDAYSVT.COM

The owner of the Lamp Shop, a lighting boutique in Burlington’s South End, Segal selects the bulk of her mostly vintage inventory during this annual August jaunt.

She also visits her favorite “pickers” and flea markets in central and western New York and sometimes travels through Ohio, Pennsylvania and rural Virginia.

These trips result in hundreds of newfound pieces that Segal and her staff will unload into a storage room behind the Lamp Shop, which occupies the pink storefront at 424 Pine Street. During the summer, the covered front entrance is lush with plantings in retro receptacles.

And during the South End Art Hop, Segal attracts admiring passersby with sculptural, colorful lighting that spins overhead.

“We tend to find things and buy things in weird themes,” Segal says, noting that orange repeatedly popped up during her recent trip. “Themes just present themselves, and whatever you happen to fall in love with, you buy.”

Sometimes Segal purchases pieces she doesn’t personally love but knows will appeal to those with different tastes.

Sometimes she fulfills a regular customer’s request. Or she tries to replenish stock that has dwindled, such as the

FALL 2017 SEVEN DAYS 18 NEST

colors. The Lamp Shop corners the local market for unique shade options, Segal declares. They come in pink and lime green, in paisley patterns and geometric waves. They’re made of silk, linen and recycled plastic bottles — and mostly fashioned by American companies, she says. One style has an unusual shape: oval on top and rectangular on the bottom.

The Lamp Shop sells finials, bulbs and a small amount of jewelry, such as necklaces made of sliced billiard balls. A year ago, Segal brought in furniture, rugs and home décor accessories by designer Jenny Blanchard, who previously owned a Shelburne shop called Chez Bohème.

Blanchard favors vivid colors and bold patterns, and her upholstery transforms conventional antique furniture into modern art. She hand-sanded a metal table that’s currently in the shop, endowing its surface with crazy swirls.

It’s “your grandmother’s cool stuff, reimagined,” describes Segal. She has turned the Lamp Shop’s entry room into a Blanchard showcase, complete with a large leopard-print rug and a chair with a white shag seat.

Interior designers from Boston and beyond stumble upon the Lamp Shop and return for its eclectic collection, Segal says. And it looks different every time.

“We don’t have full control over it,” she says. “It’s whatever we happen to find.”

Paige Savage of South Burlington likes to bring out-of-town guests into the shop. Her daughter, an interior designer, introduced her to the place. On a late August afternoon, Savage arrives with Martha Walker, who lives in California’s Bay Area.

“It speaks to you when you come in,” Walker gushes. “It says, ‘Wow! This is fun.’ Whoever did all this loves to play.”

In 2000, Segal and her husband, Andy Arp, bought the lamp business that his brother-in-law operated in a small space in Rochester, N.Y. They took over his inventory and moved it into Segal’s studio in the Alchemy Jewelry Arts enclave next door, where she had made wooden children’s décor since the mid-’90s.

Business has boomed over the last few years, Segal says, though she didn’t give specific numbers. The summer tourist season benefits most Burlington retailers, but the Lamp Shop continues to shine during winter doldrums, when people crave light, she notes.

“The second the clocks shift to darkness,” Segal says of the November change from daylight saving time, “it’s amazing what happens with our business.”

MATTHEW THORSEN

SEVENDAYSVT.COM

For the Love of Light « P.17

A WAGON-WHEEL-SIZE RING OF LIGHTS WOULD LOOK RIGHT AT HOME OVER A BANQUET TABLE IN “GAME OF THRONES.” The shop houses about 750 pieces at a time, with 1,000 or more in the back rooms waiting for repairs or refurbishing before hitting the sales floor. Prices range from about $75 for a sconce to $2,200 for an elaborate fixture; a particularly special model might be upwards of $4,000.

Shades cost between $30 and $300.

Segal and her staff take pride in the cheeky sayings they write on price tags.

The tag hanging from a huge plaster ceiling fixture, painted to mimic brass, reads, “Plastered never looked this good!”

Danielle Bombardier is Segal’s righthand lamp lady. She joined the Lamp Shop nine years ago, after meeting Segal while working at the preschool program Segal’s son attended.

Turns out, Bombardier loves lamps.

She’s a whiz at wiring and repairs, which Arp taught her. On her left hip is a large tattoo of a slipper-glass sconce — an art-deco design with an elegant, impossible-to-replace frosted floral-shaped shade. It’s the kind her

husband calls “too much,” she says.

While unpacking the latest buys, an ornate arm or yellow-marble base of a floor lamp prompts Bombardier to ooh and ahh.

“Um, hi, where did you get this beauty?” she asks Segal in the rear storage room as she gently removes the plastic from a lamp base of iridescent glass in gold and pink tones. Bombadier turns it over to examine the bottom. “Oh, it’s Czechoslovakian.”

Segal retains a cadre of pickers she inherited from Arp’s brother-in-law. “Back Row Joe,” whom she first met manning a table in the back row of a Utica, N.Y., flea market, sends her smartphone pictures of his discoveries all year. Pickers scour estate sales or dig through attics for worthwhile treasures, setting aside those they know Segal will like. Some pickers clear out old factories or storage units and sell to multiple clients.

On her own excursions, Segal meets people who connect her with others

who have stashes of lamps. One time, she recalls, a guy showed up in a U-Haul at 10 p.m. to let her rummage through a truckload.

“Because we buy so many lights, people start finding us,” she explains.

On her recent trip, Segal picked up two huge metal movie reels that she plans to turn into chandeliers. In the storage room, she holds up a themeappropriate orange bomb casing that she envisions as a lamp base. Wearing turquoise Chuck Taylor All Stars and huge hoop earrings beneath her cropped, reddish-brown hair, Segal unwraps a plastic light-up “Taxi” rooftop sign.

“I kind of picture the taxi light going on top of somebody’s bookshelf,” she says.

Segal rejoices in these quirky catches.

She points to an earlier score: the Love Analyzer bar-top video game, which tests the user’s sex appeal with several questions.

“Unfortunately, we’ve used it for too many Art Hops, and it’s broken,” Segal says.

Regular customers from Washington, D.C., stop at the Lamp Shop every year during Art Hop, she adds. Another attendee fell in love with a giant Murano glass lamp shaped like a flower, and her husband called later to have it shipped for the woman’s birthday.

Each incoming piece gets tagged with a code that indicates where and when it was purchased and the price paid. The staff rewires most lamps, “because we just don’t trust other people’s work,” Segal says. Christy Mitchell, who runs the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery down the street, works in the Lamp Shop a few times a week to help out with repairs at the workbench behind the front counter. She learned the biz while working at nearby Conant Metal & Light years ago.

Despite its glowing run, the Lamp Shop has experienced disaster, too. On Super Bowl Sunday in 2015, Segal and Arp were returning from a trip with their son when a pipe burst on the third floor of the building. Water flowed directly into their shop.

“We had, like, standing water in fixtures,” Segal recalls. “Everything was soaking wet. We lost over 700 lampshades.”

She and the staff had to refurbish the entire space. And they dumped a lot of stock that they realized they didn’t need.

“It was a blessing disguised as a really tragic event,” Bombardier says.

Segal agrees: “It’s a much happier store.”

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ENER G Y

How to Be a Champ A Burlington program helps residents reduce energy use, cut costs and tackle climate change

BY E LIZABETH M. SEY L E R

The days are getting shorter, we’ve had a few cold snaps and gardens are winding down. Even for Burlington residents who stubbornly wait until October 1 to fire up the furnace, those heating bills will arrive eventually. To take the sting out of a waning summer, imagine living in a more comfortable home this winter and enjoying lower heat, hot water and electric costs.

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Button Up!

LED LIGHT BULBS for high-use lamps and fixtures: $15-50

Estimated costs for energy-efficiency improvements in a Burlington single-family home

NEW HIGHEFFICIENCY BATHROOM EXHAUST FAN: $150-250

» P.23

SEALING AIR LEAKS (windows, doors, ducts, plumbing, entries, etc.): $300-600 INSULATING WALLS: $2.15 per square foot of surface space

INSULATING CEILINGS & ATTIC: $1.25 per square foot of surface space

POWER STRIPS to easily turn off computer and other equipment: $8-16

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For years, VG had offered a 50 percent financial incentive to encourage these landlords to make energy improvements, said Burns. Without such incentives, he clarified, they were not inclined to work with either utility on energy efficiency. “The Energy Champ Challenge idea was, let’s bump that up to 75 percent and see what happens.

Vermont Gas was only able to do that from a budgetary standpoint for a year,” Burns added. “It was very popular.”

The challenge met and exceeded its goals, according to a January 2017 BED press release. Although BED and VG aimed to complete approximately 50 energy audits and improve 25 buildings, they completed 163 audits that informed energy upgrades on 63 buildings. The utilities calculate that Burlington landlords and tenants will save more than $647,000 collectively over the lifetime of those efficiency improvements.

These results inspired energyChamp, designed to serve all Queen City renters and single-family homeowners.

“Burlington was the first city in the country to create a combined thermalelectric portal for customers,” said BED general manager Neale Lunderville, referring to the energyChamp website.

“As a municipal electric department working with an investor-owned natural gas utility, I’m not sure there’s another like it out there,” said Burns.

“They frankly tend to compete for market share.”

So what motivates this collaboration? Two words: climate change. Since the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the December 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, cities, businesses and other organizations have pledged to reduce carbon emissions in an effort to ‘ U p c yc l e d F u r n i t u r e | H o m e D E C o r achieve the United States’ commitment.

Burlington is among them and was the Eclectic mix of furniture and first city in the nation to source 100 home décor – old and new! percent of its electricity from renewable generation, according to a February www.fcdecorspace.com 2015 BED press release.

802-922-4025 The city’s next goal is to become net 35 West Allen St., Suite 1 zero, meaning that it would generate as Winooski, VT 05404 much energy as it consumes in electricity, heat and transportation. For BED and VG, collaborating to help residents improve energy efficiency serves that goal and makes good business sense.

“For example,” said Burns, “Vermont Gas goes in and does a bang-up job weatherizing a home, and we can see a reduction in the electric bill because that means the humidifier doesn’t have to run as much because the basement N8v-fullcircle092017-2.indd 1 9/14/17 isn’t leaking.”

Burlington is also one of 17 U.S. cities to join 2030 Districts, a nonprofit network helping cities worldwide mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“The Burlington 2030 District is focused on helping commercial property owners achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption in our buildings,” wrote City Lights Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger in Flex Lamps an email. “Importantly, it is a collaborative effort that demonstrates a private-sector commitment to moving our city toward our climate and energy goals.”

“Resiliency is part of what we’re thinking about,” Burns stressed, “whether that’s battery storage or some other things. If the climate continues to get less predictable and the weather gets more severe, we’re all going to have to think about it.” ... Buy American & Local Burns adds that there’s no end in sight for energyChamp. “We hope it’s bedrock,” he said.

Burlington residents may choose to participate at any time, but remember: That winter weather is coming soon.

SEVENDAYSVT.COM

That’s the kind of dreaming the Burlington Electric Department and Vermont Gas are turning into reality for many residents. Through the utilities’ shared energyChamp program, Burlington renters and homeowners can learn how their energy use compares to that of other residents, receive energysaving rebates, get help on strategic home improvements and assist the city in reaching its net-zero energy goal.

“We have folks who are really focused on reducing the bill,” said Chris Burns, BED’s director of energy services. “We have a lot of folks who are just thinking about their climate footprint. We have folks that are having comfort issues — part of the house isn’t working right, or they have a bathroom that molds up all the time because it doesn’t have proper ventilation. There are all kinds of issues as to why people come to us, and we’re here!”

Any BED customer with internet access can participate in energyChamp through energychamp.org. The portal first asks whether you own or rent an apartment, house or condo. It then asks your location ID (listed on the BED bill) and your source for heat and hot water.

Graphs show whether you’re an energy “rookie,” “contender” or “champ” based on how your most recent year of energy usage compares to that of other Burlington residents with the same home configuration.

Most importantly, energyChamp offers rebates and savings options on efficiency improvements tailored to your profile.

For example, this reporter — who owns a recently upgraded, single-family home in the New North End and is a natural gas contender and electricity champ — was encouraged to consider $3 to $25 rebates on LED light bulbs and fixtures, $40 to $75 rebates for a refrigerator upgrade, and a $500 rebate for switching from an electric to a natural gas hot water heater. In a rookie’s home that needs energy upgrades, those rebates could be much higher.

“In our experience, less efficient houses have better potential for realizing significant savings,” wrote VG energy services manager Brian Gray in an email. “A 20 percent savings in a really inefficient house … can represent a significant amount of energy and money.”

Houses in every part of Burlington can benefit from energy improvements, but they typically benefit in different ways.

Those built around the turn of the 20th

century, for example, tend to be drafty because their wall cavities are open from basement to attic — called balloon framing — and they may have inefficient coal- or oil-burning heating equipment, wrote Gray. Houses built closer to the World War II years typically have less-drafty platform framing, but their mid-efficiency, oil-fired heating equipment becomes less efficient over time, he noted. Improvements can include adding insulation, sealing air leaks, or installing new windows or furnaces.

BED and VG have been collaborating informally for more than a decade to help Burlington residents and businesses become more energy efficient, said Burns. To formalize some of those efforts, they launched the Energy Champ Challenge in June 2015. It provided financial incentives for upgrades to landlords whose tenants paid for natural gas heat.

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COURTESY OF ROCKY DALE GARDENS

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Conifers for the Win

Planning for your winter garden

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When I bought my home in Burlington nine years ago, a huge selling point was the gardens.

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Above: A mix of conifers at Rocky Dale Gardens in Bristol Opposite page: Winterberry

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Though the place was already lovely, about winterscaping — and what to do about my crowded trees.

I began to fantasize about changes I Burke bought the nursery in 2004 wanted to make … and quickly came and still maintains his longtime to the conclusion: Who am I kidding? I landscaping business in Minneapolis; don’t have time for this. nursery manager Amy Rose-White has So I hired a gardener. And when we been there 20 years. Both are delighted met, the first thing she asked me was, to walk through their lush gardens “What do you want to look at in the and wax passionate about plants of winter?” any kind. In this case, I wanted to talk Huh? I’d been thinking more tulips, conifers. more colors, maybe another fruit tree…

“The winter garden has always “Well,” she explained patiently, “we been a focus of landscape designers,” have a lot more winter than summer.”

Burke said. “In Vermont, we have True enough. So she so much snow that the schooled me on the herbaceous plants really virtues of conifers, don’t hold up.” plants that produce That said, he cold-weather pointed to a berries, and contorted beech shrubby things (Fagus sylvatica that reveal “Tortuosa”), as intriguing well as winshapes when terberry (Ilex their leaves are verticillata), a gone. In other holly native to words, plants Vermont that has that look good edible — for birds with snow. and small mamSoon after, we mals — red berries. “In headed down to Rocky this climate, that’s the No. Dale Gardens in Bristol, 1 deciduous plant,” Burke her nursery of choice. I noted. purchased three distincWe looked at trees with tively different conifers. twisty, or contorted, shapes, I couldn’t tell you their which can appear like botanical names, but one sculptures against a snowy is tall and thin with long, backdrop; and weeping trees small-needled branches, with gracefully drooping another is “weeping,” and branches. Trees with the third is mound shaped. interesting bark can also And, indeed, they have complement a winter landmade my backyard more scape, Burke pointed out. interesting through the I spotted a lovely Japanese long winter. Snow clings maple, one of which my yard prettily to their needles. already has. Its red leaves Birds like to hide in the are a gorgeous contrast with taller ones, when not E D B U RKE the prevailing greenery now, darting out to the bird but the tree admittedly isn’t feeder nearby. And the much of a looker in the winter. trees’ placement blocks the neighbors’ Among the mature trees on the otherwise unobstructed sight line into Rocky Dale property are clusters of my kitchen.

One thing, though? Two of the verti- tall and handsome spruces, firs and pines. “There are many varieties of cally oriented conifers were supposed blue spruce,” Burke said. “Some weep, to be dwarf varieties. But they did some crawl, some are contorted. White not get the memo; both have become pine has softer needles, so snow doesn’t much taller than I expected and are gather,” he added. “Others, with stiff now jostling each other for space. needles, are better snow collectors.”

(That gardener moved out of state, so Two other trees I took note of were no help from her.) I thought “dwarf” Alaskan cedar, with a straight trunk meant they would stay small — a scale and pyramidal form; and the Korean fir, appropriate to my modest backyard. which is fuller and denser and has two“They’ll keep growing if you don’t toned needles. The latter evergreen is prune them,” Ed Burke informed me said to be slower growing and compact, with a chuckle. “If a tree stops growand I’m thinking it would have been a ing, it’s dead.” The landscape designer better choice for my yard. is the owner of Rocky Dale, where I recently returned to find out more CONIFERS FOR THE WIN » P.26

9/15/17 12:02 PM

COURTESY OF ROCKY DALE GARDENS

In front: Acer ginnala “Emerald Elf” maple Behind: Picea abies “Asselyn” Norway spruce

How to Plant a Conifer

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FALL 2017

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THE HOLE

Choose your site and then dig a hole that’s two to three times wider than your tree’s root ball — but not deeper than the ball’s height. One of the most common planting mistakes is to go too deep.

Loosen the soil on the sides of your hole, but not the bottom. If your soil is heavy, create a small mound at the bottom to raise the root slightly higher than ground level. You want water to drain away from the trunk.

Conifers for the Win « P.25 But here’s the thing about plants: They can be thinned out and taken out, moved and replanted elsewhere, if their roots are not too deep. “Overall, early spring is best for [moving] established trees,” Burke advised. “The roots are more compact. But don’t plant them too close!”

As we walked around the three-acre property, it was clear he looked at landscape as something to alter. I always thought trees were forever (unless they got diseased or struck by lightning);

Fall is a good time to plant a tree — up until mid-October in most Vermont locations.

You’ll want to be able to keep the roots well moistened before the ground freezes.

After you’ve selected the right tree for your yard, and taken into account soil and drainage conditions, follow these steps to give your tree a healthy head start.

HANDLING AND PLANTING

If your baby tree was grown in a container, remove it and tease the roots apart with your fingers or a tool. If your tree root is balled and burlapped, leave it in the burlap prior to planting. Lift the tree by its root ball or container, never by the trunk.

Center the plant in your hole. If it’s in natural burlap, pull back the fabric from the top third of the root ball. Synthetic burlap and twine should be completely removed. If the root ball has a wire cage, use a wire cutter to remove the top twothirds once the root ball is in the hole. Do not leave any material around the trunk.

to Burke, removing or relocating just about any plant is no big deal. A new flower garden here, a hedge there, a clearing for events such as weddings.

Solving a crowding problem with a pair of not-too-intimidating trees started to seem easy.

Along the way, Burke offered some general thoughts about conifers. For starters, “They’re generally the most expensive plants in the nursery,” he said, suggesting you should study up to make the right choice for your yard. “The key is selection. Know the growth habit of the tree. Plant perennials and shrubs

FILLING THE HOLE

First fill the hole with water two or three times, waiting each time for the water to drain. Mix the soil you dug out with one-third organic matter and add it to the hole. Water again, and add more soil mixture when it settles. Do not compress or tamp down the soil.

Create a large bowl shape around your planting — this will hold water. Mulch this with two to four inches of shredded leaves or bark. Do not pile mulch against the tree trunk.

around it — they can be moved when the tree gets larger,” he said.

“We’re known for our conifers,” Burke continued, “though about half of our business is perennials. We find with conifers people can become collectors.

They really just keep giving.” To that point, he handed me an informational sheet listing numerous varieties, along with their qualities and details about care and feeding.

Plants are not the only story in a yard, though. Homeowners should also consider hardscaping — that is, stonework, weather-resistant sculptures,

WATERING

Again, it’s important to keep your soil moist, but not drowning, before winter.

If your tree’s root ball came from a lightweight container mix, it will dry out faster than the surrounding soil. But if your yard has heavy clay soil that doesn’t drain well, be careful not to overwater. If you can, leave a hose at the base of the tree for an hour, with pressure at a trickle.

This should allow water to fully absorb into the soil. Rain will do this job for you, but if it’s dry, keep an eye on your new planting and water as needed.

—Info courtesy of Rocky Dale Gardens.

fencing or other features that form the architecture of the space. I’ve installed a number of concrete sculptures by a local artist, each of which presides over a section of my garden — and contributes to the winter view. One of them, however, is about to disappear under that weeping conifer. Somebody will just have to move.

Contact: pamela@sevendaysvt.com

INFO

Learn more at rockydalegardens.com and other local nurseries.

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