From Beaver House to....Styrofoam condos. Habitat for Humanity is putting up a nine-family condo in Bedford-Stuyvesant using blocks made of Styrofoam. Yup, the same material coffee cups are made of. We might point out that there's some irony in Richard Meier and the Toll Brothers building glass luxury towers and Bed-Stuy getting Styrofoam. But, in point of fact, the blocks are energy friendly and the construction technique actually costs more than standard methods. Also, they're reinforced with steel, concrete gets poured inside and there's brick on the outside.
· A 'Foam' Sweet Home is Going Up [NYDN]
BONUS: A few stories always come along at holiday time to put things in perspective. The NY1 story about the Bed-Stuy building with 1,200 building code violations is one of them. Residents have been without heat, hot water, gas and elevator service for more than six months. Ugh.