Eco Village
Thousands of people have contributed to Ecovillage in Ithaca. In June, 1991 I took my dream sketches of co-housing to a week-long "Envisioning Retreat". This retreat jump-started the formation of an EcoVillage organization. Joan Bokaer and Liz Walker served as co-directors with Tim Allen as staff associate, working under the aegis of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy, a non-profit affiliated with Cornell. I became the Land Use Planner and continued in that role until the housing site was settled and the housing design begun.
The first units of housing built in the mode ""co-housing" marked the end of initial landuse planning and the start of something big.
Cohousing is a form of housing development which originated in Denmark in the late 1960s. Cohousing residents manage their neighborhood by consensus, and own common property, such as land and a Common House, where meals can be shared. The project was widely rewarding to me. The best part was coordinating the planning efforts of scores of enthusiasts in one-day and two-day planning sessions.
EcoVillage has been studied by graduate students in a variety of disciplines, and reported on by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Communities Magazine, E Magazine, Cohousing Journal, NPR's Living On Earth, CNN, and more. The project was a finalist for a 1998 World Habitat Award from the Building & Social Housing Foundation.
Current Projects
Spider Graphics
Juglans Nigra
Main Street Renovation
Xuxles
Completed Projects
Rocket Project
Green Hills House
Thermal House
BioHouse
EcoVillage
Hundreds of Websites
Don Ellis
Trumansburg, New York, US
All rights reserved
Last update November 16, 2005