BUSINESS Bainbridge Island
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Hildebrand Lane comes alive for fest BUSINESS WITNESS BY ELLE TATUM Extravagant bundles were being escorted to participating businesses on Hildebrand Lane. Crimson, orange and yellow balloons, the colors of autumn, were a sure sign we were about to celebrate Bainbridge Island’s annual Oktoberfest, for the fourth time. Though a picture-perfect, sunny day in early fall, the balloon lady assured me there was a bit of a breeze. She would know! Oktoberfest is presented by the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce as one of its monthly After Hours events and is hosted by the Island Village and Hildebrand Lane merchants. Started in 2009, the annual occasion is designed to draw focus on the businesses of the area. Drawing an estimated 200plus attendees, participants collect “stamps” on their passport/tour maps as they visit, business-to-business, enjoying bratwurst and beer and entitling them a chance to win prize drawings. As manager of Eyeland Optical at Bainbridge Eye Physicians, I understood we were to be in the music epicenter of the festivities this year. I was excitedly anticipating a four-five-member oom-pa-pa band, but at 4 p.m. a surprising scene began to unfold outside our glass side doors. A man looking like ZZ-Top in lederhosen began setting up orchestral shop in the courtyard! In came this bearded fellow’s drums, followed by numerous chairs and music stands - a flurry of activity in this pre-party hour. I learned the courtyard soon would be filled. “Will there be dancing?” I queried. I was informed that the Hometown Band has upwards of 60 members and that 30 to 40 musicians SEE WITNESS, A11
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Friday, November 16, 2012 • Bainbridge Island Review
Wenzlau Architects earns praise for cottages project Bainbridge Island firm wins Grand Award BY RICHARD D. OXLEY Bainbridge Island Review
Island architect Charlie Wenzlau scored a big win for his architectural firm this week. Wenzlau Architects along with the Cottage Company received a Grand Award at the 32nd Annual Builders’ Choice Design and Planning Awards. “The thing that was really exciting for us is that we got the top award,” Wenzlau said. “It was the only award, given for an innovative single family neighborhood.” “Our interest in the cottage communities is to provide an alternative to the typical large lot single family district,” he added. The award is presented by Builder Magazine. “Builder’s Choice is the housing industry’s oldest and most prestigious national design awards program in the country,” said Denise Dersin, Builder’s editor-in-chief. More than 350 entries were submitted from across the nation, but only 36 earned kudos from the publication. Of that 36, only 12 Grand Awards were bestowed. “The awards are given out for a broad range of housing innovations; they encompass single family homes to higher density multi-family housing,” Wenzlau said. Wenzlau won the honor for his work with the Chico Beach development in Silverdale as the best single family community. Wenzlau and the Cottage Company began on the Chico Beach Cottages nearly two
Photo courtesy of Wenzlau Architects
Island Architect Charlie Wenzlau designed the Chico Beach Cottages development in Silverdale. The project is similar to the Ericksen Cottages in Winslow that Wenzlau designed 10 years ago. years ago, and they are already sold out. The cottages utilize a unique community design that places the cars and parking at one end of the development, away from the homes. “The cottage housing is modeled on the bungalow courts that you would find in older neighborhoods, that first were developed around streetcar lines,” Wenzlau said. “It’s a number of small detached homes centered around a common garden space.”
The cottages come in at approximately 1,600 to 1,700 square feet. The buildings are Energy Star certified. “One of the things that the award recognizes is how in cottage homes you can live in a smaller, more sustainable fashion by using less land and less energy,” Wenzlau said. The Chico Beach Cottages project wasn’t the first time Wenzlau teamed up with the Cottage Company. Islanders may know their previ-
ous collaboration, the Ericksen Cottages in Winslow, that were constructed 10 years ago. “After this recession and the slowdown in the economy, we are seeing a resurgence in home construction, and we are seeing more interest in cottage housing as opposed to moving into a high density condo,” Wenzlau said. “I think we will see this become a more prevalent housing choice in the future,” he said.
RePower campaign honored with international award BY RICHARD D. OXLEY Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island likes to boasts its sustainable culture. Now there’s an award to prove it. Conservation Services Group, the organization that handles the campaign for RePower Bainbridge, recently won an international award for the effectiveness of their marketing efforts in Kitsap County. The honor, a silver place for the 2012 Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award, is a world-wide pat on the back for their creative marketing that spread the sustainable word, not only for RePower Bainbridge, but also for RePower Kitsap and RePower Bremerton. “It’s pretty well-known in the industry,” said Lisa Rinkus, spokeswoman Conservation Services Group. “They are interested in which campaigns are motivating consumers,” she added. The marketing effort that includes posters,
enced by others,” Rinkus said. graphics and more emerged “If people hear about other from 732 entries world-wide, “If people hear about people wanting to make their which yielded 58 winners. other people wanting homes more energy efficient, The campaigns were judged to make their homes it tends to influence behavior. by advertising agencies and If one community hears they educational institutions across more energy efficient, are reducing their energy the globe. it tends to influence needs by 30 percent, for examRePower Bainbridge is behavior.” ple, then the other community a local campaign aimed to wants to.” increase energy efficiency Lisa Rinkus “That was what was great of island homes, and in turn, Conservation Services Group about this campaign, hearing reduce the draw on the electrifrom others,” she added. cal grid. The program includes Rinkus noted that the average energy savenergy audits on homes. It also provides homings on homes through the RePower program eowners guidance through a variety of energy is 30 percent by doing simple upgrades such as saving methods and incentives through the state insulation or air sealing. and Puget Sound Energy. The RePower Bainbridge program has less While receiving a favorable nod for their work, than a year left to offer islanders energy assessConservation Services Group found that islandments and upgrade incentives. The program’s ers were the biggest help getting word around. grant funding will run out on July 31. “What we’ve learned is that people are influ-