David Arkin and Anni Tilt will be speaking on straw-bale, rammed earth, watershed block, light straw clay, etc at the CRAN (Custom Residential Architects Network) Symposium on September 19. The following day, September 20, there will be a tour of four homes, one of which will be Vine Hill Straw Bale Residence.

Anni and David completed the Inaugural Climate Ride Northwest, bicycling over 360 miles with 24,733 feet of climbing.  The ride began and ended in Seattle, and included Whidbey and San Juan Islands, Victoria B.C., Olympic National Park and Port Townsend, WA.  Anni achieved two personal longest rides ever during the event, cycling 68 miles on the first day and over 80 on her fifth day of riding.  David's ride included the challenging 'Ride the Hurricane', a 17 mile, 5200' climb from Port Angeles, WA to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center in Olympic National Park, considered one of the top 100

With many years of admiring and incorporating Vetrazzo recycled glass countertops into our projects, we are pleased to be recognized for this recent off-grid straw bale home near Healdsburg. Take a look at the wonderful blog post by Vetrazzo about this honor: http://blog.vetrazzo.com/and-we-have-a-winner...-arkin-tilt-named-2016-vetrazzo-design-star

Dear Friends:

As work at the Esalen Lodge wraps up, we are thrilled to watch our drawings become reality, and to see how the community is embracing the space and making it their own.  Inside the lodge, the new meeting rooms are complete with their exposed trusses and treetop views, and are serving nicely as temporary dining spaces.  Downstairs, the dining room is receiving new energy efficient windows, built-in benches, and baffled skylights, and will soon open to the new kitchen and café.  The main entry is taking shape, with an expanded but familiar bookstore.  Throughout the space, small and large det

We are excited to be a winner of the Acterra BEA for Sustainable Built Environment. Thank you to the team at Acterra for selecting our project and to the homeowners of Project Green Home for sharing their house. The award ceremony is on May 26th, save the date!

Click here for a link to the list of winners this year.

Mosaic artist Wilma Wyss designed a 66 square foot mural for Esalen Institute to be installed at the renovated lodge. The mosaic came to life in a workshop at Esalen’s wonderfully funky Art Barn last week. In addition to the 18 seminarians, over forty people stopped by to place a tile or two, or brought objects to be incorporated. The small rectangles are individual mirrors, placing the visitor within the fabric of Esalen.

ATA is excited to announce that our Vine Hill Strawbale Residence has been selected as a finalist for the Fine Homebuilding 2016 Houses Readers' Choice Awards. Voting is now open to the public until February 26th (ends at 11:59pm EST). The home that wins will be featured in a two-page spread in the Houses issue.

 "Remixing Modern Masonry with Watershed Block", an article published by Masonry Magazine, explains the resilience, efficiency, and sustainability of Watershed Block building and features a photo of our Healdsburg Family Residence project.