The Power of This Place | August 2017 Newsletter
A New Intimacy with the Environment: Excerpt from a 1999 Whidbey Institute newsletter
“Five years ago, the plan for the Institute described buildings that would reflect ‘a new intimacy with the environment.’ At the time, alders grew on the hillside where the new buildings now stand. Transformed into floorboards for the hall, those very alders now lie beneath rafters cut and milled from timber salvaged by a nearby sawmill. Much of the wood used in the new buildings was cut from the land itself and skidded to a portable sawmill by horses. . . . From sill to ridge, the buildings designed by Ross Chapin and built by Greg Gilles and his crew reflect the power of this place.”—Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future, Spring 1999.
Today, like in the late 1990s, we are clearing alders and growing our physical facilities, along with our capacity as a home for transformational learning, open-hearted inquiry, and generative collaboration. In our current phase of capacity-building, with the addition of Meadow Row North (Ross Chapin Architects / Jade Craftsman Construction) and three Live Edge Cabins (Live Edge Woodworks) we continue in a spirit of intimacy with the environment and gratitude for those who make the Whidbey Institute an organization worthy of our ongoing and collective care.
Click here to view the full issue and read on
Also in this issue:
Commissioner Helen Price Johnson on Meadow Row North Groundbreaking (“A TRANSFORMATIONAL PLACE IN MY OWN BACKYARD”).
Welcoming Erik Isaacson to the Team
Whidbey Island Waldorf School Tours Available
