I'm still noodling over my next book, in which I want to focus on a few various communities where ordinary people are trying to live out a life of virtue in community. If I get a contract for the book, one of the places I want to visit (again) and write about is the Orthodox Christian community in Eagle River, Alaska, living around St. John Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral. When I was there this past winter, we had a conversation about how the price of housing is a real challenge to those who want the community to survive into the next generation. It is, in other words, a direct challenge to the stability that would allow the good things the founding generation established live on into the next.
I heard tonight from a member of that community:
I live in Eagle River, Alaska and attend St. John Orthodox Cathedral. You visited our parish and community last fall when you gave a talk about Crunchy Cons at the University of Alaska.I am hoping that you can help us.
Fr. Marc and the planning committee are beginning the process of site planning for the 50 acres adjacent to the existing main "campus". More housing (some multi-family housing and some single family)and community space is needed for our growing and changing membership. We would like the development and housing to be incremental, affordable, sustainable and yet have character and charm like the homes that already exist here. A village is what I envision, with plenty of green space preserving as much of the forest as possible.
Do you have any contacts that could help us find designs for such a project?
Maybe you know of some architects, Orthodox or not, who would be inspired to assist us.
Thank-you for any help you might be able to give.
Christ is in our midst!
Laura Frizelle
Now, this would be a great opportunity for visionary architects who want to rise to the challenge of pioneering a way for a community like this to stay together and thrive. The land, just north of Anchorage, was cheap when the community first moved up there, but those days are gone. The setting is magnificent, and the people are so welcoming. If you're an architect and/or planner and are interested in taking up the challenge, follow that link to the cathedral website, and get in touch with them. If you can help them solve their problem, I would love to write about it in the next book and elsewhere, so others may learn from your creative work.
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Some of the best architects in the country have already done most of the work. Please see:
Habitat Congress Building America:
VERY COLD CLIMATE CASE STUDY
for Juneau, Alaska
www.buildingamerica.gov
Talk to that person who developed the Katrina Cottage. Maybe she can desgin the "Eagle River Cottage" next :-) I think the idea behind the Katrina Cottage is brilliant. I love how simple it is, too! Charming, small, affordable... Were more architects like this one.
I hope you can do this book. I'm no crunchy con, nor even a tradcon, as exemplified by its practitioners, but a book that looked into some communitarian religious experiments would be of great interest to me.
www.georgeholtdesign.com
George Holt is a designer of homes and whole neighborhoods. His architectural partner is Andrew Gould, an Orthodox Christian, who has also designed several Orthodox Churches in the Southeast, including his own parish of Holy Ascension (which Rod should be familiar with from the OCA-DOS website updates).
Mary
I doubt this is what the folks in Alaska are looking for, but we visited a B&B at this community a few months ago. It was interesting--- to us, it seemed to try create a forced sense of community. The philosophy was very into maintaining green space. And it really has succeeded there- it's minutes from downtown Atlanta, but it looks as if you're in the absolute middle of po-dunk junction! Link is as follows minus the spaces.
http: //www. serenbecommunity.com /home.html
Thanks,
Luci
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