Tatiana Serafin

Podcast Host, Professor, Writer

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Earth Day: talking with architect Chad Oppenheim about sustainable architecture

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On Apr 22 2010

In Green

Chad Oppenheim, a Miami-based architect spoke with me about sustainable architecture and some of his designs.

GM&I: How was green building hit during the recession?

Chad: “As oil prices dropped dramatically, there was less of an urgency. We were sheltered from the fall until July 2009 when certain projects stopped. But there is still the sentiment. I am working on a $30 million house in Los Angeles which the owner wants to do green; a hotel in China wants to go green.”

GM&I: What are prospects for green architecture going foward?

Chad: “The way we are going is not sustainable, there has to be a better way. The last 75-100 years have not been the best way to further develop this world. The Chinese are stepping up as leading manufacturers in solar, wind and that effort transcends through architecture; at the same time, they are still building dirty coal plants.

GM&I: What is the global standard for green architecture?

Chad: ” The US is the most organized. LEED is well executed and marketed. France has a similar stamp. Abu Dhabi is building one based on LEED. The Swiss don’t have a catchy marketing tool, they just build highly efficient buildings. Eventually there will be standard green building codes similar to what the ADA did with standardizing disability ramps, etc.”

GM&I: What are some of the best standards being put in place?

Chad: One of the many things that LEED discusses is the atmosphere of buildings for example no toxicity in paint. A lot of these things are coming in line because of health and safety issues, over time air quality can be hazardous to your health. In France there is even code around acoustics, acoustical pollution.

GM&I: What is the cost of going green?

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Table Talk – Female astronauts; Silicon Valley shut out; et al

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On Apr 19 2010

In Reflections, Table Talk

I first heard of the four female astronauts in space in a Tina Fey monologue on SNL two weeks ago. Fey said something like ‘if you told anyone in the 70s about four female astronauts in space it would be in reference to a porno, but today it doesn’t even make news’. I didn’t know what she was talking about, was it a joke? So I checked. And it is true. According to a piece in a UK paper, it is “a record for the most women in space” nearly fifty years after “the Soviet Union put the first woman into orbit.” So why aren’t we talking about it? I ran it by a couple of girlfriends who also had not heard the news. Ok so Iceland has a volcano, China an earthquake, Poland a tragic air crash. But this is history here…or do we still only tell history from a male point of view?

Then I read, “Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley: In the Wide-Open World of Tech, Why So Few Women?” by a former colleague of mine Claire Cain Miller (we overlapped at Forbes magazine) and I started fuming. She starts with this story which I have to share again because it is so telling: ” CANDACE FLEMING’S résumé boasts a double major in industrial engineering and English from Stanford, an M.B.A. from Harvard, a management position at Hewlett-Packard and experience as president of a small software company. But when she was raising money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls one venture capitalist telling her that it didn’t matter that she didn’t have business cards, because all they would say was “Mom.” Another potential backer invited her for a weekend yachting excursion by showing her a picture of himself on the boat — without clothes. When a third financier discovered that her husband was also a biking enthusiast, she says, he spent more time asking if riding affected her husband’s reproductive capabilities than he did focusing on her business plan. Ultimately, none of the 30 venture firms she pitched financed her company. She finally raised $1.8 million in March 2008 from angel investors including Golden Seeds, a fund that emphasizes investing in start-ups led by women.“

Is this the world in which I am raising a daughter? It is supposed to be better than this. So I found Parenting’s “5 Skills Every Kid Needs” to be helpful because it still is an imperfect world.

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Green Spaces and Best NYC Places – Williamsburg, Brooklyn

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On Apr 19 2010

In Green

It’s celebrate the earth week and green is the new black. Looking around my neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, what I don’t see enough of is green. It ranked 20th in New York Magazine’s best place to live issue last week with one of the reasons being poor access to green space. To be sure, McCarren Park is great. Saturdays there is a wonderful farmer’s market (love the fresh flowers and crazy variety of mushrooms), there is community composting (North Brooklyn Compost Project), and a dog park (way too many dogs in this neighborhood). This Sunday there is an Earth Day Celebration from 11am-4pm. But this teeny tiny park is being stretched thin — on a sunny day, it seems all 125,000 people living here (according to New York magazine) try to grab a patch of green.

This human morass is what I am thinking of when I say nay to how some high-flying developers foresee remaking the Domino Sugar Factory and the adjacent waterfront area. The idea is on display at the Center for Architecture and it’s called “The New Domino“. I understand the city’s desire to remake the waterfront. Brooklyn Bridge Park has completely transformed an area once full of dilapidated warehouses; there is more to come as the development continues to snake down Brooklyn’s edge. Plans for the East River waterfront in Manhattan and a park for Governor’s Island are equally ambitious.

So why does our waterfront get uber-expensive high rises and not enough green? Brooklyn Bridge Park will also have apartment and hotel buildings in what a New York Times article calls the “encroachment of private development on what should be public space.” But this New Domino is even worse with several tall cookie cutter towers. That’s not green, that’s black.

One of the many reasons I love this neighborhood is because it is short. I have a view of the Williamsburg bridge lights over 15 blocks away and I can see how the traffic is flowing on the BQE. And I love that Domino factory; my Dad worked there for many years. I would like for it to continue to exist in some way – perhaps housing for families which is in dire need in this ‘hood – but the area around it should all be green. Sure the North 5th Pier is a neat walkway with views of Manhattan, but it’s not green, it’s a wood path and the East River State Park needs a serious facelift.

I want a real park, real green spaces, and I don’t want to live in Park Slope.

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Krugman, Mahon on Climate Change

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On Apr 13 2010

In Green

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine cover story, “Building A Green Economy” by Paul Krugman was a great primer on possible solutions to global warming and a call for action on climate change. Guest writer Tim Mahon carries the same message, but from a Christian perspective; his Jesus Wants US to Stop Global Warming provides a new look at the issue for naysayers.

Krugman also argues “cap and trade is a reasonable way to create those incentives” – that is, incentives for climate change solutions. But a February piece in Harper’s, “Conning the Climate: Inside the carbon-trading shell game” by Mark Shapiro laid out the execution problems with current cap and trade schemes around the world, namely ways the big companies were gaming the system.

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Table Talk – what I’ve been reading

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On Apr 13 2010

In Reflections, Table Talk

Great piece in April 4, 2010 New York Times Magazine about photographer Roman Vishniac who chronicled prewar Eastern European Jewish life. The piece points out some of his images were manufactured and brings up again the question of what is truth, and what does personal perception bring to historical memory. The pictures in particular were amazing and make me want to see more of his archive.

I finished Lady Chatterly’s Lover this week. Connie’s thoughts on Venice – “Too many people in the piazza, too many limbs and trunks of humanity on the Lido, to many gondolas…too many pigeons…too many languages rattling…too much sun…” – written by D.H. Lawrence circa 1928 are still so true,  even despite the ban on pigeon feeding in St. Mark’s Square. To see heaving masses swarming on the canals, it’s no wonder Venice is sinking!

Speaking of Italy, Sunday’s NYT Travel cover, “Mangia, Mangia!” on eating family style in Italy was wonderful. The best food I’ve had in Italy is at large gatherings of friends and family where everyone participates in the feast making. There are also small family style restaurants tucked here and there that give the same experience. The key is in the ingredients – local and fresh; I never gain weight there. (and I can’t say the same here even though I try to be a locavore!)

Started Mrs. Adams in Winter by Michael O’Brien; it’s a bit dense on the historical detail which the New York Times Book Review did point out. But I love the descriptions of Russian court life and how America’s earliest diplomats fared.

Speaking of Russia, Maly Drama Theater’s performance of Uncle Vanya at BAM is amazing. It helps to understand Russian because much was lost in the translation they had running on the top of the stage. Chekhov is amazing. And a Hollywood bonus, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard were at Friday’s performance.

And I completely disagree with Ben Brantley’s review of The Addams Family with Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane. It might not be intellectually stimulating but it is fun – when we went the other week to celebrate my dad’s birthday we were rolling in the aisles – and that is worth the price of the ticket.

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Being Green: Recycling Books

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On Apr 08 2010

In giving

Books for NYC Schools event this Saturday, April 10, collecting gently used books for pre-K to 12th grade. The event will take place at the Center for Fiction, 17 East 47th Street, one of the event sponsors (and a great resource for writers, they have a writing studio and classes and a great collection of books; neat history too – it was started by merchants before public libraries existed). The other sponsor is ReadThis, which is a group of writers, committed to providing books where needed. Great way to recycle those books that don’t fit on the bookshelf but shouldn’t be thrown away.

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Spring and the Business of Green

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On Apr 07 2010

In Analysis

Consecutive 70 degree days in NYC and I finally feel Spring is really here!

April’s theme at Global Markets is the Business of Green. We have some interesting guest writers to come, and I will be looking at what green means in Central and Eastern Europe. A friend of mine in Romania who is planning to put solar panels on his roof led me to an organization dedicated to promoting green building in the region. Central and Eastern Europe has definitely gotten a boost from the European Union’s very strong green movement. For example, Armenia has launched an EU-funded Web portal Renewable Energy Armenia. Ukraine  has benefitted from green funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Georgia is exploring a carbon credit program. Some countries have longer to go than others – the coal mining towns in Ukraine’s East need much cleaning up after the pitfalls of Soviet industrialization. The scariest information I ever heard was when I took a demography class with Murray Feshbach who has been chronicling the death of the environment in Russia for decades. He is now with the Woodrow Wilson Center.

For more “green” info check out Ecoseed which says it is a comprehensive green news site.

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Alternative Haggadah for Passover for Women

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On Mar 31 2010

In Reflections

I sat down to my first Passover dinner several years ago when I started dating my husband and was mesmerized by the reading of the Haggadah, in particular the one my aunt-in-law had put together.  In celebration of Global Markets and Ideas’ Women’s theme this month, I wanted to share what we read last night at Seder.

“Another Dayeinu”

If women has been among the writers of the Bible and had interpreted our creation and our role in history – Dayeinu

If Eve had been acknowledged as Adam’s equal and not a tempress – Dayeinu

If she ate from the tree of knowledge and had been recognized as a teacher – Dayeinu

If Lot’s wife had been honored for compassion in looking back at the fate of her family in Sodom and had not been punished for it – Dayeinu

If women had written Haggadahs and placed our mothers where they belonged in the story of our people – Dayeinu

If our mothers had been honored for their daughters as well as their sons – Dayeinu

If men had been taught to revere their role as father and teacher as much as warrior and ruler – Dayeinu

If men and women had stood side by side as comrades in the face of adversity – Dayeinu

If every generation of women and men would flee the bondage of an Egypt – Dayeinu

Thank you Aunt Paula and Uncle John.

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Swan Day: Celebrating Women Artists (Virlana Tkacz) and Women Who Support the Arts (Ann Ziff)

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On Mar 29 2010

In Reflections

This past Saturday was something called Swan Day which is a celebration of women artists. The long term goal of Swan Day  is “to inspire communities around the world to find new ways to recognize and support women artists as a basic element of civic planning.”  I am doing my part by lauding the efforts of Virlana Tkacz who is our guest writer. She is the founding director of the Yara Arts Group creating theater pieces based on contemporary poetry and traditional myth and legend, much of it focused on women and many pieces about Ukraine. Her work is incandescent and I cannot wait to see “Scythian Stones” at La MaMa in April.
Also on my agenda: going to see the Whitney Biennial which showcases 20 women artists. And if I ever get back to Moscow anytime soon: Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Russian socialite and billionaire Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, Dasha Zhukova’s, art space which is meant to rival London’s Tate.
I am also impressed with Ann Ziff who recently announced a $30 million gift to the Metropolitan Opera which turns out to be the largest single gift from an individual in the company’s history. Under the direction of Peter Gelb, the Met has been trying to dust off its staid image, and its new production of Shostakovich’s The Nose is a great example. I didn’t like all the visual projections – I thought they took away from Valery Gergiev’s beautiful orchestra direction, and Paul Szot’s amazing performance – but they were an interesting experiment and I was excited to be a part of it.
We can’t all be Ann Ziff, but we can do our small part by attending arts events and giving our time to promote the arts.

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Leaders on the Horizon: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina

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On Mar 26 2010

In Analysis

Delly Beekman, the incoming president of The Association of Junior Leagues International Inc., recently called the civic leaders among us to action in a guest post. It got me to thinking of the work of civic leaders who have inspired me, in particular the women I have researched for Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in the World list. There are two names that may one day be added to the list depending on how they fare in 2010 elections. I may not share their politics but I am impressed by both.

Margaret (Meg) Whitman is the billionaire business mogul who built Ebay and is now worth $1.3 billion; she cochaired John McCain’s stunted presidential run and hasn’t looked back. She may spend up to $150 million to become cash-strapped California’s new chief in November (even more than Michael Bloomberg spent on winning his third term as New York City mayor). Those millions seem well allocated: a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California indicated Whitman has a lead over likely competitors (she still has to win her Republican primary in June).

Another fellow California tech mogul and McCain supporter, Carleton S. “Carly” Fiorina, is running for U.S. Senate. Fiorina is perhaps better armed for the challenge. The former chief of Hewlett-Packard orchestrated the $19 billion merger of H-P and Compaq against fierce opposition from the H-P founders’ families, led principally by Walter Hewlett, son of H-P founder Bill Hewlett. She is facing similar catcalls in her Senate race, but is aggressively moving forward and recently made headway in the polls. She is also putting out controversial attack ads.(Demon Sheep Ad)

Back in 2003, I wrote a book review of two books about Fiorina stating “she is clearly poised to make history.” I should have said she continues to make history.

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