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09/23/2015 08:00 AMFor her son Oliver, architect Emily Grochowski wanted a play structure that was more interesting than the standard choices. It had to be one that her son would enjoy but that she also wouldn’t get tired of looking at through the back window. So she decided to design her dream treehouse, and her husband and father-in-law used their skills to build it.
The end product is a dream tree-fort that any child would treasure. A raised platform surrounds a large tree in the Grochowski’s Old Saybrook backyard. A sturdy wire rope railing rings the platform perimeter for safety, but its thin lines blend in to disappear against the tree trunk. To access the raised platform, children climb up a heavy cargo net. To return to the ground, there’s a slide. And then it’s time to climb back up again.
The treehouse lies behind the historic house on Old Boston Post Road that Emily and husband and architect Josh Grochowski bought three years ago and have been renovating ever since. Husband Josh is the master carpenter while Emily tackles other tasks like tiling. The home gutting and the remodeling is a family affair that she admits occupied many weekends over the past three years.
Now Emily applies her architectural skills working as a consultant part-time for Siris and Coombs Architects in Essex on residential designs that incorporate energy conservation design elements and features.
“Geothermal and photovoltaic are elements that are not unusual in custom homes now,” Emily says.
What first attracted her to architecture?
“I always liked both art and geometry and I was always interested in seeing new buildings and structures,” she says.
Growing up, she lived in a subdivision where many of the houses were of the same design, but she soon learned that what she really like was variety in the urban landscape, whether good or bad. Sameness was boring. So she chose a profession where she could feed that variety—and it didn’t hurt that she could go to work in casual clothes.
Working part-time also gives her time to apply her skills and talents to volunteer service. Currently, she serves on two Town of Old Saybrook boards, the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and the Conservation Commission.
In her role on the ARB, she evaluates Zoning Commission applications for design elements including for buildings, lighting, signs, and walkways.
As described in the Town Annual Report, “[T]he board works with owners, builders, and developers to avoid both excessive uniformity and excessive variety in each element of the design. In Old Saybrook, the board promotes harmony between each aspect of an improvement—building, site, and neighborhood.”
But over the past two months, where she has devoted considerable time and energy is in organizing the first-ever Conservation Commission symposium, The Nature of Old Saybrook, held on Sept. 13 in the Town Recreation Center gymnasium.
Seventeen exhibitors—agencies, organizations, the land trust, businesses—all with missions that support energy conservation, natural resource conservation and protection, and activities like hiking to enjoy those resources, were arrayed at tables around the gymnasium. Each station offered educational materials and conversations with attendees about conservation topics ranging from composting to energy conservation to public transit options, from vernal pools to food preservation, to the extensive recreation options offered by the town’s open space trail system.
One table set up by Eversource really attracted the most visitors though.
“The bulb swap—trading older light bulbs for new LEDs—really brought people out. More than 400 households and as many as 600 people swapped their bulbs for free,” Emily says.
Funding for the bulb swap activity was provided by a Bright Idea grant matched by Eversource funds and supplemented by the Symposium project fund, so the new LED bulbs were free to everyone who stopped by with old ones.
Also incorporated in the afternoon event were lectures about conservation topics. Judy Preston, for example, spoke about water quality. And for children and families, a nature center brought live creatures and animal skins to talk about.
“The event, including the bulb swap, was all about raising awareness of conservation issues and about the need for energy conservation. [The} event was for public outreach and education,” Emily says.
With hundreds of community residents turning out for the event, she credits it as a success.
Would she do it again next year? Maybe that would be too soon. Instead, she’s talked with members of the Conservation Commission about launching a new lecture series with each one focused on topics of conservation of natural resources and energy.
So as with her urban landscapes, Emily is comfortable seeking variety. And she’s eager to take on whatever conservation project becomes the focus of next year’s volunteer work.