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For the past thirty years I have divided my time between designing and building, teaching and creating educational materials and programs, and writing and illustrating books and articles. Most of my career has been spent in the "alternative" world, whether I was writing for underground papers in the 1960s, living on a communal farm (where I was the chief builder and equipment manager), or teaching and organizing educational programs at Berkeley's Building Education Center or the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, both innovative schools. From the outset I believed in, and fought for a better society. I see Ecotecture: The Online Journal of Ecological Design, as a natural extension of my lifelong crusade to help build a better world.

While the specific projects I have tackled are too numerous to list, some of the highlights could prove helpful for understanding the course of my career. Since I have worked on a project-by-project basis, following, say, the writing of an article with building an addition to a home, a lineal recounting of my career would prove confusing. Here's a review by areas of interest:

Designing and Building: I started building by helping my stepfather fix up our house on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado. I employed the skills I learned at home as the chief builder on the above mentioned intentional community, Twin Oaks Farm in Louisa, Virginia. In 1969, I took a one year's apprenticeship in cabinet making in Philadelphia. In 1970, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where I worked at first as a cabinet maker, gradually expanding my construction repertoire to include remodeling kitchens and then building and remodeling in general. In the early 1980s, I owned and operated Tamarac Cabinets, where I designed and, with the help of an excellent staff, built innovative graphic studio furniture from flat files to light tables.

In 1986 I obtained my California Contractor's License (B489928). I continued to design and build numerous projects, mostly residential, and maintain a modest residential design practice to this day.

In 1996, I received my Master's in Ecological Design from the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, where I had been taking and teaching classes since 1991 (see below). Throughout my career I have designed virtually everything I have built, and include feasibility consulting, schematic design, construction documentation and administration, and computer aided design and drafting (CADD) in my list of skills.

Teaching and Creating Educational Programs: Along with teaching several apprentices the woodworking trade, my earliest formal teaching experience was at the California College of Crafts where I was the wood shop monitor supervising students building artistic furniture.

In the 1980s, I wrote and subsequently taught a course on cabinet making for Berkeley's Owner Builder Center (now the Building Education Center), an alternative school that teaches courses on how to build or improve homes. I subsequently helped reorganize the center's "Core Class"—a sixteen week course on house building and remodeling—and taught that class for several years. I also created and taught a shorter cabinet course and, with teacher Margie Cochran, a course in finish carpentry for the Center. I still lecture on the "Pros and Cons of Building an Addition" and teach a one-day class called "Your Ecological House," at the Center.

In 1992, while attending classes at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture (SFIA) I conceived of a class called "Ecological Architecture" to be taught there. With several fellow students and architects I organized that class and, eventually, an entire program in "Ecological Design." Under my leadership, SFIA's Ecological Design Program has attracted students from all over the country and an outstanding faculty including, but not limited to Phil Hawes, Architect of the Biosphere II project, Penny Livingston, Founder and Director of the Northern California Permaculture Institute and, Paul Okamoto, former Director of Urban Ecology. Outstanding lecturers from all over the country have visited our program and spoken on ecological design and related topics. Currently I teach two classes which I wrote and developed, "The Principles of Ecological Design," and, "The Ecological Design Studio," at SFIA.

Writing and Illustrating: I have loved to write since I was a teenager. I took journalism classes and wrote for my high school and college newspapers (The Colorado Daily at the University of Colorado). I later worked for the Washington Free Press in Washington, D.C. Other journalism experience includes writing cover articles for Berkeley's East Bay Express and the San Francisco Weekly on social and political topics in the 1980s.

As an Owner Builder Center teacher, I wrote syllabuses for several courses (see above) and articles for The Owner Builder magazine on a variety of construction topics.

In 1995 I published the book Adding to a House (Taunton Press, publishers of Fine Homebuilding Magazine), available nationally. I wrote and illustrated Adding to a House and took many of its photographs.

I am currently working on a book titled Ecotecture: Designing a Sustainable Future, which is an in-depth discussion of the new ecological design paradigm.

WEB PUBLISHER: Directing the Ecological Design Program at SFIA, conducting the research for and writing Ecotecture: Designing a Sustainable Future, my journalism experience and my years in design, construction and business have finally prepared me (I hope) for an entirely new role as the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of ECOTECTURE: The Online Journal of Sustainable Design.