Go, Green Girls, Go!

By Scott Boylston

onthedock

I am a Girl Scout. I’m not just a believer; not just a supporter; not just willing to do anything I can to make sure that the Girls Scouts get all the reclaimed materials they need to build their eco-village on the magnificent island of Rose Dhu; I am one of them, heart, soul…and title.

Nina Smith, the Assistant Property Director for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia (GSHG), and the only permanent resident of Rose Dhu Island, has an amazing vision. This vision is yet one more reason why Emergent Structures exists. Since the 1950s, the Girl Scouts of the GSHG have been learning essential nature and humanitarian skills at Camp Low on Rose Dhu Island, and the island already has quite a magnificent array of small, ‘light-footed’ camps around the island. Nina’s goal is to build an eco-village that will include a small science center, several out-buildings and an array of bungalows. The dimensions of the Savannah Gardens houses fit her needs perfectly.

Cookies aren't the half of it: some of the existing camping structures at Camp Low, on Rose Dhu Island. The eco-village will be comprised of structures larger than this, but also raised like these in order to tread softly on the environment.

The eco-village is planned to be built to coincide with the centennial celebration of the founding of this organization. For those of you who don’t know, the founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, was born in Savannah, Georgia, where, in 1912, she founded the Girl Scouts of America, so Savannah is already a mecca for Girl Scouts from all across the country, so this project has pretty large repercussions.

In order to develop this project, the GSHG will partner with Emergent Structures, SCAD, Georgia Tech, the US Green Building Council, the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitian Commission, and the City of Savannah, to make the planned eco-village net-zero impact. A comprehensive plan for designing not just the small buildings that will comprise the village, but renewable energy in the form of geothermal, solar and tidal flow, will be explored, as well as other green features like rain catchment systems and compost toilets. These features will also serve as a learning lab for visiting Girl Scouts. The project aspires to LEED certification.

Not a difficult place to dream: discussing the details of a Girls Scouts' eco-village built from reclaimed building materials.

There will be plenty more information about this particular project as it develops, but I can’t sign off without putting this bit of astonishing news in here. On March 12, 1944, the S.S. Juliette Low, a Liberty Ship built in Savannah, was launched into the Savannah River. For those of you who have not yet visited the ‘brief history’ section of this blog, the houses in Savannah Gardens were built in 1943…to house shipbuilders, building Liberty Ships for the war effort. So, if this project comes to fruition, that means that the Girls Scouts visiting Rose Dhu will be sleeping in the very same building as the men who built a ship to honor their founder.