Maine Home + Design Show, #93

[Unidentified voice]:

We are born to work and help people. We are happiest when we're reaching out and trying to fix a problem or help someone in need or just do the right thing. It's part of who we are.

[Unidentified voice]:

I would suggest that they have a compost pile, that they use their scraps or yard waste, food scraps, and they make a compost pile and utilize that waste to add some life back to the soil. Biodynamics is really making compost and using compost preparations in a very advanced way. But just using compost in general is a really good practice for the average urban grower.

[Unidentified voice]:

I start with the site. It's the biggest, most important component of any design. It's where you are on the face of the earth. It's where the wind comes from, it's where the sun comes from. It's the views you might have, it's natural features. The better you understand the site, the more you can make the most of its assets. So I really like to meet a potential client on site, see the world through their eyes, find out why they like this site, why they've chosen this site, and I think that starts to help people understand the perspective that an architect has as he starts to work with a client.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast Show Number 93, the Maine Home + Design show airing for the first time on Sunday, June 23, 2013. Today's guests include Ted Carter from Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Bennett Steele of Wheelwright Landscapes. Also Rob Witten from Witten Architects.

[Unidentified voice]:

I'd like to remind you again this

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

week of two upcoming events, one of them happening today. The first event is Taste of the Nation Maine, which is occurring today, June 23, 2013 at Wolfs Neck Farm in Freeport, Maine. The 8th annual Taste of the Nation Maine at Wolfs Neck Farm will include food for more than 30 of Maine's most well respected chefs spend the evening eating, drinking and bidding on fantastic items at the live and silent auction. The 2012 Taste of the Nation Maine event was sold out and it featured two dozen of the state's top chefs on Great diamond island and Casco Bay. With the support of local chefs and restaurants, sponsors, donors and attendees, Share Our Strength raised a record amount of money and granted more than $150,000 to local beneficiaries whose mission it is to end hunger in Maine. The second event is the Maine Home and Design show, for which today's Radio Hour has been named. This show takes place on June 29th and 30th, 2013 in Rockport, Maine. The the Maine Home and Design show will bring the pages of Maine Home and Design Magazine to life. The show features more than 150 exhibitors, the AIA Pavilion and a pop up gallery of works from art collector Maine. Join us on June 29th and 30th for an experience like no other and feel as if you're walking through a living version of the magazine. For more information on the 2013 Taste of the Nation or the Maine Home + Design show, visit themainmag.com they say home is where the heart is and is often true. They are right. My home, my heart is in Maine. My heart is in Maine because it is where my children live and where my parents live. It is where I was raised and in turn where I have chosen to raise my own kids. There is no greater gift I could give them than the gift of family and a beautiful place to grow up. We are shaped by our surroundings, good or bad. We are shaped by those we whom we associate ourselves, good or bad. While there are few perfect people or places in this world, there are people and places that help us stack the deck. When we embrace these people and places and call them ours, we become part of the landscape ourselves. Our hearts become woven into the fabric of our surroundings. Part of the greater design. My heart has become woven into the fabric of Maine. We hope you enjoy our Maine Home + Design show with Ted Carter of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Bennett Steele of Wheelwright Landscapes and Rob Whitten of Witten Architects. Thank you for joining us. In the studio with us today.

[Unidentified voice]:

We have one of my dear friends,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Ted Carter of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and also a new friend.

[Unidentified voice]:

This is Bennett Steele of Wheelwright Landscapes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What I love is when we're able

[Unidentified voice]:

to bring in people that I know and people that I don't know and just Sort of continue to create this interesting integrated world. So thanks for coming in and talking to us today about, well, what you're going to talk about biodynamics and how this, how we bring this into landscaping and how we start to approach our lawns and our gardens in a more integrated way. Thanks for coming in.

[Unidentified voice]:

Thank you so much, Lisa. I met Ben. It was almost like it was choreographed in a sense from the Invisible World. I was talking to my co author, Ellen Gunter and I said to Ellen, I said, ellen, I need to find somebody who works in biodynamics. I feel like I'm this lonely soldier out here, no one to help me. And lo and behold, I get an email in from Ben. Just it came in at the perfect opportune moment, as so often the Invisible World lends that helping hand to us. And so I was thrilled when Bennett came into my life and he's now building a beautiful biodynamic garden for me. And I'm very, very with his, with a great mason of his that he works with, Seth, and I'm very, very grateful for that.

[Unidentified voice]:

And your book is how we Heal our Broken connection to the Earth. And it's actually in the process of being revised. I saw your new cover this morning. It looks beautiful. I can't wait to read the next copy.

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, well, thank you very much. The new book is Earth Calling and it's sort of a. We're going to republish the book but bring it more up to date. In three years time, so much has changed about the world and with Hurricane Sandy and all of the different climate change changes that have taken place. And I think it's a very timely and worthwhile book, but it will actually show people how they can really take charge and do things to make a difference on the planet.

[Unidentified voice]:

So it's not just the title of the book that will have changed. It's also going to be a lot of updating of the materials.

[Unidentified voice]:

Inside it's an expanded version of what I started with. And Ellen Gunter, who's a great writer, is really working very hard to make that happen.

[Unidentified voice]:

I do think it's interesting that you talk about this thing sort of happening at the right time and for the right reasons. It's this whole when the student is willing, the master will appear sort of thing. So you yourself, you said, and I know now Ben across the microphone is reacting as if maybe he's not sure he's happy to be called master, but at this point. But you told me you had a barn full of some sort of special biodynamic, I don't know, cow manure or something like that that you imported from California or something.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, it was sort of ridiculous. It was through a contact I knew in California, and I said, well, I was out there on vacation. I said, well, just ship me. I don't know how many crates of it. It was several yards on several pallets, and it was shipped across country. And I'm sure it wasn't ecologically friendly to do that, but it had been in my barn for a couple of years. I had been waiting for the right moment to use it. And Ben really kind of opened that door for me. And I just have had a limited time, and it's hard to integrate everything you want to integrate.

[Unidentified voice]:

So you had a barn full of cow poop, and along came Ben, and, you know, this whole thing just began. So, Ben, what is biodynamic landscaping? What's the idea behind biodynamics?

[Unidentified voice]:

Rudolf Steiner was the father of biodynamics, and he was a very brilliant man. And he basically created nine preparations that serve to enliven the soil and the plants that you're growing. So you use the nine preparations basically to assimilate the cosmic forces into the material or the soil and the plants. They basically have nine preparations. You have the horn manure, the horn silica, the yarrow, the chamomile, the nettle, the oak bark, the dandelion valerian, and the last is the horsetail herb. Five of them are compost preparations. The compost that we're using in Ted's garden is a biodynamic compost. It's made in a very specific way. The compost preparations are placed in a very specific part of the compost pile. And it works homeopathically. And it's actually really a complicated thing that I don't fully understand, but I believe that it works and brings the cosmic forces into the material.

[Unidentified voice]:

And we have to think about the fact that in the wintertime, the Earth is in the northern hemisphere is inhaling, it's inhalation, bringing the cosmic forces into the preps that have been buried in the ground. And. And in the spring, it's exhalation. It's right now the northern hemisphere is exhaling, and all this flora and fauna is coming to life, and this lush growth is happening all around us. So we have to look at the Earth as really a living organism. And it's an intelligent system. It's an intelligent system. One of the things that I was just at. Carolyn Mace. Every year I go to Carolyn Mace's home in Chicago. She actually wrote the foreword to my book. She's become a very dear friend of mine. And I said to her, you know, nature teaches us abundance, it teaches us regeneration. And she said, well, Ted, that's right, she said, but it also teaches us about balance and working with natural forces and not violating natural forces. And man has moved into a period right now where we are in violation of those forces with all of the different things we're doing with our food and growing our food and things like that. I mean, the GMOs and we're just really going beyond where I believe we should be going. And it's not. I don't think it will play out well in the long term.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, it's interesting as you're talking about this idea of cosmic forces in the earth breathing in and out. I mean, this is also something that they talk about, whether you're talking about sort of a Chinese approach with the yin and the Yang and the yin time of the year being the winter and the yang being the summer, and the outward going energy of the summer, the inward pulling energy of the winter. I mean, they have this in other. Actually, I think Native Americans have similar ideas about nature. So we have this in indigenous populations and cultures all over the world. And we've become so urbanized that maybe we've thought that we could get beyond what the Earth just continues to do naturally. But. But now we're kind of having to pull back and just recognize that, yeah, the trees are going to keep growing a certain way, the soil is going to keep needing what it needs, people are going to keep needing what they need. So if we do overgrow or over harvest, then we're going to go too far in one direction and we're probably going to have to go a little bit further in the other direction to come back to center.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, our soil is starving right now. When you consume the food that we're producing now, and Steiner predicted this anyway when we got into industrial agriculture that basically the nutrition in the food is derived from the soils, and our soils are basically inert at this point. They don't sustain life without chemical inputs. And biodynamics is completely opposite from that. It totally, totally now we're getting into gene splicing and GMOs and everything like that and these types of things. We're impregnating human cells in certain types of fruits and vegetables now to experiment with that. I mean, that whole thing is so disgusting to me that I can't even begin to comprehend what they're trying to do here.

[Unidentified voice]:

So all of these preps, Ben, that you were talking about, these are all yarrow and nettle, These are all plants, the preps that you're talking about. For people who don't have very green thumbs, my thumbs are not particularly green, but I did recognize a lot of those because some of them are herbs that we use in medicine. And traditional Chinese medic are plants that they're using, you're using to heal the earth.

[Unidentified voice]:

That is correct. Yarrow, for example, is categorized as a dynamic accumulator because its root system is able to pull nutrients from deep in the soil, bring that into the plant, and that plant then used in your compost works to make those nutrients available to the plants you grow to eat. And then hence you, the human that grows the food, will be able to ingest that food or those nutrients through your food. It's a more complex system that basically the soil that we grow our food in, it needs to be alive. One gram of living soil contains billions of organisms. Those organisms work symbiotically with the plants to produce complex proteins. That food grown in more of a mechanical or modern way doesn't really produce the same quality food.

[Unidentified voice]:

Would this be something like hydroponics where there.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, hydroponics plants feed two ways really. They should feed through their micro hairs, but when you feed plants a water soluble source of nutrient, they start to feed through their water uptake roots. Plants have two root systems. They have water uptake roots which are bigger and then they have finer roots which are micro hairs. When plants feed in humus, they feed more through the micro hairs. And then when they do that, they can produce more complex proteins which are more healthy for us.

[Unidentified voice]:

And so if hydroponics would be more just in the water, their roots are sort of absorbing some of the things they need, but not all they can't.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's not as you know, it's a good system and it works great in urban environments, especially in areas where, you know, we can't grow in the wintertime. So I think hydroponics is a great system, but it's not going to produce as high a quality food as you're going to produce in the soil.

[Unidentified voice]:

And this is something that I think, Ted, you're working with Ben, because I've seen on Facebook you're posting your pictures of the landscaping that you're doing. And some of this has to do with actually food. You're actually going to incorporate growing of food into the landscape, which is something that maybe We've gotten away with that. Everything has to be ornamental and beautiful and pretty, but it can't be actually functional.

[Unidentified voice]:

That's right. And that's what's so exciting. I mean, I spent my life in ornamental horticulture. That is my life. And the exciting thing about what Ben's doing, I mean, it all sort of crystallized when we wrote the first book, Reunion, and about how we are going to need to start to learn how to take care of ourselves and feed ourselves on this planet. And with climate change that's upon us now and things are not as reliable. Things are. Things are breaking down to some degree because we are not working in union with nature anymore. We're working against nature and against our very nature. So what Ben's providing is the ability for people, educating people on how to grow their own food. And it can be beautiful. This garden that we're building is going to be absolutely a paradise. It's a sanctuary. You walk inside it, it's got granite curbing all around through it. It's really beautifully structured. And Ben can talk about it too. And the flow forms going in. It's just very exciting. And I'm just very excited about the

[Unidentified voice]:

whole thing, which is great because you spend all your life making beautiful, functional things for other people and now you're having one created for yourself in your own space.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, I'm always the shoemaker's children. I always have half finished projects around my place. My fire pit's half finished, my terrace is half finished. But we're gonna finish this soon. I'm gonna get my garden finished. Ben's gonna make sure of that. So I'm very excited. I at least get something that starts from beginning and ends. It's very exciting.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We'll return to our program in a Moment on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast.

[Unidentified voice]:

We've long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom Sheppard of Shepherd Financial.

[Unidentified voice]:

Annuals versus perennials. We don't make predictions or try to time the markets. We do, however, like to buy when things are cheap, collect income when it is abundant, and harvest when the crop is ripe. And most importantly, we like to diversify. In our garden, we like to have annuals and perennials. It's coming up on 365 days since the last real market correction. And the height makes me nervous. At today's market levels, some people will begin to look for the opportunity to lock in long term capital gain rates. For those who don't know, this means that a person in a higher tax bracket stands to keep more of what they make just because of how long they held it. In other words, it's an annual crop. Last year's bottom was somewhere between May 18 and June 1 for the markets most of us track. There are, however, some markets that behave more like perennials. We own them because they come back and provide value to us consistently, year after year. Hopefully your garden and your portfolio are full of some of each. The trick is understanding how to trim back the perennials and reseed the annuals. To learn more, send us an email to Tom Shepherd Financial Maine will help you with the weeds

[Unidentified voice]:

How can people approach this biodynamic idea? If I mean ideally, Ben, they would hire you and they would call you up at your company at Wheelwright and get you to come in and do their sort of work for them. But how? If you were just your average person out there trying to do some gardening, incorporate some techniques to create healthier soil, what are some of the things you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

could suggest to them?

[Unidentified voice]:

I would suggest that they have a compost pile, that they use their scraps or yard waste, food scraps, and they make a compost pile and utilize that waste to add some life back to their to the soil. You don't have to do biodynamics. Biodynamics is really making compost and using compost preparations in a very advanced way. But just using compost in general is a really good practice for the average urban grower.

[Unidentified voice]:

And are there specific things that people need to think about when composting? I know some people talk about you could use brown paper, possibly you could use newspapers. Some people say don't use animal scraps. What are some of the things that people need to think about with composting?

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, they need to have a good balance between carbon rich and nitrogen rich materials. Anything that you wouldn't want to put in your body, you probably wouldn't want to compost. Animal byproducts tend to attract critters, so you probably want to stay away from that unless you have it enclosed composting bin. But if you have an enclosed bin, you can definitely compost pretty much in any organic material.

[Unidentified voice]:

It is fascinating to me because I just spent some time in a place that had a big golf course. I was at a resort, had a big golf course, beautiful green. And I'm thinking to myself, well, this is lovely. And I'm wondering what kind of chemical runoff we're experiencing. And I know there are some golf courses that really do want to make things green. You spent 11 years as a golf instructor working on these types of golf courses. Did this influence your desire to kind

[Unidentified voice]:

of get back to a more holistic life, natural lifestyle? Yeah, I would. You know, I really enjoy being in green spaces, so that's why I gravitated towards golf. And I also, you know, like sports, so I think that's why I got into golf. But really, the chemical side of the golf industry, you know, I've always. It's always frustrated me because I know that you don't really need that. It's really our desire for perfection that drives that industry. If people were okay with seeing a little brown patch here or there on the golf course, you really could do things more organically and you wouldn't need those chemical inputs. It really comes down to what the client, what the general population wants. Do they want a lawn that's perfect, or are they okay with something that is more natural? And if you're okay with that, then you can really do things organically and still have a really nice result.

[Unidentified voice]:

Ted, how does this all fit in with the revision of your book? The book that is now titled, it's

[Unidentified voice]:

entitled Earth A Handbook for Climate Change. Excuse me, A Handbook on Climate change for the 21st century. And it really is a handbook. In fact, the reason we had the subtitle A Handbook because we found ourselves using Reunion, the first publication, as a handbook. I would go back and reference different pages, and I said to Ellen one day, my co author, who was an incredible writer, I said to her, ellen, you know, this is a handbook. Even though it's a text, it's really a handbook. And then we started to think about it in terms of climate change and saying, you know, people can reference this. There's a huge, huge section of this book about there are hundreds of things people can do to help with this global climate change. Problem we're in.

[Unidentified voice]:

So a lot of the things that Ben has been talking about as far as incorporating biodynamics, you will address in the book that you're now revising.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's part of the book. It's not certainly the whole thing, but. And certain people aren't going to go there in certain ways. I mean, I drive a couple cars and they're not particularly fuel efficient, but I like them. I'm not going to go there, but I'm going to go there in other areas. So people will pick and choose. It's not either or, it's and. And both. You know, I mean, I'm a product of the 1950s. I was born in the 50s. I'm not, you know, when I look at my nieces and nephews, their worldview, they were born into a completely different era, Completely different worldview.

[Unidentified voice]:

Ted, I think your point is a good one. And it's very easy for those of us who are really sensitive to this and really want to do what's best for the planet and for our families, our children, ourselves, you know, the future generations. It's easy for us to start feeling very guilty, you know, if we want to go, I don't know, to go visit a foreign country, we actually have to get on a plane. You know, we can't paddle across the ocean in a canoe. It's so it's, I think this type of thing can become a bit of a problem if there is this absolute approach to life. If you don't do this, then you're bad. If you're not a extremist foodie who eats only a certain type of food, then you're somehow not, I don't know, you're like an evil plant mongering, I don't know, villain. But I mean, I think that what you're trying to talk about is you're just trying to do the best you can.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's all we can do. Look, everybody's sensibility is different. And my sensibility is different than my brother's sensibility, is different than my neighbor's sensibility. We all have to work together as a team. If you do 1 through 5, I do 5 through 10. Ben does 10 through 20. We all work together collectively as a system to make a huge impact on this planet. It's not about us going and living in a teepee somewhere and starting a fire every morning. That's not where we're supposed to be going right now.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, and ultimately, some of the things that we used to do that seem like, they are simpler, and maybe they were a better way. They used to get us into trouble. You know, lighthouse keepers used to make the light appear using mercury, and then they would get mercury poisoning and they'd go crazy, and then they would die. So, you know, there are these things that used to be good, because now we use electricity and then we use mercury. It seemed like a good idea, but, I mean, everything has its consequence. So if we can just understand that. Simpler. It wasn't necessarily better, and it's not even necessarily better now and again. Just trying to be mindful. Just showing up and doing the best we can. Trying to be mindful.

[Unidentified voice]:

Mindful. I love that word. Yes.

[Unidentified voice]:

So as individuals who are both dealing with what you've called the cosmic energies, there must be some shift in the way that you've lived your lives.

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah. For me, personally, spending time in the Amazon and reading about biodynamics really changed me. It made me more conscious of my decisions and how they affected me from a health standpoint and also from a happiness standpoint. You know, I think, you know, for me personally, it's always been a battle between doing what I love and making enough money to exist in this society. So I really feel like if you can find that balance, it's a really comfortable. It's a comfortable feeling. And I've sort of found that balance with doing my landscaping business.

[Unidentified voice]:

I think that's a balance a lot of people are attempting to achieve.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's not an easy balance to achieve because we spend a lot of our waking hours trying to make money. And a lot of people are doing things that they don't enjoy doing, and they have to do it because they have a family and they have to feed their children. And it's a difficult balance.

[Unidentified voice]:

But how does it change you as a person?

[Unidentified voice]:

As a person, it's really made me more of a happy person and a more content person. And for me, when I work in the landscape, it provides me with a therapy. When I get in the landscape, I'm thinking about nothing other than what I'm doing at the time. And it's enabled me to stay more in the moment and not worried about the future or all the mistakes I made in the past.

[Unidentified voice]:

How would you answer that same question, Ted?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, I think in a nutshell, what Ben's talking about is very important for everybody is that we have job. We start out in the life with a job, we move into a career. In your case, it was working with golf courses and being involved in golf that became a career for you, but you were called on a higher vibrational level to work with this work. And this is where, interestingly, that's where I am in my life. I'm in the calling part of my life. So that's why I like the title Earth Calling.

[Unidentified voice]:

So this has actually caused you to evaluate what you are actually offering back to the world?

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, we all know we're terminal vessels here. And at the end of the day, I don't know many eulogies I've attended where they said, well, they listed off all their material things that they owned and all that kind of thing. It really was. What did they give back? They're always remembered for their generosity and how they helped one another, helped the planet, gave to a cause, worked for a cause. That's the summation of a life well lived. And that's definitely where we all need to be on this planet. We have to. And we are always. We are born to work and help people. We are happiest when we're reaching out and trying to fix a problem or, you know, help someone in need or, you know, just do the right thing.

[Unidentified voice]:

Just.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's part of who we are.

[Unidentified voice]:

And Ben, did you also find this. You spent three years in Central and South America working, it sounds like, in private equity.

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, I worked in South America. And yeah, I mean, it was actually quite disturbing for me to be there because when you spend any time in Central or South America, in the cities, you start to realize how big of an impact you really have on other people's lives. And a lot of the habits that Westerners have have a direct influence on the lifestyle of, of people that maybe aren't so fortunate. So you start to see that and you start to realize that, you know, each one of us can make a big difference. We just have to be that difference. So for me, you know, it sort of woke me up. Like, you know, Ted's book is a wonderful book for people that want to get awakened because it gives them the tools and the resources to look deeper.

[Unidentified voice]:

After listening to this, I'm sure that people will want to get in touch with either one of or both of you about biodynamic landscaping or landscaping in general. So how can people do that?

[Unidentified voice]:

They could do it through my Facebook page, wheelwrightlandscapes, or they could email@ben wheelwrightlandscapes.com

[Unidentified voice]:

or just tedcarterinspiredlandscapes.com well, it has been

[Unidentified voice]:

a true pleasure to spend time with the two of you today. I always enjoy being with, well, I enjoy being with all types of individuals, but when like minded individuals who are doing things in slightly different fields, when we all come together I feel like it creates this amazing energy. And I give you great credit for continuing to bring life back into the earth and the soil of the state of Maine. So we've been talking with Bennett Steele of Wheelwright Landscapes and Ted Carter of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Unidentified voice]:

Thank you very much.

[Unidentified voice]:

Thank you very much Lisa.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour

[Unidentified voice]:

and Podcast hope that our listeners enjoy

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

their own work lives to the same

[Unidentified voice]:

extent we do and fully embrace every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner,

[Unidentified voice]:

I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcie

[Unidentified voice]:

I love home shows. It's true. Walking the aisles, talking with vendors, looking at new products and designs. It always inspires me to keep my house in order to add new things or to remove clutter. All to make my home a comfortable haven for my family and a welcoming place to entertain friends. It's one of those things that I never get tired of doing. Of course, like most when I visit a home show, I have to put things in perspective. The nice to have or need to have list if I didn't, life at my home would be a little chaotic because we'd be in constant state of flux and our budget would be stretched. And it strikes me when I am wandering home shows how keeping my house in order relates so well with business finances. It may sound like an obvious point, but if business owners don't keep their financial houses in order because they're too busy to focus or not as skilled as they should be, things can quickly spiral out of control and become chaotic. At Booth, we see ourselves as financial partners. We are here to keep businesses running smoothly because we keep the financial house in order while our clients do what they do run their businesses. Let us help you get your financial house in order. I'm Marcie Booth. Let's talk about the changes you need. Boothmain.com

[Unidentified voice]:

I have always understood the importance of space myself personally, and even as a physician, spending time in spaces that can be more or less healing for my

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

patients and for their families.

[Unidentified voice]:

So I've enjoyed getting to know people who really know something about space and how to design spaces to create a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

healing atmosphere or a place in which

[Unidentified voice]:

people really enjoy living.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And one of these people is here with me today.

[Unidentified voice]:

This is Rob Whitten of Witten Architects here in Portland, Maine, who is a longtime supporter of Maine home design. And we'll be at the Maine Home show coming up here in June and I appreciate your coming in and talking to us.

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, it's a pleasure to be here.

[Unidentified voice]:

Now Rob Architects, this is something that these are people that are very highly skilled, lots of training, and sometimes there's a misconception that they're only for people who have a lot of money that are going to build a really big house.

[Unidentified voice]:

Right. And it's a misconception I like to dispel as soon as possible. I answer all calls, I go out and visit lots of folks, have lots of opportunities. And I think of myself as sort of an ambassador for architecture sometimes because I'm not a terribly complicated person. I try not to use jargon and I try to put things in terms everyone can understand. And I think those with limited resources really need to make the most of them. And I think an architect can be very helpful there.

[Unidentified voice]:

Why did you decide to become an architect?

[Unidentified voice]:

I loved building things. I saw the world in perspective. I remember doing a drawing in the second grade that everybody was very excited about and I thought nothing special. It's the way I see the world. And it just seemed to be my calling from the very beginning. And I feel very fortunate to have found it and stayed with it and will continue to practice until I have, I guess, a diminished capacity, you know, because it's just a terrific. They say it's an old man's game. And I agree because you get more and more experience and you see more and more spaces and you interact with more and more people. So it's a good way to continue

[Unidentified voice]:

to learn in this day and age.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We seem to have a lot of

[Unidentified voice]:

do it yourselfers and there's a lot of ability to go to. I Don't know a major box store. I won't even use a name, but. And just create structures whether they're inside a house or even the houses themselves. And this can have, this can be both good and bad, right?

[Unidentified voice]:

I think if you're a good planner and you're organized, you can use resources of big box stores pretty effectively. But if you're just wandering around and you don't really consider the full consequences of what you've purchased and how it will be used and how it will affect the space, it may not be the most successful purchase. I tell people it's much more reasonable to consider your design options on paper than to build a wall and decide maybe it's not quite in the right spot. And we see that fairly frequently in the do it yourself world. There is a learning curve, but it can be kind of an expensive curve.

[Unidentified voice]:

What type of training does an architect have?

[Unidentified voice]:

There are a couple of different paths. I have a four year undergraduate degree and then I had a three year graduate degree. And then you serve a three year apprenticeship under a licensed architect fulfilling a series of requirements, and then you go through a series of tests and then you become a licensed architect and your license is renewed every year. And you have continuing education requirements throughout your life as a practitioner to keep you current with new codes, new materials, new methodologies, in evolving ways of doing things. For example, the whole green sustainable design movement is a very positive movement and I think it really serves everyone very well and results in healthier, better living spaces. But there's just a tremendous amount of new information to stay current on.

[Unidentified voice]:

It sounds as though it's similar to the path that one takes to become a doctor, where you have your undergraduate education, you have graduate education, and then you have to keep learning. It's not something that you've become something and then you are that.

[Unidentified voice]:

I agree it's called a practice for a good reason. And we're practitioners, so we're, you know, and we need people to work with all the time. And I'm sure in your line of work you have good patients and maybe not so good patients. Well, we have the same experience, so we always try to make the most of the resources available. And that also includes, you know, our client or client base or their site or perhaps it's a renovation of the structure we're being given an opportunity to work with.

[Unidentified voice]:

What are some of the things that you think about and some of the questions that you ask? When you have somebody that comes to you and says, rob, I'd like to work with you as an architect or I'm considering hiring you as an architect.

[Unidentified voice]:

I start with a site. It's the biggest, most important component of any design. It's where you are on the face of the earth. It's where the wind comes from. It's where the sun comes from. It's the views you might have, its natural features you can make. The better you understand the site, the more you can make the most of its assets. Second thing, of course, is if you're dealing with an existing structure, you need to understand it, but you can change that structure. So I really like to meet a potential client on site, see the world through their eyes, find out why they like this site, why they've chosen this site, and what they really want to do with both the site and if it's a renovation, the structure we're dealing with or a new house. And at the same time, I think there's a nice balance between the site, which is a natural environment, and the structure we're designing, which will be the built environment. And the two can really complement each other. And I think that's a very important discussion to have. And I think that starts to help people understand the perspective that an architect has as he starts to work with a client.

[Unidentified voice]:

What about the types of things that people want to do? Say you have a family with young children versus an older couple that just wants to be on one level versus a couple that entertains a lot. How do you get to know people well enough so that you can kind of guide them in a way that makes sense for their lifestyle?

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, and lifestyle is just the word I was going to use. Lifestyle describes where you are in your life and in your family situation. And we are trained and we have worked in a variety of circumstances. So if someone has a toddler, they see the world as an enormous threat to this toddler. We understand that that's only going to happen for about another year. Once the child discovers the edge, maybe goes over it once or twice, we don't have to worry about the edge as much. And if you let that toddler rule, you'll have possibly a compromised house that may become an impediment to everyone else to enjoy. Similarly, an older person, you really want to create a lifetime house for that person so they can continue to age in place and really work with the house and have the house really comfort and support and protect them. Universal design is a really nice concept, and it's really more of a European concept where it's not about designing for distinct disabilities or handicaps it's just saying there are some very good standards one should apply so that one can continue to live in a home even as you become impaired or start to decline.

[Unidentified voice]:

Do you ever run into challenges when people, you know that you can sort of see what's probably going to happen for them, but they're very much stuck in where they perceive themselves to be?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, you know, I think of myself as a coach sometimes where you've been here before, you know the situation and you just have to help them begin to understand, understand perhaps what they're asking for. Or I think if they've come to you for your expertise and you think they're making a mistake, you owe it to them to let them know what you really think. And you have to be very, very direct. Obviously do it politely and, you know, in a very civil kind of a way and in an educational spirit. But if they're making a mistake, you really have to say, you know, and you can play it out. You can say, well, you know, that's a. It's an interesting position for a window to be in. You have this lovely view, but you know, you're just going to look right at the meeting rail or that window and it'll be an impediment. Or maybe you're just tall enough to look over it, but your partner's five foot three. It's not going to be well received. So. And again, that's the kind of thing where carpenter's framing and opening in a wall. I'm worried about where all these pieces are going to end up in the front final product. That's something a homeowner will only come to realize once it's in place, once it's installed. And perhaps if it's a problem, if it's not a problem, they will never know about it. But, you know, so if you've come to our office, you'll see little tape marks in the walls all over the place. And those are where we're studying the relationship of the size and height of our client, both sitting and standing, the view and the window system we're working with. Just trying to make sure it's going to be a good fit for that client.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

[Unidentified voice]:

Many times when I'm working with a client in nature and in their land and landscape I will make them acutely aware of the directions and what the power of those directions really mean. We are a North based society. We live in North America. We are very head based. We have a very head based energy and it's the place of the white buffalo. It's a place of wisdom, but it also is a place of great conflict. The south is the place of child, the place of innocence, trust, love, understanding. Hence you have South America. Those people are very emotional. They emote. The east is all about new beginnings, about bringing new things into our lives. And it's a wonderful direction because it's all about hope and promise. And then you have the west, which is really about moving into the darkness. And really it's the most powerful direction of all. It really evokes a sense of perhaps a little sense of intimidation and fear and trepidation and fear. But we always end up coming back up to the east again. So it's a full cycle. You can honor these directions in your landscape and really call attention to these places and really try to understand how powerful these directions really are. I'm Ted Carter and and if you'd like to contact me, I can be reached@tedcarterdesign.com we'll return to our program after

[Unidentified voice]:

At the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast we believe we are helping to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

build a better world with the help of many. We like to bring to you people, people who are examples of those building

[Unidentified voice]:

a better world in the areas of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

wellness, health and fitness. To talk to you today about one of these fitness is Jim Greaterix, the president of Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical. Here's Jim.

[Unidentified voice]:

I want to invite you into Black Bear Medical to see our new Premier Sports line. This is a product line that is compression products that the athletes wear. You may have seen it in the Olympics. Custom and high end bracing to keep you active and on the field. Whether it's an athletic event or just mowing your lawn. We have specialized trained staff that can fit you and provide you with the products that you need to keep you active and in the game. I'm Jim Greatorex president of Black Bear Medical. Come on in and see our trained staff down at 275 Marginal Way and at www.blackbearmedical.com.

[Unidentified voice]:

was there anything in your training that assisted you in understanding how to deal with people? Because I suspect that you probably are in a situation often where you have more than one person that's involved in the building process and you have to negotiate that.

[Unidentified voice]:

Right? Sure. We have two individuals. It is nicer, I often find, to work with an older couple because they've worked a lot of these things out and they sort of have their give and take. And then you can just sort of, if you will, encourage the process to follow its natural course because they'll end up with a good decision for themselves. Younger couples perhaps aren't as skilled at that. And so then it becomes a little bit more of a challenge. We never keep score. No one's ever right, no one's ever wrong. It's just we want to make sure it's a good fit for them and it's really their house. And again, we'll give them some, quite a bit of latitude, but if we think they're making a mistake, we'll let them know. But generally, you know, people make the, given the right situation, in the right circumstances and a little bit of good coaching, they'll make a the right decision.

[Unidentified voice]:

Is this something for them? Right for them. And that is the important thing that you must have to keep in mind is that you're always balancing out what you believe could be really important for them to know and what they believe that they really need or want.

[Unidentified voice]:

Right. And back to the do it yourselfer. There's just an enormous amount of information out there today and it's readily accessible. When I started being an architect, all that information was sort of the purview of the architect or the manufacturer. I mean, there were very detailed sets of information that wasn't available to the public. Now everybody can access it and be very current. How they evaluate it and how they use it, you know, is really, again, it requires judgment. And I'd like to thank some professional

[Unidentified voice]:

skills, which again, I hear you in the same thing happening in medicine that we have this overabundance, some would say, of information. But information doesn't always lead you in the right direction. It's just information. It's the ability to sort of tease out what is actually going to be practical, that an architect can help somebody do the same way that a doctor could help somebody with a client can

[Unidentified voice]:

have 10 great ideas. And so you've got 10 great ideas, but, you know, it's a small house and maybe three is sufficient and maybe 10 will be pretty confused. So it's an editing process, and it's helping them prioritize. It's helping them make what I'll call informed decisions. And that's really gratifying. And it. And most of all, towards the end of the project as the house comes together, because being an architect, I've had a sense of the spaces, the volumes, the flow of the house, the views, all of that. It's all done on paper. In a sense, I've built it on paper. And then you see the client who gets so excited about, oh, this is so wonderful. I get that view and I get this. And the light comes in this way. And you're thinking, yeah, that's not new. That's been planned from the day one. But you get to share that enthusiasm, which is really one of our great rewards.

[Unidentified voice]:

I'm sure you're familiar with the studies that have revealed the healing nature of space. So where they put a wall in front of a patient, or they put a pretty window in front of a patient, and they see how long it takes for a patient to get better after surgery, for example. What are some of the things that you believe to really contribute to a positive, healthy home and healthy lifestyle for your clients?

[Unidentified voice]:

Well, we have five senses. Some people would say more. I think a good home appeals to every one of those senses and somehow provides some feedback to that. So there's sound, there's texture, there's sight, there's almost taste. You can, you know, you walk into a house that hasn't been well maintained, and you get that funny, moldy smell, and you think it just puts you right off. And so there are many different senses that you want to enrich someone's life with. And I think you can incorporate those things in a house. So, you know, it can be that the texture of a brick wall, or it can be the warm colors that change as the light changes from outside, or it can be having light from two directions coming into a room that gives the house cross ventilation. Daylight that is colored by the time of day, so you can tell exactly what time of day it is. And it also balances it so there's not so much contrast. So then you can look outside so it's not this dark wall and this very bright window because you're getting some other light on that wall. So it's just that those are very subtle. And again, I think the Europeans have been part of this for a long time. They talk about this, and it's inherent in their culture and their tradition. And they also build houses and homes and structures to last many lifetimes. They're not in the sort of quick turn it, five year flip cycle that I think is a little part of American culture. It's our restless frontier part manifesting itself. So I think there's a subtler and more profound appreciation of how those senses can provide comfort and health and really make for a, if you will, a more holistic house. And I try to stay in touch with those things. And again, hopefully, if you've hired an architect who respects all those things, you'll get those things and your life will be enriched. And it's sort of the value added that I'm hoping we provide.

[Unidentified voice]:

Having been to your website myself, one of the most interesting things I found were the line drawings of the walking tours that you and your wife take take on a fairly regular basis.

[Unidentified voice]:

Yeah, that's. I must admit one of the disadvantages of being an architect in Maine in the summer is the people with resources come here for the summer and they take my time. And so I go on vacation the second week of September, when people have gone back to their other worlds and we get away and it's very low tech. We're going at three miles an hour, five kilometers an hour, walking through the countryside. We have a detailed set of instructions, and it's usually across a walk that may be an old pilgrimage walk or something to a significant monument, perhaps in the Middle Ages. And it just puts you in a different place and time. And I often think about how we have evolved to become walkers. And your senses. And day two and day three, you're suddenly hearing things, seeing things, sensing things, that unless you're moving slowly and deliberately and you're in a different place, you'd never perceive. And that's really. And then I get to record them because I sketch and draw. And my wife, who's an editor, publisher, writes. So we keep this log, and some days she writes and leaves me a little spot for drawing, and some days I draw and then she finds a little spot to put in a little cue about what it is. And we've been doing this probably for 12, 13 years now. And so we have these little series of logbooks and as you get older, your memory starts to fail, so you can pull the logbook out with a date and what actually transpired. Oh, yeah, that's right, that's right. That's the town. So we enjoy that. And it also puts us in touch with different cultures.

[Unidentified voice]:

I encourage people to go to your website and to see these logbooks and they really are beautiful drawings and descriptions and they made me I think one of them I was reading was in Italy and it made me want to go to Italy again. So I think it will also cause people to want to meet you as

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

a I feel as if you're a

[Unidentified voice]:

kind and gentle soul who is able to bring joy into the lives of the people that you design for. And I think people should spend some time finding out more about you.

[Unidentified voice]:

Thank you.

[Unidentified voice]:

So we've been speaking with Rob Witten from Witten Architects here in Portland and I appreciate your time. Thank you.

[Unidentified voice]:

It's been a pleasure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 93, the Maine Home + Design show. Our guests have included Ted Carter, Bennett Steele and Rob Whitten. For more information on our guests, visit drlisabelisle.com for more information on the 2013 Taste of the Nation or the Maine Home and Design show, visit themainmag.com the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and read my take on health and well being on the Bountiful blog. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast to you each each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, hoping that you have enjoyed our Maine Home + Design show. Thank you for allowing me and us to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.