In this strange new post-growth era, America has a vast oversupply of unwanted suburban houses and retail space. We can do interesting things with these charmless buildings. That’s what my new twice-monthly column is about, over at the sustainable housing website FourStory.org.

In the first installment, I write about a stunning new nature center/community building created from a dreary 1990s exurban house in Nevada’s Carson Valley. When we start looking at all these awful Real Estate Bubble surplus structures with fresh eyes, we can start re-making the Great Recession Wasteland into a humane environment.