Moved

Tomorrow, Hearth Connection moves across the river. We leave the respected Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center for a new office space at 280 & University, just over the border into St. Paul. I'm looking forward to many of the amenities our new space will afford, especially the opportunity to be officed with my co-workers. (Since last February, when we outgrew our original office, my department has been transitionally housed upstairs in the offices of the Corporation for Supportive Housing.)

But there's also much we leave behind. The PEEC, as it's known, is amazing, with environmental technologies pervasively -- and for the most part, transparently -- deployed throughout: reused building materials, low VOC paints, solar-tracking skylights, a geothermal heat pump, a green rooftop garden and the largest solar array in the midwest. All this, along with an array of terrific, progressive tenant organizations, situated on the Midtown Greenway.

Being on the Greenway, for me, has been one of the biggest perks. From my house, my bike commute has been a quick 6-mile round trip, 85% of which has been on a dedicated bike and walking trail so I don't have to contend with traffic. The bike commute to the new office won't be quite as cushy, but being twice the distance, will at least be a bit more aerobic.

Speaking of aerobics, does anyone remember "Move," a Nike ad from the 2002 Winter Olympics?



There's a moment in this ad which can bring me to tears every time I watch it, even now after all these years and repeated viewings. (It's the toddler.) Call me easily manipulated, I'm grateful to YouTube and the interwebs for letting such moments of sentimentality reach out from the past and move us in the present. It just does it, somehow.