Palm Desert Architect: Not Green, These Solutions Are Smart

Some of Eric Corey Freed's architectural solutions to making cities, homes and businesses environmentally friendly and efficient are simple: insulate a house properly, replace outdated water heaters, use light colored roofs to reflect heat.

But it is some of the Palm Desert-based architect's more out-of-the-box ideas that are really striking, such as his idea of de-asphaltification.

Freed, who studied under the students of Frank Lloyd Wright, sees the acres and acres of asphalt parking lots that surround big box stores a complete waste of space in the urban landscape, and generators of immense amounts of heat in the desert during the summer.

"Imagine if instead we said we don’t need such a big parking lot," Freed told Patch. "Most of the year, except November, December, you only really need this much parking. Let’s make that dedicated parking. For the rest of the site, let's do permeable pavers."

Permeable pavers such as gravel, or other materials, allow water run off to get back into acquifers.

"When water does fall we let it get toxified, and dump it into a retention basin. We don’t give it a chance to go back into the aquifer," he said.

Some of his work can be seen at Old Town La Quinta, where overflow parking is on a grassy area that is only used in season or during large events.

Freed's ideas are not just confined to his followers of his books. He is a member of Palm Desert's Sustainability Commission and a licensed architect at organicArchitect in Palm Desert.

As someone who is well known for an organic and ecological approach to design, he doesn't like the words green or sustainability.

"I almost try to avoid it now, the word sustainable. Smart, is the word I'm using. All other buildings are dumb. It's dumb to build a hollow stick box in the desert. It's dump to build a building that furthers our dependence on fossil fuels," Freed said, with a smile.

But mostly, he just sees most development as a missed opportunity, which is why he helped create the city Sustainability Dashboard for the Coachella Valley's nine cities.

"The biggest part of the dashboard is getting sustainability people together to share best practices in partnership with CVAG (the Coachella Valley Association of Governments)," Freed said.

He'll be sharing his thoughts on environmentally friendly design at 6 p.m. on March 26 at UCR Palm Desert as part of the Arts & Letters Series.

For more information, visit the school's website.