Retrofitting is a popular term used in the world of eco-design. I am going to offer the word a needed adaptation. This site has finally gotten it’s infrastructure stable enough to enhance it’s effectiveness via a focal shift towards large scale innovative multi creature habitat creation. I.e. the recent article on green building. A retrofit effectively takes place when new design patterns can be wisely inserted into existing structures. So, let’s go back in time and retrofit this site with an article dated from back in June. OK do you all have your temporal bearings stable enough to be then and now all at once? Back in June, the Rethos.com organization was just moving some of it’s affiliation deeper into the New York area. This predated the Manhattan office being established and the site going “live”. Also back in June, I was fortunate enough to be at the NeoCon event in Chicago with a media rep. for BuildingGreen TV. Without much searching one can find info regarding BuildingGreen TV, so I will only quickly say kudos to Building Green and many thanks to Aron Buterbaugh, a design encylopedia. What I would like to emphasize is growth. It is clear that Rethos is growing and in it’s growth we hope to behave in ways that optimize the tool that we have here at hand. One way in which to do that is to serve up some numbers regarding some of the players that some of the Rethorians are making connections with. So NeoCon. Not in it’s political context, NeoCon is the National Exposition of Contract Furnishings. This year marked it’s 39th consecutive year of showcasing the largest array of contract furnishings for the office, health care, hospitality, residential, institutional, and government environments. With 10 floors measuring over 1.2 million square feet and more than 1,200 exhibiting companies, you can imagine the impact that such an event can have. While you imagine the potential impact such a large space could have also imagine the reality of over 50,000 trade professional temporarily inhabiting that large space. Being that the trade that we are talking about happens to be the largest in numbers regarding either beneficial or detrimental effects in our environment, it is a pleasure to report that this year the amount of eco and health conscious designs and furnishings was astounding. There was even a considerable amount of local organic food available. For any who are interested please Google NeoCon and pay close attention to any discussion regarding GreenLife™. For those who get as far researching the NeoCon event you may also want to note that the Merchandise Mart (where the event is held) is seeking it’s certification for LEED-EB status. Very noteworthy when seen from the larger perspective. The building, a Chicago landmark, is the largest commercial building in the world with over 4.2 million square-feet. For those of you who know Chicago’s proud architectural history since the great fire, hopefully will see the beneficial aspect of such a prestigious building partaking in such innovations. On an economic note, let’s continue to hope that such amazing improvements in our built world offer the environments needed to create situations in which we all feel capable of being nurtured enough to readily share more of our time, money and technical know-how. Now with that retrofit in place, I look forward to my next media oriented retrofit. The last Green Building Expo in NJ.