ECLA PA helping to create a green "Ambitious, fantastic" project in Ivyland and Johnsville, (Warminster) PA

Once slated for destruction, both the Centrifuge Building, the world's largest and most powerful dynamic flight simulator, at the Historic Johnsville Naval Air Warfare Development Center, and Hobensack's Mill, one of the original buildings in historic Ivyland, PA have been saved from the wrecking ball by a couple of unconventional visionary developers.

How this came to be is as fantastic as anything else in the story. It actually started many years ago.

On a sunny summer afternoon in 1971, 13 year-old Bob Cremeans sat beside the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad tracks behind Hobensack's Mill in Ivyland, Pennsylvania, waiting for locomotive repairs. Bill Hobensack, the mill owner, found him and chewed him out for being so idle. Shortly after that conversation Bob dreamed of seeing the mill restored to its former glory, decked in red, white, and blue bunting.

Thirty years later, Cremeans answered a newspaper ad placed by Italo Cosantino, current owner of the mill now called Seasons Hearth and Patio. The two formed a business relationship and the dream awoke.

A half-mile down the tracks from Ivyland, Sam Cravero was busy settling his business, Concealed Technology Services, into new office spaces at the centrifuge building. He was also remodeling unused space for prospective tenants. The building at the old Johnsville Naval Air Defense Center was a relic from WW II and the dawn of supersonic flight.

Cravero didn't realize that he also bought the world's largest and most powerful dynamic flight simulator. After a chance 2007 encounter with Cremeans, Cravero knew he had a date with the history of the American race for space.

Calling their collective vision "Freedoms Way" the two held an open house on May 16 for local and national elected leaders, and representatives from area organizations.

The sites will house a new aerospace museum, celebrating Warminster's little-known but essential contribution to the race to the moon. Ivyland will be host to a new museum of agriculture and industry, celebrating their unique contribution to the American Centennial and growth of Bucks County.

The two also recognized opportunities created by rising fuel prices and concern for the environment. They called in Larry Menkes, a relocalization coordinator for the Post Carbon Institute, and a cofounder of Warminster Township's Energy Advisory Council. Menkes assembled a "green-ribbon" pre-planning team to install efficiencies to slash operating expenses by cutting CO2 emissions.

Cravero and Cremeans plan railroad stations at both sites to allow tourists and history buffs to travel between the two by rail. They'd like to establish regular rail service between Warminster and New Hope with other historic stops along the way.

The local press fell in love with the dream. One paper called the plan 'Ambitious' and 'fantastic'. The two visionaries are calling on everyone to get aboard and find their ambitious or fantastic place in the project.

A non-profit corporation called the Ivyland Foundation for Historic and Architectural Preservation was created to oversee the museums. Interested parties may now purchase $100,000 shares to invest in and own a part of this. You can reach Bob Cremeans at 267.253.6108 and Sam Cravero at 215.444.9411.

Additionally the two museums will link up with the Moland House in nearby Hartsville, where George Washington forged the historic alliance with the Marquis de Lafayette and turned the tide against the British during the Revolutionary War. Also connected will be at least two more related aerospace buildings in nearby Warminster Community Park; Craven Hall, a key building from the founding of Warminster, two centuries ago; a new John Fitch museum, where the first American steamboat was built; and the Wings of Freedom museum at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station and Joint Reserve Base in Horsham, PA, also in the neighborhood.

The ECLA PA has been intimately involved in the sustainable planning of this project. Bill Marston, AIA, LEED II, and Dean of the ECLA Academy, was consulted on creating a pre-planning team thAt included Sandy Wiggins, outgoing chairman of the US Green Building Council, Scott Kelly the, the Philly AIA's "green guy", and a veteran of numerous local LEED projects, Harold Finigan, who restored Fort Mifflin, Chris Zelov, founder of the Knossus Project, Todd Ballantyne from the Environmental Home Store, Susan Halteman, curator of the Harold Pitcairn Wings of Freedom Museum at the NAS JRB in Willow Grove (Horsham), PA, Kent Baird, co-founder of Bucks County Sustainable Business Alliance, Don Borden, of Delaware Valley College, and others.

This unique project is another example of how a Relocalization chapter can be a key player in sustainable development in a community. The ECLA will be launching another sustainability video-discussion series at the Centrifuge beginning Friday, June 13 at 7:30 PM. (see listing in the "events pages"). The videos will be screened in the same theatre where astronauts from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo trained for their historic missions.