SOLAR TODAY - April 2009

new energy

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for and about students and emerging professionals

JON SCHNiTzER

(Left to right), built in 1953, these travel trailers from the Spartan Aircraft Corp. were restored to serve as Side Street’s floating office space. Emily Hopkins of the Side Street Projects staff shows off the 3,000-watt solar array on trailers at the historic Decker House, an abandoned Victorian that serves as the host property for Side Street’s office trailers. Kids learn to make their own toys and objets d’art in the Woodworking Bus during its visits to 15 Pasadena grade schools.

zARA KATz

in January, Side Street Projects of Pasadena, Calif., celebrated its one-year anniversary as a fully off-grid enterprise. The nonprofit a rts foundation runs a pair of Woodworking Buses, visiting 15 elemen- tary schools to introduce about 1,000 kids each year to tools and techniques. The program is a valuable supplement for cash-strapped public schools with limited arts programs. Side Street’s adult program supports about 330 artists and a variety of cultural institutions with low-cost equipment rentals and consulting services. Since its launch in 1992, the foundation’s three-person headquarters has migrated through a series of condemned properties. In 2006, the Pasadena Community Foundation provided $8,000 for the purchase of two 1953 Spartan travel trailers to use as permanent float- ing office space. Restoration was funded by the Ahmanson Foundation. Funding included $50,000 for a 3,000-watt solar array designed by Solar Energy Industries Inc. According to Side Street’s Jon Lapointe, the panels free the foundation from office rent as well as from utility bills. Side Street plans to expand the mobile art studio program to high schools by equipping two additional trailers with workstations for a