Kudos, and Corrections, on Turf

When I picked up my April 2004 issue of

Environmental Building News (

Vol. 13, No. 4) and saw the main article’s title, inwardly I groaned. I usually look forward to, read thoroughly, and then treasure the detailed completeness of each

EBN feature article. But “Which Grass is Greener? Comparing Natural and Artificial Turf”—how interesting could this be?

Well, I want to commend its author, Jessica Boehland. It was so well done, so well researched and nicely composed, that frankly I found it gripping. Yessir, true! Thank you so much for turning what could have been a boring necessity into an engaging learning experience.

May I add this comment: Perhaps the feeling under bare feet after a summer rainshower outweighs any other measure as the decider in appropriate applications. And perhaps the safety to skin and bones of athletes using playfields is the decider for those applications. In other words, treat this just as we treat any choice that we, as responsible architects, make: the best for the application, applying the highest standard of environmental well-being. And never forget the satisfaction and stimulus to the spirit of that squishy feel, the smell of living, wet earth.

William J. Marston, AIA, LEED-AP

MMA Integrated Architecture & Design Consulting

Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaP.S. I’ll forgive the absent identification of Turfgrass Producers International, which appears throughout the article only as “TPI.”

Editor’s Response:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the turf article and for pointing out the absence of TPI’s full name within the main text. We also mistakenly reported on page 10 that the average suburban lawn consumes 1,000 gallons (3,800 l) of water each year. The correct figure, as reported in Amy Vickers’ Handbook of Water Use and Conservation

, is 10,000 gallons (38,000 l). Thanks to Ms. Vickers for catching our error.