Editor's Letter

Remember when practicing environmental awareness — or, in today’s lingo, being green — was un-fun? It meant shopping in cramped, musty, flour-floored natural food markets (which, okay, I sort of loved). It meant wearing loose, possibly tie-dyed clothing and ugly sandals (no love there). It meant sleeping in hemp hammocks … and camping. Forget just un-fun. Green was unstylish. And it smelled kind of odd, too.

Nowadays, unless you’ve been living under a rock — which would be earthy of you — you’ve heard that green can be haute. The rumors are true. For proof, flip through these pages, and see how many great, gorgeous, green design ideas you can find. (We stopped counting at around 187.) Our region is absolutely teeming with eco-chicness — from repurposed warehouse lofts (page 74), to reinvented Chestnut Hill landmarks (page 66), to stylish, modern family dwellings (page 46), to the dozens of architects, landscape architects, shops, contractors, furnishings and more in our everything-eco-fabulous-for-your-home guide (page 56).

We, The Home Team, sacrificed no amount of style in our tree-hugging mission. Nor did we spare time or effort. Extra thanks for this dedication and hard work goes to: Jane Morley for dotting the i’s (with the invaluable help of our interns) — and for lugging home used office paper for recycling; Emily Gagne for gamely reporting on vegan home wares while wearing mink (at least it was vintage); Janine White for keeping everyone on track while practicing ventriloquism with her forest-green-frocked “fashion” doll, Sarah; and, very most of all, intrepidly artsy folk Anne Bigler, Erica Heusser, Michael McCormick and Zoey Sless-Kitain for pulling together the prettiest magazine we’ve ever printed.

We promise to keep staying pretty. Isn’t it about time you got a little more green?

Lauren McCutcheon, Editor
lmccutcheon@phillymag.com