The season of cycling is upon us.  Here are a few ideas for places to ride, both in and out of the city, for cyclists of all experience levels.  

“Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.”  - James E. Starrs

For all the cutting-edge design here at the Menomonee Valley, one of the building’s most prominent and unique features is actually based on a centuries old technology...and you’ve probably walked right past it!  The Solar Chimney (that two-story black box on the front of our building), also known as a ‘Solar Stack,’ or ‘Thermal Chimney’, uses the principle of convection to help keep the center well ventilated; and some versions of this technology date as far back as the Copper Age (circa 5500 B.C.E.).  

Convection?  Sounds like a lot of hot air!   

I’ll be honest, the first few times I heard about the stack my eyes glazed over a little, but the theory it’s based on is actually pretty simple.