Architect Wayne Bingham, the building director for the state of Utah for 10 years, is using Wasatch Community Garden's Grateful Tomato Garden at 600 E. 800 South in Salt Lake City as a place to train workers in the venerable art of straw construction.

As part of the garden group's 15th anniversary celebration, it is building a solar-powered straw bale greenhouse and timber-framed learning center this month. Residents with an interest in learning how to use this environmentally friendly construction technique have paid between $549 and $949 to help build the greenhouse so they can learn the technique from Bingham.

"One day I want to build a straw house," said Claudia Seeley, a Salt Lake City educator. "This will be a nice educational facility for a lot of after-school programs."

Bingham, who is building a house made from straw bales in Idaho's Teton Valley with his wife Colleen, is a big straw advocate.

"These buildings are resource efficient," he said, while supervising busy workers last week at the tomato garden. "It uses little wood. You are not cutting down as many trees to build it . . . And there is not a lot of petroleum used in this type of architecture."

The building has a traditional concrete foundation. But, instead of bricks and fiberglass insulation, the building utilizes thick bales of straw plastered with earth, a system that uses much less wood. The teaching shelter is timber-framed with a clear roof allowing natural light. A passive solar system describe on the south side will heat the greenhouse.

Because of its construction, the greenhouse is not expected to require any supplemental heating or cooling. Even ventilation fans are solar driven. The energy efficiency is expected to save Wasatch Community Gardens hundreds of dollars annually.

Bingham contracted with a Tremonton farmer who delivered 244 bales of straw at a cost of $3 each to the site. The straw is a waste product that remains after wheat used for pasta flour is harvested.

While this is billed as the first fully functioning straw building in Salt Lake City, it is not the first for Bingham. He has designed 17 straw buildings in Colorado, Utah and Arizona, including the Teton Valley structure that will soon serve as his home.

"I wanted to build one for myself so I can walk the talk," he said, smiling.

Normally, a building such as this one would cost $88,000. But, with the help of laborers who paid to participate in workshops to learn the construction method and grants, the new greenhouse and learning center will cost about $32,000. Wasatch Community Gardens is working on a fund-raising drive to raise about $25,000 needed for the project.

"It's quite a simple system," said John Norborg of Salt Lake City, who paid to take the course. "You could heat it with a 100-watt light bulb."

The building is important for Wasatch Community Garden programs because it will allow Youth Gardening Program classes to continue when the weather turns bad. It will also allow year-round classes on such subjects as seed propagation and greenhouse growing.

Perhaps the most important need being met is that the building will include a restroom.

Since the nearest public bathroom is three blocks away, this has been a major problem for teachers bringing classes to the Grateful Tomato Garden.

Bingham tried to design the structure to use as little of the garden land as possible and to blend in with nearby buildings in historic central city.

Most important to him, the structure will teach valuable lessons about conserving resources.

"If we don't conserve more resources, it is going to hurt our kids and grandkids," he said.

For information on the project, log on to http://www. wasatchgardens.org or call 801-359-2658.

Michael Coles/The Salt Lake Tribune

The greenhouse at Wasatch Community Gardens takes shape. The project attracted volunteers interested in straw-building construction.

More straw building facts

l Straw buildings have been used throughout human history, with thatched roofs common in Europe, Russia and eastern Asia. North American teepees were insulated with loose straw.

l The invention of the mechanical baler in the mid-1800s allowed blocks of straw to be available. The process was used extensively to build homes in the Sand Hills of Nebraska.

l Straw buildings experienced revivals in the mid-1990s with a newsletter by Matts Myrhman and Judy Knox on straw-bale construction called The Last Straw.

-Sources: Alternative Construction: Contemporary Natural Building Methods and architect Wayne Bingham.

Fast fact

Straw buildings are ecologically friendly in several respects. They utilize less wood and petroleum products to build. Straw bales are a waste product from growing grain. Their insulation factor and energy efficiency is better than many other construction methods.