July 7, 2000

Hartwick's Holy Hay House

By VASUGI V. GANESHANANTHAN

Spare us the "three little pigs" jokes. C.W. (Sandy) Huntington's already heard 'em, and this is no fairy tale. Mr. Huntington's students, at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, N.Y., really are building a straw-bale house.

"This isn't a little hut," says Mr. Huntington, an assistant professor of religious studies. Indeed, the 600-square-foot house known as the Straw Bale Project is, as he says, "a huge, huge deal." It's expected to cost some $75,000.

But how does the structure --