While the White House effort has given Fisk and Max's Pot a boost, their work at the Laredo Blueprint Farm is arguably their most successful project. The two-acre farm, which was featured in Architecture magazine in 1991, uses local materials including straw and used oilfield pipe. Straw bales were used to construct five buildings to be used for classrooms, offices and storage. The pipe was used to support awnings for shade. Wind towers were integrated to keep the buildings cool.
Wind generators help supply power, while catchment systems trap rainwater in cisterns.
The Laredo farm helped Fisk formulate ideas for a new architectural ethic, which he calls Biom-Metrics. Rather than relying on copper, petroleum and other resources which are transported long distances, Fisk wants to focus on how to convert local materials into usable substitutes. The method will also incorporate life cycle assessment to measure the total impact of resource utilization. For instance, in their analysis of the state insurance building, Fisk found that by substituting granite from Texas for Italian granite, they could save 600,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. Replacing imported materials with local materials saves not only energy, but time and local jobs.