On the Ranch

The Nevada Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup awards were announced at a fundraising dinner on Friday, April 25th. Seven out of nine awards were given to students whose ideas were focused on sustainable living, alternative energy and waste reduction. Seven out of nine! Student teams from around the state are encouraged to develop viable business plans that would make it in the real world. The winners receive a cash prize as well as chance to win at a tri-state competition between Arkansas, Oklahoma and Nevada in May. The Governor’s Cup is presented by Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

A quick glimpse at some winners….

• 1st Place Undergraduate - WATTs - Waste Alternatives Transformation Technologies (UNLV)
  By utilizing a multi-faceted approach that maximizes usable products extracted from municipal, commercial and industrial waste, WATTs will reduce the ecological burden on traditional landfills while producing clean, sustainable energy and energy products that do not rely upon fossil fuel sources.
• 3rd Place Undergraduate - KG BioSolutions (Sierra Nevada College)
  KG BioSolutions is a company offering a self-sufficient co-gen product marketed towards restaurants. The fully automated system will process crude vegetable oil at the push of a button and then burn processed biodiesel in an industrial generator providing supplemental electricity to the restaurant on location.
• 2nd Place Graduate - Go Green Outdoors (UNR)
  Go Green Outdoors, LLC connects people to green culture, green businesses and a green way of life. We are an online resource for green culture news, information and conversation. We provide daily updates of environmental and outdoor recreation news as well as a guide to green products and services.
• 3rd Place Graduate - More Water Company (UNR)
  More Water Company uses Atmospheric Water Generation technology to produce drinking water from the air. The company will produce water regionally to sell into local markets diminishing the reduction of natural resources such as lakes and streams and reducing pollutants caused by transportation.
• Lt. Governor’s Award Winners Graduate Winner - Bio-Grounds LLC (UNR)
  Bio-grounds LLC is turning waste streams to profit streams. Our company uses spent coffee grounds to produce high quality eco-friendly and low cost biodiesel.

In other news, the American Institute of Architects and the Committee on the Environment (COTE) announced the winners of the 2008 top ten best examples of sustainable architecture last week. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see that nine out of ten winners were academic or learning based projects. History shows that most innovation comes out of the academic environment and more and more students are coming to expect sustainable design as the norm for their environments. Universities are listening and setting the bar for other public projects.

Here is a quick summary and link of the winners’ projects.

• Aldo Leopold Legacy Center - The Kubula Washatko Architects, Inc., Cedarburg, WI
  The Center was envisioned as a small complex of structures organized around a central courtyard. This design provides flexibility in the managing energy use based on program requirements, creates outdoor spaces for work and gathering, and reduces the scale of the buildings on site. The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is the first building recognized by LEED as carbon-neutral in operation.
• Cesar Chavez Library - Line and Space, LLC, Tucson, AZ
  In order to protect the outdoor and indoor space from the sun’s radiation, the building uses extensive overhangs to create a ‘hat’ in the desert. The scarcity of water led to roof top rainwater collection for irrigation, while water reducing fixtures are used indoors.
• Discovery Center at South Lake Union - The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle, WA
  A primary program element for this particular center, alongside numerous other environmental goals, was to create a building and core that could provide adaptable exhibit space, capable of being reconfigured and reused for the presentation of multiple residential neighborhoods throughout the South Lake Union Region over a lengthy period of time.
  
  Photo credit: Lara Swimmer Photography
• Pocono Environmental Education Center - Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, PA
  The building is a flexible, multi-purpose gathering space for dining, meetings, lectures and other environmental learning activities. As part of the site design, native grasses were planted to provide a landscape that is low maintenance and integrates the project into its natural surroundings.
  
  Photo credit: Nic Lehoux
• Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, Cambridge School of Weston Architerra, Inc., Boston, MA
  The facility is designed to advance sustainability, creating an exemplar and educational tool through a design process that engaged the entire community. Fifty-five detailed sustainability goals included renewable energy, no water to be discharged to the local sewer, 100% storm water infiltration on-site, artificial lighting designed to less that one watt per square foot and minimal maintenance for 20 years.
• Lavin-Bernick Center for the University Life-VJAA, Minneapolis, MN
  The exisiting building was stripped to the concrete frame, expanded by 33% and redesigned with a variety of environmental systems. Despite its high ambitions, the project had a modest budget and was completed for $189/sf, fourteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Tulane sees the project as a new model for sustainable design in New Orleans.
• (only project not academic in nature) Macallen Building Condominiums - Office dA Inc. and Burt Hill Inc., Boston, MA
  In looking to the future, the garden has propelled itself into the front ranks of its field as the first botanical garden in the country devoted to sustainable environmental stewardship. A water channel surrounds the building and weaves through the garden, fed by rainwater that cascades off of the sheltering roof canopy.
• The Nueva School, Hillside Learning Complex - Leddy Maytum
  Stacy Architects, San Francisco, CA
  The 33-acre campus, located in the semi-rural coastal hills of the San Francisco Peninsula, features a thriving coast live oak woodland ecosystem, a variety of dispersed structures and dramatic views of San Francisco Bay. The design is grounded in the desire to integrate straightforward, appropriate and cost-effective sustainable design solutions within the broader language of contemporary architectural expression.
• Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery - KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Philadelphia, PA
  Situated on the former brownfield site, the new complex is comprised of three new buildings. To provide maximum daylight and exceptional energy efficiency, a wall system was designed that incorporates solar shading, a triple glazed low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and a translucent double cavity spandrel panel.
  
  Photo credit: © Peter Aaron, Esto

Keep learning!
Stacey Crowley, Director of Master Planning and Environmental Initiatives - scrowley@kileyranch.net

Share and Enjoy: