After months of construction, employees at Architectural Nexus completed building a tiny home intended to help an individual facing homelessness in Seattle. Housing security advocates, environmental groups and public leaders were invited to view the newly built tiny home at the Arch Nexus Salt Lake City office last week, before it was shipped to Washington. The Deseret News reported on the project, it’s uniquely sustainable features and what Nexus Builds aspires to do next. Read the full article here.

Since March of 2019, over 120 different employees at Arch Nexus have donated hundreds of hours, gaining hands on experience while creating a 200 square foot home that will provide housing for a previously homeless individual. Finishing touches were added and the house was prepped for travel on Thursday. The day has come to bid farewell to the tiny home, as it makes its journey from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Seattle, Washington. Stay posted as we follow its voyage and final placement! #NexusBuilds

For a number of years we have supported a culture of philanthropy by giving additional leave days to employees for volunteering to support a cause they believe in. This year we pooled our collective efforts and talents to tackle the issue of homelessness through a Seattle Based visionary program known as The BLOCK Project. The program invites communities into the task of ending homelessness by placing a 125 square foot tiny home on every residentially zoned block in the City of Seattle.

Here at Arch Nexus, we have contributed by leveraging our own philanthropy program as well as their experience in designing environmentally regenerative dwellings to build and donate a BLOCK Home that is also a Certified Living Building. Over the past 6 months we have put literal blood, sweat, and tears into this project.

The time to send this tiny home on to a host family in Seattle has come. A celebration held at Arch Nexus today, gave guests the opportunity to step inside and see the home. On the morning of October 31st the structure will be prepped for its journey, hoisted onto a truck, and bid farewell as it travels to Seattle.

To fulfill the urban agriculture imperative of a Certified Living Building, Arch Nexus SAC utilized the concept of scale jumping. This allowed for a sustainable garden to be implemented at nearby Sutter Middle School. Check out recent news coverage of the school garden from Good Day Sacramento.

We’re halfway through Salt Lake City Design Week. On Tuesday evening Arch Nexus President, Kenner Kingston participated in a panel discussion after a screening of the feature documentary: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. The film is a cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet.

Many more design week events will be held through Saturday, check out the full lineup here.

A dynamic team of Architects and Designers from Arch Nexus have been fervently working with mere months to design a new, 220,000 square foot facility for Northrop Grumman Corporation. On Wednesday ground was broken for the Northrop Grumman Roy Innovation Center, located at Hill Air Force Base. The structure is the first building in a development that will bring the Northrop Grumman GBSD Headquarters to Northern Utah, along with thousands of new jobs.

Falcon Hill National Aerospace Research Park will feature over 2 million square feet of commercial space in its first phase, with more phases planned. In addition to jobs, the development will bring revitalized infrastructure in and around Hill, including new buildings, roads and utilities. The project includes buildings behind the Hill security gate and others, owned by different tenants, located outside the gate and open to the general public.

Speakers at Wednesday’s groundbreaking included Senator Mitt Romney and Congressman Rob Bishop. Kathy J. Warden, president and CEO of Northrop Grumman, said the company chose Utah because of its educated workforce, its patriotism and its support for the military. Project Architect, Bryce Sorensen, says the timeframe to design this first building was difficult, but through extraordinary teamwork the project has proved to be very rewarding.

Arch Nexus is honored to have been chosen as Engineering News Record’s Intermountain Area Design Firm of the Year for 2019. We express our gratitude to ENR Mountain States and the selection committee, who had many qualified contenders. We also share our appreciation to the many individuals who work every day to make Architectural Nexus worthy of this recognition.
This year’s selection was made based on regional revenues, new initiatives, current projects and several other factors such as:

-100% employee-owned this year.
-Salt Lake City office being a double LEED Platinum
-Design and operation of a Certified Living Building—our office in Sacramento.
-Building a Living Building Tiny Home on our property to be donated to a program that’s dedicated to ending homelessness.

We are truly humbled and grateful for this recognition. Thank you ENR!

Earth Day made for a perfect date to break ground on the latest sustainable design from Arch Nexus. The new zero-energy 26,000-square foot Daybreak Library will offer a unique rooftop experience designed to incorporate urban re-wilding and support an active community.

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson, South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey, and representatives from the County Library were in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony to discuss the importance the library will be to the South Jordan community.

“As this part of the County continues to see rapid growth and development, the Daybreak branch is going to be in the center of everything,” Library Director Jim Cooper said. “It’s a great opportunity for people in Daybreak and the surrounding communities to experience a County Library branch a little closer to home.”

See more from the groundbreaking here.

SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah–The County Library announced the groundbreaking for its Daybreak branch, which will take place at 10 am on Earth Day—Monday, April 22—at 11358 Grandville Ave (approximately 5600 S) in South Jordan.

“As this part of the County continues to see rapid growth and development, the Daybreak branch is going to be in the center of everything,” Library Director Jim Cooper said. “It’s a great opportunity for people in Daybreak and the surrounding communities to experience a County Library branch a little closer to home.”

Because the role of the public library has evolved drastically over the past decade, Arch Nexus and the Salt Lake County Library system have worked with residents to fine tune what type of facility is needed in the community. The Daybreak branch will redefine the whole notion of library, acting as a as a de facto community center, a co-working space, a bridge for the digital divide and a nurturer of lifelong learning and literacy.

Construction will begin following the ceremony, with an approximate finishing date in summer of 2020. The new, zero-energy 26,000-square-foot branch will be open to everyone, and offers a unique rooftop experience designed to incorporate urban re-wilding and support an active community.

Construction has begun on the new Salt Lake County Kearns Library. The 35,000 square foot facility will be adjacent to the previous building. The new site allows for a relocation along 5400 South to increase visibility, access and usability. Arch Nexus has produced the new design to help regenerate the Kearns community, serving as a seed to create lasting change and to cultivate the people and place.

Community leaders gathered Monday for the groundbreaking ceremony. Salt Lake County Library Director, Jim Cooper spoke to the audience stating “I couldn’t be prouder to be associated with the Kearns community and the things you have done to bring the new library to Kearns. Finally, we are delivering on that promise!” Cooper also invited participants to try out the virtual reality tour provided by Arch Nexus, to experience what the future library will be like.

Arch nexus President, Kenner Kingston shared that it is an honor for Nexus to have been given the responsibility of creating the new design. Regarding the former site Kenner stated “It struck us that the level of passion and care for this community was not being reflected by the physical environment… our job is to reveal that.”

The new design brings people together in a comfortable fashion, welcomes cultural diversity, provides a sense of choice and opportunity, and mixes the kind of creative yet cozy ambiance that one thinks of when they imagine a library. Working with R & O Construction, the new library will be complete by summer of 2020.