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.

Designing a library is more complicated that deciding where bookshelves will go. Public Libraries are a pivotal hub for members of the community, providing space for collaboration, individual academics, a home for a variety of community services and a provider of the very latest in technology. This means the landscape of a library is certain to change over the years. So how do master planners ensure their libraries will still fit a communities needs in 20 years?

This is exactly what Arch Nexus Principal Architect, Jeffrey Davis will address during a session at the California Library Association Conference in Pasadena, CA on Saturday, October 26. Designing Your Future World: How Your Next Master Facilities Planning Process Will Position You to Be an Essential Community Catalyst for the Next 20 Years.

Description: Learn how to use the master facilities planning process to anticipate the future of your community and guarantee that your facilities, staff and partners will flourish for your twenty-year future. Through a flexible framework based on real community needs, you’ll learn how to design strategically for the social, technological, economic and educational disruptions that comprise our 21st century. You’ll be able to take advantage of opportunities for change, prepare to embrace them and activate the facilities to support community needs and individual aspirations by designing a Master Facilities Plan as a nimble, adaptable framework! Learn how an evidence-based, future-forming methodology has the power to ensure that your library is an essential, desirable 3rd place in your community’s future. Presenters will illustrate how they revolutionized the strategic planning and facilities planning library design industry.

For more information on the conference visit https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/CLA/

Arch Nexus is honored to be recognized with the Best Project of the Year Award for the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium from the Sacramento Business Journal.

Engraved on the exterior front wall of the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium are the words This Building Is Dedicated To Those Who Made The Supreme Sacrifice In The Service Of The United States. Since it’s opening in 1927, the facility has served as both a monument and a venue for graduations, concerts and countless other events. After 91 years, the structure was in need of updating.

Principal Architect Jeffrey Davis, led the project. Davis was honored to be involved in such a project and states “To have the privilege of upgrading its capabilities to accommodate a larger variety of performances at this venue so that more people from the community and the region can experience its restored historical beauty is what is most meaningful.” Improvements to the building included acoustic enhancements, new and refurbished seating, upgraded audio-video equipment, refreshed rigging system and improve theatrical lighting. Davis had a lot of praise for the original architecture such as the main floor, which can descend to allow another part of the floor to become an elevated stage. “A lot of these mechanisms, first installed more than 90 years ago, still worked beautifully.”

The 2019 SLCO Summer Corporate Games recently wrapped up with a hard earned, second place trophy for Arch Nexus SLC. More importantly, new friendships were formed, teamwork skills strengthened, generous community service provided and participants had FUN.

Arch Nexus took part in a total of 28 events, taking home the gold in horseshoe and men’s golf and men’s bowling. Additionally, Nexus donated 22 units of blood to ARUP Blood Services and 732 pounds of food was collected for the Utah Food Bank.

Architectural Nexus is committed to the enhancement of the built environment, especially our impact on human and environmental health for the projects we design and the materials we select. This is why Arch Nexus is one of more than 70 international architects, designers, and partner organizations that are asking for materials transparency, collaboration, and preferable products that support human, climate, ecosystem, and social health.

By signing the Living Product 50 Pledge, other organizations who are interested in working towards building a product industry transformation, can also commit to asking for transparency and better products.

We are using this information to select and specify products by giving preference to those that have:
• Publicly available material ingredient disclosure information.
• Publicly available environmental impact disclosure information.
• Documentation of compliance with strict VOC emissions requirements.
• Proof that they do not contain chemicals of concern identified by the Living Building Challenge Red List, the WELL Building Standard, and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative’s Safer Chemicals Challenge, and/or the Green Science Policy Institute’s Six Classes.

We want the materials used to create our projects to positively impact human health, the climate, the environment, and society. We cannot achieve this goal alone. We must work together as designers, building owners, developers, and contractors to build knowledge and demand. And, of course, your help is crucial, sign the Living Product 50 Pledge today!

Congratulations to Arch Nexus’ Aidan Garrity, the second person in the Intermountain West to become Living Future Accredited. Living Future Accreditation is designed to acknowledge the most advanced and progressive thinking professionals that are working towards a living future. Regarding his achievement, Aiden says I pursued the Living Future Accreditation because architecture is going to have a positive impact on climate change; it will be through the pursuit of built works that do more good, rather than just less bad. I wanted to back up my commitment to creating a future that is socially just and ecologically restorative.
To learn more about becoming Living Future accredited, visit the Living Future accredidation webpage and check out this postcard from the ILFI.

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.

PERSPECTIVE was the theme for the 2019 AIA Utah Conference, held at Sundance Resort on August 23. The event showcased opening keynote speaker Kenner Kingston, President of Architectural Nexus. Kenner shared his perspective that architecture is about reestablishing the harmonious relationship between people and the natural environment. By blending architecture and social science he has led the effort on several of the most sustainable projects in the region, including Arch|Nexus SAC, California’s first fully certified Living Building. James Timberlake concluded the conference as closing keynote speaker. James has broken new ground with projects such as the Embassy of the United States in London, which employs strategies to significantly reduce energy consumption and sets an agenda to achieve carbon neutrality.

Leading the region in sustainable design, Architectural Nexus is pleased to be partnering with Community Rebuilds, a non-profit general contractor for energy efficient homes. Together, the organizations will be creating homes for low and very-low income households that aim to be the first Certified Living Buildings in the State of Utah.

The International Living Future Institute defines a living building as one that functions as a part of the natural eco system. To do this, they must employ several regenerative features. Some of the features included in the Community Rebuilds Living Buildings are:

• passive solar design
• highly insulative straw bale wall construction
• heavy focus on salvaged material
• materials with low embodied carbon footprint
• composting toilet systems
• rainwater collected and stored for toilet flushing and irrigation
• greywater reuse for agriculture
• permaculture landscape design
• earthen plaster finishes throughout the interior including adobe floors
• Lime plastered exterior walls
• Solar PV array that will offset all annual energy use

With the unique experience of designing, owning and operating the first Certified Living Building in the State of California, Arch Nexus president, Kenner Kingston is eager to bring this level of sustainability to Utah.  “Community Rebuilds is an inspiring organization that is tackling climate and housing challenges in the communities they serve. It is inspiring that they would advance their already high-performance, zero energy model into the realm of Regenerative Design by pursuing the Living Building Challenge. These desert homes will produce more energy than they consume and will store more than enough rainwater to flush toilets and irrigate on-site urban agriculture over the course of a year.”

The construction phase for this project is scheduled for July 2019 to July 2020. For more information, please visit https://www.communityrebuilds.org/project-vision, or contact Brian Cassil at bcassil@archnexus.com, or Rikki Epperson at rikki@communityrebuilds.com.

Perched on a hillside overlooking the Sweetwater Valley, the Castle Rock Medical Center recently celebrated the groundbreaking of their new, state-of-the-art facility in Green River, Wyoming. Big-D Corporation will construct the Arch Nexus design, which replaces the existing, aging building. Senior Principal Architect, Julie Berreth, shared her excitement for the project. “This new facility will bring cutting edge treatment and attract the best providers to the area. Residents will no longer have to travel a long distance to get this kind of care.” Berreth also cited an outstanding team. “We have an amazing client here, Big D is a great partner and our team of designers at Nexus have all been incredible.” The New Castle Rock Medical Office Building is scheduled to open its doors in the fall of 2020.