The current issue of Trim Tab, the official publication of the International Living Future Institute, features an article by Arch Nexus President, Kenner Kingston. Arch|Nexus SAC: Leading by Example. The article details the journey of how Arch Nexus SAC came to be a Living Building.

The Arch Nexus design firm’s Sacramento office is not only the world’s first Living Building to be an adaptive reuse of an existing building, but also the first to receive LBC 3.0 certification, the first Living Building in California, the first Living Building to be owned and operated by a design firm, and the first LEED v4 Double-Platinum building (BD+C & O+M) on the planet. 

Previous to the construction and Living Building Certification of Arch|Nexus SAC, the team learned valuable lessons through working toward LEED Platinum at the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Kenner shares of a tour, when someone asked about water reuse. Kingston admits that at the time, I had no good answer beyond a lack of understanding as to the status of regulation on the topic. After attending GreenBuild 2011, Kenner delved into the topic. Working with a group of like-minded individuals, the Utah Roadmap was created.

Water reuse and core values are the key elements that set the stage for the idea and achievement of Arch|Nexus SAC. Regarding the process Kenner says Achieving Living Building Certification is a testament to the grit that makes us who we are at Arch Nexus. The road was fraught with challenges and many people rose to the occasion. This story, however, is about how we made the opportunity for those heroics to happen, not the heroes themselves.

Arch Nexus is holding a blood drive at the Salt Lake City office on August 24, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 1:15 PM. Employees and the public are invited to participate. Interested individuals are encouraged to schedule an appointment here and enter code NEXUS to find our drive.

Can’t donate the day of the blood drive? No problem! You can sign up to donate year round at any Red Cross or ARUP donor location.

Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. It is essential for surgeries, cancer treatment, chronic illnesses, and traumatic injuries. Whether a patient receives whole blood, red cells, platelets or plasma, this lifesaving care starts with one person making a generous donation.

Arch | Nexus SAC, the adaptive reuse of a former print shop and warehouse and now home of our Sacramento office has become the first and only LEED Version 4 double Platinum certified project on the planet. This significant achievement was announced by the U.S. Green Building Council at the Green Building Hard Hat Awards hosted by Architectural Nexus, an annual USGBC celebration recognizing key policy leaders who drive forward California’s vision of healthy, efficient and high-performance buildings. 

In 2017 the Arch | Nexus SAC team earned LEED Version 4 Platinum certification for New Construction and Major Renovations (LEEDv4 BD+C). This month the project team and building occupants earned LEED Version 4 Platinum certification for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEEDv4 EBOM). Different from LEED for New Construction, LEED EBOM requires teams to demonstrate actual performance by providing utility bills and other documents.

Platinum is the highest certification level in the LEED green building rating system. The current LEEDv4, is appreciably more difficult to achieve than the previous versions of LEED and raises the bar for LEED certification of the design, construction and operation of high performance buildings. “What in the former LEED version 3.0 would have been a LEED Platinum building would now be a LEED Gold building under LEED version 4.0”, says Patty Karapinar, Director of Sustainability at Architectural Nexus. Arch Nexus utilized the new Arc platform for its LEEDv4 EBOM submittal, a state of the art platform for visualizing and comparing the metrics and effectiveness of green building strategies and improvements over time.

The Arch | Nexus SAC Arc Dashboard utilized for tracking and visualizing performance of various sustainable metrics.

Brian Cassil, Director of Communications for Arch Nexus notes that “Through our experience with designing and occupying our own office in Salt Lake City, we knew that occupant engagement would be a critical aspect to achieving the verifiable performance needed for LEED for Exising Buildings and Operations in our Sacramento office. It was to ensure that we achieved our performance goals that we developed and employed the InHABIT platform”. InHABIT is a training platform that Arch Nexus developed in partnership with Sustain3 that “game-ifies” sustainable practices to create a culture of stewardship within an organization. Through use of InHABIT Arch Nexus’s occupants became the high performance occupants needed to keep a high performance building operating as designed. Without engaged occupants, it would be impossible to reach and maintain the highest levels of sustainability possible over the building’s life.

In May of 2018 Arch | Nexus SAC became the first Living Building in California to be certified by the International Living Future Institute. Like LEED EBOM, Living Building certification requires proven performance. Arch Nexus President Kenner Kingston comments that “Many LEED buildings under-perform as compared to the optimistic energy models that are generated during design, but the pursuit of performance-based certifications such as Living Building and LEED EBOM help to create a realistic environment in which to test high-performance design ideas. What’s more, they prove that they actually work.”

About Us:
Architectural Nexus is a people driven, employee-owned, architectural design firm focused on stewardship, inspiration and regeneration. We have offices in two locations: our double LEED Platinum headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah and an office in Sacramento, California which recently became California’s first Living Certified Building.

Position Description:
Join our progressive and growing firm. Now is the time to embrace this opportunity to direct your career. Help us create spaces where people’s lives are enriched, and architecture is practiced sustainably and thoughtfully. Involvement in all phases of projects from schematic design through construction. Candidate should enjoy working in a collaborative environment, demonstrating strong communication and design skills, be interpersonal and detail oriented, self-starter and problem solver.

Benefits:
Nexus is an ESOP (employee-owned company).
Our SLC office is LEED DOUBLE PLATINUM (NC & EB).
Our Sacramento Office is LEED Platinum and LIVING CERTIFIED (First in California).
We offer large-firm opportunities in a small-firm culture.
Competitive salaries based on experience and abilities.
Our benefits package includes: Excellent medical and dental benefits, matching 401(k) plan, twice yearly incentive and accountability bonus program, excellent holiday and vacation benefits.

Skills and Qualifications:
Three years of commercial architecture experience required with five years preferred
Construction document preparation experience required and on a licensure track preferred
LEED accreditation a plus
Experience working with Revit required

Please email resumes to:

Holli Adams, AIA
Principal | Director of HR
hadams@archnexus.com

Camille Acord
HR Coordinator
cacord@archnexus.com

Thanks for sending your resume; we look forward to getting to know you.

Groundbreaking for the new Draper Recreation Center took place on Thursday, June 21. Architects and designers from Arch Nexus are working to ensure that the 60,000 square foot facility fosters an energetic space that is appealing to all ages, all year. In addition to being designed for LEED gold certification, the center will feature a competition pool, a leisure pool, connectivity to the existing outdoor pool, fitness and multi-use facilities, a party room, and a fieldhouse.

According to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, the rec center will be affordable for everyone. “It will be facilities like this one …as we build out a network of recreational opportunities that will help our residents to be active and get out and enjoy this community” stated McAdams. The facility is expected to be completed by 2020.

About Us:
Architectural Nexus is a people driven, employee-owned, architectural design firm focused on stewardship, inspiration and regeneration. We have offices in two locations: our double LEED Platinum headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah and an office in Sacramento, California which recently became California’s first Living Certified Building.

Position Description:
We are looking for someone who is passionate about sustainability to work collaboratively as part of our design teams to advance regenerative design goals. These efforts would include energy modeling, LEED documentation, and energy bench-marking. Candidates should also have an overall understanding of building science and how buildings play a part of the larger fabric of community, culture, and the environment.

Benefits:
Nexus is an ESOP (employee-owned company).
Our SLC office is LEED DOUBLE PLATINUM (NC & EB).
Our Sacramento Office is LEED Platinum and LIVING CERTIFIED (First in California).
We offer large-firm opportunities in a small-firm culture.
Competitive salaries based on experience and abilities.
Our benefits package includes: Excellent medical and dental benefits, matching 401(k) plan, twice yearly incentive and accountability bonus program, excellent holiday and vacation benefits.

Skills and Qualifications:
must be able to work collaboratively to supply design teams with meaningful insight to inform design direction
experience with EQuest (or other comparable energy modeling software) required
experience with LEED documentation required
experience with Energy Star Portfolio Manager required
experience with Revit a plus
experience with daylight simulation modeling a plus

Please email resumes to:

Holli Adams, AIA
Principal | Director of HR
hadams@archnexus.com

Camille Acord
HR Coordinator
cacord@archnexus.com

Thanks for sending your resume; we look forward to getting to know you.

On Thursday, June 7^th AIA Central Valley presents the Healthy Materials Symposium. The event will feature nine experts through three different sessions, exploring the impacts of materials on human and environmental health, learning of the tools available for prioritizing healthy materials, and identifying strategies for project teams to make informed decisions that promote healthy and sustainable environments.

Featured Speaker: Alex Muller is the Manager for the Living Product Challenge (LPC) at the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). The LPC is an international product sustainability framework and certification program, incentivizing the creation of healthy, regenerative products for all. Alex works daily with manufacturers pursuing the program on supply chain issues, material health and life cycle analysis; and with the program’s third party assessors to continually streamline and evolve the program, to scale its adoption.

Arch|Nexus Director of Sustainability, Patty Karapinar, will present during session 2: Identifying Tools of the Trade. Patty has thirty years of professional experience, including her recent work on the Arch|Nexus SAC location – the first Living Building in California and the first Living Building that is an adaptive reuse of an existing building.

To read more about the symposium or to register, click here.

Arch Nexus is pleased to announce that Jennifer E. Styduhar, PLA, LEED AP –  is now ISA Certified Arborist #WE-12188A. The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) is a network of practitioners, scientists, and students that are recognized as the global source for arboricultural information and knowledge. ISA is known as the worldwide network for science-based information on the value of proper tree care and the benefits of trees to the environment. ISA Certified Arborists meet the standard of qualified, competent, and safe tree care professionals who are sought out the by the public, government organizations, and other professions.

Along with Jennifer’s certification, new, in-house services available from Arch Nexus include:

Urban Forest Management Plans

Tree Health Care/Maintenance Plans

Existing Tree Inventory and Cataloging

Tree Assessment and Risk Management

“Right Tree, Right Place” approach to Tree Selection

Arch Nexus’ Director of Sustainability, Patty Karapinar, presented at the April 2018 Getting to Zero National Forum, held in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. Patty, along with Nexus Energy Analyst, David Griffin, presented: How Rigorous Planning and Effective Design Help Hit Ultra-Low Energy Goals 

It takes collaboration between a number of stakeholders to design and construct zero energy projects. Join the owner, architect, engineer, and LEED consultant on two small- to mid-sized office buildings both working toward ZE and Living Building Challenge design goals. These include the first city building (and fourth building of any type) in the world to achieve ZE and Living Building Challenge in Fort Collins, and a Living Building in Sacramento. Hear perspectives on how a strong integrative process leveraged synergies between occupant, building, and district scale goals and how you can apply these strategies in your own community.

The presentation slideshow is now available online here.

Arch Nexus prides itself on being a family-friendly organization. We believe that a family-friendly culture is not only good for families, it is also good for business. The balance between family life and business life is an essential part of a sustainable, regenerative business. Our industry is notorious for tight deadlines that can lead to long hours, late nights, high stress, and worker burn-out. For many years, Arch Nexus has espoused a culture of flexible work schedules and work-from-home opportunities to help create a better work/family balance. Time away from work is essential to re-energizing so that people can bring their best and brightest selves to their professional lives.

It is with great pleasure and in the spirit of  family-friendliness and regeneration that we announce a new benefit: Paid Family Leave. In addition to the 12 weeks of employment protected leave time provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Arch Nexus now offers all new mothers 6 weeks of paid maternity leave. Furthermore, all eligible employees at Arch Nexus will receive 2 weeks of paid parental and spousal leave. These benefits are in addition to personal paid time off.

Every person who works at Arch Nexus is highly valued. Our hope is that the benefits and policies such as Paid Family Leave will support family, health, financial security, and a balanced life that will allow employees to thrive at work as well as at home.