We are happy to announce that the first registration for a Living Building in Utah has been made! Community Rebuilds, a nonprofit organization, is endeavoring to construct the first series of Living Buildings in Moab, Utah.

The mission of Community Rebuilds, is to build energy efficient housing as well as provide education on sustainability, and improve the housing conditions of the workforce through an affordable program. As a licensed general contractor in Utah and Colorado, Community Rebuilds constructs affordable and energy efficient straw bale homes, working with and training a dedicated group of student intern volunteers on each home project. These students are young emerging professionals with the desire to participate in an experiential program as they learn how to build low carbon, modern natural buildings. For more information on this amazing program please visit the Community Rebuilds website here.

Wish us luck as we begin this journey together with Community Rebuilds to create the first Living Buildings in Utah!

This week is Salt Lake City’s eighth annual Design Week, a five day festival showcasing the diversity of our city’s thriving design scene. To celebrate Design Week, Arch|Nexus SLC is hosting a studio tour on Wednesday, October 3rd, from 4PM to 6PM. Please join us at 2505 E Parleys Way, Salt Lake City and check out our double LEED Platinum office space. We look forward to meeting you!

Last Friday, September 21 was Park(ing) Day 2018, a day when people are encouraged to take back the streets by converting parking spaces into “parklets”. Arch Nexus got involved by building out two locations; one in Sacramento and one in Salt Lake City.

In Salt Lake City, we partnered with the Utah Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and in Sacramento we were worked with Kitchell Construction, who salvaged the material from one of their construction sites. We even got a visit from Good Day Sacramento while things were getting set up Friday morning! https://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/category/spoken-word-good-day/3939131-sac-parking/

Thanks to everyone involved in making this event such a success.

Over the course of the past several weeks, employees from Arch Nexus in Salt Lake City proudly came together to take part in the Salt Lake County 2018 Summer Corporate Games. Dozens of companies participated through friendly competition, team building, volunteer service, and donating to worthy causes. At the Opening Ceremonies, Arch Nexus provided a petting zoo for families and friends to enjoy and participated in the annual wellness walk.

In the sporting events, Arch Nexus brought home the bronze in Trap Shooting, Horseshoes and Men’s Bowling. Nexus snagged silver medals in Ultimate Frisbee, Men’s Golf and the Mystery Event. Our lone gold medal came from Men’s Basketball.

The main winning came in the form of giving. Arch Nexus donated 649 pounds of food to the Utah Food Bank. Additionally, a blood drive was held at the Salt Lake City office where 19 pints of blood were donated to the American Red Cross.

Overall in the 2018 Corporate Games, Arch Nexus won their third consecutive second place Corporate Cup. Congratulations to everyone who participated! We are proud to be a part of Salt Lake County and we love participating in these types of events. None of this would have taken place without the special help of amazing coordinators; Steve Tanner, Jenny Patterson Casey Whitmill and the efforts many others. Go Arch Nexus!

Arch Nexus’ Kenner Kingston and Jeffrey Davis will be presenting at the 2018 San Diego Green Building Conference and Expo. The conference will feature a day-long track dedicated to water, featuring local case studies and successful projects. Kenner will present during all four breakout sessions, Mission Impossible: San Diego Water Capture and Reuse, In the Face of Drought and the concluding session: Mission Possible (part A & B), also presented by experts Jeffrey Davis and others.

These sessions will help participants develop an understanding of the obstacles to achieving building water reuse in California and, more specifically, in San Diego. A California Water-reuse map will be presented, demonstrating the regulatory paths to success in this challenging area of practice. They will share how Arch Nexus found ways to eliminate the needs for water to be conveyed to or away from the site. In a collaborative effort with government and local experts, participants will find solutions to both climate and regulatory hurdles that stand in the way of innovative solutions.

There is still time to register! For more information visit: http://usgbc-sd.org/event-2977632

Arch Nexus is proud to support the first Utah Net-Zero Energy Summit to be held Tuesday, September 18^th from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Salt Lake City Library. In this 1-day summit, guests will have a chance to converse with Special Guest Sam Rashkin (Chief Architect for the US Department of Energy) & other industry leaders about net-zero strategies & tools that offer a competitive advantage for all stakeholders in commercial & residential construction. During the summit, insights of Net-Zero design and construction will be shared to identify the best “bang for the buck” measures and to demonstrate the increasing practicality of Net-Zero Energy design for the built environment.

Construction in the 21^st centuary: Gearing up for Disruption is organized by Utah’s Net Zero Consortium with The Great Basin Collaborative. Special attendees include: Director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Development, Mayor of Salt Lake City, Mayor of Park City, Chair of the Summit County Council, and Mayor of Moab.

To register for this event visit https://netzeroenergysummit2018.eventbrite.com

On Saturday, September 15, the USGBC San Francisco chapter will be touring the Arch|Nexus SAC office. If you’ve wanted tour Arch|Nexus SAC, but are unable to do so during the work week, there are still a few spots available for this rare, weekend event. To join us, contact Patty Karapinar at pkarapinar@archnexus.com.

Today, an Arch Nexus team comprised of Kenner Kingston, Peter Moyes, and Patty Karapinar will be conducting a Living Future Symposium in Moab Utah. The event will feature an overview of the Living Building Challenge, along with a case study of Arch | Nexus SAC, the first certified Living Building in California. Additionally, participants will be among the first in Utah to be introduced to the Living Community Challenge. This relatively new program applies the regenerative principles of the Living Building Challenge to the community level.

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.