The world is changing. Storms are getting more extreme; heat waves are becoming more frequent; sea level rise is underway; drought is occurring more regularly; dependable municipal water supplies are at risk; wildfires are becoming more intense; and the people most affected by these disruptions tend to be those who face the greatest economic challenges in responding.

At the same time, forward-looking companies, organizations, agencies, and individuals recognize that resilient design is vital to our future—and a critical component of social equity and sustainable building practices. The urgency of the situation is calling these citizens to action.

Building Resilience 2019 will catalyze this emerging movement. It is the first national gathering of building industry professionals focused exclusively on how to create more resilient buildings and communities. Participants will engage in professionally facilitated, outcome-focused working sessions. The Friday afternoon session is led by Nexus President, Kenner Kingston. In Microgrids and Backup Power, attendees will explore the growing intensity and frequency of storms, wildfires, and other disturbances and why creating more resilient power systems is increasingly important. This session focuses on islandable, resilient power systems, both at a building scale and community scale.

Visit buildingresilience.living-future.org for more details and registration.

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

Hunter Industries came for a visit to present the Hunter-Welborn Circle of Excellence Award to Arch Nexus SAC. We had a great conversation with their Director of Sustainability regarding the like-mindedness of our two companies and how this award was created to highlight organizations that make social and environmental responsibility a priority.

Hunter is striving to have zero-waste factories and currently has achieved 98.5% of their goal, with their largest challenge being electronic controller end of life. One example of their effort to combat this problem has been to create collection programs that intercept controllers destined for the landfill and reroutes them to Blue Star Recyclers. Blue Star Recyclers is a social enterprise out of Colorado which mission is recycling electronics and other materials to create jobs for people with autism and other disabilities.

The award itself was created from 100% recycled waste from their factories. Thank you for the honor, Hunter Industries!

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.

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.