Nearly half of all the energy consumed in America is through buildings. There is something that you can do about this. In honer of National Energy Efficiency Day, take a home inventory of discretionary electric devices to find areas of potential waste and opportunities for conservation.

Take 5 minutes to identify where you use electricity in your home and which items you have discretionary control of.

Take an inventory of:

• Number of televisions and/or computer monitors
• Number of computers
• Number of DVD players, DVR recorders, stereo systems, game consoles, etc.
• Number of light switches
• other sources of electricity consumption

Also identify if you have a programmable or smart thermostat and if it is programmed to raise air conditioning temperature settings or lower heat settings during times when no one is home.

Remember, knowledge is power.  Taking the time to identify sources of electricity consumption in your home and discussing simple behavioral changes that can help you eliminate waste will put you on the path to saving money and setting an example for your friends and family about the importance of reducing electricity waste.

The 2017 North American Passive House Network Conference will be held in Oakland, California this week. Arch Nexus president Kenner Kingston will be a panelist for two of the sessions. On Saturday, October 7^th, Kingston will participate in conjunction with Brad Liljequist, of the International Living Future Institute. They will delve deep into the water petal of the of the Living Building Challenge and discuss details of the Arch|Nexus SAC location.  Kingston will then again be on a panel in the second Saturday session, discussing how the ILFI materials reduces toxicity in projects, specifically the Arch|Nexus Sac location. For more information click here.

The International Living Future Institute is hosting a free webinar presented by Arch Nexus President, Kenner Kingston and Arch Nexus Principal, Jeff Davis. Kingston and Davis were both critical to the development and design of Arch | Nexus SAC, the Sacramento office location for Arch Nexus which is on track to become California’s first Living Building. They will share the framework for how the project team is meeting the demanding water requirements necessary for Living Building Certification in the dry central valley of California.

The team found and customized a Water Permitting Map as a visual tool to identify code barriers and generate solutions. They have created Water Permitting Maps for the states of Utah and California, and will describe the process of adapting the map for your own region.

Both LFA and AIA credits are available through this course. Participants will be able to type questions into the Q&A panel at any time during the webinar. The presentation will also be recorded and available to view afterwards. For more information or to register click here.

On Friday, September 15^th, PARK(ing) Day 2017 took place on Broadway Street in Salt Lake City. The annual event is meant to bring sustainable changes to urban planning and promote alternative modes of transportation. Arch Nexus participated with the creation of an interactive installation.

Onlookers were approached by Nexus employees to discuss their transportation habits. Yellow traffic markers were displayed to represent vehicles on the road. Participants were encouraged to select a yellow traffic marker and write down a pledge of how they will use alternative transportation.

The event proved to be an excellent networking opportunity, volunteers enjoyed visiting with local artists and design professionals. Arch Nexus would like to thank sponsors Biograss, Progressive Plants and the Tuft Family.

On Thursday, artists from Arch Nexus won first place in a graffiti art competition hosted by Interior Solutions. The event theme was “in-SPRAY-tion Creation”. Teams were asked to create a canvas depicting where their firms turn for inspiration. Team consisted of Elaine Stowell, Scott Buckner, Eric Bradbury and Jo Bradbury.

Buckner explained that they wanted to use opposing forces in their piece, because different personalities and ideas working together, yield excellent end results. “Like fire and ice” said Eric.

Tomorrow, in cities around the globe, artists, activists and citizens will temporarily transform metered parking spaces into public parks and other social spaces, as part of an annual event called “PARK(ing) Day.”

PARK(ing) Day began in 2005, when San Francisco-based art and design studio, Rebar,  challenged people to rethink the way streets are used and to recognize the need for broad-based changes to urban infrastructure. “In urban centers around the world, inexpensive curbside parking results in increased traffic, wasted fuel and more pollution,” says Rebar’s Matthew Passmore. “The planning strategies that generated these conditions are not sustainable, nor do they promote a healthy, vibrant human habitat. PARK(ing) Day is about re-imagining the possibilities of the urban landscape.”

PARK(ing) Day takes place annually on the second Friday every September. Locally, Arch Nexus will host an interactive installation for PARK(ing) Day on Broadway Street in Salt Lake City. Stroll the city street from 8:00 AM to 4:00 pm to see all the creative designs. Find Arch Nexus at 30 Broadway (in front of Doc u Mart).

Arch Nexus is proud to host the Experience Architecture: COTE Top Ten Exhibit, the industries premier program celebrating great design and great performance. Now in its 21st year, the Top Ten Awards highlight sustainable projects that protect and enhance the environment. Exhibit opens during Sacramento’s Second Saturday in September. Click here for more details.

Students at Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, CA are enjoying a new state of the art STEM campus. The school, known for being a leading science program, now has 22,000 square feet of space centered on STEM education, including a 5,000-square-foot flexible learning center.

The Arch Nexus design is an expansion and retrofit of Bella Vista High’s existing science building, which joins two concrete shop buildings together to create 11 new state-of-the-art “Smart Classrooms.”

The installation of a steel framed Makerspace unifies the once divided area, provides protection from future seismic damage, and compliments the efforts of STEM based education. Students and teachers alike are inspired by the new space. You can see the impression it has had on teachers and students in this short video. For more information on the Bella Vista STEM Building, click here.

Impressing judges with its approach to net-positive environmental effects, Arch|Nexus SAC was noted to have been “the most experimental and the most well-documented project.” It has already received LEED V4 Platinum Certification and aims to be the first fully certified Living Building in California, earning Arch|Nexus SAC the Sustainable Recognition award from the American Institute of Architects Central Valley Chapter.

From AIACV: “The People who work in the Arch|Nexus SAC building are the key organism to the building’s ecosystem, from monitoring their own personal energy usage to operating the natural ventilation system and learning how to interact with the systems. Engagement is necessary to the building functioning well — such as having employees commute by bicycle, or take showers at work, which in turn, activates the grey water system that feeds the living wall. The building itself encourages and requires healthy lifestyles from its workers.”

The 75^th Anniversary Gala and Design Awards Presentation will take place Saturday, September 23, at the Lincoln Plaza West Atrium from 6 P.M to 10 P.M. For more information on the awards and calendar of events, click here.

Arch Nexus associate, Travis Maughan, recently helped coordinate a food design event hosted at the Salt Lake City Public Library. Healthcare organizations from around the valley built six different sculptures out of bagged, canned and boxed food – that will be donated to the Utah Food Bank.

Travis offered architectural expertise in the designs by meeting with individual teams beforehand and helping their ideas become a reality. “I didn’t want to come up with the designs for them, my role was to help them improve their designs and keep them standing.” says Maughan. For example, one group needed help calculating how many cans they would need. Another group found that they were working with an uneven floor “cans were rolling apart and I taught them about shimming it” added Maughan. Of all the finished sculptures, Maughan says the Avocado was his favorite. “That had the highest level of difficulty.”

The food design project is something Arch Nexus is proud to participate in. According Leslie Chan, a dietitian at the Salt Lake County Health Department, a total of 13,900 pounds, or approximately 11,643 meals, were donated to the Utah Food Bank through this event. Click here to read more on this from the Salt Lake Tribune.