Yesterday was a special day for a young baseball fan in the Sacramento area. Eleven year old Dakota was picked up from school in a limousine and shuttled off along with friends and family to his home where he was surprised to see his very own batting cage installed! That’s not all though, in June he will go to the Sacramento Rivercats baseball game where he will meet the team, get a special VIP tour of the stadium, and even thrrow out the first pitch! We are so happy to sponsor Dakota and to partner with the Make-A-Wish foundation to bring some joy and hope to a boy in need.

Tens of thousands of volunteers, donors and supporters advance the Make-A-Wish vision to grant the wish of every child diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition. In the United States and its territories, on average, a wish is granted every 37 minutes. Make-A-Wish believes a wish experience can be a game-changer. This one belief guides and inspires them to grant wishes that change the lives of children. Wishes are more than just a nice thing. And they are far more than gifts, or singular events in time. Wishes impact everyone involved – wish kids, volunteers, donors, sponsors, medical professionals and communities. The impact varies. For wish kids, just the act of making their wish come true can give them the courage to comply with their medical treatments. Parents might finally feel like they can be optimistic. And still others might realize all they have to offer the world through volunteer work or philanthropy.

Arch Nexus is committed to the communities in which we work and actively supports the causes that best reflect our purpose. Our passion for community stewardship is a key aspect of our company culture. Whether in the projects we design or in the causes we support our purpose is to help elevate society. To become a Make-A-Wish sponsor or to find other ways to support their vision please visit wish.org/ways-to-help.

The Enterprise, Utah’s Business Journal has featured a very interesting article by Arch Nexus principal Julie Berreth. The piece describes how designing office environments with a greater connection to nature enhances employee productivity and creativity as well as provides a substantial return on investment. To check out the article please click here.

Last week Arch Nexus president Kenner Kingston was a panelist for a session at the Living Future Conference titled “The Business Case for Corporate Transparency and JUST”. The session focused the numerous advantages of transparency on all aspects of business operations, such as improved respect for employees and clients, greater brand awareness, and improved client loyalty. The session spurred enthusiastic participation and was very well attended.

The JUST program, which is administered by the Living Future Institute, is a voluntary disclosure program and tool for all types and sizes of organizations. The program provides an innovative transparency platform for organizations to reveal much about their operations and acts somewhat as a nutrition label for socially just and equitable organizations. To see the Arch Nexus JUST label please click here.

On Earth Day, 14 schools in the Sacramento Unified School District competed in an energy audit competition called Project Green. The competition brings together campuses from across the district to form student “green teams” supported by parents and staff to conduct “green audits” of their facilities. The teams work with district and local professionals to draft recommendations for improvements ranging from the installation of solar tubes to increase daylighting in classrooms to installing water-wise plumbing fixtures. Students present their recommendations to a panel of experts representing local non-profits that focus on creating healthy sustainable learning environments on Earth Day. Judges then evaluate each submission based on their audit, presentation and written report. Schools displaying the highest performance in these areas are awarded funding for their projects.

Two of the judges for Project Green were our very own Patty Karapinar and Heather Olson of the Arch Nexus Sacramento office. Patty commented that “Project Green has a lasting effect on students because they dive into sustainability in a very real way.  The District actually funds the winning team’s project,  so their school get to see their brainchild become reality and reap its benefits.  The students were bundles of energy and excitement on presentation day!”

Project Green allows participants to play a vital role in the development, design, and implementation of projects that will transform the site for the benefit of the environment, staff, stakeholders, community, and especially for the students. Project Green allows students to learn, develop, and implement designs that not only support, but also improve resource conservation, environmental sustainability, and cleaner and healthier student life.

We would like to extend a special thanks to Rachel King and Sacramento Unified School District for allowing us to be a part of this fantastic program!

For more information on project green please visit www.scusd.edu/project-green-programs

On April 15 we had the pleasure of hosting a showcase of five emerging photographers. Stephanie Espinoza, Alexis Hansen, Mary Santistevan, Rebekah O’Driscoll, and Sam Trefaller, all of the University of Utah Art Department, displayed some of their amazing art at a reception held in our Salt Lake Office as a part of the Gallery Stroll. Architectural Nexus is proud to support the arts and local artists. Everyone involved had a wonderful time.

Demolition and Construction has recently begun on the building at 930 R Street for our Sacramento Office! We remain committed to our ambitious goal of making this a certified Living Building which includes net positive energy, net positive water, no water discharge and no harmful chemicals. If these goals are achieved, Arch Nexus SAC will be a place where the water and energy crises will be challenged by water-reuse, energy conservation and generation methods to become a springboard for creating new strategies for respecting our natural resources.

As we enter this next phase of the project we are excited to be teamed with passionate and talented professionals such as:

2020 Engineering – Water Re-Use Consultant
Warren Consulting – Civil Engineering
Miyamoto International – Structural Engineering
Glumac – Integrated MEP Engineering + Lighting Design
Capital Engineering – Commissioning Agent
Market One Builders – General Contractor
Sustain3 – Occupant Engagement

Rich Arave has recently joined Arch Nexus where he brings the benefit of 15 plus years of sports design project experience. Rich knows NCAA criteria and the specialty elements associated with sports facilities and has designed trend-setting athletic facilities for Baylor, UTEP, Sam Houston State and Lamar University. He has talent for working with athletic programs to design facilities that put universities in a competitive position within their conferences and reinforces value to donors and aid in student-athlete recruitment. Rich is adept at applying his broad knowledge of collegiate athletics to the unique requirements of each individual program.

In addition to collegiate sports design experience Rich has professional level sports design experience. He managed the design contract for NRG stadium (formerly Reliant Stadium) in Houston, Texas – host of Super Bowl XXXVIII.  He consulted and coordinated on stadium operations issues with the owner, stadium operator and stadium tenants, this gave him exposure to daily operations issues associated with professional sports facilities. He understands the specialty elements associated with a sports facility design such as playing field design, sports medicine, branding, and way–finding.  Rich has a proven record of being able to use his knowledge to coordinate and mentor design and construction teams at all levels of understanding.  Rich is looking forward for the opportunity to apply his expertise in the intermountain area to meet the objectives of university athletics and to exceed their expectations.

On January 21st Arch Nexus President Kenner Kingston along with Kevin Emerson from Utah Clean Energy presented an overview of The Living Building Challenge to members of the Urban Land Institute of Utah. The Living Building Challenge is the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard for energy, water, waste, and other metrics related to building construction and operation. During the presentation, a financial and operational case study was provided for the Bulitt Center, a six story, 52,000 square foot commercial office in Seattle and a certified Living Building. In addition to the environmental benefits a Living Building provides, this rigorous performance standard also benefits developers and owners through niche lease rates, reduced operating costs, increased resiliency, and more satisfied and engaged tenants.

During the holiday season, Arch Nexus employees took time away from their computers and drawing boards to volunteer and work by helping to build homes with Habitat for Humanity. Nexus volunteers worked three different days in a total of six shifts for three different homes. These residences will provide safe, decent, accessible and affordable housing for families who will also contribute significantly in the process by providing 500 hours of sweat equity. Once the homes are complete, these families will be home owners by paying a 30 year interest free mortgage. In addition to the time spent working on each site, Arch Nexus made a cash donation to Habitat for Humanity to go towards the construction materials needed.

The staff from Salt Lake City made a trip up to Heber City to do framing and site work. It was cold and there were a couple of smashed fingers but everyone involved said that the work was a wonderful experience and that they had a great time volunteering for such a great cause.

Additionally, back in October the Arch Nexus employees in Sacramento also worked with Habitat for Humanity for not just one, but two homes. The Cebrero-Lara family and the Dixon family look forward to finishing their homes and being able to move their families into new neighborhoods.

Corporate partnerships with Habitat for Humanity are a win for communities and for employee engagement.  Local, regional, and national corporations can sponsor one or more Volunteer Team Build days with Habitat.  Companies bring their employees and leadership teams out on the build site in an environment away from the office that provides a new experience for working together to build team work and for supporting critical community development needs like housing.

Architectural Nexus has become the first organization in the Intermountain West and the first design firm in the State of California to earn the distinction of a JUST label. The social justice and transparency initiative is promoted by the Living Future Institute, the same organization that administers the Living Building Challenge.

The JUST program acts as a “nutrition label” for socially just and equitable organizations by providing measureable criteria on a wide range of organization and employee related indicators. These indicators fall into categories such as diversity, equity, safety, worker benefit, local benefit, and stewardship. Each of the indicator metrics asks for simple yet specific and measurable accountabilities in order for the organization to be recognized at a One, Two, or Three Star Level, which is then summarized elegantly on a label.

“In a relatively short timeframe since program launch, the JUST Program has garnered worldwide interest and is helping organizations to develop better employee engagement policies and community stewardship practices”, says JUST Program Manager, Francis Janes. “We are delighted to see Architectural Nexus join the ranks of JUST labeled organizations with the distinction of being the first design firm in Utah and California States to earn the JUST Label.”

For Architectural Nexus, an Employee Owned company, the value of pursuing and garnering the JUST label has revealed confidence in existing business customs such as pay-scale equity and continuing education for employees as well as areas where the company must yet strive to outperform standard professional practice.

Architectural Nexus president Kenner Kingston sees the JUST label as an extension to other transparency initiatives that the company is involved in. “The design and construction industry is currently undergoing a revolution relative to the full disclosure of building material ingredients, especially those known to be harmful to human health,” says Kingston. “Architectural Nexus has been a leader in this regard by requiring all of our vendors to provide transparency documentation so that we can make appropriate choices on behalf of our clients and the public-at-large. The JUST label is our way of demonstrating this ethic internally and has helped to reinforce our values of inspiration, stewardship, and regeneration by demonstrating that, after all, what we do is for people, not buildings.”

This label marks the beginning of a new era of corporate transparency. The International Living Future Institute invites organizations everywhere to evaluate themselves through this social justice and equity lens and become a JUST organization. With support from participating organizations, a better, more socially just and equitable world can be created.

For more information about the JUST label please visit living-future.org.