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).

We value both our partnership with KUED and the education and insight they provide through their national and local programming. Arch Nexus is committed to our beautiful homes in Utah and California. We are fortunate to have five national parks in Utah and ten national parks in California to enjoy and allow us to expand our wonder at the restorative power of nature in our lives.

Join our non-profit community partner KUED as they celebrate 100 years of National Parks. “The Year of the Parks” series will feature three documentaries highlighting the National Parks, their creation and the value they provide to all of us.  Bask in the land we are fortunate enough to call home.

For programming schedule please visit www.kued.org/whatson/year-the-parks

Recently, Arch Nexus president Kenner Kingston had the opportunity to present an overview of the Living Building Challenge at the Intermountain Sustainability Summit. The summit, held annually at Weber State University, brings together over 40 speakers to inspire, inform, and show how businesses, policy makers, nonprofits, and community members are making a positive difference for our environment.

The Living Building Challenge is a building certification program, advocacy tool and philosophy that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the positive solutions we seek.

You can learn more about the Living Building Challenge by watching Kenner’s presentation here.

Architectural Nexus is proud to sponsor KUED and the series “10 Towns that Changed America”. On Tuesday, April 19th at 7:00 p.m. the series will spotlight Salt Lake City and the special way that this city has changed the way Americans live, work, and play.

The series illustrates how our built environment came to be and how our homes, towns, and parks reflect our nations history, values, ingenuity, and hopes for the future. Towns that Changed America focuses on ten “experimental” towns that did not evolve organically over time, but instead were designed (or redesigned) from the ground up by visionary architects, corporations, and citizens, who sought to change the lives of residents using architecture, design, and urban planning. Some of these visionaries were driven by an ideology, others were trying to serve their own financial interests, but all had one thing in common: they believed in the power of our built environment to change the way we live. This episode inspires viewers to reconsider where they live, and how their towns and cities affect every aspect of their lives.

For more information about this series please visit: KUED

Arch Nexus president Kenner Kingston will be interviewed on the KRCL 90.9 program RadioActive to talk about architecture, sustainable design and our new Sacramento office building which is pursuing the Living Building Challenge. RadioActive is a community affairs program for the local and global community builder and airs weeknights at 6 p.m. The interview with Kenner will be on Wednesday, March 9th at 6:40 p.m.

For more information about RadioActive click here.
For more information about Arch | Nexus SAC and the Living Building Challenge click here.

Architectural Nexus is proud to sponsor an exciting event with Breathe Utah at the Gallivan Center!

On Saturday, November 14 from 6PM to 10PM Breathe Utah will be celebrating 5 years of success! At this time Breathe Utah has reached 7000 students with their Air Aware schools program, participated in countless stakeholder meetings like the Mountain Accord process, and worked with decision makers to pass clean air laws, rules, and regulations. Their efforts have directly helped improve the air we breathe and they are on a roll and need your support to keep up the good work in 2016! Be proud to be a supporter of clean air and get FUNKY!

To learn more about what you can do to join Breathe Utah for an evening of food, drinks, dancing, and good company, please visit www.breatheutah.org to get tickets.

Thanks to some of the people who care a lot about green schools, one of the schools in Sacramento is a little greener. As a part of the Green Apple Day of Service that is promoted by the US Green Building Council, several Arch Nexus employees worked with students and teachers to prepare gardens at Camellia Basic Elementary School in Sacramento. School Gardening engages students by providing a dynamic environment to observe, discover, experiment, nurture and learn. These interactive outdoor living laboratories provide opportunities where interdisciplinary lessons are drawn from real life experiences, encouraging students to become active participants in the learning process.

Back on August 10th we held a community engagement event at our future R Street location in Sacramento. Neighbors and other community members were invited to meet with the design team and offer input and insight on what are the most important values to the R Street community. This engagement proved invaluable in thus far guiding the direction of the design. On October 8th we will be holding another event to demonstrate how these values have become part of what will be our new office and how it will become a piece of the R Street community fabric. Please join us!

Architectural Nexus Principals Charlie Downs and Kenner Kingston were interviewed by the Sacramento Business Journal about our plans for an adaptive reuse office project on R Street. The published article outlines some of the project goals such as net-zero energy and net-zero water.  The article also features a look at renderings of what the proposed project will look like. Take a look!

P3 Utah, an organization that advances the “triple-bottom-line” of People, Planet, and Profit has recently launched a podcast series. In the very first feature of this new series P3 executive director Steve Klass interviewed Arch Nexus president Kenner Kingston and discussed some exciting topics such as living buildings, employee ownership, responsible stewardship, and what people can do to improve our environment.

Kingston stated, “We’ve got a long way to go in terms how we interact with the land, with the natural environment, and being responsible stewards. Stewards of the environment, stewards of our businesses, stewards of place. Place matters.”

Please visit P3 Utah at https://www.p3utah.org/latest-news/p3-people-podcast-with-kenner-kingston-of-archectural-nexus/ to listen to the interview.