+

Thought Leadership: Kenner Kingston Presenting at LF18

Arch|Nexus President, Kenner Kingston, is presenting at the 2018 International Living Future Institute Conference in Portland, Oregon. Kenner, along with others will share overviews and lessons learned from Living Building Challenge projects in the Thursday session BEYOND THE ABC’S OF LBC: CERTIFIED PROJECT CASE STUDIES. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how team structure, design process, climate and context have impacted projects of various types, scales and transects.

Friday, May 4th, Kenner presents SUCCESS IS ACTION-ORIENTED: FRAMEWORKS AND MINDSETS FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE OPERATIONS. It takes preparation for owners to embrace the LBC as an operational philosophy and inspire regular authentic actions. Friday’s session will demonstrate how the Challenge enhances the experience of all people who pursue it through the crucible that is DOING. Click here for more information on the LF18 conference and sessions.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: Earth Day Festival at Urban Agriculture Garden

Employees from Arch|Nexus SAC participated in an Earth Day festival at Sutter Middle School. Using the school garden designed by Arch|Nexus, the  garden club harvested vegetables, cooked up a meal and served it at the event.

Arch|Nexus and Sacramento City Unified School District worked together to create the Urban Agriculture Garden at Sutter Middle School. The project helps the Arch|Nexus SAC office in their effort to become the first certified Living Building in the state of California. Since the project area at Arch|Nexus SAC could not support all of the urban agriculture garden space required to fulfil the Urban Agriculture Imperative of the Living Building Challenge, the project has utilized an option known as Scale Jumping, which allows cooperation between projects and neighboring properties, to create solutions otherwise not possible.

The Urban Agriculture Garden at Sutter Middle School uses the same sustainable methods used to create Arch|Nexus SAC and includes solutions that support California’s water conservation goals.  The garden has been designed to use collected rain water as its source for water. Rainwater is collected on the roof of the main school building, then directed to building roof drains and gravity fed directly into two above grade cisterns. Rainwater is stored and distributed as needed for garden irrigation. Additionally, all of the materials used to create this garden have been thoroughly vetted to be Red List compliant, meaning they are free of harmful chemicals.

 

20180420_122333IMG_1598

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: Nexus Presents at Intermountain Sustainability Summit

Professionals from Arch Nexus presented at the Annual Intermountain Sustainability Summit held this week in Ogden, Utah. David W Griffin II, Patty Karapinar and Holli Adams presented Living Building Challenge: Making Ideals a Reality.

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a performance-based rating system which sets a high bar for buildings of the future. Among other things, the LBC requires net-zero water, rigorous materials selection, and Net Positive Energy for certification. Griffin, Karapinar and Adams detailed how Arch Nexus, turned these ideals into practice when designing the Arch|Nexus SAC office. They discussed the many challenges faced throughout the design process, the transition to occupancy, and tracking efforts to ensure certification compliance.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: Arch Nexus supports “Path to Positive Utah”

Prominent Utah leaders from business, government, higher education, faith communities and civic organizations, united on November 14th, 2017 to sign a declaration acknowledging shared responsibility for protecting Utah’s economy, air quality and environment, and safeguarding against the risks of climate change. The gathering kicked off Path to Positive Utah, a collaborative initiative sponsored by Utah Clean Energy and ecoAmerica, that represents a diverse group of leaders seeking to understand, prepare for and raise awareness about climate change risks and solutions.

Local notables who signed the declaration include Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and Episcopal Diocese of Utah Bishop Scott Hayashi. Forty leaders have already signed the declaration, including Architectural Nexus President, Kenner Kingston. The declaration is open to all Utah leaders interested in harnessing their leadership to advance conversations about and solutions to climate change. Path to Positive Utah will empower leaders through educational materials, trainings and seminars, and will help share participating organizations’ successes.  For more information visit www.pathtopositiveutah.org.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: Kenner Kingston presents at 2017 Watershed Symposium

Salt Lake County is currently hosting its tenth annual Watershed Symposium. The two day conference engages the public and stakeholders in issues related to watershed health. Architectural Nexus President, Kenner Kingston, presented at this year’s event: Using Living Buildings to Achieve a Sustainable Water Future. Kingston, along with Nick Schou, of the Utah Rivers Council and Kevin Emerson, of Utah Clean Energy, made a compelling case for the value of Living Buildings in Utah.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: National Energy Efficiency Day

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.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: 2017 North American Passive House Conference

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 7th, 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.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: ILFI to Host Water Use Webinar Featuring Arch Nexus Leaders

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.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: The Future of Homeless Services Article

The latest issue of the Salt Lake City Weekly has featured an article on the future of homeless services in the Salt Lake City area. Arch Nexus Principal Holli Adams, who led the programming efforts to transition to three new homeless service facilities is quoted. In the article, Holli outlines strategies to reduce violence and crime surrounding the shelters.

To read the full article at the Salt Lake City Weekly website, click here.

+ Read More
+

Thought Leadership: A Passion for Problem Solving: Richard Price

Richard Price, the newest principal at Arch Nexus, can’t imagine being involved in any other profession than architecture. For Richard, architecture provides opportunities to enhance people’s lives and solve problems. Empowered by this passion, Richard is deeply invested in mentoring youth in creative solutions and team work and has served as the state director for Odyssey of the Mind, a problem-solving competition involving students from kindergarten through college. He is inspired by watching youth and observing what they can do with limited intervention of adults, claiming that “We don’t give kids nearly enough opportunity to see what they can do on their own.”

He uses this passion to build and expand educational facilities throughout the state of California. One of these projects is the Los Rios CCD American River College Culinary Arts Expansion which involved a major addition (3x the size of the original building) which was done while keeping the existing building up and running. This allowed the educational programs within it to continue and not interrupt the school’s flow of income during construction. The project enhanced the current operations and gave students a sense of enthusiasm for their education, something that Richard found to be the most rewarding aspect of his work.

Cosumnes River Campus-1

Another highlight for Richard was working on the County of Kings Courthouse, a $100 million dollar project in which he unified and directed project consultants around the nation, including Florida, Arizona, Washington and various parts of California. Richard is enthusiastic about the variety of challenges that arose within the project and how each team member was able to find a solution. The courthouse serves a large diversity users and is considered an ideal example of planning and programming while being aesthetically beautiful.

Richard looks forward to working on more educational projects, enjoying the diversity of needs- from a classroom to something specialized such as a welding shop or research lab. When asked about what he looks to in the future, Richard says that “I have loved giving back to the community, as well as being involved in some great projects, but my best is yet to come.”

For more on Arch Nexus’ leadership, see http://www.archnexus.com/company/leadership/

+ Read More
  • Filter By

  • Archive

    Recent Tweets

    • Architectural NexusArchitects with Arch Nexus designed the new cancer hospital, and Layton Construction crews built it. It is located… ,
    • Architectural NexusThe design for the Kathryn F. Kirk Center extends the mission of the Huntsman Cancer Institute to inspire all those… ,
    • Architectural Nexus,
    • Architectural NexusThe bi-annual Architectural Nexus 5k fun run and 2k walk was held today, followed by a fiesta lunch at the Sacramen… ,
    • Architectural NexusDesigning luxury and nightlife in downtown Salt Lake City. ,
    • Architectural NexusWe are so thankful to have Ben on our team at Architectural Nexus and we're proud of the progress he makes every da… ,
    • Architectural NexusHappy Earth Day! May we develop harmony among the built and natural environments. “The greatest threat to out plan… ,
    • Architectural NexusComposite materials manufacturer, Hexcel Corporation, has opened its largest center for innovation and product deve… ,
    • Architectural NexusFranklin Elementary School in Elk Grove, CA, has received exciting news from the Collaborative for High Performance… ,
    • Architectural NexusArch Nexus’ Felicia Reyes recently attended the AIA Leadership Summit in Washington DC. While there, Felicia was a… ,
    • Architectural NexusAttention residents of Salt Lake City and anyone interested in planning and design! On March 9, 2023 you are invite… ,
    • Architectural Nexus“South Salt Lake’s vision to develop this area into a vibrant, livable community will take a big step forward with… ,
    • Architectural NexusRT : Westbrook Elementary Progress, January 2023 ,
    • Architectural NexusWith heavy hearts we share that one of the original “office dogs of Arch Nexus” has passed. Born in the middle of w… ,
    • Architectural Nexus“It’s currently raining outside. What better way to solve a water crisis than a commercial building collects rain w… ,