After many arduous but very gratifying months of design and construction, the new Arch Nexus Sacramento R Street office opened for business today! Relocation from the 3rd Street office occurred over the last couple of days of 2016. The renovated building will double the capacity for occupants to help meet the needs for our growing business in the Sacramento and central valley regions. Additionally, this new office incorporates an unprecedented number of sustainable design features, such as a cutting edge composting system, on site agriculture, on site water filtration and treatment, and energy independence by means of highly efficient electrical systems and a solar PV array, just to name a few.

Our objective of designing and building California’s first Living Building has now crossed a major threshold and our focus turns to occupying and working in such a high performance building. Training for the employees has been underway for some time and systems commissioning is now in progress. Once we have registered 12 consecutive months of meeting some very strict performance standards our Living Building journey will be complete.

The new address for the Arch Nexus Sacramento office is:
930 R Street
Sacramento, Ca. 95811

Stay tuned for information regarding a ribbon cutting and gala at which time tours can be arranged. Until then we invite you to visit the Arch | Nexus SAC website at dev.archnexus.com/arch-nexus-sac/ which will be updated regularly as we move through the performance period. Lastly, and as always, wish us luck as we pursue Living Building Certification in 2018!

Arch Nexus will be hosting a hard hat tour for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Young Leaders Group of the Arch | Nexus SAC Building, the aspiring Living Building Challenge office which is now under construction on Historic R Street in Sacramento. The tour, led by architect Jeff Davis, will cover how the regenerative urban infill project challenges the boundaries of sustainability and connects into culture of the creative R Street.

As stated by their website, “ULI Sacramento’s Young Leaders Group provides opportunities for young professionals to develop skills and build relationships that will help advance their careers and foster an understanding of thoughtful development practices throughout the Capital Region. Young Leaders Group activities are organized by and for ULI members age 35 and under to provide programming, networking, and leadership opportunities.”

Please visit ULI’s event page for more details on making tour reservations.

Arch Nexus’ Sacramento office personnel volunteered at the Fat Kitty City cat sanctuary, the largest cat sanctuary in Northern California, this month to build a shelter structure. Fat Kitty City takes in cats from kill shelters, cats with special needs, feral cats, and cats in many other situations to socialize and protect them in their one-of-a-kind sanctuary.

The structure sits above an acclimation area to where the cats are moved after they receive any needed veterinarian care. Here they become acclimated to the environment and other cats in the sanctuary before being released into the larger sanctuary. The shelter structure was designed by Fat Kitty City’s owner and contractor, who was unable to build it due to an accident. The sanctuary had a difficult time finding reliable volunteers to finish the shelters, and Arch Nexus was grateful for the opportunity to step in and provide some muscle and structural understanding, as well as the opportunity to play with some of the cats during downtime. 

To learn more about the Fat Kitty City, and opportunities for volunteering, please visit Fat Kitty City’s website.

On September 16, Arch Nexus participated in the annual “Sacramento Park(ing) Day” event hosted by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the theme of which was “play”. Participants in the Park(ing) Day event are challenged to create temporary miniature public parks out of metered parking spaces in the city, promoting dialogue about the use of urban public space while encouraging citizens to consider new ways to utilize public spaces to improve the quality of their environment.

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After brainstorming on the theme, Arch Nexus with Clark Sullivan Construction and Green Acres created Zen Beach – an area filled with sand, potted plants, toys, towels and sandcastle building materials for recreation as well as relaxation. The design was created to encourage discovery, imagination and meditation.

To learn more about Park(ing) Day please visit parkingday.org

Arch Nexus was excited to be the first stop in the sold out SRBX Brew Bike Event hosted by the Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange (SRBX). The bike-led architectural tour included projects that are activating the Historic ‘R’ Street Corridor, including Arch | Nexus SAC, MarketOne Builders, XL Construction and the Ice Blocks project.

Discussions were led by a group of leaders who are instrumental in the development of the vibrant Sacramento region: Mike Heller of Heller Pacific, Inc., Randy Paragary of the Paragary Restaurant Group, and Todd Leon of the Capitol Area Development Authority. Participants were led on a tour through the Arch | Nexus SAC building site, which is striving for Living Building Challenge certification, aspects of which were presented to the group for analysis and discussion. The Living Building Challenge can be used as a teaching tool for the region and its builders, helping builders in the area to conserve costs as well as the environment without sacrificing the safety or aesthetic of the building.

For more details on Arch | Nexus SAC, please visit: dev.archnexus.com/arch-nexus-sac/

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.

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

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

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.

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.