The clock is ticking, and our team is actively working to finish our design for submission!

Many competing teams are made up of graduate students and have far more resources and team members than our rag tag bunch. In comparison, many sub-teams on our project are really only one person! The Electrical, Plumbing, Building Codes, Energy Modeling, Heating, and Ventilation are all done by individuals who must rise to the challenge on their own. While we are perhaps understaffed, our team has made up for it with dedication and a healthy (or perhaps unhealthy!) love of hard work. Our project in its early stages already demonstrated a level of professionalism and thoughtfulness that we hope will rival large institutions. I cannot help but be proud of the hard work that we put in, and the speed with which our team members have learned new software and trade skills.

Luckily, our team does have a few late additions, in particular Javier del Cid and Alex Carlson who will be helping out with our financial analysis. Tracking the financial feasibility of the building is of course an essential task, and not an easy one at that! Their assistance is especially welcome as we approach the deadline.

In the last week, our architecture team has finalized floor plans and passed on the torch to the MEP and interior teams to finish up interior renderings and finals HVAC schematics. With a set layout, both groups can begin adding in the final nuts and bolts to our system specifications. It is exciting to see the final pieces come together and humbling to acknowledge our progress so far. The next week will be busy, but I know that our team will rise to meet the challenge!

 

-Alex ’18 Building Codes / Plumbing / Electrical

Today our team received news that we are a finalist for the Race to Zero elementary school design competition! Our team has made the top eight and will be traveling to Denver next month to present our final design. We are humbled to have made it this far, and are excited at the chance to further refine our plans and present next month.

It has been an instructive and rewarding  journey so far. Our success has been a product of a diverse and determined team of students. Projects such as the Race to Zero competition truly highlight the strengths and benefits of a liberal arts education. Taking a look at our team, I cannot help but be impressed by the wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines we all come from. Together, we represent over 12 majors ranging from the arts and social sciences to physics and mathematics. Each and every team member brings something to the table, and we are a more effective and creative team for our differences.

We are excited for what the next few weeks will bring, and the clock is ticking! Designing a school is no simple task, and there is a lot of work to be done. Now that we have moved on to the next stage, we will begin to focus on more specific elements of our building. Our mechanical team will develop more detailed heating and electrical plans, while our interior team will further develop our lighting systems. In addition to their current workload, our financial analysis team now has the added task of finding funding for us to get to Colorado!

We owe a debt of gratitude to all of the faculty, staff, and outside consultants that have thus far generously lent their time to this project. Check out our Acknowledgements page to see their contributions, and subscribe to our mailing list on the Contact Us page!

 

-Alex ’18 Building Codes / Plumbing / Website Design