Pictured, left to right: Fred Andreas (Assistant Professor Adjunct of Architecture), Bill Turner (student, 1st place team), Elicia Ratajczyk (M.Arch 2006, Regional USGBC Competition Director), Mark Gelernter (Dean, College of Architecture and Planning), Aaron Nelson (Project Director, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado), Jill Reilly (student, 1st place team), John Powers (President and Founder, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado), Anya Litvinova (student, 1st place team).
Photo by Jennifer Kirschke
(August 14, 2008) For the third year in a row, College of Architecture and Planning students at the University of Colorado Denver have won four of the top five awards in the United States Green Building Council’s Natural Building Competition for the Western Region. The four teams split $9500 in prize money, with the first place team winning $6000 as well as the opportunity to compete at the national level at the Greenbuild 2008 International Conference in November in Boston.
The students created their designs in the Advanced Greenbuilding Studio under the direction of Fred Andreas, AIA, LEED AP, Assistant Professor Adjunct of Architecture. On the first-place winning team were Bill Turner, Jill Reilly, and Anya Litvinova. Second place was won by Michele Williams and Tina Alberico, and fourth place by Abe Jayson and Levi Hyland, while Alissa Wilson and Jennifer Vlasak took fifth place.
The USGBC Competition, run by the Emerging Green Builders component throughout the country, hosts a yearly competition seeking the greenest building solutions. The competition focuses on unique high-design solutions by developing innovative green architecture through specific and quantified emerging technology. This year’s project developed an innovative green architectural design for the Alliance Center at 1536 Wynkoop Street and the surrounding Lower Downtown/Union Station neighborhood. This high-profile project focused on cutting-edge Zero Net Energy strategies for a 130,000 square foot 8-story mid-rise building in historic LoDo to house the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. All projects featured 100% passive heating, cooling and lighting designs integrated with renewable energy strategies. This actual project will be built, utilizing many of the concepts developed in the Studio to achieve a LEED Platinum rating, only the second in the Western Region, approaching the 2030 Challenge of Zero Net Energy.
This year 41 participants entered the Western Region USGBC Natural Design Competition. The Greenbuilding Studio, developed and taught each year by Andreas, has swept the Western Region USGBC Competition for three years running, each year winning 4 of the top 5 slots including a National Honorable Mention in 2006.