OneDegreeTV: Heritage Aviation's 'smarter, greener building'

Our friends at LoveTomorrowToday created this fantastic new video featuring our client Heritage Aviation and its new green facility, designed by TruexCullins.  Take a look here!

This project has been recognized with two awards:  The Burlington Business Association's Hertzel N. Pasackow Architectural Excellence Award and Efficiency Vermont's Best of the Best Award in Commercial Building Design & Construction.  We also anticipate that this project will receive LEED Silver Certification this fall.  

A Terrific Article About the Vermont Foodbank's Kingsbury Farm

Please take a moment ot read this wonderful article about Kingsbury Farm in a recent issue of Seven Days.  You may recall two blog posts from last year written by David Epstein, who is on the Board of the Vermont Foodbank http://truexcullins.blogspot.com/2009/10/vermont-foodbanks-kingsbury-farm-part-i.html and http://truexcullins.blogspot.com/2009/10/vermont-foodbanks-kingsbury-farm-part.html.  David has been involved with the Kingsbury Farm project providing master planning and architectural design services.

Banking on Fresh

A pioneering partnership brings local produce to Mad River Valley food banks
By Lauren Ober 10.06.10, Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur of Nancy Smith

 

Wednesdays this summer and fall have been like Christmas at the Kingsbury Market Garden in Warren. That’s when volunteers from area food shelves come to pick up their cases of fresh produce. The bounty can sometimes be overwhelming — on a recent Wednesday, for instance, when the selection makes Ruth Haskins of the Duxbury Elf’s Shelf squeal.

 

“What do we have today?” she asks farmer Aaron Locker as he carries bins of vegetables to her car.  Locker ticks off a list of produce: russet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, onions.  “Oooh, yes!” Haskins says, her face lighting up.

 

The 178 families her food shelf serves will be thrilled — Locker’s broccoli has been a huge hit with Haskins’ clients. They can’t get enough of it, she says.

 

If it seems unusual for food-shelf staff to be picking up produce from a local farm much as CSA members collect their weekly allotments, that’s because it is. Most food shelves get their food from federal commodities programs and donations from individuals and businesses. When they offer fresh produce, it often comes from gleaning — collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields.

 

The Kingsbury Farm and the 10 food shelves and meal sites of the Mad River Valley have forged a unique partnership in its inaugural year. They’ve teamed up to give families who are at risk for hunger or experiencing it access to fresh produce every week during the growing season. Their link: the Vermont Foodbank.

 

Read more...

11th Annual Roland Batten Lecture : Humanitarian Architecture

We are pleased to announce that our own Rolf Kielman will be speaking at the 11th annual Roland Batten Lecture on Wednesday, October 20th at 5:30pm, at 301 Williams Hall on the UVM Campus. Rolf will be presenting a talk on Humanitarian Architecture: a presentation of essential built work in Africa, Latin America and Asia. The event is free and open to the public.

Projects will be presented from Latin America, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Most of these projects address essential housing, educational and community needs. Those involved in the implementation of these projects include architects, builders, planners and an extensive network of volunteers and non-government agencies. These necessary works are often of a design-build nature and utilize local resources, labor and building materials. Indigenous methods of construction shape the basic approach but new and sustainable methods of detailing and building are used to ensure improved durability.

The projects presented are situated in Guatemala, Uganda, Mozambique, Guinea and Bangladesh. They range from modest cooking facilities and dormitories, to schools and community centers. The work highlights the increasing involvement of young designers, engaged individuals and volunteer organizations who working to improve the quality of life in areas fraught with poverty and the impact of natural disasters and environmental degradation.

Rolf will also describe several ways in which you can become involved in this kind of work and local organizations and firms that you might wish to contact.

This is the 11th Annual Roland Batten Lecture, a series created in honor of our friend and colleague, architect Roland Batten who passed away in 1999. This event is sponsored by the Roland Batten Memorial Fund, TruexCullins, and the University of Vermont's Visiting Artists, Art Critics and Art Historians Lecture Series. We hope to see you there!