Getting Ready to Welcome Semester Program Students

Wow- things are really humming at Yestermorrow this August as we prepare for the arrival of 12 new students in our fall Semester in Sustainable Design/Build on August 21st. This year for the launch of our new semester programs we are renting space at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in downtown Montpelier, VT where we will have a satellite design studio, office, dormitories and jobsite. Our new full time faculty member Carey Clouse arrived at the beginning of the month, and we've been meeting regularly to refine our curriculum plans and last minute logistics.

Last week we spent 2 days at VCFA setting up a 24x32' tent structure which we will use as a shelter while we build the semester's project- a tiny house built on a 8'x28' trailer bed. Faculty member Josh Jackson's experience in raising timber frames came in handy as we assembled and raised the "bents", only this time with steel tubing and bolts instead of traditional pine rafters and pegs.

While we were working on site, faculty member Ben Cheney and former intern Zack Hunter were working away welding the parts for 16 drafting tables which will grace the new studio.

Thursday morning bright and early at 7AM a large truck from North Carolina bearing our tiny house trailer arrived in Montpelier and Josh and Jose maneuvered it up to VCFA.

Next week Carey will give a public lecture at Yestermorrow on her work in affordable housing development in post-Katrina New Orleans on 8/17 at 7pm, and we'll be setting up the new studio and office in Montpelier all week. Then after the students arrive on Sunday, they'll head off on a 3-day orientation backpacking trip on the Long Trail.

In upcoming blog posts we'll introduce each of the students, but just to give you a snapshot, they range in age from 20-40, hail from Maine to California to Switzerland, and attend UMass, Hampshire, The New School, Clemson, U. Washington, Pomona, UVM, Sarah Lawrence, Norwich, Skidmore and College of the Atlantic. Their majors include environmental design, fine arts, architecture, human ecology, and construction management.