Invitation to Shop Building Planning and Programming Sessions

Join us as we begin the design of Yestermorrow's first building in our master plan build out!

Following on the heels of the September 2^nd kickoff meeting, the design team will be conducting six initial programming sessions to allow the Yestermorrow community to weigh in with feedback, ideas and dreams related to the design and construction of our new shop and classroom building.

We have divided the programming sessions by topic to allow people to focus on the areas that are of most interest to them. Of course, everyone is welcome to attend all six sessions if they wish. Please join us for any or all of the meetings.

Each evening will include a review of the program for the space and a focus on the core principles that guide the Yestermorrow master plan and the design of this building. It is important that the new shop advance key Yestermorrow ideals. Hence, What is the DNA of the building? What is the vision that frames all other considerations as we move forward with a design?

The meetings will be held at Yestermorrow from 7PM to 8:30PM. 

Read about our master plan and the core principles here.

Thursday, September 17:  Site Plan 

In this session we are soliciting feedback on the location of the building and its relationship to the site, including vehicular and pedestrian circulation. We will be working within the context of the existing established master plan.

Tuesday, September 22: Shop Functionality

What are the requirements for an efficient and functional shop? Tool placement, clearances, material storage, dust control, safety, power considerations, truck and trailer access are a few of the topics to be considered.

Tuesday, October 6: Envelope and Mechanical Systems

What should be our energy goals and how can the design of the envelope best achieve them? What strategies should we consider, and what mechanical or energy generation systems should supplement the building performance?

Thursday, October 8: Structure

What structural systems should be considered? What materials should we consider? What are our resources? The strategy for clear-spanning the shop space will likely be the most formative design decision we will have.

Tuesday, October 13: Delight, Aesthetics

How will we achieve the “delight” that Vitruvius suggests should be part of any quality building? What should the guiding design principles be for this building?

Thursday, October 15: Student Involvement

What are the best ways to involve students in the design and construction of the shop building?  The session should be of particular interest to staff and teachers who wish to take advantage of this quintessential Yestermorrow project as an educational opportunity for their students.

If you can't attend sessions in person but would like to submit feedback or ideas via email, please contact Rob Bast at rob.bast@bastrood.com. 

Design by Nature

I just got back from an inspiring weekend at the Omega Institute's Design by Nature conference. As someone who goes to lots of conferences every year, this one was a breath of fresh air. More inspirational than technical, the focus of the weekend was about how we can connect with, and learn from, the environment around us. 

The gathering brought together some of the major thinkers in the field of whole systems thinking – Janine Benyus, Van Jones, Jeremy Rifkin, Bob Berkebile, Dickson Despommier, and Natalie Jeremijenko. It was exciting to think about how our work at Yestermorrow connects with these broader themes of designing with nature, biomimicry, living buildings, creating a new green economy, new ways to produce food in cities, green job training, community-based design, and social activism through art.

I attended with Jeff Schoellkopf, one of our longtime faculty and board members, and his son (and YM alum) Carson Schoellkopf, who recently graduated from college. It was great seeing so many college age students in the audience at Omega being excited about these topics. We ended up talking a lot about inter-generational dialogue and how a movement for change needs to come from all different sectors of society.

Constructed wetlands in front of the OCSL

We also had the opportunity to tour the Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL) which was one of the first buildings to meet the Living Building Challenge. The building treats all of the waste water from the Omega campus through a series of constructed wetlands and an Eco Machine. The building produces all its own energy, recycles all its own water (and more!), and is built with reclaimed and nontoxic materials.

It was interesting to think about how Omega's experience working with campus wastewater might influence our master planning for the Yestermorrow campus. We're hoping to be able to demonstrate some of the same cutting-edge alternative water treatment systems, although on a smaller and more residential scale that can be phased as we build out the campus.

Many thanks to Omega for inviting a group of Yestermorrow folks to attend and we look forward to more connections in the future.

-Kate

Rethinking Design

A guest post by Joel Glanzberg, Yestermorrow faculty member and master planning team member

The story of the oak beams of Oxford’s New College is helpful in rethinking design as a part of a larger process. Gregory Bateson tells how a maintenance man at the school found that the large beams that spanned the dinning hall were riddled with beetles. In the search for oak beams of that size the forester who managed the school's forestry endowment was called in. When told the problem he replied that he’d been waiting to be asked for the trees, as “everyone knows that in about five hundred years oak beams get beetlely.” It turned out that acorns had been planted when the school was built to supply the replacement beams. Bateson’s comment is “That’s the way to run a society.”

Learning from this example, we can see that the planning and development of a regenerative building begins with the development of the forests that supply the timber, the coppices that supply the withes and poles, the gathering of stones from crop fields, the tending of the sheep whose wool will insulate the walls and ceiling, and the development of the craftspeople who will tend the forest and flocks, fell the trees, tend the cleared fields, and craft the building. Seen in this much longer arc, if the design process is focused simply on the design of form, it misses most of the value-adding potential of the process of which “design/build” is a part. The full value-adding stream includes sourcing materials in regenerative ways and developing all five types of capital, including developing businesses and human and natural capacities and capabilities.

In realizing the full regenerative potential of a building, the process is the most fruitful portion. It is important to shift the focus from designing the form of the building to designing the form-giving process (which includes but is certainly not limited to planning and design). The building is a temporary manifestation of a much longer on-going process. What is to be gained by giving careful thought to the process rather than the form?

There is a well-known example from Australia where a farmer wanted to clear and fertilize a scrubby field and turn it into an orchard. Rather than hiring a bulldozer to clear the field and buying compost to fertilize it, he bought two piglets and some electric fencing. Concentrating their effects, a portion of the field was cleared and fertilized and was planted to orchard trees. The hogs were butchered. One supplied the pork for his family for a year, while the sale of the other provided money to buy two more piglets and corn to feed them for a year. After repeating this process for a number of years the entire field was cleared, fertilized, and planted to fruit trees while paying for itself and feeding the family. By establishing the orchard in stages, the fruit production began before the pork production ceased. In fact, pigs could easily have continued to feed in the orchard, eating fallen fruit and cultivating the soil. The food production process did not begin with the completion of the orchard, but began with the commencement of the process for establishing it. In fact, it was a food production process all along that shifted form from pork to fruit. The form is unimportant. How do we design “design/build” processes that are similarly productive from the outset or from which buildings are a byproduct?

There are many systems that encourage the creation of drawings of the design of buildings as a focus, from permitting to financing. It is usually the assumed design decisions - which are in fact unmade because they are assumed - that could yield the greatest benefit if thought about, questioned, and addressed creatively. If we assume how the building process occurs, we miss many opportunities for regeneration. It is just like assuming that transportation means cars - or if  I'm really thinking radically, electric cars or even buses. This limited thinking misses many opportunities. The greatest limit to yield (potential) is our minds. Certainly this limit is mostly in our assumptions and preconceptions. How do we shift our focus from designing objects to designing processes that are regenerative? How do we stop thinking about any activity as separate from the ongoing life (self-regeneration) of places?

Exciting Design Opportunity for all Designers!

This invitation just in from our Master Planning Core Team…
The Master Planning Core Team has authorized the formation of a Design Field Team. This volunteer group is needed to explore, articulate and demystify "design" as it is found at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School. The primary focus will be architecture and "built form" but all other areas of design and design theory may be entertained.

Projects and other design topics addressed will be selected from those brought by others or independently taken up by the Design Team from within. Findings will be updated continually on the Yestermorrow web site and also published through venues outside the school.

WHY a DESIGN TEAM?

From its inception, the Yestermorrow School has been a different sort of design school - it is a design/build school. Smaller and more nimble, it can respond more quickly to developments and emerging trends in the design world. But in order to remain meaningful, the design curricula and the resulting buildings must be understandable to everyone connected with the school. This means students, faculty, staff, and even the occasional visitor should have access to an explanation of the design thinking behind the school's appearance.

There is currently a healthy spectrum of design being practiced at Yestermorrow, with different goals and priorities. To encourage synergies and allow them to coexist elegantly, they must be understandable. These are the two critical services the Design Team will bring to the school:

1. Design Conversation

2. Critical Dialogue

The Design Field Team's project specific reviews, or white papers, will address the following:

· Form and Aesthetics - Content

· Form and Aesthetics - Coherence

· Design Intention - Design and Process Principles (master plan)

· Program - definition and degree of success

· Feasibility and craft (buildability)

· Resource Efficiency

· Context - physical

· Context - cultural & historical

· Compliance - codes and other self-imposed rules

· Conclusions - Strengths

· Conclusions - Limitations

Considerations may be added or eliminated at the will of the team.

If you're interested...

The Design Field Team (aka: The Design Amigos) will meet regularly to discuss planned school projects and other design topics. The Team will not have authority to block or promote any project, rather it intends to become a respected voice in the broadest conversation possible about design.

Conventional and online meetings will take place no less than once a month to support ongoing discourse around various design initiatives. In the spirit of inclusion, a wiki will be created to give larger numbers access to the design conversations (i.e. Foswiki , Twiki, etc).

· Any and all members of the Yestermorrow community interested in working on the Design Field Team are urged to submit a written application.

· Due to the importance of written communication in this undertaking, there will be no personal interviews.

Selection will be blind and based entirely on the written applications. Download the application and send it via email to outreach@yestermorrow.org.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, but please send in your responses ASAP so that we can get this team rolling!

Master Planning Update

We have been forging ahead with our master planning process over the past few months, and I want to give a quick update on where we are and where we’re headed.

First, we want to thank everyone who sent feedback in November in response to the design we presented at the faculty meeting and board meeting. The Core Team (made up of Kinny Perot, Robin Morris, John Connell, Gillian Davis, Kathy Meyer and myself) has met almost weekly since then to address some of the questions that were raised, to gather more data, and to meet with the Waitsfield Design Review Board. Getting their initial feedback helped us to understand the permit process and where we needed to focus our efforts going forward.

We certainly haven’t answered all the questions – this is an ongoing and iterative process – but we’ve made a lot of progress. Our goal right now is to get a zoning permit application together to submit to the town in April. To do that, we’ve hired experts to support us in additional surveying, CAD work, and storm water system design. Then next up will be additional design and permitting for wastewater and Act 250. While we certainly don’t want the whole process to be permit driven, we do know that we need to have these permits in place in order for us to start construction on any campus projects, and we are hoping to complete a small greenhouse project this summer. Additional planning and design work will continue through the spring, summer and fall as we get into a higher level of detail on many of the different aspects of the campus design.
In terms of phasing and priority, the first projects on our list are semester program classrooms and lodging, so that we can bring these new programs onto our campus. Also at the top of the list is replacing our intern housing. We’re hoping that many of these projects can be designed and built by students.

The focus of our work in 2012 will be to continue to iterate and develop our campus design, and lay the groundwork through permitting and strategic planning to start to raise funds to realize our long term vision for Yestermorrow.

For more information about our master plan and process, I encourage you to check out the blog we’ve created specifically for sharing notes and documents at http://ymmasterplanning.blogspot.com, specifically created to keep the entire process transparent and inclusive. John Connell and I hosted a webinar on February 22nd to share the plans and answer questions from the Yestermorrow community. You can watch a recording of the presentation and Q&A online (it's just over an hour long).

As always, if you have questions about our master planning process and how we’re moving forward, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kate Stephenson, Executive Director

Master Planning Update

Dear Yestermorrow Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends,

Over the past year, Yestermorrow has undertaken a comprehensive master planning and strategic planning process. To facilitate decision-making, the Board of Directors designated a “Core Team” of stakeholders to represent different aspects of the School, who worked directly with a consulting design team from Regenesis. On October 1^st the Core Team presented the draft plan at our annual Faculty Meeting (see John Connell’s introduction on video), and on November 5^th the team presented an updated plan to the Board. We are now looking for feedback from the larger Yestermorrow community before our next meeting on December 15th.

This memo outlines the process and work to date which is detailed further in the Executive Summary and the Grounding and Process Report. There is still much to do, of course, but we have made impressive progress in the past four months. And yet this is not a finished study nor should the drawings be interpreted as a final site plan. Rather, this is a “principled gesture” or bubble diagram of where natural functions and educational activities should be accommodated and placed on the land, based on our Purpose and Principles.

The Yestermorrow Board has done the hard work of developing our core purpose so that it resonates with all our disparate members:

“The Yestermorrow Design/Build School’s purpose is to learn together, through shared inquiry and hands-on experience, the ways of making human habitat,
In a way that expands our understanding of who we are and how to live in beneficial interrelationship with the earth and each other,

So that we all can thrive in a world with limited resources and unlimited potential.”

Along with Regenesis, the Core Team has developed Design and Process Principles (see p.14-15 , Master Planning Grounding and Process Report) so that as we move forward with the actual design and building, we can continually ground ourselves in these Design Principles. This will allow us to make certain that each of the five stakeholders in the “Pentad” benefit (Grounding and Process Report page 13-14). This is how we embrace the largest, evolving vision without becoming misguided or inflexible as time passes.

Some may be surprised to learn that we are not presenting a final design for Board approval or modification. Rather, we offer a means of distilling Yestermorrow’s Purpose and Principles into the built form of its campus. By approving the “principled gesture” (bubble diagram) presented, and the process by which it was articulated, the Board has taken the most difficult first step in creating our school’s future in this valley. On November 5^th the Board voted to authorize the Core Team to oversee the continued work on the Master Plan.

We have defined a series of Next Steps to be tackled by the Core Team over the winter, outlined in the Core Team meeting notes from 11.17.11. These include conducting a site survey, researching permitting, talking with experts in the fields of wastewater, surface water, and solar access, getting feedback on the draft plan, and obtaining funding to move these steps forward.

As always, the Yestermorrow community’s insights and suggestions are needed and welcomed. We invite you to review the following documents and submit your questions, feedback and thoughts to the Core Team by December 15^th. Please send comments and feedback by email to kinny@madriver.com and she will compile them and disseminate to the larger group.

Sincerely,
Kinny Perot
Robin Morris
John Connell
Gillian Davis
Kate Stephenson
(2011 Core Team Members)

Documents for Review:

The Overview PDF includes:
- Regenesis' Master Planning Process- Executive Summary 10.15.11
- Appendix: "How to Start A Design Conversation at Yestermorrow" by John Connell
- An aerial photo of the YM campus site to provide context
- A copy of the "working site plan" version 10.19.11
- A "bubble diagram" detailing the different zones, access etc

You can also download the full Grounding and Process Report prepared by Regenesis which provides additional detail and notes from board meetings and workshops held throughout the spring and summer of 2011.

We have also created a blog where we are posting meeting notes, draft plans, and other documents: http://ymmasterplanning.blogspot.com/

Master Planning Update

Imperative:
Yestermorrow is poised to address pressing needs that have long hampered the school’s effectiveness. The school’s 38-acre campus has evolved in such a way that it does not represent the design ideals and environmental goals that are at the core of the school’s mission. At the same time, to grow to an optimal level of students and instructors on campus, Yestermorrow needs additional space for learning and living.

Response:
For much of 2010-2011, the Board of Directors has wrestled with how to move forward with the campus master plan through a thoughtful planning process, and has committed resources towards the first phase of campus master plan development, with the second phase to be completed by the end of 2011.

Timeline and Phasing:
November 2010 – March 2011:
Yestermorrow hired Bill Reed to facilitate 2 day-long board meetings on 11/20/10 and 3/5/11 focused on achieving alignment around Yestermorrow’s Purpose and Principles.

May – June 2011:
Yestermorrow has hired Regenesis Group* (including Bill Reed, Joel Glanzberg, and John Boecker) to complete Phase 1 of the Campus Master Plan, focused on an assessment of socio-ecological context and evolutionary potential of our place, which will influence and guide the master plan. This is intended to assist Yestermorrow in laying the groundwork for informed design of school buildings, infrastructure, operations, teaching opportunities, and larger opportunities for social and community integration.

Through on-site research, interviews with stakeholders, and the facilitation of their course “Regenerative Design and Development” June 19-24, Bill, John and Joel will work to understand the potential for positive interrelationships between Yestermorrow and the larger community. Then they will facilitate a day and a half board meeting June 24-25 focused on the essence and purpose of Yestermorrow, and developing a set of Design Principles that will guide the development of a site plan in Phase 2. The deliverables for Phase 1 include: the “Story of Place” (essence) in PowerPoint Form, list of principles, site forces, bubble locations diagram, and framework for master plan.

July –October 2011:
Yestermorrow will hire a design team (TBD) to complete Phase 2 of the Campus Master Plan, focusing more specifically on the physical development of the campus, including: site analysis, soil analysis, phased development budgets, and story lines for each building. This work will be performed working with the School’s Board and Staff to develop the programming for the build out. Simultaneously, the Staff will develop a Strategic Plan for 2011-2016 which will guide the School’s operational, curricular, and financial objectives. The design team for phase 2 will not be chosen until Phase 1 is completed.

2012 and beyond:
Yestermorrow is currently seeking funding to support a new position of Design/Builder in Residence who would:
· Develop a site plan for the campus based on the vision articulated in the master plan, which will identify existing and future utility infrastructure, septic, water, drainage, parking, trails and lighting;
· Work with Waitsfield’s Development Review Board to obtain required permits and steward the proposed changes through the State’s Act 250 process;
· Solicit requests for proposals from design firms and coordinate the design firm selection process, ensuring that critical stakeholders are involved;
· Involve stakeholders in identifying programmatic needs for all Phase One buildings, manage design charrettes to elicit input and feedback on various schematics, and coordinate with the design firm on revisions and changes;
· Integrate as much of this process into appropriate class work so as to deepen experiential learning opportunities for students;
· Generate excitement about the school’s bold new campus plan and buildings; and
· Offer interns real life experience helping to manage large design projects—an important professional development opportunity.

Vision:
This project will ultimately strengthen the school for decades to come. The campus changes will transform Yestermorrow into a vibrant place of learning that fosters creativity in those who visit, learn, work, and teach here. It will enhance our ability to provide a top quality educational experience for our students. It will be a model both in Vermont and nationally—serving as a beacon to inspire others to push new boundaries in designing and building.

By moving the Campus Plan forward, Yestermorrow will:
· Raise the bar for sustainable design across Vermont and New England;
· Showcase regenerative design principles in action;
· Infuse the experience of visitors, students, interns, instructors, staff, and guests with state-of-the-art design and sustainability practices;
· Provide a dynamic learning experience for students;
· Offer instructors a vital setting for teaching; and
· Create a stronger and more vital organization.

If you have any questions about how this planning process will unfold over the next 6 months, please do not hesitate to contact me at kate@yestermorrow.org.

Kate Stephenson
Executive Director

*For more information on the work of Regenesis, and to see some of their past projects, please visit: www.regenesisgroup.com, www.regenerativecommunities.com, www.delvingdeeper.org, www.integrativedesign.net, http://edgeregenerate.com/

A Note on Solar Trackers from John Norton, Board President

Dear Yestermorrow Community;

As many of you who drive by the school on Rt 100 may have noticed, there has been some construction activity in the area in front of the school between the wetland and the driveway. Seeing this several members of the community have raised serious concerns about the pending installation of solar photovoltaic trackers at Yestermorrow hard by a scenic highway. I am writing to describe the relevant details of the project and to explain the background of the decision to proceed with this project.

Last year, Yestermorrow was approached by All Earth Renewables (formerly Earth Turbines) of Williston, VT with a very attractive proposal to install solar trackers at the school. In December of last year after deliberation by the Executive Committee of the Board and discussion of the whole board, the school entered into a five year leasing agreement with All Earth Renewables for the installation of eight 4 kiloWatt solar trackers. Due to the site constraints only 7 will be installed. This is enough capacity at our location to cover 90% of the anticipated annual load of the offices, studio, shop, kitchen and dormitory. Under the terms of this lease Yestermorrow has made a nominal down payment and will pay All Earth for its energy use at its current price fixed for five years. At the end of the term of the lease the school may elect to renew the lease, buy the trackers, or have them removed. The agreement is forecast to be cost neutral for the school assuming that our cost of electricity would not have changed over the five years. This lease was signed earlier this year and All Earth has installed the concrete pilings. The project has received a Certificate of Public Good and approval from the Wetlands Division of ANR. The trackers will be installed this week. Under the terms of the lease, if Yestermorrow does not purchase or renew at the end of five years, All Earth will remove the trackers, foundations, wiring and conduit and return the site to its former state.

The site of the trackers was determined by a committee of the board working with All Earth to maximize the energy production of the trackers on Yestermorrow property. Several of the trackers are located in the wetland buffer, the balance are in the meadow just outside the buffer. None are installed in the wetland.

This decision was taken deliberately with the full awareness of the potential for controversy after careful consideration of the project’s cost benefit and relationship to the school’s mission and values and was based upon the following principles:
1) Yestermorrow must take responsibility for its own energy consumption and production, to the extent practical, and it must do so with conservation and renewable energy, in its own backyard, not someone else’s;
2) The project must conform to all federal, state and local regulations and must not adversely affect the ecological values of the site;
3) The project must be as beautiful as the current technology and site conditions permit.

We recognized that in order to proceed with the project with the resources available, this third principle would have to be compromised. Considering the “long emergency” of peak oil and the crisis of climate change, we elected to make those compromises. In the context of the 30 year history of Yestermorrow and a thirty year minimum future these compromises can be revisited in 5 years.

This is a matter on which reasonable people, with full appreciation of all the elements involved, will and do disagree, so I am challenging the Yestermorrow community – board, staff, instructors and friends, to collaborate to confront this challenge now. We see and understand the current state of the art and we now see and feel the price of its limitations, and we will soon have a laboratory in our back/front yard. To a far greater degree than any other institution I can think of, Yestermorrow has the resources to design and build, reject and design and build again solutions which will meet the full challenge of the three principles I outlined above in concert with its mission.

Respectfully,
John “Sucosh” Norton
President, Board of Directors
Yestermorrow Design/Build School


For more on the specs of the AllSun Trackers, click here to download the spec sheet pdf