Honor Building Artists for Humanity EpiCenter, Boston, MA
Architects: Arrowstreet Inc., Somerville, MA

The Artists for Humanity EpiCenter connects local working artists from the community and teens interested in the arts. The building defines the client's identity as a cutting-edge, socially and environmentally conscious educational arts organization. It is energy independent, achieving a desired level of comfort through natural ventilation without refrigerant-based cooling. Income from selling surplus energy back to the utility company underwrites other utility costs. Recycled content was a criterion in the selection of building materials and the building makes optimum use of daylighting. The building holds a LEED Platinum rating which attests to its sustainability. The scale and design of this building help transition between a mostly residential neighborhood and a rapidly transforming mixed-use waterfront district and also strike a balance between simplicity of form and attention to materials and details.

Honor Site Headquarters and Visitor Center,
Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Swanton, VT
Architects: Center brook Architects and Planners, Centerbrook, CT
Associated Architects: Guillot-Vivian-Viehmann Architects, Inc., Burlington, VT
Landscape Architect: SE Group, Burlington, VT

The Headquarters and Visitor Center at Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge is a very solid thoughtful project and is noted for its sensitive site orientation and good energy strategies and sustainable features. Notable among these are an integrated design process; site planning and building orientation for optimal heating and cooling; water conservation; the use of native plants; durable, low-maintenance materials; good indoor air quality, and on-site renewable energy sources. The building is located on the only non-floodplain area of the site, and site disturbance was minimized during construction. The design of the site includes a wetlands demonstration area using discharge waters from the building's geothermal cooling system, wetlands gardens which function as a detention basin for storm water run-off from the site and parking areas; and bioswales planted with regional wetlands plants.

Merit Building East End Community School, Portland, ME
Architects: Stephen Blatt Architects, Portland, ME
Landscape Architect: Carroll Associates, Portland, ME.

The East End Community School in Portland, ME was designed with superior indoor air quality, state-of-the-art classroom daylighting, and durable interior materials. The project has transformed an unused, but very prominent, city site into a new, very energy-efficient school that is submitting for LEED certification. The building has a green-roof to promote the cleaning of storm water, visible along the low roof of the main entrance and from various rooms, and the lobby on the second floor. The fifth grade classes at East End have studied, promoted, and documented the process of designing a green and sustainable school for local TV, making this project an exceptional educational tool as well.

Merit Site The Doyle Conservation Center, Leominster, MA
Architects: HKT Architects, Inc., Somerville, MA
Landscape Architect: Hines Wasser & Associates, LLC, Brookline, MA

The Doyle Conservation Center of The Trustees of Reservations in Leominster, MA, was planned to be constructed and managed as a model of environmentally conscious, sustainable development and land management with a dialogue between the outdoors and indoors. Sustainable features include: minimum land disturbance, ecological landscaping, green furnishings, photovoltaic panels, ground source heat pumps, and maximized daylighting. Featured in the site's landscape design is a man-made wetland that serves as a retention pond, and a series of interconnected swales that were created to direct and filter stormwater runoff. Site-harvested stonewalls connect the building to the site and serve as outdoor seating and site-harvested timbers were used for outdoor lighting posts. The project achieved a LEED Gold rating and the client gives frequent building tours and presentations on the project as a model for responsible design and construction practices.

The Jury

Jack Hedge
As Design Principal of DesignGroup, Jack has been involved in the design and planning of a wide variety of projects for corporate office parks, hospitals, specialty healthcare buildings, universities, schools, library systems, and rehabilitation centers. He has led efforts at DesignGroup to produce energy-efficient, sustainable designs. His passion for such has not gone unnoticed: he has served on numerous design award juries around the country and spoken at conferences and seminars as a recognized expert on topics including “sustainability of the built environment” and “green architecture”.

Dick Hogan
As founder of Village Services and Greenfire Builders, Dick has been engaged in co-evolution toward regenerative community in the Central Ohio River Basin and beyond for 25+ years. Justice, sustainability, and peace plus human-in-habitat rebalancing earth processes are primary elements guiding the discernment of design criteria for human habitations and community planning. Dick has worked with academia, faith, and non-profit educational sectors, along with numerous individuals with similar concerns, primarily in the eastern region of the United States. He is a veteran of fleet ballistic missile submarine service, then a decade of machine tool systems design, followed by degree and certification work in the areas of, in part, sustainable technology, natural building systems, and permaculture design. He, his family, and friends are co-creating a forest garden/solar micro-village in the new ancient forest of the Appalachian foothills in southeast Ohio.

Troy Lowell
A registered Professional Engineer, Troy received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University and recently received his Masters in Architecture from Miami University. He is currently practicing engineering while teaching at Miami U, pursuing architecture, woodworking, and integrative designs.

Christopher Manning, ASLA
Owner/Principal of Human Nature, Inc., a Cincinnati-based consulting firm specializing in the planning/design of public open spaces and open space systems. He and his partner, Gary Wolnitzek, created Human Nature in 1995. Mr. Manning served on the Adjunct Faculty of the UKLA Program from 1988-2000, acting as instructor, lecturer and juror. His practice encompasses a wide variety of public projects at multiple scales; including parks, preserves, nature centers, greenways, streetscapes, community plans, public art, and garden design. He has lectured to audiences throughout the region on a spectrum of site-related topics, from public art and collaborative design processes to urban forestry, sustainable design and ecology and has served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Landscape Architecture Magazine, the profession’s most noted publication.

Dean Niemeyer
A Senior Planner for the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dean holds a Masters in Community Planning and a Masters in Public Administration and gained his AICP-American Institute of Certified Planners in 1995. He is staff support for the Local Alliance for Nature and Development in Hamilton County (LAND-HC), which includes the subcommittee LAND-HC Committee on Green Building.

David Panich
A partner with the architectural firm of Panich + Noel Architects for over 23 years, David's experience includes projects of most building types and he has been designing energy efficient and solar reliant residential and commercial projects since the mid-1970s. He currently sits on the Board of Green Energy Ohio, a sustainable energy advocacy organization and has been an adjunct faculty member of the Interior Architecture Department at Ohio University in Athens.