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Had 2020 been a normal year, VIA would have hosted our tenth annual holiday open house in December and it would have been a bash like none other to date! In light of what so many others have lost this year, we recognize that this is an insignificant casualty of the pandemic. We did, however, really miss gathering with our friends, clients, consultants, and builder partners to celebrate both the relationships and the structures we have built together over the past 10 years.
VIA was founded by Ashar and Andrea in 2010 and officially incorporated in 2011. Since then, we have evolved to be a full-service planning and design firm serving individuals and communities throughout New England, New York State, and beyond. Below is an image of the VIA family past and present (in chronological order left to right). Thank you to all of these wonderful people whose talent and dedication has helped us learn and grow.
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We are grateful that our profession and the construction industry in Vermont has largely remained busy and productive during this challenging time. We are also very pleased to be working on projects in our local communities to support long-term resilience, healthfulness, and overall sustainability.
Throughout the past nine months, our Middlebury community has been a source of strength for all of us. With that in mind, we offered free design consultations this summer to area businesses to help them reconfigure space, consider energy efficiency improvements, or navigate code requirements – essentially whatever might help them survive this challenging chapter. We also donated the money set aside for our open house to several local organizations that help people with food, shelter, heat, safety, and healing.
We look forward in our next decade to supporting resilient communities, minimizing carbon impacts in design and construction, and creating delightful spaces for people in which to live, work, and play.
We wish you and your families a safe and healthy 2021!
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Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium
Makes History with Mass Timber
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Proposed Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium additiion.
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In late 2019, the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium invited three architectural firms to submit conceptual designs for a new science annex for its historic building designed by Lambert Packard and built in 1891. The museum selected VIA to expand on its proposed conceptual design for the addition, the parameters for which have evolved as the project developed. The 6,000 sf, 3-story addition will house interactive exhibits, improve accessibility throughout the building, and renovate underused basement space as a new home for the St. Johnsbury branch of the Community College of Vermont. The plan is to construct the addition using mass timber, an emerging renewable building material expected to boost the Vermont forestry industry, and to feature it as an educational exhibit upon completion. The project will also be used for workforce development with this relatively new technology. Development of the museum’s whole campus will better integrate indoor and outdoor exhibits and community spaces. VIA is also working with the museum to repair and restore the building’s historic masonry and roof. We expect the bidding process for this exciting project to begin in March of this year.
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Carbon Priorities and Historic Windows -
A Multi-Faceted Approach to Decision Making
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Construction is underway on the Vermont Natural Resources Council’s (VNRC) new headquarters down the street from the State House in Montpelier’s historic Capitol Complex district. VNRC’s goal is to transform the 1880s-era home on Baldwin Street into a net-zero, low carbon facility by using low-embodied carbon materials including recycled foam insulation, supplemental-cementitious-material (SCM) concrete, and low-embodied carbon drywall; and installing all-electric, fossil-fuel-free heating and ventilation systems. On-site stormwater mitigation strategies add to the project’s demonstration value. With construction partner Neagley & Chase, we are also tracking some construction-phase carbon emissions for a more complete picture of the project’s overall carbon impact. (More on this in a future newsletter article!)
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As with many renovation projects involving historic buildings, the windows pose a challenging question:
Do the historic significance and embodied carbon of the existing windows outweigh the operational carbon and comfort implications of not replacing them?
Making a holistic decision that takes varying and often competing interests into account is a frequent design dilemma. In grappling with this question for VNRC’s project, Megan customized a process that allowed VNRC to more easily consider both objective and subjective aspects of their project. The process employed an analysis tool she had developed previously and used with various VIA clients to weigh the importance of competing project goals. However, in this case, the process was further enhanced through deeper analysis of the operational and embodied carbon implications associated with the historic window restoration or, alternatively, window replacement.
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Jean's House is Vermont's "Greenest Building"
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In late September, the Vermont Green Building Network announced the winners of the 2019 Greenest Building Awards. The house Jean designed for herself and her husband won the Greenest Building Award and the Net Zero Award. The Greenest Building award represents the overall highest scoring green building in Vermont incorporating low energy and other sustainability features. Scores are based on the project’s energy generation and usage, health and comfort strategies, water conservation, location and walkability, and replicability.
Sited on an 8-acre lot with amazing green mountain views, this house takes advantage of the views and the changing sun path over the course of the year, while preserving open space for habitat and trails. The house was designed for flexibility, with a large first floor shared office (getting heavy use in the last year), an accessible bathroom that will allow for single level living as needed, and a sleeping loft to accommodate extra guests without adding an additional bedroom. With slab on grade construction, generous storage was important, including a "bike room" separating house and garage, and “mechanical basement” under the stairs.
The open main living space is set towards the view, with the two-story private wing set back, providing a private outdoor space and also a covered entry protected from the north wind. Heated with a single heat pump, the net-zero house exceeds Efficiency Vermont's High-Performance Home standard and meets passive house air tightness standards, with a 10 kw solar PV system that also powers an electric car.
Jean says that it is real treat having spaces that are just the right size, a really functional kitchen with a big pantry, plenty of glass, no drafts or cold feet, and fresh air from the energy recovery ventilation system. After two years of living in the house, favorite spots to hang out are the breezy porch in the summer and in the living room soaking up the sun on zero degree days, enjoying the natural world from both.
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Beyond the Pretty Pictures:
Nuts and Bolts Architecture
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We are eagerly anticipating the launch of our revamped website which is in its final stages of revision. As you might expect, it will showcase beautiful images of many of our projects. But much of what we do is more understated, though of no less value. Our project palette includes many small and mid-size projects that may not be photogenic, but are worthy of our attention and expertise both to further our mission to address climate change through the built environment and to ensure that architecture and design are available to everyone. Projects involving accessibility, life safety, energy efficiency, functionality, or adaptive reuse of existing structures often fall into this category.
We recently worked on an accessibility project for the Hancock Town Office building, reconfiguring the entry to include a ramp, landing, and stairs to better accommodate all Hancock residents. Our work at Porter Hospital over the last nine years often involves shuffling of rooms, making better use of space, or reconfiguring the inner workings of a department that most people will never see. Likewise, energy efficiency upgrades in walls, basements, and attics are the least glamorous projects, but likely among the most important!
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New parking space, entrance ramp, and stairs at the Hancock Town Hall.
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One project we’re particularly proud of is nearing completion. The Middlebury Police Department campus sits on the site of a former wastewater treatment plant off Seymour Street in Middlebury. Various remnants of the treatment plant, including storage buildings and holding tanks, remained on the site and have deteriorated over the years. Since early 2019, VIA has worked with the town of Middlebury on an adaptive reuse project to upgrade several buildings and utilities on the site.
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This fall, VIA welcomed two new, yet familiar faces to our weekly zoom meetings: Charlie Cotton and Stefan Richter. Though we haven’t yet worked all together in the Marbleworks in Middlebury, we are delighted that they have joined, or rejoined, the VIA family.
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Charlie is a VIA veteran of sorts, working with Andrea and Ashar on the 2011 Middlebury College Solar Decathlon while a student at Middlebury, helping manage the Hinesburg Police Department project for nearly a year back in 2013, and most recently, building a model of the Shelburne Library and helping with production as a summer intern while pursuing his master’s degree in 2017. He joins us remotely several days a week from his home on Cape Cod, mainly working on details for a complex residential project and supporting Megan with construction administration for the VNRC project. Since he last worked at VIA, he married his longtime partner Cammie, who is working on her PhD in Human Evolutionary Biology.
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Stefan’s welcome at VIA was actually more like a reunion. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Utah alongside Ben, and worked with Ashar, Ben, and Jean at Breadloaf many years back. In the intervening years, he worked for Smith Buckley Architects in Burlington, S2 Architects in Shelburne, and operated his own design studio. Stefan brings welcome expertise and a deep connection to this place as a certified passive house consultant and nearly lifelong Vermonter. Since joining VIA in October, Stefan has been working primarily on a regenerative homestead project in Middlebury and the extensive renovation of the carriage house on the Yellow House Community property (more on that in the next newsletter!).
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Tip #23
Home Office Suggestions
Here are few ideas for making working from home more productive:
- Ergonomics are still important - good chair, mouse, etc.
- Blue light reducing glasses.
- Noise-cancelling headphones.
- Face a light source for Zoom meetings (light behind you shades your face).
- Be mindful of wires and cords as trip and fire hazards.
- Get up and move from time to time.
- Look out the window (eye doctors recommend the 20/20 rule - look 20 feet away every 20 minutes to reduce eye strain).
- Appreciate the company of four-legged friends!
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