Campus Master Plan Overview

Yestermorrow's next step in the master planning design process is to go through a Preliminary Plan Review with the Waitsfield Development Review Board (DRB). A meeting is scheduled for today, July 24, 2012. In preparation for this meeting, Yestermorrow submitted the project description shown below to the DRB. The description, which was formulated from an intensive planning process with Regenesis, staff, and the Yestermorrow community over the past year, offers an overview of the project's features and goals. It will serve as a guide in the multi-phased planning and construction process.

Yestermorrow Design/Build School Campus Master Plan
Project Description

Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield, Vermont teaches over 150 hands-on workshops a year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design. The intensive, hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country for people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.

Yestermorrow currently employs 10 FTE staff and over 150 instructors. Short courses and certificate programs are currently taught at the main Waitsfield campus and the new Semester Programs started in 2011 are taught at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

Yestermorrow's Master Plan is designed to accommodate the school's growth over the next 20 years on its campus in Waitsfield, as the school expands its programs. The overarching goal of the process of campus development is to improve student experience, and demonstrate regenerative design principles that improve the site from the perspective of the natural systems, the students, staff and supporters, as well as the local community.

This plan is designed to accommodate up to 4 simultaneous courses and a maximum daily capacity of 100 people, with on-site lodging for up to 50 people.

Major theme: Some of the major themes of the plan include:

·        Move the campus out of the floodplain and into the foot of the hillside, protecting wetlands and allowing for forest access for sustainable harvest.

·        Slow the water as it travels through the campus, and make sure it is clean as it moves into the river.

·         Create a gradient from public space to private space as you move from south to north, with the kitchen, dining and administrative spaces in the most public areas adjacent to parking, learning spaces in the middle of the campus, and lodging in the most private areas.

·        Design buildings in residential-scale modules that will be designed and built by students using a variety of design and building techniques and technologies.

·        Encourage the participation of the Yestermorrow community in the creation of the campus.

·        Entrance to the site should point people to the main public building.

·        Restore agricultural use of field adjacent to Route 100.

Construction Phasing: We have divided the plan into three main phases in terms of priority:

Phase I: Bring semester programs on campus (build classroom, shop and dormitory for 16 students), replace existing intern housing, and initial site infrastructure including a greenhouse.

Phase II: Expand classroom spaces through the construction of an additional studio and woodshop buildings, together with lodging for students and faculty.

Phase III: Create new main administrative, kitchen, dining and studio space and relocate entrance driveway.

Throughout these phases the current main building will serve as swing space as needed; its final purpose to be determined once Phases 1-3 are complete.

Features of the Plan

·        The entry driveway and curb cut will be repositioned to enter the campus along the south edge of the property.

·        Buildings will be oriented to maximize solar access, both for passive solar heating as well as photovoltaic electricity production on roofs.

·        Culverts will be minimized, and stream flows returned to a naturalized state.

·        Wastewater systems will include advanced pre-treatment and instead of building one large conventional septic system, we will build smaller cells to treat wastewater as each phase is developed.

·        Heating systems will be distributed and use residential-scale technologies (vs. one large centralized unit).

·        The parking areas will incorporate areas for growing (orchards, gardens) and potentially energy production via solar shades.

·        Access to the site's forest resources will allow for sustainable harvest, milling, and storage of lumber on site for campus use.

Through the campus development, a variety of existing structures will be deconstructed or moved as needed:

·        Chalet (deconstruct)

·        Pine Cabin (move to new location)

·        Garden Shed (deconstruct)

·        Lawnmower shed (deconstruct)

·        Fabric formed concrete cabin (deconstruct)

·        Composting Toilet and Solar Shower (deconstruct)

Building Development

The development will be a 3-phase process in terms of functional priority. The Yestermorrow campus is required by the local zoning requirements of Waitsfield AROD to maintain a 70% open space dimensional requirement.

Space Description	Estimated SF
Instructional – Phase 1 & 2	18,304
Administrative – Phase 3	6,449
Lodging – Phase 1 & 2	11,000
Site Development – Phase 1	3,700
Total	39,453