CORE Team Master Plan Report to the Board

Since our last Board meeting in March 2012 the CORE team consisting of Robin Morris, Kinny Perot, John Connell, Kate Stephenson Kathy Meyer and Abby Martin have met weekly focused on reconciling the master plan and applying for Town and State Permits.

The attached current version of the master plan shows the known conditions and constraints including wetlands, steep slopes, stream setbacks, zoning setbacks etc. The building forms are “principle gestures” and have not yet been designed.

The CORE team’s focus has been on defining the build constraints of the proposed master plan and to

this end the following field teams have been established:

•    Forest, Agriculture, Wildlife, Wetlands – Kinny Perot, Abby Martin, Dave Warren, Buzz Ferver, Aaron Locker

•    Ground & Storm Water – Kinny Perot, Andres Torrizo, Tony Stout, Maeve McBride, Peter Lazorchak, Ethan Timm

•    Waste Water – Robin Morris, Pete Munoz, Peter Lazorchak, Malena Marvin, Barton Kirk, Harold Leverenz

•    Design & Plan – John Connell, Kathy Meyer

•    Energy & Solar – John Connell, John Ringel, Jeff Schoellkopf, Andy Shapiro, Kate Stephenson, Jesse Cooper

In January, the school submitted an application to the Waitsfield DRB for sketch plan review and plans to submit a detailed site plan application by July 24th (6 months after sketch plan review). The next review is a two-­‐step approval process and we anticipate that dialogue with the DRB during the first step will result in additional reconciliation and data generation prior to the final review.

Critical to our permit is the approval by the DRB of “design criteria” for the buildings in phase I & II that will allow a Semester Course to design/build a building without returning to the DRB for any approvals. This was discussed in the DRB at sketch plan review and will likely be a lengthy discussion.

On approval of a permit from Waitsfield DRB, the next step is an Act 250 application together with

other supporting permits.

Once we receive the Act 250 the school will be in a position to decide whether to move forward with Phase I of the build out including:

Phase Ia              Greenhouse Phase 1b       Intern housing  

Phase 1c                Semester Studio/Workshop and student accommodation

Applying and receiving Town and State permits for the master plan is critical to the school for the

following reasons:

•    The Town’s Adaptive Reuse Overlay District requires a master plan

•    The master plan provides a context for decision making of any built form on site

•    Additional permitting does not work for on-­‐site semester design build projects  

•    Master Plan provides clarity for the future of the School

•    The current waste water system will require moving to a replacement field

The financing of the master plan was from restricted funds specifically donated for Master Planning.

In summary, whether or not the school moves forward with the entire build-­‐out, a permitted master plan is critical to ongoing decision-­‐making.  The CORE team is committed to finishing this current stage of permitting and look forward to further discussion at the forthcoming board meeting.

Current iteration of master plan as of 6-12-12

 

June 11, 2012 Core Team Notes - from JC

Mostly this meeting has to do with pre-Board meeting housekeeping.

• Map will be updated
• Kate and Robin to write up their respective stuff

Sequencing:

DRB (aim for closure by October)

Fund Raising !!!!!!

Act 250 (before we can build the greenhouse - Spring 2013)

Trial Board Presentation: Is the School more viable with this campus build-out?

• Will the sixteen rooms on campus generate a net increase in available revenue for the school?
• If we assume the Semester Program will only be there 50% of the time, the other time can used for other programs.
• The maximum rental increase per day for all 16 rooms (beds) would be around $500 daily (at maximum capacity)
• We can assume that enrollment would be higher in the winter if we had more accommodations.  So that would increase tuition income.

• Kate will only be running a Fall Semester Program in 2013.
• Kate asks, "At what year would it come on campus?"

Clarifying PHASE ONE into sub-phases:

1. Greenhouse (Spring 2013)
2. Intern Housing (can the $200k be raised by 2013?)
3. Semester Accommodations (should be done contiguously with #4)
4. Semester Studio/Shop (should be done contiguously with #3)

Clarifying PHASE ONE Infrastructure:

a)   Site Work (terracing)

b)   Waste Water

c)   Underground Power to all new buildings

d)   New Well (at some point)

We're all onboard but we still don't have the numbers.  We will have to keep the faith until we have a more detailed design.

The Intern Housing building could be easily launched as the first building (once we have our permits)

Wind at your Back!

June 7, 2012 Core Team Notes from JC

June 7, 2012

TO DO: Show map with ……                                                                              

by Monday, June 11th

• preferred drive alignment.  Preserve a 10' buffer and assume that we can slightly modify.
• show Intern house footprint in most uphill notch
• remove half of the tent platforms
• remove dotted footprints of other residential units (Regenesis design)
• add in a graphic to show that the buildings are connected
• add numbers to all buildings and place key on plan
• change color of all existing buildings that are planned for demolishment.
• move the materials storage over to the south of the shops and put the office/management above it.
• dot in existing parking area as something to be demolished but also to show that we aren't actually creating a huge new parking lot (impervious).
• show intended parking spaces
• show tree line along existing drive diminished by half (every other tree)

Tony & Andres - CORE team to pick up with this contract and have them detail the daylighting of the stream and see if we can develop a better setback relationship with regard to the planned cabins.

Solar/Shade Study:

The initial study will assume that all the trees are at one height.  Initially, that height will be 30' - 60'

DRB application needs to be scheduled.  We need to return to the DRB within 6 months of our original SketchPlan Review.  That puts us sometime in July.

Kate will get with Susan Sennig to nail this down.

Design Amigos Invitation - Take 2!

(from John Connell)

Greetings, Yestermorrow Designer,

Please forgive my recent foolishness.

Remember this imperious invitation?

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).

Really?  Design Amigos?  Broadest conversation possible?

I mean, who has time for meetings once a month, endless writing and who knows what

else?  Generally, people regularly engaged in design are not looking for ways to normalize

it, right?  We seek opportunities to distinguish our work, not masticate it.  What was I

thinking?

And yet, Yestermorrow desperately needs your help....as a designer.

So, permit me one more request.  

If you have any serious interest in, or experience with, architectural design, please

consider a trial tenure with Yestermorrow's Design Amigos.  We need your voice.  (There

will be few if any requirements; no dues, no funny uniforms.  Just respond to this email

with, "I'm in!" and we'll put you on the Design Amigos list serve.)

The design dialogue at Yestermorrow has grown perilously vague.  Worse, it has become

weak to the point of frailty.  After thirty years of innovation and forward thinking,

Yestermorrow can ill afford to let the design component of what we do languish.  So (Rah!

Rah!) let's pull together a group of design/builders interested in discussing (and publishing)

the design of all things Yestermorrow.  It will help the school and it may just help your

own work at the same time.

Finally, in an honest show of humility, I am attaching my own response to the original call

to arms.  As I addressed those issues I began to realize how difficult it was to put design

criteria into actionable wording.  Writing is tough!  Like design, there's always room for

improvement.   Nevertheless, frustrating as it was, the exercise was gratifying.  Since

there are few subjects that I would rather take a shot at, the effort was rewarding.  

In a similar vein, I look forward to convening the Design Amigos at the earliest possible

date.  So please, just let us know if you're interested by June 15th.

Task Teams Webinar

On March 29th John Connell and Kate Stephenson presented a one hour webinar to update the Yestermorrow community about where we are with the master planning process, and talk about the task teams which are forming to look more in depth into a variety of aspects of the plan. We are currently recruiting community members with expertise in wastewater, wildlife/forestry/agriculture, stormwater/wetlands, energy, solar access, and design to join these task teams. An archive of the webinar is posted below for folks who weren't able to participate on the 29th. Anyone interested in joining one of the task teams is invited to contact me - kate@yestermorrow.org - and I will connect you with the convener of the team.

Recruiting Field Team Members

Yestermorrow’s master planning Core Team has been meeting weekly to move forward with the campus planning process. We’ve brought in a number of experts from the Yestermorrow faculty and local community to advise us on issues of solar access, stormwater, wastewater, and habitat in order to inform the next iterations of the design which we hope to take to the town of Waitsfield for permitting by July, then through the state permitting process. We are currently recruiting interested community members to join a variety of “Task Teams” to work on aspects of the design, including wastewater, solar, stormwater and wetlands, energy, forest/wildlife/agriculture, and design review. We will host a webinar on Thursday, March 29th at 12:30pm to introduce the roles of these different Task Teams and recruit volunteers. If you’re interested in participating and contributing your expertise in one of these areas, please join us for the webinar (an archive will be posted to this blog afterwards).