Wednesday, February 6, 2008
A group of 22 KU students will help rebuild a greener Greensburg. The project is a part of a Discovery Channel documentary that is filming in the western Kansas town that was obliterated in May by a tornado.
The 13-part series, titled “Eco-Town,” is being produced by actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s company, Appian Way Productions, said Chris Ballard, the treasurer for the Greensburg Center for the Arts. Ballard said that the documentary would depict the rebuilding of Greensburg as the world’s first environmentally-friendly town.
The students are expected to arrive in Greensburg in March. Filming has been ongoing for several months and the series is tentatively scheduled to appear next fall, Ballard said.
“I hope it’s really focused on the efforts of rebuilding,” said Sarah Boedeker, an Edwardsville, Ill., architecture graduate student. “It’s good to show that KU is educating people about things that are really important.”
Architecture graduate students in Studio 804, a program led by Dan Rockhill professor architecture, are designing and constructing a sustainable building that they hope will be used as a fine arts center.
“We saw it as an opportunity to help a neighborhood in Kansas rebuild,” said Jenny Kevitt, a Victoria architecture graduate student.
Members of Studio 804 started planning on Jan. 3 and set a goal for the building to become certified according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system.
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Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED certification means that buildings have met a certain number of requirements and are considered sustainable buildings. LEED certification can be applied to new and existing buildings, schools, retail stores and homes and other types of structures. A structure can become LEED certified in a variety of ways, including use of sustainable lighting, heating and cooling systems and insulation.
-Source: www.usgbc.org
LEED certified buildings use recyclable materials such as bamboo cabinets and, in this case, reclaimed wood from the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant southeast of Lawrence. The fine arts center will include environmentally-friendly systems such as solar panels, a wind turbine and a gutter system that recaptures storm water. The building will also have grass on the roof, which acts as insulation.
“The environmentally-friendly systems provide an opportunity for us to showcase what can be done to buildings that will help us be responsible citizens,” said Ballard.
When the students deconstructed the Sunflower Plant building on Jan. 9, several filmmakers taped and interviewed students for the documentary.
“I’ve always thought that if I was interviewed on camera, I would be really nervous,” Kivett said. “But I’m just telling them what is going on in my life.”
This week, students will begin constructing the fine arts building in Lawrence. They will build it in seven pieces that will be shipped to Greensburg. The students will spend a month in Greensburg putting it together on site.
The students hope to have the building completed by May 4, the one-year anniversary of the tornado.
“I hope that it will help us to build a better town,” Ballard said, “a better area and a better world through providing a positive example.”
—Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
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Comments
The grass is getting greener for Greensburg
One student said "It's good to show that KU is educating people about things that are really important." Is staying alive in the next tornado important? Keeping your possessions? Is KU educating people that Greensburg is in the High Risk zone for Extreme Winds, per FEMA 320? Is KU educating people about Monolithic Dome and Insulating Concrete Forms? Students, here's your cheat sheet on tornado-resistant construction: http://www.geocities.com/maiinganikan/. Put that in your architectural classroom discussions and "smoke" it. Please!
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