I would like to invite you to an info session about a new initiative in the CAEE department to build sustainable housing cooperatives.  This is the initial website for the initiative – http://tfrg.org (works best in updated browsers).  Our goal is to connect individuals, societies, and organizations within the engineering and architecture schools to conduct significant, industry level projects that are integrated into course work and involve students, professors, the City of Austin, and professional societies.

Sustainable Design, Design-Build-Own Construction.

Ideally, it would be great if you could come and spend a few minutes highlighting how this initiative fits within the sustainable direction that the University is heading in. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, May 3rd at 6pm (ECJ 1.102); it can be moved to Wed or Thur depending on your availability if you are interested in attending. The CAEE department will send an email out to students about this afternoon about this info session.  Chipotle is providing food.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

————————-
Modeling after the:
Duke University Smart Home program
UT Alley Flat Initiative

Links
Initiative Website – http://www.tfrg.org
CAEE Department – http://www.ce.utexas.edu/
Duke Smart Home – http://smarthome.duke.edu/
Alley Flats – http://www.thealleyflatinitiative.org/

I would like to interest you in becoming involved with a student initiative that we are launching in the CAEE department.  Our current ambition is to fund the development of a multimillion-dollar, LEED platinum, state-of-the-art cooperative housing project in West Campus that will serve as a live-in laboratory for sustainability.  We are hoping to forge a collaboration of students, professors, the University of Texas, the City of Austin, philanthropists, and regional professional societies.  Jim Walker is interested in helping to bring this concept to fruition and we have also been working with professors Fajkus, Corsi, Kirisits, Gilbert, and Novoselac to guide student-leaders throughout the project.  We are using this semester to assemble teams of students from different disciplines across the University (i.e. psychology) to compile research and lay the groundwork for funding proposals.

Please let me know if you are interested.  It would be great to talk with you more about this project.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Hi Christopher:

Sure I am glad to be involved.  My main limitation is time, but to the extent I can participate I am glad to do so.

Take care,
Jeffrey Siegel

I would like to tell you about a student initiative that we are launching in the CAEE department.  Our current ambition is to fund the development of a multimillion-dollar, LEED platinum, state-of-the-art cooperative housing project in West Campus that will serve as a live-in laboratory for sustainability.  We are hoping to forge a collaboration of students, professors, the University of Texas, the City of Austin, philanthropists, and regional professional societies.  Jim Walker is interested in helping to bring this concept to fruition and we have also been working with professors Fajkus, Corsi, Kirisits, Gilbert, and Novoselac to guide student-leaders throughout the project.  We are using this semester to assemble teams of students from different disciplines across the University to compile research and lay the groundwork for design and funding proposals.

One thing that I am hoping for, also something that Jim suggested, is to get the CAEE department officially involved at some point – potentially through the Faculty Outreach Committee.  One of the main goals in acquiring property where sustainability can flourish is to generate revenue for philanthropic use (modeling after Living Cities Inc.).

Please let me know if you are interested in discussing this further.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Chris –

Now I remember why your e-mail stumped me a bit. We do not have a Faculty Outreach Committee in CAEE. I just looked over the committees and cannot see any  one with a name that is even similar. I wonder what you are thinking of. I’d love to help but not sure how right now …

If you have a few minutes before or after your lab tomorrow, let’s discuss. When is your lab section??

Hillary

The meeting went well.  We definitely planted the seed and we will continue meeting with the ICC board members that we spoke with today.  They gave us the land surveys for a couple of their properties and briefly described which buildings were in need of being torn down.  College Houses, Inc is another non-profit organization that owns about 7 coops in West Campus and we learned that they own larger lots and have more houses that are in need being torn down.  From this meeting, ICC helped to identify three potential sites that I have outlined in the attachment.  The proposed sites include a couple of opportunities to partner with ICC, College Houses, and the University Co-op.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Christopher –

Thanks.  These all look like great sites.

Rich

Richard L. Corsi, Ph.D., P.E.

I was wondering if you are currently involved with any student organizations on campus?  I am a part of a group of students who are in the process of registering with SALD, the university’s Student Activities and Leadership Development office; if you are interested, we would like to visit with you to share some of the mission/vision and ask you to consider serving as the University Advisor (faculty advisor).

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Dear Christopher,

How nice to hear from you. I saw you walking across campus the other day after picking up my daughter at St. Austin and I wondered how you were doing. How are you doing?

I am not currently faculty advisor for any student org on campus, and I would be very interested in hearing about your group. Let me know some times that work for you to meet.

Best,
Prof. K

I would like to invite you to meet with board members of College Houses Inc. to discuss the project.  It’s short notice.  This Thursday at noon. Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,

Sorry that I missed the meeting.  I would still like to be involved/ participate.

Sincerely,
Kirby A. Kuntz, Ph.D., LEED^® AP,

I would like to
interest you in becoming involved with a student initiative that we are
launching in the CAEE department.  Our current ambition is to fund the
development of a multimillion-dollar, LEED platinum, state-of-the-art
cooperative housing project in West Campus that will serve as a live-in
laboratory for sustainability.  We are hoping to forge a collaboration of
students, professors, the University of Texas, the City of Austin,
philanthropists, and professional societies.  Jim Walker, Director of
Sustainability, is interested in helping to bring this concept to fruition and we have also been working with a few professors including: Fajkus, Corsi, Kirisits, Gilbert, and Novoselac to guide student-leaders throughout the project.

One thing that I am hoping for, also something that Jim suggested, is to get the Cockrell School of Engineering officially involved at some point and coordinate this project in conjunction with the construction schedule for the Engineering Education and Research Center.

Please let me know if you are available .  It would be great to talk with you more about this project.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Christopher,

Seems like an ambitious plan.  You certainly have peaked my interest.  I have more questions than answers.  In the collaboration that you are attempting to forge, I would also urge you consider the Department of Housing & Food Service.  They currently own and operate a co-op on campus.

I’m happy to discuss your ambitions further.

Sincerely,
Kirby A. Kuntz, Ph.D., LEED^® AP,

Dr. Kuntz,

I’m glad you’re interested.  We currently have about 15 students appointed as leadership to help coordinate different aspects of the project.  We are waiting to promote this initiative across campus until after the two meetings next week with the presidents of Student Government (UT-SG) and Student Engineering Council (SEC). We are also in the process of scheduling a meeting with Alice Armstrong, the Future Assets Development Coordinator of the Inter-Cooperative
Council, Inc. (ICC) to discuss partnering with them on this project. 
If Alice decides to proceed with this idea, their board coordinator will put us on their October agenda.  We are hoping to coordinate with the ICC to determine a project site.  I’m hoping you, Fajkus and Corsi can be involved with meeting with Alice.

 I am also presenting this Friday at the UT Sustainability Symposium to essentially introduce this project to the Presidents Sustainability Steering Committee (PSSC) – I have attached the essay about this project that will be published by the Center for Sustainable Development. The last time that I meet with Associate Dean John Halton he gave me a copy of this EERC proposal (pdf) to model after.  I would like to employ your assistance in conducting an initial feasibility study to build a proposal from.  We are hoping to initiate a true integrated design project and bring everyone on in this early conceptual phase of the project.  The professors listed below are involved as noted. 

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

I spoke to you briefly after the UT-CMAA meeting tonight. The project is to design and facilitate the construction of a West Campus Live-in Lab for Sustainability. Our priorities are integrated design (multidisciplinary collaboration), sustainable development in all aspects of green building, and designing community into the built environment. With your knowledge and expertise, you could potentially contribute a lot to this project. We are currently meeting with board members of two nonprofit organizations who own a 1.5 acre lot on the corner of 21st & Rio Grande (http://g.co/maps/9gwpm). Of their holdings in West Campus, this site seems best suited for our project. We are a student organization that was created solely for this project; our website is http://tfrg.org. We need help networking, fundraising, and gaining corporate sponsorship. Please let me know if you are interested. I would love to hear your advice.

Best,
Christopher Rosales

Christopher,

You are probably thinking I have forgotten about you?  I have been pondering how I can best contribute to your project and I don’t have a brilliant idea right now.  I do want to be help in any that I can.  I will be out of the office for the next couple of weeks, can we connect after that?

 From a fund raising perspective I remember the presidential campaigns of 2008 and the news around President Obama’s grass roots fund raising success using the web.  Getting $1MM, $20 at a pop seems like a really tough way to go, but Obama did it on a significantly larger scale 3 – 4 years ago.

W

We have scheduled a brief meeting with the Alice Armstrong, the Future Assets Development Coordinator, of the Inter-cooperative Council (ICC).  ICC owns and manages about 9 student housing cooperatives in West Campus.  Our idea is to partner with ICC.  The meeting will take place this Thursday at 12:30 p.m.  If you are available, it would be great if could be there.  Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

Thanks!

Dear Christopher,

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to attend the meeting today, as my schedule is booked.
Let me know how it went.

Best,
Matt

Matt,

No worries, the meeting went well.  We definitely planted the seed and we will continue meeting with the ICC board members that we spoke with.  They gave us the land surveys for a couple of their properties and briefly described which buildings were in need of being torn down.  College Houses, Inc is another non-profit organization that owns about 7 coops in West Campus and we learned that they own larger lots and have more houses that are in need being torn down.  From this meeting, ICC helped to identify three potential sites that I have outlined in the attachment.  The proposed sites include a couple opportunities to partner with ICC, College Houses, and the University Co-op.

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

The last time that our group met with Jim Walker[1], he mentioned that an architecture professor may have their own private practice and that we would factor this cost into our budget ? hopefully at a discounted rate.  You had mentioned that you did work as a consultant and that you aspired to running your own design firm.

Our current objective is to partner with the Inter-Cooperative Council (ICC) to develop a state-of-the-art, LEED platinum housing cooperative in West Campus.  Residents would be selected to manage, operate, and maintain sustainable design components (i.e. interconnected greenhouse and aquaculture system).  We are hoping to prepare a budget, for our proposal, in the range of $3M to $9M (contingent of further cost-benefit analysis).  This would be in preparation for a few years down the road.

I am hoping that you could give us a preliminary overview of the costs of architectural design work.  How it is based as a percentage of overall building cost.

Also, Parking: Is it alright to not offer parking?  Alternatively, West Campus Design Guidelines mention, ?To the extent possible, it is hoped that new garages will be located below ground, and behind occupied space? ? Before having a site or being able to look at parking in detail, I am hoping to get your thoughts on underground parking (given the possibility that the city will highly incentivize it).

West Campus Design Guidelines
http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/adams/307c/westcampusoverlay.pdf

Thanks,
Christopher Rosales

Hello Christopher,

Good to hear from you.

I have indeed launched my own firm and we were actually named one of the top 3 up-and-coming Austin firms by the Austin Museum of Art, where my design work was exhibited in April of this year, where I gave a lecture and answered questions about my design philosophy.  We were also recognized with one of four annual statewide studio design awards from the Texas Society of Architects this month.  So things have been on the up since I talked to you in the spring.

Your housing cooperative project sounds bold, noble, and good for West Campus, which needs help.  I would certainly be interested in talking to you about working on the project, even if just for a feasibility study.

To answer your cost question, architectural contracts vary a lot depending on the size, scope and involvement, but I would say that for a project of scale/budget you are considering, the architectural design fee would be on the order of 3% – 5% of the construction cost.  I usually bill per hour of work (as have most architecture firms I have worked for), with a guaranteed cap.  It’s particularly difficult to arrange a contract based on construction costs when there are as many unknowns as your project will likely have in the beginning.  Thus, I would expect that you would consider hiring a firm to perform a feasibility study in order to figure out what it would take to be able to build the project and how much usable floorspace you would be able to develop on a given site or two.  Again, I would be interested in helping with this, and I would also probably work at a discounted rate.

Let me know if you would like to pursue this further or if you have any more questions.

Best,
Matt Fajkus

Matt,

Thank you for your response.  That is great news about your firm!  I am not surprised to find that your firm is so successful due to your credentials.  I agree that this is an ambitious project, and would greatly appreciate your input and insight throughout the process.  I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you in the near future, perhaps the beginning of the Fall Semester, to preliminarily discuss the project.  Please let me know of your availability.

Once again, I thank you for your interest and support in this project.

Sincerely,
Christopher Rosales

Hi Christopher,

In some other news, on Friday, I was interviewed on the National Public Radio show “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook, which is broadcast across the nation and was aired locally on KUT at 5pm.
It’s available streaming and as a podcast at the link below.

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/07/22/high-heat?autostart=true

My portion on the podcast is from about 16:30 – 28:30 minutes into the show, with a gap for questions and answers in the middle of those 12 minutes, if you care to listen.

The show was about the current heat wave and what it might mean if this heat becomes the new normal.  Host Tom Ashbrook structured the show to be composed as the voice of four experts across the nation – one on health, agriculture, sustainable buildings (me), and sociology.  Tom asked me questions about sustainable construction, and I spoke about a couple of my theories on the future of architecture and what adaptations may occur to manage this heat.

Let me know what you think, if you get a chance to listen to it.

All the best,
Matt

Matt,

How is it going?  Thanks for sharing the podcast.  I found the topics incredibly interesting and very relevant to what we hope to accomplish with TFRG as an organization.  I have been working on the essay for the Sustainability Symposium: http://www.tfrg.org/essay/   – I’m eager to get your input on it.  It’s geared toward building public interest and kind of serves as a predecessor to a business plan/ grant proposal.  I’m definitely excited about creating sustainable change.

Thanks,
Chris

Hello Chris,

I read your paper and my overall reaction is that it’s very well done, with extensive research and citation, and well-crafted writing, with a strong overarching message.
My only suggestion would be to more directly tie in, or at least mention, UT in the paper, since most of the papers at the symposium will be very specifically about things currently happening on campus, or planned to happen.
Thus, the more you can mention UT in the article, even in the paper title, the better it will fit in with the rest of the symposium topics.  So, does this mean your paper was accepted?  Great!  I know there were a lot of papers submitted last year.

I also just appreciate your enthusiasm about the topic in general.

All the best,
Matt

Matt,

Thanks a lot.  That’s a good point about tying in the University more.  It was accepted (based on the abstract submitted).  I don’t know if I can edit the essay at this point (I submitted it on Friday).  However, I could plan to make the presentation more UT specific.

I really appreciate your help.  This semester we are going to try to get more architecture students involved.  The plan is to continue working with Jim Walker and begin seeing about pitching the concept of a West Campus project to Student Affairs VP, Juan Gonzales, Housing & Food Serv. Div. Director, Floyd Hoelting, and the Inter-Cooperative Council executive board.  The engineering communications course that I am taking this semester is geared toward preparing a grant proposal for the UT Sustainability Network – so that works out pretty well too.

Thanks,
Chris

Christopher

I see.  In that case, don’t worry about editing the essay.  Just make the presentation more UT-specific, as you say.

Keep up the good work with getting more students involved, including architecture students, etc.

Best,
Matt