The Carbondale Community
nonprofit Center (CCNC) project is a joint
effort between the Town of Carbondale, SCoR
and the RFCDC to renovate the old Carbondale Elementary School
into a green facility that maintains affordable space for
community and regional nonprofit organizations.
The SCoR/CDC team is currently
working in pre-development partnership with the Town of
Carbondale on the programming, financing, and
ownership/management structure for the facility.
Just couple upcoming
dates of note relating to CES.
Brown Bag Lunch, August 7th We host our second
monthly brown bag lunch on Thursday, August 7 from
12-1pm @ CES. The Development team invites you all to
join us for an informal brown bag lunch to discuss the
project and answer any specific questions you might
have.
Tenant Meeting,
September 18th
On Thursday, September 18 from 6-8pm @ CES, the
Development team invites you to a tenant meeting to more
formally discuss project progress, the construction
timeline, and next steps for organizations interested in
leasing space in the building.
Hope you can join us,
The Carbondale
Community Center Development Team:
Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR
(963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation (963-5502)
We hope you are all
enjoying the warmer weather. Summer, it seems has
finally arrived in the mountains.
We wanted to give you
a quick update on our efforts:
Although there remain
a lot of moving parts to this project, we are thrilled
to announce that the expected closing date for the land
swap between RE-1 and the Town of Carbondale is August
15th. Simultaneously, the Carbondale Community Center
will sign a long term lease from the Town for the
building and the property. The C3 development team is
extremely excited to share this news with you.
CES Clean-up Day In preparation for
the land swap and the master lease between the Town and
C3, we are hosting a short clean-up day at CES on
Saturday, June 28 from 9-11am.
There have been a number of broken windows and the weeds
have gotten a little tall since the end of the school
year so we want to tidy up a bit and begin to create
more a presence at the facility. We would love your help
in beginning to caretake this building together.
Please join us if you
can. Bring gloves, hats and a bottle of water and we
can spruce the place up a little. (If you have a gas
weedwacker we can borrow, please give us a call, other
helpful items- brooms, trash bags, a few hand tools,
irrigation system know-how would all be greatly
appreciated.)
C3
Brown Bag Lunches Another way to
increase the people presence at CES is to hold monthly
brown bag lunches at CES. Starting on Thursday, July 3
from 12-1pm, the Development team invites you all to
join us for an informal brown bag lunch to discuss the
project and answer any specific questions you might
have. The C3 Board of Diectors already holds it
meetings at CES and we thought it would be good to begin
to use the building more as we head toward construction.
Summertime regards,
The Carbondale
Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:
Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR
(963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation (963-5502)
Just a quick update on ongoing work related to CES.
Naming Update
Many of you attended the
naming party and past/ future users meeting where Craig
Wheeless and Erin Rigney of Rainy Day Designs ran through an
abbreviated naming branding session for the new nonprofit
center.
Craig and Erin have now complied the information from these
sessions into a summary document, which you can
download from the CES website.
RDD has taken the most popular names to date, such as C3 and
the Third Street Center, and they are currently exploring how
to merge them, expand them or create an entirely different
name based on all the input gathered to date. They will
present the 2-3 names with definitions and/or taglines as well
as URL options in the coming weeks.
Thanks again to Rainy Day Designs for donating their time and
expertise!
Green Design Charrette
In
case you missed the article, the Green Design Charrette was
covered in the April
25 edition of the Aspen Daily News.
Roughly 50 local designers toured the building then rolled up
their sleeves and discussed, drew, and made connections to
green up the building (changes to be built with fundraising
above and beyond the base building construction loan). Thanks
to everyone who was able to participate!
You can view pictures from the event on line at
www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm. A full report, which will
support the green gap fundraising, will be forthcoming.
Timeline
The Town or Carbondale and the Roaring Fork School District
Boards will have a joint meeting this month to discuss issues
relating to the land swap, nonprofit center, and affordable
housing. This meeting promises to resolve some issues
relating to the transfer of title from the school to the town
that can help the nonprofit center project to continue to move
forward. We are still on track to have the building under
master lease from the town this summer to allow the
construction phase to begin shortly thereafter.
Warm regards,
The Carbondale Community
Center (C3 for now) Development Team:
Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR
(963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation (963-5502)
The Carbondale Community Center (C3) Development Team is
hosting a meeting on Tuesday,
March 18 from 4-6pm at the old Carbondale Elementary
School.
This interactive event will focus on what the community wants
the building to become. Share your experiences of how CES was
used in the past, what was good, and what could be improved
upon with architectural team members.
If you are interested in being a future tenant or facility
user, join us and share your ideas for what the spaces could
look and feel like. Share your ideas for how to use both the
small and large spaces in the building and join in the fun of
re-visioning this community facility.
The Carbondale Community
Center (C3 for now) Development Team:
Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR
(963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation (963-5502)
Mark your calendar!
March 6th, 2008 5:30-7:30 pm @ the Carbondale Community
Center (C3) (old Carbondale Elementary School - CES).
The CES redevelopment
team is pleased to announce that
Rainy Day Designs
will be donating a year of marketing/graphic design
services to the adaptation project.
As part of this work
- Rainy Day Designs will be helping us find a name and
an identity for our community center.
This is about you -
the tenants and users creating your place.
Please join us, on
March 6, 2008, &
Craig Wheeless of Rainy Day Designs, for some pizza,
pop, project overview, and pleasant brainstorming.
Bring your thoughts
about what you want this great community asset to
become.
The Carbondale
Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:
Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR
(963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation (963-5502)
Next up on the
calendar: March 18th, 4-6pm, at CES: past & present
users meeting. Calling all past and present users of the
CES building to share their insights with the
architectural team.
In the meantime, the SCoR/CDC team has individually met
with a number of you about your organization's space
needs, begun preliminary programming for the building,
completed the preliminary architectural analysis for the
renovation of the facility, and analyzed a number of
scenarios to finance the project at an affordable cost.
At the recent Economic Roadmap meeting (Dec. 6), the SCoR/CDC
team posted some conceptual drawings that illustrate
some of the potential improvements to CES. (Some of the
images are posted at
www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm)
The SCoR/ CDC team submitted a preliminary development
plan for CES, which the Town Trustees accepted on Dec. 5th.
Recommended next steps that the SCoR/CDC team will be
working on in early 2008 include:
Drafting development memorandum of understanding (MOU)
between the Town and the SCoR/CDC Team based on the
findings in this predevelopment plan.
Creating the Carbondale Community Corporation, LLC.
to redevelop, own and operate the Center.
Drafting development agreement and land lease between
the Town and the Community Corporation for the
redevelopment of CES.
Confirming financing commitments to date.
Tentative timeline: The school district is
currently using portions of the CES building for Bridges
High School. This use will continue through June.
Consequently, June is the earliest month in which
we could begin the renovations. Design work is slated
to begin this spring, with construction beginning in the
summer and taking approximately one year. As with all
the timelines to date, this one is subject to
negotiations between the Town and School district, so it
is only an estimate.
We look forward to moving into the next phase of this effort soon
and working with each of you to make CES an exciting
community asset.
In the coming months, we will host a CES Update meeting with
tenants to keep you posted on progress relating to the
project.
In the meantime, please feel free to forward this email to any
individuals and/or organizations interested in CES whom
we have not already contacted.
Thanks for your interest in this project. Please
contact one of the development team if you have any
questions.
No decisions have been made
concerning space and square footage in the facility. To have
your organization considered for a space in the Center, please
send a $500 refundable deposit to C3 Development Team, c/o
Land + Shelter,
POB 550, Carbondale, CO
81623. Please make the check payable to "Town of Carbondale."
Questions? Call Gavin at 963-0201.
This deposit does not guarantee
a space in the Center given the other potential tenants to
date, but it will ensure your organization is
included in all tenant meetings
and updates and considered for space as it is
available. You will be
notified of upcoming
tenant meetings in the coming months concerning the re-design
of the facility, construction schedules, and tenant selection
and space allocation.
Potential Tenant List -
10.01.2008
Number
Organization Name
Type of Organization
Optimized SF
Total SF
1
A Spiritual Center
Non Profit
900
900
2
Access Roaring Fork
Non Profit
400
900
3
Aspen Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for
the Cure
Non Profit
450
900
4
Carbondale Council on Arts &
Humanities-CCAH
Artist
3,000
12,000
5
Carbondale Soccer Club
Non Profit
400
400
6
CORE
Non Profit
900
900
7
Crystal River Ballet School
For Profit
2,000
2,000
8
Feisty Females
For Profit
600
900
9
Frederick Pulver Enterprises-CCMS
For Profit
400
900
10
Grassroots TV
Non Profit
3,500
4,500
11
Gravity Works LLC - DBA: Thunder River
Gymnastics
For Profit
3,000
3,000
12
Healthy Mountain Communities
Non Profit
150
150
13
Kahhak Fine Arts
& School
Artist
450
900
14
Mountain Valley Developmental Services
Non Profit
900
1,200
15
Radio Evolution-Andy Zanca Youth
Empowerment Program
The
NonprofitCenters Network
The NonprofitCenter Network is a community of
Multi-tenant Nonprofit Centers and their philanthropic,
government, academic and real estate partners. Through
conferences, peer networking, mentoring and the internet, The
Network provides education and resources for the creation and
operation of quality nonprofit office and program space.
Cascadia Region Green
Building Council Living Building
Challenge
The Cascadia Region Green Building Council (Cascadia)
is issuing a challenge to all building owners, architects,
engineers, and design professionals to build in a way that
will provide all of us and our children with a sustainable
future. The Living Building Challenge is attempting to raise
the bar and define a true measure of sustainability in the
built environment, at least as far as what is currently
possible and given the best knowledge available to-date.
Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to
be the most sustainable in North America and not merely less
bad.
KJAX
Morning Newscast - August 13, 2008
The Town of Carbondale will be one step closer
this week to having a non-profit center similar to Aspen's Red
Brick Center for the Arts. A period of "Due Diligence" ends
Friday in the real estate trade between the Town and the
Roaring Fork School District. Aspen Public Radio's Victoria
Foley reports.
August 28, 2008
Nonprofit Center transformation expected to begin
soon
Jeremy Heiman
The Valley Journal
Remodeling work to turn the old
Carbondale Elementary School at Third Street and Capitol
Avenue into an energy-efficient nonprofit center can
commence in September, if all goes well.
Colin Laird, director of the Roaring Fork Community
Development Corporation, said he expects a land exchange
between the Roaring Fork School District and the town of
Carbondale will take place in mid-September, putting the
building in the hands of the town.
A recent zoning action by the town split the school
building and surrounding land off from the larger school
campus, so that the land swap could take place.
Now, the nonprofit center project can proceed separately
from the school district’s longer-term plans to develop
teacher housing on the larger site.
Laird, who is also executive director of
Healthy Mountain
Communities, said a separate non-profit organization,
governed by a board of directors, will hold a lease on the
building, which is being called the Carbondale Community
nonprofit Center, or C3. Openings on that board are
currently being filled. The building will be owned by the
Town of Carbondale.
The group working on the nonprofit center has filed an
application to the federal government for 501(c)(3)
tax-exempt status, Laird said, and is working out
financial details of the project. They already have
financing commitments from Alpine Bank, he said.
Laird said 25 to 30 nonprofit groups have expressed
interest in relocating to the building and put down a
deposit. RFCDC has begun to negotiate lease terms with
some, he said. A selection committee will be formed in the
fall to determine which groups are the best fit for the
nonprofit center, because the number of applicants is
expected to be greater than the number of available
spaces. Laird said that is job that must be taken
seriously.
“We’re not trying to exclude anyone,” he said.
Earlier plans for the building called for a small business
incubator. Laird said plans for that feature are not as
advanced as other aspects of the project. RFCDC is still
in discussion with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce,
though.
“There’s still a placeholder for it,” Laird said. “It
could be a component of the final building.”
When the land swap is complete, the elementary school
building will stand on a parcel of approximately 2.7
acres. The building itself measures about 45,000 square
feet, and will have about 35,000 square feet of leaseable
space, Laird said. The remainder is common areas,
including hallways and a community room.
Lots of work ahead
From the time the land swap is completed, Laird said, it
may be as much as a year before the building can be opened
to prospective tenants. Asbestos remediation, energy
efficiency improvements and remodeling all will take time.
“All this is predicated on the swap happening,” Laird
said. “This (land swap) is the first big milestone.”
Major structural changes are not planned for the building,
Laird said, but some walls may be moved and some ceilings
will be raised, partly to help with daylighting. The
thermal efficiency of the building’s shell will be
improved as well.
Heating and cooling systems will need to be adapted to the
building’s new year-round use, Laird said.
The energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements
are somewhat
dependent on budget, Laird said. Many of the changes were
suggested in a green design charrette, or brainstorming
session held in April, involving 40 architects, Laird
said.
“We’re going to take the ideas from that and see what we
can afford to do,” he said.
The project may cost as much as $4 million, Laird said.
But most of the items that will drive up the initial cost
will drive down the month-to-month operating costs. A
photovoltaic system, energy efficient windows and
daylighting features are expensive up front, but reduce
the cost of operating a building, he said.
Efficiency possibilities are many
Jeff Dickinson, of
Energy & Sustainable Design, Inc., who is heading up
the architectural work on the project, said final
decisions have not been made on most of the energy-saving
features for the building. But the wish list is long.
Some of the more basic things high on the agenda are
upgrading the
insulation and replacing as many windows as possible with
energy-efficient windows. An analysis of the benefits will
determine how many windows are replaced, Dickinson said.
The group is also looking into replacing the existing
boilers with more efficient models, and adding solar
thermal panels to assist the heating system, Dickinson
said.
“We may be looking at heat pumps, too,” he said. These
would use ground source heat to assist the heating and
cooling systems. During the winter, the system pumps water
or coolant into a loop of pipe in the ground and collects
heat from the earth and carries it through the system and
into the building. During the summer, the system reverses
itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the
building, pumping it through the system and leaving it in
the ground.
Dickinson said a number of alternative heating and cooling
systems are under consideration to be used in a
demonstration/education function in the building, to
illustrate how they work and how well they perform. The
designers are considering several different systems, for
example, that take advantage of Carbondale’s climate, and
especially the greater difference in temperature between
night and day.
The light of day
Daylighting features are also being considered, Dickinson
said. The architects are considering such improvements as
clerestory windows, windows located above eye level for
the purpose of allowing more daylight into a room; light
tubes or sun pipes, tubes that are often coated with a
reflective material on the inside, to bring daylight into
a room through a roof; or light monitors, ramp-shaped or
wedge- shaped raised areas on a roof, with a window
located on the highest side to collect daylight.
The designers are working with Rising Sun Enterprises,
Inc., a Basalt lighting consultant that specializes in
energy-efficient lighting solutions, and Rising Sun has
brought in a daylighting specialist, Dickinson said.
A Living Machine, which is a greenhouse containing plants
and
microorganisms that help to treat sewage, is also a
possibility for the nonprofit center, Laird said.
One thing that’s definite is the solar electric system
that is planned for the building. Dickinson said the
design group has already received proposals for
installation of a 50-kilowatt photovoltaic system that
will be mounted on the building.
There are also plans for the initial 50 kW system to be
supplemented by anadditional 100 kW of solar panels to be
mounted on and around the building, he said.
Looks aren’t everything
The look of the building will definitely be changing, and
not just due to the addition of all the solar panels and
daylighting gizmos. Will Young, a Carbondale architect, is
working on the exterior, Dickinson said.
“We’re looking at adding a lot of architectural appeal to
it,” he said. “We’ll be adding to the ‘wow’ factor.”
All of the energy efficiency and renewable energy features
the building is expected to make the nonprofit center
cheap to operate, but the architects working on it hope it
will also be a showplace for energy efficiency.
“There’s a lot of people excited about the possibilities,
Dickinson said.
“Our goal is to have it be a living building,” he
continued. That’s a building that actually gives back
energy, rather that consuming it, he explained. He said
the architects have goals for reusing materials and
minimizing the distance from which new materials are
shipped, in order to reduce the total transportation
energy required to remodel the old school.
The designers hope to receive recognition for the
building’s energy efficiency and renewable energy
production from the U.S. Green Building Council, which
grants LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) certification to buildings that meet certain
standards.
“We’ll definitely be following the LEED criteria for this
building,” Dickinson said.
“Taking it beyond LEED is what this is about.”
“This is a complicated project because of all the
organizations involved,” Laird said. “There are a million
things that could have happened to derail it, and it’s
still going to happen.”
He praised the Roaring Fork School District Board and the
Carbondale
Trustees for seeing the project through.
“We’re going to turn it into something more than what it
once was — an
efficient, sustainable nonprofit center,” he said.
With efforts to redevelop the former Carbondale Elementary
School proceeding briskly, the demand is growing for space
in the building once it is converted into a base for
nonprofit organizations.
The project, now known as the Carbondale Community Center,
or C3, has a list on its website of about 30 groups that
have ponied up a $500 deposit in order to be considered as
prospective tenants in the building.
The building is in the hands of the town of Carbondale,
thanks to a property swap last year with the Roaring Fork
School District [note: the land swap actually has not been
completed as of this article]. The Carbondale trustees
have invited the Sustainability Center of the Rockies to
help with the redevelopment and hired SCoR members Jeff
Dickinson and Gavin Brooke, both architects, along with
the Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. to create a
green development plan for CES.
Local nonprofits that have put down a deposit on space in
the yet-to-be redeveloped elementary school site have
different reasons for moving there, and different levels
of urgency in their desire to do so.
Some are attracted to the idea of working close to other
nonprofits and sharing ideas, energy and assets. Others,
perhaps victims of local real estate prices, are looking
for more affordable digs. Others, such as YouthZone, see
the center as an opportunity to have a greater presence in
Carbondale. Several are considering the move for a
combination of reasons.
CCAH can hardly wait
The Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities is one of
those groups hoping the refurbished elementary school is
ready sooner rather than later. Ro Mead, executive
director of CCAH, said the current Main Street
headquarters of her organization is rented and the owner
has put the building up for sale, so her organization has
little security.
“It could be any day,” Mead said. Moreover, the existing
gallery space is too small for teaching programs CCAH
would like to do and also too small for some exhibits, she
added.
“We can’t do any programs without renting space,” she
said.
But perhaps most important, Mead said, the organization is
looking forward to being in a space where it can grow, and
to being neighbors with other nonprofit organizations such
as Solar Energy International and radio station KDNK.
“We really want to build an arts center there,” she said.
“We’ll be in the heart of it.”
Steve Skinner, station manager at community access radio
station KDNK, said the station hasn’t decided for certain
whether its future lies at the former elementary school.
KDNK now co-owns its building on Second Street with Solar
Energy International. So, making the decision to leave
will be difficult.
“We’re waiting to find out if it makes financial sense,”
Skinner said.
KDNK may need more room
One thing that would draw KDNK to the nonprofits center
would be more room to plan for the future. But whether
they jump on board or not, Skinner said the staff and
board of directors at KDNK are excited about the
possibilities presented by the center.
“All of us at KDNK are totally supportive of the project,”
he said. They’re open to various levels of participation,
including the possibility of just renting additional
studio space.
“We’re definitely excited about it,” Skinner said. “We’ll
be involved.”
A local organization that’s not quite so excited about the
prospect of moving is the New Century Transportation
Foundation, created to advance the cause of
resource-efficient mobility choices, currently located in
the SAW building. Alice Laird, NCTF director, said her
organization is only thinking about the CES site as a
place for future expansion.
“The SAW building works perfectly great,” Laird said.
Wilderness Workshop is much less equivocal about the idea
of moving into the nonprofits center.
“We’re psyched to be part of the vibrancy that it will
create, with all those nonprofits there,” said Sloan
Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop’s executive director.
Further, said Shoemaker, the idea of recycling the CES
building is exciting, because it’s essentially a
brownfields redevelopment project. Brownfields
redevelopment is usually defined as a cleanup and
redevelopment of an old industrial site, so CES isn’t
quite the same, but it’s better in terms of land
conservation than the previous location SCoR had chosen
for a nonprofits center and business incubator. SCoR had
an undeveloped site near CRMS under contract, but backed
away from that plan last fall.
“The idea of greening it and making it more sustainable is
really very exciting,” Shoemaker said.
Wilderness Workshop looks at long term
Other reasons come to mind as well for Shoemaker. The
Wilderness Workshop’s current location, in a modular
building on Main Street, may also be redeveloped at some
time.
“We’re looking for long-term stability,” he said. “We’re
looking to hunker down somewhere.”
Shoemaker also expects that being in close proximity to
other nonprofits will increase his organization’s
membership because of increased exposure to like-minded
individuals.
And he expects the CES location to be relatively
inexpensive, in a town that’s been hit by high rent for
office space.
“I don’t see us finding a better deal than what we’ll find
there,” he said.
Gary Goodson, director of the Community Office for
Resource Efficiency, also sees multiple opportunities at
the nonprofit center. One important advantage of being
located there is the plans to make the former school
building a showplace of energy efficiency and renewable
energy.
“CORE sees it as a huge opportunity,” Goodson said. “We
want to walk our talk.”
In addition, Goodson said he thinks being in close
proximity to other like-minded organizations will foster
the growth of ideas.
“We’ll be sharing ideas with each other,” he said. At a
distance, he said, it’s difficult to create partnerships.
In a shared facility, however, “You can just pop your head
in the door and say ‘hello.’’’
There’s a sort of reciprocal relationship, too, between
CORE and the developers of the nonprofit center. The
nonprofit center is the recipient of a grant from CORE
under the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program. REMP grants
are funded by assessing monetary penalties against new
developments in the Aspen area that use excessive amounts
of energy.
Goodson said that grant money will be well spent because
the energy efficient improvements to the old school
building may continue to save energy for 30 or 40 years.
SEI needs classroom space
Johnny Weiss, co-founder and executive director of Solar
Energy International, which provides education on
workshops on solar construction and energy efficiency, is
also excited about moving to a remodeled green facility.
“I see it as a very positive opportunity,” Weiss said.
“We’re excited about being in a real world-class nonprofit
facility.”
“I think the synergy with other nonprofits will be very
helpful,” he continued. SEI also needs to expand, and the
nonprofit center will provide that opportunity.
“We’re looking for a space that’s better suited to meeting
our long-term goals,” he said. Those goals include
expansion and the need for more classroom space.
Some organizations on the human services side of the
spectrum are also interested in the nonprofit center.
YouthZone, which provides counseling and programs for
adolescents and parents of teens throughout the valley,
now has only a temporary presence in Carbondale. The
organization has the use of an office for occasional
counseling, but has no permanent personnel in town.
“We’re hoping to have a permanent office space there,”
said Evan Zislis, upvalley division manager and
spokesperson for the group.
“Carbondale has underutilized YouthZone,” he continued.
“It’s a way for us to have a greater presence in town.”
Nonprofits seek to transform C’dale school into
‘living building’
David Frey
Aspen Daily News Correspondent
CARBONDALE — Walking through the hallways of the old
Carbondale Elementary School, cluttered with unused
shelves and file cabinets, it is hard to imagine the
nearly half-century-old schoolhouse as a state-of-the-art
green building. That’s what a group of nonprofits have in
mind, though, as they set about trying to convert the
former school into a nonprofit center.
“You walk in and you just smell it — just dust and
mold,” said Carbondale architect Jeff Dickinson, one of
the organizers hoping to bring new life to the old school.
Dozens of local nonprofit representatives and experts
in engineering, design, energy use and other fields with a
bent toward sustainability gathered in the school on
Thursday to take a look at how to turn the aging building
into a model of sustainable design.
Their hope is to make it a “living building,” a concept
that takes sustainable LEED-certified construction to a
higher level. Developed by the Cascadia Region Green
Building Council, a chapter of the group that certifies
LEED buildings, the living building challenge asks
developers to create super-efficient, zero-energy,
zero-water buildings that are pleasing to look at, too.
“We’re very challenged,” said Carbondale architect Ron
Robertson, sitting at a table with others trying to figure
out the “beauty and inspiration” component, while other
tables tackled elements such as energy consumption and
site plans.
“I think all the tables pretty much have an uphill
battle,” he said.
Much of the school dates back to 1961. Additions came
in 1967 and 1988, but none of it was designed with
sustainable energy in mind, or architectural beauty, for
that matter.
“It kind of points out how far we’ve come in the past
40, 50 years in the importance of light and spaces,”
Robertson said.
Where there are dark hallways, organizers want passive
solar. Where there are flat, empty roofs, they’re thinking
about green roofs that could create habitat above the
building. Solar panels could generate electricity.
Composting toilets could cut down on water use. Water
collectors could catch rain and snowmelt — that is, if it
weren’t against state law. That’s a catch that could put
the living building challenge out of reach, organizers
said, but even if they can’t achieve the goal, they hope
to come close.
“We are reaching to attain the highest levels that can
be done to a reused building like this,” said Gavin
Brooke, a member of the Carbondale Community Center group,
or C3, which formed to spearhead the effort.
The town of Carbondale is in talks with the Roaring
Fork School District to buy the building. It would then
rent it to C3, which plans to make it available to a
variety of nonprofits. Just who that would be remains to
be seen, but among those interested are Aspen GrassRoots
Television, KDNK radio, Senior Matters, Mountain Valley
Developmental Services, Solar Energy International,
Wilderness Workshop and others. The Carbondale Council on
Arts and Humanities is looking for artist studio space.
The Carbondale food cooperative is interested in a natural
food store. The town is considering holding on to the
gymnasium for recreational activities. The school district
plans to build affordable housing around the edges of the
site.
“It’s a trend happening all over the country,” said
Colin Laird, director of the Roaring Fork Community
Development Corp., an offshoot of his organization,
Healthy Mountain Communities, which has helped coordinate
the effort. “Nonprofits are having a hard time getting
space, so they’re bonding together.”
The goal is similar to the conversion of Aspen’s old
red- and yellow-brick school houses into nonprofit
centers. Aspen, however, had the budget to purchase the
buildings and convert them on its own.
“Carbondale can’t do it entirely on its own, so they’re
looking at partnering with nonprofits and a local bank to
pull it off,” Laird said.
Dickinson led the group on a tour of the school, from
classrooms to the boiler room. Blackboards were still on
the walls. Small desks were upended. Tiny chairs were
stacked. Furniture lined the halls.
“You can see — obviously, no natural light,” he said,
as he led the group to a dark, musty, round room
surrounded by classrooms. “Everybody take a deep breath —
or not.”
But if the building has a long way to go to meet the
group’s hopes for sustainability and livability, at least
it’s there, Dickinson said. From an environmental
perspective, they’d rather recycle an existing building
than build one from scratch, even if it will mean a lot of
work.
“It needs a lot of beauty,” he said, “a lot of love.”
CES renovation planning team organizes;
meeting March 6
Valley Journal staff report
The initial members of the newly formed
Carbondale Community Center (C3) team — as it is currently
being called — met recently to begin overseeing the
renovation of the old Carbondale Elementary School (CES)
into what is envisioned to be a green, affordable
community nonprofit center.
As the center becomes more established, additional board
members will be added, including tenant representatives.
“This is a critical piece toward the renovation of the old
school,” said Colin Laird, director of the Roaring Fork
Community Development Corporation (RFCDC). “We wanted to
get some key players who will make this a successful
project.”
Laird said that meetings with prospective tenants will
hopefully come up with a better name for the nonprofit
center. Laird also said that there has been a strong
interest among tenants so far in the process. Laird
estimates that about 25 to 30 potential tenants have come
forward expressing interest in locating in the facility.
“It’s exciting to see how this project has come together,”
said C3 board member and town trustee Stacey Bernot. “It’s
a project with a lot of moving parts that have yet to be
finalized, but we are moving in a great direction.”
The CES renovation is a joint effort between the town of
Carbondale, the Sustainability Center of the Rockies
(SCoR) and the Roaring Fork Community Development
Corporation. SCoR and RFCDC are nonprofit organizations
that have teamed up on the project because of their
interests in making the new facility green and affordable.
“The current building has parts that are over 40 years
old, low ceilings and dark interior spaces,” said SCoR/CDC
development team member Jeff Dickinson of Energy and
Sustainable Design. “We’ve learned a lot about how to make
buildings more efficient and more enjoyable places to work
in. Upgrading an old building creates a great model for
sustainable design.”
The Carbnondale Elementary School renovation is part of a
complicated land swap and development application with the
Roaring Fork School District (RFSD). The school district
is subdividing the larger school campus property, which is
currently home to both the old elementary school and the
current middle school, to enable affordable housing, with
teachers being given priority.
The non-profits center would be established in the old CES
building, and Bridges High School, the Computers for Kids
organization, and other school district support services
are slated to move into the middle school building once
the former Roaring Fork High building on Snowmass Drive is
ready for the middle school to make its move.
“Collaborative, public-minded development projects almost
always take longer than you expect,” said Gavin Brooke of
Land and Shelter and another member of the development
team. “What has been so exciting and encouraging is how
many partners have already committed to making the project
a success.”
In addition to the town, which has supported the initial
planning for the project, the Manaus Fund (which focuses
on socially entrepreneurial projects) has agreed to
finance the pre-development component of the project. And
Alpine Bank is working to help finance the construction.
More than 25 organizations, from arts and environmental
organizations to senior and recreation programs, have
shown interest in the project and committed a $500
deposit.
The exact timeline for renovation and occupancy depends on
the timing of subdivision approval and land swap, which is
currently in the planning stages after the town approved a
zoning plan last fall.
Bridges High School is also temporarily using CES until
June. In the meantime, the SCoR/CDC development team is
getting the pieces in place to get construction rolling
this year.
“We have a lot of contracts to negotiate, architectural
drawings to complete, additional funds to raise, and
discussions to have with potential tenants over the next
four to five months,” said Dickinson. “The exact timeframe
is not as clear as we want it to be at this point, but the
critical path to complete the project is. The new facility
will be another jewel for the Carbondale community.”
With the new board formed, the CES planning will continue
with a community meeting and discussion open to the public
on March 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Carbondale
Community Center (old Carbondale Elementary School). To
attend the meeting, RSVP to Andi Korber at 963-0201.
Carbondale trustees voted on Tuesday to
enter into an agreement with the Sustainability Center of
the Rockies and the newly formed Roaring Fork Community
Development Corp. to help manage the old Carbondale
Elementary School building as a nonprofits center and
small business incubator.
The two nonprofits will act on behalf of the town to work
through details of what SCoR’s Gavin Brooke calls “an
incredible community asset.”
The town authorized $22,500 for SCoR and the CDC to
perform pre-development services. Those services include
things like creating a rate structure for the tenants of
the building, meeting with potential tenants and making a
recommendation whether the spaces will be for sale or
lease, researching financing and fundraising options as
well as an estimate of total costs to bring the building
up to code and make desired aesthetic and efficiency
improvements.
The town also approved $31,100 for local architect Jeff
Dickinson, whose firm Energy and Sustainable Design was
chosen to perform architectural services on CES in June.
And up to $10,000 was allocated to enable local
consultants Joani Matranga and Bob Schultz to continue the
services they have provided for the town until the project
can be fully turned over to the SCoR/CDC team.
The money for the services comes from the town’s general
fund, where $100,000 was budgeted in 2007 for work at CES.
Meanwhile, the Carbondale Planning and Zoning Commission
is reviewing a rezoning request for the entire 14.2-acre
school site, which includes the old CES building as well
as the land surrounding the former Carbondale Middle
School building. The CMS building itself will become home
to Bridges High School and other school district programs.
The rezoning and subdivision of the property need to take
place before the town can take ownership of the
approximately 2.9 acres that includes the old CES
building. The town is in the process of trading the
Roaring Fork School District for the town-owned land near
the new Roaring Fork High School, in exchange for CES,
which it plans to turn into the Carbondale Community
Nonprofit Center.
P&Z starts the land use process with a public hearing on
Thursday, July 12. The proposed rezoning will change the
site from School Facilities, Recreation and Open Space, to
School, Community Facility, Residential, Recreation and
Open Space. The new zoning will create several different
zone districts for medium- and possibly high-density
housing on the site.
“It’s designed for affordable housing,” said Carbondale
Town Manager Tom Baker of the residential component of the
site. “The middle school and the playing field will remain
open space, there are small parcels created along Sopris
Avenue and Third Street. There’s the CES parcel and a
parcel to the south as well.”
Baker said there will be seven smaller residential parcels
created with medium density near the existing
neighborhoods and higher density internal to the site.
There will be a total of 11 different parcels on the
property, according to the school district’s application.
“It might be going to the trustees at the end of July or
early August (for approval),” Baker said. “There could be
50 to 80 affordable units, but it’s really conceptual at
this point. We need to make sure the roads and
intersections can handle the impacts; that’s going to
drive the density.”
The school district will retain ownership of the remaining
land and could possibly partner with agencies like the
Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, the town or the
Carbondale and Rural Fire protection District to build
employee housing.
Most of the housing would be offered to school staff, as
teachers who leave the district often cite the cost of
living in the area.