2015 Directory

26 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .15 | www.aia-wyoming.org T he 2015 AIAWyoming Summer Conference was held for the first time in Evanston on June 12th and 13th. The theme of the conference was “Unlocking Potential”, with speakers touching on a variety of topics to help architects better serve their clients. The conference was hosted at the Historic Evanston Roundhouse and Railyards. The Railyards, on the National Register of Historic Places, is the former Reclamation Yards for the Union Pacific Railroad and is the last intact Roundhouse on the original Union Pacific right of way. The Roundhouse, built 1912-1914, the adjacent Machine Shop building, built in 1917, and the remaining 27 acre site and auxiliary buildings are now owned by the City of Evanston. In 1999 the City of Evanston began the multi-phased restoration project on the buildings and siite. To date they have turned Section One of the Roundhouse and the Machine Shop into community event and conference space. All phases of the work meet the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and are an excellent example of an adaptive reuse project. A tour of the Roundhouse and Railyards was included in the conference, including a turn on the still functional turntable. The first speaker of the conference was Eric Corey Freed, Vice President of the International Living Future Institute and a licensed architect. Eric has over 20 years of experience in helping other architects, builders and homeowners use sustainability to improve the design and the operational savings of thousands of buildings around the country. Eric presented an inspiring, thought provoking and funny presentation on not only aspects of “green architecture” but more importantly why we should employ the principals of “green architecture” into our projects. The second speaker of the conference was Kathy Brown, a Senior Geolo- gist with Trihydro Corporation, an Engineering and Environmental con- sulting firm based in Laramie, Wyoming. Prior to joining Trihydro, she was a project manager for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ). While with the WDEQKathy helped with the devel- opment and implementation of the Brownfields Assistance and Orphan Site Remediation Programs. It was through this program that she was able to work with the City of Evanston on the Roundhouse and Railyards site. The Roundhouse and Railyards project was the primary example she used in her presentation on the redevelopment of Brownfields sites and how we as architects can assist our clients through the process of working with potentially hazardous sites. Veronica Schreibeis was the concluding speaker. Veronica is the found- er of Vera Iconica Architecture in Jackson, Wyoming. She has had the opportunity to work on four continents which included time working in the offices of Luis Longhi Arquitectos in Lima, and Byoung Soo Sho Architects in Seoul. With her experience of working on remote or distant- ly located projects, Veronica presented ways that architects could work with consultants and clients more efficiently, using new and continually improving technology. As part of the presentation, she connected with her structural engineer in Idaho to demonstrate how they can work on projects together in real time but remotely. In addition to these three speakers, during lunch, Julie Kozlowski of the Wyoming Business Council presented on the various grant and loan programs available for construction projects around the state. Three of the projects toured as part of the conference were partly funded through Wyoming Business Council grants. The conference included five project tours, one of which was in Green River on Saturday morning. The projects visited were: ■ The Roundhouse and Railyards. The tour included the Visitors Center, Machine Shop, Superintendents Office and the Roundhouse buildings. The work at the Railyards has been a multi-phased project Eric Corey Freed Kathy Brown Veronica Schreibeis AIA Wyoming Summer Conference BY TOM FARRENS, AIA, CONFERENCE PLANNING TEAM CHAIR