If you care about building better; more durable, more efficient, reducing carbon footprint, then May 8th and 9th in Mount Vernon should be on your calendar. The Passive House Northwest Spring Conference, Breaking Down Barriers to Passive Building Adoption, brings together builders, architects, engineers, and tradespeople for a day of keynotes, panels, and honest conversation about what it’s going to take to move high-performance building into the mainstream. Our friend Tessa Bradley, Principal Architect with the Artisan’s Group, will be holding it all together as Emcee, and we can’t wait to see her bring her joy and expertise to the day.
The day after the conference, Saturday, May 9th, the Skagit Valley Project Bus Tour will roll through five innovative, high-performance projects in our area. This is a unique opportunity to see high-performance building in action- both in residential and commercial settings. Community-based projects like the Mt. Vernon Public Library and LaFreneire Court in Bellingham are inspiring – and prove that durable, healthy spaces are for everyone!
Two projects we’re particularly excited about (because we built them!) are:
Dragonfly Ridge in Bow is a passive house built on land that had been completely clear-cut, with the owner committed from day one to regenerating it. Using prefabricated panels, triple-pane windows, heat recovery ventilation, and low-carbon materials, it’s a technical showcase. It’s also a remarkable one for women in leadership, with women guiding the project at every level from ownership to architecture to construction.
The Soundview Home on Chuckanut Drive is another Chuckanut Builders project, designed to sit lightly on a sensitive natural site. The team wove in natural materials, including reuse of felled trees, and gave special attention to water management — every drop landing on the property is accounted for, the landscape architect even designed a bio-retention pond, filled with native plant species.
Tickets for the conference and bus tour are available at phnw.org. Space on the bus is limited, so don’t wait!