6/2026: AIA National Conference – Parco Mixed-Used Development: Ben Dalton
Imagine a building informed by its eco-region’s characteristics, notably the Palouse and the native Loess soils formed from the ancient glacial Lake Missoula outwash. A building that generates all its own energy with renewable resources and treats its water and uses resources efficiently and for maximum beauty.
This concept for Eastern Washington University’s new Natural and Environmental Science Testing and Teaching Center (NESTT) was imagined to serve as a new front door to the campus and house the University’s new multidisciplinary sustainability and environmental stewardship curriculum.
The 20,000 SF facility concept targeted requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the highest benchmark of sustainability in the built environment. The net positive energy, water and waste building was designed to function as a living laboratory for not only university students, but also an extensive K-12 outreach program. In addition to classrooms and labs spaces the building would be home to the university’s burgeoning urban agriculture and permaculture programs which will be accommodated on the nearly two acre site. The project was never built due to a shift in EWU’s programming needs.