This building recently became the first LEED Platinum building in Kansas! From the Studio 804 website: www.studio804.com/2008/greensburg/Proposal.html www.studio804.com Proposal With Greensburg beginning to rebuild, our sustainable prototype is subject to multiple uses for the community, including a sustainable residence and gallery space. The diversity in program for the sustainable prototype is due to the nature of the community’s circumstances; without the infrastructure to support a true commercial space, and lacking the population to support a downtown residence, functionality and adaptability of space within our project became essential. As such, the program of the sustainable prototype is modeled to provide the ideal sustainable residence while at the same time providing adequate space to support a small scale commercial program. Ultimately, this prototype is an educational tool for a community in the process of rebuilding their city, with environmentally friendly practices displayed for guidance; program, at this level, become almost secondary to the true intent of the project – to define and articulate what sustainable architecture can become. With the owner an advocate for sustainability and the arts, the sustainable prototype must primarily function as a gallery. In this role, the sustainable prototype acts as a community arts center to raise awareness of fine arts, both visual and performing. This ideal allows arts to be accessible to everyone and provides an environment to create and gather knowledge about the arts. The arts are important to the community of Greensburg in order to maintain and cultivate their identity, their heritage, and their culture. _____________________________________________________ I took these photos at the very end of a recent trip to my hometown of Greensburg, Kansas. After taking only a few exterior shots, I got an invite to come on inside the Art Center. I began snapping pictures furiously as people prepared for the start of a meeting. The Discovery Channel was there filming for their reality TV series GREENSBURG, which will begin airing June 15 on their new Planet Green Network. This building should play prominently in that series as it is one of the few non-residential buildings built so far. One of the meeting participants was kind enough to raise the sun screen for me which caused the film crew to give a thumbs up to the added light. After I started feeling a little in the way, I moved back outside on one of the windiest days of the year to try to get some more exterior shots, but my battery went dead after only a few more shots. I will try to get more images the next time I am there.