April 18 - 24, 2001 The American Institue of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the BigHorn Home Improvement Center in Silverthorne as one of the 10 best green projects in the nation in 2001.

The project, owned by Don and Betsy Sather of Frisco and Charlie Cole of Basalt, and the design team will be honored at the AIA National convention in Denver May 17-19.

BigHorn is being recognized for its active and passive solar design featuring strategic daylighting and photovoltaic systems.

"We are excited and delighted," said Don Sather, noting the timing of the award with the upcoming April 22 Earth Day and the backdrop of rapidly rising energy costs.

"The electric power crises in California, predictions that gasoline will rise above $2.00 a gallon, and the specter of electric and natural gas rates rising another 50 percent in the next 12 months reinforce our decision to spend extra money on energy efficiency," said Sather, who is fighting back on the motor vehicle front with recent purchase of a Toyota Prius hybrid gas and electric car.

Sather said the building cost about 10 percent more than a conventionally designed building of its size.

"The decision to invest the additional money in this facility to make its energy efficient will now show a much more rapid payback than we had projected," Sather said.

Original estimates were for 10 to 12 year return on investment, but now the time frame has shrunk to six to seven years, the energy efficiency advocate said.

The award cites BigHorn, located on Blue River Parkway, as one of the first examples in the U.S. of integrated daylighting and natural ventilation cooling systems in a retail space.

BigHorn was selected for the U.S. Department of Energy's Lab Exemplary Building Program. [This is High-Performance Buildings and Photovoltaics for Buildings Programs.] Its features include the largest commercial photovoltaic array in Colorado. It is the state's first commercial building to have a standing-seam roof integrated PV system and the first retail center in Colorado to have a net metering agreement (where electricity produced over the amount used is sold back to the utility).

Existing wetlands were expanded and incorporated into the on-site storm water system.

Local firms working on the BigHorn project included architects Jerry Dokken and Michael Shultz of Marketplace Architects in Dillon, civil engineer Dave Clement of Range West in Frisco, electrical contractor Gary Probst of Triangle Electric in Frisco, and general contractor Keith Pitts of TCD of Breckenridge.

Other contributors were Thomas A. Kingdom structural engineers of Littleton, Dave Yoder of M-E Engineers Inc. of Avon, electrical engineers John Reese and Michael Lane of Reese Engineering in Denver, John Willis of ASCS Inc. in Denver, Paul Torcellini and Sheila Hayter of the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, mechanical contractor Steve Boyd of Robinson Mechanical in Vail, Joe Burdick of Burdick Technologies Photovoltaic Systems of Lakewood, and Richard Grainger of Ross Foltz of Conserval Systems of Buffalo, N.Y.(transpired solar collector).

BigHorn is being honored among the likes of the REI flagship store in Denver, the new Chesapeake Bay Foundation Headquarters in Annapolis, Md., and the Zion National Park Visitor Center at Springdale, Utah.

The facilities, selected by members of the executive committee of the AIA's COTE, address significant environmental challenges with designs that integrate architecture, technology and natural systems.

Winning projects make a positive contribution to their community, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as: reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact site development, energy and water conservation, use of "green" construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

The AIA's Committee on the Environment represents more than 1,600 AIA architects committed to making sustainable design integral to the practice of architecture. This year's AIA/COTE Top Ten "Green" Projects initiative was developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. (reprinted by permission of The Ten Mile Times, Jim Pokrandt, Publisher 5/1/00)