ALICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
BREAKING NEW GROUND
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
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This groundbreaking project fulfills our mutual desire to provide the most advanced environmental education opportunities possible for our students. It is our civic responsibility to prepare them to be leaders of a green and sustainable future and part of why we are a partner in this endeavor.
Rushern L. Baker, III Prince George’s County Executive
ALIICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
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or more than 60 years, the Alice Ferguson Foundation has been a premier provider of transformative, experiential environmental education programs for students in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The Foundation’s 300 acre working farm accentuates the scientific, ecological, and agricultural principles students learn as they connect to nature, which is so abundantly evident at our Hard Bargain Farm educational campus. Much beloved by the thousands of students who visit each year, our campus now is undergoing a transformation of its own. Our core values of Education, Inspiration, and Innovation are serving us well as we transform our aging infrastructure into one of the most innovative, inspirational, and impactful education facilities anywhere in the world today. The net zero energy, net zero water, carbon neutral, and non-toxic component requirements of the Living Building Challenge™ will not only enhance and upgrade our structures but also serve as tools for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts, as well as augment our core ecological curriculum. As the Alice Ferguson Foundation embraces the Challenge, we invite you to join us on this inspiring, innovative, and important journey.
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
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he Living Building Challenge™ is the most rigorous set of energy efficiency, green building standards in the world today. Living Buildings are designed to function like species in an ecosystem and mimic the beauty, resourcefulness, and efficiency of nature’s architecture. Living Buildings are designed to regenerate, not deplete, their surroundings. In keeping with the Foundation’s mission, these state-of-the-art green buildings will work in harmony with nature, allowing us to achieve the Challenge’s goals of: • Restoring a healthy local ecosystem • Sourcing all its water from rainfall • Harvesting all its energy from renewable sources • Choosing non-toxic materials • Supporting a just, equitable world • Maximizing physical and psychological health of guests • Celebrating beauty, inspiring transformative change through design The Foundation’s education campus is located on a 300 acre working farm in Accokeek, Maryland on the shores of the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon and within sight of the nation’s capital.
ALIICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
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The Living Building Challenge offers an important opportunity to build a bridge between the built environment and the natural world. That bridge represents an important step on the path to long-term sustainability. Lori Arguelles Executive Director Alice Ferguson Foundation
As we embrace the Challenge, our goal is to regenerate the surrounding environment as we construct groundbreaking buildings that serve as innovative teaching tools integral to our STEM, ecological, and agricultural focused education programs. Already a focal point for regional, national, and international attention, the Foundation’s location makes our embrace of the Challenge that much more compelling for our students and partners.
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
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ur educational complex is a prototype for the future of green buildings.
The recently completed “Grass” educational building is located at the sunny edge of a south facing field where its roof spreads out like wings to capture the sun’s energy. A network of 20 geothermal wells, located in the grassy field in front of the building, helps ensure the sun’s power is used most efficiently. The building’s tight “envelope” provides an “R” factor that is up to five times as effective as an average building. In addition to the main educational buildings, two new sleeping cabins will provide much needed accommodations when deconstruction of the current lodge begins. Once the new lodge is completed, the cabins will provide auxiliary sleeping quarters, enhancing the Foundation’s ability to serve more students.
ALIICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
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ur buildings work together like interdependent species in an ecosystem.
The “Moss” overnight lodge, nestled in the woods on a north facing slope, will replace our nearly 50-year old residential facility. Upon completion, this new structure will reach high into the tree canopy where each student’s bunk will have a window on that aerial world. Its roof, like an inverted umbrella, is designed to gather rainwater that will be treated and used throughout the complex.
Wareham Lodge, built in 1976
Proposed “Moss” overnight lodge
Nature is the very best classroom. Our fully accessible boardwalk, completed in 2013, is replete with observation stations and meanders through an emergent, ephemeral wetland, thereby complementing the notion of nature as classroom.
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
BUILDINGS AS TEACHING TOOLS
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ince its founding more than six decades ago, the Alice Ferguson Foundation has been dedicated to educating visitors of all ages about the natural world, inspiring them to recognize their role in protecting it and seeking innovative ways to solve environmental challenges. When it came time to renovate and refresh our educational campus, we challenged ourselves to incorporate the latest advances in environmental design and construction. Our goal is for students to have an inspiring place to learn and to construct buildings that serve as powerful and innovative teaching tools.
Our current curriculum, which examines biodiversity, adaptation, climate resiliency, and the cycles of nature, will get a boost from these state-of-the-art buildings as they demonstrate the sustainable use of natural resources and the STEM principles embodied therein. Students of all ages will be challenged to problem solve, particularly around the concepts of water, energy, and waste. As each phase of the project is finished, the International Living Future Institute will evaluate how well the Foundation has met the requirements of the Living Building Challenge.
ALIICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
All building users will have an energy and water ‘budget’ to manage during their stay. Electronic tablets that are connected to the buildings’ infrastructure will allow constant monitoring of resource use, even when students are not in the building. The data will inform any adaptations and new strategies that may need to be made as each group of students seeks to help the Foundation meet the net zero energy and water goals inherent in the Living Building Challenge. The data will be analyzed, synthesized, and shared as part of our commitment to sustainability, learning, and innovation.
Once certified, the Foundation will join an elite echelon of leaders dedicated to breaking new ground and building a strong bridge between the natural and built environments.
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
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s the first phase of this innovative and inspiring educational campus is completed, the Alice Ferguson Foundation is seeking funding from corporations, individual philanthropists, and private institutions that are excited by the emerging paradigm of Living Buildings. We are calling on leaders who want to be part of a vanguard that is defining the future face of construction. With your support, the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s new educational buildings will welcome students, teachers, environmentalists, policy makers, architects, builders, and many more to educate and inspire. Now is the time for you to join us by investing with the Alice Ferguson Foundation in this Challenge. Leaders and problem solvers like you have an opportunity to support a project that will help to catalyze the regenerative, sustainable development of the natural and constructed environments necessary for a sustainable future. For additional information about funding levels and naming opportunities please contact Lori Arguelles, Executive Director at 301-292-5665, or larguelles@fergusonfoundation.org.
ALIICE FERGUSON FOUNDATION
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Constructing smarter, more efficiently designed buildings is not just the right thing to do—it’s good for business. Facchina is proud to be a partner in this groundbreaking effort. We are confident that the Living Building Challenge will have far-reaching impacts on the future of the construction industry and are pleased to be a market leader thanks to our role as General Contractor for the Alice Ferguson Foundation. Charles McPherson President and CEO Facchina Construction Company
EDUCATION. INSPIRATION. INNOVATION
Alice Ferguson Foundation 2001 Bryan Point Road Accokeek, Maryland 20607 301.292.5665 fergusonfoundation.org