APB

Hopi is a great dorm and a part of the historic fabric of the campus. Retrofit it with "Green" design. Make it a model for other dorm projects. Its scale allows you to do interesting things like solar water heaters, rain water capture systems, grey water havesting, ultra efficient windows and doors, etc. Try out things that can be incorporated into other projects at different sites on campus. Leave HOPI alone. I thought U of A was known for Architeture and sustainable design. What is sustainable about tearing down a historic dormitory that can also be used as a lab for trying new building concepts at a university which is world renowned for desert architecture? No one is talking about knocking down Gila, Cochise or even Graham-Greenlee. Okay, Cochise is very special, but Gila is only 10 years older and Graham-Greenlee is 10 years younger than HOPI. If HOPI Lodge were outfitted with the latest in sustainable design, it could be a model for updating Graham-Greenlee and even Gila and Cochise. (Maybe some of the same tried and tested concepts from HOPI can also be used for significant savings at Coronado and other dorms and campus buildings.) HOPI is a great dorm where you make great friends because of its scale and location. The location cannot be beat and the "roughing" it aspect adds charater to the university experience. Making HOPI a model for sustainablity should be the priority of the Regents, Res Life, and perhaps the School of Architecture. They will be able to roll out what they learn to other older dormitories that have character on campus. HOPI Lodge should be heavily "greened" in coodination with the School of Architecture, then entered into the National Register of Historic Places. It truly is a landmark dorm with historic significance that is indicative of a way of life on campus from yesteryear. It can be made to also provide for the future by becoming a working, workable, laboratory to analyze the cost savings green retrofit can provide to the University and its dorms. It would not cost much to roll out a program like this at HOPI, in order to quantify the cost savings green retrofit will provide when similar programs are implemented at other dorms to the University and the Citizens of Arizona. HOPI should become the first LEED-EB Platinum Dormitory in ARIZONA. This type of Leadership in design is what is expected from University such as U of A. An example of another LEED Platinum-EB dorm is at Warren Wilson College in N.C.: http://www.warren-wilson.edu/storyteller/N… . Better us to do a LEED-EB dorm first and then roll out the cost savings across campus than to wait for ASU to do it first--and then tell us how to do it!).

Sincerely,

Andrew Paul Blouet, LEED AP '97 (and former HOPI LODGE resident in '92-'93)