Female Designers Honored for New Gold LEED Academy for Love of Learning Campus

New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts recently honored the leading contribution of Beverley Spears and Kate Leriche of Spears Architects, and Christie Green of Studio Succession for design of the new Academy for the Love of Learning Campus, on the former estate of conservationist Ernest Thompson Seton.  The Academy for the Love of Learning was founded by Aaron Stern and mentor Leonard Bernstein.

The new campus, which gained Gold LEED status in June of 2013, and the 2012 Sustainable Santa Fe Award for Water Conservation, was designed for maximum water and energy conservation as well as superior acoustic performance and a refined aesthetic. It utilizes graywater and black water systems for all of its irrigation needs, and rainwater provides all potable water.

Much of the 18,000 square foot campus’s heating and cooling needs are supplied via radiant floor heating fed by 43 geothermal wells located under the small parking area.  Above the campus stand the remains of Seton Castle, which had burned down in 2005 after full restoration, just days before its opening as the inaugural Academy campus.  Today it remains as a meditation garden for participants in Academy programs. Stern says the building honors both the legacy of Seton and the Academy’s values.

“Our building takes a stand for a more respectful relationship with nature, a commitment that grows out of our own learning methodology—which calls for a heightened awareness of our impact on everything that surrounds us—and out of the legacy of Ernest Thompson Seton, the great American naturalist, upon whose former estate our campus stands.

“Surrounded by climate-appropriate landscaping, sun-tracking solar panels, and geothermal wells, our building makes minimal use of nonrenewable resources.  The Gold LEED certification was our goal from the beginning of the project and represents the value that we place on space, stillness, and the grounding that we believe we must hold at the center of all that we do, as an organization and as individuals.”

Learn more about the Academy for the Love of Learning and the design team here https://www.constructionreporter.com or contact Jessica Smyser at (505) 995-1860 or jessicas@aloveoflearning.org.

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