Pub. 4 2016 Directory

25 Wilderness Medicine Institute WEMT Program Director appre- ciates the efficiency of the design. “The ability to move students quickly to scenarios helps us stay on task with a full course agenda and gives us a number of options for locations to debrief and reflect without losing time to transition.” The building site slopes away from the Classroom wing, effectively elevating the main level of the Dining Hall to the north. This site condition provides an ideal location for a covered patio as an ex- tension of the Dining Hall which facilitated a large basement under the Dining wing with minimal excavation required. Cladding the building in natural hues emphasizes its visual and literal parallel with the red sandstone cliffs to the north. Indoor environmental quality and exemplary sustainability com- bine effortlessly in the Educational Facility, resulting in spaces that are bright, inviting, and comfortable. Operable clerestory windows provide ample natural light as well as cross ventilation, while the butterfly roof that provides the height necessary for stack effect cooling also hosts south-facing solar panels and collects rainwater to be stored in the building’s fifty-five thousand gallon rainwater cistern system in the basement. In winter months the building’s superinsulation minimizes heat loss while ground-source heat radiates from polished concrete floors. Other sustainable design choices such as composting toilets, low-flow fixtures, and daylight sensors substantially reduce potable water use and energy demands, upholding NOLS’ environmental ethics without compromise in their beautiful Wyss Wilderness Medicine Educational Facility. “We are thrilled to teach our students at a campus that is itself a teacher,” says NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute Assistant Director Shana Tarter. The Educational Facility’s success in meeting its client’s programmatic needs and ethical standards pale in comparison to the intangible value it provides the students who study there. The building shelters them and compels them to venture out; it sets an example of sustainability for them to follow and inspires them to pursue higher standards in their own lives and work. b