2010 Natural Talent Design Competition Awards Ceremony:

July 14, 2010, MSYInternational at TRESPA:

This competition among Emerging Green Builders nationwide was to design LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes projects with New Orleans’ Broadmoor neighborhood in mind as well as affordability, universal design and elderly occupants. All part of the post-Katrina rebuilding strategies the U.S. Urban Green Council (USGBC) partnered with Envirenew, the Salvation Army’s program initiative. Two issues to analyze and resolve are to dissect the ongoing challenges of quality sustainable homes being high in purchasing and occupancy and the second being the difficulty in lower to middle income New Orleanians returning post-Katrina to build their homes as well as their communities.

The four winners announced this evening will move forward and compete nationally against projects at Greenbuild International Conference and Expo 2010 November 17 – 19 in Chicago, Illinois.  The amazing thing is that four winners from the national competition homes will be built in New Orleans. Once built the homes will be judged on measurement and verification. The final prize will be based on energy, water, IAQ, and occupant comfort.

Winners of the July 14, 2010 New York City Competition:

First Place – Emerging Professionals:

Focus on Essential Values
Current Team Members

• Alan Stevenson-Architect
• Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP; Charlie Marino-Engineer
• AKF Group LLC

RAMPed Up
Current Team Members

• Yavuz Akcora, Rogers Marvel; *Daniel Bersohn, Buro Happol; *Tim Hanna, Buro Happold; *Nicholas McDermott, Rogers Marvel; *Shane Neufeld, Rogers Marvel; *Rossella Nicolin, Buro Happold; *Lauren Page, Buro Happold; *Irmak Turan, Buro Happold; *Jenny Wu, Rogers Marvel

First Place – Students:

Rising to the Challenge
Current Team Members

• Emily Balaban, *Emily Clark, *Jaliya Fonseka, *Rebecca Lai, *Laura Langridge, *David McMurchy, *Andy Oh, *Laura Pellow, and *Steven Zhao; Team affiliation: University of Waterloo School of Architecture

Nola’s Ark
Current Team Members

• Omer Kalafatoglu, MechanicalEngineer
• Chianju Ku, Architect
• Charles Kunken, Cost Engineer
• A Auriemmo, Environmental Engineer
• Jennifer Yang, Architect
• Vincent Chin, Architect

(Nola’s are winners but are not going to the nationals. Thanks J.L!)