APPLETON, WIS. — Appleton’s RiverHeath project, a 15-acre mixed-use development valued at more than $25 million and located on the Fox River below the College Avenue bridge, will be the focus of the second installment of Lawrence University’s 2007 three-part Spoerl environmental studies lecture series on “green” cities.
Mark Geall, founder and project development director of Denver-based Tanesay Development, which is building the RiverHeath project, presents “What’s a Green Neighborhood? Challenges Faced by Green Developers in Appleton,” Tuesday, Oct. 23. The presentation, at 7 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus, is free and open to the public.
Geall will discuss the trade-offs developers face when trying to embrace sustainability while building profitable projects. He also will unveil some of RiverHeath’s plans developed by Milwaukee-based architects Engberg Anderson Design Partnership.
Construction on the RiverHeath project is expected to begin next summer with completion of the first phase slated for the spring of 2010.
The U.S. Green Building Council recently named RiverHeath to a nationwide pilot program for green design that has expanded its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification beyond individual buildings to include entire neighborhoods. RiverHeath is one of 234 projects nationally selected for the new neighborhood program.
According to Geall, RiverHeath scores well in the LEED system because of its downtown location, short walking distances to jobs, schools, and restaurants, close access to public transit routes as well as parks and biking/hiking trails. The project also exceeds the requirements of the USGBC pilot program on several fronts as well, including plans to have nearly 100 percent of its energy needs provided by the Fox River.
Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler concludes the series Tuesday, Oct. 30 with the address “The Geography of Nowhere” at 7 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium.
The series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.
