Yestermorrow Design/Build School Campus

Originally founded in 1980, the Yestermorrow Design/Build School is devoted to hands-on education integrating design and building principles with a core understanding of sustainable and regenerative practices. The school operated using rented space in Vermont’s Mad River Valley until 1990 when the dilapidated Alpen Inn property in Waitsfield was purchased. Yestermorrow’s students, faculty and staff worked together to renovate the Inn, transforming the structure into the school’s first permanent teaching, living and dining facility.

As the school has grown considerably since the Waitsfield site was acquired, the Board of Directors recognized a pressing need to adapt the campus to accommodate increasing enrollment and expanding curriculum. Yestermorrow enlisted 7group/Alliance for Regeneration to facilitate work on an integrative campus Master Plan through engagement of a community-wide regenerative approach for sustaining future campus development and life in the Mad River Valley.

This project began with considerable research: conferring with community stakeholders, coordinating local resources, and conducting ecological fieldwork on site. Several planning and design charrettes followed, led by 7group/Alliance to coordinate various phases of the new Master Plan that not only informs the design of facilities and site layout, but focuses on the evolutionary potential of the community in which it is nested, developing the capacity and capability for evolving towards higher levels of health. As the project moves forward, the school will incorporate this process into the students’ class work and community interactions, thereby using the regenerative principles developed during the master planning process as an integral part of the school’s evolution and as a means for bringing value-adding processes to the Mad River Valley.

To learn more about Yestermorrow Design/Build School or the school’s master planning process, please visit the Yestermorrow website or the Master Planning Updates blog.

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• Students work closely with each other as well as faculty and staff to develop projects. Yestermorrow’s curriculum is driven by the philosophy that every designer should know how to build and every builder should know how to design to create thriving buildings and communities. (Image courtesy of Leonard Spencer.)
• Yestermorrow’s Master Plan as of 2011 was developed through the collaboration of students, faculty and the local community.
• Yestermorrow’s Board of Directors felt a campus Master Plan was necessary to keep the school focused on its sustainable philosophy, especially ensuring the school’s expansion over the next 5 to 10 years will not encroach on the nearby Mad River Valley wetlands. (Image courtesy of Yestermorrow/Design Build School.)

Location
Waitsfield, VT, USA

Project Owner
Yestermorrow
Design/Build School

Master Planning
7group/Alliance
for Regeneration

Campus Size
38 acres

Completed
Ongoing

Cost
$20 Million
(full build-out)