Rivergreen Ecovillage Opens New Office
Rivergreen has opened a new office/presentation centre at Ideas Inc. at River Landing Phase II. The office is on the southwest corner of the main floor of the building, which is adjacent to the Saskatoon Farmers Market.
The street and postal address is 114 Ð 120 Sonnenschein Way, Saskatoon S7M 1M8. (The office entrance is actually on the 400 block of Avenue B South.) Our office phone number is 652-3268.
Current office hours are 10-4 Tuesday - Friday, or by appointment.
You may want to call first as we sometimes pop out for a meeting or lunch!
Results of Ecovillage Design Charrette Now Available
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation held a three-day design charrette for the Rivergreen Ecovillage from April 14-16, 2008. The charrette involved a team of 28 design professionals and resource persons, as well as representatives of PEDCO, potential residents and the larger community.
The purpose of the charrette process, which involved more than 100 people in open consultations in February, March and April, was to consult the community about the design of the ecovillage. Input from this process was formulated in a design brief that guided the design team.
Raw results of the charrette were presented to the public on April 16. A 60-page summary report (11M) produced following the charrette is now available for downloading in PDF format. (Downloading will take several minutes due to the size of the document.)
Based on this document, the Rivergreen integrated design team is continuing to develop a detailed design, with complete floor plans.
Arrangements for marketing residential and commercial space are now close to completion. Announcement of the marketing plan, including the opening of a sales centre, will be made in the near future.
Charrette Design Brief Now Available
You can now dowload the design brief for the Rivergreen Ecovillage charrette, which is occurring April 14-16. The design brief is essentially a set of instructions for the 29-person team creating the inital design for the ecovillage. It sets out the design parameters established during the stakeholder workshops leading up to the charrette.
To take part in the open portions of the charrette see the meeting information below.
Take Part in The Rivergreen Design Charrette Tuesday and Wednesday 7 PM
Opportunities to Participate in the Design Charrette:
Mid-course Review - 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 15
Presentation of Results - 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm, Wednesday April 16, 2008
Location: Da Vinci Room, Radisson Hotel, 405 20th Street, Saskatoon
Prairie Ecovillage Development Corporation, developer of the Rivergreen Ecovillage at River Landing, is holding a design charrette April 14-16, 2008. The charrette will create the initial design for the ecovillage, which will then be completed by the project team.
The charrette will include design professionals and resource persons, as well as representatives of PEDCO, residents and the community.
Two opportunities will be available for interested stakeholders to have input into the charrette. PEDCO welcomes your participation:
- The mid-course review is an opportunity for a broader group of stakeholders to give input to the emerging design concepts. It is timed for the halfway mark of the charrette, in order to ensure that there is enough material to convey the initial concepts, but enough time to allow for incorporation of input received. While the material presented at the mid-course review will still be sketchy and diagrammatic, it will clearly identify the status of core strategies and design measures being considered.
- The presentation at the end of the charrette is a presentation of the raw results -- the drawings that have only been completed a short time before. It is an opportunity for stakeholders and concerned citizens to be introduced to the consensus that was achieved over the preceding days, and to once again provide vital feedback and input. The design of the site will be communicated through a range of drawings, text and numbers, and thoughts about next steps will be passed on.
For information contact PEDCO at 978-4797 or 230-1615
PEDCO appreciates the generous support of
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment.
Rivergreen Workshop Sets Priority Goals
Two successful Rivergreen Ecovillage stakeholder workshops were held February 20 and March 6, with approximately 65 people attended each workshop. The result of these workshops will be incorporated into the design brief that will inform an intensive design charrette to be held April 14-16, 2008. This charrette will produce the initial design of the Rivergreen Ecovillage.
The following vision statement was approved by the PEDCO Board prior to the workshops:
Rivergreen Ecovillage is a beautiful, friendly and convenient place to live and work. Environmental and social sustainability, along with economic viability, are its primary operating principles. Rivergreen is a diverse community, with high-quality, value-added residential and commercial property available at competitive market prices. Residents and businesses contribute to the sustainability and wellbeing of surrounding neighbourhoods and the city as a whole. Saskatoon’s first ecovillage positively influences the city’s development practices and environmental policies.
Based on this vision, the workshops affirmed a set of principles and established priority goals for an ecovillage development at River Landing in downtown Saskatoon. The six principles and four priority goals under each principle are show below.
PRINCIPLE 1. A diverse yet inclusive development, which enables and fosters sustainable lifestyles.
- Enable people from a range of economic levels, ages, and abilities to reside in the development
- Facilitate work-live-recreate opportunities
- Maximize sense of community and "neighbourliness" amongst residents
- Provide opportunity for privacy
PRINCIPLE 2. Reliance on healthy and efficient infrastructure, which enables and fosters a smaller development footprint.
- Achieve outstanding energy conservation and efficiency
- Foster the ability to be or become a net renewable energy producer
- Ensure the use of green building practices
- Promote community-based food production
PRINCIPLE 3. Integration of people and nature, which enables and fosters a strong relationship with the biosphere.
- Create multi-functional green spaces with significant ecological value
- Minimize ecological footprint
- Incorporate native habitat
- Protect the quality and quantity of water resources
PRINCIPLE 4. A walkable environment, which enables and fosters pedestrian-oriented lifestyles.
- Design a vibrant public realm that promotes social interaction
- Minimize impact of automobile traffic at the site
- Optimize access to daily needs / amenities
- Ensure development is at a pedestrian scale
PRINCIPLE 5. Aesthetically-pleasing surroundings with character and a unique identity, which enables and fosters a development that focuses on people and community.
- Use locally-sourced and low impact building materials
- Celebrate the local cultural and natural identity and heritage
- Create a safe, peaceful and tranquil environment
- Provide variety in building form
PRINCIPLE 6. An economically sustainable development, which enables and fosters affordability of housing and sustainable livelihoods.
- Optimize affordability of housing units
- Create smallest ecological footprint while remaining economically viable
- Ensure resource efficiencies reduce lifecycle costs for investors
- Ensure a diverse mix of economic opportunities, including local economic development.
Results from the second workshop, which developed strategies to achieve the goals, will be tabulated soon.
The intensive design charrette in April will involve a group of approximately 25 participants. It will include two opportunities for wider stakeholder involvement in the form of Open Houses, to be held on Tuesday April 15 and Wednesday April 16. Watch this site for details.
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