So now...

Cindy is having Catherine and I rewrite the signs and play with two different voices: one a friendly, excited voice for the mascot and a excited, friendly voice that is informative but not he mascot speaking. We have to decide on which voice we like and then do all the signs in that voice.
Cindy also described to us how she wants the signs to look on the walls. We are thinking 3' by 6' panels for each concept, and we are considering getting rid of sustaining. We want to do this because on more reflection Catherine brought our attentions to the point that the WHOLE building is about sustainability and that all of the characteristics of the building reflect that. Since we are already breaking them into different concepts it makes more sense to simply have a section for sustainability in general.

Meeting 2 Notes, Conference Call

This second meeting was held while Cindy's Env Cit class was going on and Catherine was busy elsewhere, so I got to sit in on conference call! I also thoroughly enjoyed this and participated in the discussion a little bit more. However it was harder to know when to talk and who was talking because I was not with the group and could not see them. Essentially this meeting was to discuss the digital dashboard that is going into the exhibit. This will be created by Gunner, who I believe is a graphic designer. These are the notes I took:

· Dashboard

o Signage independent of dashboard except for icons and wording, reinforcement of each other

o Standard package of information w/ main “page” and buttons for people to push see other “pages”

§ Have charts showing consumption/energy/ect for different features of building

§ Keep it brief

§ Example: sacred heart school link http://www.buildingdashboard.com/clients/sacredheartatherton/

o They are thinking about another name or something else to call the dashboard

o All age friendly:

§ Don’t want older adults to be intimidated by it, so may have docents inviting people to use on busy days

§ Feel that kids will be drawn to it

o Tell audience:

§ why creating building at this level, key players and how it took shape

§ Green features

§ Building tour?

§ Photo gallery?

§ ect

· CMBG Wants:

o path from model in center of room to dashboard

o Or free standing sign with mascot inviting people to the dashboard

o Written summary of approach to exhibit; 5 concepts, mascot, voice, ect

o Gunner will initiate what he wants for plaques from us; where wants them, what wants, ect

o On the sign we create explaining LEED Platinum, they want us to also add:

§ How/why did building at this level

§ Key players (donors?)

§ Photos of construction

· Card:

o Make into an educational package sold at gift shop?

o Coloring book? Will people take the time to do it?

1^st go round of dashboard completed by April with all features as draft

Meeting 1 Notes

· “If a plant designed a building…” on each sign

o Mascot plant on each sign as head icon: beach pea

· Quotes in gallery, maybe on some signage

· Sign material: bamboo or composites, leaf shapes of indigenous plants

· Most important features to focus on for signage:

o Water

o Solar energy

o Thermal envelope

o Passive energy

o The reason chose maple floors over bamboo

o Explain Net zero/LEED platinum/U.S. green building standards (place right in front of model)

· We need to rework text so that mascot is talking in fun, excited, clean voice.

· Timeline: Finished texts to CMBG by April 1st

o done July 1^st, opening July 15th

To my surprise the meeting was not boring; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe because I actually knew what was being talked about. I even got to talk a little bit, I told the group about the passive solar setup for the model, and also asked what kind of tone they wanted the mascot to have on the signage. They all thought this was a very good question and I was pretty impressed with myself. We also walked around the unfinished building and saw the space that we are going to be using. This was very helpful to me and Catherine because we had only seen floor plans, and now we can get our minds around what we can do with the space and how.

My Part

I designed my first part of the exhibit today! One of our ideas is to have the concept icons throughout the rest of the gardens to show other examples of what the five concepts are. In order to do this we want to have visitors pick up a card when they enter the gardens or the Bosarge center. This card will show the five icons along with a definition of what they mean. The front says "The Bosarge Family Education Center" "A LEED Platinum Sustainable Building Come See How It Works!" On the front there is also a picture of the building. The back has the five icons down the left, and down the right there is a one sentence definition of the concepts. So if a plant designed a building:
Generating: The SUN would be it's primary source of energy
Cycling: Recycling, reusing and rethinking 'waste' materials would be a priority.
Shaping: The shape would fit the topography, the soil and climate of the bioregion.
Conserving: The earth's limited stock of resources would be used carefully and creatively.
Sustaining: The needs, health and survival of the next generation would guide all decisions.