Green Living & Learning Community

Planning is underway to build a new residential life facility at the University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM). Designed for sustainable living, the Green Prairie Living and Learning Community will provide contemporary undergraduate student housing for 80 students in suite-style dwellings.

The first new residential life construction since the early 1970s, the new living community will replace student housing currently provided in Blakely Hall. Residents will experience an eco-friendly model design for sustainable living and community building. Planners are incorporating education, research and demonstration components in areas including green building design, resource conservation, real-time energy monitoring systems, local foods and community. They envision an environment filled with art, light and a living connection to the outdoors.

The University has selected LHB (Minneapolis) to provide design services for the Green Prairie Community. In their design work LHB's interdisciplinary team focuses on ensuring life-cycle cost reductions, ecological responsibility, and an overall improved quality of life for occupants. "LHB is known for sustainable architecture and is an early founder of Minnesota's green building movement," stated Richard Strong, adjunct professor and research fellow in the Center for Sustainable Building Research in the University of Minnesota College of Design.

Strong, who is assisting the planning team, continued, "LHB infuses sustainable building principles into all their work. Their design team truly understands building green from a very deep and integrated approach. They are perfect to partner with the University of Minnesota, Morris in its excellent work of campus sustainability and climate neutrality. I am excited about Morris becoming the very first campus to sustainably attain carbon free living and showing Minnesota the abundance that comes with that decision."

In summer months the Green Prairie Community will house and provide learning spaces for researchers, visiting scholars, undergraduate and graduate students and engaged citizens--for research, workshops and programs linked to the community based renewable energy platforms and green initiatives in Morris. In addition, high school students and adults participating in UMM's expanding summer programs in the arts, sciences, humanities and education will reside in the facility, gaining exposure to a sustainable living environment. The facility's private bedrooms and air-conditioning will hold particular appeal for summer program participants.

For more information on the Green Prairie Living & Learning Community, please refer to the current project website (external link)