Dec. 18, 2014
Members of Team Capitol DC - architecture, engineering, and communications students from The Catholic University, The George Washington University, and American University - reunited this week to receive a Presidential Citation in Sustainable Design from the head of the DC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for Harvest Home.
Harvest Home was designed and built for the 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. It placed seventh in the competition.
The presidential citation for sustainability was chosen by the AIA DC president himself as an "exemplary project from the pool of all submitted projects."
The house was designed and built at Catholic University beginning in 2011 before it was moved to the Solar Decathlon competition last fall. Since the competition, it was donated to Wounded Warrior Homes, a nonprofit organization in Southern California that serves medically discharged, single men and women of the armed forces with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"It is amazing that more than a year after the competition was held we are still winning awards with this building," said Chris Grech, program director of CUA's Master in Science in Sustainable Design. "It just goes to show what an impact Harvest Home has had."
AIA DC President Sean Nohelty stated that with the donation of the house to Wounded Warrior Homes, "this universally accessible home truly exemplifies the comprehensive meaning of sustainability."