The Frontier Project

Click the image to go to the official Frontier Project website.

As our second field trip we went to The Frontier Project in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Summed up it is a very sustainable building! First off all their outside stairs, made of recycled marble and glass chips, are made of polycrylate resin and cement based terazzo which makes them water resistant,  gives them a lifetime of 40-50 years, as well as gives them a very low burn rate. Their outside pavement absorbs water and actually more than half of the buildings water comes from this

The first room we went into the lights turned on once we walked into the room. The lights in the building only turn on when someone is in the room and only if their is not sufficient light coming from the outside. So, if their was a lot of light shining through the windows the lights would have not turned on at all... what a great way to conserve electricity right? Also, one thing I found very interesting was the carpet tile, something that is becoming more and more popular everyday. So let's say you stain the carpet. Instead of having to tear up the carpet and replace the whole thing, you can literally pull up that one tile and replace that one small area.

We were told by the tour guide that most of the stuff there stood by "Cradle to Cradle", meaning hardly anything goes to land mines because it's basically all refurbished and reused. In addition to all of this, the faucets are low flow, and the men's urinals are water free.

Here are a few other things the building had that made it so sustainable as well as some pictures:

• Solar Chimneys - they heat up and pull heat out of the building
• Air vents are on the floor where it's cooler instead of in the ceiling where it's hottest
• Inside plants - used to purify the air inside
• Plants line the staircase so that water soaks in and runs down the staircase to water plants below
• There was a weather station that told when the sprinklers to turn on
• Plants outside need very little watering