Congratulation to Keith Molzer and Balance Innovations for being one of the winners of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year awards for the Central Midwest region. Keith was one of eleven winners in the Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska region. The award honors outstanding entrepreneurs. Gastinger Walker Harden Architects is proud to have designed their new offices in Lenexa in 2007. Below is a photo of the work we performed for them.

Over the years, our staff have made presentations to various community and school groups, but I think yesterday was the first time we've talked to four-year-olds. Yes, the pre-kindergarten class at Scuola Vita Nuova Charter School is learning about architecture and construction. Kathy Burke talked to the students in Mr. Nick Pettit's (Mr. Nick) class about what an architect does and and how we work with builders and construction firms. Kathy came away impressed by how engaged his young students were in a field that can be complicated. Below is an example of the class learning about buildings and floorplans. Thanks to SVN and Mr. Nick to inviting us to have our own fieldtrip to your school.

The Kansas City Art Institute Dodge Painting Building was featured in this past Sunday's Kansas City Star Magazine in the Kansas City Star. The photos were taken by photojournalist Jim Barcus, who is a graduate of KCAI. The Dodge Building is the newest space on the historic campus and houses students in the school's painting program. To view the rest of Jim's photos of the Dodge Building you can see them here on the Kansas City Star's website. You can also read more about the building in the Work section of our website.

Have you ever heard an Oscar winner say, "This is a lot heavier than it looks." Well, Gastinger Walker Harden Architects was able to say that twice last week. (No we didn't win an Oscar, we are saving that for next year.) Friday night was the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Mid-America Design Awards in which we walked away with two golds. And yes, the trophies are heavier than they look.

We entered BKD Springfield in the Large Corporate category and DERMAdoctor in the Retail category, and both of them came in first place. We'd like to thank the IIDA Mid-America chapter for putting on this wonderful event. Of course a big thanks to the interior designers and architects at Gastinger Walker Harden Architects for doing such a great job on these projects. We wouldn't have won without all of your hard work. And we can't forget our clients and associates, Opus Northwest, BKD, LLP and Zimmer Companies for allowing us to create BKD's wonderful new headquarters in Springfield and at DERMAdoctor, Audrey and everyone else who encouraged us to design a stunning retail store in the Crossroads district in Kansas City. I hear music playing so I guess I need to wrap it up. I'd like to that all the consultants, vendors, contractors. And finally I'd like to thank...

Click here to see photos of BKD's new Springfield, MO office.

Click here to see photos of DERMAdoctor's new Kansas City retail store.

Our own Kirk Gastinger will be the featured speaker at a AIA Eastern Oklahoma Committee on the Environment event next week. Kirk will be speaking to the group on February 16th in Tulsa, Oklahoma about how to "Enjoy your environment." For more information, you can visit the event's website.

Thanks to John Price for putting this together.

Net-Zero Site Energy — A building that produces and exports at least as much renewable energy as the total energy it imports and uses in a year, when accounted for at the site. The measurement time frame is annual.

Net-Zero Source Energy — A building that produces and exports at least as much renewable energy as the total energy it imports and uses in a year, when accounted for at the source. "Source energy" refers to the primary energy required to generate and deliver the energy to the site. To calculate a building's total source energy, imported and exported energy is multiplied by the appropriate site-to-source conversion multipliers.

Net-Zero Energy Costs — A building where the amount of money a utility pays the building's owner for the renewable energy the building exports to the grid is at least equal to the amount the owner pays the utility for the energy services and energy used over the year.

Net-Zero Energy Emissions — A building that produces and exports at least as much emissions-free renewable energy as it imports and uses from emission-producing energy sources annually. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides are common emissions that NZEBs offset.

Today is Gastinger Walker Harden Architects' 29th birthday! For a trip down memory lane, click "Read More" to see one our our principals referencing Miami Vice in regards to architecture. Oh, you know you're curious!

Congratulations to Gnorton the Garden Gnome for being the Juror's Favorite in this year's Kansas City Canstruction contest benefiting Harvesters Community Food Network. Click "Read More" for more info and our movie of Gnorton being canstructed!

Gastinger Walker Harden Architects is in the process of wrapping up the construction documents on its first “net zero” energy building for UMB Bank. On sunny days it will send excess electricity back into the utility grid banking that power which will offset what the need on gray days or on ones where the demand is more power than the solar panels can make. When you look at the overall energy bill on an annual basis, the bill will be "net zero”. Click "Read More" for additional information and renderings.

For the tenth year in a row, Gastinger Walker Harden Architects participated in the We Care event benefiting local children from the Boys and Girls Clubs in the Kansas City Area. This year the event was held at the Thornberry Center in Kansas City Missouri. The day of seasonal celebration includes a variety of craft stations where children create holiday gifts that can be given to family and friends. Click "Read More" for the rest of the article.

With the temperatures dropping, it's really nice that we have a brand new sweater to wear. Thanks to our friends at the Kansas City Art Institute, we'll can make all the sweaters we want.

Gastinger Walker Harden Architects is pleased to annouce that in conjunction with JE Dunn, we have been awarded the design/build contract for the renovation of Building 465 at Ft. Leavenworth. Building 465 is the Fort's former prison and is being renovated into a new education facility. The $15 million project is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2011.

Cottey College, a women's college located in Nevada, Missouri, has selected Gastinger Walker Harden Architects to design their new fine arts instructional building. This new building will be about 10,000 sf will hold a varity of classes including ceramics, painting, photography, design, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Click "Read More" for the rest of the article.

Gastinger Walker Harden Architects is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) by the General Services Administration (GSA) - Public Buildings Service (PBS) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The BPA contract is for Construction Management as Advisor services (Under Multiple Award Schedule SIN 871-7) for Region 4 Southeast, Region 5 Great Lakes, Region 6 Heartland and Region 7 Greater Southwest. The dark blue in the map below is the geographical zone in which we have the contract. We will be performing these services from our team offices in Kansas City, Chicago, Fort Worth, Houston and Tampa.

Services we will perform under this contract include Project Management, Construction Management during the Design, Procurement and Construction phases, Commissioning Agent, Testing, Claims Resolution and Post Occupancy Evaluation.

The contract (GS10F-09-LP-A-0009) runs from 2009-2014. To learn more about our work with the GSA and other government agencies, you can visit our new website, GWHAGovernmentSolutions.com.