Presenters:

Mark Buehrer, PE, Director, 2020 ENGINEERING

Henning Gatz, President, Aquacare Environment

Myer Harrell, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Weber+Thompson

Nicole Jain Capizzi, Amaranth
Urban Farm

Moderator:

Scott E. Thompson, AIA, LEED AP Principal, Weber+Thompson

To provide a human-made environment that grows relationships and meets all four basic human needs; shelter, clean air, pure water, and healthy food. A Living Building mimics nature with both water and nutrient “closed-loop” system designs integrated into its gardens. Fertilizer from nutrient-rich urine and compostable food & yard wastes provide the healthy food of tomorrow. Relationships are fostered because of the potential “gardener” role and interaction of those in the community. Growing food locally provides safety/security and a special place for meeting relational needs with other people within the natural and human-made environments.

Presenter Bios

Mark Buehrer
Mark Buehrer is a professional civil engineer, author, inventor and the founder and director of 2020 ENGINEERING. Since 1995, 2020 ENGINEERING has been at the forefront of the research and development of sustainable methods, systems, and infrastructures that reduce capital and operating costs, recycle and reduce material consumption and waste, restore and protect ecological systems, and create and maintain healthy communities. 2020 ENGINEERING’s sustainable and low impact designs include: rainwater harvesting systems,
ecologically based wastewater treatment & water reuse systems including constructed wetlands
and Living Machines, urine diversion (nutrient recycling), permeable pavements, raingardens,
material recycling & composting facilities.

Henning Gatz
Henning Gatz is the founder of Aquacare Environment, a company that designs and builds
sustainable, controlled-environment, land-based fish farms. Aquacare designs and delivers fish
farm projects world-wide, using commercially proven designs and pre-engineered, prefabricated,
industrial quality equipment. Specializing in land-based recirculating aquaculture
systems, Aquacare caters to specific site conditions and commercial goals. Aquacare also
designs and builds for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment needs and has been
operating since 1987.

Myer Harrell
As an architect at Weber Thompson, Myer was a member of the four person team that won
first prize in the 2008 Living Future Competition and USGBC 2008 Natural Talent Design
Competition. The winning project, titled Eco-laboratory, was a synthesis of Living Building-level
energy, water, and air quality measures that weaved food production, housing and social
services. In Spring 2010 Myer co-instructed a graduate level architecture studio “Building
Integrated Agriculture,” at the University of Washington College of Built Environments and was a
member of the team that designed the proposed Newark Vertical Farm.

Nicole Jain Capizzi
Nicole is a farmer and entrepreneur who founded Amaranth Urban Farm, a commercial farm in Seattle that produces organic vegetables and honey in underused urban open spaces.  She has developed urban farm businesses in Seattle and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and worked with Washington State University Extension, University of Wisconsin Extension, and the Prairie Crossing Farm to teach about intensive small scale farm economics, organic production techniques in fields and greenhouses, soil improvement on marginal urban land, and plant nutrient capture through urban waste streams.

Scott E. Thompson
Weber Thompson founding principal Scott E. Thompson AIA, LEED AP has nearly 40 years of
architectural and planning experience, specializing in high-density, urban infill, mixed-use and
commercial buildings. He was the principal in charge of design and development of Weber
Thompson’s American Institute of Architects national award-winning building The Terry
Thomas – a passively cooled, LEED CS Gold certified office building and Weber Thompson’s
LEED CI Platinum certified offices. He is in charge of the firm’s Urban Agriculture initiatives and
is currently designing a mixed use project in Seattle implementing an urban agriculture
component along with residential and commercial uses.