Yellowstone Youth Campus–Water Treatment and Reuse

Project Description

For many years, Yellowstone National Park has offered people the unique opportunity to live, learn, work, and volunteer in its iconic landscape. Participants in programs such as the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps, Volunteers in Parks, and others, are housed in a dormitory facility that was constructed in 1978. When the National Park Service decided to upgrade the facility, they wanted to do so in a way that was not only sustainable, but reflective of the Park’s environmental ethic.

With that in mind, the design team, led by Hennebery Eddy Architects, Inc., crafted a solution that proposed a campus of Living Buildings–the first ever in a national park–in the world’s first national park. The Living Building Challenge presents the most rigorous standards in the sustainable building industry. Through the framework of its seven petals (Place, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty), the project seeks to create a healthier, more culturally rich, and ecologically restorative campus. As a key member of the design team, Biohabitats contributed to the achievement of the water petal by developing the project’s water story. This involved determining a campus water balance, assessing the feasibility of various alternatives for integrated water strategies, and designing a wastewater treatment and reuse system.