International Women's day

On Friday March 7th, 2014 I was invited to talk at International Trade Club of Chicago Union League Club of Chicago  http://www.chicagowomensday.org/speakers/ for  International Women's Day. I was asked to represent Brazil & Spain women in architecture. It was a wonderful honor to talk infront of 400 women representing Chicago and the world. I presented a bit of my professional experience and told a short story about a turning point in my professional life  and specially about professional Brazilian women in architecture and environmental urban design and planning. For those of you who wish to hear the speech, we will down load it soon. Thank you for your support! The most rewarding thing was to meet at the end a few young Fulbright  scholar women from Latin America and other women who approached me to talk and share ideas. I hope I encouraged a few of them to continue working for a better place for women in the world's workforce.

2013 Achievements and Acknowledgments

Hello EcoVidalDesign clients and professional consultants:

I would like to take this opportunity to give you a  good summary of EVD's 2013 projects. It has been a productive year starting with my continuous teaching at the Green Exchange site for St. Augustin College Workforce Development Institute. We teach there Green Construction Practices and LEED GA training. Hopefully we will expand the teaching to Universidade de Vigo, Spain in 2014.

EVD participated on a volunteer effort in Brazil with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation with a travel grant from Partners of the Americas (POA). We coordinated the environmental educational component of a 5,000 fruit tree planting project in the municipality of Mococa, Sao Paulo, Brazil involving children from 20 low-income, public schools. 

EVD is very proud of having participated in the "2013 Living Building Challenge Collaborative Chicago" receiving an honorable mention (2nd place). Our team, "Roble Verde" included Franceline Villasenor, Iara Moraes, Irma Ayala, the old-time colleague and leader Luis Monterrubio and the talented young EVD's CMU architectural student, Gabriel Vidal-Hallett. To all I thank you for the great project!

Another high light in 2013 was the construction completion of all affordable housing units at Back of The Yards neighborhood through The Resurrection Project. Landon Bonne Baker Architects and EVD completed the renovation of 6 buildings which are now occupied by low-income families. This project helped the neighborhood to recover from the devastating foreclosure crisis. I want to give a special thank you to Franceline Villasenor, Tyler Brown and Catherine Baker for their excellent work and Benito Hernandez and Guacolda Reyes at TRP for this opportunity.

In addition, EVD has participated on the total renovation of 25 Chicago Park District playgrounds  as part of the Urban Works Architecture team with whom we have worked continuously since 2007. These play lots, mainly in the south side of Chicago, will have brand new play equipment, new ADA ramps and restored seating walls and many fruit trees which will be potentially donated by the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation.  Thank you Pat Natke, Rob Natke, Maria Pellot and Ameera Ashraf O'Neil for this opportunity. We look forward to continue to work with you.

EVD continues to work and help the Edgewater Environmental and Sustainability Plan  designing and creating more rain gardens in the neighborhood and helping the community to implement the plan through Planning and Development, stormwater management  advise and with a potential environmental educational program for youth. 

I finally want to dedicate all our  EVD's hard work to my father, Jose Enrique Vidal Campos, who passed away on December 31, 2013. My father and my mother were always great supports of my love for architecture and urban planning making sure I had all the opportunities possible and available during my formation years.  It was with them that I also learned to be an international citizen and moved to Spain to study and work and  now in Chicago since 1990. 

My father's favorite tree was an oak (roble) that leaves in Vigo since he was born. This year was the year of  EVD's Roble (oak) Verde, Fruit Planting Foundation collaborations, Chicago Park District play lots and rain gardens and affordable housing projects. Papa, your wise advise and teaching lessons will live forever in me. Thank you for everything.  We miss you dearly!

Dear friends, colleagues and much appreciated clients:

EcoVidalDesign, Inc. is very thankful for the very productive 2012 in Rio de Janeiro and Chicago and hopes to continue to work with you in new adventures in the New Year ahead of us.


V i v a   2 0 1 3!

EVD 2012 highlights

In 2012, we started in Rio de Janeiro (January and February) with a Fellowship from the US Department of State/Partners of the Americas collaborating with Secretaria de Economia Verde (INEA) on the first "Rio Green District". We ended the year receiving in Chicago Antonio Augusto Verissimo, Rio de Janeiro Housing Coordinator, thanks to Partners of the Americas.

Also during the year we had a pleasure to continue to collaborate with Urban Works Architecture on the award winning UNO Natchez School Site Design and LEED certification and with LBBA restoring great buildings in the Back of the Yards neighborhood for The Resurrection Project. We hope to continue to be part of the Back of the Yards transformation next year. We enjoy teaching at the Green Exchange as part of St. Augustine College Workforce Development Institute, training construction professionals in Green Construction Practices and LEED GA and hope to perhaps expand the program to Brazil!

In Edgewater, we support the Environmental Sustainability Project and hope to transform the neighborhood into the example of stormwater management in 2014 working with EESP, Kim Kaulas Landscape designer, Terra Engineers, SENN HS, Alderman Harry Osterman, Loyola University and the community at large.

We are also proud to announce a couple of awards including the Second Place on the Design Makes Change Competition "Sweet Homes Chicago 2012" with special thanks to son Gabriel Vidal-Hallett, a hard-working CMU student in Architecture and Leonardo Cadena, Architect from Columbia. We will continue to work with Austin Coming Together to make the proposed project a reality in the near future. In the same competition at the Junior level daughter Emilia Vidal-Hallett, a sophomore at Lane Tech got first place and will potentially complete her proposed mural and garden with the Austin, Chicago Youth during the 2014 summer season. Finally, why not to mention the Vidal-Hallett (including the Vidal-Halletts from Spain) 1st Place and Best in Show at the fun Sand Castle competition organized by the Edgewater Community Council in August 2012. Mark Hallett, husband, photographer and journalist had a very important role documenting and supporting all of these efforts.

In addittion, in order to be able to pursue so many projects and activities we have to regularly dance and perform with Soul & Duende Flamenco Theater Company directed by Azucena Vega and Lili Sie. Without visual and performing arts, the Vidal-Hallett family could not survive!

We thank all our partners in 2012 and hope to continue to get your support in 2013. Sincerely,



Carmen Vidal-Hallett,
President
EcoVidalDesign, Inc.

Fellowship at RIO Secretaria de Ambiente

View of MAR (Museo de Arte do Rio) construction on Rua Venezuela, the street of INEA offices where I'm working in downtown Rio.

I have been in Rio already for 3 days working at Secretaria de Ambiente. Maria Silvia Muylaert, Assessora and Architect introduced me to all. The first day I learned about the closure of Parque Gramacho landfill, the largest in Brazil. We talked about the potential sustainable redevelopment of the community. It is a fascinating project.

The second day I was educated about the INEA (Instituto Estadual do Ambiente) structure and they walked me through the land use plans and potential economic and urban design development for urban gaps with their housing programs.

Today I had an interesting meeting about the proposed Rio Green Districts. In addition, the INEA is developing a new office building which could definitely became LEED certified. All very exiting projects at a time when the world is watching Rio carefully. Rio is already developing a partnership with the US and I would love to link them also to the Chicago sustainable urban development initiatives and its potential investors.

The INEA and RIO in general have a vibrant environment that inspires... I hear from my balcony escolas de samba as I'm blogging...

EVD NEW YEAR Announcement

Finally, I’m very happy to announce that I have been awarded a Partners of The Americas Fellowship www.partners.net to work and collaborate with Subsecretaria de Economia Verde do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I will be in Rio for several weeks collaborating with this government organization on projects such as the Rio Climate Action Plan, The transformation of Parque Gramacho (land field featured in the recent documentary “Wasteland”) and their ideas to create a Rio Center for Green Technology. EVD is very grateful to be given this one in a life time opportunity. To me this is finally an opportunity to give back to my native country as a professional. Hopefully this fellowship will lead to opportunities to create jobs and productive sustainable development opportunities in Rio and Chicago!

EVD Hight Lights (4)

During the month of November EVD was invited By Urban Works Architecture to participate in a request for proposal for a UNO elementary School in the Chicago Near North/West side at 2100 North Natchez. It was a very competitive process with 7 design/built competition selected teams on the run including Design Bridge www.designbridge.com colleagues who also developed a very interesting design. Our team was awarded the project in the middle of November and since the beginning of December, EVD is intensively participating in the Site/Urban/Landscape Design as well as the land use and zoning analysis. The project needed rezoning which was approved recently and we are moving forward into the Design Development phase with an aggressive schedule with final completion and opening of the school expected by September 2012! The Urban Works building design is absolutely stunning! Landscape architect Terry Guen www.tgda.com and EVD are designing and planning a beautiful site/landscape plan with organic gracious curvilinear pathways, play areas and gardens that will connect the children and the community with nature in an educational, sustainable and social way. There is no doubt in my mind that this project will be the pride of many UNO families and the community in the surrounding neighborhood.

EVD Hight Lights (3)

In August of 2011, I was also selected by St. Augustine College recommended by my colleage Alicia Ponce www.apmonarck.org to start teaching Green Construction Practices and to prepare students for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Associate USGBC exam. This was a very gratifying experience. The well-known Hispanic American Construction Industry Association HACIA developed this training program for minorities and small business in the construction industry in collaboration with St. Augustine College Workforce Development providing quality programs in sustainable green construction.

My students are all entrepreneurial owners of smart small construction companies, many struggling in these hard economic times but all willing to learn and implement green construction alternatives as a way to be more competitive and to include responsible alternatives to improve our environment. As I review with students the existing alternatives and concepts in green construction practices I also learned from them the difficulties and choices they deal with everyday in the construction field. I also had architects in my class and other colleagues with whom I have worked for many years in the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development and with the Mayor’s Green Team. As a result, architect Franceline Villasenor now collaborates with EVD on a regular basis. We celebrated the students’ success in the class with a Brasilian Feijoada at EVD Home/studio on December 17, 2011. I wish all my past students good luck after the LEED Green Associate exam! I’m also very grateful to John Albrecht, the first LEED AP in the City of Chicago, who come to my classes to answer questions the students have about the LEED certification process.
From left to right in the picture are SAC LEED GA students Luis Arias, Gamil Myers, Derrica Merriweather, me and Oscar Meade. Good luck in the LEED GA exam!


THE RESURRECTION PROJECT WITH THE NEIGHBORHOOD STABILIZATION PROGRAM

In August of 2011, I started a close contact with Guacolda Reyes from The Resurrection Project who invited EVD to participate and bid on a request for proposal for the rehabilitation of 2- to 4-unit buildings lost to foreclosure that are ready to the rehabilitated in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. EVD decided to present a proposal in combination with Landon Bone Baker Architects , a well known architectural company with extensive experience with affordable housing. Our team was awarded the rehabilitation of 5 buildings. Rebeca Fernandez Lee was a hard-working collaborating architect dedicating endless hours to complete the projects on schedule in a very professional matter. LBBA Principal Catherine Baker and Tyler Brown, Project Manager, were and still are instrumental to the completion of these projects.