Carmen Vidal-Hallett, EVD President
participated on the Partners of the Americas 50th Anniversary
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Partners of the Americas 50th Anniversary
Friday, September 12, 2014
Americas Latino Eco-Festival
Heading to Bolder, Colorado to the Americas Latino Eco-Festival to present:
Best Practices of Sustainability in the Americas: Built environmental examples in Brazil, Colombia and Chicago. Join us!https://www.facebook.com/AmericasLatinoFestival
Monday, April 28, 2014
YOU ARE INVITED TO:
THE GLOBAL CAFE series which aims at reflecting and engaging participants on important issues of our global city and society. For more information, please visit: www.weinstitute.org/globalcafe.
ECO VIDAL DESIGN WILL PRESENT:
Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 5:45 p.m.Neighborhood Design & Development: Lessons from South America Hosted by Dr. Marco Tavanti. Part of the School of Public Service, Global Café Series. Location: School of Public Service, Dublin Suite, 14 E. Jackson, Chicago, IL. Speakers include Carmen Vidal-Hallett (International Associate AIA, LEED AP Eco-Vidal Design Principal), Dr. Marco Tavanti (SPS) and Dr. Joe Schwieterman (SPS). This event is free, but space is limited. To RSVP, email: Chaddick@depaul.edu for details.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
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.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
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!
Friday, December 28, 2012
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.
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