Originally founded in 1980, the Yestermorrow Design/Build School is devoted to hands-on education integrating design and building principles with a core understanding of sustainable and regenerative practices. The school operated using rented space in Vermont’s Mad River Valley until 1990 when the dilapidated Alpen Inn property in Waitsfield was purchased. Yestermorrow’s students, faculty and staff worked together to renovate the Inn, transforming the structure into the school’s first permanent teaching, living and dining facility.

As the school has grown considerably since the Waitsfield site was acquired, the Board of Directors recognized a pressing need to adapt the campus to accommodate increasing enrollment and expanding curriculum. Yestermorrow enlisted 7group/Alliance for Regeneration to facilitate work on an integrative campus Master Plan through engagement of a community-wide regenerative approach for sustaining future campus development and life in the Mad River Valley.

This project began with considerable research: conferring with community stakeholders, coordinating local resources, and conducting ecological fieldwork on site. Several planning and design charrettes followed, led by 7group/Alliance to coordinate various phases of the new Master Plan that not only informs the design of facilities and site layout, but focuses on the evolutionary potential of the community in which it is nested, developing the capacity and capability for evolving towards higher levels of health. As the project moves forward, the school will incorporate this process into the students’ class work and community interactions, thereby using the regenerative principles developed during the master planning process as an integral part of the school’s evolution and as a means for bringing value-adding processes to the Mad River Valley.

To learn more about Yestermorrow Design/Build School or the school’s master planning process, please visit the Yestermorrow website or the Master Planning Updates blog.

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Images Courtesy of Dean Kaufman, Spencer Leonard, and Yestermorrow Design/Build School