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Ever Vail Base Village Project Design Receives 'Platinum' Rating by U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Neighborhood Development Program
Nestled at the base of North America’s premier Vail Mountain in the Colorado Rockies, 30 minutes from Eagle County Airport and about 2 hours from Denver International Airport lies an 11-acre parcel of land known as West LionsHead. This spot is currently occupied by a disused industrial area housing a gas station, Vail Mountain's vehicle-maintenance shop yard, and a retail and office complex but the future holds great promise for it.
Vail Resorts Inc, the leading mountain resort operator in the United States, is planning to redevelop this plot as an environmentally progressive development with the help of Callison’s design team and sustainability consultants Paladino & Company.
Ever Vail Base Village will cover 1M sq ft of mixed-use space including residences, a 4-5 star Rock Resorts hotel, a destination spa, offices, retail shops and restaurants, mountain operations facilities, a public parking garage, a new gondola and related skier portal and a public plaza.
Lofty sustainability goals for Ever Vail include energy conservation through high-performance fixtures, solar thermal collectors, super-insulating building technologies; water conservation via water re-use for irrigation and storm water management systems; use of renewable energy sources, including solar hot water and biomass energy from beetle-kill pine trees harvested in the local forests. The residences are conceived as healthy buildings built with non-toxic, low-emitting materials and designed to take advantage of the Colorado sun and use 20-30 percent less energy and 30-50 percent less water than conventional construction. Particular attention has been given to restoring and enhancing of Red Sandstone Creek and associated onsite wetlands to protect ecological communities and restore wetlands degraded by previous development. To encourage a vibrant, year-round community, the design plans a compact, pedestrian friendly development with public space, a complimentary community bicycle program and connections to local and regional bus systems.
The $1.5 billion planned Ever Vail village development project is currently in the planning stages and is subject to receipt of governmental approvals and finalization of necessary agreements.
Laura Salmi
Reporter
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