Prairie Tower

near Cottonwood Falls, KS

Kansas State University

My thesis project at Kansas State University was a design for a sustainable tower located in Kansas’s Flint Hills. The tower would act as a corporate retreat and was designed to meet LEED Platinum Certification. This level of LEED Certification was rather difficult since the site was in a rural location and very few of the Sustainable Sites credits were attainable. A combination of stack ventilation, wind turbines, and a living machine allowed the facility to be completely off the grid. The building’s rain screen was composed of vertical fins that were red on one side and aluminum on the other side. These fins gave the tower a unique shimmering effect that would accentuate the seasonal colors of the Flint Hills.