McRae, together with Chris King, adjunct faculty member, taught the special studio course where an interdisciplinary team of nineteen students created the designs for the school. McRae attended the school’s grand opening in September along with Jeremy Mefford, a recent UT graduate in civil engineering who was in the class that worked on the school design. — utk.edu

Spent yesterday out on-site troubleshooting our monitoring equipment with Tony and Philip from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (These guys are writing the book on home energy research.) — University of Tennessee (Samuel)

I am pleased to announce the completion of interior finish work on the New Norris House project! Check out a few of these amazing shots taken by Ken McCown, chair of our Landscape Architecture Program in the College of Architecture and Design. — University of Tennessee (Samuel)

On the bio-retention bed front, the five beds have now been planted full of native water loving goodness! The greywater bed is piped in, but can't be turned on until city ordinances allowing it have passed in June. The rainwater beds (beds 2-5) have all been planted, but won't be piped in until next week. Currently our rainwater is being diverted into a pile of gravel in the yard, but once the system is all put together all excess rainwater will eventually make it's way to through these beds! — University of Tennessee (Samuel)

This weekend our team hosted a "soft opening" of the New Norris House to celebrate the completion of major construction. There is lots more to do and details to resolve, but this event was a welcomed termination of two semesters of work by design|build studio/seminar participants. — University of Tennessee (Samuel)