On Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe where Noah Demarest led a discussion about his career in architecture and projects he has been involved in.  Demarest studied Design and Environmental Analysis as well as Landscape Architecture at Cornell. In 2012, he went on to found his own architecture collaborative, STREAM, which primarily serves the greater Ithaca area.  

STREAM has been involved in the designing or renovating of several buildings on College Ave., such as the Student Agencies building, where E-Hub is located, and 201 College Ave, a modern, five-story apartment complex.  I found it interesting how much work is involved in the design of these buildings, especially how much time must be expended to comply with Ithaca’s challenging building codes. For example, most of Collegetown has a five-story limit, but his firm was able to maximize livable space by making the top floors have lofted spaces.  In addition, regulations regarding power lines limit the total footprint of new buildings, since a building’s outer walls cannot be within ten feet of power lines. Collegetown residents have been trying to get these power lines moved underground with little success.

Demarest also discussed how his firm strives to make new projects as modern as possible, while avoiding extremes that will make the buildings seem out of style in a few years.  The buildings utilize technologies such as air source heat pumps to minimize the buildings’ carbon footprints whenever possible. He even hopes that many of his new buildings will eventually be powered from solar farms.  Demarest finished the cafe by talking about the rules governing accessible housing, such as the rule that requires all new apartments with more than three units to have every unit be accessible.

Overall, I enjoyed this talk, since it enlightened me on all the work that happens before you see the construction vehicles changing the landscape of Collegetown and other areas.  I look forward to seeing all these new construction projects being completed and hope that they will improve the housing situation in Collegetown.