The University of Idaho is planning to build a food services facility for its McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) in McCall that is being billed as the "greenest" building in the state.
The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that the 7,600-square-foot kitchen and dining hall will be built to the meet the guidelines of the Living Building Challenge, which means it would generate more energy than it consumes, said Karla Eitel, director of education for the outdoor science school.
At maximum capacity, the Outdoor Science School has about 120 students, three times the capacity of the existing dining hall, which was built in the 1930s. The dining hall is one of 27 buildings on the university's McCall Field campus. Most of the buildings are small cabins for student housing.
“I’m excited to feed more humans all at once," said kitchen manager Kaitlin Waterloo.It’ll be fun to have them all eat together and have that community,”
The McCall Field campus is in Ponderosa State Park and is about 200 miles south of the university's main campus in Moscow.
Plans for the dining building’s design prioritize energy efficiency and accommodating the natural environment for learning purposes.
Those measures include energy-efficient appliances, a footprint that does not harm the large ponderosa trees nearby, solar panels and a passive solar orientation to heat the building with sunlight, sustainable materials, and other considerations that meet the highest standards of sustainable design.
Building plans call for a large dining area, an expanded kitchen, bathrooms and storage.
Work on the project would begin with water lines and electrical upgrades, and construction of the building could start as soon as this fall.
The McCall Field campus hosts hundreds of students from around the state each year in programs for students in kindergarten through graduate school. It also hosts about 16 to 24 graduate students who are working toward a master’s degree.
From September to May, the campus hosts a residential science program for about 60 fifth through eighth graders from across the state for a week-long program. In the summer, the campus hosts an adventure day-camp for children ages 5 to 11.
