| City Sprouts Education Center 4002 Seward St. Omaha, NE 68111 |
| History: In January 2005, a generous donor gave City Sprouts a building next door to City Sprouts. This is a three-story residence built in 1910. It has excellent space for office, meetings, education, social events, storage. There is also space for possible rental to a volunteer, employee, or resident. |
| Basic Renovations: Although the house is already usable for meetings, office space, and social events, we are in the process of fixing it up for possible residence upstairs, and to improve its utility in supporting the garden. We are working toward tool and equipment storage, cool storage for food, sprouting seeds, seed storage, and so on. |
| Sustainable Design: In the long run, we would like the house to function as a green or sustainable building -- with natural solar lighting and heating, rain and gray-water collection systems, energy conservation, use of local materials, efficient use of space, and so on. An architectural student from the UNL School of Architecture is working on an interior design for the house. And, another arthitectural student is working on exterior design and a potential plan for a sustainable neighborhood in Orchard Hill. Both students are supervised by UNL Architecture professor William Borner. |
| Thank You To: We have received help in fixing up the house from a variety of sources. The Omaha Metro Builders Association built a wheelchair access ramp in the back. John Ems and Carl Harts donated some of their labor in fixing up the soffets, basic repairs, and bathrooms. Volunteers in Service Learning from UNO, and UNO's Goodrich Program, have over the two years, cleaned, painted, repaired walls, and so on. Stuart Bernstein in UNL's Construction Management program has supervised some of the most important renovations. Michael Carroll has provided much of the planning and supervision of UNO students studying in the Goodrich Program. Other individuals have made contributions ranging from money gifts to alert assessments of what is needed. |