Resiliency Tunnel

At a glance

Status: Active

The UW Farm supplies the UW Food Pantry and greater community with produce each year, but as the climate changes, the… Read full summary

Funding received
2021-2022
Grant type
Large
Awarded
$12,000
Funding partners
  • Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
Website & social links

The UW Farm supplies the UW Food Pantry and greater community with produce each year, but as the climate changes, the increasing discrepancy between demand during the academic year and the summer growing season is resulting in inadequate supply. Climate impacts to the UW campus are already felt by the Farm, in the form of extremes of moisture, heat, and cold that reduce crop output: in 2020 inclement weather spoiled over 1,800 pounds of produce at the UW Farm, roughly 15% of their annual production. Our solution revolves around a high tunnel, a USDA-approved method for season extension, to protect crops and extend the production season by multiple months while providing an educational space for the community. The project further incorporates small-scale solar and rainwater catchment systems, creating a sustainable and resilient space for long term benefit. The Resiliency Tunnel team of undergraduates, graduates, and faculty share the ambitious goal of creating an agricultural structure and landscape that sustainably and respectfully gives back to the community and surrounding areas, with three key pillars: 1) Sustainability and Resilience, 2) Education, and 3) Cultural Reciprocity.

As the student population of the university increases, so does the need for food. The UW Farm has supplied the UW Food Pantry with produce each year, but as the climate changes, the increasing discrepancy between demand during the academic year and the summer growing season is resulting in inadequate supply, which we seek to address. Climate impacts to the UW campus are already felt by the Farm, in the form of extremes of moisture, heat, and cold that reduce crop output. This inclement weather leads to the loss of over 1,800 pounds (15%) of UW Farm production each year. The Resiliency Tunnel, a proposed high tunnel and educational space to serve the needs of the UW Farm and the Food Pantry, will address this issue. The proposed location lies between the Center for Urban Horticulture and the Ceramic Metal Arts building on a vacant lot adjacent to the UW Farm. Creating a modified north-wall greenhouse, a highly efficient structure often used in colder climates, will allow us to grow up to an estimated 4,000 pounds of produce throughout the year, feeding our UW community and beyond. The project further incorporates small-scale solar and rainwater catchment systems, creating a sustainable and resilient space for long term benefit.

Our core project team is a highly interdisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students, directed by undergraduate lead Emma Maggioncalda. Our team members are pursuing degrees ranging from Landscape Architecture to Electrical Engineering, and have strong supporters across the University, including Perry Acworth of the UW Farm, Christina Owen of the UW Botanic Gardens, Steve Tatge of UW Facilities, Joanna Pang of UW Facilities Engineering Services, Daimon Ecklund of UW Sustainability, Polly Olsen of the Burke Museum, Meredith Kruger of the UW Food Pantry, and more (Project Support Forms attached). Together we share the ambitious goal of creating an agricultural structure and landscape that sustainably and respectfully gives back to the community and surrounding areas. Details for a conceptual design and further information can be found at the following website: https://resiliency-tunnel.webflow.io/. The unique nature of this project calls for innovative solutions and detailed planning. At this stage, we have been advised by UW Facilities to conduct a rigorous feasibility study to investigate the exact location of our site as well as perform a detailed cost estimate for total project costs and investigate design feasibility and geotechnical conditions. We request a total of $12,000 to cover costs for 1) surveying the land and investigating geotechnical considerations ($7,000) and 2) any additional potential costs we may incur in completing a feasibility study, including hiring technical experts on an as needed basis ($5,000). It is important to distinguish between our project and the existing UW Farm: this project serves as an independent entity to the farm, yet will provide direct tangible benefits through crop production to the farm once established, and go further to provide both tangible and intangible benefits to the broader UW community and surrounding areas.

Summary of project proposal

The UW Farm’s efforts to engage the community and meet the demands of HFS, the Community Supported Agriculture Program, and the UW Food Pantry in particular are currently constrained by inadequate facilities and increasingly frequent and intense inclement weather. The Resiliency Tunnel team proposes a modified high-tunnel for the UW Farm to create conditions more stable than the natural environment as a means of providing more reliable, plentiful, and nutritious food to fill the pressing supply chain challenge. This system would include a solar installation and rainwater catchment system to limit inputs and provide cost-effective and renewable sources of energy and water. To enhance the community benefit of the system, the tunnel would be outfitted with furnishings to support UW faculty in offering opportunities to study a model agroecosystem to UW students and the general public alike. By conducting outreach within the UW community and beyond, our team is involving experts to inform our approach. We are looking for support from CSF in the form of $5,000 of funding to conduct a feasibility study as we continue to develop the project. This funding would permit our team to, if necessary, hire expertise such as a structural engineer in order to answer critical questions in the feasibility study. More thorough and informed estimates of the full cost of the project will be developed as well as a complete feasibility study to be provided at a future date.

Meeting CSF requirements and preferences

Cultural awareness & preservation

We consider this project a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the UW Farm and local tribes by integrating feedback from meetings with Polly Olsen, the Tribal Liaison of the Burke Museum. Acknowledging that the site of our project is on unceded land of the Coast Salish and Duwamish people, our team intends to collaborate with members of indigenous communities on design and planning for produce. The UW Farm itself currently partners with many groups within the campus, such as the wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ Intellectual House as well as others from various cultures and communities to come together in a welcoming environment to share knowledge.

Engaging underrepresented communities

The UW Farm struggles to meet community demand for produce, and the UW Food Pantry in particular receives exorbitant quantities of viable produce from the UW Farm during summer months when growing conditions in the natural environment are most conducive to successful and fruitful harvests, though its aim is to serve the food insecure members of the UW community primarily during the academic year. This results in a mismatch between the volume and timing of viable produce that the UW Farm produces and which the UW Food Pantry needs. Building the Resiliency Tunnel on the UW Farm would increase produce output by extending the growing season while simultaneously protecting crops from unpredictable and threatening weather.

Diverse and interdisciplinary collaboration

The development of the Resiliency Tunnel brings together a wide range of disciplines. Our core team was formed by members of the RSO UW Solar, though we greatly expanded by conducting outreach through classes, professors, and LinkedIn to gather students from different areas of study, which has permitted us to engage 26 UW undergraduate and graduate students from the programs listed below:

  • Architectural Design
  • Electrical, Chemical, and Computer Engineering
  • Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, and Biology
  • Construction Management
  • Finance, Information Systems, and Business Administration
  • Urban Planning
  • Evan’s School Environmental Policy

These students are divided into smaller teams focused on design, outreach, funding, and finance. The design team collaborates on architectural design, energy generation, and hydrology, assisted by students from Construction Management specializing in feasibility. The outreach team has been in contact with far-reaching members of the UW community and beyond to gather sponsors and communicate with stakeholders, as well as to gather insight during the design phase. Once in service, the tunnel will provide opportunities for the UW Farm to increase overall campus awareness of an agroecosystem, and serve as a center for innovation, research, leadership, and access to organic fresh vegetables and a healthy lifestyle.

Environmental footprint and justice

In 2020, over 1,800 pounds of produce at the UW Farm - roughly 15% of annual production - were spoiled by rainstorms and unexpected frost, conditions which are becoming increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change. During heavy rain events, for example, tomatoes absorb enough water overnight to swell and split open, deeming them no longer marketable. The short term solution is to quickly harvest produce and deliver it to the pantry in single-serve plastic bags, but this results in excessive use of plastic and produce that spoils quickly. Establishing a high tunnel will protect tomatoes and other crops from weather events, and control soil and crop moisture. This structure will prevent the use of over 1,000 plastic bags that go to waste after a single use each year on the farm.

This solution revolves around the structure of a high tunnel, which are USDA-approved methods for season extension, constructed on the farm, that protect crops and extend the production season by multiple months. Diverting the UW Farm’s spoiled produce from disposal in compost highlights one of the most ecologically-sustainable features of this project. Capturing produce with higher nutritional value in greater quantities, and ensuring it reaches food-insecure populations exercises a commitment to all individuals' right to fresh, healthy, and reliable food sources.

The inclusion of a solar installation and rainwater catchment system creates a net zero or even net negative impact from the structure, going beyond the efforts of carbon mitigation into true carbon reduction. This is a cost-effective solution that allows funds previously allocated to utilities to instead be utilized for improvement of the function and services offered by the farm, further promoting community well-being. The solar installation will provide power for electrical needs, and a surplus of energy that may be sold “back to the grid” in a practice known as net metering. The rainwater catchment system will mitigate the structure’s demand on natural resources for irrigation of crops, and provide resiliency during droughts when water savings are critical. Finally, the UW Farm produces locally-sourced produce for the Greater Seattle area, thus providing food with a higher nutritional value and a cleaner environmental footprint than traditional supermarket sources. Locally-sourced food reduces much of the supply chain emissions in food production as transportation, processing, packaging, and retail sourced emissions are reduced (Ritchie, 2019).

The execution and operation of this plan will notably contribute progress primarily towards action VI of the UW Sustainability Action Plan, involving a target that 35% of food is from local sources by 2025 (UW Sustainability). It additionally assists the campus in reaching actions VIII (15% lower energy usage intensity by 2025), IX (10% less solid waste by 2025), and X (45% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030). Produce from the farm is even desirable beyond that from local industrial farming as it does not involve unsustainable monoculture, and rather is NOP certified organic and salmon safe. Beyond that, the UW Farm received CSF funding in 2016 for a project titled the “Composting Toilet at the Center for Urban Horticulture”, which involves on-site vermicomposting and would provide soil amendments for the agriculture within the Resiliency Tunnel.

Leadership & student involvement

The Project Manager for the project is undergraduate Emma Maggioncalda of Environmental Science & Resource Management and Urban Design & Planning. Emma is a fourth-year who originally partnered with Perry Acworth to identify several pressing needs of the UW community and associated proposed solutions as they pertain to the UW Farm. Student involvement greatly expanded this fall quarter as described above to constitute a highly interdisciplinary team, of which members are compensated with class credit. All team members attend Monday team meetings, share ideas, information, and responsibilities with team members, and participate in team meeting reports. We engage in ongoing efforts to involve even more students from different spheres on campus, with potential for paid positions through the UW Farm.

Directing UW Solar is Professor Jan Whittington of the College of Built Environments, who provides guidance and advice essential to using best practices in our project development process, outreach communications, grant applications, and team structure. Professor Jim Fridley of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences serves as an advisor to Project Manager Emma Maggioncalda, providing key insights into helpful resources, alternative approaches, and case studies. UW Botanical Gardens Liaison Wendy Gibble serves as the point of contact between the Resiliency Tunnel team and the Botanical Gardens, and facilitated the arrangement of an introductory presentation to the committee that resulted in ear-marking the site for the development of this project in particular. The site recently became available for use by the UW Farm after another party’s lease expired.

The UW Farm currently utilizes over 400 student volunteers every year that assist in all areas of farm labor, especially field work, planting, and harvesting, nearly year-round. Given the opportunity to increase the amount of usable crop produced at the UW Farm, this project may divert more student labor to harvesting and packing produce, and mitigate volunteer efforts spent on the disposal of unusable produce. The farm has an existing system with capacity for increased production within the current capabilities of the “wash pack” and dry storage areas. The farm also has an electric bike with cargo attachments for produce delivery, as well as a farm delivery truck for transporting larger produce deliveries. At this time, the storage and delivery systems are under-utilized. The farm has a permanent full-time manager and a seasonal full-time AmeriCorps member. Our partner Perry Acworth, the current UW Farm Manager, has a positive track record for receiving grants and completing grant reports that are well-documented, with support from an accountant and financial administrators. The farm also hires seasonal student farm staff every year and supervises up to twenty interns. One of the students will be assigned the waste reduction focus and will be in charge of tracking progress.

Education, outreach, & behavior change

The UW Farm as a whole engages the UW community through its demanding and rewarding culture of community. Students, community members from the surrounding neighborhoods, and visitors from outside the area all have the opportunity to volunteer at the UW Farm and engage in learning about sustainable agriculture, food systems and their role in the community when it comes to reducing produce waste.

This project would assist in strengthening connections between our growing spaces and academics on campus by supporting the over two-dozen courses and volunteer programs that already utilize the farm as an outdoor learning space, as well as educational opportunities including supporting the Nutrition Science Program, Environmental Studies Capstone Internships, Public Health Internships, and Biology Internships. The UW Farm hosts and instructs over 300 service learners per academic year, and is connected to many UW courses linked to farm-based work.

However, there are currently no truly accessible or sheltered large meeting spaces on the UW Farm where students or other community groups can gather and learn together, which highlights the need for a project of this nature and has led us to take ADA specifications into consideration during our design process. The Resiliency Tunnel would be outfitted with furnishings to support UW faculty and students in running labs and experiments while gathering to generally study innovative sustainable agricultural practices, and these courses would be open to students and the general public alike. We are reaching out and teaching a wide group of people growing and consuming a healthy diet.

Feasibility & accountability

While we remain in the planning stage of the project for the time being, by having frequent and ongoing conversations with advisors and other UW Faculty, we are utilizing an informed and adaptive approach to designing, funding, and implementing the tunnel. Our team is engaging necessary stakeholders by contacting UW Facilities, the Design Review Board, and other relevant departments to investigate site conditions, tribal relations, innovative system design, and groups involved in alterations to the physical composition of campus. The UW Botanical Gardens has offered the necessary approvals for this project to move forward as planned. Our overview of the diverse and interdisciplinary collaboration involved in this project is outlined above, with references to the range of expertise we have drawn.

The proposed site was selected partly due to its close proximity to a utility pole which we would pull from and contribute energy back to, water sources which would supplement additional irrigation needs, and a paved road that ensures it is accessible year round, even when much of the farm is waterlogged in winter months. Our pre-feasibility study informed us that we would need two 500 gallon cisterns, totaling to 1000 gallons. The main energy needs of the Resiliency Tunnel are germination lighting for the crops and a basic irrigation system. To fully meet those needs, we plan on installing around 20 solar panels. These would be roof mounted and installed on the archway at the entrance of the Resiliency Tunnel. At roughly 300W each, this would provide us around 6kW of power, with excess power being fed back into the grid through the utility pole next to the site. We estimate an installation cost of around $15,000. On Helioscope we created a design for the Resiliency Tunnel to account for shading and other obstacles that could be generated on site. A power production graph was created using that information. This information is provided in an attachment over email titled “Resiliency Tunnel Pre-feasibility Study”. During the formal design and construction phases of this project we will utilize early funding to access services of a formal feasibility study, project management, and detailed design work.

Key stakeholders

UW Solar - Working with a diverse group of students from across majors and grade levels to design and organize the Tunnel Project. Students joined the Registered Student Organization for the first time to work on this project, bringing different perspectives and ideas to the planning of the project. Students are compensated with academic credit and develop strong research, communication, and collaboration skills.

UW Food Pantry - Communicating with Sean Ferris to design the Resiliency Tunnel to best serve underserved students on campus with a sustainable and reliable produce source. Will be collaborating with the Pantry to determine plant selection and transportation of produce.

UW Farm - Receiving information and guidance regarding the existing site and nearby resources. Working closely with the UW Farm Manager to learn how to design efficient agricultural systems and on recommended components to use to achieve project goals.

UW Botanical Garden (UWBG) - Ongoing communication was established early on with our project liaison Wendy Gibble. Presented to the UWBG, receiving positive feedback and gaining approval for site use. The planned site has been ear-marked for this particular development.

UW Irrigation - Communicated with James Boeckstiegel to discuss existing irrigation systems and water pipes on site. Future communication is anticipated to receive feedback on our design and information on the process for contracting out components.

UW Sustainability - Notified of project as it pertains to a physical change to UW campus and an improvement to sustainability. Will engage further in the process as needed.

Planned outreach

Eli Wheat, UW Farm Advisory Council -  We are currently in the process of scheduling a meeting to discuss how the tunnel and the future plans for the farm can be synced to mutually benefit each other.

David Zuckerman, Manager of the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH) - Will engage after our initial meeting with the UW Farm Advisory Council once we are more informed on necessary proceedings.

Jeremy Parks, UW Electrical Utilities & Power Systems Manager -  Plan to hold a meeting to discuss our electrical design and advice for the implementation of our project, particularly with the integration of our electrical systems with each other. This also includes receiving information on the process for contracting out components.

Steve Tatge, Executive Director in UW Facilities Project Delivery - Will contact to discuss and review our cost-estimate and financial organization of the project, as well as to connect with other individuals that will be valuable in moving forward in our project design and construction phases.

UW Design Review Board - Presenting to the Design Review Board in late winter to review and receive feedback on the interior and exterior design of our tunnel and site for final revisions to the project.

Core project team

This information is provided in an attachment over email titled “Resiliency Tunnel Team Contact Information”, with team leads denoted with an asterisk.

Itemized estimate of the project's budget

This project is considered large (> $1,000), and for this cycle we are requesting $5,000 for a feasibility study as we continue to develop the project. This funding would permit our team to, if necessary, hire expertise such as a structural engineer in order to answer critical questions in the feasibility study. More thorough and informed estimates of the full cost of the project, including line budget items dedicated to project management and detailed design development, will be developed in this feasibility study and provided at a future date. We have, however, attached our best estimate of projected costs for your consideration in an attachment over email titled “Resiliency Tunnel Cost Estimation”.

Timeline for project completion

Phase 1: Planning and funding / finance

  • September - October 2021: Investigate proposed location and conduct site analysis
  • Identify:
  • Services we need aim to provide
  • Stakeholders and possible sponsors
  • Brainstorm system components to deliver services
  • Conduct pre-feasibility study
  • October - December 2021: Identify potential funding sources
  • Request funding for a feasibility study during Cycle 2 of CSF funding (by December 1st, 2021)
  • November - December 2021: Massing and defining purpose
  • Use constraints (site, funding, etc.) for massing
  • Name system components matched with purposes
  • Identify how we are doing something different to solve a particular problem
  • Consider how construction can be staged

Phase 2: Design

  • December 2021 - January 2022: Conceptual Design and Systems Diagram
  • Use site information and general massing of structure to evaluate the variety of alternative system components in combination
  • Utilize faculty to discuss ways to deliver different services
  • Brainstorm possible arrangements of technology to satisfy purposes at appropriate scale
  • Generate 2 or 3 scenarios of how system components can fit together to develop the first design
  • Utilize faculty again to evaluate these proposed systems
  • January 2022: Feasibility Study
  • Describe a rough order of magnitude
  • Further develop cost estimate accordingly
  • Input into full proposal to CSF
  • Spring 2022: Design Review
  • Meet with the Design Review Board at UW
  • Spring - Summer 2022: Schematic and Detailed Design
  • Speak with UW Facilities and other UW administrative bodies for:
  • Comments on the application for full project cost funding
  • Investigating prospects for funding operations and maintenance
  • Making “Make or Buy” decisions (in-house or contracted services)
  • Defining UW Facilities role in contracting out
  • Creating a scoring system for evaluating proposals
  • Accepting bids and choosing award by ranking bidders
  • TBD: Apply for funding for full project costs
  • Expand and update proposal from January 2021 to submit during Cycle 3 of CSF funding

Phase 3: Construction - GOAL: Late summer 2022 (at the earliest)

  • Receive an assigned UW faculty Project Manager
  • In-house or contracted services serve to implement construction of system
  • UW students shadow UW faculty and contracted bodies as further learning opportunity

Phase 4: Operations and maintenance (TBD)

  • Utilize data collection services to evaluate functionality and impacts of system
  • Third-party hired to check functionality of deliverable

References

Request amount and budget

Total amount requested: $12,000
Budget administrator: See attached AAR form

How the project will react to funding reductions

This project will not be viable without the funding we are requesting. As indicated, the costs for surveying the land and investigating geotechnical considerations have been estimated with the UW Facilities Project Delivery Group based on historic projects, and would likely differ marginally from actual incurred costs. There is a level of uncertainty in this estimation that is furthered by the potential need to hire technical experts, but we plan to return extra funds to CSF in the event of cost overestimation for the feasibility study. However, our highest priority is to maximize our relationships with SMEs on campus to minimize the need for unnecessary or excessive costs in our project development process.

Plans for financial longevity

This project benefits from the structural support and institutional knowledge of Professor Whittington of UW Solar, Perry Acworth of the UW Farm, several members involved in leadership of the UW Botanic Gardens at the Center for Urban Horticulture (CUH), and miscellaneous faculty as mentioned above. Professor Whittington has overseen several other successful UW Solar projects that progressed similarly with CSF, in which many cases ultimately did not incur costs for hiring technical expertise during the feasibility study phase. UW Project Delivery Group (PDG) is in the process of assigning a Project Manager to our project; this individual and additional staff will assist with project delivery primarily after the feasibility study is completed, which students will shadow. Our team would appreciate more information on who provided support during the surveying phase on the former CSF project in the UBNA that involved implementing a boardwalk.

The presence of the Resiliency Tunnel will create cost savings for the UW farm by mitigating the need to rent indoor growing space from the CUH and sourcing its own water and energy. These annual savings for the UW Farm will support the operations of the tunnel, boosting the financial sustainability and resilience of the farm. Additional funding could be attained in the future from EarthLab to enhance the research capabilities of the structure, and our team will continuously research other relevant funding opportunities within UW Solar. The input of resources should be considered in terms of the sophisticated, resilient infrastructure they will make possible. The thorough design and implementation of this structure has and will create opportunities for those in the UW community and beyond. Any advancement toward this vision will contribute to the establishment of these opportunities.

Problem statement

The sustainability challenges we are addressing with our design proposal are multifaceted and include: high food waste and inadequate yields, limited facilities for educational purposes that rely heavily on utilities, and missed opportunities to demonstrate sustainable food systems to the community including incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

In 2020, over 1,800 pounds of produce at the UW Farm - roughly 15% of annual production - were spoiled by rainstorms and unexpected frost, conditions becoming increasingly frequent and intense due to climate change. Our solution revolves around a high tunnel, a USDA-approved method for season extension, to protect crops and extend the production season by multiple months. The Resiliency Tunnel will enable the UW Farm to better capture produce with higher nutritional value in greater quantities, and ensure it reaches food-insecure populations. The execution and operation of this plan will notably contribute towards action VI of the UW Sustainability Action Plan, involving a target that 35% of food is from local sources by 2025 (UW Sustainability).

The solar installation will provide power for electrical needs and the rainwater catchment system will mitigate the structure’s demand on natural resources for irrigation of crops, increasing the resilience of the food-energy system to future disruption, particularly during droughts when water savings are critical. Once in service, the tunnel will serve as a center for innovation, research, leadership, and access to organic fresh vegetables and a healthy lifestyle. Educational opportunities would include the ability to conduct research experiments, demonstrate methods for crop protection, food system resilience, and farm waste reduction, while also highlighting the value of innovative practices and perspectives such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, indoor vertical farming, and more.

As we build a new system serving the UW community, we must acknowledge that we are building on the usual and accustomed lands of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, and Coast Salish people. The Resiliency Tunnel will foster relationships with campus and community Indigenous organizations by incorporating Indigenous perspectives in the design, planning, and construction phases. Initially, produce will be shared with the Intellectual House and Indigenous students. The dichotomy between the agricultural space within the Resiliency Tunnel and the Indigenous remedies surrounding the high tunnel represents a potential physical manifestation of the impact of American Indian Boarding Schools on the agricultural practices of Native communities and their health. Incorporating culturally significant medicinal herbs and plants in and around the Resiliency Tunnel will help integrate this important story with the purpose of the tunnel and the surrounding farm while also offering a direct benefit to members of the Indigenous community as a space to use and connect with culturally significant plants. Integrating the Indigenous teachings of Resiliency Tunnel into existing courses at UW, and hopefully, the future creation of courses focused on this subject, as well as educational events and information at the space, can serve as a form of education for non-Indigenous students and the broader Seattle community.

Measure the impacts

All through the design and development process, including feasibility study, the Resiliency Tunnel project will pull together interested students to learn about how to conduct these types of activities, from faculty and directly from Campus administrators and staff with expertise in the design and construction fields.

The UW Farm currently tracks the weight of all produce that is harvested and composted daily, weekly and annually. Previous seasons have been recorded including harvest amounts and waste amounts, which can be compared with relative amounts after the high tunnel is implemented, directly measuring the impact of our building on production. There is additional historical data on the number of individuals from the UW community and beyond that utilize the farm space, which can be compared with data to be gathered once the tunnel is implemented. This could include the addition of students able to receive instruction within the structure, the impact of increased awareness, and the creation of new, diverse educational opportunities for students and the public alike. There is much room for further analysis of trends before and after tunnel implementation such as the number of research projects conducted at the Farm, events coordinated by the Farm and the Intellectual House on campus, crop growth in the co-located native garden, visitors to the UW Food Pantry (who will utilize increased crop yields), and more educational and community outcomes. More definitively, records on historical water and electricity usage as well as the associated financial demands can be compared before and after tunnel implementation. We can measure energy generated by the panels in kwh (estimated to be 16 kwh per day) and water collected in cisterns by the gallon.

Education and outreach goals

This project and its development represent a distinct opportunity for students to engage in the design and analysis of a potential new building on campus–albeit a building of limited and purposed functionality. The longer aim is, of course, to fund and construct the building. Yet, at all stages of the design and feasibility process, students will be originating ideas, working with one another, and sourcing the faculty and administration in our learn-by-doing process. The proposed services of the Resiliency Tunnel are fundamental to the operation and well-being of the UW Farm, which is an institution of growing importance to the student body.

The UW Farm currently engages the UW community by removing barriers to participation in the urban food system: no fee is required for participation; sites are open from dawn to dusk, 365 days per year; site access is available to UW students, faculty, staff, and the general public; farm research and facilities provide food for the community; and the farm was declared an essential operation during the pandemic (staff, research allowed to work on-site). Produce is delivered to three sectors: 1) sold to multiple UW dining locations, or “farm to campus;” 2) a weekly paid subscription box, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA); and 3) regular donations to UW Food Pantry. In 2017 MOU was signed with the Intellectual House, for space to grow food for First Nations students. Today, there is a Native Garden, where First Nations Students, under the leadership of a Food Sovereignty Liaison co-managed by the Farm Manager and Director of the Intellectual House, can grow culturally important produce. Annually, over 2,000 visitors from at least 24 units, plus the general public, visit the three farm sites either as a volunteer, for a laboratory assignment, field trip, tour, research, or internship. In addition, over 5,000 people “visit” the farm or learn remotely via social media, educational videos, the website, and a weekly newsletter. However, increasing awareness about the causes and impacts of climate change have increased demand for education on sustainability and innovation that has not been matched by expanded facilities and opportunities.

This project benefits from the wide breadth of UW community engagement permitted by our involvement with several key groups. We have utilized the post sharing feature on Instagram so related groups on campus (UW Sustainability, the UW Food Pantry, the UW Farm, and the UW Foster School of Business) could share our advertisement on UW Solar’s Instagram pertaining to volunteer or credited opportunities for students. UW Sustainability will continue to share educational information on the project with the community, which will raise awareness and serve as one pathway for gathering future volunteers. We have additionally received assistance from several departmental advisors (including from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) and College of Built Environments (CBE)) in distributing advertisements through emailing lists. These connections will assist us with educating the UW community about opportunities supported by the tunnel design and construction process as well as its operation once implemented.

An important vehicle for raising awareness for our project will be an informational video we are developing with a non-profit called the 2050 Project (2050project.us), started by two alumni of the UW Evans School for Public Policy. This video will highlight the origin and significance of the project, student and community groups involved, and our overarching vision. Additionally, it will serve to inform the public, gather additional student volunteers as needed, and potentially draw investors to sponsor additions to the tunnel, such as indoor vertical farming. As we approach implementation, we plan to increase our engagement efforts through a number of additional avenues, potentially including on-campus signage, tabling in Red Square, holding an event as part of UW Sustainability’s Earth Day week, and publishing in student news sources. We hope to participate in the UW Indigenous Food Symposium later this year, in which we will seek consultation on integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in our project as well as our aim to raise awareness of the impacts of historic boarding schools on local Indigenous communities. We also plan to enhance the educational opportunities permitted by the tunnel by collaborating with local and Indigenous artists, creating interactive installations that go beyond simply revealing design details and elaborate further on the role of food in IIndigenous communities; specifically the repercussions of boarding schools.

Student involvement

The development of the Resiliency Tunnel brings together a wide range of disciplines. We utilize many pathways to increase on-campus awareness of and engagement in our project, further outlined in Education and Outreach. Our core team was formed by members of the credited RSO UW Solar, though we greatly expanded team size by conducting outreach. This outreach was performed through classes, professors, advisor mailing lists, Instagram, and LinkedIn to gather students from different areas of study, which has permitted us to engage over 30 UW undergraduate and graduate students from the programs listed below:

  1. Architectural Design
  2. Electrical, Chemical, Industrial, and Computer Engineering
  3. Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, and Biology
  4. Construction Management
  5. Finance/Economics, Information Systems, and Business Administration
  6. Urban Planning
  7. Landscape Architecture
  8. Evan’s School Environmental Policy

To prepare to analyze the feasibility of a new building on campus, we are organized around our existing disciplines and the expected content of a feasibility study. We, and our work, emerge from smaller, focused teams: design, outreach, funding, and finance. The paragraphs below offer an indication of roles and responsibilities, but also preliminary work that is already being conducted toward a feasibility study for this project.

The design team collaborates on architectural design, energy generation, and hydrology, assisted by students from Construction Management specializing in feasibility. The architectural design team has focused on developing a rough order of magnitude of the design and investigating the site conditions. UW Project Delivery Group (PDG) is in the process of assigning a Project Manager to our project; this individual and additional staff will assist with project delivery primarily after the feasibility study is completed, which students will shadow. Students participate in development of a Request for Proposal (RFP), and will have the opportunity to manage the selection of a contractor by developing a scoring system to evaluate bids. This project will likely be a Job Order Contracting (JOC) project with UW PDG. We will delineate the exact location of the structure within the identified plot of land during the feasibility study process, for which we are in contact with users of the Ceramic + Metal Arts building. Kristine Kenney, the UW Director for University Planning and Architecture, has advised we pursue funding for rigorous land surveying as part of the feasibility study process. Julie Blakeslee has expressed she is willing to connect us with UW Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) to assist with surveying and permitting. We will define the scope and receive feedback from individuals within UW Facilities and later have our design evaluated by the UW Design Review Board. The energy generation design team is putting together estimates for the power needs for each component: Regular lights for daytime, germination lights (used frequently for 1-3 months of the year), the pump for the irrigation system, and ventilation for air circulation and temperature control. The team is also weighing options for getting additional power in the winter months when solar is less efficient. Current options for energy sources include connecting to Seattle City Light’s grid directly, or connecting to an existing UW building. Students in hydrology are focusing on methods for rainwater collection and storage, agricultural water requirements variable by season, and potential uses of excess collection, such as rain gardens. The outreach team has been in contact with far-reaching members of the UW community and beyond to gather sponsors and communicate with stakeholders, as well as to gather insight during the design phase. Once in service, the tunnel will provide opportunities for the UW Farm to increase overall campus awareness of an agroecosystem, with research opportunities and an emphasis on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).

COVID-19 has not noticeably impeded our work. We were able to meet in person during Fall 2021 in the Urban Infrastructure Lab, though we have been meeting over Zoom during 2022. We have had occasional in-person meetings with faculty, including meeting with Perry Acworth and David Zuckerman at the UW Farm to discuss site conditions. We have meetings scheduled with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), faculty, community partners, and more as needed. We also enjoy the ease of use of a central email address, resiliencytunnel@gmail.com, for our communications with outside entities and / or multiple groups.

Project lead

Emma Maggioncalda

emmamagg@uw.edu

Affiliation

Student

Categories

  • Diversity and Equity
  • Resilience and Wellbeing
  • Food Systems