I Hotel owner puts green structure on display
CHAMPAIGN – The award-winning solar house designed by University of Illinois students settled into its new home Thursday near the I Hotel and Conference Center.
A giant crane stood ready to lift the house onto a new foundation poured this week just southeast of the hotel.
The 800-square-foot "Gable House" took second place in an international competition in Washington, D.C., last month sponsored by the Department of Energy, which challenged students to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar home.
The solar-powered house was sent to the National Mall in Washington for the contest, which drew 20 teams from select universities around the world.
It was then transported back to Champaign, where I Hotel owner Peter Fox agreed to accommodate the house, seeing it as an attraction for hotel and conference center guests. A member of the student team, Tim Moran, works for Fox.
"We believe we will be able to expose thousands of hotel and conference center attendees to the technology," Fox said recently. "The site is ideal for that as the research park develops any ideas that help make the area a place to visit and help EnterpriseWorks and the research park attract jobs and tenants."
Fox had worked with the Prairie Rivers Network to develop a sustainable landscape along a detention basin using native plants and grasses. That $25,000 project was funded with a $10,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources and $15,000 from Fox/Atkins Development, Fox said.
"It seemed like a good place to situate the house," he said.
The company will spend another $15,000 for electrical and water connections to the house, Fox said. The UI College of Engineering and Department of Architecture helped pay for the $9,000 foundation, he said.
The I Hotel and Conference Center staff will maintain the house and surrounding landscape and ensure the house is secure, he said. They will also coordinate with engineering and architecture students and faculty to manage tours of the house, he said.
The solar-powered home, which evokes a Midwestern farmhouse, features siding made of 100-year-old reclaimed barn wood and a traditional gable roof, as well as high-efficiency solar panels, lights and appliances. It can be heated with a single hair dryer.
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