Living The Mission

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Vail Valley Magazine, Summer 2025 · Written by Katie Coakley

Vail Valley Magazine’s feature on Walking Mountains Science Center’s Foley Graduate Fellowship describes a 27-month program in which fellows teach field science to Eagle County students while earning an M.A. in Science Education from the University of Northern Colorado, with free housing on the Avon campus. A sidebar covers the Pete and Pat Frechette Educator Community, designed by Brian Sipes, who was also lead architect for the original campus. The article notes that the original campus, completed in 2011, is the valley’s only LEED Platinum facility, and that the educator housing is the only net-zero employee housing in Eagle County. Each of its three buildings has six bedrooms with shared living space, asymmetric roofs maximize south-facing solar panels, and the team built three buildings instead of four to save mature cottonwood trees.

“A lot of people say it’s the nicest place they’ve ever lived.”
— Brian Sipes

Published in Vail Valley Magazine. Related project: Walking Mountains Educator Housing. The full article appears below.