Solar Decathon, 2011 was rain-drenched, remotely-located, and lesser-attended than previous Decathlons, but continued to show the ingenuity and creativity of our young architects/engineers to be. Maryland won with a jewel box of an entry that led the competition most of the event. However, the competition positions below Maryland jostled over the days like a hard-fought basketball game, with at least four or five teams lying in the second through fifth spots.
The event had been held the previous four times on the historic National Mall (rescued from rail yards by the AIA in1901), with dozens of accessing streets, thousands of parking spaces, and one Metro stop 100 feet away. The new location, near the Jefferson Memorial, and sandwiched between the Tidal Basin, the FDR and the MLKing Jr. Memorials and the Potomac River, was served by one narrow road reached by surviving several malfunction junctions. Despite the use of a free set of shuttle buses from the Smithsonian METRO stop, access was problematic and the attendance showed it, at least to this set of eyes who visited on 7 of the 10 days.
This administration has thankfully focused on energy conservation as an imperative, but last winter, while the college and university teams were hard at work on their entries, the whole Decathlon was evicted from the Mall.
After ten US Senators and many others objected, the remote West Potomac site was selected as a face-saver.
Now, there are rumors floating around the Decathlon that various cities are bidding to host the next one.
To my knowledge, the current competitors have not been polled to see what they think.
It would seem that the current solar experts might have insights into whether it would be better to keep the Decathlon in DC, so as to obtain national publicity and educate solons and national government officials, or whether circulating the Decathlon around U S Cities would afford better exposure.
Were Phoenix, Arizona to host, one would think that the sun would more likely appear during the week and one-half run, unlike this year on the Atlantic Seaboard.
Anyway, more transparency from the Department of Energy would honor both the young contestants and also all of us who are dedicated to an energy-thrifty future.
John F. Corkill, Jr. AIA (first solar project started in 1974 - many since)
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John Corkill AIA
Corkill Cush Reeves Architects
Bowie MD
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