The two rammed earth (RE) walls are a central portion of the Jordan Valley Water Conservation District’s (JVWCD) new Education Center.  It is one of the first LEED Platinum projects in the state of UT.  The new buildings will provide a greenhouse as well as classrooms.  The Center is adjacent to the demonstration gardens that provide excellent examples of the different landscaping options available to those living in the Salt Lake Valley and the amounts of water necessary to keep them green.  This Center is central to reducing the Valley’s water consumption to sustainable levels as residential landscapes consume the greatest amount of water in the Valley and at current levels the demand will outstrip supply within a decade.  This project was done in collaboration with Ken Christison and The Shelterra Group, an excellent RE company and NAREBA member.  The RE walls separate classrooms and a greenhouse to the south.  They will absorb solar heat from the greenhouse and radiate it into the rooms on the north side.  The soils, steel, and cement were sourced locally.  The color palette was inspired by the natural colors found in the strata visible in soils surrounding the Valley and in the Wasatch Front.  Each lift of material was pigmented mimicking the strata.  Individual member agencies of the JVWCD provided soils which were incorporated into the walls in symbolic quantities.   The two walls are roughly twenty feet long, two feet thick and fourteen feet tall.  The 28 day mix design strength for the RE was 3500-4000 psi (pounds per square inch) with a minimum engineered strength of 2500 psi specified.