Julee Herdt is an award-winning architect and professor whose work focuses on biomass, petroleum-alternative building material research, commercialization and application, and renewable energy design and construction. Her environmental research and educational projects have been funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the University of Colorado, and the Department of Energy. Her recent work has been published by such sources as the International Solar Energy Society, the American Solar Energy Society, the American Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and the Colorado A.I.A. In 2002 and 2005, Julee Herdt was the Architecture Faculty Advisor leading the University of Colorado’s student teams in back-to-back, first-place award-winning international Solar Decathlon competition projects.
Julee Herdt has worked professionally in the U.S. and Europe with firms including Morphosis Architects, Los Angeles, and Coop Himmelblau, Vienna. She was an A.I.A. Latrobe Prize finalist in 2007.
At CU and in private practice, a unique and specific focus of Julee Herdt’s applied research has been invention of engineered molded fiber, (EMF) biobased building materials and application of these materials in full-scale renewable energy architecture projects. Herdt and students recently filed a patent for their new building material invention, BioSIPs™, a high strength-to-weight, petroleum-alternative structural building panel system fabricated from consumer waste and agricultural/recycled material source insulation. Herdt and students have continued to develop a new architectural typology from this system called “BioMOD™,” in which they integrate biobased resources, renewable energy systems, re-used, and recycled materials in high tech, high performance building design and construction. Feedstocks for the BioMOD typology read like leftovers from a health-food buffet and include such ingredients as: soy, sunflowers, wheat, rye, corn, canola, bamboo, hemp, jute, flax, coconut, kenaf, cotton, wastepaper, waste wood, and recycled plastic – to name a few. The first generation of BioMOD architecture was built and tested as the 2005 CU Solar Decathlon residence. The Serial Box™ residence, from newly-patented second-generation BioSIPs, was scheduled for construction in 2008.
Patent Writing and Research
2009, 2007 First College of Architecture and Planning patent filings in CU history. Provisional patents filed with the US Patent Office and in collaboration with CU’s Tech Transfer Office for “BioSIPs, Structural Insulated Building Panel.”
Patent underway based on recent inventions: Currently developing CU-U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory patent based on environmental building material research developments at CU.
2009 Subsequently nominated to the University of Colorado’s “Committee on University Discoveries” for review of university patent policy-, issues-, and changes.
Funded Research
Author of Grants and Cooperative Agreements for development of environmental architecture.
2008-2010 State of Colorado, Advanced Technology Fund Research Grant for project entitled: “Diverting Solid Waste into High Performance, Environmental Building Products.” $245,000
2009 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, CRADA, between CU and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory through State of Colorado, Advanced Technology funds in order to measure and apply fundamental material properties to 3D-enginered fiberboard for BioSIP development. $44,550
2007 University of Colorado, Faculty Grant Award. Principal Investigator: “Second Generation BioSIPs: Biobased Structural Insulated Building Panel System Finite Element Modeling, Design Application & Patenting.” $5000.
2005-2006 Selected for research support by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, Partnerships for Advancing Technologies in Housing (USDA PATH) for support of “BioSIP product development and marketing analysis.”
2003 Request for Proposal, 2005 National Solar Decathlon, Accepted for Competition. $5,000
1999 Richard Crowther Environmental Grant: Solar Powered Studio. $4,000.
1998 United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation: Industrialized Agricultural Architecture; Energy Analysis and Public Relations. $50,000.
1998 University of Colorado Denver, Faculty Research Award, Research and Creative Activities Committee: Development of a Thermal Performance Toolkit Prototype for Measuring and Evaluating Industrialized Architecture. $3,169.
1998 National Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, Washington, D.C.: Geothermal Engineering for The Farmhouse. $2,500.
1996 University of Colorado President's Initiative Fund for Technology, Faculty Grant. Co-Principal Investigator: A Toolkit for Technology Enhanced Design Education Grant. Total funding amount of $66,485 distributed to the co-principal investigators for their individual projects with $3,500 toward Julee Herdt's project.
1994 United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation: Commercialization Assistance for Development of Gridcore Products from Engineered Molded Fiber Technology. $850,000.
1992-93 United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation: Gridcore Panels from Kenaf. $50,000.
1992-95 United States Department of Agriculture, Alternative Agricultural Research and Commercialization Corporation: Gridcore Panels from Kenaf. $50,000.
Collaborator on Grants with Others: Environmental Construction and Renewable Energy
2004 Environmental Protections Agency, EPA, grant for proposal of an environmental education facility in Commerce City, Colorado. Principal Investigator: Anu Ranuswami, CU College of Engineering, Denver Campus. Julee Herdt, Co-Principal Investigator. $10,000
Collaborator & Administrator on Grants Authored by Others: Environmental Building Materials
1995-97 USDA Small Business Innovation Research Grant SBIR. "Replacing Pulpwood and Solid Wood Residues with Wastepaper for Veneer and Fiberboard Panels": Phase II. Commercialization of fiber research and product development from Phase I grant. PI: Dr. Ben Bryant, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle. $179,000
USDA Small Business Innovation Research Grant SBIR. "Replacing Pulpwood and Solid Wood Residues with Wastepaper for Veneer and Fiberboard Panels": Phase I. Panel prototype and testing of Gridcore panels from lowest grade waste paper sources. PI: Dr. Ben Bryant, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle $50,000
Research Reviewed by representatives of U.S. Housing and Urban Development, and, Partnerships for Advancing Technologies in Housing, PATH
2007 “BioSIPs, A SWOT Analysis." Report produced from BioSIP focus group studies held at the National GreenBuild Conference in Denver, Colorado. November.
2007 “BioSIPs, Potential Partners” Report prepared for the CU Technology Transfer Office by Newport Partners, a representative of HUD and PATH.
Refereed Research and Creative Awards
2008 Excellence in Research and Creative Activities Award. College of Architecture and Planning.
2007 AIA Latrobe Prize Finalist. One of five national finalists in the AIA’s highest research prize competition for submittal: “Biobased Building Materials & the Eco-Education Schoolhouse Design and Curriculum.”
2004 “Environmental Leadership Award” from the State of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Nominated by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Denver office.
2002 “Research/Creative Activities Award” College of Architecture and Planning. Faculty Awards Forum
Refereed Teaching Awards
2005 “Mentor of the Year Award” American Institute of Architects, Colorado North.
2003 “Educator of the Year Award” Masonic Lodges of Colorado.
2002 “National Faculty Design Award” American Collegiate Schools of Architecture, ACSA.
Renewable Energy Architectural Design and Building Material Development
As an architecture professor, Julee Herdt conducts her teaching in classrooms, laboratories, on construction sites, and in architectural and engineering competitions. Award-winning projects by Herdt and students include solar-powered design and residential constructions, a solar-powered addition to a CU recreation center, a solar tracking device for the college’s new architecture research center, and others. Herdt and students’ work at the University of Colorado has resulted in two entries into U.S. Congressional Records and presentation of CU projects to the President of the United States.
Awards with CU Students from Julee Herdt’s research and course-based work:
2006 First Place, “Solar Powered Canopy.” Campus-wide competition.
2005 First Place, “National Green Doll House Competition”
2005 Awards in the International Solar Decathlon Competition:
- First Place “Overall Winner”
- First Place “Communications Event Winner”
- First Place “Documentations Event Winner” with Special Recognition for excellence in Website, Branding, and Competition Publications”
- First Place “Getting Around”
- “Best Green Design” BP Solar Award
- “Best Home Construction” Do It Yourself Network Award
- “Energy Efficiency in Design Award, Second Place” Home Builders Association, HBA
2002 Awards in the International Solar Decathlon Competition:
- First Place “Overall Winner”
- First Place “Website Event Winner”
- “Peoples Choice Award, Second Place”
Professional Associations
- American Solar Energy Society
- Colorado Renewable Energy Society
Refereed Publications
2006 and 2003 Awarded work with CU students refereed by international jury and invited for presentation to President of the United States. Work published in Congressional Records
2005 U.S. House Committee on Science
2002 President George W. Bush and the US House of Representatives.
2002 project presented by Congressman Mark Udall and entered into Congressional Record.
2004 “Application of EcoSystems Services Criteria for Green Building Assessment” Co authored with Dr. Victor Olgyay. Published by the International Solar Energy Society.
2003 "How Green is My Building: An Energy and Material Assessment of the Bio-based Farmhouse” Co-authored with Dr. Victor Olgyay. Published by the American Solar Energy Society and the American Institute of Architects in the “Solar 2003 Special Issue.” Edited by J. Reynolds, R. Perez and D. Renne. “Environmental Design: Industrialized Agricultural Architecture, IAA & The Farmhouse Prototype” American Collegiate Schools of Architecture, ACSA National Conference Proceedings.
Speaker, by Invitation at National Conferences
2007 Cranbrook Teachers Conference proceedings. Invited Speaker and Panelist, “Relationship between design and research in the Twenty-First Century.”
2007 National AIA Convention, San Antonio. Topic: "Solar Decathlon: Learning Lab for Education and Practice."