BASALT —The Rocky Mountain Institute is designing a 15,000-square-foot office and conference space that will be a national showcase for energy efficiency, Michael Kinsley, a senior researcher with the nonprofit organization, told an audience in Basalt on Thursday.
“RMI’s Basalt building will demonstrate deep-green results,” Kinsley said at the first of what town officials plan to be quarterly meetings to discuss development activity. “I think the most important point I want to make is that RMI is committed to Basalt.”
The institute’s current office in the Roaring Fork Valley is at the Windstar property in Old Snowmass. The property was sold this spring, and the institute must vacate the office within two years.
It has purchased property from the town of Basalt where the Taqueria el Nopal restaurant is located. The Roaring Fork Conservancy plans to build an office and exhibit center just west of the site. The Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park to the east of the institute site is slated for redevelopment with a hotel and commercial and residential buildings.
