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Scroll left and right or use the navigation above to explore different scales of the project.
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Scroll vertically or use the buttons on the left to explore Ramboland through different Key System perspectives.
Welcome to Ramboland's digital twin! Our unique navigation system allows you to explore this groundbreaking project from multiple perspectives.
Dive in and discover how Ramboland is demonstrating that our cities can heal ecosystems while supporting all citizens. Your exploration of this digital twin contributes to the evolving vision of Ramboland. Enjoy your journey!
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Feel free to begin your journey at any point. There's no wrong way to explore Ramboland.
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As you navigate, you'll uncover more about how Ramboland is reimagining our built environment for a sustainable future.
Here you’ll find a view of the area with Ramboland in the middle. Buildings should be prosthetics for our surrounding living systems, and in a city thats a neighborhood. Click around amongst the key subsystems at this scale to learn about social and environmental issues and how Ramboland is connected to and addressing them.
Here you’ll find a view of the Ramboland site itself. Click around amongst the key subsystems at this scale to learn about the specific features, strategies, and technologies employed throughout buildings and outdoor spaces, across the same set of key subsystems.
Here you’ll find information about features that are at a scale too small or maybe too large for the other two scales (like details inside the buildings), as well as some other information that isn’t specific to a locational spot or area.
Ramboland will be a living laboratory, demonstrating that our cities can heal our ecosystems while supporting the lives of all citizens, including those with special needs, far better and less expensively than we do today.
This website is intended to be Ramboland's digital twin. Like the physical site, it is, and will continue to be in a state of becoming, The twins will be increasingly integrated with each other utilized for educational programs. Eventually onsite sensors, data streams, bioregional climate data, and human-collected reports will be made visible here, live-visualizing the complex systems that make up this ecosystemic living building.
We want to make the higher possibilities for our built environments visible to the world as they evolve and are utilized over time. We strongly believe that a whole-systems approach to regenerative architecture can produce living and economic prosperity, and support the health and wealth generation of our most neglected and abused communities and individuals.
Larsen & Landis is a structural engineering firm offering services to architects, to other professionals in development, design, and construction, and to building owners. We have solid experience in educational, commercial, industrial, residential, recreational, historic, and religious projects. Our engineering includes design, evaluation, and investigation, and we tailor our services to meet our clients’ goals and expectations.
A 501c3 dedicated to creating Wellness & Abundance in our communities; fostering Agency and Inclusion
At Ecovie, we believe that decentralized water management is the solution to many water problems. Water scarcity, water discharge, storm water runoff, and water quality are real issues impacting communities across the country.
We design and deliver on-site water management solutions for commercial grey water recycling and rainwater collection, and storm water management.
We offer the only commercial greywater recycling system tested and certified by NSF International to the NSF 350 C standard. This is the recognized standard for water recycling by the International and Universal plumbing code authorities.
INTAG is a sustainable agriculture company that exists to solve problems for the people who feed the world. Our biological solutions help reduce the environmental impacts of food and agriculture production while increasing yields for farmers. INTAG systems bring microbial life and other beneficial organisms together to create powerful biological and organic nutrient solutions for modern food and agriculture.
Integrated agriculture uses combinations of natural systems to create sustainable, resilient, hyper-efficient environments (ecosystems) for controlled growing. We minimize waste, reduce dependency on pesticides and synthetic chemicals in the growing process, and maximize the nutrient content, flavor, and productivity of naturally grown food, all while reducing or eliminating contaminants. We provide solutions that are sustainable, scalable, repeatable, transparent, and easy to use.
The most powerful inventions are inspired by nature, and we create elegant solutions for the world’s pressing needs. INTAG harnesses the simplicity of nature to create technology that helps people and communities sustain themselves and thrive.
7group is a multi-disciplinary collective of leading built-environment professionals engaging projects that advance how technical innovation, community vitality, and ecological health entangle and co-evolve.
Sherwood Design Engineers is a civil engineering firm that applies innovation and elegant design to the creation and implementation of sustainable infrastructure. Our engineering process emerges from the integration of imagination, experience and collaboration to create beautiful infrastructure designed to enhance relationships between communities and the natural environment.
Introba is one of the world’s largest building engineering and consulting firms with more than 1,000 employees in offices across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Serbia, and Australia. Committed to reshaping the world, our problem solvers combine cutting-edge digital solutions with emerging innovations and industry-leading sustainability strategies to transform the built environment.
The KnowYourH2O™ website and Path to Clean Water Program evolved from an initial blog and rather small website that focused on the private well owner and general drinking water issues in the early 1990s. It then took the form of the Water Research Center website from the late 1990s through the 2010s. The Water Research Center became part of the Carbon County Groundwater Guardian Program in 2001, which itself evolved into the 501c3 Keystone Clean Water Team in 2013.
Under the Water Research website we conducted research, training, and consulting projects in diverse areas. This included acid mine drainage (AMD), mine drainage, lake and stream monitoring, wetland creation and monitoring, drinking filtration plant performance evaluations, testing new point of use water treatment devices and systems, hydrogeological evaluations, geological investigations, soils testing, soil morphological evaluations, water well drilling, rehabilitation and construction, and land reclamation. During this period, we updated and expanded the Private Well Owner Outreach Program and developed a private well owner mail order water supply drinking water testing and education program.
Through our effort, we developed a number of programs such as the Private Well Owner and Drinking Water Testing Mail Order Water Testing Kits, Local Private Well Owner Test Programs, Our Drinking Water Guide for Well Water and City Water, and we worked and expanded the use of our Surface Water Quality Calculator and Citizen Science Outreach Efforts to the world.
We have been involved with Citizen Monitoring and other Environmental Training Programs for groups within the United States, Aruba, India, Arab Countries, Europe, and even the former Soviet Union and currently our Surface Water Monitoring Calculator is used worldwide and used as a training tool.
Ramboland's Fiscal Agent and Program Manager.
Nexus emerged to enable system-change-makers to step into new levels of capability in creative new ways. We serve this purpose by tending to 1. under-supported projects, 2. the evolution of how education works in our society, and 3. the communities intertwined with both. We believe these all need one another in order to be regenerated.
Our programs are all intended to serve that purpose in different ways, each entering into the whole system made up of those 3 parts, and driving their co-evolution from a different entry point.
Since 1996, we have provided a wide range of Engineering and Landscape Architecture solutions to both the private and public sectors, from our corporate headquarters in Lititz, PA, our Central PA office in State College, PA, and our Western PA office in Butler, PA.
Through our collaborative project approach, we combine the design nature of our Landscape Architects and the scientific nature of our Engineers to yield project solutions that are innovatively conceived, creatively designed, and technically sound.
100% Employee Owned Company (ESOP)
It all began with Anna…and Mary Poppins. In 1965, we were inspired by the touching story of a young girl named Anna who was unable to attend a local theater showing of Mary Poppins with the other children because she was in a wheelchair. From this inspiration was born United Cerebral Palsy of Lancaster County. In 2000, we became United Disabilities Services (UDS) — a new name to reflect our greatly-expanded capabilities.
The UDS Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Lancaster, PA, committed to helping seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. In our 55-plus years, we’ve developed a wide variety of services and programs that improve quality of life and expand boundaries.
Today, over 350 caring, dedicated employees proudly serve people with disabilities and the aging in 40 counties across Pennsylvania. We provided services to more than 6,000 people last year alone, enabling them to live happier, more independent lives where they’re more in control of the decisions that affect them.
Our foundation is based on a strong vision, mission and core values.
At DBC Partners, LLC we’re passionate about securing the necessary funding so building projects in targeted neighborhoods and key areas can be completed. To do this, we focus on Debt/Equity and Joint Venture Partnerships, working with BIPOC developers on projects in underserved neighborhoods that, when completed, will create a significant upside to the communities in which they’re located. All debt is secured via Greenbriar Capital, LLC (Philadelphia, PA) who specializes in debt for operating companies and real estate transactions by providing commercial mortgages and loans. Although many project sponsors (the borrowers) have 85-90% of the equity required to complete a project, they still lack the remaining 10-15% (ranging from $500K to $10MM). That’s where we at DBC come in, supplementing the remaining amount needed so projects can be fully funded.
We believe that we're impacted by the built environment, and we aim to improve that relationship. Whether a project is big or small – a stairway or a stool, a dwelling or a door – great building starts with great design. Our goal is to enhance all spaces and interactions through purposeful structure and finely crafted detail.
Founders Mike Stoner and Jesse Pellman, LEED® AP began with a vision to create better housing based on the principals that for something to last, it must be well-loved, and that all we do should carry the awareness that our actions reverberate throughout our broader community.
We believe that sustainability goes beyond the individual spaces and things we build, restore, and renovate. This core ideology is why we’ve recently become a Certified B Corporation. Relationships are at the heart of our business, and the center of what we do. Whether it’s with a client, co-worker, architect, artisan, our neighbor or our environment, we’re always more interested in developing a relationship than a contract. So we’ve worked hard to cultivate a unique and comprehensive understanding of high performance, healthy, and sustainable housing.
We feel fortunate to have been joined by some great friends and makers along the way who help to further the mission of crafting sustainability.
Improving the Built Environment Since 1972
Steven Winter Associates, Inc. provides research, consulting and advisory services to improve commercial, residential and multifamily built environments for private and public sector clients. We specialize in energy, sustainability and accessibility consulting as well as certification, research & development and compliance services. Our engineers and architects have led the way since 1972 in the development of best practices to achieve high performance buildings. As a matter of course, we collaborate with our clients to produce the most cost-effective and innovative solutions.
Our History
When Steven Winter Associates, Inc. was launched in 1972, it was in part a result of Steven Winter, then a young architect, realizing how inefficient buildings were in their design and construction methods, and in their use of man-made and natural resources. Over the last 50 years, the core mission of the firm has stayed true to its origins. We work to improve the planet’s buildings and communities by optimizing their construction and operation, by improving the systems and products they are made of, and by enhancing the services they house.
Our success has come from providing superior services and innovative solutions, while exceeding our clients expectations, and inspiring them to do more. Much of our business is repeat business from clients who have realized the benefits of choosing the most proactive solutions, like going green long before it became a trend or an important standard of business practice. We have always believed that our strength comes from hiring the best people and providing them with an environment for growth and enjoyment. We are a strong and proactive voice in the industry for high performance buildings, and we enjoy a visible role in delivering this message through the media, associations and events.
Our clients – in government, industry, and the private sector – have awarded us the opportunity to work on projects as varied as the impact of the green, energy, and accessibility issues in residential, multifamily and commercial buildings. Our research in building science and technology has inspired new ways of solving construction challenges nationwide. And, our efforts in information dissemination and tech transfer have helped to inform stakeholders in both public and private sectors.
We are proud of our history and accomplishments over the years, but the real story of SWA is the future. There is still much to be done to improve the built environment.
At ECS Group of Companies (ECS), our mission is simple: To be the engineer of choice in the markets we serve. We fulfill our mission through our values to collaborate, focus and lead, and we approach business with a mindset of abundance, entrepreneurship and having fun.
Our team is deeply invested in the success of our projects – sometimes our projects become personal. It’s not uncommon for our staff to directly benefit from the final product of the projects they work on, whether it be taking family to visit the new wing of one of the world’s major art museums or simply commuting on the roads they drive every day.
Founded in 2016, Ground Plan Studio is a recognized leader in the evolving fields of carbon farming and regenerative business. We have decades of global experience in ecological planning and design, and have worked with the best minds on the planet to solve real world business problems with strategies derived from the enduring and robust models seen in nature.
Established in 2008, Land Grant Surveyors, LLC (LGS) was founded through a partnership between Steven C. Black and ELA Group, Inc. ELA Group, Inc. is a comprehensive Landscape Architecture and Engineering firm with over 26 years of experience and offices in Lititz and State College, Pennsylvania. LGS, in affiliation with ELA, enhances client service by leveraging their expertise in Land Development, Engineering, Transportation, and GIS. This collaboration also benefits ELA by ensuring internal quality control and seamless continuity in the design process for their clients.
Carol Hickey stepped forward first to serve as architect of record, and lead the architectural efforts during the project's schematic design phases. She's an ardent supporter and fan of Ron and the project, and has integrated it into her architecture education offereings and F&M University.
A globally experienced leader with over 25 years of professional background in whole system thinking, ecological planning, and sustainable design, Chad is leading the farm business modeling for the projects.
“I believe that a resilient systems approach in our built environment – informed by the pattern and process of nature – will be an economically robust business model of the future. We must understand land and people as a positive relationship that enables them both to thrive in the future.”
Cheryl Love, RLA, does not seek out the limelight, but it found her as she and other “Women of Influence” were honored by the Central Penn Business Journal. The awards are based on experience, integrity and leadership. Cheryl is the Director of Landscape Architecture, specializing in Land Planning. For many years, she has been the lone female partner at ELA Group, Inc, which she has since been integral in developing ELA into an Employee Owned Company (ESOP). Cheryl is a gifted Landscape Architect with passion and energy for making the community great, through the project she leads and civic causes she supports. Cheryl focuses on sustainable designs, responsible use of water resources, and energy efficient designs. She sees Ramboland as an extension of all these things.
Elizabeth W. Baldwin, P.E. is an experienced Senior Professional Engineer (P.E.) and Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the civil engineering industry. Elizabeth is a professional skilled in Stormwater Management Design and Implementation, Land Development, DEP Permitting, and Erosion Control. Elizabeth feels this project is an important contribution to the industry and regulations due to the ways in which it is future facing. She feels this project will be an example for development to come to show how combining site stormwater and water systems can be sustainable and beneficial for all.
Erin's goal is to leave every place better than the way it was found, in both professional and personal life. While in college, Erin designed buildings that met the net zero energy standard and strived to achieve Living Building Challenge certification. Erin has a very strong passion for high performance buildings and believes architectural professionals play an important role in demanding and producing a more sustainable built environment. In this vein Erin worked for Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina, serving as a laborer and project manager who helped build 50 houses in just one year. Erin has been aspiring to live a zero waste and vegan lifestyle for over six years in an effort to reduce her ecological footprint as much as possible. Erin is leading the effort to produce the final permit documents for the Ramboland this year.
Frank Sherman was a leader in the national green building movement, an architect, sustainability director, and food systems entrepreneur. He advocated for the inclusion of food systems on Ramboland both to make the scope of the project more whole, but also to create a means of better utilizing the clean water and energy excesses it can create for the good of both the community and the operational financial self-sufficiency of the project. He is missed.
UPDATE: Throughout my career, I have positioned myself as a community leader first, team player second, entrepreneur third. My passion is connecting with people and creating networks to uplift the underserved. Ive directed this soul passion towards my intellectual passions which include anatomy, nutrition, mental health and spirituality. The intersection of these interests have led me to acquire wide variety of skillsets having participated in a variety of fields: from customer service, food service, child care and educational curriculum building to plumbing, HVAC and light electrical work, project management, event planning, administration, staff/volunteer coordination and relationship building with like minded organizations. If my warm nature and strong work ethic aligns well with the needs outlined for your Company, then I am eager to contribute my talents.
A founding member of Team Rambo, Jesse has been the voice of construction innovation from the start. "Can't" isn't in his vocabulary. As founder of Longivew Structures, a leader in deep green and high end residential building in the Lancaster region, Jesse and Co will see this project through to its full materialization.
Jim Remlin is a Associate Principal at Sherwood and manages the Atlanta office. He specializes in the oversight and development of projects with goals focused on water management, improved site circulation, green infrastructure integration and utility routing. He has successfully supported projects from master-planning through construction documentation, bidding/negotiation and construction administration. In order to evaluate and achieve the clients’ goals and vision, Jim manages direct coordination with project architects, landscape architects and planners in addition to local and federal permitting agencies. Jim has worked on a wide array of project types in assorted land typologies, including institutional, open space, residential, and mixed-use developments located throughout the United States and internationally. These projects involve client and design team guidance and support to properly evaluate low impact design initiatives and strategies, identify ecological restoration opportunities and reach toward LEED and sustainable goals for the design of the site’s land and water footprint.
John is a green architecture movement leader and pioneer, focused solely on regenerative thinking and approaches. Ramboland represents one of the only projects with enough merit to keep John from fully retiring. John is supporting the project by seeing it through the final design and permitting phases of the house and initial.
A lifelong leader in education systems throughout Pennsylvania, and now leading educators to reinvent the education system itself via his role at Drexel University's Doctorate of Education program, John sees Ramboalnd as the important first example of the sort of community educational infrastructure we need in every neighborhood. He is thus working to integrate the project with curriculum and learning institutions locally and regionally.
Bringing both a passion for nourishing innovative, sustainable, and regenerative projects, and the capability to connect capital to worthy projects, John has been supporting the Ramboland project for several years, helping to strategize around the underlying financial dynamics amongst the housing, food, and energy systems.
Kirby Smith and his wife Suria have led an innovative and practice-leading company, Sunkirb Ideas, for many years. Kirby is a technologist and innovator in connecting built-environment management systems with interfaces people with any level of ability can use to manage their spaces and systems. Kirby has been supporting Ron and Ramboland to help Ron in his current living situation, and maximize the independence yielded by the Ramboland design.
Kris has had a decorated career in industry leading companies, including Integral Group (now called Introba), Glumac, Tesla, and Ecovie. He is a world-leading expert on deep-green water system engineering, including expertise in rainwater collection, treatment, reuse, quality, and efficiency. Kris is a long-time member of Team Rambo.
Luke Morton is HYA’s sustainability manager and graduated from Stanford University with a B.Sc. in Earth Systems and an M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. During his studies, he worked for a number of building energy organizations. At the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington DC, he supported the creation of a carbon-based standard that was incorporated into the LEED criteria. At the Rocky Mountain Institute in Boulder, CO, he worked on evaluating the effectiveness of Automated Demand Response Systems (“smart” thermostats). At Southface Energy Institute, in Atlanta, GA, Luke inspected over 500 new single-family houses as a HERS Rater for ENERGY STAR and EarthCraft House certifications. With Viron Energy Services in Oakland, CA, Luke led the energy audit of the entire Community College District of San Mateo, including College of San Mateo, Cañada College, and Skyline College. In his free time, Luke enjoys baking desserts in his solar oven for FGY’s Tuesday lunches, playing ukulele in a local bluegrass band and presenting to architects and contractors statewide. He is now a father of two!
Marcus has been an international leader in the green building movement and energy optimization for three decades. His passion for how things things can support and integrate with social and food systems, and via a regenerative approach, has attracted him to contributed in several ways to Ramboland. He is leading the team's efforts around food system partnerships. He's also passionate about working in his local community, and lives near the Ramboland site.
Once upon a time, Ron Rambo had the idea to build a green demonstration project on his mother's land, and after talking about that around town to a couple of people, he was introduced to Max, a green building and regenerative practice leader who grew up near Ron's home. The two of them have been conspiring to make this project happen ever since.
Michael J. Paul, FACI, has more than 40 years of construction and engineering experience and is a recognized leader in the concrete industry. He currently serves as Principal Structural Engineer for Larsen & Landis, Inc., based in Philadelphia, PA. In this role, he oversees the engineering, documentation, and management of structural engineering for commercial, institutional, industrial, recreational, and residential projects. Paul’s experience includes troubleshooting, repair, restoration, and rehabilitation of existing concrete structures, in addition to new structure design.
Namesake and initiator of the Ramboland project, Ron lives with cerebral palsy, and all the ways our society succeeds and fails to support an independent and livable way of life. He is a social butterfly, and passionate about the environment, as well as making the world a better place, especially for those facing similar challenges in a society that does yet know how to support them.
Sam believes in architecture as profoundly unique form of human expression, with the ability to impact both humanity and the planet for better, or worse. He feels strongly that it should do the first.
Sam lives a slow life in Lynchburg, VA where he and his wife operate a small design studio focusing on single family residential architecture and interiors. He enjoys spending time in nature, weight training, obsessing over building science, technical construction details, and a cold beer on the porch. He has lead the final visualization efforts for RAMBOLAND.
Highly ambitious team member looking to better everyone around them as well as himself. Quick learner and very adaptable. Open to new opportunities and adventures. Job history is extremely varied with success occurring in each position held. Feel free to pick his brain.
Over the years an incredible cast of pro-bono contributors have provided titanic support from every perspective; including Brian Oram, Brian Falcon, Tyler Stull, Heather Medlin, Jason Loiselle, Justin Bond, Tracy Buchholz, Scott Pusey, Tyler Thumma, Stull Investment / FLOW, Josie Plaut, CityCoHo, and more.
Theresa Jordan is a graduate of Drexel University’s Urban Strategy masters program, with a concentration in community-based development and sustainable design. Her academic research focused on the regenerative potential of urban public space development. She has a background in business administration and human factors psychology.
Thomas W. Devenney, P.E. is the Director of the Water/Wastewater Engineering Department at ELA Group, Inc. His responsibilities include overseeing the water and wastewater engineering design and project management. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Systems Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, Thomas has an educational background in air pollution, ground pollution, and water pollution control and values the opportunity to be involved with a project that seeks opportunities to mitigate its carbon footprint and institute water conservation practices. Thomas is also passionately committed to the project because its attitude toward nutrients and management of resources is the direction we need to go if we're going to only solve, but dissolve our "waste" water challenges.
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Support the future of open learning. Your donation helps us keep this project free, accessible, and growing for everyone. Every contribution — big or small — makes a difference.