Tammy’s Green Resume

Frog Rock Design Green Expertise

Ann and Tammy currently work together on energy efficient designs for Custom Homes, Remodels/Additions and Multi-family housing. Frog Rock Design is a member of “Not So Big House” and The Passive House Alliance. Ann and Tammy are both Certified Green Professionals through the National Home Builders Association and ANSI. Frog Rock Design has designed numerous “Green” Homes in the region. Many of them have been Passive Solar homes which use the sun to heat the home in the winter and utilizing shade elements and super insulation to keep the house cool in the summer. Their many years of specializing in home design gives them the expertise to help their clients balance aesthetics, budget and energy efficiency.

Tammy’s Green Resume

Tammy is passionate about both the aesthetics and science of sustainable design. This begins with proper site integration for utilization of the sun for passive solar, taking advantage of views and designing a building that can flow seamlessly from the inside to the outside. Then the thermal efficiency geek side comes to assess which building systems to integrate into a project (wall and roof thermal dynamics and selection of any special systems like PV solar, geothermal or solar hot water). She is a NAHB Certified Green Professional, worked on the “The Epicenter” (the original project which led to the creation of the LEED Certification system). She uses Energy Star and HERS Modeling as tools during the design phase of her projects and is familiar with both LEED and NAHB Certification processes. As a Assistant Adjunct Professor at Montana State University school of Architecture, she has also taught courses on sustainability issues.

In 2011 as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Montana State University, Tammy taught a graduate course called “Green Dwelling-Sustainable Design for the Mainstream Residential Market”. This course used the NHAB Green Certification and LEED Certification Systems as an outline for creating small, affordable and sustainable homes. The course brought in many of Bozeman’s leading expert’s in Green Building Systems as consultants and guest speakers. Frog Rock Design works with many of the same experts in creating designs for their clients.

In 2005 as an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Montana State University, Tammy worked with her students on a Green Building Competition for a preschool in Palm Springs California. Under Tammy’s guidance students from her studio won two awards out of a possible ten given in this International competition.

Tammy’s passion for sustainable design began as a student acquiring her M-Arch degree at Montana State University.  She had the opportunity to collaborate with the leading National and International Green Building Experts on an $80 million think tank building called the “Epi-center”  which was to be built on the campus at Montana State University. Over the course of two years these experts met at Montana State to discuss and define the nature of “green” and sustainability and focusing on issues such as zero-emissions, active solar, geothermal and aqua-culture water re-use systems to allow the prototype building to be self sustaining.

Upon graduation Tammy was hired by the local firm of record for the MSU Epicenter Building and coordinated the student services and spaces that were to be included in the building. Tammy continued to work as a team member for five years helping to produce the MSU Epicenter Document that was the spring board for many local green projects such as the Bozeman Public Library and the beginning of the documentation for the National Green Building Councils LEED certification process. The MSU Epicenter Document included Tammy’s watercolor illustrations. She jointly formed Frog Rock Design with Ann Orser to bring these concepts to smaller scale residential work that is her current passion.