Established in 1854 near the banks of the Red River in a small town called Lebanon, Okla., sat an abandoned, two-story brick structure that once served as a boarding school for Chickasaw Nation girls, an orphanage, then as a manual labor school where Chickasaw children learned agriculture, horticulture, homemaking, sewing, knitting, cooking and housekeeping.  Steeped in Chickasaw history, the structure, named the Burney Institute, had fallen into disrepair when it was abandoned sometime after 1910.

Shildan’s terracotta rainscreen and sunscreen systems have been featured on more than 300 institutional projects worldwide, in collaboration with such architects as Renzo Piano, FXFowle, and COOKFOX among countless others. 

Constructing its first ever net-zero energy house was not without challenges for Marc Rutenberg Homes, as the Florida-based luxury builder was intent on using sustainable materials that could garner the project a LEED Platinum certification and yet also remain true to the elegant Mediterranean aesthetic for which the company is known.