University of Minnesota Deep Winter Greenhouse tour available

The U of M has been working on greenhouses to allow for year round growing in Minnesota (or similar climates).  It's called a Deep Winter Greenhouse.  They use passive solar design and underground gravel bed heat storage.  You can contact them to get on their mailing list.  I was sent a flier about an upcoming tour on April 4th from 2-5 in Cold Spring MN but I don't know how to attach it.  To register, go to Eventbrite.

This should give Paul a huge wofati I-told-you-so moment...

Inside the referenced site, there's quite a few pdfs. One of them, here, is a guide for DIYers wanting to start a Deep Winter Greenhouse. In the section on construction costs, they discuss foundation options (see page 7), and mention that while a block foundation may last 100 years, a "post frame construction with subsurface plywood" may be a more cost effective option.

So, we have a University study acknowledging, in passing, foundation construction with wood posts in the ground. (I see Paul laughing.) Now, if they could only catch up with the decades old PAHS work that suggests earth berming the N/E/W sides of the structure and enclosing those berms with an insulated umbrella.

Oh wait... didn't John Hait's work originally happen at the University of Minnesota also? And it does seem they're still at it - see here, here, and here.

This is my first post here. Been prowling the forums for a while though. I am going to this event in hope to gain some insight and knowledge. We will be attempting to build a similar style greenhouse this spring with a mass rocket heater and attached chicken coop. I am also looking to network too! This year is the beginning of my journey into Permaculture!

Awesome, welcome to Permies Anthony.  Hopefully you'll type up a full report after your tour

I have read about similar ones they built elsewhere on the website.  They have quite a bit of information there. I am interested to see how well it works and what downfalls they have.

I still have to plan out the greenhouse we will be building here. I plan on making quite a few changes in materials as I will be getting most for free. I just want all the ideas I can get for a greenhouse I can use all year long.

I like what they're doing.  Lots of information and coming up with a repeatable design.  It seems like it's a bit resource intensive (cement, gravel, etc) but it could probably be adapted.  Take your time with the design phase and feel free to post about it here to get good advice from a bunch of people.