People are invited to “Dream in Green” with professionals, government officials, educators and students at the inaugural Plain Green Conference on Sustainability Sept. 25-26 in Sioux Falls.

The Plain Green Conference began Sept. 25 and continues from 8 a.m. Ð 12:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26 at the Washington Pavilion, 301 S. Main Ave.

Conference activities include presentations on sustainable architecture and promoting “green” lifestyles, workshops and opportunities to wine, dine and network.

Two of the conference speakers include artist Matthew Moore and architect Shane Coen.

Moore will offer the opening keynote address Sept. 25 and describes himself as an artist, son of a farmer and farmer.

After witnessing the destruction of 400 acres of 70-year old citrus trees on his family farm in Arizona, Moore turned his attention to creating physical representations of rural and metropolitan areas colliding. His current project, Rotations: Moore Estate, is his largest to date.

The Moore Estate project is a one-third scale, organic reconstruction of a housing subdivision built over a previously owned section of his family's farm. Moore planted sorghum to represent houses and black bearded wheat to identify roads.

Coen will offer the keynote address on Sept. 26.

Coen is the founder of a nationally renowned landscape architecture practice with studios in Minneapolis and New York City. In 2003 Coen and his firm received a Progressive Architecture Citation for redesigning Mayo Woodlands, a new residential community in Rochester, Minn.

The award is given for revolutionary reinterpretation of a standard subdivision and has only been presented once before since the competition's inception 50 years ago.

The conference is a collaborative event organized by faculty and students at South Dakota State University and Koch-Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls. It is dedicated to educating and encouraging people to practice sustainability, the effort to conserve an ecological balance in the environment by avoiding depletion of natural resources.

Further information, a conference program and a registration form are available at www.plaingreenorg