gb&d Issue 65: Winter 2021

G R E E N B U I L D I N G ISSUE 65

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D E S I G N

Looking Out Planning for the future with water conser vation and flexible design

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issue 65 V O L U M E 12 • W I N T E R 2 0 21

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The Morphable Office Gensler’s hypothetical office project looks at designing more meaningful experiences for workers.

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Flexible Health Care UCLA looks to a future with even more comfortable spaces that can easily transition.

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Better Brews How Sierra Nevada approaches sustainable brewing and an eco-friendly format for patrons

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Building Digital Skanska is leveraging data to make construction more efficient than ever before.

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On the Same Page Procore technology brings construction teams together in real time for better projects.

ON THE COVER Photo by Casey Dunn

PHOTO BY FEDERICO CAIROLI

content s

Products

Features

Practice

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Infinity Drains Designing barrier-free bathrooms

Projects 19

Powering Up Studio Gang reimagines a decommissioned power plant as a college and community resource.

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Stitched Together Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is redesigned to bring students together in an organic way.

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Outside the Box This child care center in South America allows young children to learn surrounded by nature.

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The Green School The Arc in Bali was designed entirely with bamboo, pushing the boundaries of sustainable design.

Modernfold Making the open office more flexible with horizontal and vertical dividing solutions Reinventing the Waiting Room Kimball International is changing the way we think about furniture and spaces across health care.

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At the Ground Floor Sherwin-Williams knows what’s beneath your feet matters, including at major breweries.

Mina Hasman The architect with SOM shares her take on sustainable, human-centric design.

The Equity of Outdoor Access Perkins&Will’s Chi Lee explores the need for—and challenges of—designing public outdoor spaces for everyone.

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Conversations Around Sustainability Erica Weeks of Hastings Architecture on communication and taking action

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Steam-Heated Buildings Salus shares how technology can help you manage your building.

128

Sound in Mass Timber Construction Maxxon on innovative solutions for controlling sound

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In the Trees Designing around a lightfilled space by a lake in New Jersey

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The Six Square House In New York, this unconventional residence combines modern and rustic materials in surprising ways.

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With Reverence to Water Lake|Flato designed the Courtyard House in El Paso as an entertainment showstopper.

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PHOTOS BY TK TK

PHOTOS FROM TOP: COURTESY OF STUDIO GANG; COURTESY OF INTERWOVEN; ALAN TANSEY

Editors’ Picks Wonderful wood creations that are sustainable, too

gb&d is sue 65

contributors COLLEEN DEHART

Editor-in-Chief Christopher Howe Associate Publisher Laura Heidenreich Managing Editor Laura Rote Art Director Kristina Walton Zapata Content Marketing Director Julie Veternick Marketing Manager Sophia Conforti Marketing Coordinator Lark Breen

ONLINE gbdmagazine.com gbdmagazine.com/digital-edition SUBSCRIPTIONS Online shop.gbdmagazine.com Email service@gbdmagazine.com gb&dPRO Online gbdmagazine.com/gbdpro Email info@gbdmagazine.com MAIL Green Building & Design 47 W Polk Street, Ste 100-285 Chicago, IL 60605

Editorial Interns Sierra Joslin Rafael Pico Contributors Chi Lee J. Livy Li Mikenna Pierotti Mike Thomas Jessica Zuniga

Printed in the USA. © 2021 by Green Advocacy Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

Green Building & Design (gb&d) is printed in the United States using only soy-based inks. Please recycle this magazine.

The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for product claims and representations.

The Green Building & Design logo is a registered trademark of Green Advocacy Partners, LLC.

(“Building Digital,” pg. 102; “On the Same Page,” pg. 106) is a freelance writer and social media manager based in Chicago. Her writing career began with journaling and amateur children’s books and evolved to newspapers, print magazines, and digital content. Her passion lies deep in her love for innovation, creativity, and respect for the planet we live on. When she isn’t focused on the written word, Colleen can be found chasing her two kids, two dogs, and (on rare occasion) two cats around the backyard.

MATT WATSON

(“Mina Hasman,” pg. 113) is a Chicago-based writer who specializes in creating researchbased stories on topics related to architecture, urban planning, and sustainable design. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a degree in journalism, Matt has more than seven years of experience working with numerous publications and nonprofits, including the Chicago Tribune and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

He previously lived in San Francisco, where he crafted written content for tech startups.

CAP GREEN

(“Powering Up,” pg. 19; “The Six Square House,” pg. 54) is a writer in Pittsburgh. She researched 19th century French literary characters as a Tow Fellow in France and continues to write about the relationship between literature and the environment. She works fulltime as the director of a nonprofit that provides charitable services internationally. Cap’s favorite stories are inspired by her Cajun French roots. She lives with her husband, younger daughter, a senior dog of undetermined breed, and a high maintenance pandemic puppy.

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Perkins+Will’s Chi Lee believes designers have a fundamental role to play in increasing access to outdoor spaces while balancing new amenities with respect for the history and diversity of a community’s existing assets. He looks at how designers can strike a balance. One project—a high-rise in downtown Austin that will include built-in outdoor public space on the ground floor—supports his ideas about how the private sector can help to create a more accessible network of public spaces. Outdoor Access, pg. 118 4

a long-standing Bridgehampton, New York property. The design uses six 24-by-24-foot modules to create continuous momentum between exterior roof ridges while roof eaves flow upward and downward along curves. The house has two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living spaces, an outdoor porch, and a garage. Living spaces open onto an entertainment oasis complete with central court, meadow, and pool house. Six Square House, pg. 54 2

5 Things

A hypothetical research project from Gensler imagines what

We Learned

the future office could be. The Morphable Office includes a facade made almost entirely of sliding glass doors, connecting employees to the outdoors. The proposal uses a community in Baltimore to measure its outcomes. The concept rethinks the office paradigm with a focus on sustainability, wellness, and experience—bringing in renewable energy, outdoor spaces, and more. Morphable Office, pg. 74

Behind-thescenes tidbits and fun facts we discovered making this issue

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architecture firm. She works across teams to bring sustainability goals to life beyond standard rating system facilitation and documentation. Hastings has certified more than 125 LEED projects across 18 states and works across a wide range of certifications systems, including the WELL Building Standard, Living Building Challenge, Fitwell, Energy Star, and LEED O+M Platform (Arc).

Conversations Around Sustainability, pg. 122 5

Infinity Drain’s Next Day Custom Linear Drains make linear drain wall-to-wall installation a reality fast. “The ideal linear drain installation is wall-to-wall and against-the-wall, but unfortunately a 36-inch wall is never exactly 36 inches, and when things are a bit off, custom drains are required for the perfect fit,” said Jonathan Brill, Infinity Drain president, in a press release.

Designers often won’t know they need custom until the project is in progress and then no one wants to wait. Now they can choose a next day turnaround. 6 Benefits, pg. 14

PHOTO BY ALAN TANSEY

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A 3,500-square-foot geometric home creates radial views on

Erica Weeks of Hastings Architecture in Nashville runs Hastings Sustainability Services—a business within the

company index

directory ISSUE 65 • WINTER 2021

ARCAT,

Modernfold,

pg. 132 arcat.com 203.929.9444

pg. 78, 131 modernfold.com/en-US 800.869.9685

Armstrong Ceiling Solutions,

Procore Technologies,

pg. 2 armstrongceilings.com/commercial 877.276.7876

pg. 106 Procore.com 866.477.6267

Infinity Drain,

SALUS North America, Inc., pg. 126

pg. 14 infinitydrain.com 516.767.6786

salusinc.com 888.387.2587 sales@salusinc.com

Kimball International,

Sherwin-Williams High Performance Flooring,

pg. 88 kimballinternational.com 800.482.1616

pg. 98 sherwin-williams.com/resin-flooring 800.524.5979

Maxxon, pg. 8, 128 maxxon.com 800.356.7887

Skyfold, pg. 78

skyfold.com/en-US 514.457.4767

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ACOUSTI-MAT,

®

SOUND CONTROL FOR MASS TIMBER MASS TIMBER DEMANDS SUPERIOR SOUND CONTROL Maxxon® Acousti-Mat® Systems offer acoustical floor/ceiling

solutions for Mass Timber Construction to meet or exceed sound code. Topped with a high-strength Maxxon Underlayment, the Acousti-Mat System significantly reduces both impact and airborne sound waves.

• UL Fire Rated Designs • Sound control solutions for any project and construction type • Over 300 Sound Tests The leaders. The innovators.

The name you can trust. maxxon.com

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PHOTOS BY TK TK

products

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Yves Behar Forust Collection

PHOTO COURTESY OF FUSEPROJECT

Reimagining wood byproducts like sawdust and lignin opened up a world of possibilities called Forust. Designer Yves Behar uses 3D printing to upcycle wood waste into beautiful tabletop pieces, like this Vine Vessel in Matte Natural Forustwood.

One of a set of four objects inspired by the natural and organic look and the elements that creates the form. The parts are grown from the same origin into different shapes and functions. FORUST.COM

“AS A DESIGNER I USE A LOT OF WOOD, AND BEING ABLE TO USE A PRODUCT MADE FROM SAWDUST AND LIGNIN IS AN AMAZING RESOURCE,” SAYS YVES BÉHAR.

Knock on Wood A quick look at some well-designed products that give us hope for a more sustainable future

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Mikodam DETA

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIKODAM

DETA, by Mikodam, is a sustainable, customizable acoustic wall and ceiling panel system available in wood (oak, teak, walnut), wool blend fabric (yellow, green, brick, blue, violet, beige, anthracite), and lacquer (gray, anthracite, white). DETA’s 3D geometric design provides sound scattering, and using this product on walls and ceilings will allow even distribution of sound preventing acoustical defects like acoustical glare, echo, or flutter echo. MIKODAM.COM

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editor s ’ pic k s

Vaarnii

PHOTOS BY JUSSI PUIKKONEN

“Nose-to-tail eating” inspired Vaarnii to use every part of a pine tree in their Finnish furniture. CEO Antti Hirvonen says you’ll typically find three parts in a pine tree—the knotless bottom that makes more expensive products, the partly knotted middle that often makes mid-priced items, and the knotty top third, which Vaarnii uses to make outdoor furniture. “Finnish design is often understood through the lens of modernism very much defined by Alvar Aalto and the extremely talented generation right after him,” Hirvonen says. “Our inspiration comes from Finnish vernacular design when items looked a certain way not because they were designed so, but rather because they filled a purpose— they were comfortable enough, could be made from local materials, withstood the weather conditions, et cetera.” Launched in 2021, Vaarnii’s first collection is made exclusively from wild Scots Pine—the most abundant wood in Finland. VAARNII.COM

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Martin Thübeck turned waste from a Swedish sawmill into modular furniture like this classic chair. When the designer learned that approximately 70% of all the logs that come into the birch sawmill were considered waste and burned, he was inspired to do better and struck up a partnership with the mill’s owner. “The Betula project pays tribute both to the single building block and also shows the potential in a material that is considered waste,” he says. For the Betula Chair, Thübeck combined the wood with rawhide, another waste product from the leather industry near the sawmill. MARTINTHUBECK.COM

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARTIN THÜBECK

Betula Chair

editor s ’ pic k s

New Mahogany

PHOTO COURTESY OF CARL HANSEN & SON

Carl Hansen & Son has reintroduced some of their most iconic designs in a new mahogany. Known for its deep, uniform color and grain characteristic, the mahogany additions present a beautiful, natural surface with reddish-brown hues for a feeling of comfort and warmth. The rich, red color of the wood lends a luxurious tone to some of Carl Hansen & Son’s most well-loved furniture designs—namely Hans J. Wegner’s iconic CH24 Wishbone Chair.

Each mahogany piece is crafted from FSCcertified wood. CARLHANSEN.COM

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6 Benefits of Linear Drains How Infinity Drain’s solutions can improve bathroom design

BY LAURA ROTE

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bene f it s o f

S

PHOTO COURTESY OF POLYCOR

Since 2007 Infinity Drain has been designing decorative shower drains for barrier-free bathrooms. “The barrier-free shower—also referred to as the walk-in shower, zero-threshold shower, or curbless shower—is a growing trend in bathroom design,” says Barbara Kratus-Stark, sales and marketing director for Infinity Drain.

What distinguishes this type of shower from another is it has no obstacle at the threshold to step or roll over. Kratus-Stark says barrier-free bathroom design is often achieved with a linear drain system and single-slope floor pitch. A linear drain is a channel or trench built into the floor of the shower. It collects the water and delivers it to the drain outlet, which can be anywhere along the channel length. “With the floor sloped in one direction, the water is aided by gravity and rushes to the far edge of the space, where it is then easily processed,” she says.

We talked to the Infinity Drain team about some of the reasons why designers should consider linear drains for their next projects.



PHOTO COURTESY OF INFINITY DRAIN

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1. TRULY BARRIER-FREE With no curb or barrier obstructing the entrance to the shower, you make for a more accessible bathroom for people of all ages and capabilities while removing the trip hazard.

Solutions like the Site Sizable Low Profile Linear Drain have a lower profile that helps minimize the floor height needed to achieve a curbless entry.

“When the shower flooring material must accommodate a drain and four-way pitch, architects will often specify smaller tile or cut large-format tile on a diagonal and then pie-piece it together around the drain,” Kratus-Stark says. “When the shower floor slopes uniformly in one direction, as it does in a barrier-free application, the limitations on tile size and slab material are eliminated. Large-format tiles, stone slabs, or any solid-surface material can be used without being compromised or broken down into smaller pieces.”

[1] The Slot Linear Drain from Infinity Drain was designed to disappear. The new drain has a narrow 3/8-inch drainage gap and comes in a range of finishes from stainless steel to matte Bback, with an easily accessible clean-out tray.

[2]

Barrier-free bathroom installation is simplified with the new Site Sizable Low Profile linear drain, seen here in satin bronze.

The drain’s lower profile helps minimize the floor height needed to achieve a curbless entry.

[3]

Infinity Drain also offers Next Day Custom for a perfectly aligned solution for wall-to-wall linear drain installation without the wait. Next Day Custom Linear Drains are available in lengths up to 72 inches in two finishes, three grate styles, and for all installation waterproofing methods.

2. MORE MATERIAL OPTIONS Kratus-Stark says barrier-free bathrooms enable architects to use materials that didn’t fit into a conventional center drain shower enclosure. The removal of physical boundaries at the shower eliminates the compartmentalization that before made the bathroom space feel smaller and broken up. “The move from a shower compartment with a standard center drain to a barrier-free shower with a linear drain affects the type of flooring that can be specified in the bathroom. The barrier-free solution offers architects the opportunity to use higher-end materials often found in ultra-modern interiors and five-star spas,” she says.

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And instead of having a bathroom broken up into distinct areas, the barrier-free shower creates a seamless transition between the shower space and the rest of the bathroom. This makes the entire bathroom feel larger, even though the total square footage of the space has not changed.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF INFINITY DRAIN

3. MAKE THE BATHROOM LOOK BIGGER

bene f it s o f

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4. PROLONG YOUR BATHROOM’S LIFE Linear drains are a long-term solution because you can make the entire bathroom waterproof and more durable. Plus, the barrier-free aspect means owners can age in place.

Kratus-Stark says it’s a no-brainer when you compare it to using cheaper materials that aren’t waterproof, aren’t long-lasting, and may require more maintenance later on.

5. MADE SUSTAINABLY

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Infinity Drain uses locally sourced and manufactured products with 91.2% recycled content and emphasizes energy-efficient improvements to their New York-based factory, including a new PVC roof and LED lighting.

Their CLEARCLAD e-coating process creates a closed loop, which reclaims nearly 100% of the water used in its low-VOC finishes.

“Infinity Drain’s priority is to be a sustainable provider of decorative drains,” says Infinity Drain President Jonathan Brill. “We have committed to reduce our impact on the environment as well as to enhance the overall wellness of our clients, employees, and trade professionals.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF POLYCOR

6. EASY TO CLEAN AND MAINTAIN Linear drains are as easy to maintain, Kratus-Stark says. The drains come with a hair basket and tool to pull out the grate for easy access, and water drains more efficiently— leading to less mishaps in the bath and less mildew to clean, she says. You can also switch out the linear drain decorative grate to a different style or a tile insert frame to update the look of your shower. g

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STUDIO GANG TURNS A DECOMMISSIONED POWER PLANT INTO A REMARKABLE CENTER FOR HEALTH AND WELLNESS.

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Powering Up Beloit College transforms Blackhawk Power Plant for new student and community programs.

WORDS BY CAP GREEN

PHOTOS BY TOM HARRIS

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When a college president passed a newly decommissioned power plant, he got an idea: Wouldn’t that space make for a great, much needed new campus fieldhouse? The new facility now has a running track, conference facility, batting cages, café, and more.

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The transformation of Powerhouse, a student union and recreational center at Beloit College, was a unique reuse design opportunity that embodied the core philosophy at Studio Gang—start a design with what’s already there. For the Powerhouse project, that meant a 120,000-square-foot decommissioned powerplant.

The impetus for the powerplant transformation came from Beloit President Scott Bierman on one of his routine runs around campus. “I had just gone past the existing Quonset Hut that was the campus fieldhouse, and I remember having the thought that it had long lived past its usable life,” Bierman says. “Then I jogged down Pleasant Street past the recently decommissioned Blackhawk Power Station, and I thought, ‘My gosh. I wonder if this could be used for a rec center.’”

Juliane Wolf, partner and design principal at Studio Gang, worked with Bierman and Beloit’s vision to transform the historical power plant into a human-use building for Beloit students and the surrounding community. While the large floor plan allows for impressive amenities like a running track, fitness level, conference facility, café, lecture hall, and batting cages, the immense layout needed to be reimagined in order to create welcoming spaces.

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“Sometimes with these industrial buildings there’s a scale and logic to the structure and envelope that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the health and well-being of human occupation,” Wolf says. By breaking down the scale and taking a playful approach to the robust and serious structure, Wolf was able to give the power plant a human quality that meets the needs of the college and community.

Wolf explains it was the “robust flexibility that was really unique for Powerhouse.”

Once the polluted, heavier equipment was removed from the building, the existing steel structure harnessed impressive load carrying capacity. Studio Gang used the building’s inherent strength to create unexpected design elements—like suspending a running track from the ceiling and adding an additional level to hold fitness equipment. “It’s using architecture to create that transformation on a spatial level in order to make it this environment you actually want to be in that doesn’t feel too overwhelming or too cold,” she says.

Studio Gang worked to highlight the origin of the historic building by keeping existing power plant elements in the design. The original smokestack, for example, now serves as a skylight, and a truss that was discovered by the contractor mid-project now has a glass facade to serve as a sightline between the

commercial

A pedestrian bridge connects Powerhouse to Beloit’s campus and helps students avoid Pleasant

Street below.

Powerhouse, with its original smokestack, sits along Rock River.

SITE DIAGRAM

DIAGRAM COURTESY OF STUDIO GANG

PROJECT: Beloit Powerhouse ARCHITECT: Studio Gang LOCATION: Beloit Completion: 2020 Size: 120,000 square feet Cost: ~$40 million Associate Architect: Angus Young Associates Electrical, Plumbing, and Structural Engineer: Angus Young Associates General Contractor: Corporate Contractors, Inc. Interior Design: Studio Gang Landscape Architect: Applied Ecological Services LEED Consultant: Angus Young Associates

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running track and pool. “That’s symptomatic of a reuse project,” Wolf says. “Especially buildings with a totally different use.”

Beloit College worked with Alliant Energy to ensure the historic building was not torn down, which ended up being a huge benefit in the building’s carbon emission performance. Dan Schooff, chief of staff at Beloit College, says one of Powerhouse’s impressive sustainable resources is the nearby Rock River. “The building is cooled and heated with a river-source geothermal system. The Rock River helps power the electric heat pumps, which reduces our use of fossil fuels. We use this system to cool and heat the building, mostly through radiant panels and radiant floor slabs.”

In the fieldhouse, fan-assisted natural ventilation keeps the area comfortable for active use. There are low-energy fans on the roof, and large hangar-like doors open at night to draw cool air into the space.

The structure itself also underwent a substantial, and somewhat invisible, sustainable upgrade with an improved envelope, new windows, and wall insulations that met the historic preservation standard. “Now we’re in the process of really testing the performance,” Wolf says. Alongside Beloit staff, Studio Gang is conducting a post-occupancy evaluation to see if the sustainable features keep the building at their target goal—up-to 50% below code requirements.

Beloit partnered with city, state, and federal governments to install a three-million-dollar river walk behind Powerhouse. g

Studio Gang transformed the building’s original smokestack into a skylight. A truss that was discovered by the contractor mid-project now has a glass facade to serve as a sightline between the running track and pool.

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Stitched Together How renovation at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing became the connective tissue of the community

WORDS BY SOPHIA CONFORTI PHOTOS BY ROBERT BENSON PHOTOGR APHY

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A double skin curtain wall system was used in the facade to not only control heat gain and glare but also allow a high level

of transparency. It was an environmental choice, Lasky says, one that also ties back to the building’s theme of connectivity.

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The design team considered low VOCs, natural daylight, acoustics, and energy efficiency when renovating the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

Connection. In an age of separation, the 2020 renovation to the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing aimed to bring people together.

Codesigned by Hord Coplan Macht and William Rawn Associates, the building upgrade was meant to open up the school not only to students but also the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore community at large. As it was, “The school was inward-focused, in a long, skinny building,” says Paul Lund, principal at Hord Coplan Macht. “It was hard for the school to play a reciprocal role within the broader campus context and within the city itself. A lot of the school’s research projects involve working with different agencies and groups within Baltimore, so there are lots of nurses going out but no way to invite people from the community in.”

Even if someone was invited, it was easy to get lost: Standing on the street looking at the original building, you could barely see the front door.

One of the first design decisions was to make a grand entrance worthy of the best master’s program for nursing in the country, of which it is. Big letters announce the school now, with a clearly defined welcome area both inside and out. “It seems like a

small thing, but making the building accessible and open—telling people that it’s okay to come visit—was important,” Lund says.

To figure out how else they could improve the student experience, the design team conducted a lengthy feasibility study before any building took place. “We met with students, faculty, and staff,” says Sam Lasky, principal at William Rawn Associates. “We spent time just listening to people.”

After months of listening, what they learned was students thought the building felt dark. They wanted access to researchers and faculty but felt there was a barrier between them. The team also discovered the School of Nursing operated on an active, group-based learning model, where students often had to meet up to work outside of class, but because of the long, thin shape of the building, there was no large central gathering space that enabled them to do so.

“Students were having to have their study groups on the fire stairs,” Lasky says.

As such, the main focus of the renovation became creating a variety of spaces both inside and outside the classroom where students and staff could learn together, collaborate loudly, or study quietly.

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SITE PLAN

PROJECT: Johns Hopkins School of Nursing ARCHITECT: William Rawn Associates & Hord Coplan Macht LOCATION: Baltimore, MD

what Lund and Lasky refer to as “the hub,” a light-filled atrium of dedicated student space. “One of the things we uncovered in our research is that it’s so important for students to get a sense of belonging and learn from each other,” Lund says. The hub has levels of privacy with huddle rooms and open seating and also overlooks the coveted courtyard—one of very few open, natural spaces in the area. For that reason, the transparent facade was intentional: Even if students had their noses buried in textbooks, the design team wanted students to be able to look up, soak in the daylight, and see the greenery outdoors. “A lot of elements of what we did were based on a research project we were involved with on biophilia, which showed that biophilia reduced student stress and increased student cognition,” Lund says.

But mental health wasn’t the only type

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of wellness the team paid attention to.

Students’ cardiovascular health was also taken into account—a fitting concept for a health-minded building. Instead of adding another elevator, the team put in a large stair system that snakes its way throughout the school—a design element that encourages walking and also directly inserts you into the flurry of the student experience.

Health care, even outside of a hospital setting, is an intense experience after all.

In a time when there has been an eagle-eye focus on frontline medical workers, the updated School of Nursing serves as an educational safe haven nurturing the next generation of nurses. “The students here were so incredible, with so much energy, vitality, and enthusiasm,” Lasky says. “It was a privilege to build a building that would help them maintain that incredible generosity of spirit.” g

“A lot of students don’t necessarily live nearby, so if you come, you’re there for a long period of time,” Lasky says. During the design phase, the team thought, “How can this feel like a home away from home?”

DRAWING COURTESY OF HORD COPLAN MACHT

Completion: 2020 Size: 42,000 square feet Structural Engineer: Hope Furrer Associates Civil Engineer: RKK Contractor: Gilbane AV/IT: Spexsys Interior Designer: Hord Coplan Macht Lighting Consultant: Mag-Lighting Design Landscape Architect: Hord Coplan Macht

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Outside the Box How architects in South America are using biophilia in design for education and child care

WORDS BY JESSICA ZUNIGA PHOTOS BY FEDERICO CAIROLI

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Equipo de Arquitectura’s rammed earth Child Care Center gives children the opportunity to learn using their senses— from the proximity to open courtyards to the natural earth walls.

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Green roofs are one way the building lowers daily electricity use and keeps the space comfortable and cool.

The Child Care Center in the city of Villeta in Paraguay is designed as an alternative to the traditional closed classroom setting.

The center is made of four large spaces—two classrooms, a dining room, and an administrative area. Each is open to the outside on both sides so patio spaces full of vegetation are never out of reach. The rooms can become fully enclosed with glass walls during bad weather, but children and staff alike never lose touch with the outdoors.

The Child Care Center fills a need in the industrial driven city, where there are few care opportunities for working parents with children under the age of 4. Partnering with a local manufacturer, the Equipo de Arquitectura team designed a space where young children in the community will not only be taken care of but thrive, learn, and grow along the way.

Horacio Cherniavsky, a founding member of Equipo de Arquitectura, says the design pulls inspiration from alternative methodologies of learning like Montessori and Reggio Emilia—both of which value independent sensory learning in children. The Equipo de Arquitectura team put an emphasis on access to the natural surroundings in order to create a rich environment to learn in. “We wanted children to be in contact with nature and natural materials at all times,” Cherniavsky says. “We did not want to create the typical classroom where you feel you are inside a closed space.”

The walls you do find in the center are made using a rammed earth technique, using primarily raw earth mixed with 5% cement to avoid erosion from rainwater. This way, the load bearing walls can be exposed to the natural climate for years to come. “It’s a structural element within the project but also an element that builds the space,” Cherniavsky says. “Raw earth provides information. The walls have a special texture, special moisture, and build a special atmosphere.”

The rammed earth structure helps create a diversity in textures, colors, and smells, too, all aligning with the building’s methodolo-

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gies. While the center’s layout is simple, this is one example of how the architects value enrichment of the child’s experience in the design process.

“It’s a sensory type of learning,” Cherniavsky says. “The experience of the space is what helps the child learn from his or her senses.”

Cherniavsky says rammed earth structures are growing in popularity in Paraguay, where brick has long been the favorable building material. While bricks are also made of earth, they are baked in wood burning ovens for long periods of time. Since rammed earth doesn’t require time to bake, and the raw earth is often abundant and nearby, builders save financially and lower their ecological impact during construction.

On most days in the center, fresh air and

sunlight moves through the classrooms. Beyond the courtyard gardens and use of a low environmental impact building material, the center also utilizes cross ventilation, natural lighting, and green rooftops to incorporate the outdoors, cut costs, and preserve energy.

By discouraging the use of artificial lighting, the space is designed to be a more comfortable environment you can easily spend a whole day in and needing less electricity to function. In a similar way, cross ventilation keeps the building cool naturally and give you the benefit of fresh air. The green roofs help achieve this as well by absorbing sunlight to maintain stable temperatures inside.

On cloudy days, they absorb rainwater and keep it in their soil, reducing the amount of runoff onto the building itself. g

On each side of the classrooms inside the building, the walls open to green courtyard spaces, maintaining a connection to the outdoors. Even during the rainy season, glass panels maintain that feeling of openness. “You are connected to the

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outside and to the patio, which is full of vegetation,” says Horacio Cherniavsky, a founding member of Equipo de Arquitectura. “We intended to make the experience of the place feel very comfortable and connected to nature.”

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By discouraging the use of artificial lighting, the space is designed to be a comfortable environment you can easily spend a whole day in, needing less electricity.

DRAWING COURTESY OF EQUIPO DE ARQUITECTURA

FLOORPLAN

PROJECT: Child Care Center ARCHITECT: Equipo de Arquitectura LOCATION: Villeta, Paraguay Completion: 2021 Size: 1,475 feet Client: Las Tacuaras SA Landscape: Lucila Garay

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The Green School This Bali School has led by example with sustainable education since 2008.

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The Arc’s design was inspired by a mammal’s ribcage.

While our own ribs are stabilized by a layer of muscle and skin, the structure’s long arches are held in place by tensioned anticlastic gridshells. Looking up from inside it’s hard to imagine

this layer is supporting the arches draping overhead.

“Biologically, these highly tensile microscopic tendons transfer forces from bone to bone. In the Arc, bamboo splits transfer forces from arch to arch,” says Jorg Stamm, the design conceptor.

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DRONE PHOTO BY SASHA DE LAAGE ; DRAWING COURTESY OF IBUKU

The campus of the Green School in Bali is dense and green, with structures made from natural materials using both ancient techniques and modern technology. At the center of an open field, bordered by palm trees, stands the school’s largest and newest structure—The Arc. Standing underneath the Arc’s gracefully sloped roof you feel like you’re in the belly of a whale, staring up at detailed weavings and large arches. The Arc spans more than 60 feet across and reaches 45 feet tall. The structure is built entirely with bamboo; its weaving arches are not only aesthetically beautiful but an impressive feat of engineering.

Architecture firm IBUKU has designed the Green School’s buildings since the school opened in 2008, and they’ve built a world-renowned reputation for their innovative ways of working with natural materials. The Arc itself mimics shapes found in nature since the beginning of time, while also being a new type of building entirely.

When Green School founders Cynthia and John Hardy first conceived of the project, they too dreamt of building something new—a campus made from bamboo. More than a decade later, as the school prospered, the founders set out to build the largest assembly space on-campus.

The design concept stems first from its purpose as not just a place to meet, but as a school gymnasium. The vertical height clearance was non-negotiable as it was vital to meet local code requirements and to play sports unobstructed. The architects needed to have adequate natural light and airflow while also providing a sense of enclosure to the space. The arch of the bamboo inside reflects the path of a ball when being thrown through the air.

In its earliest stages, the simple solution was to use a roof over curved trusses. But the

design team refused to settle for something so straightforward. Trusses were more likely to challenge height requirements and disrupt the feeling of unity they set out to achieve.

Instead, the final design is made using a series of anticlastic gridshells to bind intersecting arches and create the carefully calculated shape.

“The gridshells use shape stiffness to form the roof enclosure and provide buckling resistance to the parabolic arches,” says Neil Thomas, the project’s structural engineer. “The two systems together create a unique and highly efficient structure, able to flex under load and allow the structure to redistribute weight, easing localized forces on the arches.

As a material, bamboo creates infinite variability when high precision engineering is applied. IBUKU and the Green School invested a lot of time and research answering every question they could think of before moving on to the engineering stage. The structural engineer, Atelier One, was in constant collaboration throughout multiple rounds of structural testing.

“The concepted structure for The Arc is totally unprecedented. Embarking on a design never before executed required some bravery and optimism,” says Rowland Sauls, the project’s architect. “The IBUKU architects started with modeling all the possibilities of what the building could be before exacting the shape and feeling.”

The Arc is a great example of how broadly natural materials can be used when combined with modern design and construction. This structure shows us how organic materials can be reimagined for their strengths to fit today’s architecture needs. As many across the globe are pushing for sustainable alternatives, the IBUKU team hopes this project can be a reference point for design teams in the future. g

The Green School in Bali, sometimes referred to as the bamboo school, is a private, international school that teaches pre-K through high school. The campus highlights the natural environment and teaches sustainable practices.

ELEVATION

PROJECT: The Arc at Green School ARCHITECT: IBUKU LOCATION: Bali, Indonesia Completion: 2021 Size: 8,180 square feet Structural Engineer: Atelier One Concept: Jörg Stamm

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The multipurpose building was engineered to survive catastrophic events like storms and earthquakes.

The Arc was not only designed as a gym for children to use but also as an event space. The design team wanted to make a building that the entire community would enjoy being in together.

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The Six Square House This geometric home creates radial views on a long-standing Bridgehampton, New York property.

Modern, sustainable features at Six Square House include an exterior rainscreen that protects the waterproofing envelope of the home and meadows of local wildflowers that serve as a pollinator

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habitat. The residence is made up of six 24-by-24-foot gabled modules on a two-acre lot. The home is clad in deep gray, slatted Accoya wood, whose striations enhance the roofscape’s dynamic edges and arcs.

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The nondirectional nature of Six Square House is mysteriously attractive and purposefully designed to feel settled amidst the existing historic buildings on the family’s Bridgehampton property.

Young Projects—no stranger to highend residential designs—created the home in six 24-by-24-foot squares to offer radial views from the new construction to the 1850s farmhouse, existing pool house, and pool on the site. “There was a primary intent to have all of the buildings on the property have a good relationship with one another as well as good connectivity throughout the site,” says Noah Marciniak, licensed architect and partner at Young Projects.

Marciniak drew inspiration for Six Square House from a mathematical tessellation pattern. “It’s primarily composed of squares, but it also has a triangular symmetry to it,” he says. Four squares are continuous and hold the expected interior elements of a home—a living room, kitchen, primary bedroom suite, and guest suite—while the remaining two squares serve as an open-air outdoor dining area and detached garage. The triangle, which the square design rotates around, is used as an outdoor courtyard that is visible from inside the home.

It was important to have all areas of the property feel appropriately connected to one another both in a physical sense but also in a visual sense, so Young Projects paid special attention to view corridors and sightlines that go from one building to another. “It’s not a box with a front and sides,” Marciniak says. “It has lots of fronts that are oriented in lots of different directions.” The rotational aspect of the home creates impressive views and seemingly effortless connectivity to the surrounding features. “It feels like a porous connected element rather than a divided element on the property.”

Young Projects preserved gorgeous grove trees, selectively added landscape, and used traditional structural elements that help Six Square House feel very intentional and well-settled in its Bridgehampton scen-

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A polished concrete path leads to a triangular courtyard.

The slatted roof aligns with slatted exterior walls to create long, vertical striations that begin at the roof ridge

and cascade to the ground. Roof and exterior walls are constructed from charred, stained, and sealed Accoya rainscreen and Western Red Cedar rainscreen.

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Durable and lowmaintenance engineered woods play off of the farmhouse’s historic cedar facade.

Architectural Studio Young Projects chose the exterior palette with the cedar of the farmhouse as a starting consideration, finding the black very striking and contemporary in its initial appearance.

The material eventually weathers to a really nice platinum gray, the design team said.

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The home’s interior is sheathed in alabasters and whites. Walls and ceilings are gypsum plaster, flooring and millwork is white oak and ash, and countertops and selected shelving are light marble (Calacatta Caldia, Calacatta Gold, Mountain White, and Olympian White).

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PROJECT: Six Square House ARCHITECT: Young Projects LOCATION: Bridgehampton, NY Size: 3,500 square feet Structural Engineer: Silman General Contractor: Taconic Builders Styling: Matter Made, Young Projects Landscape Architect: Coen+Partners Rainscreen Supplier: reSAWN TIMBER co.

Kitchen & Bathroom Millwork: Chapter+Verse

ery. The beauty of the property is framed within the interior windows of the home, creating gorgeous sightlines that connect to other elements on the site. The living room windows, for example, look out to a longstanding gnarled oak tree and the existing front house, while the primary and guest bedrooms are positioned to capture the beauty of a beech tree. Even the origination of the plinth, the concrete slab that floats above the ground on certain sides of the house, came from addressing how the building sat on the site without affecting the existing topography. The home’s traditional pitched roof pays homage to the pitched roof of the existing farmhouse on the property, while the home’s tessellation pattern, Accoya rainscreen, and western red cedar rainscreen invoke a modern feel.

“The starting point for this is a barn,” Marciniak says. “It’s a pitched roof with very simple volume.”

Beautiful sustainable features—like the exterior rain screen that protects the waterproofing envelope of the home and meadows of local wildflowers that serve as a pollinator habitat—help establish Six Square House as a modern, progressive home whose architecture holds the same interest and beauty as its historic counterparts. g

DRAWING COURTESY OF YOUNG PROJECTS

Nature is at every turn inside Six Square House. The living room windows look out to an old, gnarled oak tree, while the primary and guest bedrooms are positioned to capture the beauty of a beech tree.

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With Reverence to Water Inside the Lake|Flato–designed Courtyard House in El Paso

The Courtyard House organizes the family’s activities—a pool, an orchard, an outdoor kitchen, and 8-foot overhangs shading expanses of glass ensure a welcoming vibe. Inside the concrete home, two

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offices, a home gym, a spa, and a garage for a car collection make a meaningful destination.

Interior walls of quarter-sawn walnut and slatted wood ceilings contrast with the harder exterior surfaces.

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The home’s materiality— including concrete, stone, and Corten steel—connects the project to the existing home through a large courtyard. The courtyard acts as storm water retention and is defined by gabion walls, which are seen throughout the project to define indoor/outdoor courtyard spaces.

The Courtyard House stands like a mirage in the suburban desert of El Paso, Texas. Designed by Lake|Flato Architects, the sleek concrete building, adorned with Corten overhangs and punctuated by gabion walls, hides an expansive courtyard that both offers refuge from and a celebration of the elements.

One of the most striking parts of the house is a large showroom-garage hybrid that houses the owner’s collection of vintage cars. The pristine, shiny vehicles are displayed in stark contrast to the coppery, industrial doors and rugged concrete interiors of the house, tucked into a cathedral-esque space right off of the main courtyard.

Steve Raike, a partner at Lake|Flato, points to the showroom as his favorite moment in the building. “It might be my favorite space, but that’s less about the architecture and more about the cars,” he laughs. “I’m a bit of a car nut.” His other favorite space? The building’s namesake courtyard. “You’re in this des-

ert environment, but you look out and see this courtyard that feels very verdant. The ability to be in a place like El Paso that’s bright, arid, and sunny and to be able to look out into that courtyard space is just a real treat.”

Lake|Flato’s founding design principles revolved around the environment; the firm aims to respond to the site (both built and natural), from landscape to materiality to aesthetics. In the firm’s own words, they “have found the desire to build in partnership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant.”

In the case of the Courtyard House, water became one of the biggest environmental factors to work with. Where the average annual rainfall in the US is around 38 inches, El Paso gets around a quarter of that. “El Paso is one of the most forward-looking communities in the country with regard to water conservation because it’s a very precious resource for them, and a very scarce resource,” Raike says.

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To manage this scarcity, the house’s namesake courtyard and its permeable driveway were designed with a stormwater retention system that has the capacity to retain and then gradually release some 69,000 gallons of water into a groundwater system. “That approach to water permeated other things—a landscape design using drought tolerance and native plant species ... right down to the fact that the pool has a retractable cover to limit evaporation,” Raike explains.

Another elemental challenge was relentless sun out in the Chihuahuan Desert. The building has a photovoltaic array installed on roofs that generates 39 kilowatts onsite. Passively, the building was designed with 8-foot overhangs that protect both interior living spaces from the heat and their mechanical systems from overworking. The materiality of the Courtyard House reflect the locale; the overhangs are constructed with Corten steel, a material that’s especially durable in dry climates. They’re supported by slender columns

made from oilfield pipes, a nod to industrial Texas, that gives the building a refined but industrial look. The courtyard is defined by gabion walls made with local stone from the Franklin Mountains. “The craftspeople did an amazing job building them,” Raike says, “Watching them work was a real treat; they could just look at a stone and put it in like a jigsaw puzzle.”

If oil fields and the desert landscape all nod to Texan culture, so too does the firm’s approach to sustainability. Raike says Lake |Flato has been designing homes in Texas for more than 35 years. “I think it’s just a part of our DNA to not only think about water as a precious resource, but also to think of the impact that architecture has on the environment,” he says. “In central Texas, where we do a lot of our work, water is the topic of conversation these days. We have, for a very long time, been designing and trying to look for systems that can treat water with the sort of reverence that we do here in Texas.” g

When a family outgrew its original cast-inplace concrete house on El Paso’s west side and the lot in back became available, the homeowners purchased it with the idea of keeping the main house and designing another one behind it where the family of four could entertain.

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SITE PLAN

PROJECT: Courtyard House ARCHITECT: Lake|Flato Architects LOCATION: El Paso

Designed to respond to the context of El Paso’s formidable and diverse topographical personality, the Courtyard House is a place for family to gather and entertain. Sited next to the client’s existing home of cast-in-place concrete, this

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new addition was envisioned as an entertaining and living space. With the Franklin Mountains as the backdrop and a suburban neighborhood as the immediate context, a large-scale addition was appropriate to the vast setting.

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DRAWING COURTESY OF LAKE | FLATO ARCHITECTS

Completion: 2020 Size: 11,674 square feet Engineer: Architectural Engineers Collaborative Contractor: Construction Zone Interior Designer: Pamela Dailey & Lake|Flato Architects Landscape Architect: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects

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Morphable

How Gensler is designing for a better office experience

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By Laura Rote and Photos By Makena Hudson PHOTOS BY TK TK

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THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT CHANGING WORKPLACE DESIGN LATELY. But

what if instead of simply designing to contain as many people as possible, as so many office buildings do, architects designed to offer as much quality as possible?

It’s an idea that came from a virtual retreat Gensler held during the pandemic, where they asked, “What are we going to do to get people back to the office?”

Gensler wanted to be more aspirational, according to Darrel Fullbright, principal and design director for Gensler San Diego. “Traditionally the office building has been like a container for people,” he says. “Real estate has been about maximizing the amount of people you can get in that container.”

Fullbright says office design over the years has evolved from hard wall offices to the open office concept to having even more open offices with benching. It was all about getting more people into a space. “With the pandemic we realized maybe that’s really not the measure we should be going after; it should be the quality of space.” They thought: How can they design offices to be more about the experience of being there?

The Proposal

Gensler’s proposal looks at four impacts of the future office—designing meaningful experiences for workers, ensuring connections to the outdoors, building community, and emphasizing wealth building initiatives, or designing to mitigate economic displacement as a result of project development.

“We believe work from home will continue as a part of a hybrid work model, so the office no longer needs to be a container for people who can do focused work anywhere,” the proposal states. “We know that culture, creativity, and innovation need in-person interaction.

Thus the office must focus on connection and collaboration, fostering long-lasting, memorable experiences.”

The proposal also emphasizes health and wellness, as the pandemic has re-focused society on these issues like never before. Gensler wants to design buildings to be much healthier. “We came to the conclusion that we’re re-creating this hermetically sealed box, and then we’re basically trying to engineer the hell out of it to make it efficient,” Fullbright says. “The reality is buildings are not really inherently sustainable, nor are they healthy.

That’s how we came up with this idea … to really start to peel away more of the facade of the office to make buildings both healthier and more sustainable.”

Studies show that we’re at our most creative when we are outside, moving and mildly distracted by a physical activity. As such, Gensler’s Morphable Office concept designs an office with a facade made almost entirely of sliding glass doors. “We’ve been doing a lot of

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In the hypothetical Baltimore design, perimeter terraces facilitate work as a journey.

“

WE KNOW THAT CULTURE, CREATIVITY, AND INNOVATION NEED IN-PERSON INTERACTION. THUS THE OFFICE MUST FOCUS ON CONNECTION AND COLLABORATION, FOSTERING LONGLASTING, MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES.”

multi-slide doors, where there might be four or five operable panels. The idea is that you would make almost the entire facade that way so you could open the facade in all kinds of different ways,” Fullbright says.

Baltimore

Gensler chose Baltimore as a test site for their Morphable Office concept in part because they wanted a site that wasn’t sunny year-round, and in part to work with a community in need.

Near the city’s Central Business District, Gensler found both that office buildings were not a strong part of the community and ground floor retail was struggling, so they chose a site there for their hypothetical solution. “Our proposal is to literally lift up the ground floor, hold the building back, and return space to the public in the form of a public park,” Fullbright says. He says that former ground floor space could then act more like a festival space or be used for a farmers’ market to benefit local businesses on shorter terms, rather than businesses having to commit to three- or five-year leases. The design would also allow them to open up upper floors to more natural light and ventilation.

As part of the project Gensler wants to evaluate the impact of outdoor space versus indoor space and measure employee retention, thermal comfort, and productivity.

The Great Outdoors

While certain things can be done better from home, like focused work, Fullbright says there’s no replacing the collaboration and sense of culture you get from going into work. That said, traditionally people had to

be in the office, so the office didn’t have to be as compelling. But now, with so many different types of work, companies have to get creative. “What we wanted to do was find a compelling reason to get back to the office,” he says.

One of Fullbright’s favorite parts about working from home is being able to take calls from his backyard. He thinks having that experience of nature at work can be game-changing for companies. Gensler is challenging architects to design for more mobile space in general as well as outdoor space that’s highly usable—beyond just balconies or patios. In this proposal they’re pushing the boundaries of mechanical systems to make sure outdoor space is highly functional, with heaters, pulldown screens, fans, and radiant heating and cooling. “Those are the kinds of things that make this outdoor space much more usable, so you can actually work outside as opposed to just having a patio where you go to have a conversation,” Fullbright says.

For many years traditional office design has been centered around the high-rise, where the top floors are the most valuable, Fullbright says. But that’s changing. “We’re starting to find that the ground floor—where you can better connect to the outdoors—is really a better, more desirable space. For this project we asked: What if every floor could have the same qualities of the traditional ground floor?”

In Gensler’s Morphable Office, no matter what floor you’re on, you can step outside onto a garden terrace. “That’s something we’re seeing definitely take off,” he says. “A lot of these tech companies are wanting to have that biophilia and that fresh air and wellness feature.” g ISSUE 65

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Flexible

Horizontal and vertical Modernfold and Skyfold space dividing solutions bring new meaning to the open office.

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Design By Laura Rote PHOTOS

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A growing need for flexible spaces, an increased interest in glass, and a desire to transform rooms quickly are among the top reasons people are turning to Modernfold and Skyfold—industry leaders in horizontal and vertical space dividing solutions.

With the touch of a button a large, open conference space can easily morph into many private spaces for meetings, interviews, or focused work. “Flexible spaces are more productive and efficient,” says Bryan Welch, managing director at Modernfold.

Welch, a mechanical engineer by trade, has been with Modernfold for more than a decade and has watched as workplace needs evolved. “One option is to build a custom room for everything you might ever want to do, but that is unrealistic, as space needs evolve and change over time.”

Fortunately there’s another option: easyto-use acoustical partitions that are aesthetically pleasing and allow the user the flexibility they require.

When designing for flexible space, Welch says the most important thing is to consider the whole picture from the start, whether that’s working with a horizontal solution like Modernfold or a vertical product like Skyfold. “They all require structural steel of some magnitude to support them, so really being involved at the time when the structural steel is being designed in is the best way to incorporate them efficiently and make sure the products really work for the architect’s vision and floorplan,” he says. “It’s a lot harder when floor plans are set and then all of a sudden someone says, ‘I’d like to have a flexible wall dividing the space.”

That said, Modernfold also offers a truss system that eliminates the need for overhead support and allows any space to be customized. It’s assembled onsite in easily manageable pieces to allow for easy access into tenant improvement locations. “The Modernfold truss system easily fits into most plenum spaces, so that can be one important piece that will make it easier on a retrofit where structural steel may not have been in place before. We’ve definitely seen advantages to being able to offer that turnkey solution in a renovation project,” Welch says.

Dividing Space

One such option is Modernfold’s popular Acousti-Clear® Glass Walls product line—designed with sleek aluminum and glass with industry leading 51 STC sound separation.

Acousti-Clear comes in motorized, automatic, and demountable options. Welch says customers demand more acoustical privacy these days, and Acousti-Clear offers that without skimping on benefits like daylighting.

“You get that clean, modern appearance glass gives you, so from an aesthetic standpoint it is highly desired for today’s modern applications,” he says. “We’re also able to incorporate various privacy options, whether it’s an electrical roller shade or a venetian blind or even our MorphGlas®.”

MorphGlas is Modernfold’s innovative technology that allows you to instantly convert single glass panels from clear to opaque at the touch of a button. “It gives you the option to have the best of both worlds,” Welch says. If you want visibility and daylighting into the building even from a distant conference room, you can do that. Or if you want privacy, you can have that, too, with a simple push of a button.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MODERNFOLD

From the Ground Up

It may come as no surprise that Welch and colleagues are seeing fewer fixed cubicles and more flexible meeting spaces when it comes to renovations. He said many companies are looking for ways to support work from home and the hybrid work model. “Companies want to have more flexible meeting spaces for the days when specific work groups are in the office. They want to have collaborative spaces. And they want to take out some of the cubicle farms,” he says.

Division = Productivity In Texas, an education service center for teachers’ professional development used both Skyfold and Modernfold solutions. Skyfold is the acoustic leader in vertically folding retractable walls.

When deployed, Skyfold becomes a decoupled double, ridgid wall, and acoustic barrier with acoustic ratings of up to STC 60 (Rw 59 dB) and NRC/SAC of up to 0.65.

When you can be in a space and have room to do your work, you’re most likely more comfortable than being jammed into a room or stuck in a corner, Welch says. “Obviously Covid makes that even more important in today’s workspaces—having the correct amount of space for people to be safely together to work and be productive is essential for businesses.”

The experts at Modernfold are also seeing a growing demand for work surfaces like large markerboards, which employees say help them be more productive. “We’re seeing a continued growth in floor-to-ceiling, full-height markerboard writing surfaces.

Modernfold provides standard markerboard options without any vertical trim, which allows for a highly desired continuous writing surface.”

Welch says modern surfaces combined with tempered glass products you can also write on and easily clean are among some of the fastest growing products. “Instead of an easel pad and flip charts, you can truly have a huge writing surface where you can effectively brainstorm and work together.”

From the Top Down

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Health & Beauty

“At Modernfold and Skyfold we can divide space, provide daylighting, and also have a very high acoustic performance,” Cush says.

Natural light is among one of the biggest contributors to employee well-being, according to a study from Workplace Wellness Study conducted by Future Workplace. Both Modernfold and Skyfold build in plenty of opportunities for daylighting. “A lot of spaces are built out with conference rooms along an exterior wall. If you have conference rooms surrounded in glass, that daylighting extends deeper into the building, so not only

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Skyfold allowed this SAP Digital Leadership Center to have many types of meeting rooms running independently and simultaneously. Both Modernfold and Skyfold offer high-end custom design finishes, glass products, and modern styles.

is it good for people in the space to be along the window, but people who are deeper into the building also get the benefit of the daylight coming in,” Welch says.

Modernfold’s ComfortDrive® Automated Self Driving Panel System can be moved to a variety of pre-programmed positions under fully automatic control. The control interface takes the form of a user-friendly touch pad that can be programmed to maximize space.

Have it all stacked away with the room completely open or completely closed for a divided room. “Or you can have other configurations—a partially divided space, or leave a gap in a certain area of traffic flow, depending on your needs. It gives you that ability to custom program,” Welch says. Once you have your configurations, the room literally transforms in minutes at the press of a button.

Daylighting is possible with vertical solutions, too. Skyfold’s Mirage is lightweight and incorporates clean lines and a wide range of glass and plexiglass panels, so hallways and windows can still lend their light to dark, isolated spaces. One of Skyfold’s most exciting new products, Cush says, is Zenith Premium, as it has a unique way of folding and takes up little space with no track or system on the floor. “When it’s closed it completely seals the ceiling with no visible hole or pocket,” Cush says. “It’s a huge advantage because when the space is divided it looks completely clean.” Zenith Premium is ideal for spaces with obstructions like heavy furniture and tighter spaces that would otherwise limit the use of a vertically folding retractable wall.

With high-end finishes and color choices, the design options are endless, too. “In some cases a designer may want the wall to blend in and be part of the surroundings, and in some cases we find designers want to take the operable partitions and make them a focal point in the room with bold colors, murals, or high-end finishes that really highlight the space,” Welch says. “We apply a lot of that in the factory so when it goes to the field it can be quickly installed without the delay to the construction schedule.”

At the end of the day, both Modernfold and Skyfold solutions are environmentally friendly solutions for making better spaces.

Skyfold products are made up of components like fabrics made from recycled ocean plastic waste, 100% recycled gypsum, and water-based adhesives while, in the company’s manufacturing process, they recycle steel and aluminum chips, turn wood pallets into useful mulch, and capture and reuse oils.

Skyfold’s acoustic vertically folding operable walls are also made using up to 97% recycled materials, giving projects the chance to earn LEED points, and contribute toward WELL Certification in several categories. Modernfold and Skyfold’s glass dividers are easy to clean and sanitize, too, furthering a mission of health, wellness, and green living. g

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SKYFOLD

veloping tech products. The challenge was that all parts of the center had to function simultaneously and independently of each other.

“Our project has become the eighth SAP Leonardo Center in the world, but nowhere else is there such a number of functions and such flexible space as Moscow SAP,” says Nikolay Milovidov, managing partner of the architectural bureau UNK project. “We have created both a large conference hall with developed lobbies and an exhibition hall, while we have equipped zones for design thinking, D-Shop, meeting rooms. There is no center in the whole world where all these elements are present at the same time. The uniqueness of the Moscow project lies in the fact that all components of the hub can operate in parallel and completely independently of each other.”

Alastair Cush, managing director at Skyfold, says the company’s vertical folding solutions offer architects acoustic privacy and a high-end aesthetic choice, as Skyfold essentially disappears into the ceiling at the push of a button. You’d never even know it was there.

“It can be deployed quickly, easily, and safely with very minimum effort,” Cush says.

“Its most obvious use case is that a meeting room can be divided into small meeting rooms within minutes without any labor.

It allows for more dynamic management of space and probably a more efficient and profitable use of space.”

And with more companies looking at how to design collaborative, flexible space, Cush says Skyfold is also seeing increased interest in solutions for common areas where people can meet safely and share ideas—like cafeterias, lobbies, or hallways that can become function areas.

“Skyfold is perfectly installed every time,” Cush says. “Motorized seals extend and the walls come into the perfect position. That allows us to have a very high acoustic performance, so that you could have a book club quietly discussing books on one side and a lively debate or even a small concert on the other.”

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Designing Flexible Health Care

PHOTO COURTESY OF UCLA HEALTH

UCLA HEALTH PLANS FOR THE FUTURE WITH COMFORTABLE SPACES THAT OFFER EASY TRANSITIONS.

BY LAURA ROTE

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Flexible floor plans and a feeling of home are among the key design decisions that set UCLA Health facilities apart.

“We’ve been designing ambulatory clinics across Los Angeles for over 10 years now, and each community is unique. We are in the beach communities, we are in the suburban communities, and each one has a different look and feel,” says Amy Kraft, director of UCLA Health Real Estate Planning, Design & Construction.

What doesn’t change, Kraft says, is the quality of the design and the commitment to making people feel comfortable. Patients going to UCLA Health facilities know what to expect. “We want the patient, upon first arrival, to come in and have the confidence that they are at the right place because of the surrounding environment,” Kraft says.

Much work has been happening across UCLA Health facilities lately, including at the Calabasas facilities, with multiple tenant improvement projects completed recently—from a relocated primary care facility to new ophthalmology suites, an OBGYN and urology center, pediatrics, and more.

While beachfront communities may have more bright colors compared to slightly more timeless designs in suburban areas, Kraft says all of UCLA Health’s facilities are designed to be modern and comfortable. Beyond cheerful colors, comfortable seating and lighting round out every design, and UCLA Health continues to look for ways to make patients feel more relaxed during their visits.

Kraft says seating needs to be durable, stand up to cleaning supplies, and be considered across populations, as elderly or bariatric patients might need a little more help getting up, for example. “We don’t want to

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The Details

necessarily have a bariatric chair; we want them to feel comfortable as well.” She says UCLA Health strives to include furniture like loveseat type options, too, to provide various seating and something to please everyone.

Overhead, lighting is just as important to the experience. Inside Calabasas, hanging glass pendants warm up a light-filled lobby space with large, plentiful windows.

The area near the entrance gives patients and their loved ones another place to wait, work, or socialize in between appointments. “Maybe they go to advanced imaging at one point and they see their primary care physician later, and they need to spend a half-hour in between appointments,” Kraft says. “Here they can do so in an environment that allows them to relax.” High tables near windows overlooking rolling hills provide a bit of respite and more of a coffee shop feel, where they can enjoy a snack.

“It’s a way to make that area feel special and make it a living room type environment,” Kraft says.

The design team strives to make warm, comfortable spaces like these, but sometimes they’re given the added challenge of no windows. When a windowless room arises they emphasize artwork that invites your mind to wander, and they add soft lighting and natural materials wherever possible. “We try to create an environment you’d want in your home, where you feel like you’re in a quality, comfortable environment,” Kraft says. Interior waiting rooms without natural light incorporate textured walls and added carpet tiles so you feel not like you’re in a clinic space, but in a higher end environment where you’re just waiting your turn, Kraft says.

Changing Nature of Design

Since the introduction of electronic medical records years ago, the exam room has changed greatly. Design began to emphasize the need for a physician to face the patient rather than have their back turned while entering information into a computer, for example. At first the computer was on the wall, then it moved to a small desk.

Kraft says the need for flexibility continues to be great.

“The patients might sit on the exam table for an exam or sit in a chair at a table across from you to discuss next steps or a treatment plan,” she says. “We’ve also gone from private offices for doctors in a primary care setting to what I refer to as hubs, like a hoteling environment where you grab a computer in between patients and do your charting in a huge room as opposed to going back to a private office.”

Much conversation continues around how telehealth is changing the design of clinic environments, but the practitioners Kraft and her team speak with say they’re not necessarily willing to dedicate space solely to telehealth. It all comes back to that flexibility, as they find they can use an exam room both for telehealth and in-person. “We’ve been outfitting our clinic exam rooms with computers for years, and now you incorporate the camera into those technologies and make sure that room is a multipurpose room. That seems to be where our clinic design direction is headed now, which is not a huge leap from where we were before,” Kraft says.

The University of California has requirements for projects of a certain dollar value to strive for LEED Silver at minimum, and while these UCLA Health projects often fall below that threshold, the planning, design, and construction department designs with sustainability in mind all the same.

ative with how we use the space, making sure we provide enough staff support space but also enough storage for the clinic environment, and then enough flexibility.”

Sometimes a patient is not just seeing a doctor or nurse during their visit; they could also be speaking with a financial counselor, social worker, or dietitian during any given appointment. Kraft and her team look at continued ways to make that process even smoother. “Do you want that patient to sit in the exam room and have those various groups rotate through? Do you move the patient to a consult type room that maybe is a little more of a conference room environment or small living room? Those are always the challenges we face in each of our clinics—how are we going to maximize our efficiency and yet provide that patient-centered care for all of our populations?”

At UCLA Health you’ll find a variety of patient-centric spaces at Calabasas and beyond. They approach spaces by planning for a variety of rooms with the same footprint.

“After construction, whether one’s an exam room with an exam table and a hand-washing station or one has more furniture, we allow for flexibility along the way so if we determine we really need more exams than consults, we can convert that room easily.” Kraft says the growth of the flexible floor plan is one of health care design’s biggest successes in recent years.

“When you’re going in for a clinic appointment, there are times when you’re nervous or you’re unsure of what’s going to happen next. If we can put you at ease, in an environment that feels calm and comfortable, so you feel you’re at the right place for whatever’s about to happen next, then I’ve done my job,” Kraft says. “To me it’s more about creating a feeling for the individual patient that they can take that deep breath and focus on the reason they’re there.” g

Space Planning

Often design comes down to what space is available, and UCLA Health is always working to minimize patients’ wait time. “Space is always a limiting factor, especially in Los Angeles,” Kraft says. “We always have to be cre-

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Reinventing the Waiting

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERWOVEN

Room RESEARCH SHOWS HEALTH CARE DESIGN NEEDS AN OVERHAUL. HERE’S HOW KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL IS DESIGNING FOR THE UNKNOWN.

BY LAURA ROTE

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The old-school hospital or clinic space with uncomfortable chairs ganged together, forcing you to sit too close to someone coughing. And that’s just one awkward example of many.

“Environments should be designed to be agile or mobile,” says Kim Montague, Kimball International’s executive director of applied research and partnerships. Kimball International recently rolled out research with independent company DesignIntelligence that looks at responsive design, including how health care spaces can be designed more flexibly.

Montague, a trained architect who’s worked in health care design for more than 30 years, says this research revealed three major findings—that physical environment has a major effect on patients’ physical and emotional outcomes, in-home health care and virtual services are in ever-increasing demand, and caregiver burnout is worse than ever.

“We know we need to design these spaces to better accommodate future unknown change,” Montague says.

“So how do we design a space that allows these health care systems to change and accommodate social distancing, testing, education, or whatever might be needed in the future?”

These efforts begin with looking at how to provide more versatile settings with positive distractions that encourage movement—a proven way to minimize stress,

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Kimball International says. This can include seated and standing-height tables that give people the choice to isolate or engage, seating with conveniently located outlets, and even lockers for more security.

Montague says 72.7% of respondents—that includes doctors and nurses—surveyed for this research reported that the physical environment plays a significant role in outcomes for patients, caregivers, and family. Just think back to the start of the pandemic, when visiting hours were first seriously restricted. “We heard a lot of sad stories of patients who passed away with only an iPad a caregiver shared with them. It was a very impersonal experience,” she says. “It affects the emotional outcome for caregivers and the family members of that patient.

They were distraught.”

Aneetha McLellan, executive director of design and innovation at Kimball International, also looks back to the start of the pandemic. It was then that her team quickly launched “Design Thinking for a New Workday,” looking at how the pandemic would inform future design. “There hadn’t been much focus in acute settings in a very long time,” McLellan says. “Health was prepared after 9/11 for a one-day emergency event; they were not prepared for a multi-year event that has highs and lows. Our infrastructure was never set up for this, and it shows. You shouldn’t have to turn people away who’ve been in a car accident because of Covid.”

They turned back to a model called “acuity adaptable,” a topic that was hot 10 years ago but faded away because it’s expensive, McLellan says. Until now. “Can you imagine if you had 500 beds in a hospital and only 80 are ICU. What if you could pivot so all 500 could be ICU? We don’t build things like that. We say we do, but we don’t.

That’s where design and innovation comes in.”

Interwoven, a brand of Kimball International, already offers a whole host of flexible health care furniture products, including the mobile Aidin table, and new products

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERWOVEN

The waiting room.

Most of us have had an uncomfortable experience there at some point or another.

Meadow is a comprehensive, full function patient recliner designed to fit all patient body types and sizes.

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A modular line collection, Whittaker Health combines light and slender volumes with a sophisticated industrial aesthetic.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF INTERWOVEN

“We think of space differently, because there’s no point in solving a problem with a product until you understand the problem in the space,” says Aneetha McLellan, executive director of design and innovation at Kimball.

are in development to allow for even more flexibility.

They also have products like Alterna, a modular caseworks solution. “We can design such that the casework will adapt and change for any future need. You can design it with space for a monitor to be put on the wall to accommodate a virtual care encounter,” Montague says.

Kimball International says settings that balance consultation with exam needs often lead to a better outcome, too. One hybrid solution may include designing for a more comfortable, residential living room setting that reduces stress and invites conversation.

But even in a more traditional exam room, flexibility is key. Kimball International’s findings indicate that you can improve the process by providing a place for additional caregivers and family to join in the delivery of care, replace the exam table with a comfortable and versatile patient recliner, and make for a more open, spacious feel by using wall-mounted supply cabinets.

According to the American Medical Association in 2016, 70% of patient encounters don’t even need an exam table. So why have one in every room? You could opt for more mobile, comfortable seating options like Interwoven’s Meadow or Greer recliners instead and always move them later if needed. Innovative products continue to be designed thanks to the ongoing research, which has even revealed the ideal seat height—18 inches.

Montague says Interwoven’s Embra and Whittaker Health product lines also support flexible design—allowing for quick transformation from, say, what some would call a waiting room (Kimball International calls it a multipurpose or community room because who likes to wait?)

into space for vaccination, testing, or even education.

“Think about those community spaces as more than just a space to come in and wait for 20 mins before the doctor calls you into the clinic,” she says.

Embra—modern, freestanding, modular community seating—can be easily reconfigured and stands in stark contrast to some health care furniture of old. Montague recalls one recent conversation with a nurse-turned-interior designer. This individual works for a large health system and found herself trying to figure out how she could possibly break up some massive, ganged seating in an emergency room. “They ended up busting up the seating with a sledgehammer and bringing in folding chairs because they had to create social distancing,” Montague says.

Better design for behavioral health is another emphasis, and McLellan is excited by some of Interwoven’s latest innovations in this arena. “For some reason in the industry anything that has to do with any behavioral issues has a stigma and isn’t treated like a disease like cancer or heart disease,” she says. “We are studying in great detail how we can develop and provide products that emphasize human dignity.”

Interwoven’s Spruce and Joelle lines, while not meant for high acuity, are an example of the possibilities, as they’re ligature-resistant with concealed parts. “They don’t look like behavioral health furniture, and that’s the point. With small modifications, you can dignify a person.” g

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At the center of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s design ethos is a focus on a better future— for the beer and the planet.

By Mikenna Pierotti

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.

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STEP INTO EITHER OF SIERRA NEVADA’S TWO BREWERIES IN CHICO, CALIFORNIA, OR MILLS RIVER, NORTH CAROLINA, AND YOU’LL BE IMMERSED IN A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF SUSTAINABILITY. The gleam

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At right, the sustainability mission at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico, California was inspired in part by a hike that founder Ken Grossman took in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

lons of water every year through recovery and reuse? All those things did jive with their ethos. But they didn’t stop there.

By 2007 the Chico facility had solar, a system that would later grow to over 10,000 individual panels (2 megawatts of AC), taking care of about 20% of the brewery’s electricity needs as well as panels to help power Chico’s own super-efficient rail transfer facility (which receives cars full of malt for the brewery) offices, and an onsite daycare. In 2016 the Chico location added microturbines, which, together with the solar arrays, now provide more than 90% of the brewery’s electricity needs. But energy waste reduction was only one of the many opportunities Grossman saw to change the way beer was made. “Anytime we have heat or steam leaving a system, we’re recycling it back into the same process or into another process. And then solid waste as well. We take time and effort to source, separate, and collect anything that’s coming out of the brewery: cans, bottles, cardboard, plastic strapping, bottle caps, scrap metal.

Anything you can think of, we take the time to find an outlet for it, whether that’s recycling, composting, or reuse.”

Wastewater treatment and biogas recovery, heat and CO2 recovery, a biodiesel processor (which recycles old fryer oil used in the brewery’s restaurant) to provide fuel for delivery trucks, water conservation, drought-resistant landscaping (critical for drought-stricken California), and solid waste recycling—Sierra Nevada took the ideals of the green design industry and went one step further, all with the aim of brewing beer that bettered the landscape rather than simply taking from it. “It’s how we think, how we operate. It’s really embedded throughout,” McKay says.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.

of solar panels as you park your car; the flood of daylight from massive windows; the hum of hyper-efficient systems working on everything from heat recovery to CO2 and water conservation; the warm, fruity smell of fermentation; and, everywhere, people smiling, enjoying a draft or two over a meal with friends.

Sustainability, efficiency, and a focus on the future are baked into every part of the Sierra Nevada experience. And it has been from the beginning. “It’s been an integral value for us since our founding in 1980. It’s literally built into the facility itself and the culture that’s come from it,” says Mandy McKay, director of sustainability and social responsibility at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Founder Ken Grossman launched his first brewery in California just two years after Congress legalized homebrewing in 1978, beginning with a mindset that brewing beer shouldn’t be wasteful. He scaled the Sierra Nevada Mountains and saw a natural beauty he wanted to protect even as he dreamed of a better way to make beer. “[Grossman] is an engineer at his core,” McKay says. “He really hates waste. So if there’s anything leaving a process that isn’t recovered or we can’t bring back in, or we can’t recycle, or we can’t do something else with—he is constantly thinking about those things, and he has thought about those things for decades.”

Grossman built the first brewhouse of his family-run business himself out of cobbled together parts from recycled dairy equipment. His first highly successful beer was the pale ale. It shook the craft beer industry to its core and opened a door to a new kind of conversation—beer manufacturing was notoriously wasteful. It had to change, and it could, successfully. From the very beginning Grossman and his team passed up chances to produce beer the cheap and easy way—because that just didn’t jive with their ethos.

An organic two-acre garden and orchard to produce food for the onsite restaurant? Seeking, and earning, Salmon Safe certification for the hops they grow onsite (used in the Estate Harvest IPA)? Saving 2.5 million gal-

In 2015 Sierra Nevada expanded its operations to the East Coast, setting up shop in a swath of lush forest in Mills River, North Carolina. There, the sustainability practices and design principles learned at Chico evolved.

They hired natural resource specialists to improve the health of the forest around the brewery, reclaimed the timber (cleared to make room for the brewery itself, also locally milled) used in the taproom, and made headlines. In 2016 Mills River became the first production brewery to earn LEED Platinum. “When we opened our second brewery in North Carolina, we committed to doing a LEED certified for brewery from day one.”

And, at the same time, they committed to making an impact in another way—on the people who visit their facilities and enjoy their products. “We do a lot of education on both the outside and the inside of the brewery. As you’re walking along a corridor or along the front, we have educational signage that talks about stormwater management and rainwater capture and the use of bioswales and permeable pavement,” she says. “You go there to maybe have a beer or lunch or go on a tour. But at the same time, you’re learning about sustainable design and features you can literally see right in front of you. I think it’s helpful to educate people in ways that don’t feel like you’re teaching them anything. That it’s just part of the experience. They’re there, they’re having a good time, and they’re also learning some pretty cool things.”

In 2020 things changed. With the global pandemic came new challenges and new opportunities. “We lost a lot of business. Bars and restaurants across the country closed,” McKay says. “People were drinking at home.”

Undeterred, they pivoted. “We had to

quickly shift to really investing in our e-commerce platform and really understanding that. We weren’t doing a lot of shipping beer directly to consumers before. That was one thing we learned a lot about.”

Once their taprooms were able to reopen, they also had to reimagine the experience both for customers and for the safety of their employees. “We had to very quickly get into the market of curbside and to-go ordering.”

Social distancing, exceptional hygiene, reducing physical contact between employees and customers with things like QR code menus (with the added bonus of reducing paper waste) were already part of their repertoire.

The pandemic merely intensified their use.

And, McKay says, they plan to keep many of the changes in place. Interacting with customers in new ways also opens up more opportunities to teach and learn.

Long-term, their commitment to a better future includes an ever-widening circle of impact. Can one craft beer company really change the world? For Sierra Nevada, it’s a mountain worth climbing. “How can we work with our farmers and our growers, our distributors, and our haulers; how can we work with all of those people to reduce their footprint and their emissions?” McKay says.

“Because they’re part of our footprint and vice-versa.” g

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Eco-conscious flooring solutions from Sherwin-Williams are becoming industry standard for breweries.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHERWIN-WILLIAMS

By Mikenna Pierotti

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WHEN IT COMES TO CREATING A STRONG FOUNDATION IN GREEN BUILDING DESIGN, the best place to start is often, literally, the

ground floor. That’s where companies like Sherwin-Williams come in. With more than 150 years in business, a focus on corporate responsibility and peerless customer service, Sherwin-Williams is a go-to resource for commercial facilities like breweries looking for the best in flooring solutions.

“Especially in some of these microbreweries where you’ve got a lot of spaces that are customer-facing, where people can see the brew area. When you have a bright and shiny coating on the floor, It gives that extra sensibility that it’s clean,” says Casey Ball, Sherwin-Williams global market director for flooring.

Cleanliness is King

It’s about more than just looks, though. With ever stricter standards for cleanliness tile, wood, and even bare concrete is a potential liability. “There’s typically some sort of grout or joint that is potentially a weak point, a place that can harbor bacteria,” Ball says. Enter: the seamless floor coating; perfect for environments that need to be sterile, durable, and attractive. This type of resinous floor has become ubiquitous. It’s customizable and easy to clean.

PHOTOS BY TK TK

But, in the past, most in the industry turned to chemical-heavy, solvent-based epoxy flooring solutions (not as ideal for the eco-conscious). These floors also took a long time to cure before production could come back online.

“Typically, if you put an epoxy coating on concrete, you have to wait a minimum of 28 days for that concrete to hydrate,” Ball says. “Epoxy is more plastic-like. It moves at different rates compared to the concrete. It doesn’t have quite the temperature resistance that urethane concrete does. And so it just doesn’t last as long.”

A Top Solution

FasTop Multi Systems provide hygienic, chemical, and slip resistant flooring solutions that are extremely hard wearing.

Sherwin-Williams set out to do better. Today, among their most popular products, beloved by breweries like Sierra Nevada as well as micro-breweries like Loose Ends in Centerville, Ohio, is FasTop™, a family of urethane concrete systems tougher (and more sustainable) than their chemical-heavy contemporaries. “Breweries are abusive,” Ball says. “Hose ends are dropped on the floor, cleaners are used, hot water spills, forklifts and pallet jacks driving around.” Thermal shock, impact, corrosion, chemicals, abrasion—FasTop can withstand it all.

But, perhaps even more importantly for a business in a rapidly growing industry, FasTop is, well, fast. It can be applied over “green” concrete (ideal for new construction), wood, or steel quickly. “The goal is always to create products that are fast to cure because today’s construction schedules are pretty demanding,” Ball says. “With FasTop, a brewery could be back to production in as little as four to six hours. “Whether you’re doing a renovation, or let’s say you decided to put in a new bottling line and you’ve got a short window in which to get back to production— you won’t be down for long.”

How It Works

FasTop was used at Loose Ends Brewing in Centerville, Ohio.

FasTop is designed for use in industrial and commercial environments like food and beverage plants, breweries, commercial kitchens, manufacturing facilities, garages, and more.

PHOTOS BY TK TK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHERWIN-WILLIAMS

Although application is quick and straightforward, it’s a job best left to the professionals. “There are typically three or four component products. A lot of people, when they think of coatings or paints, are used to the kind of paint that goes on their house. Open the can and roll it on.

That’s a single component,” Ball says. “These are reactive products—you’ve got an A side and a B side. And in the case of urethane concrete, you’ve got an aggregate that has cement and some other fillers. The fourth component would be pigment. And then you mix all those together and rake it out onto the floor. It could be anywhere from an eighth to a quarter-of-an-inch thick. The installing contractor might have anywhere from five to seven people assisting with application.” Not exactly a DIY, but still far faster than its contemporary epoxy flooring.

FasTop is also more eco-conscious. In fact, flooring products like FasTop have become an important part of environmental certification for many commercial facilities. Flooring solutions from Sherwin-Williams earn more points toward LEED credit for customers than any other coatings manufacturer, for everything from helping to reduce concentrations of chemical contaminants (VOCs) to building product disclosure and optimization. Made with water-based components (combined with plantbased oils), these innovative floor coatings have begun to replace not only unhealthy floors but also outdated ways of thinking. “There was always a thought that if it wasn’t solvent-based, it wasn’t as durable or useful,” Ball says. “And now [urethane concrete] has really become the product of choice.” g

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HOW TECH IS IMPROVING HOW WE BUILD

BY COLLEEN DEHART

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAYETTE AND SKANSKA USA PHOTOS

BY TK TK

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WHEN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HIT, SKANSKA—ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING CONSTRUCTION AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES, WAS MOSTLY PREPARED.

Leveraging Data

Imagine if everything that is learned about a project is at your fingertips. At Skanska, it is. All the data collected during the planning and construction of projects around the world is gathered into one central digital location. “We develop a tremendous amount of data in our industry. We collect it, clean it, and aggregate it to make it available to our planners and operators to draw insights from and make better decisions,” says Will Senner, vice president of preconstruction at Skanska.

Data banks have been critical during the pandemic as project teams deal with crip-

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pled supply chains and scarce materials. All information about lead times and prices for materials is entered into digital platforms by manufacturers and vendors so everyone can access it and plan accordingly. “In a Covid world where things are changing week to week, day to day, it takes the search for materials off their plate. There is one place to go for accurate, timely pricing and lead times,” Senner says.

Such data consolidation has also been critical in making the best decisions for sustainability. An internal carbon footprint tool looks at the material and other carbon-emitting areas related to the material—transportation, fuel use, manufacturing, and more.

Detailed product information, including cost and environmental declarations, is available with a few pushes of a button, putting all the information in front of planners to make the right choice of sustainable alternatives. “It used to be the design was handed off to the estimators; now it is all integrated,” Caplan says.

The data can help determine exactly how much concrete, steel, or glass is needed on a project, power density, and how much to spend on control systems. “The goal is no surprises,” Senner says. “We are in the certainty business and having the ability to provide certainty on costs, schedule, environmental platform, and to leverage data to provide that certainty is a game-changer.”

Tracking Safety

Job site safety software allows construction companies to track core safety elements—including misses, major/minor incidents, and response. “The key data that has changed the market is those near misses. As an industry we didn’t used to track if someone didn’t get hurt. We used to just be glad it didn’t happen,” Caplan says. Near-miss data helps to inform where the major risks are before they become a major incident.

The Chelsea Viaduct on US Route 1, in Chelsea, Massachusetts, is the most popular way into Boston for commuters from the north shore. Skanska and McCourt Construction rehabilitated a 4,000-foot section of Route 1 by addressing structural deficiencies with a new 75-year lifespan for the viaduct.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAYETTE AND SKANSKA USA

They already had virtual planning and meeting tools in place and innovative data technology to assist in tracking safety and other details both on and off-site.

There were, of course, the initial pains of having to go more virtual and some slight issues surrounding the now high-volume use of such tools, but for the most part, it was “pretty seamless,” says Myrrh Caplan, senior sustainability director at Skanska. The pandemic experience did teach the Skanska team how to further increase productivity, especially when it comes to planning meetings. They already had the technology in place to meet virtually, but it wasn’t being used regularly.

In the past large projects were planned with in-person meetings requiring travel and transporting of drawings and other data; now everyone meets on the screen with all information at their fingertips. “It is remarkable now how accessible things are. Fifteen people can meet and have everything on their screen. We can innovate and collaborate and not leave our homes or offices. Now we can do 10 of those meetings in a day. It has been a real godsend,” says Paul Pedini, senior vice president for Skanska Civil in New England.

These and other technology tools are constantly evolving and changing the way we build.

The advent of such software allows planners to be more predictive and work on prevention through design. They take insight from those near misses and apply them to the design phase. “Nothing beats preparation,” Pedini says. “If you can take technology and plan everything to a T, then the risk and moving parts are reduced and everything goes as planned.”

Such technology was used when Skanska erected a bridge over a live railroad. “There were huge degrees of risk,” Pedini says. It was determined that they needed to place the entire bridge in one action. Skanska teams engineered it on the ground and used a 650-ton crane at 2am to place it. “It was like muscle memory. We knew exactly how to do it.”

Real-Time Connection

With the complexity of construction projects continuing to grow each year, it is more critical than ever that everyone and everything is connected. The use of all-encompassing digital platforms keeps schedules, accounting, and planning in one place. “The power of today’s scheduling software, linked to the project three-dimensional model and tied to project controls data, allows the entire team—including contractors, designers, and owners—to monitor jobs on an ongoing basis.

We can see issues coming, react quicker, and work proactively to ensure project efficiency,” Senner says.

These platforms ensure everyone working on the project has the most up-to-date information. “With so much information, you need to have all the data at your fingerprints all the time,” Pedini says. “A field manager can use an iPad and access project controls and revenue in the field. Everything is connected. Actions are sent to the right people immediately so they can spend their time managing the project like they are supposed to be doing.”

Skanska recently implemented a production tracking workflow for concrete foundation on a major health care project. The client and the team were able to monitor hours worked and work completed, giving them key insights on production rates and allowing them to facilitate earlier intervention based on predictive trends. The data was linked to

the building information model, allowing production status, workflows, and trends to be visualized in a 3D format. “It made it more accessible and understandable for other members of the team,” Senner says.

Creating to Be Less Intrusive

Large-scale infrastructure projects can have a major impact on daily living in the areas they are being built. Digital technology tools can minimize impact from traffic jams, utility disruption, noise, and light pollution. “We can test-drive an entire project before it gets built,” Pedini says. GPS-guided equipment scans the ground for any existing utilities before construction starts, and laser scanners enable precise modeling.

In 2020 Skanska built the Interstate 95 Northbound viaduct replacement in Providence, Rhode Island. The planning team developed a radical design to tear down an existing bridge and build a replacement at a lower elevation. Using technology, they modeled the current and final conditions of the project. They studied the movement of the traffic and measured every piece to make sure it would fit as it should. The final project solved a dangerous traffic situation, was scheduled to finish a year early, reduced environmental impact, and saved millions of dollars. “This is not in the realm of how it would have been 10 to 20 years ago,” Pedini says.

This technology is a game-changer for historic renovations. “Existing conditions can be scanned in a way that allows for the prefabrication of a system that fits like a glove,” Caplan says. “We can get every landing perfect, every slant, every wall. We can get it down within millimeters.” g ISSUE 65

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On the THE MANY BENEFITS OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PROCORE

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WHEN TOOEY COURTEMANCHE WAS HAVING HIS HOME BUILT IN SANTA BARBARA more

than two decades ago, he saw firsthand what happens when there is a lack of coordination on the jobsite. The founder and CEO of global construction management software company Procore saw his money wasted and materials discarded because they were installed incorrectly. He isn’t alone. An estimated more than $500 billion, according to FMI, is spent on rework every year due in part to poor communication.

The former contractor, real-estate developer, and software engineer with a passion for the construction industry came up with a solution. “I thought, ‘How do I get everyone working off the same sheet of music, everyone to know the budget and the schedule?’” he says.

He wrote software where all key players could upload, communicate, view, and store information about the project. That software later became Procore. “I literally didn’t think it would go anywhere. But the project superintendent got a job for another contractor who called me to see if I would license it.

I thought, ‘Oh. This could really help the industry.”

Technology is an Enabler

Coordination, collaboration, and alignment are important parts of any construction project. “Technology is critical because it is the tool that makes that happen,” Courtemanche says. “It brings teams together to deliver projects on time, on budget, and safely.

All those pieces used to be held together by hope: You hope all interests are aligned. You hope everyone is talking to each other. You hope everyone is reading the same piece of paper. Hope doesn’t always get you very far.

There are a lot of inconsistencies in the construction industry, cost overruns, and safety issues because people aren’t coordinating or communicating.”

Procore is web-based, built in the cloud, construction management software. It can be used by all key players of a project including owners, managers, general contractors, and specialty contractors. Anyone who is given ac-

cess can log in to the system and see the most up-to-date information on all aspects of a project. Procore actually offers an unlimited user model to its customers, meaning a customer can add anyone to the job, whether they’re a paying customer or not. This is critical to project success because if just one team member is left off, the critical workflow will break.

Procore has 13 core products available through its customizable construction management platform. The products provide solutions for managing preconstruction bids and qualifications, workflows, schedules, quality, safety, design coordination, 3D models, productivity, financials, analytics, and more. They also have partnerships with 300 market solutions—technologies spanning everything from bidding and estimating to project closeout and handover—available in their app marketplace to support all needs across the project life cycle. “In most corpo-

“TECHNOLOGY IS CRITICAL BECAUSE IT IS THE TOOL THAT MAKES THAT HAPPEN. IT BRINGS TEAMS TOGETHER TO DELIVER PROJECTS ON TIME, ON BUDGET, AND SAFELY.”

rations, workflows happen within the walls of that business, but in construction, workflows jump from company to company. All of these complex workflows start in our project management tool. Everyone can go there to see what they need to do, what they need to bring, what is happening that day, they can raise concerns or issues about the job, and turn to other tools that support that core product,” Courtemanche says.

When you eliminate some of the risks and simplify a highly complicated business through the use of a tool like Procore’s, you have more time for inspiration. “Procore can get you back to why you started building in the first place—people, connection, and passion,” he says.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUFFOLK

Synchronous CrossProject Collaboration Procore’s products were used at the Hale Family Building. Their platform integrated with other capital planning systems the hospital used, synchronizing project financials so all stakeholders worked off the same data.

Procore’s platform was a game-changer in helping McCarthy Building Companies and Mortenson construct Las Vegas Raiders’ 1.8 million-square-foot Allegiant Stadium—one of the largest, most complex design-builds ever—on time, even during a pandemic. It brought the project’s 12,000 round-the-clock workers together to meet schedule and budget requirements in real time. The mega project was completed in 40 months from design start to construction completion, making it one of the fastest stadium builds ever.

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and clarified in one transparent location.

The platform’s ability to facilitate real-time updates and communication enabled strict adherence to schedule. All construction documents and specifications were available on the platform, saving months that otherwise would have been spent accessing such data.

Similarly, Electrify America, the largest open DC Fast Charging network in the US, is currently using Procore to manage 800 project sites on one platform. The company is building zero-emission vehicle fueling infrastructure involving the installation of 800 charging stations and 3,500 chargers by the end of 2021. Procore’s platform allows the company to consolidate, track, and manage all projects at once—from permits and purchasing to completion.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUFFOLK

Expected to open in the summer of 2022, the Hale Family Building is an 11-story, state-ofthe-art facility that is part of Boston Children’s Hospital.

Procore was used in the construction.

Ultimate Budget Control and Productivity

Staying within budget is a huge issue with any project. It can be difficult to properly manage financials if everyone is reporting spending with pen and paper or a minimally accessed spreadsheet. Procore’s financial management products allow everyone to know project spending in real time, keeping budgets on-track.

These products were used during Boston Children’s Hospital’s 10-year, $3 billion strategic capital plan, involving the construction of a state-of-the-art pediatric care facility, the Hale Family Building. Procore’s platform was integrated with other capital planning

systems used by the hospital, synchronizing project financials so all stakeholders were working off the same data. The tool reduced risk, kept everyone in the know, and allowed work to be as productive as possible.

Xcel Mechanical Systems, design-build mechanical and plumbing contractor on the LAX TBIT Terminal Cores and APM Interface Project, found Procore’s project management products essential to improving productivity on this design-build project in the world’s fourth busiest airport. The $14 billion airport modernization project was considered the largest public works program in the history of Los Angeles. Procore’s Models tool and associated plugins allowed for the company to bring both the design model and construction model from the office into the field. Field foremen were able to view real-time design changes, saving the project countless hours and costs on potential double-installations and rework.

Less rework also means less waste going into the landfill. “In the European Union alone, 25% of the debris in landfills are because of construction. It is a remarkable environmental travesty, and it puts a lot of risk into the industry,” says Courtemanche. “We need these systems in place to build efficiently with less waste, to build better.”

Enhanced Field Safety

Safety is critical on any jobsite. Procore’s products allow all players to report if they see a current or potential risk, so it doesn’t become a serious situation. “Often people don’t know there is a problem until it is too late. When you have everyone collaborating on the same platform, if someone sees something that is not in compliance they can post it and get it rectified,” Courtemanche says.

Procore’s platform provides checklists and protocols, specific to each project, to be followed on the jobsite so every worker is as safe as possible. It also provides analytics that give the industry a better view of where safety issues are happening and what can remedy those problems. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Procore, with the industry as a whole, leveraged its safety products to keep jobsites open and active. “We had to partner with the industry to come up with protocols that hadn’t been done before,” Courtemanche says. The company worked to implement protocols for proximity and masks on jobsites. g ISSUE 65

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SOM SET OUT TO DESIGN THE STRATFORD—A SUSTAINABLE 42-STORY RESIDENTIAL AND HOTEL HIGH-RISE IN EAST LONDON.

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Mina Hasman on Sustainable, Human-Centric Design The SOM associate director looks at how high-rises in London can be eco-friendly.

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passion for environmental sustainability. SOM recently began utilizing technology to gauge the carbon life cycle of a project, and the amount of embodied carbon held within a single high-rise building shocked her.

“We need to invest in regenerative architecture and design, and treat buildings as organisms that can adapt to external and internal changes effectively,” she says.

Her emphasis on the importance of human-centric design, combined with expertise in sustainability, both inspire her work today.

Take The Stratford, a 42-story residential and hotel high-rise in a burgeoning new district of East London.

The challenge was daunting: to design an eco-friendly vertical village that integrates seamlessly with the urban fabric and fosters a sense of community among its occupants—in a city where residents are more accustomed to living in row homes and walk-up flats.

“How do you create this high-rise community where people don’t feel isolated from one another, from nature, from the parks and the street-level amenities London is known for? That was our challenge,” Hasman says.

We sat down with Hasman to discuss her work on The Stratford and her views on the state of sustainable design.

Tell me a bit about your overall design philosophy and how it connects to your current work?

Studying architecture in the US at Cornell University was a very pivotal time in my life, where I became more conscious of the implications of the design decisions I was making. It was there and then that I realized as an architect I would shoulder the responsibility for others, for how they’d be living or working or experiencing a city.

I had this enlightening moment, a realization that design is not just about creating something beautiful on paper or something that photographs well, but it will have endless implications, from people’s emotional and physical health to its impacts on the natural environment. This is where my interest in sustainability began, and how I think my design philosophy started.

I still see it more as an imperative for architects, planners, and other actors—that it’s our moral imperative to think about sustainability. I’m so saddened that sustainability has been seen for the last 20 or 30 years as a detached subject matter because I truly believe a building is only beautiful if it is sustainable.

That’s why I came to London to get a master’s at the Architectural Association and learned the science behind sustainability. I’ve evolved with my work, because I see myself as a bridge to connect the beauty of design with the engineering aspects that can enhance health and improve sustainability.

M

Many architects enter the field with dreams of designing structures that inspire awe and win professional accolades. Others see the opportunity to leave behind a personal legacy.

For Mina Hasman, associate director at SOM and sustainability lead in the firm’s London office, it was a fascination with the permanence architecture brought to the world and the impact it had on the people who interact with it.

“I realized early on that when designing, I was drawing something that was setting the boundaries and constraints in that built environment, making decisions for people that would echo through generations,” she says.

This notion that buildings should be permanent fixtures has roots in Hasman’s deep

What were the client’s goals for The Stratford? What inspirations did you draw from?

MINA HASMAN IS ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AT SOM AND THE FIRM’S SUSTAINABILITY LEAD IN LONDON.

The vision for the project was established by Harry Handelsman [CEO and founder of Manhattan Loft Corporation], who asked us: Can a single building change a city’s perception of what it is to live in a high-rise? As our cities are rapidly growing we need to consider the intelligent densification of our cities, which will require more high-rises to be inserted into areas with limited land available.

I took inspiration from residential areas of London, with the purpose of unifying and strengthening the local community. We have to ask questions like: How effectively is the building going to be incorporated into the urban fabric? How does it unite and strengthen the local community and boost the local economy, while protecting the environment? These considerations really define the success of these sorts of projects.

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gyms, and other amenities, so the goal was to envision how all of these uses could come together in a vertical community.

As you go taller with the building’s height, you’re getting farther from the nature and the parks you experience horizontally throughout London, so deciding how we could bring nature into this vertical configuration was a challenge as well as an inspiration.

How did you create a sustainable, interactive community in a tall building?

The client had a very specific iterative vision, which was for us to create an exemplar vertical community with an emphasis on people.

We had to ask ourselves—how can we enhance social connections and ensure people’s health and well-being are at the heart of the design?

We created spaces where people could constantly interact through a variety of outdoor and indoor programmatic activity areas throughout the building. But it was also about incorporating natural building materials, like timber, that offer a sense of authenticity and scale.

The most exciting feature we used to accomplish these goals were the three sky gardens, which create moments of community interaction where all residents can come together to socialize. When you experience these sky gardens up close, you wouldn’t realize you’re in the 30th story of a tower—they really mirror a garden in the back of a Victorian house. You feel like you’re in a small park.

London has a complicated relationship with the high-rise.

How did you overcome hesitancy from regulators as well as tenants?

This project was very much defined by the fact that it would be a high-rise residential typology, a typology that was unprecedented in London at that height and scale. It was a big deal for a city with an ambivalence toward buildings of this height.

Approximately 60% of Londoners say they would be happy to work in a tall building, but only 27% would like to live in one. So to close this gap and get people excited about living in tall buildings, we framed the project in social terms and reframed what high-rise living means and how it could manifest itself in architecture and design.

Incorporating those features I discussed earlier, that are common at the horizontal level in most London districts, certainly made that easier to accomplish.

How does The Stratford fit into your broader point of view on sustainability and wellness?

The densification of cities is critically important if we are going to fit more humans onto this planet, so there is of course the many benefits of it being a high-density residential building on a compact site. And the land itself was a brownfield site, so we took advantage of being able to rectify the negative impacts this contaminated, empty site was having on the community.

The building was also very specifically oriented, as well as shaped, so we could leverage the positioning of the apartments to have natural wind to cross-ventilate, which allowed us to take advantage of passive cooling. We also incorporated a high-performance facade that features a corrugated curtain wall, which maximizes daylight while at the same time minimizes solar heat gains.

Then there are the sky gardens and other common areas, which truly encourage active circulation throughout the building and create opportunities for these chance encounters and require people to be physically active, which are both important for mental and physical well-being. The sky gardens themselves are curated with local plants and strategically selected species that boost the local habitat and natural ecosystem.

We decided to integrate the project into the Stratford district-wide heating network, which uses hot and cold water for sustainable heat-

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DESIGNERS ASKED: CAN A SINGLE BUILDING CHANGE A CITY’S PERCEPTION OF WHAT IT IS TO LIVE IN A HIGH-RISE? PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE: HUFTON + CROW PHOTOGRAPHY, RORY GARDINER, ED REEVE, HUFTON + CROW PHOTOGRAPHY

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ing and cooling for the entire community. While we could have done something on our own, we made this decision because it reinforces this district-wide strategy to use a separate and highly efficient system.

How do you drive SOM to continue improving its sustainable practices?

I always try to think, with my knowledge and skills, how can I inspire others with the same passion and dedication, the same rigor that I feel? I don’t let anything else take priority because I take sustainability very personally. And because of this my passion comes out whenever I get in contact with others. I hope this is a source of inspiration and empowerment to my colleagues. If I’m just a drop of water in the bucket, that drop has a ripple effect—and this is what I’ve been trying to do at SOM. Expertise brings credibility, so I am constantly equipping myself with the right knowledge and skills because I want to be ahead of the game and bring that forward-looking knowledge to SOM, and push SOM in that direction rather than wait for regulators to push us. That requires a constant nurturing of knowledge as it relates to sustainability. g

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Advancing the Equity of Outdoor Access

Many design firms and organizations are doing incredible work building a network of new and enriched outdoor spaces in our cities.

The Waterloo Greenway Conservancy, for example, is implementing a 1.5-mile park system that will greatly enrich downtown Austin’s community and environment. That said, for residents who live 20 blocks or more away from the greenway, accessing this community asset becomes much more challenging. This is where the private sector needs to step up. In our Corporate, Commercial, and Civic practice at Perkins&Will’s Austin studio, we encourage commercial developers to evaluate how they can add to the public domain and its network of outdoor space. If we want downtown Austin to thrive, particularly in a changing climate, we need to provide our community with spaces for retreat and refuge.

Introducing public space to the private sector

BY CHI LEE

Block 41, Austin Our team is currently designing a 46-story commercial office tower called Block 41 in the central business district of Austin.

From the outset of the design process, we approached outdoor space as an integral part of the workplace rather than an amenity, by providing more than 3,000 square feet of outdoor space on every occupied office floor. There is already a growing trend in office design to program for outdoor workspaces and balconies, developed mainly in response to COVID-19 and tenant demand for safe spaces to engage with others.

With this project we have tried to take this strategy a step further. In addition to the private tenant spaces, we recognized in this project a huge opportunity to give space back to the public realm, integrating an 8,000-square-foot public plaza on the ground floor.

The commercial building becomes a space where any community member can come in and spend some time out in the shade, read a book, or catch up with a friend.

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AN EARLY PERKINS&WILL DESIGN FOR A BLOCK IN DOWNTOWN AUSTIN.

Planning for the Future Moving forward, there is an opportunity to create a network of these spaces throughout more densely developed cities. These outdoor areas or urban parks built into the fabric of the private sector can increase access to the natural world for those who historically have gone without. The most equitable spaces are public-facing, readily available, and accessible because everyone has the right to use those spaces. We are increasingly prompting conversations about equity and public space in planning future commercial projects, and it has been rewarding to see that these ideas are resonating with developers.

We have several upcoming projects that incorporate this concept in different ways. One such project is a downtown multi-family highrise development that sits directly across from a public park. The project is in early design stages, but we are planning to connect the public park as part of the street-level experience of the development.

Additionally, we have other downtown projects that face streets slated to be part of the future rail line infrastructure plan called

RENDERING COURTESY OF PERKINS&WILL

The influence of healthy outdoor space on societal well-being cannot be overstated.

During a global crisis that confined us to our homes, public parks and plazas offered a crucial respite from the bleak media cycles that plagued our daily lives. Alongside a heightened awareness of the importance of outdoor spaces, a corresponding discussion on the equity of public space has emerged. Who has access to our parks and green spaces, and who does not? What can we as designers do to facilitate a more equitable and inclusive built environment?

How We Did It Generous outdoor spaces as these can be utilized year-round and therefore are financially feasible only if designed properly. For the Block 41 project, because the ground level public plaza sits within the property boundaries it is covered by the building above, which provides solar protection from the Texas sun. The landscaping is designed to be abundant and lush to help mitigate the heat island effects and as an added benefit enriches the street-level restaurant, retail, and pedestrian experiences.

On the typical office levels, each outdoor terrace is covered by the next level above and is deep enough to provide solar protection.

Similar to the ground level plaza, we designed these outdoor terraces with ample amounts of plush landscaping in an attempt to create an ecosystem that can help mitigate the heat during the hottest days of the Texas summer and provide a pleasant workplace setting anytime of the day.

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Project Connect. Important questions we are working to solve are: How will these projects engage and integrate with public transportation, how do these projects improve upon the pedestrian and passenger experience, and how do these private developments intertwined with the future public transportation infrastructure promote equity and inclusivity?

Why is it important that we have these conversations now? There is much discussion on equity and inclusion in our current social climate, and many are pushing PROJEC T for policy changes at Block 41 the city, state, and federal levels. Policy LOC ATION is a great start, but it Austin, TX takes a great deal of action for meaningful change to happen. As COMPLETION Fall 2024 designers we have an incredible opportunity to implement more SIZE immediate changes in 750,000 gross square feet our cities. By creating these environments and welcoming everyL ANDSC APE one in the community ARCHITEC T to visit what we have Ten Eyck Landscape Architects created, we can directly pave the way for a more equitable future.

GENER AL The more we do this, CONTR AC TOR JE Dunn and encourage others to do this, the more we can change the STRUC TUR AL mindset of what the CONSULTANT private sector can and Walter P Moore should look like.

Of course, there is MEP CONSULTANT a delicate balance to Wylie Engineering strike when pursuing this aim. While buildVERTIC AL ing new developments TR ANSPORTATION can bring assets like Persohn/Hahn outdoor space to neighborhoods that previously lacked such amenities, they can also drive prices up and push underrepresented communities out of those neighborhoods. I don’t claim to have the correct answer to the problem and can only work to maintain and respect the existing history of a community. Trying to repair something that has been broken for some time is no easy feat; the first step is to rebuild trust within our neighborhoods and communities. Our studio hopes to play a part in regaining this trust by using our projects to give space back to the public. g

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NEW DEVELOPMENTS LIKE BLOCK 41 IN AUSTIN BRING ADDED GREEN SPACE.

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Meet the Architect

Chi Lee is principal, corporate, commercial, and civic at Perkins&Will Austin. Originally from Taiwan, Lee grew up in Pittsburgh and has known since high school that he wanted to be an architect. His passion for creating things only grew when he moved to New York City and developed a keen understanding of technology workplace interiors.

DESIGN DETAIL When complete, Block 41 will have more than 3,000 square feet of outdoor space on every occupied office floor. On the typical office levels, each outdoor terrace is covered by the next level above, is deep enough to provide solar protection, and includes plush landscaping.

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Erica Weeks on Improving Conversations Around Sustainability

Now, in her role as associate principal and director of sustainability at the Nashville-based Hastings, Weeks spends every day doing just that: solving puzzles on green building. “I help across the board in specification language for sustainable materials, energy codes compliance, and making sure all of our clients are getting what they need for our projects,” she says.

And the projects are plenty: Weeks works with every team at Hastings to identify sustainable solutions for multifamily and commercial spaces to health care and warehouse distribution. “I spend most of my day in emails and, honestly, doing math. It’s a lot of spreadsheets and crunching numbers and connecting different consultants to make sure they’re talking to each other.”

How this sustainability director is changing the way we talk about green building

COMMUNICATION IS KEY Because Weeks touches so many projects, she works with a variety of people, and it’s her job to keep everyone on the same page. “I keep a work journal with ideas and tactics for communicating different ideas, not just to owners and clients, but also to project team members and consultants,” she says. “Unfortunately in the time we live in, where people are trying to do projects quickly, consultants might just want to stay in their silos and focus on their scope of work. But we really need those synergies between all of us to come out with the solutions.”

While many talk about including sustainable solutions as a pathway to LEED or other accreditation, Weeks tries to bring the focus back to the foundational intent. “I’m always zooming up to that 30,000-foot view and saying, ‘We’re really doing this because it’s going to save you X number of dollars and save Y amount of gallons of water,’ and then equating that to something like, ‘That is one half of an Olympic size swimming pool.’”

Giving that kind of visual is when Weeks sees a lot of aha moments, she says. But like anything, sometimes the tactic works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In her notebook Weeks will record the responses from the conversation down to the facial expression, and, depending on the feedback, try it again on another project or take a new approach.

“Keeping that work journal is the easiest way for me to think about every discipline I work with to make sure we’re getting those synergies across the board, so the civil engineer isn’t just thinking about what they need to do but how it also affects landscape, architecture, and mechanical design.”

BY SOPHIA CONFORTI

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Ask any architect about where they first discovered their love for building, and most will cite a childhood fascination with LEGO or Lincoln Logs. But for Erica Weeks, it was a high school drafting class.

“I really found a fondness for the technical aspects of the projects that we were to emulate, draw up, and figure out. Give me a challenge, and I will figure out 10 ways to do it,” she says. “For me, buildings and architecture really came into that question of, how do I solve that puzzle every day?”

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SUSTAINABILIT Y IN PR AC TICE

IN 2015 ERICA WEEKS WAS ONE OF THE FIRST RECIPIENTS OF HASTINGS’ HYPE (HASTINGS YOUNG PROFESSIONALS EXPERIENCE) INNOVATION GRANT, WHICH SHE USED TO FURTHER STUDY BIOPHILIC DESIGN.

Putting those strategies to work every day, Weeks and the Hastings team build innovative sustainable projects like Nashville’s Peabody Plaza at Rolling Hill Mill. Completed in 2020, the core and shell project earned LEED Silver certification—a process Weeks was heavily involved in as both the primary LEED facilitator and documenter.

“Unlike other high-rise buildings in an urban environment where you see 15 stories of garage, it was really such a beautiful site where the garage could be submerged and the plaza made on top,” Weeks says.

So that’s exactly what they did. The 1,005-car parking garage was buried five stories below grade, and the building was positioned along the western edge of the site to create a 37,500-square-foot pocket park.

“You don’t even notice the garage. This way you also have this amazing public-use plaza and greenscape with amenities everyone feels they have access to, even though it’s part of a private development,” PHOTO BY DANIEL MEIGS

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A big thing for me is I want every day to be challenging, and I think that’s what led me into the sustainability role versus the traditional architect working one project at a time.

Project: Peabody Plaza Location: Nashville, TN Completion: July 2020 Size: 290,000 square feet Architect: Hastings Interior Design: Hastings

Weeks says. “In theory, if it was a dense urban project, you would see the 15 stories of garage, and then the amenities deck would only be for the people in the building.”

Instead anyone can come to Peabody Plaza, sit on the amenities deck, and overlook the skyline and the Cumberland River—an idea Weeks was able to watch unfold in real time. “They were installing the bike racks, and they had literally screwed them into the concrete and somebody came up on a bike within one minute and parked their bike,” she says. “It was hilarious. It was so cool to see that.”

The amenity deck also features an impressive 5,745-square-foot green roof designed to echo the new park—a sustainable feature that decreases heat-island effect, reduces stormwater runoff, and improves stormwater quality.

“The most exciting part of the project for me is that we could capitalize on creating such connectivity and redefine how a high-rise works in that area of town,” she says. “A big thing for me is I want every day to be challenging, and I think that’s what led me into the sustainability role versus the traditional architect working one project at a time. The coolest thing I see is I’m able to connect something faster between teams because I oversee so many projects. It’s teaching people to think differently.” g

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General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie Structural Engineer: EMC Structural Engineers Precast Concrete: GATE Precast Glass & Glazing: Alexander Metals Masonry: Jollay Masonry Oko: Groove Construction Landscape Architecture: HAWKINS Partners

arc hi tec t t o wat ch

THE FACADE PATTERN IS BASED ON HISTORIC TROLLEY BARNS AND IS PATTERNED WITH PRECAST CONCRETE PANELS, BRICK, OKO SKIN, AND GLASS.

PHOTOS BY KENDALL MCCAUGHERT Y, HALL + MERRICK PHOTOGR APHERS

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Turns out that clanky radiator, commonly found under the windows in older buildings, is still doing what it was designed to do over a century ago—pump out heat so intense it can warm a space even on the coldest days. The only problem is things have changed since steam heating systems were created. Today’s building owners are searching for efficient and optimally controlled heating systems. That’s why HVAC design and manufacturer Salus has developed the technology to bring this outdated system into modern times. Here Christopher S. Robertson, director of sales for Salus North America, shares how this technology can increase comfort while maximizing efficiency.

How can tech help manage my steam-heated building?

BY CHRISTOPHER S. ROBERTSON DIRECTOR, SALUS NORTH AMERICA

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Steam heating systems have had a reputation for being inefficient and difficult to control space temperature.

Likely when you think of steam-heated spaces you think of opening windows to regulate temperature. For more than

a century that has been the only real way to control the temperature, but not anymore.

Salus’ wireless technology has made these systems more efficient and comfortable than ever—enabling control. A Wireless

Radiator Valve Actuator is installed on the radiator valve—paired with a battery-operated wireless thermostat that senses the room’s temperature and modulates the radiator valve actuator to maintain the desired temperature. This combination eliminates the need to run wires in a finished apartment and is priced at $175 to $200.

One thermostat can control up to six wireless actuators.

The controls can be accessed on the thermostat or through the Smart Home application on mobile devices.

Data is uploaded to the cloud so building managers can monitor one property or their entire property portfolio.

This technology is increasingly crucial to improving the operation of buildings. Replacement of steam-heating systems would be prohibitively expensive. This new

technology solves the problem of tenant comfort and “paying to heat the outdoors.”

When developing this tech, Salus considered the relationship between building manager and tenant. The battery-powered thermostats generally last two heating seasons so managers aren’t disturbing tenants to replace batteries. The wireless valve actuator has an optional lithium-ion battery that will last up to eight years. Per the Department of Energy, such system upgrades can reduce energy costs by 20 to 35%, depending on building size and chosen technology.

Steam heat is often thought of as what your grandmother had, but when controlled, it’s a good quality heat. Unlike other heating systems, it heats a space quickly, and it is not dry in the winter like forced air. g

PHOTOS, LEFT: COURTESY OF SALUS; THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF PEXELS

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Throughout its nearly half-century in business Maxxon®, the creator of Gyp-Crete®, has been North America’s premiere source of top-quality gypsum underlayments. Versatile and solutionforward, the company’s innovative products for commercial and multifamily structures aren’t merely used for leveling purposes in renovations and new construction. They’re also excellent for improving the acoustical quality of any building, including spaces that use primarily mass timber and concrete. That pairing can look great, but it’s problematic for sound dampening purposes. Erik Holmgreen, Maxxon’s vice president of research and development, explains how to remedy that issue.

How do you control sound in mass timber construction?

BY ERIK HOLMGREEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

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The benefits of mass timber construction are many. It’s beautiful. It’s sustainable.

And it’s more quickly assembled. But there’s one major

challenge: Sound control is always an issue when the mass timber is left exposed on the ceiling. Unwanted noise, as those who’ve endured

stomping upstairs neighbors can attest, can adversely affect the happiness and well-being of residents. A Maxxon Acousti-Mat® sound mat topped with a Gyp-Crete® underlayment can help by offering a high-performance sound control system that doesn’t affect aesthetics.

Typically a sound control system is only used in residential construction to meet International Building Code.

This is because, in commercial concrete construction, no sound control system is required to meet accepted light commercial acoustic levels, usually a STC & IIC 40-45. Mass timber commercial spaces often feature beautiful wooden ceilings paired with a polished concrete floor. It looks really cool, but it creates an environment where the concrete wants to ring and the timber has insufficient mass to dampen it. Thus, to meet traditional

commercial acoustic levels in this environment, sound control systems are a necessary component.

The reason sound control in mass timber is such a challenge is because a traditional ceiling adds mass and air space—two critical components in reducing sound transfer. In mass timber the goal is to show off the beautiful wood ceiling, so sound reduction must be achieved on the floor side of the assembly. A Maxxon Acousti-Mat sound control system adds an air gap to reduce structure-borne vibrations and mass to block airborne sound transfer through the floor/ ceiling assembly.

Maxxon has conducted more than 300 sound tests in the most common types of mass timber assemblies and has designed a variety of sound control systems to meet commercial and residential noise reduction requirements. g

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAXXON

A MAXXON ACOUSTIMAT SOUND CONTROL SYSTEM ADDS AN AIR GAP TO REDUCE STRUCTURE-BORNE VIBRATIONS AND MASS TO BLOCK AIRBORNE SOUND TRANSFER THROUGH THE FLOOR/CEILING ASSEMBLY.

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at a glance

In the Trees

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Studio PHH Architecture designed this house of contrasting light and color by the lake in Princeton, New Jersey.

Architect Pierre-Henri Hoppenot and his team designed the house around a light-filled space they called La Clairiere, French for “the glade.” “This central space became the driver for the built project and

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extends the living space out into the landscape on both sides,” Hoppenot says. “The light-filled volume houses all of the public programs of the house while the dark masses on either side host the bedrooms and private spaces. The careful orientation of the dark masses in relation to the glass atrium shelters the space from

the southern sun and provides diffuse natural light all day, minimizing the need for artificial lighting. The use of daylighting continues into the private spaces with punched openings that frame views, provide cross ventilation, and allow in abundant natural light.” Read more at gbdmagazine.com. —Laura Rote

PHOTO COURTESY OF GLEN - GERY

CHANGING THE WAY YOU LOOK AT YOUR SPACE Modernfold’s Acousti-Clear® movable wall systems provide flexible space management solutions for your ever-changing space requirement needs while providing daylighting and 51 STC acoustical control.

• ACOUSTICS • AESTHETICS • PERFORMANCE •

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