gb&d Issue 67: Winter 2022

Simplest Way to Spec for Sustainability

No matter what sustainability or design challenges you’re facing, the Armstrong® SUSTAIN® portfolio makes your decisions simpler – by offering the largest forwardthinking portfolio of healthy ceiling and wall solutions, with verified material transparency and low embodied carbon. Learn more at armstrongceilings.com/sustain

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Proactive Design How top architects are designing differently in a world of wildfires

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Why Choose Brick?

Perkins & Will shares their expertise on designing with innovative brick solutions.

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A Healing Space

Young patients will feel more at home at Texas Children’s Hospital.

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Vibrant Health Care Design

Wall coverings in health care settings are changing.

ON THE COVER Nidapark Kayaşehir in Istanbul features thermally modified wood from Tantimber.

Photo courtesy of G Wood Products

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Products

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Editors’ Picks Unexpected interior products for sustainable design

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Under Foot An expert’s guide to designing with alternative flooring

24

A Healthier Choice VOC-free underlayment that makes environments more comfortable

28

Outdoor Living Fiberon’s composite cladding systems offer a low-maintenance alternative to wood.

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Thermally Modified Wood Tantimber’s ThermoWood products add life and value to projects.

Projects

41

A Home for the Future How architecture students designed the Indiana Street House in Kansas

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High Design Design and performance combine at this lakefront home. 58

History Within A complex project in Mexico preserves history while making room for sustainable upgrades.

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A Healthier Footprint Renovating an outdated office building to bring in light and views

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Urban Landforms Basalt columns inspired this residential complex in Portland, Oregon.

Practice

108

Gail Shillingford

B+H Architects on how to build inclusive, equitable design into public spaces

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Evolving Your Design Career A designer walks us through his experience at NYSID.

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Elizabeth Golden Why designing with carbon neutral materials is more important than ever

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Robert Hutchinson The intersection of art and architecture, the Rain Harvest Home, and more

PHOTOS FROM TOP: COURTESY OF KAHRS; COURTESY OF ELIZABETH GOLDEN ARCHITECTURE; ZAICKZ

QUALITY EARLY LEARNING FURNITURE

Jonti-Craft is your complete solution to create spaces that engage, inspire, and protect young learners. From traditional school settings and daycare centers to churches, doctor’s waiting rooms, and many other environments - JoniCraft furnishes them all. We have over 4,000 handcrafted, unique and custom-designed

products that have been designed just for little ones and learning environments. Products such as adjustable tables, stacking chairs, STEM products, mobile storage solutions, play kitchens, and more! With our expansive selection, you’ll be able to outfit any space –even if it’s just one room, or an entire building!

Editor-in-Chief

Christopher Howe Associate

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Mike Thomas

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contrib

utors

ERIC JACOBSON (“A Home for the Future,” pg. 41) is a freelance writer based in Chicago. With a background of 20-plus years in communications and a love for creative writing, he appreciates any chance he gets to write. His passion for sustainability was born from his upbringing in the Pacific Northwest, where he learned to adore the trees, mountains, lakes, and Pacific Ocean.

MIRIAH HAMRICK (“High Design,” pg. 50) is a writer living on the North Carolina coast. She started her career in West Virginia, where she’s from, and has worked in both news and magazine writing. From books she wrote, illustrated, and bound with yarn as a kid to her current job as a reporter and freelance writer, life has always been about finding and telling good stories. When she isn’t writing, Miriah enjoys reading, cooking, and embarking on endless projects on a historic home that she owns with her husband.

ISSUE 67 GBDMAGAZINE.COM 7 gb&d issue 67

Introducing the all-new Envirocoustic Wood Wool Designs. Designs combine all-natural, acoustically absorptive Wood Wool with decorative CNC-engineered patterns for eye-catching wall and ceiling panels. Envirocoustic Wood Wool Designs boast NRC values ranging from .45 to .90, depending on mounting methods, accomplishing eyecatching and comfortable-sounding spaces.

5 Things

1

The Pinkney Neighborhood in Lawrence, Kansas is named in honor of William Pinkney—an American statesman who was the seventh US Attorney General and is distinguished for an anti-slavery speech he delivered in 1789. Previously the neighborhood’s name was spelled Pinckney and was possibly connected to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a Revolutionary War general and pro-slavery plantation owner. The neighborhood’s residents voted in favor of changing the name in July 2021. Future Architects, pg. 41

2

The former Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation building was originally designed as a post-modernist building in 1984, comprised of eight isolated floors. EskewDumezRipple’s renovation started with a study of the existing building and its occupants’ work patterns. This included installation of data loggers of

thermal conditions, indoor air quality and daylight conditions, infrared photography, and utility bill analysis. Daylight, energy, radiant thermal environment, and computational fluid dynamic airflow simulations were used throughout design to simulate the effects of potential interventions. A Healthier Footprint, pg. 66

3

One thing that can make wood stronger, less prone to warping, and kick out bugs for good? Heat. Thermally modified wood has undergone an eco-friendly heat and steam process in a special kiln to remove most of its moisture content. The result is a building material that is all-natural, exceptionally strong, versatile, and requires no chemicals. Designing with Thermally Modified Wood, pg. 34

4

As the cost of living has risen sharply in cities across the US, many municipalities are loosening restrictions on detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs). Robert Hutchison Architects has designed a number of DADUs in Seattle. These are essentially small secondary residences built on a homeowner’s property that can provide them with rental income as well as an affordable place to live for those who may be priced out of the traditional rental market. The Economy of Stable Architecture, pg. 124

5

Salmon Safe Certification and Accreditation is given to farmers as well as builders and developers who prioritize the protection of watershed health. Those who are Salmon Safe–certified protect water quality and restore habitats by diverting stormwater runoff and promoting climate resiliency.

Salmon-Safe is one of the largest ecolabels in the US, with more than 95,000 acres of certified farm and urban land. Urban Landforms, pg. 74

We Learned Past truths and behind the scenes stories from the making of this issue

Acme Brick Company pg. 14, 90 brick.com 817.332.4101

directory

ISSUE 67

ARCAT pg. 132 arcat.com 203.929.9444

Fiberon pg. 18, 28 fiberoncladding.com 877.775.2523

New York School of Interior Design pg. 40, 114 nysid.edu 212.472.1500

Armstrong Ceiling Solutions pg. 2 armstrongceilings.com/commercial 877.276.7876

G Wood Products pg. 4, 34 gwoodpro.com

Tantimber Products pg. 34 tantimber.com

ASI Group pg. 8 asigroup.us 914.476.9000

Healthier Choice Flooring pg. 24 healthierchoice.com 800.872.8426

Koroseal Interior Products pg. 16, 104 koroseal.com 855.753.5474

Jonti-Craft pg. 6 jonti-craft.com 507.342.5169

Visa Lighting pg. 12 visalighting.com 414.354.6600

Excel Dryer pg. 10 exceldryer.com 877.748.7018

Kährs International pg. 20 kahrs.com 800.800.5247

Westcoat Specialty Coating Systems pg. 80, 131 westcoat.com 800.250.4519

The Amphora Series

California furniture company Model No. has launched a 3D-printed lighting series crafted from food waste and wood dust. The Amphora Hive Pendant is part of a lighting collection of more than a dozen pieces inspired by ancient Mediterranean vases. Food waste, corn and sugar leftovers, wood dust, and sustainably sourced FSC-certified hardwood make up the new designs. Every piece is made to order, and all production takes place in the brand’s California micro-factory. MODEL-NO.COM

THE AMPHORA PENDANT SERIES BRINGS INTEREST TO EVERYTHING FROM A SMALL SPACE WITH ONE PENDANT TO LARGE SPACES AS A FAMILY OF PENDANTS.

Unexpected Interiors

Redesign

and renovate with sustainable products that repurpose waste and more

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Perkins&Will And Acme Brick: A Monumental Partnership

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church is a landmark in Houston’s historic Third Ward, and a beacon for the entire city. So when this rapidly growing church was ready to expand, it turned to Perkins&Will – which then turned to Acme Brick.

To help keep this project on track in an unusually challenging construction season, Acme sourced brick from three different plants –including an affiliate’s – in distinctive norman size.

We are proud of our partnership with Perkins&Will. For more than 130 years, Acme Brick has been supporting architects who use outstanding design to meet clients’ needs and build strong communities.

Owner: Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Architect: Tony Martin, Perkins&Will, Houston, TX General Contractor: Horizon International Group LLC, Houston, TX Masonry Contractor: City Masonry LLC, Tomball, TX

Airmega Icon

Fuseproject and Coway are making indoor air quality more beautiful with this new air purifier you won’t want to hide in a corner. “We were inspired by design ethos commonly applied to furniture and set out to create a model that improves health, but also serves as a beautiful and practical showpiece,” says fuseproject CEO and Founder Yves Béhar. “Rather than imposing a boxy or round plastic object that stands out as utilitarian technology, the Airmega Icon’s design uses new geometry to fit into spaces discreetly and elegantly. The refined materials, textile, and wood finish, neutral color palette of gray and pink tones, and furniture feet add beauty to any environment.” COWAYMEGA.COM

At Koroseal, we want to be more than just a source of inspiration along your design journey; we want to be your most trusted partner. We have a rich history of over 65 years as a manufacturer and distributor of commercial interior products and delivering exceptional market-driven designs. Through the relationships we build with you, the Koroseal team is constantly in tune with your changing needs. This ongoing collaboration leads to finished projects we are all proud to be a part of.

Discover the possibilities at koroseal.com

WALLCOVERINGS

DIGITAL LAB

Forite

Forite is a collection of glass tiles made from recycled electronic waste designed and developed by Snøhetta, Studio Plastique, and Fornace Brioni. The project was launched and displayed for the first time during Milan Design Week 2022. Forite uses glass from discarded fridges, ovens, and microwaves and reimagines it as beautiful, sustainable tile that is opaque and transparent, each with a unique pattern. The terrazzo-like quality makes these tiles ideal for a wide range of architectural applications, including both surface coverage and as semi-transparent partition elements. FORITE.IO

©2022 Fiberon. All rights reserved. FIBERON and the Fiberon logo are trademarks of Fiber Composites, LLC. Registered trademarks are registered in the U.S. and may be registered internationally.

Solatube Tubular Daylighting Systems

These 750 DS-O Tubular Daylighting Systems with integrated light kits and colorful acrylic covers were used to create a one-of-a-kind design on the Miami Dade College West Campus. Here, the broadspectrum daylight illuminates the space to create an even glow and bring life to this corner of campus. The lighting solution created by the architect and Solatube International provided an innovative approach to daylighting in a modern and high-performing educational environment.

SOLATUBE.COM

Division Twelve Chairs

Division Twelve’s line of bent-metal furniture is colorful, versatile, and carbon neutral. Choose from chairs like the Wedge with its deep seat and elegant curve in playful colors like antique pink or Division Light Blue with a Haven Hyacinth seat (pictured). Or Dek—a unique oval seat inspired by the dek of a skateboard, seen here in Division Yellow for outdoor use. To achieve carbon-neutral status, Division Twelve reduced carbon emissions at every stage of its processes—from design and the materials they used in production, distribution, and end-of-life.

DIVISION12.COM

CLICK

Kährs LVTs include gluefree Click joint options for a quick, easy install. They also come in wood, stone, and herringbone designs.

FLOORING

Under Foot

Kährs’ innovative alternative flooring fills a void in the industry.

BY MATT NOEL

For more than 160 years Kährs has been innovating in the world of wood. Found ed in 1857 in Sweden, the company first began as a shop providing wooden objects like toys and spinning wheels, and in 1941 they invented and patented the first engi neered wood floor, shifting their focus to the flooring industry.

Today Kährs has become a leading man ufacturer of engineered floors, supplying its

COURTESY OF KÄHRS

PHOTO

products to more than 70 countries and of fering solutions for projects that need wood flooring, resilient flooring, and LVT flooring for both the residential and commercial mar kets. “We’re a pretty diverse company when it comes to our service offerings today,” says Sean Brennan, the US president of Kährs. Be ing in business for more than 160 years, the company has paved the way for the flooring industry while also keeping the environment

in mind. For example, Kährs introduced the first ever glueless locking system and solvent-free finish, eliminating potentially harmful adhesives from entering your home.

While Kährs’ world still is very much cen tered in wood flooring and celebrating its sus tainability, even they know wood isn’t always feasible for a project. The following are just some of the alternative flooring options ar chitects and designers can choose from today.

THE AWARE COLLECTION IS UP TO 40% QUIETER THAN A LAMINATE FLOOR.

Did You Know?

Luxury Vinyl Tiles

Luxury vinyl tiles (LVTs) offer the look of wood flooring but are made from non-wood materials and sealed with a ceramic coat ing to make them even more durable and water-resistant. They’re a great option for high traffic spaces and areas exposed to water and humid ity changes. “It really devel oped more out of functional ity and the fact that it can be installed in so many differ ent areas,” Brennan says of Kährs LVTs’ durability and longevity. They’re designed to last and work well in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry spaces, and more. “It’s a very functional floor. You can put it into a lot of areas where, frankly, you might not want to put a wood floor.”

SEVEDE

LVTs can be installed us ing glue just like a wood floor, but Kährs also offers an array of gluefree Click joint options for easier, quicker installation. Their LVTs also come in wood, stone, and herringbone designs with sound dampening qualities.

Kährs’ LVTs are quick to install and can fit into virtually any design—residential or com mercial. “Especially for a building owner, LVT is a very easy product to put in because of its low maintenance. And it’s hard to damage,” Brennan says. “It’s a good alternative to car pet. It’s easier to clean, it has some water-re sistant features, and can be less expensive than other flooring alternatives.”

PVC-Free Enomer

Kährs’ LVTs are phthalate-free, and the Click options eliminate the use of glue that may contain harmful VOCs, but PVC-Free Enomer® takes sustainability even further.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KÄHRS

KÄHRS’ LVTS CAN LOOK LIKE WOOD OR STONE BUT ARE SCRATCH- AND DENT-RESISTANT, EASY TO MAINTAIN, AND EASY TO INSTALL.

Kährs’ wood flooring in oak. Naturally occuring wood color variations, from light to dark brown. This product has large black knots and cracks.

ATHOS

These Click floors were designed for places that need durable floors with adhesive-free installation.

Enomer is a flooring material invented by Kährs Upofloor, made from natural miner als and pure polymers—free from PVC, plas ticizers, phthalates, halogens, chlorines, and heavy metals. The Kährs Upofloor Zero and Xpression ranges of commercial flooring are created with Enomer and can be seen in hospitals, offices, schools, and health care facilities all over the world. “You can put this anywhere you put a vi nyl floor and there’s absolutely no harmful chemicals or PVC present in the product,” Brennan says.

The low-VOC Enomer flooring pro motes healthy indoor air quality and is also resistant to bacteria growth, making it more hygienic and easier to clean. In the Enomer resilient plank range, Xpression, Kährs offers wood-inspired designs, and in the Enomer Zero sheet and tile range, Kährs offers a chip-design in a rainbow of colors—all with the durability that makes these products a perfect fit for high-traf fic residential spaces as well as schools, hospitals, and hospitality. It stands up to

scratching and dirt, is stain-resistant, and offers strong slip-resistance, too.

Quartz & Aware Flooring

Kährs Upofloor’ Quartz collections are popular in schools, among other markets. Made from quartz sand, plastics, and min erals, nearly 100% of the unused materials in these tiles can be recycled and put back into production, same as the Kährs Upo floor Zero products. Cost-effective Quartz also works well in heavily trafficked ar eas and is low maintenance. Their various styles can be customized to fit any com mercial space.

Aware is the newest Kährs collection, coming to the US in 2023. This durable, bio-based flooring is made using reclaimed, recycled, and natural fibers. “It takes com ponents that work really well for an LVT, it takes components that work really well for a wood floor, it combines everything together,

and it’s very easy to install,” Brennan says. Cork and wood are its main ingredients, and its natural cushioning properties make it a dream to walk on. Designers can choose from nine colors.The floor is as easy to in stall as it is to uninstall with Kährs’ standard locking joint.

The Benefits of Veneer-Wood Flooring

Veneer’s thin wood layering makes it an other strong option for sustainable floor ing. Kährs’ veneer-wood floors, the Life Collection, are just seven millimeters thick and consist of a one-millimeter hard wood surface on top of a high-density fiberboard core. The layering and dense core make the floors stable while standing up to sea sonal humidity.

Kährs’ Life Collection comes in many designs, from light coconut cream to deep brown cocoa bean, working anywhere you might consider a standard hardwood floor. Kährs Life can be floated or glued-down.

Kährs recently found a way to create an even more stable, denser version of their veneer-wood. “It’s so paper thin that when you adhere it to an HDF (high-density fi berboard) and add our proprietary Kährs finish, it’s suitable for commercial as well as residential use because it’s so hard and so dense,” Brennan says. “We’ve installed it in multifamily settings, major hotels, and some other commercial settings because it performs very well.”

Sustainability

Today Kährs continues to innovate both in the realm of wood and alternative flooring. Wood helps to naturally regulate tempera ture in a room and is free from plastics and other harmful materials. Understanding how important forests are to our ecosys tem, Kährs is actively engaged with forest ry organizations and other NGOs to further sustainable reforestation. Kährs’ innovations continue to push the industry forward as they’ve developed methods to reduce wood waste. The company maintains many envi ronmental certifications and offers collec tions composed of recycled materials.

“We continue to develop products that utilize less raw materials but that are con sidered sustainable, produced in the right way, and contribute to reducing the car bon footprint in the world,” Brennan says. “We’re going to put a lot of our energy into developing products that the A&D community wants visually but that also checks the box on sustainability.” g

UNDERLAYMENT

A Healthier Choice

BY COLLEEN DEHART

Located in the “Carpet Capital of the World,” also known as Dalton, Georgia, Healthier Choice manufactures high-den sity polyurethane foam for carpet and hard surface flooring applications. Un like competitors who commonly produce low-density foams from recycled bedding and furniture packed with toxic chemi cals, Healthier Choice’s products contain no VOCs or harmful chemicals.

How what’s under your floor affects sound and more

When Carl Poteet was deciding on a name for his flooring underlayment and carpet cushion business and comparing his product to competitors, the decision seemed obvious—he would name it Healthier Choice.

“Carl looked at all those nasty substances, the intense VOCs, and the emissions they off-gas and how very harmful they are, and he wanted to create something different. He wanted a product that was incredibly

durable, resilient, and safe. Safe for your home, your business, and your family. He achieved that,” says Andrew Stafford, vice president of marketing and technical ser vices at Healthier Choice.

Poteet had been in the flooring business for a while. He started Custom Coatings, a latex rubber foam carpet-backing business, in the 1970s and later sold it. All the while his interest in chemistry and flooring appli

OMNICHOICE ACOUSTICAL UNDERLAYMENT IS A PATENTED HIGH-DENSITY POLYURETHANE ACOUSTIC FOAM THAT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES UNWANTED NOISE BY UP TO 22 DECIBELS.

Did You Know?

cations was growing—polyurethane foam, in particular, had caught his attention. In the 1980s he partnered with DOW Chem ical to develop a polyurethane foam called DOW Enhancer. That product became the basis for Healthier Choice foam technolo gy. “The thing that intrigued Carl about polyurethane chemistry was the durabili ty. It is incredibly durable. It has multiple applications, it is used in caster wheels, truck bed coatings, and the exterior of boat hulls,” Stafford says. “When you take that same polyurethane chemistry and apply it to what we do, it creates a very durable and resilient foam.”

What is OmniChoice?

OmniChoice is an acoustical polyurethane foam underlayment designed to reduce sound transfer from space to space. It can be installed beneath almost any floor cover ing—from hardwood to stone and everything in between.

It works by dampening sound wave vi bration as it comes in contact with the tiny cells that make up the foam. “The foam will deaden the vi bration and prevent it from going traveling to the next substrate,” Stafford says. It has a decoupling effect. For example, if you have hardwood placed directly on a concrete subfloor, then you have two substrates the sound will pass through easily. Installing OmniChoice between the substrate and the floor covering will absorb im pact and airborne noise, mak ing it more difficult for sound to travel through. It is ideal for multifamily housing, hotels, of fice complexes, and any indoor environment where there will be people above or below.

Are you concerned about moisture harm ing your flooring? Healthier Choice offers

UNIVERSAL Underlayment works beneath vinyl plank, laminate, engineered wood, solid hardwood, ceramic tile, and stone tile flooring.

OMNICHOICE UNIVERSAL ACOUSTICAL UNDERLAYMENT IS APPROVED FOR USE UNDER ENGINEERED WOOD, SOLID HARDWOOD, LVT, CERAMIC AND PORCELAIN TILE, AND STONE TILE.

BEST USES

Use over subfloor substrates like plywood, concrete, OSB, and cement board. Use in floating, nail down, and glue down methods.

VaporBloc, a poly-blended plastic film that can be applied to OmniChoice to prevent vapor emission transmission. It is ideal for at or below-grade installations. “Not only does it give you better sound ratings and a slight amount of cushion on the surface floor from the foam, but VaporBloc also prevents the moisture vapor that comes up through the subfloor from damaging your floor,” Stafford says.

Benefits

OmniChoice can help architects and design ers meet desired IIC ratings and building code requirements. It is durable and resilient, de signed to last the life of the floor covering and prevent it from failing prematurely.

As the name implies, OmniChoice Uni versal can be used with most flooring types, including hardwood, engineered hardwood, vinyl planks, carpet tile, ceramic tile, laminate, and stone. “If they need sound reduction underlayment, OmniChoice is a great all-in-one solution for multiple flooring types,” Stafford says.

It’s also easy to install. OmniChoice can be glued, stapled, nailed, or thin-set in

place. “Not every underlayment does that. It makes it unique.” It is easy for installers to manage, coming in small rolls.

It is a safe product with no VOCs. The foam contains antimicrobials, preventing mold and mildew growth and making it the ideal choice for asthma and allergy sufferers.

Finally, the product helps meet sustain ability goals. It is UL GREENGUARD Gold–certified and 100% recyclable. It contributes to LEED credits for low emissions, acoustical performance, material reuse, and sourcing. A major raw component used in the foam is sourced from a mine in a neighboring Geor gia county. “OmniChoice is a problem-solver. It makes the environment more livable and comfortable,” Stafford says. “It cuts down on stress, distractions and health issues.”

Looking Ahead

Healthier Choice researchers monitor the flooring industry and take note of problems or issues as they arise. Engineers are current ly working on a product that will assist in crack suppression. “Our goal is to develop products that solve problems and provide more economical options,” Stafford says. g

“OmniChoice is a problemsolver. It makes the environment more livable and comfortable.”

IN ACTION

Fiberon Wildwood is seen here in Sumac.

It includes the exclusive PermaTech cap layer to protect against staining and fading.

COMPOSITE CLADDING SYSTEMS

Outdoor Living

BY MIKE THOMAS

The idea for Fiberon’s revolutionary new Wildwood composite cladding sprang from a product the company had been man ufacturing with great success for two de cades: composite decking. Customers began telling them that it also worked extremely well on walls—even though it wasn’t made for that purpose.

And so an intensive, five-year R&D process began that eventually produced the lighter, thinner, and more facade-friendly Wildwood

A long-lasting, low maintenance alternative to traditional wood

line. Officially launched in 2021, it is what all exterior cladding should be and more: aesthetically versatile, long-lasting, low-main tenance, highly sustainable, and backed by certifications from years of testing.

What are Wood Plastic Composites?

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) are a rough

ly 50/50 blend of small wood particles (i.e. wood flour) and thermoplastic polymers. They have all the best qualities of wood (high strength, low cost) plus the resilience of re cycled plastic—which is less prone to water absorption and insect infestation and means their longevity is unmatched.

Unlike solid wood, WPC won’t crack, splinter, or warp. It also requires less maintenance. Keep in mind, though, that while composites are great at preventing water

FIBERON WILDWOOD COMPOSITE CLADDING OFFERS A 50-YEAR WARRANTY COVERING STAIN, FADE, AND PERFORMANCE. IT’S UNRIVALED IN THE INDUSTRY AND OFFERS PEACE OF MIND FOR THE SPECIFIER AND BUILDING OWNER.

Did You Know?

ALONG WITH FORTUNE BRANDS HOME & SECURITY, FIBERON IS PARTNERING WITH THE NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION IN THEIR EFFORT TO PLANT 50 MILLION TREES.

penetration, they aren’t impervious to it due to the wood component.

Specifying high-quality composite boards (like Wildwood) that are capped on at least three sides helps to further slow this pro cess. Many common cladding materials will absorb water quite readily rather than de flect it. Rainscreen systems are one of the most effective methods for managing moisture (more specifically bulk infiltration, capillary intrusion, and vapor exfiltration) and mitigating damage to residential and commercial structures.

Additionally, wood plastic composites provide greater design flexibility than solid wood. Not only can they be manufactured in many shapes, colors, and textures, but a variety of wood species—including pine, maples, and oak, depending on regional availability—can be incorporated into the finished product.

Beautifully Functional

EDEN

The Eden Collection is inspired by lush, tropical forests and features an array of exotic hues including Wenge, Meranti (seen here), Tupelo, Mora, and Koa.

Some products sacrifice looks for longevity. Not Wildwood, which has both in equal mea sure at an extremely com petitive price point. Its two nature-inspired color collec tions—Eden (inspired by lush, tropical rainforests and avail able in an array of exotic hues) and Sahara (reflective of arid, sandy landscapes, it comes in several rich desert tones like Bamboo and light-blonde oak)—feature re alistic embossing patterns and come in a wide variety of board lengths that result in fewer seams and a much cleaner aesthetic. And they’re purposely complementary in appearance, so they can easily be mixed and matched. “We’ve done a lot of building en

This composite cladding has rich, natureinspired embossing and multi-tonal colors for superior wood emulation.

trances,” says Jim Stange, Fiberon’s long time senior product manager. “Wildwood gives them a lot more warmth, especially when the facades are made of stone. It soft ens the tone of a building’s exterior.

Thanks to laser and visualization tech nology that produces consistently high-qual ity and aesthetically superior cladding, Fi beron composite cladding better emulates natural wood compared to alternative ma terials like fiber cement. Products with lowgloss formulas and micro-texturing have a matte finish, which further enhances their natural look.

Recently, a handful of developers of upscale custom homes have begun using Wildwood cladding on their model homes and offering it to prospective buyers as an upgrade, Stange says. It’s also popular among private equity firms purchasing rundown buildings, revitalizing them with Wildwood cladding and flipping them for a profit. “We’re learning that our product not only has a unique look that they like, but it gives their properties increased equity right off the bat because of the material’s longevi ty. They can sell that building with a 50-year warranty on the cladding.”

Install It and Forget It

Commercial buildings are held to a differ ent standard than residential ones in that building owners are particularly interested in maintenance cycles and the longevity of products that go into their facades,” Stange says. “With a composite cladding system like Wildwood we’ve eliminated nearly all maintenance.”

That’s because Wildwood features a PermaTech cap layer that protects against fading and staining. And thanks to a dura ble composite core, it’s nearly impervious to moisture retention, insect infestation, cracking, and decay. Architects are espe cially impressed with its resistance to paint adhesion, which allows for easy cleaning if the surface is vandalized. It’s also approved for high-velocity zones, and it adheres to the strict NFPA 268 code standard for flame and heat resistance.

The advantages of those qualities can’t be overstated, particularly for service-orient ed buildings like hospitals and restaurants. Real wood looks great at first, but it soon re quires sanding, pressure-washing, and regu

DESIGN DETAILS

AVAILABLE IN A VARIETY OF BOARD LENGTHS AND WIDTHS FOR MORE DESIGN SOLUTIONS

LONGER LENGTHS RESULT IN FEWER SEAMS, CREATING A CLEANER AESTHETIC

MIX-AND-MATCH BOARD LENGTHS AND COLORS TO CREATE A CUSTOM LOOK FOR EACH PROJECT

BEYOND WOOD

SAHARA

This collection is inspired by arid, sandy landscapes and includes rich desert tones like Mulga, Palo, Sumac, and Bamboo.

HIGHLY SUSTAINABLE

•

•

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lar inspection to replace any rotting boards. In other words, it’s pretty constant upkeep. And the expense of that upkeep isn’t limited to the upkeep itself. Maintenance on multiuse properties means downtime, which also costs owners money. Wildwood lets them focus on their core business rather than the structure that houses it.

Unparalleled Sustainability

Wildwood is at least 94% recycled content, as verified by an independent accredited ser vice. That’s no surprise, seeing as sustain ability has been a core Fiberon value for decades. They’re so serious about it that they have their own in-house recycling program at a facility near Charlotte, North Carolina. Equipped with three high-tech machines that sort through and repurpose pallet loads of recyclables, it’s part of Fiberon’s commit ment to life cycle analysis—understanding every stage of a product’s value chain, from cradle to grave.

At significant cost, the entire process is meticulously documented—everything from where the material originates to how much energy it takes to produce cladding. It’s all within Fiberon’s Environmental Prod uct Declaration (EPD), and architects often look for EPDs when choosing materials for their buildings. A third-party evaluation of Wildwood has been completed and is now publicly available. g

PHOTO

BY SOPHIA CONFORTI

ood has been an essential resource long used in green building, but there’s one problem: It changes over time. Wood expands, contracts, and adapts to its environment just as trees in a forest do. It’s a living material, which means that while it’s reliably eco-friendly, it isn’t reliable enough to stand the test of time.

The good news is that you don’t have to forsake the look, feel, or sustainability of wood for a less desirable, less green material. In fact, you don’t have to forsake the benefits of wood at all with ThermoWood.

Tantimber offers a unique line of sustainable, thermally modified decking, siding, louvers, interior decorative wall coverings, laminated beams, and pergolas that are manufactured using a cutting-edge Ther moWood process. The patented process starts with moving FSC-cer tified sawn timber to a kiln for high temperature drying. The tem perature inside the kiln is raised to 212°C to prevent cracking. The moisture content of the wood is reduced to absolute zero.

Then the high temperature is maintained, which changes the wood chemically and physically, gives it its brown color, and removes harm ful extractives. After high-temperature drying, the temperature is

decreased by using steam and water. The moisture content of the wood is controlled to ensure end-products contain moisture levels from 4 to 7%, improving the wood’s dimensional stability and durability with out the fear of cracking. This whole process can last up to 110 hours.

“ThermoWood is not your standard ther mal modification process that everyone talks about in the industry. It’s different. It’s better. It’s not for everyone,” says Meh met Zenginler, cofounder and managing partner of G Wood Pro, the exclusive dis tributor of Tantimber ThermoWood prod ucts in the US. “It’s the best natural wood product available that can be used for both exterior and interior applications.”

We recently talked to Zenginler about the benefits of ThermoWood—and how using the material can create structures with a long-lasting impact, both in design and on the environment. 

Thanks to the ThermoWood process, Tantimber products are durable, stable, and easy to maintain while having the added biophilic benefits of warmth and naturalness in design. Tantimber is great for cladding, decking, flooring, beams, and more.

1. THERMALLY MODIFIED WOOD IS EXCEPTIONALLY DURABLE.

As a result of the ThermoWood process, the chemical structure of the wood changes. Re moving moisture and organic compounds leaves the wood extremely reliable, Zengin ler says. In fact, ThermoWood Ash becomes strong as IPE, a South American species of wood commonly known as the iron wood. It’s much lighter than IPE, too.

2. IT’S INCREDIBLY STABLE. Because of the low moisture content, it doesn’t interact with its environment the same way traditional wood does. Namely, it doesn’t absorb moisture from its surround ings as much. The maximum moisture con tent will be around 13%, which is nearly enough to change its stability.

“It doesn’t warp, swell, or shrink,” Zengin ler says. “Even in extreme weather conditions or when used in different applications, like for saunas or docks on the ocean, it’ll keep it stability.”

And because thermally modified wood is resistant to moisture, it’s also resistant to rot ting and molding and won’t become a home to bugs or fungi.

3. THERMALLY MODIFIED WOOD IS NATURAL AND CHEMICAL-FREE.

Thermally modified wood is made, as the name suggests, from one all-natural mate rial: wood. And Tantimber’s thermal modifi cation process ensures it stays that way. “We simply remove excess moisture and harm ful extractives—that’s all. No chemicals are used, no treatment is applied on the surface, and it doesn’t require any special treatment before or after installation. It’s completely nontoxic.” Zenginler says.

Tantimber’s thermally modified wood has a beautiful brown tone that naturally weathers over time to a beautiful silver-gray patina if the wood is left untreated with pig mented and UV-protected wood oil.

4. IT OFFERS DESIGN FLEXIBILITY.

Tantimber offers more than 15 product pro files. Siding, decking, pergolas, beams, decorative interior wall coverings, and more— thermally modified wood is versatile and fit for any design that wants the look and feel of wood without the fear of heavy mainte nance or replacement.

Thermally modified wood is made from hardwoods and softwoods. During the mod ification process the timber is transformed into beautiful golden and chocolate browns that can be used across applications. Its long-lasting, high-performance beauty brings depth to terraces, gardens, bath rooms, walkways, and landscape architec ture with decking solutions produced from ash, pine, and iroko.

5. IT’S SOURCED SUSTAINABLY.

“Sustainability and quality are our number one priorities,” Zenginler says. “Our prod ucts are FSC- and PEFC-certified. They are chemical-free, nontoxic, eco-friendly, and 100% recyclable.”

Tantimber only sources wood from sus tainably managed forest across the US, Fin land, and Cameroon. “We believe the planet we live in must be protected by all people and institutions, as it’s a home to all living crea tures—not just humans. The raw materials that are used to manufacture ThermoWood products are obtained from responsibly man aged and sustainable forests only.”

6. THERMALLY MODIFIED WOOD HAS A LONG LIFESPAN.

Because of its durability, some species of thermally modified wood, like ash siding, can last upwards of 60 years. “It’s an investment. With thermally modified wood you can de sign something that will give you a piece of mind your whole life,” Zenginler says.

And because of its longevity, thermally modified wood adds another layer of sus tainability to projects, as there is less need to replace the material every few years. If it does need to be removed, Tantimber’s thermally modified wood is fully recycla ble. “Using thermally modified wood is an opportunity for any architect or designer to distinguish themselves with a better quality, sustainable product that is produced with a passion for the environment.” g

physical conditions.

Nurture the planet and your career with a specialty in sustainable design.

Across industries, there’s an exponentially growing need for interior designers and architects who understand indoor air quality, natural and artificial lighting systems, and everything that goes into sustainable design.

Want to fill that need? All it takes is one year to complete the New York School of Interior Design’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments program. In the end, you’ll have what it takes to sit for LEED AP and WELL AP accreditation and improve the world.

Take classes in the evenings and on weekends Study onsite or online with live classes

Choose the full-time or part-time track

Rendering by Estefania Diaz ’17 (MPS-S) and Gina Escalante ’17 (MPS-S)

THE INDIANA STREET HOUSE SITS ON A SMALL LOT IN THE PINKNEY NEIGHBORHOOD OF LAWRENCE. IT WAS DESIGNED BY A GROUP OF GRADUATE STUDENTS.

Studio 804 Builds a Home for the Future

The University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design gives students hands-on sustainable design training.

WORDS BY LAURA ROTE PHOTOS BY GAFFER PHOTOGRAPHY

The decking, walls, so ts, an lower le el si ing are a e o sassa ras a o esti har woo nati e to the eastern . he u er le el si ing is the atte bla un er a a lu ber ro u tion b ro u t e elo e in ustria that is e tre el oisture , weather , re , an resistant.

ue to the narrow s a e, the tea e i e to esign the ain li ing s a es to rise abo e the lan s a e to the se on floor

with ore e osure to a light an e ansi e iews o the neighborhoo . he rst floor is sli er in ro le to allow or ore out oor s a e

at the groun le el. he ro e t was built to eet the stan ar or latinu erti ation an is in the ro ess o nal erti ation.

The Indiana Street House sits on a small lot in the Pinkney Neighborhood of Law rence, Kansas. Designed and built by Stu dio 804, the project is not only a modern, sustainable residence but also an incubator for future advocates of sustainable design.

“Studio 804 is a nonprofit comprised of graduate students at the University of Kan sas School of Architecture & Design. Each year a new group of participants works alongside Professor Dan Rockhill for two semesters to learn affordable, sustainable, and innovative building solutions. Rockh ill has led the program for 25 years and completed more than 14 LEED Platinum projects, one LEED Gold building, and three Passive House projects. “Universities are all about ideas,” Rockhill says. “Studio 804’s big idea is putting the environment front and center. I wish more schools did this."

Twenty-seven students were part of the Indiana Street House project from start to finish, blueprints to construction. When they began work in August 2021, their de sign was informed not only by a focus on sustainability but also by the site’s narrow 50-foot infill lot. “The neighbors built over 100 years ago, before zoning restrictions were implemented, so the property was really pinched by today’s standards,” Rock hill says. “The site was overgrown for a long time, as if everyone was wondering if a building could even fit there.”

The house to the north reaches the property line, and the house to the south is just two feet off the property line. As a result, the Studio 804 team made the first floor slimmer in profile to allow it to fit nicely with its surroundings while still offering outdoor space. For additional panache, the grade drops 11 feet from front to back, making it look like the founda tion is emerging from the landscape. The ground floor features two bedrooms, a full bathroom, and a mechanical room.

The main bedroom and an expansive living room are on the second floor, which sits on 22 steel columns. This elevates them above the landscape and provides more exposure to daylight and expansive views via the large windows at either end of the home. A cantilevered deck sits off the bedroom on the east, with another deck on the west accessible from the living room. “Architecturally I love the propor

tions and the way they dealt with the site issues,” Rockhill says.

As with all Studio 804 projects, sustain ability was top of mind. All exterior walls are insulated well beyond code to restrict heat flow, with a final R-value of 41.45. The HVAC system includes energy recovery ven tilation (ERV), which exhausts stale interior air while using it to warm the incoming fresh air. There are also overhangs, custom louvers, sunscreens, and high-performance glazing in place to help ensure the building doesn’t overheat during the summer.

A solar array comprised of photovoltaic cells is mounted on the building’s roof, ca pable of offsetting approximately 80% of the average Kansas home’s energy consumption. And the garage is covered with a green roof of sedums to reduce the stormwater runoff.

A lot of reclaimed materials were used throughout construction as well. The prima ry siding on the second level is a phenolic, high-pressure laminate that is a byprod uct of lumber production at sawmills. The project used nearly 85 yards of concrete and approximately 20% of each yard was com prised of fly ash—a byproduct of the com bustion of coal burning plants. The majority of glass used on the project was repurposed, as it was purchased from a builder who had originally intended it for another project that was never built.

Even the driveway was designed with the environment in mind, using pavers made of concrete with voids between them to let

the grass grow through. Below the pavers is a subassembly of sand, compacted layers of aggregate, and a heavy geotextile fabric to control weeds and create a reservoir for stormwater runoff. Rockhill notes that this required them to jump through a lot of en gineering hoops, but it was worth it because it vastly improved the sites permeability. “The new owners really appreciate what they got in terms of sustainability, which is great,” he says. The project meets the standard for LEED Platinum and is in the process of final certification.

Rockhill notes that the work of Studio 804 is intended to be not only functional but also a demonstration of sustainable design, with the goal of teaching not just the students working on them but also the community. To that end, an open house was held in May 2022 during graduation weekend, and approximately 1,000 people visited the site to tour the home. After some prepping and coaching from Rockhill, the students acted as tour guides and answered questions from visitors.

All 27 students who worked on the Indiana Street House have graduated from the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design. “These students represent the future of sustainable design and construc tion,” Rockhill says. “Maybe the old guard in this field won’t change; it might be up to the young people to push for it. The more people I can support and teach, the better it is for the future.” g

he s ste includes an ERV that e hausts war stale interior air while using it to war the in o ing resh air when needed. The house also has three high e ien a sung in ree wall units. an oil unit in the e hani al roo ser es both le els o the east si e o the house.

ll e terior walls are insulate well be on o e with a nal alue o . , a or ing to tu io . he rains reen si ing s ste sha es the insulate olu e o the walls an ensures that the walls an ro erl r uring wet erio an ini i e the ris o ol .

PROJECT DETAILS

PROJECT: The Indiana Street House ARCHITECT: Studio 804 LOCATION: Lawrence, Kansas

ngineer orton h i t olar en u, ells ater roo ng re o ighting on e h ighting teel ohert teel oo ng , oo ng ro u ts, uarri nsulation unter anels lass nsulite lass o an , ristar lass itional anu a turers lobal, ra u ber illwor , ational su o an , etro n erno, obi e ing, heoga ar woo looring aneling

he bla er orate sli ing s reens in the interior o the ho e were abri ate b stu ents in the tu io sho ro i hlite, whi h is a e o ost onsu er re le a er.

High Design Meets High Performance

Intentional choices add up in this lakefront home, allowing the clients to achieve the look they wanted without sacrificing sustainability.

WORDS BY MIRIAH HAMRICK

PHOTOS BY GAREY GOMEZ

lo al stone was sele te or the real stone eneer to o le ent both the harre shou sugi ban siding on the ho e an the natural olor s he e o the lan s a e surroun ing it.

A circle of clerestory windows wraps around the house on Lake Lanier in Geor gia, exuding a warm, welcoming light at the end of each day. The design was envisioned to create the effect of a lantern that would light up at night, says architect David Shirley of New Energy Works. Beneath their banner, a stylized interpretation of a Japanese torii gate flanks the front door, demarcating the divide between the world outside and the sa cred sanctuary of home.

This symbolism is especially meaningful for the clients. “It was both a nod to the cli ents’ time in Japan and a welcoming symbol as you go into their house,” Shirley says. An other nod to the clients’ time in Japan is one of the first things you notice looking at the house: its use of shou sugi ban, a Japanese technique of charring wood siding to render a dark, dynamic hue that evolves with time. These are a few of the personalized elements Shirley incorporated into the design after working closely with the clients to under stand their aesthetic and practical needs.

The clients wanted a contemporary look for their timber frame home, and Shirley de livered a design centered around a palette of wood, stone, and steel—the latter of which is another personal touch, as the clients worked in the metal industry. Entering the house on the top level, Shirley kept the floor plan open for the main living area. Creating such an expansive space allows for lakefront views throughout the area, which is connected to a wraparound deck overlooking the lake.

The design choice came with challeng es Shirley enjoyed solving. “We got to play with fun engineering because with these open floor plans, you don’t want posts com ing down in the middle of your floor,” he says. The solution? An upside-down parallel chord truss runs overtop the kitchen and living room areas, providing structural sup port as well as visual interest with the dark metal popping against the warm wood tones throughout the space.

The clients requested sustainable and, when possible, reclaimed wood. Douglas fir, a classic option, was used for the house’s tim ber frame, tongue and groove ceilings, and the trim around windows and floorboards. A species less known, but no less sustainable, was chosen for the deck. Larch’s strength, rot resistance, and distinctive grain make it a solid choice for exterior use, and as an un derutilized species grown in abundance, it’s an option Shirley says New Energy Works is using more and more.

The kitchen is equipped with cabinets crafted from sustainably harvested walnut and an island countertop created from re claimed white oak. “Reclaimed wood has a story. Reclaimed wood has a lot of character. A lot of people are attracted to that, and that certainly was something that brought them to the table with us because that’s our spe cialty,” Shirley says.

These kinds of aesthetic features are often what draw a client to an architect or firm, and while New Energy Works is known for

Designed as an e tension o the li ing roo , the or h is out tte with a ergola using a tuate lou ers that auto ati all lose when it starts to rain, allowing the lients to en o iews o the la e rain or shine.

uring the a the lerestor win ows ro i e anora i iews o the la e, reating the e e t o being en eshe with the natural en iron ent. o e are e en o erable, ser ing as a heat hi ne uring hu i southern su ers.

PROJECT DETAILS

PROJECT: Eastern Inspiration – Southern Charm ARCHITECT: New Energy Works LOCATION: Lake Lanier, Georgia

o letion u er i e , s uare eet ngineer ire ower ngineere i ber ontra tor oal ountain uil ers nterior esigner ew nerg or s e i ations ew nerg or s e lai e oo ioneer illwor s ine oo wor ing woo wor s on e tual esign or en it

producing beautiful designs, they also offer something else with their High Per formance Made Easier, or HPEz, enclosure system—and the two are not mutually exclusive. “This project represents a good compromise between high design and high performance in that we didn’t make any sacrifices to the aesthetics, but we were able to bring in some high-performance features,” Shirley says. The company has focused in recent years on refining its HPEz system, which utilizes structurally engineered roof and wall panels, digitally designed and cut in-house, as the building envelope. Once deployed to the site, the panels are quicker to assemble than a tradi tional stick frame structure, and the nature of this type of building envelope ensures

a continuous layer of exterior insulation around the building frame.

That uninterrupted expanse of insulation provides numerous benefits to the client— among them an energy-efficient home. Al though the system costs more upfront, it translates to lower energy bills over the life of the house—a savings Shirley predicts will become more pronounced as energy costs continue to rise.

There’s another benefit to the high-per formance system that’s not as tangible as saved money, but just as valuable, too. “It’s quieter. The machines don’t have to work as much. You have materials that aren’t off-gassing. It feels like a more comfortable home,” Shirley says. “It feels healthy be cause it is healthy.” g

win ow at tub le el o ers a ri ate iew o the la e ront woo s surroun ing the house, reating a al , subli e s a e or a soa .

he stairs, sour e with usto walnut trea s ro woo wor s, lea to the lower le el o the house, where ar hite t a i hirle e bra e a ore la ul, in ustrial st le in ontrast to the re ne , onte orar loo o the ain le el.

History Within

Bajío 307 is a sustainable apartment complex built around a historic home in Mexico City.

WORDS BY MATTHEW BURGOS

lants an trees are seen at e er turn at a o ro the groun floor to the a a es to the roo gar ens. uto ati an rogra able water an lighting s ste s re u e ele tri an water onsu tion.

, liter at h ent s ste lters an reuses rainwater.

PHOTO BY ONNIS LUQUE

The first time Santiago Morales Broc and Cristian Aguilar Gutiérrez of BRAG Arquitectos visited this project in Colonia Roma, Mexico City, they saw rusting iron railings, damp floors, and panels that hid an original Catalan vaulted ceiling.

The residential complex is on an irreg ularly shaped property formed by merging different lots and faces three streets. The architects’ main challenge was to work with an early 20th century house on one of the lots that was classified by the National Institute of Fine Arts as of artistic value. The house was restored to ultimately be the main access point and house common areas like the lobby, library, cafeteria, gym, and meeting rooms. You’ll also find a beautiful garden with a swimming pool and lounge areas, and bars are on the rooftop.

The designers retained the house’s artistic value by stripping the former panels to reveal the original Catalan vaulted ceiling and restoring the property’s original bricks, wooden windows, and blacksmith railings. Sandstone, known for its durable quality, was used for the updated facade.

“First off, it took two years for us to re ceive the permits and get started,” says San tiago Morales Broc, one of the two lead de signers of Bajío 307. “We needed extra time, care, and planning to design and install the plants and greenery on the walls and the automatic sprinklers for the two adjacent buildings. We also found it challenging to avoid harming the trees outside the complex during construction.”

Sustainability was important to these architects, who wanted to emphasize green literally and figuratively throughout the project. Energy-efficient upgrades were also made throughout the design, including automated, programmable LED lighting. The two apartment towers on the property are

oriented in the east-west direction and not too close to surrounding streets and neighboring buildings to achieve better sunlight and thermal and acoustic insulation, accord ing to Cristian Aguilar Gutiérrez, the second lead designer of Bajío 307. “Preserving the value of the colonial house was important for us. We carefully worked on it while mod ernizing its design,” Gutiérrez says.

Surrounding a courtyard, trees and plan tations thrive. “It was important for us to save the original trees to the property before we worked on the project—and preserving them was one of the challenges we had to solve,” Gutiérrez says.

Ultimately they saved 40 pre-existing trees within the complex and incorporated 50 new ones, including sweetgum, orchid, orange, olive, willow, plum, and El Aliso. “When it rains, our catchment system col lects it from the ground and filters it with sand, stones, and minerals inside a container. It gets injected into the plants on the walls using thin and narrow pumps. The programmable system means the watering time can be set and paused,” Broc says.

The green walls were designed as a series of openings and ramparts that strategical ly generate natural light and ventilation inside the apartments; they are composed of glass, stone, and species like aralia and Xanadu plants. In total, 65,000 plants were incorporated—generating enough oxygen for 2,400 people annually.

From the courtyard, the pathway ends and splits at two adjacent apartment towers, each with seven floors for a total of more than 80 apartments. Natural colors and materials were chosen inside each unit to create a calming atmosphere for residents. “We did not want playful colors,” Broc says. “We wanted earth hues since, for us, these colors transcend time.” g

nsi e an outsi e a o , ala era ins ire tiles e orate the walls a no to the ro ert s original e or.

OPPOSITE: PHOTO BY ZAICKZ; THIS PAGE: PHOTO BY ONNIS LUQUE

entral ourt ar in ites ou to sit on tile ben hes an en o nature. rtist l o ha arro esigne a water all ins ire installation o er a lant o ere anel. earb are urals b artists or elia on ale an o rigo o i. e i not ust want to aint the wall. e i not thin it woul reate a sense o o unit a ong the resi ents. o we in ite gra ti artist o rigo o i to wor on the urals o the o le , sa s orales ro .

CLOCKWISE: PHOTO BY ZAICKZ, ONNIS LUQUE

PROJECT DETAILS

PROJECT: Bajío 307 ARCHITECT: BRAG Arquitectos LOCATION: Colonia Roma, Mexico City o letion i e , s uare eet e elo er esarrollos an s a e r hite t r uite tura e aisa e nteriors esign estoration sa b

he laster o ering the walls in the original house was re o e , bri s were reser e , and wooden windows

an bla s ith railings were restore . anels were re o e to re eal the atalan aulte eiling.

atural olors an aterials were hosen inside each unit to reate a al ing at os here or resi ents.

OPPOSITE: PHOTO BY ZAICKZ; THIS PAGE: PHOTOS BY IKER HARO

A Healthier Footprint

Renovating a 1980s building to consolidate departments, improve thermal comfort, and provide views

WORDS BY LAURA ROTE

EskewDumezRipple renovated LWCC’s existing facility—a post-modernist building dating back to 1984. The initial building’s eight isolate floors with ri ate o es and cubicles were transformed so employees could experience better thermal comfort and more sightlines.

PHOTO BY SARA ESSEX BRADLEY

Bright, updated colors and views ev eryone can enjoy are two clear successes of the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation (LWCC) renovation. Before Es kewDumezRipple stepped in, the private nonprofit’s headquarters was made up of eight isolated floors with private offices and many high-walled cubicles without views. “All of the offices were on the perimeter. It was really closed off and confusing from a wayfinding perspective,"says Mark Hash, architect at EskewDumezRipple.

The design team pulled everything off the perimeter so occupants could enjoy the ribbon window that runs all the way around the building. “Initially they had some bullpens on the interior with a core. We wanted to invert that relationship,” Hash says.

EskewDumezRipple moved offices to the core and open spaces to the perimeter to maximize sightlines across the office and bring in natural daylight and views. It made wayfinding much more intuitive for people

and made staff feel more connected, too. “It was that simple of a move,” Hash says.

The new design changed the ratio of of fices to workstations, providing more open area workspaces where before there were more private offices. While it took some convincing to get people comfortable with that change in their work environment, the tradeoff—natural light and views—was ultimately worth it, Hash says. Plus, they now had room for new amenities like pri vate chat rooms, small meeting rooms, and beautiful communal spaces.

A new, impressive set of stairs also sets the tone for the space. In the old design, LWCC’s footprint was peppered throughout the building with other tenants sprinkled in, Hash says. “Part of our goal was to con solidate departments and put them in adja cencies where they work better, where they have more immediate relationships, and overall to consolidate LWCC’s footprint on consecutive floors.” The team moved all the meeting rooms and large programs to the

PHOTO BY SARA ESSEX BRADLEY

The design team’s peer-reviewed research proved higher levels of air quality, better thermal comfort and access to nature views, and design choices that promoted physical activity and access to healthy food all contribute to worker health and productivity.

PROJECT DETAILS

PROJECT: Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation (LWCC)

ARCHITECT: EskewDumezRipple

LOCATION: Baton Rouge, LA

Completion: 2021

Size: 130,467 square feet

MEP Engineer: Associated Design Group

Civil & Structural Engineer: Fox-Nesbit Engineering

General Contractor: MJ Womack

Construction Manager: MKE Architects

Interior Design: EskewDumezRipple

Landscape Architect: Suzanne Turner Associates

Audio-Visual/Security: HMA Consulting

LEED Consultant: Thompson Building Energy Solutions erti ations , itwell

; PHOTO BY MANTESE

ground floor and stacked the other depart ments on subsequent floors, with executives on the eighth floor.

Then, Hash says the opportunity present ed itself to connect those floors with stairs. “You can take those stairs and never have to get into the elevators. It promotes physical connection, it promotes sightlines, and it pro motes health and wellness,” he says.

They chose white oak for the staircase to complement other light color materials in the project. “The woods offered a nice con trast and also warmed up the space.”

Overall the team updated the design with a mix of colorful and natural materials—a de parture from the design’s previous dark and dated interior. They added interior plantings and landscaping in communal spaces as part of the biophilic design and opened the office up to the exterior with views to the adjacent landscape and tree canopy beyond. “We re worked the base of the building to create a terrace with various outdoor spaces. That was heavily landscaped.”

Hash says the outdoor areas were also de signed to be more engaging. “We were try ing to create a better outdoor experience. We tried to create different scales of space and make it a little bit more usable by shading the landscape.”

As part of the project, the design team conducted a thermal comfort study early on that considered replacing the glass ver

sus replacing the mechanical systems. They wanted to know what would be more effi cient in terms of cost and thermal comfort. “We didn’t really have the budget to replace the glass, but the open office planning strat egy allowed us to do two things. As long as we kept people at least five feet away from the existing envelope, they would be in range of thermal comfort with an upgraded me chanical system. That paired nicely with our planning strategy of not having offices on the perimeter. We kept that five-foot rule all the way around, keeping them off the perimeter, so we were able to achieve natural daylight and views and thermal comfort with an up graded, better performing HVAC system.”

The new HVAC system was probably the biggest contributor to the project’s sustain ability. The building’s existing heating and cooling central plant is married with a novel high-performance Dedicated Outdoor Air Sys tem with Energy Recovery Ventilation, pro viding more than twice the level of fresh air of standard practice, while a VRF space condi tioning system offers a high level of individ ual temperature control. Higher ventilation rates combined with the firm’s commitment to low and no-VOC materials is designed to result in much better indoor air quality. “It looks simple, but it was a very complicated thing,” Hash says. “It was a 1980s era build ing that really had never undergone any kind of meaningful renovation.” g

The renovated facility inserts a succession of double-height, a light lle so ial spaces with inviting stairs that draw employees up and through the building. Instead of locating ri ate o es at the windows where they block views, the inverted

design features ri ate o es with glass walls pulled to the center so everyone can see. Desks are pulled ba at least e feet from windows to provide an outboard circulation path that also ensures thermal comfort and reduces glare.

he r sa s e ient HVAC combined with e ient lighting on this project results in a projected 73% reduction in energy use from the pre-renovation values. The project boasts an EUI of 27, under the Architecture 2030 goal for comparable workplaces.

PHOTO BY SARA ESSEX BRADLEY

Urban Landforms

How 5 SE MLK BLVD was influenced by basalt columns

WORDS BY JESSICA MORDACQ

PHOTOS BY QUANTA COLLECTIV

On the left side of the lower terraces, spouts lead rain into cisterns below that clean the water.

Burnside Street is one of Portland, Ore gon’s main east-to-west thoroughfares, among the longest and busiest streets in the city. The historic Burnside Bridge sits where the road meets the Willamette River, its drawbridge designed by Joseph Strauss, who would become chief engineer of the Golden Gate bridge 11 years after finishing Portland’s.

The city’s prominent business district emerges on Burnside Bridge’s west side, and most everyone working there uses Burnside Street in their daily commutes. On the other side of the river, residential neighborhoods start cropping up, along with Portland’s old warehouse district, now transformed into breweries, restaurants, and shops. Also on the east side of the river is 5 SE MLK Boulevard—a 450,000-square-foot, mixed-use structure de signed by GREC Architects. “We are a gateway to the eastside of Portland,” says Don Copper, managing principal at GREC.

The lower five levels of the building serve as 100,000 square feet of commercial office space, each with a private landscaped ter race and river and downtown views. Above them are 11 floors of 230 apartments. The sixth floor, between the office and residen tial levels, consists mostly of amenities available to everyone in the building, like another outdoor terrace, a conference cen ter, fitness space, yoga studio, locker rooms, and dog wash and play area.

But creating a mixed-use space isn’t structurally easy. Offices tend to require as much open area as possible to accommodate the maximum number of desks and cubi cles. But in apartments, hallways with units on either side often create a square on every floor, with an elevator and staircases in the middle of the building.

“We had to somehow reconcile the two forms with each other,” Copper says, add ing that they had to do so in a way that was visually appealing from outside of the building. GREC carved away the edges of the office floors to create outdoor patios that waterfall down toward the river.

“When you’re on this corner, though you perceive the tower, what you’re really feeling as your streetscape is this three-sto ry [terraced] space, keeping with the local scale,” he says.

The terrace also represents what GREC calls urban landform—when design ele ments take clues from the natural environ ment around them, like waterfalls and, in this case, rock formations emerging from vegetated riverbanks. “The Columbia River

5 SE MLK Boulevard is o rise o floors of rental residences abo e e le els o o er ial o e space, each with private landscaped terraces. The building lobby and amenities

are shared by both. The project has been erti e or Gold, Salmon Safe, an is the rst i e use building in the US with a Fitwel erti ation, a or ing to GREC Architects.

The two-story lobby makes an impact on the intersection of East Burnside Street and SE MLK Jr. Boulevard. Because of its position on the busy streets, the lobby is one of the building’s most energized spaces, frequented by workers and residents up to 20 hours a day, according to Don Copper, managing partner at GREC.

“The biggest challenge was the responsibility we felt to being on this edge, between being a new, highdensity development and trying to remain a good neighbor to

an adjacent, lower density neighborhood,” Copper says. This led GREC to include terraced patios in their design, bringing the building down to the street.

The mixed-use 5 SE

Boulevard in ortlan has o es on its lower levels and residential spaces on the to floors. The outside of the building’s panels pay homage to nearby volcanic basalt cliffs.

Gorge (15 miles outside the city center) has these beautiful cliffsides made from volca nic basalt that we wanted to try to reference in our facade treatment here.” GREC built up from the terraced, vegetated patios and glazed porcelain panels into the window wall to resemble basalt.

But these terraces aren’t just aesthetical ly pleasing. Because the Pacific Northwest gets so much rain, the building treats that water and returns it to Portland’s water sys tem. Scuppers and downspouts spill rainwa ter from the above terrace into storage tanks on each level. The rainwater then percolates through four feet of soil in a catch basin, cleaning itself before going into an aquifer or the Willamette River. When it’s raining tenants can watch mini waterfalls spill from the terrace above into cisterns.

Part of the building’s LEED Gold achieve ment is seen in its natural ventilation in office spaces. The design team worked with engineers to install high-efficiency systems to achieve energy savings, particularly around water usage. All plumbing fixtures are low-flow, too. The mixed-use complex also reused materials already onsite from

the previous building in minor elements of this structure. GREC saved columns and beams from the previous timber construc tion plant, reusing them as furniture inside 5 SE MLK.

Of course, the terrace and its role in wastewater treatment also helped the build ing achieve LEED Gold. Plus it contributed to its Salmon Safe certification, given for treating rainwater before diverting it back into the environment. 5 SE MLK is the first urban, mixed-use building to receive Fitwel honors, according to GREC. “The terrace con cept triggered the urban landform concept, which guided most of our design decisions subsequent to that,” Copper says.

The lobby’s porcelain tile floor, for ex ample, was meant to be basalt to reflect Portland’s surrounding volcanic landscape but was too expensive. Instead GREC incor porated basalt into one of the lobby’s walls in hexagonal columns to reflect the natural way basalt forms when it cools. The first of fice level overlooks the lobby, semi-screened with cut pieces of wood, simultaneously providing privacy and resembling the re gion’s mountainous terrain. g

Architects at Gensler are leading the conversation around designing for fire safety.

Proactive Design

in a

World of Wildfires

By Laura Rote

Gensler designed the Department of Homeland Security offices in Omaha—a design/build with Harwood Development that achieved LEED Gold.

It might be nearly impossible, or at least cost prohibitive, for most people to live in homes that can withstand something like wildfire. But given the increase in fires in recent years, architects are talking more about how they as designers can buy people time to get out and reach safety during such an event.

“Prevention on a large scale is some thing we can do on every project,” says Gail Napell, a global design resilience leader at Gensler. Napell is based in California, where so much devastation from fire has happened in recent years.

Data from the EPA shows that not only are wildfires on the rise, but the extent of area burned bywildfires each yearappears to have increased since the 1980s. Fire-re lated threats are increasing as more people live in and around forests, grasslands, and other natural areas. Between 1980 and 2021 the US had 20 wildfire events that caused more than $1 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of those, 16 have occurred since 2000.

FIRE SUPPRESSION

Architects are looking at how they can be even more proactive in design to help keep people safe. For starters, they can design and build buildings that use noncombustible materials with combustion-prone features on exteriors, advises the Building America Solution Center, a resource of the US Department of Energy’s Technologies Office. Even in areas where homes are in close proximity, structures can survive wildfires if the house is made using fire-resistant roofing, siding, and windows with enclosed soffits and decks and minimal vegetation near the building, according to the Building America Solution Center.

Napell has spent much of her career specializing in resilient projects, even before her time at Gensler. In residential design she says being proactive against wildfire damage includes needing to clear the wildfire area away from the build ing and keep flammable brush at least 30 feet away from the structure—and 100 feet in rural areas. “Because of the scale of wildfires they create their own weather. You don’t want the fire to get to the building to begin with,” she says.

Some projects Napell has worked on in the past also expected homeowners to have their own fire suppression systems—be it a rainwater collection tank, stream, pond, or other way access to water to fight a fire. As for construction, she says the goal should be to design with nonflammable siding and roofing— using materials like metal, seismically safe stone, or Class A roofing.

Then, she says any paths for fire to get into the building—think louvers or chimney vents—should have not only spark arresters, but a fine mesh like steel wool behind them to keep sparks from entering the building, or intumescent paint that swells up and blocks the fire’s path.

Napell says codes increasingly tend to discourage construction and rebuilding in wildfire zones because of the challenges. Gensler is also starting to see more RFPs in which clients are inquiring about robust backup power for grid outages in California.

It may not be that architects can design entirely “fire-proof” buildings, but they should look to suppress fire. “You’re creating an opportunity for those in the building to safely get out,” says Rives Taylor, Gensler’s director of design resilience, based in Texas. “You’re not necessarily seeking to save the structure.”

Taylor says suppression needs to occur with things like roof and deck coatings and moving ground cover and even cars away from a building. “If a fire is moving fast enough, the cars in a parking lot or parking garage can be an issue. In major buildings it tends to be about clearance, and it also tends to be a big investment in fire suppression of a campus,” he says. In some parts of the country Gensler has seen requirements for buildings to have large standby water tanks that can be used both for emergency water needs in case a water main breaks or in the event of a fire.

The ALX base coat mixture from Westcoat provides the bul o the re resistance when applied to a plywood surface.

“It’s a very durable waterproof mixture that is troweled in,” says Todd Cook, product manager at Westcoat.

➔

have a wide range of materials that can create the look

AIR QUALITY & CHANGING TECH

Taylor says small choices can add up to making a huge difference. “You could be downwind from a fire, so we’re looking at the implications of closing buildings off in terms of their mechanical systems, ventilation, and recirculating air and finding ways to meet oxygen levels without opening up the building. We’re seeing the whole issue of fresh air really have a need for more investigation.” In the Texas office he says they’ve learned how smoke is full of problematic particulates. “We have to rethink the fresh air exchange in our large buildings.”

Napell agrees. She says a change to the California mechanical code a few years ago actually made her sad, as it was an honest acknowledgement of the future. The new code requires that every new building or building undergoing a major remodel—including individual family homes—must be capable of being shut tight and mechanically ventilated. This is because of the dangers of wildfire smoke. “All new buildings have to have that level of ventilation—and mechanical ventilation. It’s a weird thing for those of us who spent much of our lives trying to figure out how to increase the amount of natural air through a building and reduce the amount of power. It takes more power to force air through a MERV 13 filter, which is now the minimum required in California, in order to make sure you’re getting those the worst of the particulates out. So it’s only amped up the need to design energy-efficient buildings.”

She calls the MERV 13 filter one of the “unsung heroes” of wildfire pre paredness. “This is how we continue to breathe fresh air,” she says. “We’ve

Formulated for plywood surfaces, the ALX system integrates acrylic resins and cement blends into a reinforced, galvanized metal lath. Transform a woo subfloor to a decorative concrete or e o nish with

Underlayment system; it’s a blank slate for installing tile, epoxy, or other e orati e flooring options. Westcoat is one of the only manufacturers of a metal lath system that offers a 20-year warranty.

“We

of concrete or tile.”

Exterior waterproof decking has been one of Westcoat’s biggest focus areas recently. heir re rate water roo ng s ste s are another tool that can help prevent the s rea o wil res.

had some wildfires that were literally weeks long here in California. For six weeks you really couldn’t safely go running. It could be harmful to your lungs.”

Exit codes are another area that need to be revisited, Napell says. “The simple reality of exit codes that help us design in such a way that people always have at least two choices of a way to get out of the building, whether it’s a wildfire or earthquake or something else.”

As wildfires are seen in various geog raphies, Taylor says communities have to think about how fires react differently when they’re in an open prairie versus dense forest, for example. Both can move quickly, but combustion is different. “Gensler, like many good design firms, talks about the integrated design approach,” he says, pointing to the need for everyone from architects and designers to civil engineers and landscape architects and firefighters to collaborate. “It really takes a collective team effort to design any good design.”

Teams also have to be flexible, as what works now may not work in the future, as populations are in flux, droughts come and go, and even technology like that of drones changes. “The drones represent a very in teresting opportunity,” Taylor says. He wonders: Could they carry water to hard to access places to suppress fire?

Napell says California has long prior itized fire-resistant materials, given the state’s propensity for earthquakes. Many architects use concrete, perhaps too much, she says, for its resistance to fire. “We love concrete, but we’re beginning to understand the embodied carbon impact of it,” she says. Cement or gypsum board are also helpful for exteriors, she says, and mass timber is particularly exciting. “It is not necessarily an issue for fire if you use it the right way because it does have that tendency to create its own protective char.” The hope is that that char on the outside of a mass timber structure will massively slow the fire impact to the inner part of the timber—similar to what happens when you put fire-resistant coatings on steel, Napell says.

COATINGS

Napell says there are also fire-resistant treatments you can put on wood—typically wood finishes or coatings. Westcoat Special ty Coating Systems has been manufacturing deck coatings for more than 30 years, with

Westcoat’s lowro u ts are also safe for the environment and for applicators, and they can help projects earn LEED points.

systems installed all over North America. The manufacturer focuses on resinous flooring—think epoxies and urethanes—and also makes concrete stains, sealers, and cementitious overlays. Exterior waterproof decking has been one of their biggest focus areas lately. Their fire-rated waterproofing systems are another tool that can help prevent the spread of wildfires.

Westcoat’s ALX and ALX Pro Systems can be applied on projects that use a plywood substrate, be it a new build or retrofit. Both are WUI-certified. WUI, or the Wildland Urban Interface, has codes and standards that fall under California Building Code and California Residential Code concerning the construction of buildings in wildfire-prone areas. “As we build closer and closer to forest areas or areas where there are fires, we’re seeing these [wildfire] maps change,” says Todd Cook, product manager at Westcoat Specialty Coatings Systems. “We want to make sure we’ve tested to these requirements.” Westcoat’s ALX and ALX Pro systems comply with the ASTM E 2632—a standard test method for evaluating the under-deck fire test response of deck materials—and ASTM E 2726, the stan dard for evaluating the fire-test response of deck structures to burning brands. They also have third-party testing that exceeds these standards, Cook says.

The ALX waterproofing system is formulated for plywood surfaces—already a riskier material when it comes to fire concern. One way to reduce the risk is with waterproofing, Cook says. The ALX waterproof system integrates the finest acrylic resins and cement blends into a reinforced, galvanized metal lath. ALX eliminates plywood seams and is ideal for use in heavy traffic areas. ALX and ALX Pro also meet the Class A Fire Test ASTM E-108 and the One-Hour Fire Rating ASTM E-119.

“We can come in and rehab a walking surface like a deck or roof deck without seams, without having extensive tear-offs or full demolition,” Cook says. “Our decking systems are a lot easier to troubleshoot because we’re not under concrete or tile. You can walk onto the deck surface. This allows for a better service life and makes for a more durable system long-term.”

Westcoat’s low-VOC products are also safe for the environment and for applicators, and they can help projects earn LEED points. They also offer a wide range of aesthetics to make specifying their solutions even easier. If an architect wants a cohesive look from interior to exterior, Westcoat can make that happen. “We have a very wide range of materials that can be used to create the look of concrete or tile with color palettes and stains and sealers that can be used to create any aesthetic. In most cases, we can almost replicate any finish.” Recently Westcoat has also seen more demand for solar reflective finishes to help reduce the urban heat island effect and lower surface temperatures for inhabitants.

Westcoat works with city officials, city planners, contractors, and architects alike to make sure waterproofing is done correctly through their Qualified Con tractor Applicator program. They also offer many training videos and seminars for architects and other building professionals. g

FROM OPPOSITE: COURTESY OF KESSLER, THIS PAGE: AARON BAUMBACH

Gensler’s Gail Napell calls the MERV 13 filter one of the “unsung heroes” of wildfire preparedness. “This is how we continue to breathe fresh air,” she says. “We’ve had some wildfires that were literally weeks long here in California. It could be harmful to your lungs.” The filter is seen here at a commercial office building in San Francisco.

WHY CHOOSE BRICK

BY LAURA ROTE

How an age-old material continues to evolve to meet modern demands

Robert Ting is looking at brick.

Quite literally, it surrounds him. There’s a lot of brick in this region where Ting works as design principal for the Perkins & Will Dallas office, itself in a historic brick building—formerly one of the city’s oldest high schools. Ting says brick is both plentiful and durable, and it also provides architects with serious design flexibility.

Perkins&Will often uses brick in its projects because of its diverse design ca pabilities, Ting says. While technically the material itself hasn’t changed much, the technology surrounding its capabilities has—and how it’s being used has, too. Ar chitects today have access to even more colors, shapes, and sizes of brick, for example. “In the beginning brick was crafted by hand and installed one by one by hand, but with the new technology brick has evolved into endless possibilities of shapes, thickness,

textures, and colors. Brick can now be in stalled as a component of a prefabricated building cladding system to further explore the opportunities for texture and rhythm,” Ting says.

We explore the benefits of brick and how the material is changing—with expertise from both architects and manufacturers.

COLOR

“You can pull modern design out of brick, in part depending on what colors you want to use. We’re seeing a lot of whites and light grays accented with pure, stark black colors. That’s been popular,” says Stan McCarthy, senior vice president of sales at Acme Brick, a Texas-based brick manufacturer for more than 100 years.

Modern brick can be custom-made to meet virtually any shape or color. Using programs like Grasshopper and Rhino, ar chitects can play with placement of brick around a building and create texture. “When you treat brick as a pixel, you can tweak and articulate the building envelope to convey the design idea,” Ting says.

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Hous ton uses a mix of colors, including both white and black brick, in its design by Per kins&Will. “It’s a beautifully designed project with a great deal of brick,” McCarthy says. For that project Acme Brick worked with its Tulsa and Perla plants, plus an affiliate brick plant in Lincoln, Nebraska, to achieve a spe cial blend of brick for an added level of detail on the building. That project incorporated several colors and was designed to give the illusion of movement, McCarthy says.

Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston uses a mix of colors, including white and black brick, in its design by Perkins&Will.

SIZE

The Wheeler Avenue church project also uses longer bricks for added curb appeal.

“We’re seeing more requests for what I would call the elongated (linear) looking— units that are as much as 16 to 22 inches long,” McCarthy says.

McCarthy says the standard size brick used (modular) is two-and-a-quarter inches high by seven-and-five-eighths inches long, but he sees requests for many heights and lengths these days. “We can offer a variety of different lengths and heights that archi tects can then design with. It gives them more design (aesthetic) capabilities.” The variability allows design teams to try dif ferent things.

Acme has continued to see requests evolve over the years. “We go through phases of what architects choose to do,” McCarthy says. “It has almost gone back to the Romanesque and European days in a lot of ways because you see a lot of these lon ger bricks used in European applications. I think they just want to change things up.”

Acme also provides thin brick, which is well suited to projects that have load-bear ing issues and can’t accept a full-bed depth unit. “That’s design flexibility for the archi tect,” McCarthy says. “Whether they want brick on a precast structure or want to put it on a ceiling structure, they can lay it as thin brick tile.”

PROTECTION

Brick also stands up to moisture, storms, wind, and even fire. “When we’re talking to any client we have to talk about how we’re going to protect the occupants,” says Mary Dickinson, director of sustainability and associate principal at Perkins&Will in Dallas. “Are they going to be able to leave the building in time, or are they going to have to shelter in that building?”

The Perkins&Will team sees a lot of inclement weather in Dallas. “With brick you’re talking about a material that really fortifies the shell of your space,” Dickin son says, adding that clients often want to know how fast they can be back in opera tion, too. “We’re constantly talking about how to harden the building. Brick might come up against the CMU block or a brick facade. You’re really trying to thicken that face as much as possible.”

McCarthy points to more ways brick clad

ding is known to protect building occupants from the elements. “Studies have shown that structures built with brick offered dramatically more protection from wind blown debris than other cladding products. And when you think about fire protection, brick is fired at around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which means brick is classified as a non-combustible material.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Brick Industry Asso ciation have conducted separate fire tests. “These tests conclusively demonstrate that our products outperform others,” McCarthy says, adding that Acme’s bricks have a onehour fire rating or greater depending on the wall system used and provide superior protection from windborne debris.

Moisture control is another component to consider. Brick is often used today as a veneer. Brick veneer assemblies are designed to accept moisture through the wall system and drain out, acting as a top moisture con-

trol mechanism, McCarthy says. “Clay brick really stops the majority of moisture from a veneer point of view, but if some moisture gets behind there, buildings are designed to redirect that moisture through weep holes out of the wall.”

DESIGN FLEXIBILITY

Brick makes for beautiful veneers that can really transform buildings, but Ting says it’s important to remember that it’s not just the brick; it’s also the mortar. Per kins&Will works with manufacturers who allow them to test different color mockups of the mortar along with the brick. “You can specify a brick color and blend, but if the color of the mortar is wrong, the brick doesn’t turn out to be complementary to the context and the project looks unfin ished. The color of the mortar is important. We always specify a custom color.”

Brick as a material also seems to outlast any trend. Ting says brick remains a pri mary material in large part in the Dallas region because of the architectural relation ship with the context and history. It’s also readily available—North Texas is mostly clay, he says—and brick can be crafted and installed by hand without a ton of skill. It also offers a sense of permanence that, if used correctly, far exceeds alternatives like stucco or EIFS, he says.

Dickinson says brick also allows archi tects to bridge the gap between commercial and residential design. “It belongs in both worlds,” she says. The Galbraith, a new high-res apartment complex in Dallas, is a good example, as it’s between downtown and the more historic Deep Ellum neigh borhood east of downtown. She says it has the sensibility of downtown—the colors,

for example, that speak to the high-rises downtown—but also feels in keeping with the vernacular of Deep Ellum with brick. “The Galbraith is intended to be a transi tional building,” she says. “The dark brick has a velour finish, a sheen, to complement the glass tower of the high-rise. Rather than modular size we wanted it to be a bit lon ger and thinner to emphasize the horizon tal stacking of the brick sensibility, so it’s a different size brick. We wanted the project to tie back to the area’s history as well as complement the new buildings.”

Brick’s textures have also evolved. When bricks are produced, they’re in a soft clay form that allows a roller to pro duce different textures. “You can use your imagination as to what you want on the texture of brick—whether you want soft indentation or whether you want it to be

“This

Perkins&Will renovated The Pittman Hotel in Dallas using brick in a clean and modern way.

is an area with a lot of beautiful historic architecture,” Ting says.

The Princeton Municipal Center, in a fast-growing Dallas suburb, uses dark brick for a contemporary look.

PHOTO BY JAMES STEINKAMP

Brick

scored with lines, whether you want just a lower cut, or you can have a smooth tex ture,” McCarthy says. Manufacturing can also change the texture from one run of brick to the next.

SUSTAINABILITY

Brick acts as a good thermal barrier for projects in the South; temperatures can often reach into the 100s in Dallas. “It’s a high-performance product because of the thermal lag,” McCarthy says. “Brick has been proven to maintain and accept the heat from the outside and store it within that brick unit. It doesn’t transfer through the wall quite like other products would. That thermal mass creates thermal lag, which helps stop the heat pressing through a wall system.”

Dickinson says brick is one of the higher performance materials they use. “We’re not running into issues with thermal bridging, which becomes a concern when dealing with metal like steel and aluminum,” she says. Brick can also help earn higher energy ratings through LEED.

There’s also less waste with brick, as it is made to a uniform size and can be cleaned and reused if desired or crushed and used in

doesn’t require paint, nor does it need much maintenance.

applications like road base or landscaping. “Brick is one of the few materials that build ing codes allow to be reused in the building application, if it meets ASTM standards,” McCarthy says.

Generally speaking, brick comes from some of earth’s most abundant natural materials—clay and shale, McCarthy says. Dickinson says using a local material also keeps local people working and reduces the carbon footprint of having to truck a mate rial a long distance. “Comparing it to some of the other facades we might consider it’s less intense in terms of the mining and the processing.”

McCarthy says Acme is one of the only brick manufacturers to complete health product declarations, so architects can also know exactly what goes into their brick and how it’s made from an environmental standpoint.

AFFORDABILITY

Brick compares well with other cladding materials on a per square foot basis, McCarthy says. “In many ways we should look at brick as an investment. You don’t have to replace brick. It’s a very protective, durable product,” he says.

That’s important because, as Perkins&Will noted, materials cost is always a concern for projects. “We’re always fighting budgets,” Dickinson says. “Brick is something that al lows us to, from a budget standpoint, make pretty affordable design tweaks. You can make the aesthetic go a long way in terms of the design.”

Compared to materials like precast con crete and metal, McCarthy says brick costs significantly less, though the difference varies by market.

OVERALL AESTHETICS

Many of the country’s most beautiful build ings are clad with fired clay brick—many of them built before the US was even an independent nation. “When you think of bricks, think of their incredible longevity, flexibility, and permanent color. Some of these buildings look just as great today as they did when they were built,” McCarthy says. “Most US state capitals are built with either brick or stone, and there’s a reason they are all still there. Brick is a timeless product that endures. The industry has done a fantastic job with new colors and textures, and we’re now pushing the boundaries of what architects want.” g

By

Some of life’s most emotionally charged moments happen in hospitals. Births, deaths, treatments, recoveries, milestones—they happen moment by mo ment in every hospital around the world. Traditionally interior design and architecture in hospital settings have focused on efficiency and safety, essential components of health and healing. But with a growing emphasis on healthy spaces and sustainable materials across the design industry as well as on treating the whole person in medicine—including mental and emotional health—hospitals have begun to evolve from the inside out, creating unique and healing experiences that go far beyond the physical.

“The materials industry has caused that shift,” says Jill Pearsall, senior vice presi dent of facilities planning and development at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Manufac turers have either been forced to change what they put in their materials or chosen to be more sustainable. And I think that’s a good thing. They’ve forced us as facility owners to adopt new products that are better for the environment— better for the internal environment and better for the global environment. The paint, carpet, flooring manufacturers—they’ve changed their ways, and we’ve adapted because it’s what’s available and because it’s the right thing to do.”

Creating spaces that heal patients—that’s what hospitals have always striven to do. And with new data on how essential the built en vironment is to physiological health, not to mention the health of communities and the world, it just makes sense on even the most practical level, Pearsall says. Add in a layer of new regulation in places like Austin, Texas, where Texas Children’s Hospital’s newest cam pus will be located, and you have the recipe for some truly innovative changes in the industry.

“We’re required to meet the two-star rating for the Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) program. We are going to not only design this facility to meet that two-star or higher level, but we are also going to layer in an educational program within the campus, designed to teach people what have we done to be sustainable, to be respectful of the environment, and hopefully even teach kids that those things are possible.”

A HUMAN HEART

Planning for this ambitious project in Austin began at the height of one of the worst medical disasters in modern history, but that didn’t temper the enthusiasm. By March 2020 Pearsall and her team were putting their heads together (while remaining safely distant) to craft a truly innovative space.”

Slated to open early 2024, this $485 million campus will include a 365,000-squarefoot, 52-bed facility designed to serve both women and children with neonatal and pediatric intensive care units, operating rooms, epilepsy monitoring, a sleep center, an emergency center, advanced fetal interventions and surgery, diagnostic imaging, acute care, and urgent care. Next door, a 170,000-square-foot outpatient building will focus on subspecialties like cardiology, oncology, neurology, pulmonology, fetal care, and others.

“Looking at the pediatric growth in this area of Austin, as well as the women of childbearing age, we really saw that the drive for us to go into Austin was to bring in specialists on that higher acuity of care—heart programs, neurosurgery programs, high-risk women’s programs—bringing that to a place where, right now, those patients have to go to Dallas or Houston or San Antonio for those services. Bringing that high expertise of many of our clinical programs to central Texas

Equally important was imagining the kind of people who would eventually use the space and designing it to fit them. “Health care in general has evolved over many years to adopt hospitality-type character and feeling,” she says. But for this kind of hospital, it was a unique challenge. “Having worked at both an adult hospital and a pediatric environment, I have learned pediatrics are special. You need to respond to very

was important.”

Texas Children’s Hospital is building a new campus in Austin meant to be a beacon of healthy, sustainable design.

Mikenna Pierotti

small children as well as patients up to 18 or older. So we had to consider the breadth of ages and the need to bring in a little bit more joyfulness.”

Before they could lift a hammer Pearsall and her team needed to decide how the campus would fit into both the ecosystem and the culture of the region. “We looked at this facility as one that might need to be slightly different. Austin is a less formal, more casual environment. We really considered, how does it align with the green building program and how does it align with Austin?”

Naturally they looked to the landscape for design inspiration. “We approached the design of the exterior as being synergistic with the central Texas environment.” That meant using materials and patterns that evoked the warm Texas limestone while maintaining a low profile on the horizon, mirroring the vast flat plains of the state’s Blackland Prairies to the east, and attempting not to obstruct the views of other buildings nearby (what Pearsall calls being a good neighbor).

This meant creating outdoor spaces on campus designed for rest and rejuve nation for both staff and patients. “Austin has nicer weather than Houston, so we wanted to take advantage of that. We wanted to incorporate respite spaces like boulder seats where people could just sit and breathe the outside air and escape the stresses of the day-to-day. Those elements also fit into Austin’s green building program goals.”

It also meant windows—lots of windows—letting in vast amounts of light and creating opportunities for patients and staff to absorb the beautiful Texas scenery from inside. “Engaging the outdoor environment, engaging daylight, really looking at how to terminate corridors, making sure the daylight comes in and that people there have an opportunity to see if it’s raining or not outside.”

Inside, the facilities’ design would be highly themed, reflecting the unique landscape of Texas, building on the Texas Children’s Hospital brand, and edu cating the public about sustainability and the natural world. “We worked with our board of trustees to select a theme to brand the building and the campus. We selected ‘central Texas landscapes’ as the theme, so each floor of the facilities would reflect a different stratum. We have caverns, waterways, limestone ridge, woods, highlands, horizon, Texas sky.”

The team was very intentional about color choices, keeping the overall palette neutral and calming, with splashes of color in areas of interaction like welcome desks and waiting areas. This was all part of keeping the wayfinding simple and less stressful. “People have enough stress just being there. Even if it’s for a happy experience of having a baby, it’s still very stressful.”

Pearsall and her team made a special effort to think of their littlest patients in the design process as well. “One of the things that is very important with a children’s hospital is not to be scary,” she says. “We’ve engaged the flora and fauna of our themed areas to welcome them—a little salamander in the pave ment or peering out from under the welcome desk. He’s there to teach them, to be part of that educational process, and to be diversionary. We don’t want them just sitting there worried about seeing the doctor or having a procedure.”

The team also put special emphasis on scale, keeping in mind that locating the most interesting design elements up high might not engage their littlest visitors as much. Pears all calls these intentional details “breadcrumbs” and hopes to use them in future interactive programs designed to make the health care experience more approachable for children. “We’ve discussed having a selfie passport so kids can wander around and take selfies at different stops and fill out their passports—all to engage their curiosity and prove the hospital isn’t necessarily a miserable place.”

UNDER THE SKIN

Beyond the look and feel of the new campus, the inner work ings will focus not only on meeting the two-star rating from the AEGB program, which guides companies to design, build, and sustain healthy facilities for Austin communities, but also add an educational component that could impact generations.

From simple materials choices like using low-VOC paints to larger decisions like installing cooling towers that will collect condensate water into a pond for site irrigation, every component of the new campus’ green footprint will be a potential learning experience for visitors. Even access drives on the campus have been carefully

The Texas Children’s Hospital’s new 52-bed facility is scheduled to open in 2024 with intensive care units, operating rooms, a sleep center, emergency center, diagnostic imaging, urgent care, and more.

The new cafeteria will be cavernthemed with an acoustical wood ceiling, designed to draw visitors both indoors and out for their dining experience. The team also has a plan for the menu to be educational.

designed to be pervious, allowing water to flow through and replenish the local water supply—a critical need in the arid landscape of central Texas. “We can teach visitors about the life cycle of that water, the need for conservation, while at the same time getting them interested in some cool engineering.”

One often-overlooked opportunity to educate and reduce a facility’s environmen tal impact is in its use of food. The cafeteria itself will be cavern-themed with an acoustical wood ceiling, designed to be a fun, educational space that draws visitors both indoors and out for their dining experience. Pearsall and her team also have a plan for the menu. “Part of our food service program will be to engage local farmers in our supply chain. All of that will be part of the educational process as well … We want to celebrate our two-star rating but also really share knowledge with the community for future generations.”

In fact, one of the early challenges the team faced in planning for such a large campus was keeping in mind the need for future expansions and regulations. The site includes an existing wetland area and is located over the Edwards Aquifer, one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Austin also requires that new structures be solar ready. Preserving as many of the trees as possible on the 24-acre site was yet another concern. Although these issues were all addressed in the current plan, Pearsall and her team wanted to make sure future changes didn’t set them back. The best green designs, after all, are future facing.

For this the team developed a comprehensive master plan, considering things like solar footprint, sun angles, parking, connectivity, water, and energy needs— all to preserve and even improve upon the successes of their designs in the coming decades. “So when I’m no longer there and other generations come to make changes, they know how and why, where and when to put the next building and so on,” Pearsall says.

The year 2024 might be a long way off yet, and there’s still much to do, but Pearsall is already looking forward to seeing the smiling faces of patients and fam ilies as they enter campus for the first time. “I love seeing the brightness of their eyes, the excitement. That’s the best reward I get. It really is.” g

Vibrant

Health Care

The health care industry is poised for dynamic change. Health care spaces and how they look and feel are increasingly recognized as part of the healing process rather than simply the landscape on which it occurs. Refocusing on holistic, individualized care; prioritizing caregivers and their well-being; and a shift toward sustainability—the changes are coming quickly with every new hospital, renovation, and idea. “One of the things we’re seeing is health care systems really putting patients and patients’ families first,” says Traci Kloos, vice president of design and development for Koroseal Interior Products. “They want them to feel at ease and to be as comfortable as possible.”

Over more than 65 years Koroseal has amassed a unique breadth and depth of knowledge about the needs of commercial interior design. Focusing on creating inspirational, func tional, healthful interiors, Koroseal has become the go-to man ufacturer, distributor, and design company for everything from hospitality to health care. As something of a one-stop shop with

an experienced sales force, dedicated customer service, growing roster of skilled designers, and custom capabilities to help clients bring their vision for a space to life, Koroseal is able to reduce downtime and therefore cost for its customers. “It can be new construction; it can be renovation. We’re reducing the time a facility is going to need to turn that space around and get it up and running,” Kloos says.

From durable, flexible wallcoverings and wall protection products for surgical suites to digitally crafted, customizable looks for lobbies to architectural films, specialty textiles, and acoustical products for everything in between, Koroseal has set out to revolutionize the form and function of your next hospital stay. What’s more, they’re dedicated to integrating sustainability and healthfulness into their day-to-day activities, responsibly using the limited resources our planet has to offer. Koroseal offers all this in what Kloos calls a “curated package” so designers can remain on trend and under budget.

“When you think about the different spaces designers are having to work around, it might be entryways and lobbies, elevator banks, or doors. We can offer something that really makes a statement, really sets the tone.” With their menu of creative capabilities, Koroseal can offer more ways to break into trends like biophilic or nature-inspired design—an aesthetic that’s much more than a trend as it’s shown to be beneficial to building occupants. Think macropho tography, greenery, natural color palettes, organic patterns, and rich textures all coming together to invoke a positive emotional reaction. “It can be very dramatic,” Kloos says.

This breed of design has the power to transform a health care experience. The waiting rooms of old, for example, tended to be bleak, forgotten realms doused in beige and cream, where patients and families sit anxiously staring at blank walls. Imagine that space instead as a calm oasis, lined in warm wood (chosen from more than 100 species, colors, and cuts of Koroseal’s Arbor Wood Wallcoverings),

adorned in nature-inspired art (through their Digital Lab capabilities), soft textures (hundreds of performance wallcovering designs available in a wide range of colors), and specialty surfaces like acoustic treatments and architectural films. It’s all these products plus the added benefits of cleanliness, privacy, and peace. That’s Koroseal’s wheelhouse. “It’s about the diversity in the products that we have and the ability for them to all work together as a system,” Kloos says.

Koroseal’s business model is just as seamless—a point of pride for the company. “We are one of the only vertically integrated manufacturers, distributors, and design ers of wallcovering,” Kloos says. “And the majority of our manufactured products are sourced, procured, and made in the U.S.. We have a facility in Louisville where all of our products are manufactured, and we’ve invested in that facility with state-ofthe-art equipment.” Equipment like rotogravure printers from Emerson & Renwick. “That’s the Ferrari of printers,” she says. “With that investment, it really gives us quality, color, and design aesthetics that are unparalleled within our industry.”

And as the design world is racing to incorporate more sustainable practices, Koroseal has an answer for that, too. “A large part of our portfolio, made with Type II vinyl, has an average lifespan of 10 to 15 years. It’s phthalate-free, Class A fire-rated, and meets California indoor air quality stan dards. We use post-industrial recycling, and with the benefit of being made in the U.S., it really meets all of the environmental stan dards of today,” Kloos says.

Koroseal’s Arbor Wood Wallcoverings are the other side of that coin, offering the beauty of natural wood without the impact on forests. “This is a great replacement for millwork. Being a thin veneer product, it doesn’t require large quantities of lumber.” That’s why Koroseal products are often part of customers’ larger aims at meeting green-building benchmarks.

Kloos says Koroseal is excited by the push for more sustainable, healthful, and heal ing spaces. “Having the ability to enhance someone’s well-being, to promote healing through aesthetics, that is important to us. And we’re so very proud of the balance we have struck between that and cleanability, durability, low maintenance, and cost,” she says. “It all works hand-in-glove.” g

Koroseal makes urable, fle ible wallcoverings and wall protection products for surgical suites, lobbies, and more.

BY MATT WATSON

ractitioners of urban planning and design must be adaptable and well-rounded in their skillset—from analyzing site plans and environmental studies to keeping up-to-date on building codes.

Yet for Gail Shillingford, principal of planning and landscape at B+H Architects, the most critical aspect of her role is to serve as a champion of inclusive and equi table design—to engage with stakeholders in the community and ensure developments are built to improve the lives of the end user, not simply for the profit of the client.

“The buildings we put up, the landscapes we put up, the interventions we make in the public realm all affect people,” Shillingford says. “We have to be thinking about the health and well-being of people, and that needs to be the priority and the main thread in all that we do.”

THIS OFF-THEGRID ENVIRONMENT DOES NOT RELY ON TYPICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS, AND THERE ARE FEW ROADS. IT’S A FIVE-MINUTE WALKING DISTANCE FROM HOME TO WORK.

Shillingford recently joined the planning and landscape practice at B+H after more than 25 years in the field of master planning, urban, and landscape design. Growing up in the Bahamas, she loved helping her father in the garden and being outdoors in green environments but never considered it as a career. It wasn’t until she left veterinary school and took up field work with a British architect that she realized her true passion for landscape architecture. “I’ve always wanted to be part of the bigger story and be able to shape and define the bigger picture of the public realm,” she says. “That’s been my journey.”

Shillingford recently sat down with gb&d to discuss her new role at B+H, her passion for inclusive and equitable design, and the engagement process she argues is the key to any project’s success.

What drew you to this new opportunity at B+H?

A lot of the attraction to coming on with B+H was that I was looking for a shift in my career. I wanted the opportunity to be part of a growing landscape and urban design team and to practice on a national and international level. But meeting the fantastic team is really what pulled me onboard.

It was also about wanting to be part of the frontiers of moving the profession forward, so that was very exciting. I’m not part of the status quo in what I do or my design pursuits. It’s always been about seeing what’s next, seeing where we can push boundaries and push discussions further. I’ve always been labeled a shit-stirrer, and I don’t mind that label.

What inspires your design philosophy?

PI was educated not to work for a client, but to work for the people— to work for the end user. That’s something that’s really important to me. The work we do is driven by money—you have to keep the lights on—but at the end of the day what we do is for people.

And as a woman and a person of color, I strongly believe and advocate for inclusivity and equity in all we do. We are still in a world and environment where there is too much inequity, and as a designer I’m responsible for creating spaces where we can face that challenge. That’s what drives me and my design.

How is inclusive and equitable design part of your projects?

It’s about telling our stories. I’ve had the pleasure of working with many indigenous people throughout my career, and one of the things many of them have strongly believed in is that the only way you can create an inclusive environment is to engage and to listen to others’ stories so you can gain an understanding. Without that we are designing for clients, or our egos, but not people.

You can really see this process play out in my current work on the redevelopment of the Jane Finch Mall in Toronto. The developer has committed to an unprecedented engagement process, which is unbelievable. The first seven months have just been about engaging with this community, participating, and being with them.

This is an underrepresented community, and it’s been a chal lenge for the city to revitalize and make positive changes without stirring gentrification, so engagement is critical. We have a store front presence in the mall now where we can talk and consult with the community daily.

Our starting point with the landscape team is to conceptualize what we’ve understood thus far. They still want a central hub for the community, so we’ve defined two strong plazas in the center of this new development that will be critical for bringing people together. A full 20% of the development will be public space, which means we’re making this space extremely accessible and connected to the existing community.

The site will maintain a retail presence, but it will be street- and

plaza-oriented so it faces the public space. And the community will have a voice on what type of retail they’d like to see, and how the plazas get shaped. Right now they’d like to see a space that could allow for market stalls, events, and art galleries. There will be a residential component as well.

We are making sure we’re designing to allow for that integration of culture and context, and we’re allowing for a high degree of flexi bility to create this cultural change so the new and old communities can become one.

o do ou define sustaina le and en ironmental design

In terms of environmental sustainability, one of the most critical things we can do is create designs that are compact. One thing I still want to do before I die is to redesign suburbia, to shift suburbia and infuse urbanity within it. Some people think dense urban environments are the antithesis of natural environments, but that’s a misnomer. One of the projects I walked into when I came on with B+H, the New Lowell Land Assessment and Master Plan, really exemplifies this.

The basis of the design was to develop a complete suburban com munity that straddles the rural/urban context, with mixed uses like commercial, residential, office, amenities, and services in this envi ronment—without disrupting nature.

To do this we had to reverse our usual system for development. Roads and infra structure had to be configured to minimize the impact on the environment. Within the residential patches there are no fences or boundaries; it’s a series of nature-inspired housing typologies connected by shared sidewalks, shared gardens; it creates an environment that connects us to nature and to each other.

It’s a very off-the-grid environment, where we’re not reliant on typical ener gy systems, there are few roads, and it’s a five-minute walking distance from home to work. The integration of people and infrastructure into the natural environment is so strong. To me this is the new way we have to think and approach community design. Our challenge in the next phase is bringing in a very urban context.

How do you work across teams to ensure a project’s success?

You really have to break all those silos down internally. Normally the architects do their thing, then they pull in the landscape archi tects, and then the engineer is pulled in and tells us what doesn’t work and what we have to accept. A great example of a cross-disci pline collaborative approach is my work on 1300 Sherbrooke in Montreal.

THE NEW LOWELL PROJECT INCLUDES SHARED GARDENS.

Here we refused to work in silos, and we gathered all of the disciplines at the same table. The project is a historical renovation of one of the original French buildings in the city. It’s a beautiful art nouveau struc ture, the Holt Renfrew Building, but one of the most exciting aspects I’m working on is what to do with a very iconic laneway in the back of the building.

Back in the day people would drive up for valet parking and then be escorted to the shops inside. We were tasked with re configuring the laneway with new retail frontage on the lane, where you could order groceries for pickup, sip some coffee, and enjoy the scenery.

So we’re envisioning a people-place that’s more of a plaza, with space for events in the evening but still respecting the histo ry and architecture. We’re also designing a rooftop patio that brings the green to the roof, where all the patrons of the building can cohabitate and have lunch. With any historical rehab, you have to think about the structure, the mechanical, and all of that, so being at the table together is critical to the process g

“In terms of environmental sustainability, one of the most critical things we can do is create designs that are compact.”

Taruan Mabry on Evolving His Design Career

BY LAURA ROTE

rt and design have always been a driving force for Taruan Mabry. Now an adjunct instructor at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), he says NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Inte rior Environments (MPSS) changed his life. Sometimes he can barely believe the great contacts he made there.

Today Mabry has more than 10 years of experience in interior design, with incred ible projects like a skyscraper restaurant in Dubai and cocktail bars in Las Vegas. He grew up in New York with a love of art and went to college in Atlanta, graduating from Georgia State in 2005 before working at The Johnson Studio for a few years. Then the re cession hit. “By 2009 they had laid a lot of us off,” he says. He thought maybe it was time

Ato get a graduate degree. “I was really trying to prove to myself that this was the career path I wanted.” He knew he wanted those letters after his name, but he didn’t want just any interior design degree; he wanted something that would add to his expertise.

He considered architecture, but the program was long. He felt a bit stuck and started doing some extensive Google research when he discovered LEED and eventually NYSID and the MPSS program. “I thought, ‘This is great because now I can hone my interest.’”

The MPSS is a post-professional program structured to prepare design professionals to assume leadership roles in developing and maintaining sustainable interior spaces. Classes are offered in the evenings and on weekends, and students can enroll full-time, parttime, or even study online with video classes.

When Mabry attended NYSID he says it was an interesting time in the world of sustainability, as the conversation around what’s in many of the materials designers select was just heating up. Major companies all over the world were demanding sustainable materials, and designers’ ears perked up.

The interior designer explores new worlds of sustainable design with NYSID.

Mabry graduated from NYSID in 2015. We recently talked to him about his decision to go back to school, what he learned, and where the decision has led him today.

Tell me about your time at NYSID.

I left Atlanta and moved back to New York and attended NYSID for 18 months under the MPSS program. It was wonderful. I learned so much, and I got exactly what I was trying to get, which was a thorough understanding of sustainability—where it is and where it’s going. Being in hospitality design at the time, there wasn’t a conscious effort to use sustainable materials. It wasn’t like what you’d see in health care and education. Those facets of design were already leaning into sustainability, talking about off-gas sing and health and wellness because of the volume of people in those spaces.

My mission in my career was to start having the conversation about implementing sustainable materials and systems—including

THE ROSINA COCKTAIL LOUNGE AT THE VENETIAN IN LAS VEGAS WAS DESIGNED TO BE A POSH EXPERIENCE AT THE BEGINNING OF GUESTS’ NIGHTS.

A graduate of NYSID’s Master of Professional Studies in Sustainable Interior Environments (MPSS), Mabry is currently an adjunct instructor at the New York School of Interior Design (NYSID). He has previously designed with ICRAVE, Simeone Deary Design Group, Rockwell Group, and others.

MABRY

Meet Taruan Mabry

areas like lighting and acoustics. But in hospitality, people didn’t seem to care as much. It was more about what looked upscale. After NYSID I thought about design differently, and it refreshed my interest in it. I wanted to prove to the client that sustainable materials can be upscale.

What are some lessons you took from that program?

Definitely how to be on a team. And how to merge high-end hos pitality and sustainability, to do a project successfully and not feel like you’re shortchanging one side or the other. It was a balance I was not anticipating.

Honestly, I really thought it would be a lot more technical, but it was so interesting and engaging. The instructors in the pro gram were real professionals, too, which was a big deal. I love that—that’s what I’m doing now. I always assumed professors in colleges didn’t do that, that they weren’t professionals in other ways. I finally got to see that in action, and I thought to myself, “I can do this. I can do school and work at the same time; it’s not foreign to people now.”

I remember the building was new at that point. It just got LEED-certified. The instructors were so cool, and they’d been in their careers for years. It felt like an Ivy League design school.

I liked the diversity, too. I had already started my career, but a lot of people in my program had come right from undergrad. Some had come from other countries. A lot of students were architects. That diversity caused us to ask a lot of questions. The instructors were very responsive and considerate of how they were going to share their knowledge.

Let’s talk about your interior design career. How did you incorporate sustainable design in the cocktail bars at the Palazzo in Las Vegas?

Those were with the Simeone Deary Design Group. It was my first time doing three F&Bs (food and beverage concepts) in one hotel. One was Rosina. If you think about your evening in Vegas, you’re going to have these moments—a pre-dinner cocktail place, then a dinner place, then you’ll have a post-dinner cocktail. That was the design angle. You’ll see Rosina is a little posher—it’s the beginning of the night, before you go out to dinner.

For Bar Luca at the Palazzo, you’ll see there’s no wall. It’s a catchall. It might be in the middle of the day, you’re just walking around, you want to grab a seat, check your phone, whatever. That’s why this one is an open oasis. We did a third one, too, that was more of a post-cocktail place—more clubby, more dark materials.

With Simeone Deary I wanted to take the initiative to be inclusive of sustain able and eco-friendly materials; those didn’t necessarily have to be the star of the show, but this was another way for me to use carpet tiles instead of carpet roll, for example. Then there’s the metal in the ceiling. Well, I don’t want chrome because of its harmful process, so let’s do polished aluminum instead. It’s about finding ways to keep the look of something but making sure the fabrication of it is a cleaner process. Chrome is terrible for the environ ment the way they make it.

“I learned so much, and I got exactly what I was trying to get, which was a thorough understanding of sustainability—where it is and where it’s going.”

What about the SUSHISAMBA concept in Dubai?

That one was a lot of work. That was when I was with ICRAVE, who did the first SUSHISAMBA many years ago in New York. Then Dubai came our way. My initial thought was, “Well, Dubai likes spending money. They want the best of the best and are probably not really thinking about what anything is made of.”

Since I was a lead on this I was in charge of most of the materials—leather, FSC-certified wood, tile made from recycled materials, glass. Everything I chose I wanted to lend to the wellness of the space. I had more control of that narrative in terms of materiality, so I ran with it. I was trying to get as much eco-friendly stuff in as possible. And they trusted us. You’d be surprised how open they were. I was very proud of that.

Have any surprising opportunities come your way since being a NYSID student?

This interview. And then Ellen (Fisher, NYSID vice president for academic affairs and dean) and I did a book together. After I graduated and before I started teaching, she asked me if I wanted to do a few sketches with her for a textbook for residential design majors. That was so cool. I was the illustrator and Ellen did the verbiage.

I didn’t always want to be a designer. I wanted to be a fine artist. I went to performing art school, and that’s what I really wanted to focus on after high school, but now, seeing how many things I can do being able to draw, it’s incredible. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn who used to draw on the living room floor. Now, to be here working on all of these projects, it’s heartwarming.

What would you tell someone thinking about the NYSID MPSS program today?

You don’t have to just be a designer. You can be a lot of things with this degree. I’m continuing to lean into that more. g

ABOVE, BAR LUCA AT THE PALAZZO INCLUDES MANY RECYCLED MATERIALS. “LET’S BE MINDFUL OF WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE,” MABRY SAYS. AT RIGHT, SUSHISAMBA IN DUBAI WAS A STUDY IN COLOR AND TEXTURE.

Low-Tech Solutions for Resilient Housing

Demand for carbon-neutral materials continues to be on the rise.

BY ELIZABETH GOLDEN

he magnitude and urgency of climate change is affecting every corner of our world. In architecture, concerns about em bodied carbon and lifetime energy use have yielded a host of proposals for making our buildings greener. In particular, there has been a growing interest in the use of local and renewable materials for constructing buildings.

But even as the demand for carbon-neu tral materials grows, most buildings (like any other consumer product) continue to be dependent on global supply chain logis tics and manufacturing processes. Although sustainable certification programs like LEED and Living Building Challenge are be coming more commonplace in our industry and encourage the use of local materials, a

COMPRESSED

vast majority of buildings are fabricated from resources originating in radically diverse locations. The result? A large carbon footprint and the loss of economic benefit for local communities.

One sector where this challenge is particularly pressing is the development of new housing across the globe. Over the past cen tury, a steady flow of industrially produced materials, along with the desire for a higher social status and quality of life, has caused a sea change in how communities build their homes in many parts of the world. A “one-size-fits-all” approach to construction, shaped by globalized, market-driven development, often creates a mismatch between material selection and place-specific climactic requirements. As a result, we might find massive concrete homes in tropical climates or wood frame construction in areas prone to extreme heat and fire. This disconnect between material systems and the local environment can cause poor building performance, increasing energy consumption for things like air conditioning, or contribute to a structure’s vulnerability to extreme weather events like fire or hurricanes.

As populations increase alongside global temperatures, sustain able solutions for housing are becoming ever more critical. This is made even more urgent as international manufacturing and supply chains continue to be disrupted and fuel prices reach record levels. Rather than depend on new technologies or automation for solu tions, we might also consider returning to principles found in older forms of construction that prioritize minimally transported and processed materials. In short, we could look back to move forward.

Niamey 2000, Niamey, Niger

TIn designing the Niamey 2000 housing project, our team took just such a tack, exploring the benefits and challenges that locally de rived resources can bring to a housing complex and its community. Early on, we made the strategic decision to use compressed earth blocks (CEB) as the primary building material, which was a radical departure in a city where much of the building stock consists of steel and concrete. Compressed earth block offered the best meth od for integrating earth-based construction with the contemporary requirements of urban housing, which has been in high demand in recent years, in Niamey and elsewhere.

We felt that housing made from CEBs could set a valuable precedent in a rapidly growing urban center, where most con struction materials are imported long distances at great expense. Earth-based construction also provides a buffer against outdoor temperature fluctuations, slowing the transmission of sub-Saha ran heat, which is a distinct advantage over other contemporary systems currently in use in Niger. Further, if produced locally in quantity, CEBs can be highly economical and provide low-barrier employment for community members.

Overcoming Challenges

Although we faced fewer constraints than if we had built the proj ect in the US, where these forms of construction are often cost pro hibitive or fall outside of code regulations, we still had to contend with prevailing local building practices and cultural preferences. CEB construction is not well known in Niger; most engineers are only familiar with conventional structural systems based on steel or reinforced concrete. Not to mention, traditional materials such as earth are often associated with poverty and have negative con notations despite having a long history of use in the region.

Despite these challenges, Niamey 2000 has successfully intro duced CEB construction to the local building sector and famil iarized the general public with the benefits of earth-based con struction at a time when deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent. The homes remain cool in summer with little or no additional air conditioning, and their contemporary aesthetic has been popular enough with the locals to prompt the construction of a second phase of the project, which was just completed last year.

COURTESY OF ELIZABETH GOLDEN ARCHITECTURE, BRICK BY BRICK, UNITED 4 DESIGN, T. SEIDEL, M. KAMARA

EARTH BLOCKS ARE MADE BY COMBINING EARTH AND CEMENT (TYPICALLY 4 TO 8%) AND COMPRESSING WITH A MANUAL OR MECHANICAL PRESS.

A Model for the Future Niamey 2000 has also brought CEB construc tion to the international spotlight as one of the shortlisted projects for the 2020-2022 Aga Khan Awards for Architecture, hope fully inspiring these types of locally-sourced housing solutions in other parts of the world. Some highly industrialized nations, such Germany and Austria, have already wit nessed the successful development of new systems based on traditional materials such as earth and wood. For example, the Vorarlberg region of Austria has seen the proliferation of solid wood construction, with arti sans, industry professionals, and architects working in close collaboration, continuing a place-based building culture grounded in craft traditions. The timber industry is a primary driver of economic development in Austria, and as a result, the number of trained carpenters is higher there than anywhere else in Europe.

I also continue to study how principles from Niamey 2000 might be applicable here in the US, where changes to construction practices are often hindered by cost, build ing regulations, and prevailing conventions. There is a high barrier to entry for new prod ucts to the market, which must meet tech nical challenges like fire regulations just as they address consumer preferences. In the U.S., despite our field’s current enthusiasm for local and renewable materials, these products have been slow to find their way into mainstream construction scenarios.

I’ve been particularly interested in how traditional building materials and meth ods could benefit cities like Phoenix, Ari zona—one of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan regions, which is also facing the distinct prospect of becoming uninhabitable by the end of this century due to ex treme heat. Most of the city’s 2,000 square miles of urban sprawl consists of buildings constructed from lightweight wood fram ing and insulation, which contribute to the region’s dependency on imported resourc es and mechanical systems for heating and cooling year-round. This has not always been the case. Early inhabitants such as the Hohokam, and later Spanish missionaries, relied on earth-based construction to shel ter from the harsh climate of the Sonoran Desert. Could these time-tested, low-tech concepts still have relevance today?

Groups like Brick by Brick are working to find out. The social enterprise program is part of the City of Scottsdale’s Human Services Department and is manufacturing CEBs in partnership with a local non-profit called Phoenix Rescue Mission. The program provides low-barrier employment for people experiencing homelessness, while working toward the construction of supportive hous ing for those in need. I see enormous poten tial in cities manufacturing their own local

PHOTO BY

THE NIAMEY 2000 HOUSING PROJECT USED COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS AS THE PRIMARY BUILDING MATERIAL.

PROJECT

Niamey 2000

LOCATION

Niamey, Niger SIZE

18,000 square feet

ARCHITECT

Elizabeth Golden Architecture STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Urbatec SARL

CONTRACTOR Entreprise Salou Alpha & Fils

ly-sourced, low-carbon building materials like compressed earth block to construct much-needed afford able and energy-effi cient housing. Building on this momentum, I am developing multi family prototypes for Phoenix that, if con structed, would not only demonstrate CEB’s capacity and potential, but also celebrate the material’s cultural significance and con nection to the region’s landscape and history.

METAL

FABRICATION Atelier de Technologie Metallique

Of course, we know the AEC industry is slow to adopt change, and it’s a long shot to expect that earth or any other “alter native” material will ever rival the speed and efficiency of wood frame construction or other established methods elsewhere in the industrialized world. However, as Nia mey 2000 shows us, there is power in taking small steps toward resource networks that are more closely tied to local environmen tal, economic, and cultural systems. Step by step—or brick by brick, as in Arizona—we can create buildings that are better for the environment, and for the communities who inhabit them. g

LOCAL RESOURCES

ol en sa s a one si e ts all a roa h to onstru tion, sha e b globali e , ar et ri en e elo ent, o ten reates a is at h between aterial sele tion an la e s e i li a ti re uire ents.

Meet the Architect

Elizabeth Golden is a licensed architect and associate professor in the architecture department at the University of Washington.

Robert Hutchison on the Economy of Sustainable Architecture

Balancing conceptual projects with client work as an exercise in artistic exploration

BY MATT WATSON

rchitecture is both an art form and a trade, and its practitioners are constantly seeking the ideal balance between their conceptual vision and the realities of budgets, material limitations, and zoning regulations.

Few architects have the opportunity to free themselves from the constraints of client-based work. Yet the pursuit of this freedom was one of the driving forces be hind Robert Hutchison’s decision to found his own practice, Robert Hutchison Archi tecture (RHA). “I’ve always been interested in pursuing more of what I call the bound

aries of architecture, independent from our client-based work,” Hutchison says.

He and his Seattle-based team still spend the majority of their time on a diverse array of client projects, including an impressive roster of custom homes that seem to disappear into the beauty of their natural surroundings.

But the independence that comes from being one’s own boss provides Hutchison—who also teaches at the University of Wash ington—with the opportunity to pursue conceptual projects and research initiatives without the need to commercialize them. “Our work is all about letting those things bounce off of each other, letting the client-based work feed a direction in the research or conceptual base, but also letting those conceptual projects influence the built work,” he says.

BALANCING THE CONCEPTUAL WITH THE TEMPORAL

After helping to lead the joint practice Hutchison & Maul Archi tecture from 2001 to 2013, Hutchison developed RHA into a small firm that focuses on single family residential, art studios, cabins, and smaller retail formats. This work is complemented by more peripheral works that include architectural installations, conceptual work, research, and related exhibitions.

“We’re very comfortable in this place we call the ‘triggering town,’ to paraphrase the concise book on writing by Richard Hugo,” he says. “This is really about exploring something simply because we’re interested in it, and we’ve learned that this exploration will always trigger new possibilities and investigations.”

This allows RHA to play with broader architectural themes with out being bound by client budgets. One of the most important of these conceptual projects is Memory Houses—a five-year endeavor that has resulted in two installations, two exhibits, a published book, and a series of incredible models and sculptures.

A“Memory Houses began when I realized my father was losing his memory and wanting to process what that meant,” Hutchison says. “It investigates mortality and memory through the lens of architecture, and encapsulates distant as well as more recent ar chitectural memories that weave together a spatial narrative about loss and recollection.”

On the client side, RHA’s works develop out of a strong rela tionship between plan and section. Hutchison also finds himself frequently returning to the topic of economy in architecture, which he argues is too often equated with being cheap but really is a re flection on his philosophy of sustainability.

“Economy for us is doing as little as is necessary,” he says. “This can mean reducing or minimizing our client’s programmatic in terests—while still meeting their original goals. It’s also about developing design solutions that accomplish multiple goals with a single move.”

SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH ECONOMY

Hutchison puts this philosophy on sustainability into practice on projects like Rain Harvest Home—an off-the-grid three-structure residence in Temascaltepec, Mexico, about two hours west of Mexico City. “Rain Harvest Home embodies many of the themes we’ve focused on over the years and has opened up new ways of addressing the relationship of architecture to the environment,” he says.

Throughout the design phase Hutchison always focused on re ducing the indoor areas of the buildings—which include a main residence, a studio, and a bathhouse—in favor of outdoor space that provides connections with the natural environment. “It be

RHA IS AN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FIRM IN SEATTLE, SPECIALIZING IN PROJECTS THAT EXPLORE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ELEGANCE AND ECONOMY.

PHOTO BY DANNY BRIGHT

THIS INSTALLATION DESIGNED BY RHA ON THE ROOFTOP OF ARCHITECT LUIS BARRAGÁN’S STUDIO IS A HALFSCALE VERSION OF AN UNBUILT MEMORIAL CHAPEL ORIGINALLY DESIGNED FOR A RURAL SITE IN MARYLAND.

“This is really about exploring something simply because we’re interested in it. We’ve learned this exploration will always trigger new possibilities.”

came important to spread the program out across the site, which requires you to interact with all of the natural elements,” he says. “We really wanted to encourage people to use the site as a threshold to go between these spaces.”

The main residence, situated on a raised concrete plinth, is designed as a pavilion that allows for outdoor use year-round. A perimeter of steel colonnades supports a floating green roof that shields the exterior living space below. “This really helped answer the question, how do you give people as much space to occupy while keeping it outside?” he says.

And rather than use concrete or masonry, as is typical in Mexico’s construction culture, RHA made the decision to construct entirely wood buildings. “This choice was made with the intention of building as light on the ground as possible and to reduce the carbon footprint of the project.”

More importantly, RHA chose early on to collect and use all of the rainwater on the site and to ingrain this into the conceptual and experiential basis of the project. The onsite water treatment system is completely self-contained and gravity-fed. “It’s a big self-contained cycle,” Hutchison says. “But I think the most important thing we did was just not to treat it as a system but to treat it as an experience, really thinking about how rainwater could be a way of living on the site. It’s not just a metric; it’s about experiencing and being a part of the site. Because when it rains for six months, to be in the bathhouse when it’s raining is a pretty visceral experience." g

Project: Rain Harvest Home Location: Temascaltepec, Mexico

Completion: October 2020

Size: 1,200 square feet (main residence); 200 square feet (studio); 175 square feet (bathhouse)

Lead Architects: Robert Hutchison Architecture and Javier Sanchez Arquitectos

Structural Engineer: Bykonen Carter Quinn

General Contractor: Mic Mac Estructuras

THE RAIN HARVEST HOME PROJECT IS MADE UP OF THREE BUILDINGS THAT EACH COLLECT RAINWATER TO INTEGRATE WITH AN ABOVE- AND BELOW-GROUND RESERVOIR SYSTEM.

THE PROJECT TWO HOURS WEST OF MEXICO CITY AIMS TO ESTABLISH A HOLISTIC, INTEGRATED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACE.

Smooth Sculpture

On the corner of 28th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, a building clad in black glazed terra-cotta catches the eyes of passersby. “We knew from the get-go we wanted a black building,” says Michael Kirchmann, CEO and cofounder of GDSNY and a former SOM architect. “The black punctu ates the building’s prominent corner in a way that gives it so much presence.”

The 28&7 project is a Class A boutique office building that’s

beautiful and high-performing in part because of its terra-cot ta, designed for this project by Shildan Group. Skidmore, Ow ings & Merrill (SOM) designed and completed 28&7 in 2022. “28th Street has a number of powerful buildings with a rhythm of large-scale window openings. We wanted windows that were as large as possible for the tenant experience with out making an overwhelmingly glass building,” Kirchmann says.

The facade is inspired by the

neighborhood’s 19thand 20th-century masonry buildings, and the cladding was chosen both its customiz able and sustainable proper ties. “We were very enamored with terra-cotta,” says SOM Design Partner Chris Cooper. “It is having a real renaissance. We like that it’s a natural material, but it’s also a very versatile material.”

—Laura Rote

PHOTO BY DAVE BURK, COURTESY