Green BuildinG & desiGn
gb&d Green BuildinG & desiGn dec 2010
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The essential guide for sustainable projects and ideas
Jensen architects, creating holistic designs on both a micro and macro level, p. 52
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Electrical, Data/Communications & Fire
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site development
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We deliver ideas, expertise, service and solutions that exceed expectations.
individual contributions of each member of our team.
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Alarm Systems Installation & Service
Established in 1970, Sprig Electric has built a reputation for excellence while delivering comprehensive electrical and data/communication contracting services. Sprig Electric provides complete installation expertise, 24/7 service and in-house design and engineering including LEED services. Our employees earn their clients’ trust by consistently exceeding their expectations on projects varying in size, scale and complexity. Our portfolio includes some of the most prominent commercial and residential projects in California and Nevada.
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For more information, please contact: Sprig Electric 1860 South 10th Street San Jose, CA 95112-4108 Phone: 408.298.3134 Fax: 408.298.2132 www.sprigelectric.com www.electricroundtable.com Left: Santa Teresa H.S. in San Jose, CA. All conduit, wire, combiner boxes, disconnects & switchgear installed by Sprig Electric. Right: Watsonville Area Water Recycling Project, Watsonville, CA. A LEED Gold Certified project operated by Sprig Electric.
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architect: CF Design Ltd.
project: Flight Pattern
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Design. Create. Inspire.
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contents
gb&d GreeN BuILDING & DesIGN DeC 2010
up front 11 14 14 15
commodities bookshelf agenda defined design
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BraNDON feNNINGer
profile the craftsman discusses his style, sustainability efforts, and furniture with surprise elements
20
GLeNN aNDersON On finding simple ways to incorporate sustainability in his wide-ranging portfolio
discussion board 22
HD squareD arCHIteCts Melanie Hartwig-Davis channels her strong convictions into a growing practice
24
launch pad CaDMus sOLar Making the alternative energy affordable and applicable on existing buildings
inner workings 26
tHe aLLaN GeLBIN HOuse the 1890s estate proves Keedle & Lee architects’ commitment to transformative design
28
GeOrGetOwN HOMe One of three LeeD Platinum homes in washington, DC, designed by erik Hoffland
taking shape 31
MarINers HarBOr BraNCH LIBrarY atelier Pagnamenta torriani architects Planners pursues excellence
34
DOver eLeMeNtarY sCHOOL HIBser YaMauCHI architects demonstrates a new concept of place
36
fLats east BaNK PrOJeCt fOruM architectural services’ work in Cleveland will tranform the city for years to come
community 38
features east meets west, p. 46 Incorporated, the eccentrically named New York firm, boasts numerous angles from which it can approach the building world’s changing zeitgeist. a new project in Craryville, NY, is illustrative of the firm’s architectural prowess and integrates inherent opposites.
all in the mix, p. 52 floating porches. rooftop sculpture gardens. Offices that look like children’s museums. the only thing that can make sense out of Jensen architects’ ‘crazy mix of projects’ is the inevitable thread of holistic design.
a new species of building, p. 65 In a rapidly advancing greenbuilt market, the International Living Building Institute, a division of the Cascadia region Green Building Council, has set itself as a wedge into the future by establishing the Living Building Challenge. One architect answers the call, and his project raises even more questions.
KILLefer fLaMMaNG arCHIteCts at the forefront of affordable housing not reliant on exurban expansion
41
aLL aBOut KIDs a Cincinnati developer unveils a plan to franchise a LeeD-certified daycare network
42
fusCO, sHaffer, & PaPPas, INC. Partnerships give way to sustainable, affordable housing in Detroit
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DEC 2010
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contents
sPaCes 74
residential
solutions
POPuP HOuse veer tOwers GarDNer MOHr arCHIteCts LLC BeCK BuILDING COMPaNY DavID D. HarLaN arCHIteCts KeItH KreBs, aIa arCHIteCt PIONeer west HOMes KeLLY & stONe arCHIteCts
137
institutional
143
HeLIX eLeCtrIC INC. Pushing for a more quickly realized future in renewable energy
140
sPrIG eLeCtrIC CO. Drawing from conservationist roots so it can prepare to fly
141
GeOtHerMaL servICes INC. finding success through its focus on the earth’s natural systems
designer to watch 89
wHItNeY MuseuM Of aMerICaN art sMart HOMe: GreeN + wIreD tate sYNDer CaLDweLL KIMseY arCHIteCts vaN H. GILBert arCHIteCts PC CMK arCHIteCts KaYafas arCHIteCts DOMe DesIGNers, INC.
106
saraH BarNarD Designs that are mindful of health, history, and their inhabitants
last look 146
LIteraL BIOMIMICrY future designs unashamed of their overt likeness to nature
office DPr CONstruCtION reGIONaL OffICe LaMar aDvertIsING DBI arCHIteCts J. raNDOLPH ParrY arCHIteCts KIDeNeY arCHIteCts JMa arCHIteCts INteLLLIGeNt DesIGN GrOuP LLP
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healthcare MIravaL KarOLINKsa sOLNa uNIversItY HOsPItaL CHa wOMeN aND CHILDreN’s HOsPItaL MaDIsON CONstruCtION HfP arCHIteCts
132
commercial GLuMaC’s OffICe Of tHe future BrYaNt ParK C.r. CrawfOrD CONstruCtION
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gb&d editorial
research
eDItOr-IN-CHIef Christopher Howe
DIreCtOr Of eDItOrIaL researCH
MaNaGING eDItOr
Jeffrey Powell jeff@bgandh.com
amie Kesler amie@bgandh.com
assOCIate eDItOr timothy schuler
COrresPONDeNts Chris allsop James askew thalia aurinko-Mostow Meghan Boyer Daniel Casciato Joyce finn Peter fretty Dave Hudnall Jamie Morgan Matt Petrusek Zipporah Porton Julie schaeffer suchi rudra
art CreatIve DIreCtOr Karin Bolliger
seNIOr DesIGNer Bill werch
PHOtO eDItOr Zach Huelsing
assOCIate PHOtO eDItOr Courtney weber
eDItOrIaL researCH MaNaGers Dawn Collins Carolyn Marx
eDItOrIaL researCHers Holly Begle Genevieve Bellon Liz Boyd ashley Brookes ashley Brown amanda Bush Charlie Calvin Deidre Davis scott ferrier Jackie Geweke Laura Heidenreich shelley Hickey Dan Hopmann ryan Jones ellie Kim amanda Kirvan Joe Madurski John McDonough Bronwyn Milliken Matt O’Connor Hayley O’Hara Brian Panezich Zach Patterson Molly Potnick Issa rizkallah Dan schaeflein tom swierczewski Natalie taylor Ben warren erin windle Katie Yost
eDItOrIaL researCH assIstaNts adam Castillo Justin Davis
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INTRODUCING THE ALL-NEW
GBDMAGAZINE.COM • View the latest issue of Green Building & Design in a full-sized readable format • Get inspired by featured projects, builders, architects, and designers • Discover what’s in store for upcoming issues, and how your company can get involved • Find out what events the Green Building & Design staff will be attending and more!
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editor’s note
a celebration of species
I
t’s amazing that, every few months, you hear about science discovering a new species of plant or animal. And those are just the ones noteworthy enough to make the news. Even as numerous species become endangered, life continues to
amaze with its resilience and incessancy.
And now, taking its cue from nature in about every way it can, there is a new species of building. The Living Building Challenge, conceptualized by the Cascadia Region of the USGBC and CaGBC, is a new standard that goes beyond LEED by including seven performance areas (also known as petals)—including Beauty and Equity—and mandating that any building attempting certification be in operation for a full year, to allow for real energy-usage data. More than 60 projects have registered with the Living Building Challenge, yet not a single one has been certified. There are some hopeful candidates—in Missouri and Oregon—but as James Askew’s thoughtful article on p. 65 reveals, this tells us that in 2011 there are still ways to build better, to design truly net-zero structures that provide health, beauty, and opportunity to local communities. This is what the Living Building Challenge is all about. A species is the most basic unit of classification, denoting that it is wholly unique. And this is the only way to describe Jensen Architects. Principal Mark Jensen is nothing other than an artist; his playfulness, originality, and knack for the perfect amount of élan is the work of a master. “All in the Mix” (p. 52) chronicles the firm’s latest project—San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s outdoor sculpture garden— and details selected works from the firm’s ever-impressive oeuvre. Like in nature, new species of design are being found—or rather formed. Incorporated, an architecture and design studio in New York, melds a number of disparate aesthetics into a unified style on p. 46. And then there are species that have been around for thousands of years, yet spark a revelatory inspiration. Matt Petrusek’s highly enjoyable profile of Sprig Electric Co., an innovative energy contractor, tells the story of its name, which comes from a quick yet elegant type of duck (p. 140). I hope as you read this issue of gb&d, you’ll be inspired by these individuals, who are helping our species live more harmoniously with nature, each other, and our built environments. Enjoy,
Amie Kesler Managing Editor amie@bgandh.com
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Green Building 3rd Annual Workshop THE MID-ATLANTIC’S PREMIER EVENT FOR DESIGNING, BUILDING & SELLING GREEN THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2011 George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall Fairfax, Virginia Want to stay on top of the latest trends and innovations in green building?
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up front 11 COMMODItIes 14 aGeNDa 14 BOOKsHeLf 15 DefINeD DesIGN
GOODs fOr tHe urBaN eNvIOrNMeNt < Illumesh & Mediamesh A building’s façade becomes itself an outlet for medialization, with the creation of a stainless-steel fabric infused with LED lights. Mediamesh and Illumesh, innovative new building cladding systems from ag4 media facade GmbH (medienfassade.com), use sophisticated lighting and steel integration to allow for color, image, and video display on a uniquely large scale. Partially transparent from inside, therefore not entombing a building’s inhabitants, Mediamesh offers myriad new ways to communicate with the environs and is made from recyclable materials. (Pictured: The Indemann, designed by Maurer United Architects.) gbdmagazine.com
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up front/commodities < Wicked City Light Receiving an honorable mention at the Red Dot Awards this year, this advertising module, called Wicked City Light, is designed by Karlo Babic of EUROmodul d.o.o. (euromodul.hr), one of Croatia’s most intrepid street-furniture companies. Wicked City Light is a two-sided advertising unit, lit with long-life LED lights, attached to a pillar that extends into a bench fit for revelers.
Billboard Bags ^ In order to keep billboards, made of nonbiogradeable vinyl, out of landfills, Yak Pak (yakpak.com) and TerraCycle (terracycle.net) have created a line of avant garde bags and backpacks that repurpose these billboards—and their designs. This upcycling of previously condemned material creates a product of unique ’functional fashion,‘ which the designers say is nearly indestructible, prompting them to offer a lifetime warranty. Staving off the disaster created by more than 10,000 tons of vinyl going to landfills every year, Yak Pak has already found 12,000 feet of billboard for the project.
Insight Metro Seat Ergonomics used to be just for the office, but American Seating (americanseating.com) has brought the study of natural, efficient, human form to public transportation with its new Insight unit. Designed by Teague (teague. com), the chair features higher backrests and a greater amount of natural legroom for comfort on long commutes. Its composite-resin material allows for durability and prevents vandalism.
Leaning Molds ^ Maruja Fuente’s sleekly simple street furniture is not something to sit on—it’s something to lean against. The Puerto Rican designer’s curvilinear leaning molds provide urban spaces with comfortable places to rest; the recycled ABS plastic pieces can be used solitarily or arranged together, forming an Escheresque tesselation on the streetscape.
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up front/commodities
< Media Bus Station In Seoul, South Korea, a mass transit station has been imbued with 12 bus stations, each lit with more than 34,000 LEDs. Representing the potential for advertising but also a highly functional integration of site-specific information and media alerts, the Media Bus Station, designed by CA plan (ca-plan.co.kr), is 2.5 by 8 meters and consists of fully transparent glass panels. At the station, the 12 bus stops seemingly communicate with one another via the luminous motion of the LEDs that operate concurrently.
Ningbo Bus Shelter > Another transit design allowing for shared communication between infrastructure and people is the Ningbo South Business District Bus Shelter, which features a city information panel, advertising space, and a bus schedule screen. Conceptualized by Yang Design (yangdesign.net) with upright benches to optimize space under the shelter’s overhang, the shelter is based on a modular system and can be customized in size depending on locale. To provide energy for the electric systems, the shelter’s roof is outfitted with solar panels.
Calla Street Lighting ^ The Calla lamp is a new and more energy-efficient addition to the array of outdoor lighting options. The elegant design allows for optimal installation along streets in residential complexes or public areas like parks. The Taewon Lighting Co. Ltd. (taewon.co.kr) design uses a light source of CDM 150W, creating brightly pathways for pedestrians. The lamp, manufactured by Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. (daelim.co.kr) received a 2010 Red Dot award.
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< Campus Waste Management System To encourage a change in user behavior, this sleekly designed waste-management system—it is much more than a trashcan—provides a singular solution to better train pedestrians to treat waste properly. Conceptualized by Anke Bernotat of Bernotat&Co Designstudio (bernotat.eu) for Otto Public Furnishing (otto-public-furnishing.de) is best suited for high-traffic areas like transit hubs. Depending on the user’s needs, this stainless-steel waste system can be designed with one to four separate bins and can be fitted with an insertion cap for use in areas open to the outdoors.
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up front/agenda/bookshelf
DEC 2010 12.1–3
12.3
National Green Building Conference
The Four Seasons Toronto,
IIDA Toronto Leaders Breakfast
Metro Toronto Convention Centre,
Toronto, ON
Toronto, ON
Focused on regions across North
In conjunction with Construct Canada,
America, the IIDA Leaders Breakfasts
PM Expo, and others, this green-building
have become places to celebrate the
event examines every aspect of high-
interior design community at large as
performance buildings. With roundtable
well as locally. With local leaders
discussions and a comprehensive expo,
recognized and keynote addresses from
the conference is also one of few trade
prestigious men and women, brunch has
shows to be a zero-waste event.
never been so inspired.
nationalgreenbuildingexpo.com
iida.org/content.cfm/toronto
12.7–9
12.15–16
Ecobuild America
NeoCon East
Washington Convention Center,
The Baltimore Convention Center,
Washington, DC
Baltimore, MD
As part of the National Institute of Build-
Dovetailing off the success of Chicago’s
ing Sciences’ 2010 Annual Meeting,
NeoCon, this event has now come into
Ecobuild America provides a forum
its own, and returns for the 7th year as
for ideas and an exhibit for the newest
the premier event for interior designers
products. Designed to specifically
in the mid-Atlantic region. Its seminars
enhance education, the keynote address
and other resources will maintain a focus
will cover the convergence of BIM and
this year on designing for government
GIS technologies.
projects.
aececobuild.com
neoconeast.com
COMING NEXT MONTH... 1.27–1.30 IDS11 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, ON And marking the New Year by providing 2011’s first opportunity to experience the latest trends, materials, and products in interior design, IDS11 features the work and ideas of some of the world’s most influential designers in a 4-day event, the first night of which is the notoriously
New ReadS Now in it’s second edition, and featuring more than 20 new gardens, Garden Guide: New York City, by Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry, provides the reader with a guided tour through New York’s crown jewels of the botanical gardens to the lesser-known community gardens. Revealing the history, lively stories, and personalities behind each, this book directs readers to all the green refuges concealed in the city’s urban fabric. Norton Professional Books, Published: 08.16.10, $22.95. Often called the father of landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted was responsible for the design of such well-known projects as Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City; the Bell Isle Park in Detroit; and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The Frederick Law Olmsted: Essential Texts, edited by Robert Twombly, includes 16 selections of Olmsted’s key writings, revealing his youthful interests and his mature thinking on cities, small residential sites, and the history and theory of urban park. Norton Professional Books, Published: 08.10, $24.95.
RECOMMENDED READING Top designers and architects on what you should have on your reading list Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is the principal of San Francisco-based organicARCHITECT (organicarchitect.com) and the author of Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. books Design Is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable by Nathan Shedroff
entertaining Opening Night Party. interiordesignshow.com
The Truth About Green Business by Gil Friend Green$ense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff from 50 Green Home Projects by Kevin Daum & Eric Corey Freed blogs ‘Discovery company’: treehugger.com Non-profit media company: worldchanging.com Design forum: inhabitat.com
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defined design tHe CLOuD London, uK
The team behind the design of London’s 2012 Olympic CLOUD call it a design that ‘lifts humanity.’ Indeed, as a potentially iconic wonder that so wholly integrates the worlds of atmospheric ecology and digital data, the architects envision The CLOUD as a recreational park, a landmark, and a display system. The structure’s filligree array of columns supports the animated skin of the ‘bubbles,’ some of which can be inhabited, played in, and even manipulated. Responding to global communcation systems, the suspended park will provide real-time data about London’s Olympic village, the city, and the world as a whole, and use the movement inside the transparent spheres and the fluctuating weather to further enliven the space. More than an architectural marvel, The CLOUD is a landmark of creative alternative-energy solutions. The energy of pedestrian visitors is converted to electricity via three regenerative lifts; the inflatable spheres harness the day’s natural heating and cooling cycles; are layered with thin-film photovoltaics; and water is harnessed for energy and thermal storage via microturbines. Source: The CLOUD | www.raisethecloud.org. architects Alex Haw, Walter Nicolino, & Carlo Ratti artist Tomas Saraceno structural engineer Schlaich Bergermann und Partner landscape architects Agence Ter
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up front/defined design
vOussOIr CLOuD Los angeles, Ca
With a free-floating yet subterranean feel, Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott’s installation for the Southern California Institute of Architecture, which opened in 2008, relies solely on the compression of its vaults for its structure. Comprising thousands of three-dimensional modules that serve as unique, petal-like versions of voussoirs—made from paper-thin laminate stretched over curved seams—in the architects’ statement, they describe the installation’s inherent tension between structural and material logic: “...greater cell density of smaller more connective modules, or petals, gang together at the column bases and at the vault edges to form strengthened ribs, while the upper vault shell loosens and gains porosity.” Top photo: Judson Terry. Others: IwamotoScott Architecture. architects Lisa Iwamoto, Craig Scott engineer Buro Happold
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up front/defined design
Yas HOteL abu Dhabi, uae
Responding to local influences and global inspiration, the design of Abu Dhabi’s new Yas Hotel represents a convergence of ancient Islamic craft and universal geometry. The 500-room, nearly 1 million-square-foot hotel stands at the precipice of Yas Island, abutting the marina and comprising an FI race circuit on the premises. The breathtaking, sensuous ‘skin’ on the outside of the structure is a quilt of pivoting, diamond-shaped glass panels. During the day the glass-and-steel covering reflects the sky and the surrounding activity; at night, it fills the harbor with an LED lighting system sophisticated enough to transmit video feeds. architect Asymptote Architecture structural engineer Dewan Architects & Engineers, ARUP
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profile
Brandon Fenninger of Brandon Fenninger Designs On the ‘character’ of his handcrafted furniture and finding sustainable, local wood in Chicago Brandon Fenninger is a Chicago-area artisan who handcrafts custom furniture. He is often commissioned to produce handcrafted furniture for local clientele and through shows and events, including his most recent showing at the Milwaukee fine furnishings show in October 2010. He builds all his furniture with the idea that it will be inspected inch by inch, inside and out. as such, attention to the smallest details is what allows his work to leave a lasting impression. GB&D had the opportunity to chat recently with Brandon. gb&d: How would you define your design style? fenninger: I have a contemporary style, drawing influence from my surroundings, including architecture. I don’t like to be pinned down to any one inspiration. I just try to make furniture with a traditional base and function with enough differences to make the end product unique. when I embark on a new design, I always strive to push the design envelope to create something that people will remember—something that is striking. whether it’s achieved by the physical design or the selection of woods involved, I want my furniture to have character. How did you get into the furniture-design and -build segment of the market? I initially worked full time as a carpenter primarily remodeling residential properties. My interest in designing and building furniture
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blossomed from that experience. Over time, I got to the point where I really enjoyed the woodworking aspect of each job. and if I needed a piece of furniture that I could not find, I would just build it. I enjoyed both the challenge and the satisfaction of the end product. fortunately, as people saw my work, they continued to encourage me to do more of it and follow my passion. How do you view sustainability, and how have you been able to incorporate sustainable practices into your work? I think sustainability rests with the building, making a decision to be responsible. to do my part, I start by conserving materials, which means I try to use veneers whenever feasible. I also make a sincere effort to source my materials as responsibly as possible. for example, I purchase some of my wood from Owl Hardwood Lumber Co. since they only offer materials from properly managed forests. In addition, I have been using Horigan Lumber when possible. they take trees from the Chicagoland area (trees cut down because of insects or storm damage) that would ordinarily be firewood or in woodchips, take it to their mill, and make it available to woodworkers. this is a great opportunity to use domestic wood. I also try to use eco-friendly varnishes [with] low vOCs and remain conscious of how my materials impact the environment. What trends are you seeing in your industry? there are two trends. the first is to go green. I am seeing more people within this group making furniture out of sustainable materials like bamboo. as far as I am concerned this suits itself more to modular products even though
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Brandon Fenninger of Brandon Fenninger Designs
profile
Left: this sleekly designed black maple chair is a prime example of how fenninger takes traditional furniture designs and gives it new life. BeLOw: this Karelian chest is made of sapele and Karelian Birch veneer.
“When I embark on a new design, I always strive to push the design envelope to create something that people will remember— something that is striking. Whether it’s achieved by the physical design or the selection of woods involved, I want my furniture to have character.”
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some people are using it in areas where they once wouldn’t. and there are others who have not embraced green and probably never will. these designers and builders use what they consider to be the most beautiful woods regardless. although in some ways people in each group are starting to converge, I still think the two sides are a ways apart. Tell us about one of your most recent designs and some of the key design features. I recently built a blanket chest using sapele veneers/solids and Karelian Birch veneer. It is a prime example of what I was saying when taking a very traditional design and giving it new life. that is accomplished in this
particular chest through the use of two woods that alone are interesting and unique, yet when combined compliment each other very well. together they comprise a design all their own and give the piece a sense of depth that any one wood alone could not. In essence it gives the piece character. What does the future hold for Brandon Fenninger Designs? My plan is to intensify my focus of putting new twists on old products. for instance, making a piece of furniture that functions as a dresser, but does not have that preconceived look of a traditional dresser. I like to make furniture that has a surprise element to it. —by Peter Fretty
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profile
Glenn Anderson of GA Architects Starting small, Anderson has found simple ways to incorporate sustainability in his wideranging portfolio One employee. This is how things start. And not even 20 years of experience can make up for that dauntingly small number. But in 1998, Glenn anderson became that one and started his own firm, Ga architects. Now, he has help from three others, who together can complete up to 250 projects a year. Ga works on everything from retail to education, enjoying the diversity it brings. “we like to vary projects,” anderson says, “because variety is what keeps us going.” the spice of life, as they say. sustainability, then, is a core ingredient—the flour, or perhaps the yeast, getting everything going. unfortunately, anderson has found that often clients lose interest in green building if it changes the project’s bottom line. so he’s found ways to incorporate simple sustainable features into a number of projects without affecting the cost. “when we do warehouses, we work on increasing insulation values in the walls,” he says. “I’ve always tried to sell the owners and developers on more sustainable aspects, but sometimes the bottom line is the only thing that’s important. It’s the owner who is paying the bill, but if we can find ways to increase the r value or make it more efficient, then we take those steps.” By focusing on site selection, recycling, and material selection, anderson has found simple ways to minimize a building’s carbon footprint. the steel that Ga uses is 90-percent recycled, and it also uses recycled concrete.
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His interest in green building stems from courses anderson took in college in the late 1970s. though he quickly discovered—as most do—that those lessons don’t always translate well to the real world, the LeeD aP does his part to incorporate sustainable features that draw on those basic principles. Currently, he’s doing so on the firm’s first official LeeD project, an addition to the McGillis school in salt Lake City, which will be the first LeeD Gold school in utah. Ga’s relationship with McGillis began in 2000, when the firm was asked to renovate the building, which dates back to 1915. at that time, the green-building movement hadn’t fully taken off, so despite the fact that fuel cost is oneeighth the amount it was before the renovation, the school was not certified. eight years later, the school came back and requested that the original design-build team of Ga architects and eckman and Mitchell Construction work together again on an addition with the goal of LeeD certification. though general certification was the request, the amount of features included will make McGillis eligible for Gold. set for completion in 2010, the school’s design enhances the existing daylighting and employs an evaporative cooling system that keeps the school comfortable without aC for most of the year. During construction, 90 percent of the existing building was ground up and used for fill material throughout the site, and the remaining 10 percent was recycled. Despite all the changes, which included adding and maximizing green space, anderson notes that stakeholders appreciate that the addition’s appearance isn’t very different from the original historic structure. “when people see the school, they are surprised to
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Congratulations to GA Architects!
aBOve: In 2000, the McGillis school brought Ga architects in to remodel this 1915 schoolhouse and bring the structure into code compliance. the final design exceeded the energy code by replacing windows, insulating the building envelope, providing energyefficient lighting, and adding a high-efficient boiler—all of which led to a 40 percent reduction in utility bills.
“I’ve always tried to sell the owners and developers on even more sustainable aspects, but sometimes the bottom line is the only thing that’s important. … But if we can find ways to… make it more efficient, then we take those steps.”
learn that it is a modern building that is extremely energy efficient,” anderson says. Continuing in education, Ga will work on the central offices of utah’s Department of education; due to state funds available for green buildings, the client agreed to let Ga focus on energy efficiency and a long-term solution. anderson hopes that more clients will take the long view, but in the end, his primary goal is to make them happy. It is client satisfaction and quality work that anderson believes has brought Ga architects success. “It doesn’t always happen, but we’ve been able to please the majority of our clients, and they have continued to come back to us,” he says. “Providing a quality project is the main reason we’ve been successful.” —by Zipporah Porton
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discussion board
from grassroots to design force Melanie Hartwig-Davis, the mastermind behind HD Squared Architects, LLC talks small residential renovations, the conversion of a community icon, and and the importance of communication hd squared architects, llc began as a true grassroots effort on the part of now-owner, founder, and principal Melanie Hartwig-Davis. “It just kind of started with me assisting my neighbors who asked me to help them make more efficient use of the space in their homes,” she says. Those homes—located in the Washington, DC, area and mostly built in the 1930s and 1940s—tend to have smaller kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms, and Hartwig-Davis found satisfaction in producing efficient
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and environmentally friendly designs for them. She passed the license boards for the state of Maryland and in 1999 formalized the firm, where she now focuses on renovations, additions, and historic preservations. She became LEED accredited in 2008. Her approach runs counter to many other architects in that HD Squared works with existing buildings, focusing on infill and embodied material footprints. These projects are rooted in Hartwig-Davis’ convictions about sustainable living—conserving resources, being as space-efficient as possible, and incorporating new environmentally friendly technology. “Many firms don’t want to spend time on smaller projects like the ones I do, because they don’t think they can make any money,” she says. “But I don’t see it in those terms. I can keep my overhead low by hiring consultants that don’t necessarily work full time—like a mom who wants to work a little but can only put in 20 hours a week. And it ends up feeling like I’m doing a service for the community.” In this way, HD Squared has managed to grow through
TOP: From the Lyptus flooring to the energy-efficient lighting, the kitchen at PBS2 was recreated for sustainability and functionality. With Bayard Construction’s cooperation, nearly 95 percent of the previous kitchen was diverted from the landfill. BOTTOM: Melanie Hartwig-Davis, owner, principal, and founder of HD Squared Architects.
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HD Squared Architects, LLC a fairly serious recession. “It’s about word of mouth,” the principal continues. “You have to communicate well with homeowners and committees and understand your clients’ lifestyles—really get to know them and work side by side. That’s what I’ve done, and it’s worked out very well so far.” That doesn’t necessarily mean all HD Squared’s work is miniscule in nature. HartwigDavis has been essential to the renovation of Cheverly, Maryland’s United Methodist Church—a large-scale historic-preservation project of a structure that dates back to 1942. In 2009, she was in charge of facilitating $45,000 in grant money from the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission for energy efficiency in the church. “We’ve had more than 40 interior windows installed with .29 U-values to seal up inefficiencies. We’ve installed durable tile flooring [and] removed carpet detrimental to the health of the building users,” she says. “The building functions as a kind of community center for Cheverly at this point, and I’ve been updating and maintaining it for close to 15 years, as church funding has allowed.” This vital work has added beauty and energy efficiency to an icon of the community. The PBS2 residence, in Beltsville, Maryland, gave HD Squared the opportunity to transform a more personal structure: a “builderbuilt home” was converted into a custom-fit environment for the homeowners. In doing so, Hartwig-Davis incorporated a number of sustainable elements: recycled ceramic tile, recycled-content carpet, radiant flooring, and water-efficient toilets. “With this builder-designed home, they opened everything up, and each room blends into the next,” she explains. “On the PBS2 home, I was able to close it up a little, to define and differentiate the spaces.” The clients now have a functional green home that complements their lifestyle. Hartwig-Davis’ husband, Lance Davis, is also an architect, and the two have used a home they purchased, called the Harmonage, as their experimental testing ground for new green practices and ideas. Among its current features are a carport with a planted roof, a rain garden, and a variety of sustainable materials, including recycled ceramic tiles, no-VOC paint, a paper countertop, and
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“You have to communicate well with homeowners and committees and understand your clients’ lifestyles—really get to know them and work side by side. that’s what I’ve done.” —Melanie Hartwig-Davis, Owner
discussion board a salvaged bathroom sink. By incorporating these ideas, the home and office act as a showcase—one that was awarded a Town of Cheverly Green Home certificate. Hartwig-Davis averages between 6–12 projects per year, and takes the work as it comes. “I’m in a position where I don’t really have to aggressively pursue projects,” she says, noting that as work comes to her, so do opportunities to spread the green gospel. “Most of my clients tend to not be fully educated about green practices, and so I find myself in the position of introducing them to it. This education leads to great word of mouth, and my clients sell my designs to future clients.” She also spends a lot of time finding and working with like-minded contractors. “I align myself with contractors open to or familiar with my ideas, who can help me accomplish my goal,” she notes, “which is to make sustainability tangible for the average homeowner.” —by David Hudnall
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launch pad
Left: weatherford Place—the first solar community of ecoCraft Hybrid Homes, located in roswell, Ga.
CadMuS SoLar Owners of Cadmus Construction bring solar to the masses with new alternative-energy solutions locations Roswell, GA Montclair, NJ founded Cadmus Construction, 2005 Cadmus Solar, 2009 employees 12
for denise donahue and simone du Boise, founders of the Cadmus group of companies, sustainable design has been a constant evolution based on finding solutions to needs. “Typically when working on a project we’ll discover a need, then search for a solution to meet that need,” says Donahue. “But so many times the solution just doesn’t exist, so we create our own.”
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That’s how the first Cadmus company, Cadmus Construction, was born in 2005. “We also own and operate Donahue Studios, a multi-disciplinary design firm that does everything from graphic design to interior design, industrial [to] architectural designbuild,” Donahue explains. “But we saw a need to promote design-build with a focus on environmental care, energy efficiency, and the integration of renewable-energy systems, and we saw that technology was becoming more effective and affordable, so the business evolved.” Key to Cadmus Construction’s vision was a holistic approach. When Donahue and du Boise started the company, each had a career’s worth of experience in their own practice areas—environmental design for Donahue and architectural design and construction for du Boise. “In bringing our disciplines together, we formed a more complete and holistic set of capabilities,” Donahue says. “That was important, because we believe that to design something, you have to understand the relationship between all elements in the environment—the
human form, the natural world, manmade objects—because they have to coexist, function well and, working together, enhance the environment as a whole.” Cadmus Construction’s most notable project to date is Weatherford Place, a community of eight homes in Roswell, Georgia. One of the homes has received the first LEED for Homes Platinum certification in the state, and the remaining homes are seeking the same. Additionally, the community as a whole is seeking Platinum certification under the LEED for Neighborhood Development Program. The homes’ comprehensive design-build methodologies are so energy-efficient (with the lowest Home Energy Rating System, or HERS, Index on record) and economical that Cadmus Construction plans to offer franchise opportunities under the “EcoCraft Hybrid Home™” brand. But Donahue and du Boise didn’t stop there. The duo’s most recent endeavor, Cadmus Solar, was also a natural evolution from a perceived need. “Cadmus Solar grew naturally out of a need Cadmus Construction
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Cadmus Solar
“[the C-solar system] evens the playing field, because it provides a high-performance, solarsystem solution that is more affordable [and] practical and thereby more available to the masses and—most importantly—to existing buildings.” —Denise Donahue, Founder
saw when working with clients that wanted alternative-energy solutions but had existing structures,” Donahue says. “The solar solutions that were available at the time were too heavy to place on many existing structures without structural re-engineering, and they were expensive. So we designed a solar
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solution that’s lightweight, easy to install, and affordable.” That solution—the C-Solar System—is a new application of an existing technology. Thin-film technology has been fully integrated into a substrate with enhanced PV and optional solar-thermal function. It includes an adjustable truss system to create a comprehensive and turnkey solution; Donahue says the system can outperform crystalline and existing thin-cell applications at a lower cost—achieving up to 20 percent better performance than conventional systems.
launch pad Next up for Donahue and du Boise: C3D Energy, an umbrella company that will consist of Cadmus Construction, Cadmus Solar, and Cadmus Philanthropy—the last of which Donahue and du Boise are particularly passionate about. “We’re currently engaged with environmental educational outreach, which is important because it exponentially increases awareness and impact, [and allows us to] influence health and homelessness through more affordable, sustainable, energy-efficient, and healthy low-income housing and sheltering solutions,” Donahue says.
“It’s a game changer,” Donahue says. “It evens “Because we believe that responsibilities the playing field because it provides a highare commensurate with capabilities, as our performance, solar-system solution that is capacity and possibilities grow, we have more affordable [and] practical and thereby to accept more social responsibility,” she more available to the masses and—most imadds. “We believe that we all share common portantly—to existing structures. There are ground, and together we can build a better billions of flat-top commercial and industrial environment. As Margaret Mead said, ‘Nevrooftops whose needs weren’t being met, and er doubt that a small group of thoughtful, we need to take responsibility for that if we committed citizens can change the world; want to turn things around, both environindeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’” mentally and economically.” —by Julie Schaeffer
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inner workings the aLLaN geLBIN houSe Continuing the work of Allan Gelbin, Connecticut architect gives 1890s estate a sustainable facelift architect Keedle & Lee Architects location Redding, CT years renovated 1982, 1992, 1995,2010
“our goal is, create without being destructive,” says Steven Keedle, architect and owner of Connecticut-based Keedle & Lee Architects. This statement is an echo of what is already known about the firm and proven in its work on a historic 1800s home in Redding, Connecticut. Started in 2000, Keedle & Lee is a full-service architecture firm that specializes in residential remodeling. The majority of its work is done up and down the upper East Coast with designs from Maine to New York. Projects range anywhere from $60,000 to $3 million, and if the clients are on board, all of them have a green focus. “From a very early age we are aware of our environment but are never fully aware of what our actions can cause. I believe my generation—I was born in ’67—lost over two decades of time when we had the opportunity to conserve and prepare for a
more responsible future. We are only at the threshold of our green building practices and are educating ourselves and beginning to have an impact on our practice and projects,” Keedle says. For him, what sustainability really means is working with what is already built. “There’s nothing greener than not adding an addition,” he says. “I have seen a great deal of waste in residential projects of ‘high design,’ and our goal is to re-establish sustainable pathways.” For the Redding home, called The Allan Gelbin House, the estate’s story reads like a soap opera script, full of affairs and fires. The original house was built in the late 1890s by a Broadway producer for his daughter, who eventually left the house altogether to run off with her chauffeur. In the 1920s, the
rIGHt, BeLOw: the stone foundation of the allan Gelbin House was all that was left after a 1920s fire. Now, the rebuilt home is re-imagined once again with a new bridge connecting the garage and studio to the main home. OPPOsIte PaGe: aerial view of the home. the challenge was to add square footage but reduce its carbon footprint.
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The Allan Gelbin House
inner workings
as much as possible.” The house had grown organically, but once his children left home, Keedle’s client wanted to downsize and eliminate any unused space. Keedle addressed energy usage and building components to maximize efficiencies while maintaining the spirit of the place and its history, the creative vision of Gelbin in 1980, and the respectful and subsequent additions by others that had followed.
house burnt down, leaving the stone walls intact but the lot abandoned until 1982, when Allan Gelbin, a Taliesin East alumni who had worked with Frank Lloyd Wright, was hired by the new homeowners to redesign the structure. Allan Gelbin lived in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and worked on numerous houses there and in New York, Vermont, and Maine. As he only worked from 1953 to 1984, the house was probably one of the last projects he designed. His archive now resides with The Department of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago. Designed in the spirit of his mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gelbin worked with the existing stone walls of the original house and added eight feet to the south to provide more space. The home itself is perched on the brow of a hill with 270-degree views to the east and west facing south and with a sliver of a nighttime view of Long Island Sound to the south 12 miles away.
“there’s nothing greener than not adding an addition. I have seen a great deal of waste in residential projects of ‘high design.’” –Steven Keedle, Architect & Owner, Keedle & Lee Architects
As a young architect, one of Keedle’s strongest influences was Edmund Bacon and his book, Design of Cities, where Keedle found inspiration was in his “Principals of the Second Man.” Bacon believes, “Any really great work has within it seminal forces capable of influencing subsequent development around it, and often in ways unconceived of by its creator… it is the second man who determines whether the creation of the first man will be carried forward or destroyed.” Keedle deems this insight to be his firm’s greatest responsibility—especially with projects like the Gelbin house—and it has proven to be its greatest asset as well. —by Thalia Aurinko-Mostow
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In 1992, nine years after Keedle’s current client built the house with Allan Gelbin, the client added a two-story structure and used local designer Nancy O’Brien for two additional bedrooms for his growing family. The new addition modified the main entrance and created a tower behind the central hearth. Then in 1995, the homeowner added a detached two-story garage with a homeoffice studio above, primarily with the use of materials from the Gelbin original. “The house and enclosed spaces were now at 4,200 square feet,” Keedle explains. “In early 2010, the client hired us with the following brief: attach the studio garage to the house but at the same time reduce the footprint
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inner workings
georgetoWN hoMe Complete gut-renovation of late1800s federal townhouse puts another notch on architect’s belt for LEED Platinum homes architect Erik Hoffland Architect contractor Landis Construction location Washington, DC
there are currently three leed Platinum homes in Washington, DC. Erik Hoffland is responsible for two of them. When the enterprising architect broke from the design-build firm where he was employed to work on his own in 2008, he began a career that is built on pushing the boundaries. His specialty is renovations and additions to historic buildings and homes, though he works on the occasional piece of new construction. The first LEED Platinum home he worked on was actually the catalyst for starting his own firm. “The mother of one of my good friends had just moved to DC with her husband and was looking for a house to remodel to LEED specifications. We met, targeted a home in the historic Georgetown area of Washington, DC, that needed extensive work, and put together a plan. We brought in a contractor, Landis Construction, a firm also eager to do more sustainable building, and rounded out the team with Everyday Green, a sustainable building consultant who served as our LEED rater,” Hoffland says. The Georgetown home is a late-1800s federal townhouse that had undergone various additions and interior remodels prior to historic preservation laws being enacted, so with the exception of the front façade, there were not many original details left. “From a sustainability point of view, there
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is nothing very admirable about demolishing something existing and building from scratch; the most sustainable thing you can do is preserve the existing, as its carbon footprint has already been established,” Hoffland says. “However, in this case, the house was certain to have undergone a major renovation no matter who bought the property, so we felt it better to do it the most responsible way we knew how than to let someone else renovate it without sustainability in mind.” They set one target: LEED Platinum. To make sure they achieved this goal, Hoffland, the construction project manager, and the clients all attended LEED for Homes
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Georgetown Home
fIrst fLOOr
seCOND fLOOr
tHIrD fLOOr
inner workings
OPPOsIte PaGe: the renovated house illuminates the street in the historic Georgetown neighborhood of washington, DC. BeLOw: reclaimed heart-pine flooring is contrasted with fsC-certified wood, low-vOC painted white cabinetry, and locally sourced virginia granite. BOttOM: New and old technologies were married together: LeD recessed lighting accented by antique chandeliers; an antique mantel surrounding an energy-efficient gas insert; and original lead-glass windows made efficient with nearly invisible low-e storm windows.
“the most sustainable thing you can do is preserve the existing, as its carbon footprint has already been established.” —Erik Hoffland, Founder, Erik Hoffland Architect
workshops during the early planning phases. The team also quickly learned that just by having the prime Georgetown location of the house—laden with amenities within walking distance—they were already up to nearly 10 LEED points. The project wound up being a complete gutrenovation; only the perimeter walls and roof were saved, and what could be salvaged of heavily damaged floor joists. Most of the framing lumber and kitchen cabinets were reused, and everything else was donated to a local architectural salvage non-profit. The 3-story, 3,200-square-foot project (including the 1,000-square-foot addition) was completed on time with a focus on bringing back some of the period details and meshing them with modern, green features, the latter of which included:
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inner workings • recessed LED lighting throughout; • spray-foam insulation; • additional efficient storm windows; • FSC-certified framing lumber and cabinetry; • low-VOC paint and finishes; • local granite and marble tile, floors, and counters; • reclaimed heart-pine flooring and reclaimed wood trim; • solar hot water; • Energy Star appliances; • Watersense plumbing fi xtures; • all-native, drought-tolerant landscaping; • high-efficiency furnace with an ERV; • salvaging and/or recycling 50 percent of demolition materials; and • energy-use reduction of 50 percent.
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Green building is clearly more than a job to Hoffland—it’s a passion. One of his goals for the near future—and something his colleague and brother Kristian has been helping him with—is creating an architectural library of all things sustainable, and working to ensure it’s continually updated, a very daunting task as sustainable technologies are evolving rapidly. Hoffland has already worked with big-ticket green-energy systems like solar photovoltaics for electricity, solar hot water, geothermal systems, and rainwater cisterns, but he has yet to install a green roof or add a greywater recycling system. “I’d like to have tried all of these systems and learn first-hand the challenges and trade-offs,” Hoffland says, “so that as new clients come in, I am able to provide an expert opinion on which strategies are best suited for their project. … I’d like to become the one architect in DC that has designed and built all the components of a theoretical dream green home.”
» » » » » »
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For Hoffland, the dream green home is no fairy tale. His second DC-area LEED Platinum residence? It’s his own. Hoffland just moved into the 1,700-squarefoot, 1930s Tudor, Mt. Pleasant home this past May and is already feeling the benefits of his solar panels, Energy Star windows, reclaimed wood floors, and other sustainable features. “To be able to live in an historic older home,” he says, “but with the energy efficiency that new technology affords us is truly the best of both worlds.” —by Thalia Aurinko-Mostow
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taking shape
MarINerS harBor BraNCh LIBrarY New York residents’ 80-year-long wish is granted with new stateof-the-art Staten Island library architect Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani Architects Planners location Staten Island, NY project size 10,000 square feet client Department of Design & Construction New York Public Library
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“we’ve always been aware of environmental factors, perhaps because we come from Switzerland, where considering the site—including daylight and views—is the norm. but when we came to the United States, we met some resistance because people didn’t understand the value of these things. But now that the LEED program has grown, our lives are much easier.” Anna Torriani, of Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani Architects Planners LLP, feels that LEED has vindicated the way she’s always done things, a welcome respite from going against the grain. Torriani and Lorenzo Pagnamenta, both artists as well as architects, founded the firm in 1992 after winning the top prize in New York’s Westside Waterfront International Competition. “We decided we wanted to pursue ideas and thoughts of our own,” says Torriani, who along with Pagnamenta had worked at several other architecture firms, including the office of Paul Rudolph.
Now, the firm’s sights are set on achieving further recognition, this time for the betterment of the community, through its latest undertaking: Mariners Harbor Branch Library, a project for the Department of Design & Construction (DDC) and the New York Public Library and part of the NYC Design and Construction Excellence program. “Since the 1930s, residents of this community had been harboring a dream of producing a pearl of their own—a community library,” Pagnamenta explains. “They finally got their wish.” The library, situated on a 16,000-squarefoot plot in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood of Staten Island, is a single-story, 10,000-square-foot building that draws inspiration quite plainly from its surroundings. Pagnamenta explains that, because the library is in a former oystering community, the design concept is that of a cracked open shell: “rougher on the outside and...mother of pearl-like inside.”
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taking shape
Mariners Harbor Branch Library
PrevIOus PaGe: Night rendering of the 10,000-square-foot Mariners Harbor Branch Library, staten Island, NY. rIGHt: the interior natural daylighting strategies include louvered technical glazing to block direct sunlight but allow sufficient transparency. BOttOM: the site model of the library shows the spine of skylights running its length, leading to the terrace behind. the project is being designed to LeeD silver standards.
Transparent glass walls and skylights, which draw an abundance of natural light and minimize the need for overhead lighting during the day, are the hallmark of the project. “While materials and technologies are important, when you’re an architect who believes in sustainable architecture, your basic philosophy is that every building should strive to offer as much controlled natural light as possible and to communicate with the landscape,” Torriani says. “Everything else stems from that.”
“while materials and technologies are important, when you’re an architect who believes in sustainable architecture, your basic philosophy is that every building should strive to offer as much controlled natural light as possible and to communicate with the landscape.”
Achieving the first goal—natural light—was a challenge because the client wanted the building to be one story in order to minimize the need for supervision. That required the architects to cover close to two thirds of the site, building along the property line on both sides and forcing the architects to relinquish their desire for side windows; windows at the front and back brought in only a measure of light. “Our design concept was to divide —Anna Torriani, Principal & Founder, the building into two sections,” Pagnamenta Atelier Pagnamenta Torriani Architects says. “One side contains the offices and the Planners LLP other, larger side houses the reading rooms. The middle is a glazed spine of skylights that brings in natural light.” Glare analysis and control were performed to best determine the frit pattern on the east and west glass facades in order to control heat gain, modulate light, and minimize avian impact while allowing sufficient transparency for viewing. For the skylight, a technical glass was designed with integrated control louvers that allow northern light, but avoid penetration of direct sunlight.
building’s spine up to the back yard, a permeable, open terrace, one of the first of its kind in the New York Public Library system. “We maintained as much of the landscape as we could, and the trunks of the few trees we had to tear down with the construction were entered back into the landscape as a reminder of the importance of the environment,” Pagnamenta notes. The result is a building of light-filled open spaces and activity areas, as well as clear sight lines to encourage communication between library staff and patrons. “The strategy of the Mariners Harbor library [was] to integrate the neighborhood, and I think we achieved that,” Pagnamenta says. “The library will engage the surrounding community as a freely accessible public gathering space for information and ideas.” —by Julie Schaeffer
A MESSAGE FROM PLAZA CONSTRUCTION New York City-headquartered Plaza Construction, an industry leader in green construction, has executed over $2 billion in LEED-rated projects since 2005. Providing construction management, general contracting, and project consulting services nationally, the firm has offices in Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, DC, and New Jersey. Established in 1986, Plaza is the sixth largest contractor in the
In regard to their second goal—creating an open communication with the landscape—Torriani and Pagnamenta opened the
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New York region, ranked in 2008 by Engineering News Record as 51 out of the nation’s top 400 contractors with revenues of $1.2 billion.
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Mariners Harbor Public Library
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Healthcare, Higher Education, K-12, Institutional Civic, Retail, VA, Private Sector
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taking shape
dover eLeMeNtarY SChooL Having outgrown its original design by nearly double, San Pablo school project started as modernization of an existing building, now gets entirely new campus architect HIBSER YAMAUCHI Architects location San Pablo, CA client West Contra Costa Unified School District students to accomodate 600+
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hibser yamauchi (hy) architects’ approach to sustainable design is clearly manifested in its most recent project: Dover Elementary School in San Pablo, California. “The primary intent of sustainable design is to save resources—energy, water, materials,” principal Marcus Hibser says. “But the byproduct, which we focus on, is providing better spaces for people to be in. After all, most of us spend 90 percent of our time indoors. To have that experience in a place that’s comfortable makes our lives better.” To that end, when Hibser and his team work on education projects like Dover Elementary—or any project—they work collaboratively with clients to help them achieve their vision of place. “For some clients, this is a facility that simply fulfills the immediate utilitarian need,” Hibser says. “Other clients have a vision of illuminating the mind and expanding horizons; they need places of living, learning, or healing. We see our role as the guide who will help develop the vision for our client,
someone who will define the place in order that it become a reality.” That was certainly the case with Dover Elementary. It was originally planned as a modernization of existing buildings, but those buildings were originally designed to accommodate 300 students, a number that had more than doubled. So HY Architects, along with the school district and the community, decided to replace the entire campus. “That’s not something you really want to do in a sustainable project,” Hibser admits, “but we gained the advantage of bringing in many sustainable features.” During the process, before there were advantages, there were challenges. The first was the site. “You don’t normally hear this from architects, but the site was really difficult for us to work with because it was flat,” Hibser says. “As a result, we had to deal with asphalt-related heat retention and water runoff. Our solution was to add a number of grassy areas to the site, place
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We would like to congratulate HY Architects on all their success. We appreciate being part of your team. OPPOSITE PAGE: Dover’s design includes deep overhangs and recessed windows to control heat gain and reduce energy utilization. ABOVE: A rain garden has been included in the project’s design to be used as a curriculum device for Dover students.
“The primary intent of sustainable design is to save resources—energy, water, materials. But the byproduct, which we focus on, is providing better spaces for people to be in.”
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—Marcus Hibser, Principal, HIBSER YAMAUCHI Architects
bioswales around areas of asphalt, and plant trees to provide canopies. Those features both reduced the heat island and absorbed water runoff.” Inside, HY Architects maximized the daylight to minimize the need for artificial light while at the same time managing direct sunlight to reduce glare on work surfaces. The design implements heat-capture technology to avoid reliance on gas-fired furnaces and uses a low-flow ventilation system to reduce noise. “They’re warm, quiet, and bright classrooms,” the architect notes. “So it’s a comfortable environment for the kids to be in.” But it’s also sustainable. Construction of the school—which is scheduled for total completion by the end of 2010—appears to have significantly exceeded Title 24, California’s energy-efficiency standards. —by Julie Schaeffer
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NEC is a NatioNally-raNkEd CurtaiNwall aNd advaNCEd faCadE CoNtraCtor with provEN ExpErtisE iN moNumENtal aNd highrisE CurtaiNwall projECts. National Enclosure Company, LLC 715 Auburn Road Pontiac, MI 48342 (248) 332-4250 www.nationalenclosure.com “Focused on Advanced Facades”
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taking shape
FLatS eaSt BaNK ProJeCt A commitment to urban vitality through a mixed-use development has inspired a city into action architect FORUM Architectural Services, LLC location Cleveland, OH client Fairmont Properties/ Wolstein Group site plan 24 acres
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the rousing support behind the Flats East Bank project in Cleveland, Ohio, is greater than anyone involved in the development imagined. Though construction for the project slowed down considerably in 2008, due to building woes seen throughout the country, the city and other private parties knew it was only a matter of time until the project resumed with even more fervor than it started. And with an updated design, tenant recommitment, and a cleared site yearning for a structure, all signs point to the time as now. The project’s roots first began taking hold in 2003, when the Wolstein Group sponsored an architectural competition for a project to be built near the convergence of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie—the first project of its kind in Cleveland. FORUM Architectural Services, LLC, presented five
separate master plans, each of which provided unique planning elements that were synthesized into the final design solution that captured Scott Wolstein’s vision. It was just what the developer was looking for, a flexible, mixed-use plan that could adapt to ever-changing market conditions. “Once you set the infrastructure of the development, the market will pretty much dictate when and what will be there, especially in urban redevelopment projects,” says Peter Spittler, a founding principal of FORUM. “[Flats East Bank] has all the elements of an incredibly dynamic and transformational mixed-use development.” The 24-acre site will be the new home for the offices of Cleveland-born Ernst & Young and Ohio-based law firm Tucker, Ellis & West. Plans also include a 150-room hotel; a 15,000-square-foot health club;
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Flats East Bank Project 20,000 square feet of restaurants; a 550-car parking garage; and several stand-alone restaurants. Each building will include sustainable features such as high-performance glass and energy systems, and green roofing techniques on the top of the parking decks will serve as the main plaza and outdoor space for both the office and hotel complex. When FORUM submitted plans for the competition in 2003, they included a “Green Print” evaluation for the development, which sits on an old brownfield site amidst Cleveland’s historic Warehouse and Flats districts. Their instincts were right. The Flats East Bank project was registered as part of LEED’s Neighborhood Development pilot program in 2007 and is currently being evaluated as a LEED-ND project. The balance of the master plan is 14 acres of entertainment and recreational space including 1,200 linear feet of riverfront boardwalk, restaurants, and parks, as well as an urban beach where residents and tourists can walk or bike along the river, lay out in the sun, or enjoy beach volleyball. Current planning also includes a new 125,000-square-foot aquarium, which will help re-establish the Flats East Bank as one of Ohio’s leading recreational destinations. “We never planned an aquarium as part of the project,” Spittler notes. “But we never envisioned major office buildings as well. It initially was going to be a mixed-use residential and entertainment district. These program changes have reinforced the flexibility of the plan which was done well right out of the gate.” As well as driving the design and redesign of the master plan, FORUM assisted the developer in securing public financing and continues to support sales and marketing activities. The site preparation—demolition,
“everybody rallied to the flats project, which says a lot about the people and the project, because it doesn’t happen often that a project galvanizes a city.” —Peter Spittler, Founding Principal, FORUM Architectural Services, LLC
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taking shape
OPPOsIte PaGe: aerial rendering of flats east Bank, a 24-acre mixeduse development at the juncture of Lake erie and the Cuyahoga river. rIGHt: view from one of the flats east Bank project’s roof terraces. the 3 million-squarefoot development is being evaluated as a LeeD-ND project. renderings: fOruM architectural services, LLC.
clearing, and excavation—has been completed, and Spittler estimates that Phase 1 will take two years to complete. He also says that the entire FORUM staff is committed to perform any task required to move the project forward and get the job done.
change. The project also leverages an existing public light-rail system that has been in place for the last decade, allowing workers and visitors eco-friendly access to the site. Because Flats East Bank is Cleveland’s first mixed-use waterfront project, it is setting an important precedent, opening up the arena for other visionaries and developers to follow suit.
It’s a sentiment shared by FORUM, the developers, construction team, future occupants, and the city alike. “This country cannot sustain suburban expansion anymore,” Spit- “It’s all about Cleveland,” Spittler say. “Evtler says. “I believe the government supports erybody rallied to the Flats project, which this premise through policy that promotes says a lot about the people and the project, urban redevelopment, and developers and because it doesn’t happen often that a project architects are responding.” Out of the $275 galvanizes a city. It really became a catalyst million used to complete the first phase, $125 for all stakeholders to start rethinking of million was from city, county, state, federal, how Cleveland could look in the next 20 to 30 or other public sources. Spittler estimates years.” —by Jamie Morgan the total project cost will range between $500 and $600 million at full build-out, but that initial investment will leverage hundreds of millions in additional private dolA MESSAGE FROM lars. In short, it’s an investment in CleveNATIONAL ENCLOSURE COMPANY land’s future. “The entire façade for [the Flats East Bank project Perhaps the most striking effect of the project is the Northeastern Ohio Sewer District’s decision to re-prioritize and move up future sewer-system upgrades to support the Flats East Bank project. Like many historically industrial cities, Cleveland’s storm-water and sewer systems are mixed and outdated. The EPA had set a 20-year plan for the city to update its system and improve the water quality of the river and lake, but with the emergence of the Flats East Bank project, the sewer district felt there was no riper time to make the
was] unitized, assembled, and glazed in our factory, less than 100 miles from the site, optimizing regional materials LEED points. This also allows us to develop a sophisticated pressure-equalized façade, which optimizes performance and assures consistent quality. Working with the FORUM and Gilbane team was great. When the development of a building is done in such a collaborative effort offered by the “Design Assist” protocol, it allows the optimal integration of technology and performance.” —Paul Becks, Executive Vice President, National Enclosure Company
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community
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HOLLYwOOD/La/saNta MONICa, Ca
low income, high sustainability With three affordable-housing projects, Killefer Flammang Architects digs deep into the idea of context killefer flammang architects’ goal is to design buildings that fit—fit the site, the program, the budget, and the inhabitants. “We want our buildings to reflect, support, and celebrate the activities within them,” explains associate Christine Cho. “Being sensitive to sites, neighborhoods, and context is important. We let the buildings be what they need to be to suit the needs of clients and sites, and we design around
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that—we don’t have a preconceived notion of form or style. I think our ability to work with existing conditions, like historic sites, is an important element to fitting in.” The firm tries to design to a LEED Silver equivalency whether certification is considered or not, and today, many of its clients are more aware about the life-cycle costs associated with buildings. “Sustainability is a focus on all of our projects, regardless of the LEED-certification goals,” Cho says. “While there are still those developers who only pursue any sort of sustainable design when required, we are finding more and more clients who want to design green buildings. They understand the advantages. This is a shift from 5–8 years ago.” Three recent residential projects that incorporate green design are the Villas at Gower in Hollywood, the New Genesis Apartments in
downtown Los Angeles, and Olympic Studios in Santa Monica. 1. Villas at Gower Providing permanent supportive housing to youth, adults, and families who were homeless and have special needs, the Villas at Gower—the four-story, 75,000-squarefoot project comprises 12 studios, 34 onebedroom, and 24 two-bedroom apartments over one level of subterranean parking—is expected to receive LEED Gold certification. On the ground floor, two large, flexible community rooms serve as meeting and gallery spaces for the display of tenant work. Its notable features: Natural Daylighting and Ventilation. A staggered pattern of large, operable windows provides ample daylighting, views, and fresh air to all primary spaces
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Killefer Flammang Architects OPPOsIte PaGe: villas at Gower is a 75,000-square-foot residence for previously homeless youth, adults, and families that is anticipating LeeD Gold. BeLOw: among the features that will help New Genesis reach LeeD Platinum certification are fiber cement panels. BOttOM: the Olympic studios are designed with 19-foot-high ceilings in a split-level design that takes advantage of small floor plans and also allows for privacy. all renderings: Killefer flammang architects.
community
“Being sensitive to sites, neighborhoods, and context is important. we let the buildings be what they need to be to suit the needs of clients and sites, and we design around that.” —Christine Cho, Associate
while animating the building elevations and reinforcing its ribbon form. Alternative Energy Strategies. After examining the life-cycle costs and efficacy of photovoltaic panels and solar hot-water collectors, the firm identified the solar hot-water collector panels most ideally suited to a large residential complex, where demand for hot water is high. Panelized Construction. To reduce waste and reduce the construction cycle, the firm implemented a panelized wood-framing system. Stormwater Management. The large subterranean parking level greatly reduces the site’s permeable surface area. 2
2. New Genesis Apartments The New Genesis Apartments is a six-story, 56,000-square-foot mixed-use building pursuing LEED Platinum certification and aiming at providing housing to low- and very low-income individuals. It’s notable features: Windows and Water. Sunshades, proper glazing, and ventilation were researched and used. Using the City of Los Angeles requirements for storm-water management allowed the building to be integrated with the landscape to aid in irrigation of all the native vegetation.
3
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Materials. Eco-friendly flooring, paint, cabinetry, and plumbing fixtures were used in order to reduce off-gassing and water consumption. Sustainable materials were selected, such as fiber cement panels, and sized in order to reduce material waste during construction.
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community Photovoltaic Panels. Utilizing solar energy, the installed systems will help offset the electrical loads of the building. 3. Olympic Studios Olympic Studios in Santa Monica, completed in 2009, did not pursue LEED certification but nonetheless has many sustainable features incorporated into the design. The project comprises 165 studio units of affordable housing and is located three blocks from a light-rail station currently under construction. The project was privately funded but entitled to incentives under the city’s affordable-housing ordinance and green-building program. Apart from basic energy-efficient systems and appliances, insulating windows, and low-flow plumbing fi xtures, the project includes several unique strategies. Its notable features: Small Units. The project’s units are limited to 375 square feet, requiring creativity in making efficient but livable spaces. Interior areas serve double duty wherever possible with minimal space dedicated to circulation. The units have 19-foot-high ceilings with a sleeping loft, making the small area feel larger and allowing for a functional separation of the living zones through changes in levels.
aBOve: the villas at Gower’s large courtyard creates a community gathering space adjacent to the gallery and meeting rooms with views through to the street beyond.
Solar Panels. With incentives from the California Solar Initiative Program, a 30-kilowatt, roof-mounted, solar-panel system was installed, which generates 48,000 kWh of electricity annually, providing about half of the building’s electrical needs. Window Shading and Daylighting. Along with simple, grated sunscreens above east- and west-facing windows, the project recessed the banks of clerestory-unit windows five feet into the façade of the building. The windows are substantially shaded from direct sunlight by the floors above, with the top floor windows shaded by a deep eave. These windows, with their substantial glass area, provide bright, penetrating daylight into the high-ceilinged units for the entire day. Stormwater Percolation. The project utilizes an engineered bioswale in natural earth as part of its landscape design, featured prominently in the front setback of the project. —by Daniel Casciato
Greg Davis President
G. Davis CCM became a USGBC registered company in 2009 and is currently working on LEED Certified commercial buildings in the greater Cincinnati area. One of those projects is for a new franchise in the day care business. The businesses are operating as USGBC registered businesses in their operations. The newest of the openings is coming in the spring 0f 2011 and are planning to be LEED certified. This will make All About a Kids one of the few child care and learning facilities operating as a registered USGBC childcare facility in the nation.
Office: [513] 598 4460 Mobile: [513] 479 4361 Fax: [513] 598 4826
- LEED CERTIFIED -
5733 West Fork Road | Cincinnati, Ohio 45247 40
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community CINCINNatI, OH
for the kids Recognizing the importance of an education-based foundation, All About Kids unveils a network of LEED-inspired daycare facilities there is little question that our environmental upbringing plays a significant role in how we make lifelong decisions. With this knowledge in mind, Greg Davis has helped launch All About Kids, an exciting concept for a franchise-based daycare system steeped in green concepts currently based in the Greater Cincinnati Area. “They are young enough that they are still developing their life foundation. Green is the future, and stewardship of our earth is crucial,” Davis, a managing member, says. “We have an outstanding opportunity to reach our children from infants up through preschool. Why not engage kids with an understanding of what green and sustainability are all about?” To capitalize on the opportunity, Davis is seizing the teachable moment not only through the firm’s buildings but also through its curriculum. He has embraced a program that involves teaching organic gardening to the children. “To help, we are capturing rainwater that comes into 55-gallon barrels, pumping the water into a larger tank, and the using passive means to create water pressure,” he says. “We are also working to form habits through signage and modeling Earth-smart behaviors.” Designed with input from industry experts, the prototypical facilities are also steeped with sustainable components with a goal of achieving 20–30 percent reductions in utility costs. “Fortunately, since we have other buildings that were not built to green standards, we have the ability to compare results and track real results.” The biggest challenge in rolling out the franchise program is being able to make operations fiscally viable with repeatability. “We are rolling out a 10,000-square-foot facility, in an industry where the revenue is market
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aBOve: all about Kids is a LeeD-certified daycare franchise business that hopes to teach kids about sustainability from infancy up through preschool.
“we have an outstanding opportunity to reach our children from infants up through preschool. why not engage kids with an understanding of what green and sustainability are all about?” —Greg Davis, Managing Member
dictated, so we need to find ways to overcome the cost of LEED certification,” he says. “At the end of the day, we need to have the building leasable, and LEED certification costs will add real value to the building.” There are challenges to making this work, however. Because LEED offers points for promoting alternative transportation, Davis would like to encourage employees to ride bikes to work, and he initially designed the placement of bike racks as well as a shower and a changing room. “These are not an exorbitant cost,” he notes. “However building codes say the shower and room needs to meet ADA requirements for accessibility—it is going to take time for the two to match-up.” In the short term, finding creative solutions appears to be the answer, Davis says. “We
are researching what we can do and what we can’t feasibly do. The issue is that LEED certification and building codes do not always match up. This means you need to be diligent in which avenues you pursue for points.” The current plan for All About Kids is to build 20–30 LEED-certified daycare facilities in the tri-state area (Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio), with plans to reach out across the nation with initial growth at a controlled number of two or three units per year. “We are just now starting to reach out, and we have plans to do this with a wagon-wheel approach—we want to go a little further each time. Fortunately, we have interested parties in Lexington, Columbus, and Dayton, which is the first step to making this a reality,” he explains, noting that clients thus far love the concept his team is implementing. “Our clients are young professionals who have been inundated in green processes, so putting their children in this environment is truly appreciated. Not only is this the right thing to do for our Earth, we see it as a great marketing tool for us.” Davis is aiming to be one of few LEED-certified green daycare operations nationwide. “We also want to take this experience and apply it to our practices in the constructionmanagement world,” he says. “We want to use this as a model for verticals so that clients can see how they can save on utilities.” —by Peter Fretty
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community DetrOIt, MI
a multifaceted niche Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas, Inc., is teaming with non-profits for its sustainable design projects, which include every type of housing—except actual houses many architects will tell you that their goal is to provide the highest possible level of quality and attention to detail. Often this requires a certain level of specialization that generalists lack—the nitty-gritty, odds-and-ends knowledge that turns a good design into a great one. “We tend to specialize in all types of housing—except actual houses,” says Jim Pappas, president of Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas, Inc. What he means is that the Farmington Hills, Michigan-based architecture-and-planning firm has carved out a niche for itself designing assisted-living facilities, affordable housing, senior housing, retirement communities, developmentally disabled housing, child daycare, and other such projects. “Any place people might live that’s not a free-standing house, we feel we understand the best way to design those kinds of projects,” Pappas says.
Left: the historic Bell telephone Building will become 155 housing units for the homeless in Detroit. BeLOw: aerial view of the Bell project’s proposed site layout. Photo: Kenneth weikal Landscape architecture / Deak Planning & Design.
A renovation of the historic Bell Telephone Building, in Detroit, provides a recent case study in the firm’s capabilities. The art-deco structure—long vacant—was once 250,000 square feet of office and warehouse space for the phone company. Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas is converting that space into 155 housing units for the homeless, as well as corporate offices for the Neighborhood Service Organization, a nonprofit that works with the demographic. What’s more, the renovation—which carries a price tag of around $35 million—will be LEED certified. “It’s meant to be a showcase for green building practices in the city,” Pappas says. Water use will be reduced by 40 percent, and energy will be reduced by nearly that. A full 35,000 square feet of the project is dedicated to green roofs and landscape architecture, and storm-water management plays heavily in the design. The project also earned the Enterprise Green Communities Certification. —Jim Pappas, President
“we tend to specialize in all types of housing— except actual houses. ... any place people might live that’s not a freestanding house, we feel we understand the best way to design those kinds of projects.”
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A fellow earner of the Green Communities Certification was the firm’s $2.5 million Agnes Street Housing project, also in Detroit. “The Enterprise Fund granted us $2,000 per unit to promote green design,” Pappas says. “In the end we received a total of $48,000 for green components.” The multifamily living space development was constructed in an existing, walkable residential area near public transportation, and density levels exceed requirements by nearly 6 units per acre. (It’s situated on a former grayfield, a property with aging, underutilized infrastructure.)
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Inside, all interior millwork was constructed using plywood; Energy Star appliances and products (including highly efficient, frontloaded washers and dryers) can be found throughout; and all wall, floor, and joint penetrations were sealed with low-VOC caulk. The average monthly electric bill for apartments is a mere $27, and on the whole, total utility costs tend to be less than half of what most residents paid in their previous homes. Pappas bought into the firm in 1989, though it was founded in 1963. (Robert W. Shaffer, Jr., currently vice president, joined in 1971.) Today, Pappas is the principal in charge of design, design development, construction documents, codes, and liaison with governmental agencies—the last of which is increasingly useful when it comes to LEED or other sustainable projects. Licensed in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Florida, Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas is composed of 18 employees, 15 of which are professional staff. From the looks of things, that number will continue to rise. “Like a lot of other firms, we had to downsize a few years back,” Pappas says. “But now we’re expanding again, and eager to work on more projects where we can have a greener influence on the designs.” —by David Hudnall
A MESSAGE FROM AMERICANA DESIGN Americana Design is proud to have a long standing relationship with Fusco, Shaffer and Pappas. Jim Pappas, Bob Shaffer, and associates are experienced and professional, a team that inspires us to push the envelope on creativity.
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2961 E. Highland Rd. 2961 E. Highland Rd. MI Highland, MI 483 Highland, 48356 248.889.1688 248.889.1688 Fax: 248.889.1884 Fax: 248.889.1884 americanadesign@comcast.net
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features 46 east Meets west 52 aLL IN tHe MIX 65 a New sPeCIes Of BuILDING
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P. 52 san francisco Museum of Modern artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rooftop sculpture garden and newly opened, glass-lined overlook is a consummate example of Jensen architectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work. Photo: Henrik Kam, Henrik Kam Photography, Inc.
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features
“there are two levels of green design functions. One is hardware: products and processes that increase energy efficiency— artificial solutions. But the other way of going about it is working with nature. that’s what we did with the texas Hill House.” —Adam Rolston, Founder & President, Incorporated
east meets west The intriguingly named Incorporated, a New York architecture-and-design studio, works within the tension of artificial and natural, East meets West by David Hudnall
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nyone that’s committed to green design will tell you that you can only be as green as your client wants to be,” says Adam Rolston, founder and president of Incorporated, a New York-based architecture-and-design studio. “Fortunately, there’s a sea of change happening right now in the general zeitgeist, in terms of green design, and we’ve positioned ourselves in a place where we can be responsive to that.”
The firm can, in fact, be responsive from a variety of angles: architecture and interior design, but also custom furniture design, graphics, and even branding. Founded in 2005 by Rolston and Gabriel Benroth (with whom Rolston had collaborated for seven years at lauded New York firm Tsao & McKown), Incorporated was, from its outset, a firm interested in working outside of standard design-organization templates. Three specialized principals (all LEED APs) oversee their respective areas of expertise: a managing director, a studio director, and a performance director. “It gives our company personality, and helps turn each design into a unique portraiture,” Rolston says. The Texas Hill House, an Incorporated home in Craryville, New York, provides an instructive example of how the firm’s design process allows for an emphasis on site conditions and orientation. The home is located on 25 acres, only eight of which are usable. (Federally protected wetlands form the remainder of the land.) “There are two levels of green-design functions,” Rolston says. “One is hardware: products and processes that increase energy efficiency—artificial solutions. But the other way of going about it is working with nature. There’s a tremendous tradition of this, like the classic farmhouse—a house sitting in the middle of the field, surrounded by trees that provide shade to the house. It’s an incredibly practical, simple, nature-based solution. Farmers knew that during the summer the trees would cool the house. That’s what we did with the Texas Hill.” On the sunny side of the house, eaves on the roof control the level of sun permitted into the interior while also shedding rain and snow. The roofing material is recycled, and all windows were manufactured by Loewen, the first major North American window and door manufacturer to receive FSC Chain of Custody certification for Douglas fir wood used in its fenestration products. (continued on p.50)
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company: Incorporated location: New York, NY founded: 2005 employees: 14 areas of specialty: Residential and commercial architecture, interior design, custom furniture, branding
OPPOSITE PAGE: The Texas Hill House was created to be a retreat from urban life. Visually separated from the road, the home is oriented to embrace the landscape, offering views of the surrounding forest. Photo: Peter Murdock. RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: The Incorporated partners; Adam Rolston, Gabriel Benroth, and Drew Stuart.
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PerSoNaL, gLoBaLIZed aeSthetIC Located on a serene 25 acres of land, most of which is protected wetlands, the texas Hill House’s deep eaves control sunlight but allow for a span of windows by Loewen, which received fsC Chain of Custody certification for its Douglas fir wood. Inside, the architect notes that the design inhabits the paradox of spectrum: “Built space and natural space, symmetry and asymmetry. It’s a portrait of the owners’ personal, globalized aesthetic.” Hill House’s design was greatly inspired by a category of Japanese traditional private residences, called Minka. Literally meaning “house of the people,” this category of residences has two major classifications: Noka (farm houses) and Machiya (sub-urban houses). Machiya typically maintain privacy from the public roadways by being almost entirely closed to the street, whereas the rear of the home opens to the surrounding landscape. all photos: Drew stuart.
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“we weren’t the leaders of the green movement, but we certainly understand its importance.” —Adam Rolston, Founder & President, Incorporated
The home is meant to serve as a retreat from the demands of city life, and the design reflects the clients’ respective heritage: one from New York, the other a Costa Rican of Asian descent. “There’s an element of ‘East meets West’ to the design,” Rolston says. “Built space and natural space, symmetry and asymmetry. It’s a portrait of the owners’ personal, globalized aesthetic.” Sustainable practices and product integration continue to constitute a larger part of Incorporated’s identity. The kitchen of a 2009 residential project featured Crystal Cabinets with a bamboo finish to match bamboo floors, Loewen FSC-certified wood windows with low-E glass, a Liebherr fully integrated 36 inch Energy Star refrigerator, a Miele Touchtronic Energy Star dishwasher, and vintage Milo Baughman bar stools. In New York City, Rolston reports that Incorporated often finds a way to make a difference by getting involved at the early stage of projects. “Often a developer will construct two separate apartments in a space, but then the place will be sold to a party who wants to rip it out and turn two spaces into one,” he says. “So if you can get involved on a project early and design for your buyer, you can prevent wasteful actions like that.”
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A I T M
L H I
san francisco’s Jensen architects unifies its eclectic portfolio with a uniquely holistic approach to design, sustainability, and even the old adage, ‘form follows function’
story Matt Petrusek photography Bernard Andre, Richard Barnes, Henrik Kam
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L N E x Mark Jensen traces much of his design philosophy back to an influential year in Italy. As part of his program at California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo, he had the opportunity to study under one of the founding partners of Superstudio, a radical, Florencebased group renowned for rejecting “international style” in the 1960s—calling it corrupt, corporate, and homogenous. The experience understandably made a strong impression on the young architect. “The lasting effect on me was to look at architecture in a broader sense, to see how it fits into the urban environment as a whole,” he recalls. This emphasis on viewing design holistically—at both the micro and macro levels—eventually came to define Jensen’s own work as principal at Jensen Architects. Founded in 1994 and reorganized in 2007, the San Francisco-based design firm prides itself on pursuing an eclectic portfolio. “We have a crazy mix of project types and sizes,” Jensen says, “[from] residential to >
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You can talk about super-efficient mechanical systems or high-efficiency lighting, and that’s all great, but if you want to tackle the problem in a big way, you have to look at the structure of the building as a whole from the start. —Mark Jensen, Principal, Jensen Architects
aN oaSIS For art the new sculpture garden at the san francisco Museum of Modern art is an “open-air gallery defined by the intersection of sculpture, space, and light.” Jensen architects removed the entire back wall of the museum’s top floor, allowing for a seamless connection from gallery to garden. surrounding the garden, lichen-covered lava-stone walls hide the city and frame the sky. Photos: Previous page, richard Barnes; above, Bernard andre, bernardandre.com; left and right, Henrik Kam, Henrik Kam Photography, Inc. 54
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commercial, to arts related work.” This diversity, however, does not equate to incoherence; with scrupulous attention to detail, the firm seeks to produce a seamless cohesion between design and location in all of its projects, whether it’s a site-specific art installation or creating an entirely new wing in a museum. “[We] focus on craft and fabrication,” says Jensen, who perhaps appropriately shares the name of one of the country’s most revered landscape architects: Jens Jensen. Concentrating on how to best create a space in relation to its environment has strongly influenced the firm’s approach to green thinking. “Sincerely, we’ve always been interested in [sustainability], even before the current craze,” Jensen notes. “[But] my personal interest is to take a more holistic, less checklist approach to what that means.”
It’s easy to make a building that looks beautiful, or that meets LeeD requirements, or that comes in on budget, but doing all those things at once—that is very difficult. —Mark Jensen, Principal, Jensen Architects
The principal uses his own office as an example, the first space he shows prospective green-minded clients. Residing on the seventh floor of a downtown San Francisco high-rise with a very narrow floor plate, the office allows for both sunlight and cross-ventilated air to reach the center of the office through functional windows. These two simple features result in a workplace that often doesn’t require turning on artificial lights or running the HVAC system—a concrete example of sustainable design that Jensen thinks should be applied to every project. “You can talk about super-efficient mechanical systems or high-efficiency lighting, and that’s all great,” he says, “but if you want to tackle the problem in a big way, you have to look at the structure of the building as a whole from the start.” A consummate example of this structure-based approach appears in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s rooftop garden. The museum contracted Jensen to add an open-air sculpture garden on top of the parking garage, a separate structure located behind the main building. The firm’s first task was therefore to blend the new space into the museum as a whole, which it accomplished by removing the back wall of the museum’s fifth floor and connecting it with a glass-lined overlook to the garden that serves as a panoramic perch from which to view the outdoor addition. The garden itself also incorporates airy, indoor spaces that both protect climate-sensitive sculptures and give visitors a place to enjoy the outdoor works of art during the frequently inclement San Francisco weather. The overall effect, as the architects describe it, is an “open-air gallery defined by the intersection of sculpture, space, and light.” Jensen notes that, while the firm paid special attention to using the most eco-friendly materials and technologies possible—including FSC-certified wood, low-flow fixtures, high-performance glass, and even solar panels—the most significantly sustainable aspect of the project is the durability and flexibility of the space itself. He doesn’t reject the architectural axiom “form should follow function”; he just makes “function” plural. “One of the core principals of sustainability is to always try to make spaces that are flexible in their potential use,” he says. “[You want] strong spaces with strong character, but not too specific for a particular use—that way the building doesn’t become obsolete over time.” Which, in the end, points back to Jensen Architects’ overarching design philosophy: approaching each project from a holistic standpoint. “It’s easy to make a building that looks beautiful, or that meets LEED requirements, or that comes in on budget,” Jensen says. “But doing all those things at once—that is very difficult.” Difficult perhaps, but not impossible—just as Jensen and his team continually, and elegantly demonstrate. gb&d
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PrOJeCt POrtfOLIO/ JeNseN arCHIteCts
KOKOrIs resIDeNCe a glass-encased porch hovers over water for this san francisco residence. the simple, almost stoic design of the faรงade melts into a contemporary entrance made up of a cantilevered platform with floating steps and a reflecting pool at the bottom of a gentle waterfall. through the 3,000-square-foot home, a portico-like hall runs to the other side, opening out onto a view of the city from the hilltop. Photos: Cesar Rubio, Cesar Rubio Photography.
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KBs&P west OffICe a spry and spirited complex is fitting for san francisco-based advertising agency Kirshenbaum Bond senecal & Partners west. Jensen architects designed interconnected conference spaces that can be sealed off with folding doors or opened up to become a single autonomous meeting hall. with bright colors, green-carpetclad sculptural spaces, unique materials for each disparate conference room, and an indoor garden, the feeling of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three wings are of an imagined space bent on ultimate creativity. Photos: Richard Barnes, Richard Barnes Photography.
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waLDeN stuDIOs Proving that a concrete barn does not have to blight an otherwise enticing environment, Jensen took a monolithic eyesore and created a luminous mixeduse space that houses galleries, offices, and work-live spaces for visiting artists. removing the roof of the 1920s Geyserville barn in sonoma County, California, the architects inserted frameless glass walls to flood the space with natural light and provide views of the surrounding vineyards. Interior elements include polished concrete and custom Italian stucco. Photo, far left: Marion Brenner, Marion Brenner Photography. All other photos: Richard Barnes, Richard Barnes Photography.
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turNer DuCKwOrtH OffICes In its signature red and cream, the graphic design firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s san francisco office features a scintillatingly open space within a two-story warehouse. In 2005, Jensen stripped the existing shell down to concrete, brick, and timber and used glass-clad walls to perforate the office space. the renovationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s red-carpet element is a skylight that brings light down onto a cantilevered glass meeting table and through the glass floor into the basement area. Photos: Sharon Risedorph, Sharon Risedorph Photography.
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CALL FOR ENTRIES Registration Deadline: January 24, 2011
APPLY TODAY: ELigibiLiTY: The ABQ Building Excellence Awards recognize achieve1) Projects must have been completed between ments in architecture, design, and community planning. December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2010. Winning projects will receive featured coverage in the 2) Entries are limited to construction firms headquartered in November/December 2011 issue of American Builders the United States; however, projects constructed abroad will Quarterly速, in addition to prize packages available exclusively be considered. to Building Excellence Award winners. CATEgOriEs: One residential and one commercial project will be designatFor more information, a complete list of categories, ed as the Project of the Year, and awards and honorable menand downloadable entry forms, visit: tions will be given in over 15 categories across all residential americanbuildersquarterly.com/awards and commercial building sectors.
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features
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SITE VII.
II.
BEAUTY
WATER
A NEW SPECIES OF BUILDING
VI.
EQUITY
V.
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ENERGY
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MATERIALS
HEALTH
when the International Living Building Institute released its challenge in 2006—its seven performance areas symbolically called “petals”—no one could have anticipated how high it was placing the bar for building. One Missouri architect, however, didn’t back down, and his project is now helping answer some of the industry’s most difficult questions. by James Askew
Green building has fared well this past decade. Environmentalist and sustainable design advocates have much to celebrate. LEED is practically a household word. Energy Star certainly is. Businesses owners have clued in, at last, to the bottom-line benefits of sustainable practices. And with energy prices tearing holes in the average family budget, who doesn’t want a more energy-efficient home?
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That’s the good news. The bad news, however, is that we still have a long way to go and little time to get there. Nearly half of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, reports the American Institute of Architects (AIA). And unless we plan a moratorium on population expansion, new construction, and lifting the world’s poor out of poverty, the problem is sure to worsen. “We don’t have a lot of time to make these >
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“One of the primary motivations of the program is to look at biomimicry and to ask, ‘How would nature solve this problem?’” —Eden Brukman, Vice President, ILBI
very significant changes,” says Eden Brukman, the vice president of the International Living Building Institute (ILBI), a division of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council. “But,” she adds, “we have the power to make those changes.” Brukman’s hopeful enthusiasm comes, in part, from the building industry’s remarkable progress over the past 10-plus years. Brukman is also the research director for the Cascadia council, the largest chapter of the USGBC and the only cross-border chapter, serving an area that stretches from the base of Oregon to the tip Alaska and includes all of British Columbia. In addition to owning and administering the Living Building Challenge (through the ILBI), the Cascadia Council also administers LEED certifications for the USGBC and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). Last year, both the USGBC and CaGBC released revised versions of their LEED ratings in an effort to keep pace with the rapidly advancing market. In the same vein, the ILBI also recently revised the Living Building Challenge, updating version 1.3 with version 2.0. The updated version includes several new certification criteria, expands the scope of applicable construction, and revises many of the existing criteria to represent more accurately the challenge’s intent. It is the primary goal of the Living Building Challenge to drive those market advancements, Brukman says. LEED has successfully brought sustainable design to a broad market, and it continues to set certification levels at a height obtainable within that market. The ILBI, on the other hand, knows only one height for its bar—the very top. And its mission is to propel the market to everincreasing heights. “Each of the 20 imperatives [of the Living Building Challenge],” Brukman explains, “were decided by indentifying the ideal solution for that particular area of impact and then stepping back only as much as we had to, to acknowledge the limits of our >
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restOrING a HeaLtHY COeXIsteNCe wItH Nature Covering responsible site selection, including limits on growth and walkable development; on-site, local, and regional agriculture; and habitat preservation.
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Hellmuth & Bicknese architectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tyson Living Learning Center, poised to become the first Living Building-certified project in the world.
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features collective knowledge and other market realities.” The Living Building Challenge, she adds, “is not saying, ‘We know that we can’t do it today, so we won’t. We’ll just set the bar where we can.’ It is recognizing that we actually need to set the bar where we need to be.” And where that needs to be, according to the ILBI, is nothing short of impact neutrality, where the built environment gives back to the natural environment as much as—if not more than— it takes away. A tall order? Certainly. And one that had architect Dan Hellmuth nearly tearing his hair out. Hellmuth is a founding principal of Hellmuth & Bicknese Architects, LLC, in Maplewood, Missouri. In May of last year, Hellmuth wrapped up work on a fast track, seven-month project that he says stretched the limits of everyone involved. The project is the Tyson Living Learning Center in Eureka, Missouri, and it serves as an off-campus extension of Washington University in nearby St. Louis. As of this summer, the Tyson Center was poised to become the first institutional building to achieve the Living Building certification. Cascadia released the challenge in 2006, and since then approximately 60-plus projects have signed on. As of mid-2010, however, there has not yet been a project to receive certification. A building must operate for a year before being certified, and the Tyson Center completed that year in May. Also hoping for status as a Living Building is the Oregon Sustainability Center, in Portland, designed by SERA Architects and GBD Architects. It is being designed to serve as the gateway to the region’s green efforts with research, education, and business comingling in a single space. The Center is currently the only high-rise and one of the largest projects to attempt the Living Building Challenge. Version 2.0 of the Living Building Challenge involves seven performance areas or “petals”: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Material, Equity, and Beauty. The use of the word “petals,” Brukman explains, is a metaphorical reference to the concept of a “living” building. A building, like a flower, can—and should—collect its own water, provide its own energy, look beautiful, and ultimately return to the earth as much as it has taken from it. “One of the primary motivations of the program is to look at biomimicry and to ask, ‘How would nature solve this problem?’” she says. It is, however,
one thing to ask that question, and something all together different to come up with an answer. “The very difficulty of it offers it own educational benefit,” Hellmuth says of his experience. “To me, the Living Building Challenge is an experiment to help define some of the deeper issues of sustainability, what you have to do to solve them, what it would take, and what it would cost.” The estimated increased cost for the Tyson Center’s adherence to the Living Building standards ran at around 35 percent, Hellmuth says, though he notes that determining an exact figure is extremely difficult. The total price tag on the project, he says, ran between $1.3 and $1.4 million, depending on what is factored into the cost. Two of the leading parameters of the Living Building Challenge are for the building to achieve both net-zero water and net-zero energy consumption. On the Tyson Center project, rainwater is collected from the building’s roof, passes through a series of filters to the point of being potable, and is then stored in a 3,000-gallon subterranean cistern. Once full, the cistern will supply the building’s water needs for up to three months of drought. Solar panels on the roof provide for the center’s electrical needs, which include a post-graduate computer lab. A greywater irrigation system reuses the building’s sink water, and composting toilets process all human excrement into organic compost, suitable for the center’s vegetable garden, another requirement of the Living Building Challenge. “One of the interesting things that came out of this,” Hellmuth says, “is that we talked about having to eliminate the whole concept of waste, because you can’t use that word anymore. There really isn’t any waste. Everything is being converted and used for something. That is an intrinsic part of a natural system. There is no waste in a natural system. Everything goes through its different cycles and is changed— gathered from one thing and turned into another.” The most difficult aspect of the Tyson Center, Hellmuth notes, came with the sourcing of materials. Two of the Challenge’s imperatives, contained within the “Material” petal, greatly limit the materials available for use. The first is the “Red List” imperative, which bans materials that contain harsh environmental pollutants such as asbestos, cadmium, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chloroprene (Neoprene), formaldehyde (added), mercury, lead, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and several others. >
CreatING water-INDePeNDeNt sIte, BuILDINGs, aND COMMuNItIes Requiring net-zero water consumption and closed-loop, ecological water flow, with all water taken from the site returned to the site.
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reLYING ONLY ON CurreNt sOLar INCOMe Requiring net-zero energy consumption, with all energy coming from on-site, renewable, non-combustible sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, or hydropower.
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a new species of building 1. The Tyson Living Learning Center during construction. 2. A Living Building must use either FSC-certified or salvaged timber, or wood from on site. 3. Another requirement is that the building be net zero in both water and energy use. 4. Photovoltaic panels are installed on the roof of the Tyson Center.
the dIFFICuLtY IS IN the detaILS the process of designing and building the Living Learning Center was a serious challenge. established green features like solar panels and greywater irrigation were used, but the Living Building Challenge sets a stringent standard: net-zero energy and net-zero water. It came down to specifying even the nails that were used. “It is a very difficult process,” architect Dan Hellmuth says. “You are asking a lot of difficult questions of people not used to having those questions asked. and it makes you think much more about how to be more creative with the materials and processes that you are able to use.”
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“each of the 20 imperatives [of the Living Building Challenge] were decided by indentifying the ideal solution for that particular area of impact and then stepping back only as much as we had to, to acknowledge the limits of our collective knowledge and other market realities.” —Eden Brukman, Vice President, ILBI
MaXIMIZING PHYsICaL aND PsYCHOLOGICaL HeaLtH aND weLL BeING Focusing on productive, health-inducing spaces that improve wellbeing without environmental impact, through such imperatives as operable windows, abundant daylight, proper ventilation, and an attention to natural shapes, colors, and forms.
V.
eNDOrsING PrODuCts aND PrOCesses tHat are safe fOr aLL sPeCIes tHrOuGH tIMe Defining material and geographic guidelines for the sourcing on materials, including the barring of materials containing certain chemicals; requiring third-party certifications, such as FSC-certified wood; requiring carbon offsets to cover the carbon footprint of construction; setting standards for waste diversion and material reuse, and limiting the distance from which materials can be delivered.
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LEARNING TO LIVE Nothing can be left to chanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;every aspect of the building is taken into consideration in the Living Building Challenge. The diagram below outlines the steps taken to create the Tyson Living Learning Center to meet Living Building standards.
SUSTAINABLE FEATURES A. SIDING All exterior wood was responsibly harvested from the Tyson property as part of a plan for native forest restoration. The siding used Eastern red cedar, while the deck was made from white oak that fell or died during the winter.
B. SOLAR PANELS
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Ninety-six Evergreen photovoltaic solar electric modules produce 17 kW at peak power production; the system is sized to produce more energy than it uses over a one-year period.
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C
C. RAINWATER COLLECTION TANK A 3,000-gallon underground tank holds rainwater collected off the roof, which should more than meet the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual needs, and utilizes a first-flow diverter to keep out dirt and debris. Two sediment filters, an active carbon block, an ultraviolet sterilizer, and sinks with final bacteria barriers clean the water for potable use.
E
1
INTERIOR FLOORPLAN
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1. RESTROOMS 2. RECYCLING & COMPOST 3. POST DOC OFFICE 4. COMPUTER LAB 5. CLASSROOM
D. HIGH-EFFICIENCY HVAC Using variable-refrigerant-volume and air-cooled condensing units, as well as energy recovery ventilators and electricunit heaters, each room is individually controlled and only heated or cooled when in use.
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E. PERVIOUS PAVING Combined with other conservation design features, the installed system provides 100% stormwater infiltration onsite.
F. OPERABLE WINDOWS Every room is equipped with operable windows to allow for natural ventilation, natural daylighting, and views.
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G. RAIN GARDEN The garden collects storm-water runoff from the flat roof area as well as any surface runoff and recharges groundwater levels. Native, water-loving, and drought-tolerant species were also used.
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The second is the “Appropriate Sourcing” imperative, which sets varying geographic limitations for the sourcing of materials. For example, ideas—the lightest of all materials—can come from halfway round the world, while high-density materials, such as nails, are limited to 500 km or 310 miles.
“One of the interesting things that came out of [the tyson Living Learning Center] is that we talked about having to eliminate the whole concept of waste, because you can’t use that word anymore. there really isn’t any waste. everything is being converted and used for something.” —Dan Hellmuth, Founding Principal, Hellmuth & Bicknese Architects
The difficulty arose for Hellmuth when several of the imperatives intersected, eliminating, he jokes, “99 percent of anything you could ever find. You had to question everything. For example, the composting toilets had PVC chutes, and PVC is on the Red List, so they had to be manufactured differently.” With the project now over, and Hellmuth having time to reflect, he admits that the project was a lot tougher than he first imagined it would be. It cost more. It took more time. And, he says with a laugh, many of the participants not only lost their shirts, but also their pants, their shoes, and a little bit of their hair. But, he concludes, that is what defines the Living Building Challenge. “It is a very difficult process,” he says. “You are asking a lot of difficult questions of people not used to having those questions asked. And it makes you think much more about how to be more creative with the materials and processes that you are able to use. We got our nails from Illinois. We don’t usually specify nails, but we can, and why not get them from Illinois?” gb&d
rIGHt: exterior of the tyson Living Learning Center. Photo: Joe angeles, wustL
suPPOrtING a Just, equItaBLe wOrLD To relate all development to the greater context of community by providing access to all members of the community, a consideration of those “downstream” from the development, and building in way that respects and enhances the overall community.
VII.
CeLeBratING DesIGN tHat Creates traNsfOrMatIve CHaNGe Recognizing that one of the flower’s greatest gifts is beauty, which should always remain an integral focus of even the most sustainable designs.
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P. 132 showcasing the incredible impact lighting technology can have on energy savings: Glumac’s new Office of the future in Orange County, Ca. Photo: rMa Photography.
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PopuP House veer towers Gardner Mohr architects LLC Beck Building Company David D. Harlan architects Keith Krebs, aIa architect Pioneer west Homes Kelly & stone architects
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whitney Museum of american art smart Home: Green + wired tate synder Caldwell Kimsey architects van H. Gilbert architects PC w.t. rich Company CMK architects Kayafas architects Dome Designers, Inc.
DPr Construction regional Office Lamar advertising DBI architects J. randolph Parry architects Kideney architects JMa architects Intellligent Design Group LLP
HeaLtHCare Miraval Karolinksa solna university Hospital CHa women and Children’s Hospital Madison Construction HfP architects
COMMerCIaL 132 133 134
Glumac’s Office of the future Bryant Park C.r. Crawford Construction
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PROJECT PROFILE
some assembly required the idea was to combine the image of apple with the accessibility of IKEA, and Hally Thatcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PopUP House delivers on those levels. The prefabricated home, offered through House Port, is designed in cubes of 1,024 square feet and can be assembled separately or combined into a pod of two. Made from eco-friendly SIPs, the concept was a minimally designed, easy-toconstruct home that, with the help of a unique roofing system, expands the total square footage to up to 5,400 square feet of living space and offers fully customizable options. The roof also serves as a green element, deflecting heat in the summer but insulating the inner structure in the winter.
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spaces/residential PROJECT PROFILE
sinfully healthy sin city’s veer towers combine luxury and sustainability as flawlessly as the city combines showmanship and recreation. With more than 60 LEED APs working on Las Vegas’ CityCenter project, which encompasses enough residential, recreational, food and dining, and hotel space—all LEED certified—to almost be considered its own autonomous metropolis, the Veer Towers also offer residents custom-made environmentally conscious furniture from interior-design firm Robb & Stucky. The residential complex, two 37-story shimmering towers of metal and glass that comprise nearly 700 units, draws its electricity and heat for hot water from a natural-gas cogeneration plant and features products from 260 different manufacturers from within a 500-mile radius of the city.
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architecture— a lot like motherhood A nurturing attitude toward preservation has informed the women of Gardner Mohr Architects LLC since its inception and continues to drive its philosophy of sustainable renovation
by Joyce Finn
there are moments when maternal instincts kick in. Designing a building is not usually one of them. Yet, when Amy Gardner and Cheryl Mohr, due to shared interests, experiences, and expertise, began discussing the idea of starting their own architecture firm, it was their instincts that pointed them toward sustainability. “As we began the process of forming our firm during the years prior to 2003...we saw that [sustainability] was not only productive but fundamentally important to us since we both were concerned about what kind of world we would leave to our children,” Mohr says.
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BeLOw: Optimal orientation, careful consideration of sun angles for daylight, and attention to detail make the front porch of this renovated 1928 bungalow inherently comfortable. Photos: Celia Pearson.
The two brought to this new residential practice their thorough, detail-orientated approaches they’d learned from working on large-scale commercial and institutional buildings in Washington, DC. A successful approach, however, isn’t enough, they say; Gardner and Mohr want to include everyone from the very beginning, before an “approach” is even established. “We use a collaborative approach in our work that is methodical and iterative,” Gardner says. “Sustainable design doesn’t happen using a linear approach in which different disciplines follow their own parallel design processes. The team members, including the owner, need to participate from the very beginning. It’s a fundamental operating principle of good design—and essential to sustainable design.” Gardner Mohr Architects LLC, based in the Maryland/ Virginia/DC area, primarily focuses on renovations and additions to existing buildings. Gardner, a faculty member of the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, points out that only 1.5 percent of residential housing in the United States is designed by architects. In case any of her students are taking notes, here’s that number again: only 1.5 percent of residential housing in this country is designed by architects. “The design and construction methods of most
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Gardner Mohr Architects LLC
“as we began the process of forming our firm during the years prior to 2003... we saw that [sustainability] was not only productive but fundamentally important to us since we both were concerned about what kind of world we would leave to our children.” —Cheryl Mohr, Principal
post-war homes,” she says, “are based on the principle of a streamlined construction sequence, in which different trades can get in and get out quickly without conflicting with each other. That doesn’t always make for particularly efficient building fabric. As a result, much of the residential building stock in this country is energy inefficient and in need of retrofitting.” Both Gardner and Mohr became LEED APs so that they could more heavily promote green practices throughout their projects. They encourage their clients to donate used material such as siding, insulation, and framing to nonprofits that can resell or repurpose it. “The most sustainable building is the one you keep,” Mohr notes, sounding as if she’s penning a book of aphorisms, “and as we do a lot of renovations, we try to encourage our clients to keep as much building fabric as they can.” Which is not to the detriment of the project. Gardner and Mohr pride themselves on being able to make something beautiful from what already exists—a nurturing attitude. Glancing down a list of projects is like reading an architectural timeline: Gardner Mohr Architects recently completed renovations on a dilapidated 1928 bungalow, a 1950s split-level ranch, and a 1980s brick rambler. For each, the firm strove to employ one of its well-known design characteristics—linking building design with the surrounding landscaping. “We aim to give owners a connection to their site by connecting the interior living areas to the exterior spaces through verandas, decks, and loggias,” Gardner says. “We make rooms that give the feel of a garden room, and our clients love it.” Strengthening the nature connection, Gardner served as lead faculty adviser and principal investigator for the University of Maryland’s LEAFHouse entry to the Department of Energy’s 2007 Solar Decathlon and will reprise
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aBOve: rooms on the west side of the bungalow connect to a terraced landscape via verandas, screened porches, and balconies, all configured to provide shade at critical moments in the afternoon.
those roles for its 2011 team. She and Mohr have won local, regional, and national design awards and have been featured in The Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, Fine Homebuilding, ArchitectureDC, Home & Design, Architectural Products, and on HGTV’s Small Space Big Style. The women know how get the world’s attention. If it continues to listen, it will certainly be a better place for Gardner’s and Mohr’s children. gb&d
wOrKING tHrOuGH tIMe Gardner Mohr Architects has worked on a variety of home designs from different style periods 1920s: Bungalow Gardner Mohr Architects transformed a home with severe structural issues into a high-performance structure with even stronger intrinsic bungalow features. The architects used recycled and/or resource-conserving products throughout the project, including salvaged forest products and recycled roofing. 1950s: split-level ranch Organizing all the ranch’s rooms around a rear garden, the designers increased the square footage from 1,500 square feet to 2,500 square feet with the addition of a family room and conversion of the garage into a bedroom. Mohr says a recurring request from clients, including the owners of this property, is for the kitchen to be part of the living space. The firm obliged and included additional sustainable elements, like Kalwall for insulation and light penetration, an all-radiant heating system fired by a 96-percent efficient boiler, and air conditioning with a SEER of 16.1. 1980s: Brick rambler Under construction, this house, which sits on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and anticipates either LEED Silver or Gold certification, was dismantled down to its foundation and first level. Everything was salvaged and donated except for the carpeting and the asphalt shingles. In its design are a geothermal heat pump system, a photovoltaic system, a high-performance building envelope, a white-membrane roof, and high-performance windows.
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great expectations Beck Building Company’s ‘deliberate and organized’ approach to client communication has led to the Colorado builder proving to the world that ‘any home of any style can be green’
by Meghan Boyer
building and remodeling high-end residenttial homes involves not only quality craftsmanship but also focused attention on client needs, a fact Beck Building Company knows well. The company uses open dialogue with clients to ensure projects meet clients’ specifications and also to inject green-building ideas and concepts into the building process. “We have always placed great emphasis on providing not only a high-quality product but a high-quality experience for our clients,” says Kevin O’Donnell, president of the Vail, Coloradobased homebuilder. “This means we have to be deliberate and organized in executing out client’s goals.”
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aBOve: a sod roof helps this home blend into its mountain meadow surroundings.
The company uses a “High Performance and Sustainable Homes” checklist during client discussions that covers such topics as energy usage, water management, and sustainable materials. “We take the time to educate our clients about the choices they have,” O’Donnell says. Partnering closely with clients helps the team choose which elements to incorporate that are right for the homeowners, he notes. Beck Building Company has been building and renovating residential homes since 1972, when Andy Beck founded the company. During its 38-year history, the company has built more than 250 homes and completed an even larger number of remodels, O’Donnell says. Since that beginning, Beck Building Company has focused on green building. “Solar orientation, energy efficiency, life-cycle costing, and the use of local materials were integrated into our process early in our company’s history,” O’Donnell says, “and have only become more focused over time.” Completing roughly four to six homes each year and about the same number of remodeling projects, it also provides post-construction services to clients, which include annual home inspections, maintenance, and other small projects. Recently, it expanded these
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Beck Building Company services to include property-management aspects like snow removal and cleaning. All of the company’s projects are sustainable in some way, particularly in regards to energy efficiency. Recent projects in the Vail Valley have included such elements as high-efficiency mechanical systems, high-performance insulation, sustainable construction materials, and alternative energies. O’Donnell and his team recently succeeded in locating and installing high-quality sustainable products for a significant Snowmass, Colorado, remodel. The project’s interior designer, Associates III of Denver, is an expert on sustainable products and finishes, and Beck Building Company partnered closely with the company not only to meet the standards the designer set but also to match the client’s expectations for quality.
“solar orientation, energy efficiency, life-cycle costing, and the use of local materials were integrated into our process early in our company’s history and have only become more focused over time.” —Kevin O’Donnell, President
The builder also incorporates sustainability in its homes’ surrounding landscape, as it did for a recently built custom residence in Bachelor Gulch, Colorado. The landscape design included indigenous plants that need minimal irrigation to reduce water usage. The home features similar elements to the previous two homes, and it also utilized shade control provided by Lutron to control heat gain and loss.
Another remodel in Beaver Creek, Colorado, incorporated multiple sustainable aspects, including a high-efficiency boiler and fan coils and an integrated HVAC control via a Lutron system. The company also reclaimed most of the structural materials, used Energy Star appliances, and installed DaVinci Shakes for the roofing material, which are 100 percent recyclable and manufactured regionally.
It is important to Beck Building Company’s clients that the builder incorporates green elements into their projects in a responsible way, O’Donnell says. “There is a lot of momentum for green building right now,” he says, explaining that although many products are of value to clients, the opposite scenario also exists. “We are our clients’ advocate, and it is our job to separate what is real from what is fad.” A true trend in green building is the design of healthy interiors, O’Donnell says. “We are all becoming more educated on this topic, and more products are becoming available all the time to support this trend,” he says, foreseeing, as many have, that in time, the focus on green building will likely lead to increased standards in the industry. “Green building will become the rule rather than the exception.”
Left: recycled beams and siding compliment this 100 percent geothermally heated home.
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Green design makes headlines, but good design must be at the core of every green project, O’Donnell says. Most of the homes the company works on are not designed in a particular green style but rather in the style that matches the owner’s aesthetic. Despite this fact, Beck Building Company is always able to incorporate sustainable features that aren’t visible once the home is complete. “Things such as advanced framing techniques, high-performance insulation, and energy-efficient equipment don’t change the look of the home but have a huge impact on its footprint on the earth and how it performs for its occupant,” he says. “We believe that any home of any style can be green.” gb&d
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If you can imagine itâ&#x20AC;Ś we can build it in stone.
Throughout the Mountain West European Marble & Granite has established a tradition and reputation of excellence.
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D a v i d D. H a r l a n A r c h i t e c t s, l l c
David D. Harlan Architects, LLC is a full service firm specializing in traditional and classical architecture, interior design, site and landscape planning. The firm has designed fine residences and institutional buildings throughout the country. The firm also has a line of custom furniture.
david d. harlan architects, llc 938 Chapel Street New Haven, CT 06510 phone: 203-495-8032 fax: 203-495-8034 e-mail: david@ddharch.com www.ddharch.com Visit our new blog: http://blog.ddharch.com/
ShannonMurphyLandscapeArchitects xerescape design custom solar lighting shannonmurphy.net
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traditional & classical architecture period restoration & planning
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promised land Modern techniques and historic architecture are blended together by David D. Harlan Architects for two projects in New Canaan, Connecticut by Chris Allsop
like the promised land to which the town refers, several new projects in New Canaan, Connecticut, illustrate David D. Harlan Architects’ two focus areas: residential design, and filling that design with as many sustainable elements as possible, the latter of which the firm of four prefers to spending a lot of time branding itself as a “green firm.” Perhaps most unique is the practice’s efforts to normalize green features, designing homes that, without someone telling the guest, would not be recognizable as at the forefront of sustainable design. The New Canaan projects, located near the firm’s base in New Haven, are both invested with a great deal of architectural and historical value; to preserve them during their restoration, principal David Harlan and his team were called in. The ExTown Farm, a 17-acre historic farm with several additional historic buildings on the site was the original Poor Farm of New Canaan, a place for the town’s elderly and impoverished that was built in the early 1700s and repeatedly changed hands up until 2006, when it came to Harlan’s client.
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Of the three buildings at ExTown, only the Cottage has been completed (in early 2009). A restoration and rebuilding of the existing two-person house structure with some expansion, Harlan explains that the Cottage was a “lighter green” project. “There were no significant third-tier choices, and limited second-tier,” says Harlan, referring to his three tiers of environmental design (the first tier represents no-cost options like recycling waste and donating excess materials), which serves as a way of explaining green options to clients. A renovation, however, is inherently green, and Harlan and his team were able to reclaim and reuse parts of the concrete foundation, framing, sheathing, and septic system; incorporating those into the house to reduce waste. From an aesthetic perspective, Harlan describes the finished structure, with a new wraparound porch and a sunroom, as having an overtly natural feel, “a house with a living history, that accumulates changes over time.” The Cottage’s ambiance has garnered it a number of awards, including the 2009 Builder’s Design and Planning Grand Award from Builder magazine and the National Association of Home Builders and AIA’s 2009 People’s Choice Award.
aBOve: front elevation of the extown farm Cottage, which is located on a 17-acre historic farm and is the first of three buildings on the property to be completed.
Harlan’s second project, a former dairy farm near Silvermine, in New Canaan, was 7,500 square feet of renovations and additions that was completed in late 2009, a job that provided greater scope for Harlan and his team to implement green measures. Helping to facilitate matters was a LEED consultant who “was instrumental in establishing all the ‘second-tier’ options that the clients
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David D. Harlan Architects
“a transition is taking place throughout our culture, allowing sustainable design to be more accessible, with clients able to make better decisions with more informed choices.” —David Harlan, Principal had available to them,” Harlan says. “With so many products out there, how to determine what’s valid and not valid is still an ongoing question.” The clients chose to approach this project with green practices in mind, an ideal upper-tier customer. When it came to discussing the third-tier options, the clients decided in favor of many of the architect’s recommendations, in what Harlan describes as “an extraordinary leap of faith and ethical interest.” One choice component from tier three was a new roof system of certified western white cypress shingles from Canada. According to Harlan, this wood has the advantage of a longer lifespan than red cedar, without needing additional treatment. “It ages to light silver,” he explains. “This is highly reflective and substantially reduces the heat load on the property.” Thermal foam insulation was installed throughout the entire perimeter, along with Energy Star windows. A 14.5-tonne geothermal system was installed, along with high-efficiency air handlers, and only no/low-VOC paints, stains, and sealants were applied. The built-in cabinetry was fabricated with sustainably harvested wood and non-toxic plywood. When it came to the exterior and interior design of the property, the client’s natural inclination was away from an “elaborate, investment-banker house.” Harlan guided the design with simple, clear lines and character that was consistent with the farmhouse. His aim: to infuse the new additions and porches with the quality of the original farmhouse. Other changes occurred on the interior, which Harlan describes as more flowing and gracious, but not classical. “The artistic sensibilities of the owners also came into play with the review and selection of finishes and materials,” Harlan notes. The home’s three fireplaces were created out of recovered stone quarried in Connecticut and New York. This included salvaged Portland Brownstone from a Yale University building, which was reworked for a fireplace surround in the library. For the living room and outside terrace, large pieces of New York granite that had been recovered were turned into the surrounds and exposed exterior fireplace walls. According to Harlan, the solar
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and photovoltaic paneling is still under consideration to be added later. “As time goes on, there is an adaptability element in the design of the house that would allow the addition of paneling,” he says. “Again, it’s about balancing a client’s budget with effective outcomes.”
aBOve: the great room; like its interior palette, the extown Cottage was a “lighter green” project according to Harlan.
Harlan describes the introduction of green products into the marketplace as having an evolutionary effect on the aesthetics involved in modern interior- and exterior-design projects. “Not only does the subcontractor have to change how they do business, but the client’s aesthetic expectations are being challenged and slowly changed,” Harlan says. “A transition is taking place throughout our culture and profession, allowing sustainable design to be more accessible, with clients able to have more choices and make better informed decisions. It’s exciting.” gb&d
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local hero Keith Krebs, AIA Architect’s bar-setting design work proves one thing: that a retired architect is still an architect by Joyce Finn
“when i had my own practice, i constantly had to convince my clients that what I was doing was backed up by education and experience. Now that I’m semi-retired and in a small community, I’m considered the local expert. They ask me about my opinions, and they listen to what I have to say. That’s very refreshing.” Such is the life of Keith Krebs, who, when he closed his practice to retire, chose to continue doing what he loved. Krebs, of Nathrop, Colorado, and licensed since 1974, has seen dramatic changes in the architectural profession. He witnessed the introduction of computer-assisted design and documentation, which revolutionized the industry. “When I started out we were still drawing with pencil, T-squares, and triangles on Mylar,” he says. “Then AutoCAD came and changed everything. The next paradigm shift for architects will be BIM. The entire industry is going to benefit and go that way.”
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BeLOw: the southwest exterior view of Krebs’ residence, built at 8,000 feet above sea level, shows clerestory windows for passive solar heating and natural stone wainscot made with materials from the on-site excavation. fOLLOwING PaGe: an interior view of the dining area and entry of Krebs’ Colorado residence illustrates the home’s passive solar heating strategies.
LEED accredited in 2007, Krebs has attempted to inject green and sustainable aspects into all his designs since the 1990s. “In the old days, I wanted to incorporate passive solar into my designs, but I couldn’t sell it to a lot of my clients. In the past 5 years, people know the cost of energy and that a green and sustainable structure is worth far more in the long run with its higher resale value.” Having run his course as a salesman of ideas, he is now giving back to his community by doing pro-bono work for nonprofits. In 2009, Krebs was a member of the interior-design team for a three-story Denver office building that recently received LEED Gold certification. Currently, Krebs is project architect, manager, and board member of the new satellite shelter for the Ark-Valley Humane Society in Ponchas Springs, Colorado. This adaptive reuse of an 1,100-square-foot log cabin will become an animal shelter after extensive remodeling, a new addition, and the design of a new retail facility. His own residence in the Colorado mountains, with its new master bedroom addition, has set the sustainability level for his neighborhood and all of Chaffee County, and Krebs feels that the first step for an energy-efficient home is one designed to suit the lifestyle of its occupant without excessive rooms, space, or excessive expense. “All of my projects have been completed on limited
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Keith Krebs, AIA Architect
“Now that I’m semi-retired and in a small community, I’m considered the local expert. they ask me about my opinions and they listen to what I have to say. that’s very refreshing.” —Keith Krebs, Architect
budgets, and although green-building practices do account for a small increase in costs, I’m pretty sensitive to that when I’m spending my own money. I look for products that make a lot of sense. The biggest issue with highaltitude construction, at least where we live, is being able to confront the cold temperatures and high winds.” The exterior walls and roofs of Krebs’ residence are 6.5inch and 10.5-inch thick Structural Insulated Panel Systems (SIPS), respectively, and provide weather, wind, and sound protection. Krebs explains that the windows are manufactured specifically for high altitudes because twopane insulated windows manufactured at low altitudes were found to develop pressure-differential problems when brought to high altitudes. His concern with insulation is something that wasn’t the case when he began designing homes. “We’re mostly controlled by building codes,” he says. “With every revision of the codes, energy and sustainability aspects are expanded. We’ve come a long way in the last decade or two from what we used to do. There used to be hardly any emphasis on insulation of any kind. It was all structure: it had to stand up—it didn’t have to be energy efficient. All of that has dramatically improved over the last decade.” Between the passive design, heavy insulation, correct site orientation, heat-recovery ventilation, and efficient heating systems, Krebs says his costs for heat, electricity, water, sewer, and domestic hot water are $75 per month. “We’re not quite off the grid, but I’m pretty happy with our results. Our photovoltaic system generates 103–105 percent of our electrical needs and the boiler is 93 percent efficient.”
LMConstruction Kersting Company A Full Service General Contractor Serving Colorado on Commercial, Industrial, & Residential Projects LM Kersting Construction Company has provided general contracting, construction management, and design/build services on a diverse range of projects including mountain resort and hospitality projects, custom residential housing, commercial, food service, and industrial projects. Our staff has many years of experience and expertise in the construction industry. Our company is an organization of honest, hardworking people. We accept and meet challenges,
With another residential project currently in the designdevelopment stage, promising similar features and elements as his own, Krebs doesn’t look like to be officially retiring from the profession any time soon. gb&d
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always looking for the best interests and needs of the owner.
527 Highway 24 North Buena Vista, CO 81211 Fax: (719) 395-0892
(719) 395-0892 www.lmkersting.com gbdmagazine.com
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21st-century pioneer
own private space, so that if they did not want to see each other they could avoid it,” Grabill says, “[and they both] also placed great value on sustainable design.”
Nate Grabill of Pioneer West Homes knows how to give clients exactly what they want, and sometimes that means blazing trails in unique home designs for families’ long-term arrangements
by Peter Fretty
bringing a family together sometimes means keeping it apart. This was a lesson Nate Grabill learned— and then implemented—not too long ago. A prospective client approached Grabill, who owns Pioneer West Homes in Pueblo, Colorado, about designing and building a new home for himself and his aging parents, a unique request in of itself, given that Americans are none too keen on multigenerational living arrangements. But Grabill saw it as a wonderful opportunity to blend creativity with sustainability. “Both parties wanted their
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aBOve: this yard features recycled manufactured stone and native, draught-resistance plants. all disturbed soil was reseeded with native grasses. the outdoor kitchen and pergola were designed with beetle kill pine.
The result of these colliding interests? A 3,530-squarefoot home on Calle Allegre Drive in Pueblo West, Colorado, that features two master suites, with the parents’ noticeably secluded from the rest of the house and a solarium serving as the separator. When designing the home, the first LEED for Homes Gold-certified and Energy Star-certified (HERS rating of 17) home in southern Colorado, Grabill took into account the continued needs of the elderly parents. “The home is completely on one level,” Grabill says. “As the parents get older they did not want to have steps. There is one step into the house at the front door and the garage. There are no internal stairs.” The biggest challenge involved going through the process of LEED for Homes certification, Grabill explains. “This was the first home that our company had attempted to certify with LEED, so there was a large
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“we take the time to hear what clients want, and then do our best to achieve their desires. … we have found it pays to be flexible as well including building in places that most builders do not want to build—[like] very remote mountain locations.” —Nate Grabill, Owner
learning curve to understand LEED for Homes and translate that to specifications on the home.” Pioneer West Homes designs and builds most of its homes using the philosophy of giving customers what they want without boxing them in with any preconceived notions. “We also want to guide them toward design criteria that will be cost effective to build and energy efficient,” he says. “Our unique process has us checking the budget several times during the design process so that we are not designing something that is beyond the customer budget.”
Specializing in Custom Home Excavation Excavation Septic Systems Roads Grade Works Irrigation Measuring Systems
719.240.1125 Golden Aspen Design
Consistently achieving success with sustainable designs has been the direct result of following a strict code: listening to what the clients want and remaining open to new, creative concepts. “We take the time to hear what clients want and then do our best to achieve their desires. We do much of the design work in house to keep the cost down,” he adds. “We have found it pays to be flexible as well, including building in places that most builders do not want to build, [like] very remote mountain locations.” Not only is green building good for the environment but it’s good for the homeowner’s health and energy conservation—and it means building a better home, says Grabill, who leads a team unafraid to try to try new construction methods and products. “We want our clients to look at all aspects of the home after they have been in it for some time and know they have a high-quality home in all areas. I feel that building and designing a green home is building the best home that I can.” gb&d
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2730 Downhill Drive #107 Phone (970) 879-8480 Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 80487 Fax (970) 879-8489 us@goldenaspendesign.com
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willow trees and wild geese In name and design, Colorado’s wilderness plays a big part in the work of Kelly & Stone Architects by David Hudnall
in 2006, dissatisfied with the direction and approach of the Aspen, Colorado architecture firm where they worked together, Tim Stone and Keith Kelly set off on their own. “We wanted to pursue a green target niche in Steamboat Springs,” Stone says. “The time was right, the economic conditions were right. And since we founded the firm, we’ve been able to pursue a wide variety of projects in the area where we’ve incorporated truly sustainable design practices.” Four years in, Kelly & Stone boasts four LEED APs on staff, working on mostly residential designs (though some commercial) in not just Steamboat Springs but throughout the Rocky Mountain area, including projects in California and Canada. Its niche is custom homes in a mountain context: vacation homes, second homes, retirement homes—but also primary residences. Two recent projects are emblematic:
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BeLOw: wild Goose ranch incorporates a five-panel solar thermal system that supplements domestic hot water heating and spa heating.
Wild Goose Ranch Adam Wright, an associate architect at the firm who has been instrumental in putting forth innovative green design ideas, cites the Wild Goose Ranch in Steamboat Springs as a strong model of Kelly & Stone’s approach. With a geothermal-exchange system, a 10-kilowatt solar PV array supplementing electricity usage (the panels are pole-mounted, in a field far from the residence), and a five-panel solar-thermal system for heating domestic water and the spa, Wild Goose Ranch is a spectacle of energy efficiency. The residence obtained Built Green Colorado certification and achieved a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rating of 51. “Meaning it’s anticipated to operate 49 percent better than a typical home of the same size not built to the same standards,” Wright explains. Insulation quality also helped: it used polyurethane-based spray-foam insulation, which all but eliminates air infiltration through the walls by filling the spaces with a wet foam that expands when it dries. Willow Creek Pass Residence The Willow Creek Pass residence, located in Clark, Colorado (30 minutes northwest of Steamboat Springs), provides a different but equally instructive demonstration of the firm’s green outlook. At a mere 1,650 square feet, the project was “an economy of means,” Stone says. “Our approach was to create a fantastically tight and efficient thermal envelope—basically a giant styrofoam cooler.”
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Kelly & Stone Architects Left: for the willow Creek Pass residence, the firm worked closely with the owner to remain conscious of the budget. economy of means and energy efficiency were paramount: the cost of construction was approximately $93 per square foot, due to features like sIP roof and wall construction, use of local materials, and efficient space planning.
The space was constructed using SIPs that also shouldered the weight of roofing and siding, and the home is heated almost entirely by a wood stove; in-floor hydronic heating supplies the rest. “In the summer, it stays nice and cool inside,” Stone says. “In winter, it’s structured to buffer the temperature. So year-round, the day/night temperature swings remain relatively small.” When clients aren’t terribly interested in sustainability, Kelly & Stone’s experience still enables the firm to incorporate energy-efficient elements. That might come in the form of super-made European windows or sprayfoam insulation or durable siding, which requires no maintenance. “We really love using reclaimed siding,” Wright says. “It has a natural weather patina to it, so it can be milled and installed and left to weather. It’s not a finished, sanded product with a finished coat. So it can weather as it would naturally, and it turns out beautiful.”
“expanding in this economic climate is a tall order, but we’re doing so carefully. we want to conceive and be a part of a new, organic, hand-built kind of aesthetic here in steamboat.” —Tim Stone, Cofounder & Principal
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As the firm continues to steadily grow, it looks for likeminded architects who understand Kelly & Stone’s green ambitions. “Expanding in this economic climate is a tall order, but we’re doing so carefully,” Stone says, noting that the firm also seeks green-savvy local contractors to carry out its designs. “We want to conceive and be a part of a new, organic, hand-built kind of aesthetic here in Steamboat.” gb&d
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PROJECT PROFILE
high time for art american art will soon have a new home in Manhattan. The Whitney Museum of American Art announced this year that it will break ground in May 2011 for a new Renzo Piano-designed, six-floor, terraced gallery space abutting the south terminus of the already famous High Line, New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s linear public park built atop an old elevated train line. With the building cantilevered over the space between it and the High Line, the design intends for a new public plaza as a destination for art. More than 50,000 square feet of indoor gallery space combines with an additional 13,000 square feet of rooftop for a combined total that surpasses the museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing space. An environmental assessment began in May.
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PROJECT PROFILE
modern housing with a historic twist museum exhibits don’t usually include native landscaping, sustainable vegetable gardens, or composters, but the Smart Home: Green + Wired exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry includes all these things before you even get inside. Designed as a showcase of sustainable elements, practices, and products, the home is the first of Michelle Kaufmann’s mkSolaire model to be built. This year interior designers from Midwest Living revitalized the space to reflect an efficient, environmentally conscious urban lifestyle. The modular home also features an automation system, a wind turbine, and furniture carved from a fallen bur oak that had been part of a grove that has existed on the museum grounds since before the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Photos: J.B. Spector, Museum of Science and Industry.
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rulers of the roost The highly credentialed principals of Tate Snyder Kimsey Caldwell Architects didn’t have to leap far to be on board with LEED’s ratings—now, their long-held reign over the Western United States is maintained by major California port projects
by David Hudnall
“think back to the way things were designed prior to air conditioning,” says John Caldwell, a principal at Tate Snyder Kimsey Caldwell (TSKC) Architects. “Architects and planners had no choice but to pay attention to things like siting, otherwise you’d have problems with heating and cooling. When air conditioning came along, people realized they could build whatever they wanted wherever they wanted and maintain it as a big box of hot or cool air year round. Nowadays, of course, people are starting to see that that’s wasteful, and we’re getting back to basics, which people are saying is green but which is really just smart architectural planning.”
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aBOve: entry to the Long Beach City College library, which utilized the design of sloped ceilings to bring in extra light.
That’s a fairly concise assessment of the trends this magazine was launched to cover. And Caldwell’s firm is an active participant in those trends. Take its office in Las Vegas, which was the first LEED-certified project in the entire state. “We constructed the building in the preLEED days,” says Windom Kimsey, principal. “When we decided to go for LEED, there was just a minimal amount of changes we had to make to it. We’ve always been about siting and orientation. So it wasn’t much of a big leap to do LEED, other than the process of just recording what we’d already done.” Architect magazine, in its 2009 Architect 50 list, which recognized ecological commitment and design quality as much as profitability in measuring the best A, AE, and AEC firms in the United States, ranked Kimsey’s office number 18, in large part due to the magazine’s evaluation of its sustainable practices—a combination of the firm’s number of LEED projects and its internal “green culture.” The firm’s Los Angeles office (it has a third office in Reno, Nevada) is not LEED certified, but Caldwell points out its many sustainable characteristics: high-efficiency air conditioning, a 12-kilowatt solar-photovoltaic array on the roof, and skylights throughout. “If you really believe in doing something, you have to commit to doing it at home,” he says.
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Tate Snyder Kimsey Caldwell Architects
tOP, Left: tsKC architects received its first contract with the Long Beach Port, for the Pier a project, in 1999. tOP, rIGHt: the springs Preserve project in Las vegas, is divided into two functional areas: a ticketing building with offices, a retail shop and cafe, and a gallery building with exhibits and a theater. rIGHt: tsKC served as the architect and interior designer for the Henderson Community Police station.
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“when we decided to go for LeeD, there was only a minimal amount of changes we had to make to [the firm’s Las vegas office]. we’ve always been about siting and orientation. so it wasn’t much of a big leap to do LeeD, other than the process of just recording what we’d already done.”
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—Windom Kimsey, Principal TSKC Architects’ sustainable and eco-friendly endeavors are, of course, not limited to its home turf. It provides architecture, planning, interior design, and environmental consulting for institutional, education, and port projects in California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. Its involvement with the Long Beach Port ranks among the firm’s higher-profile projects and has given the team the chance to incorporate a variety of sustainable measures since its first contract for Pier A in 1999. “The port work came about through a friend who bid on it but was too small for the job, so we teamed up,” Caldwell says. “We included sun shades, low-E glass—features that aren’t typically used on industrial projects. And we ended up winning an AIA award for it in 2000. Five years later, they had a new project and asked us if we’d like to be involved.” That project—a $45.5 million administration and operations building at Pier G—is considerably larger. Pier A was roughly 100 acres; Pier G, a “mega-terminal,” will be more than 300 acres. Planning commenced in 2005, around which time the port decided to promote a green program and build for LEED Silver. The four structures in Pier G will be composed of recycled and local materials, low-VOC paint, high-efficiency air conditioning units, low-E glass, and self-dimming lights. “It’s the largest port on the continent, so we’re thrilled to be a part of it,” Caldwell says. This type of large-scale work also includes several education projects like the Long Beach City College Library—a 22,000-square-foot structure for which sloped ceilings were used to bring in extra natural light—and Cerritos College’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, which was built to LEED standards. All in all, the firm has worked on more than 300 schools. Repeat business and referrals—TSKC Architects has completed 200 jobs for a single community college—keeps things flowing smoothly in the California and Nevada offices. “We just try to blend our resources where it’s best suited for the project,” Kimsey says. “Everyone here has a similar approach to design.” gb&d
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looking past the present To reconcile its relationship with ‘the force of nature,’ Van H. Gilbert Architect PC looks beyond today’s concerns—numbers and figures, problems and challenges—and at the legacy it will leave behind
by Meghan Boyer
in 1976, van h. gilbert founded an architecture firm, named it after himself, and went about designing facilities for higher education and pre-K–12 schools. He designed exhibits for zoos and aquariums. He added healthcare, performance spaces, and commercial facilities. He did it all, because he was passionate about making his community better and wanted to contribute to every bit of it in a personal way. Since ’76, the company has grown: 27 people and more than 850 projects.
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aBOve: the design of Cleveland High school features 640 geothermal wells that will pay for themselves within seven years. Photo: Patrick Coulie.
Sustainability is more than a trend, Gilbert says; it is “the force of the future. If we can reduce a building’s energy use to zero, we will make a big impact in this country and make sure we are competitive with the world.” The people of Van H. Gilbert Architect PC (VHGA) believe this to the core. The first green project it completed was the Birds of Prey exhibit at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque. “We had to do a site design that would maximize southern exposure,” Gilbert says, explaining that this was so the birds always would be in the sun and the visitors could clearly see them. The firm also had to consider the exhibit orientation so as not to impair the visitors’ view of the birds. The green principles inherent in this one project set the tone for the company. Indeed, the firm counts among its partners and colleagues the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Program, Architecture 2030 Challenge, and the USGBC. The firm currently has seven projects registered in the LEED program. According to Joe Muhlberger, AIA, a VHGA partner and LEED AP, the firm is at the forefront
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Van H. Gilbert Architect PC
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“If we can reduce a building’s energy use to zero, we will make a big impact in this country and make sure we are competitive with the world.” —Van H. Gilbert, Principal
of using the latest computer-modeling technologies to ensure the systems it implements will have a favorable impact on the environment the day they are installed— but also 10, 20, and 30 years in the future. “We’re able to show the owners what their overall bottom line will be at a 25-year projection,” explains Andy Benson, AIA, another of the firm’s LEED APs. “We’ve been able to run energy models based on the different orientations of our buildings, the glazing, the building envelope, different mechanical systems, and different lighting schemes.” When it was hired to design Cleveland High School for Rio Rancho Public Schools, it took note of some of the numbers—$122 million (budget), 2,350 (student population), 420,000 (square footage)—then immediately analyzed the ecosystem and climate of the site, assessing the
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aBOve: the Performing arts Center at Cleveland High school. Photo: Chas McGrath. rIGHt: the high school’s library. Photo: Patrick Coulie.
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Van H. Gilbert Architect PC
“Not only are we using excellent aesthetics and great materials but we are integrating sustainability. that is the whole package.” —Van H. Gilbert, Principal potential for natural light in the facility. (Electric lighting can amount to 60 percent of the energy consumption in a facility, Muhlberger notes.) It designed to maximize natural daylighting and also implemented a groundsource, heat-pump system—more numbers: 640 wells, 305 feet deep each—to serve as heat exchangers. The school employs the building design’s sustainable elements, like its water-harvesting system or its energyrecovery ventilation system, as teaching tools, which effectively support its environmental-education curriculum. Students are participating by measuring foot candles of natural light in various spaces throughout the building in order to analyze the differences between illumination by natural versus electric light. In this instance, what is good for the children is good for the pocket books. The savings the school will gain
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by using the energy-efficient ground-source heat pump will enable it to pay for the system in roughly seven years. “At the end of seven years, they will be making money by not having those costs to pay out,” Gilbert explains, noting that the firm achieved its goal of a 50-percent energy reduction and anticipates achieving LEED Gold Certification. Projects like this—sustainable, educational, inspirational—have been part of VHGA’s vision for years, building on its philosophy of incorporating sustainable principles into well-designed projects and planning, contributing to its success, and attracting a broad range of clients. “Not only are we using excellent aesthetics and great materials but we are integrating sustainability,” Gilbert says. “That is the whole package.” gb&d A MESSAGE FROM MILLER BONDED INC. Miller Bonded Inc. has been on the construction team of several Van H. Gilbert projects over the years, including educational facilities such as the UNM Science and Math Learning Center. Miller
Left: the visitor and staff entrance at Cleveland High school. Photo: Patrick Coulie.
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in capable hands W.T. Rich Company, Inc., one of Massachusetts’ most trusted general-contracting firms, maintains leadership in the education and institutional sectors through ‘integrity, honesty, and commitment’
by Joyce Finn
w.t. rich company, a family-owned general contracting firm, has been specializing in unique and complex projects since 1968. According to CEO Jon Rich, its legacy is not happenstance; the company has “purposely developed a capability and expertise that is unique in today’s construction market.” Since 2007, more than 60 percent of Massachusetts’ W.T. Rich Company, Inc.’s revenue has been from LEED projects. The firm has two LEED APs, who work with W.T. Rich clients to ensure their sustainability goals are met. “It’s very important for us to be a leader in sustainable
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BeLOw: the worcester state College administration Building, originally built in 1939, was certified LeeD Gold this year. for the renovation, w.t. rich Company recycled more than 95 percent of construction waste.
building. ... We’ve made some good progress, especially since it’s a relatively new emerging dynamic in the construction market,” Rich says. “We’ve found there’s a bit more effort involved when doing a LEED project, but there’s nothing particularly daunting about the process.” Rich’s can-do attitude is refreshing at a time when LEED critics are continually asserting that the program is too difficult, confusing, or time consuming. It’s an attitude that has led to success: W.T. Rich Company’s projects typically range from $10 to 30 million, mostly in the public sector; more than 70 percent of its work consists of occupied renovation projects; and revenue has grown, on average, 20 percent annually since 2005. Among the company’s many clients are the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, numerous state colleges, Boston Housing Authority, and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. “The last couple of projects for the state of Massachusetts utilized BIM [building information modeling],” Rich mentions. “In 2010 and 2011, we want to build upon our BIM and IPD [integrated project delivery] experience so that we can better coordinate our efforts with designers.” Private clients include hospitals and airlines. For United Airlines, the company constructed the largest hangar at Boston’s
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W.T. Rich Company, Inc.
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hazardous material abatement, complete MEP replacement, all new mechanical and electrical systems, a new sprinkler system, window and roof replacement, a new security system, exterior masonry restoration, and extensive temporary-shoring and structural-retrofit work throughout existing building. The new design achieved 30 percent energy savings, and W.T. Rich Company recycled 96.5 percent of construction and demolition waste while simultaneously completing the project on time and under budget.
“we consistently operate with the highest levels of integrity, honesty, and commitment with our clients and subcontractors. It would be hard to find an owner or an architect or subcontractor who would say something negative about our company.” —Jon Rich, CEO
Logan Airport, a project that included a sophisticated fire-suppression system and a translucent membrane that covered the entire structure. In 2009, W.T. Rich Company completed renovations to the Worcester State College Administration Building in Worcester, Massachusetts, which achieved LEED Gold certification. This building was the first on campus in 1931 and is the physiological and physical centerpiece of the college. The scope of work included the complete renovation of the existing building and the construction of two new additions. Work included early demolition,
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aBOve: the f.D. roosevelt elementary school in Hyde Park, Ma, featuring a vegatative roof, recieved LeeD Gold certification.
Another project recently completed and certified LEED Silver is the renovation and addition to F.D. Roosevelt Elementary School in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. W.T. Rich Company again recycled greater than 90 percent of waste, but unlike the gut renovation at Worcester State College, the job was a finish renovation of the interior of a 1960s 33,400-square-foot building, plus construction of three separate new building additions for classrooms, a library, and a cafeteria. The 6,000-square-foot green roof, topped with drought-resistant sedum, has been a teaching tool for the students. The addition was constructed using NUDURA insulated concrete forms, which are energy efficient, sound proof, and environmentally friendly. New and extensive technology and communication infrastructure was installed, and for storm-water management, the playground and walkways were constructed of pervious pavement. The initial phase of renovation was completed in the school’s eight-week summer vacation to meet academic and occupancy requirements. This resulted in double shifts and careful time management. The three additions were located in three disparate locations around the existing building. In the case of the new cafeteria addition, the existing school building surrounded the new addition on three sides, meaning phase-two and -three construction activities were allowed to proceed during the day, provided school operations were not disrupted in any way. With more than 40 years of experience, W.T. Rich Company is well equipped to navigate user-occupied space and plans to continue meeting every challenge with the assumption that it can, and will be done. gb&d
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a reputation of responsibility
Obviously the larger the firm grows, there’s only so much work each person can handle personally.” As such, the firm has maintained its size of nine employees intentionally, in conjunction with its desire to be out in the field.
Through its personal touch and principal involvement, CMK Architects infuses its municipal and institutional projects with countless green features despite budgetary constraints
by Daniel Casciato
founded in 1984 in manchester, new hampshire, CMK Architects has relied on its ability to consistently produce a quality building design, deliver projects on budget, follow construction in the field, and provide a low-maintenance facility. “Those are the building blocks of why people come back to us,” says Chip Krause, one of the three principals of the firm. As a full-service architectural firm, CMK was founded after Krause and his two partners left their previous employer. Since then, CMK has never strayed from steady principal involvement in its projects. One of the principals goes to every interview. “We sell the job; we get the job; we do the design work; we do all of the meetings with the client; and during construction we are in the field doing construction administration,” Krause says. “I don’t think many firms follow through in this manner.
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“We want to make sure that the people responsible for the reputation of the firm are out there in the field, because it’s a very critical part of the process now,” Krause says. “You design it, make sure you bring it in on budget, and make sure there are quality-control measures so it gets built right. It’s a challenging and changing industry, so our involvement during construction has become way more important than it used to be.” Krause also touches on the absolutely crucial nature of construction documents. “That set of construction documents is as thorough as possible,” he says, “which takes time. We take the time to produce the documents that we think are necessary.”
BeLOw: rendering of the Governor wentworth regional school District building, which, once complete will use 100 percent geothermal energy. OPPOsIte PaGe: the Governor wentworth school District building under construction.
Though the firm is diverse in the types of projects it handles, its specialty niches are educational, municipal, housing, and institutional projects. About a year ago, it completed a fire station for the City of Dover, New Hampshire. Since the department wanted a sustainably built station, CMK incorporated what it could from a green-building standpoint into a previously established budget. Some of the sustainable elements CMK was able to add included skylights; a continuous band of windows for natural daylighting; lighting controls; occupancy sensors; cellulose insulation; 98-percent-efficient
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CMK Architects
“we want to make sure that the people responsible for the reputation of the firm are out there in the field. I don’t think many firms follow through in this manner.” —Chip Krause, Principal
gas boilers; spray-on air barrier to prevent air infiltration into the building; and radiant heat in the apparatus bay, a very efficient way to heat large spaces, Krause notes. “With the radiant heat, the upper layer of the ceiling isn’t heated because the apparatus bay is 22 feet tall so you don’t get that stratification of wasted heat,” he explains. Another recent project completed by CMK was its work on 365,000 square feet of additions and renovations for the Governor Wentworth Regional School District. The $65 million project is still under construction and when completed it will be heated and cooled with 100 percent geothermal energy. The building envelope is 35 percent more efficient than code, and the heating system is another step above, operating 45 percent more efficiently than a conventional heating system. Rainwater tanks buried underground will catch roof water and then be used for field irrigation. CMK also dual-plumbed the toilets and urinals so rainwater can be used for flushing. Daylighting is used extensively throughout the building, as well as controllable banks of lights. “The rooms will have occupancy sensors to shut off lighting as well,” Krause says. “We also will have sophisticated heating and ventilation systems and energy recovery units, which will save energy from the exhaust air.” North Branch, the contractor, is recycling 75 percent of the construction waste, and the site was designed using pervious pavement—an important green feature as it will not add any water to the offsite drainage. As far as the future of the firm, Krause says it expects to maintain current staffing levels and continue providing the same high level that the client needs and demands from them. “I also see us adapting to a changing industry and continuing to move forward in providing the best quality we can,” he says. “We have been providing services for over 25 years and have the knowledge that can assist people in their building projects.” gb&d
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ear to the ground The innovator behind Kayafas Architects has listened to the needs of this country’s cities and, with an expert design team, invented an modular urban-infill solution he says may rocket his firm to national recognition
by Suchi Rudra
“there is a project everywhere if you just listen.” This belief, held by one Constantine “Gus” Kayafas, may help explain the eclectic array of cutting-edge projects that his design firm, Kayafas Architects, has accumulated since its founding in 1993. Having kept his ear to the ground, the most recent of these is its green urban infill solution. Kayafas Architects, based in Wheeling, West Virginia, specializes in residential work—roughly 50 percent of their projects—and focuses on additions, remodeling, and kitchens and master suites for clients who are located mostly in the Ohio Valley. The other half of its work is 30 percent commercial and 20 percent specialty projects. Most promising at the moment, is The Green Row homes, offered through Kayafas’ partner firm KayafasBreisch & Crowley Design-Build & Construction Management (KBC). The Green Row, in association with nationally recognized custom modular manufacturer Haven Homes, is an urban infill product, “an answer to the question of how to responsibly infill dilapidated or empty urban sites in a way that ties in well with the historical context of traditional row houses, while at the same time utilizing the best of today’s technology to achieve great green results,” explains Timothy Crowley, Kayafas Architects’ LEED AP and also a partner in KBC. The homes will be offered for use in cities across the country in modified designs, which can work as both single-family scattered-site homes and apartment buildings. Crowley points out that the design utilizes the key advantages found in modular construction: the building process is indoors in a climate-controlled atmosphere; modular engineering allows for tighter building envelopes and ensures higher indoor air quality; module-tomodule construction of the units provides an inherently rigid system that performs much better than conventional residential framing; and the majority of the costs are known upfront. In addition, the construction time frame is expedited and causes less stress on the built
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environment and neighborhood. “I think the work we have put forth on The Green Row...will take our company to perhaps a national level of recognition, and I am very proud of that,” Kayafas says.
aBOve: Kayafas’s work on wheeling, west virginia’s wesbanco arena utilized daylighting and enhanced insulation. Photo: ed Dumont.
Another unique project, the Olney Friends School’s 17,000-square-foot activities center in Barnesville, Ohio, has also held the firm to its boundary-pushing architectural approach. Kayafas says the client is interested in pursuing “a design strategy that is not the attachment or supplement of architectural design, but an integrated design process with the architectural design called PassiveHaus.” This style is most commonly applied to new buildings but also used for refurbishments; Kayafas says it is estimated that the number of passive houses around the world (mainly in Scandinavia and German-speaking countries) range from 15,000 to 20,000. The firm is adjusting its design slightly to meet the PassiveHaus standards, and the school will become one of the first commercial PassiveHaus structures in the United States,
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Kayafas Architects
“there is a project everywhere if you just listen.” —Constantine “Gus” Kayafas, President
a certification that surpasses LEED standards of energy conservation, though the building will also be LEED-Silver certified.
miles from Wheeling. “This was a very ‘green’ project initially when it was constructed over 30 years ago,” Kayafas points out, “because most of the materials were made or cast on site by the people who lived in the community.”
The activities center will include a gymnasium, multiuse classrooms, offices, a warming kitchen, first aid room, and locker rooms. The interior of the building is designed to act as an educational tool and features a realtime energy-usage screen that presents live read-outs of the building’s vital signs: indoor, outdoor, and lake temperatures; electricity used; energy-savings data, etc. Kayafas explains that the exterior materials and color represent consistence with the pallete of other buildings on campus—a warm tone brick veneer, double-hung windows, and metal roofing. “Since the school was founded in 1837 as a Quaker boarding school we wanted to respect their past,” he says. “Our goal was to create a consistent, simple style that did not detract too much from the original historic architecture.”
The firm has also established a design collaborative: onlinegreendesign.com. Crowley explains that this group of like-minded professionals (including landscape architects, mechanical and electrical engineers, interior designers, and renewable-energy consultants) helps new clients approach ‘green’ from a holistic point of view, addressing the building and its systems, interior and site, as well as the implementation of green energy technologies. Whether within its home base of Wheeling or on the Web, projects are waiting for Kayafas everywhere. gb&d
One major challenge was to improve the vehicular circulation by creating a perimeter road, which diverted much of the thru traffic around the campus. “The placement of our new building created a much-needed commons area, which will now be restricted to pedestrians only,” Kayafas explains. To achieve this, the firm undertook a site-circulation study in conjunction with Hays Landscape Architecture Studio, which was invaluable, Kayafas says, as it addressed many of the problems the school had experienced with parking, deliveries, and visitors. The adjacent one-acre Livezey Lake will serve as a geothermal heat source for water-to-water heat pumps and heat exchangers. Placing the building hillside allowed for the two-story gymnasium space to be a story below grade, which reduces the scale of the building on the campus side, while the two-story side of the building creates wonderful views of the lake. Although construction on the building was scheduled to start in the spring of 2010, “a setback in fundraising, combined with the desire for the building to pursue the PassiveHaus technology, has postponed commencing on the project,” Kayafas says. Rounding out the eclectic portfolio of current work, the firm’s extensive experience with preservation work has led to a very unique restoration project at New Vrindaban’s Palace of Gold, a Hare Krishna temple located 15
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Olney Friends School Activity Building
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purely magical
it’s all possible if the price is right. But it’s crucial to understand the challenges before they become project-derailing issues,” Jahedi says.
Dome Designers, Inc. understands the concept of turning a dream structure into a reality, a sustainable reality
by Peter Fretty
Not only does Dome Designers possess structural expertise, but the firm is a licensed builder. “It adds another layer to our abilities, including an intimate knowledge of building materials and the associated costs,” he says. “When we come up with interesting design concepts, we understand the challenges and have the ability to thoroughly explain the process to the client.”
when architects possess natural talent, there can be something purely magical about the designs they present. Dazzling architectural lines, spans that seem to defy reality, or even illusions that naturally attract the eye. However, in many instances, it can be quite difficult to go from the dreamlike design to a real structure—even when a client is dead-set on including a specific architectural component. The key reason for this is often the result of a struggle between the architect and the structural engineer. Unfortunately, the tug of war often results in either excessive pricing to accommodate structural demands or compromises to the design to remain within a budget. None of this is an issue with Clarendon Hills, Illinoisbased Dome Designers, Inc., where the president and founder Jamshid Jahedi has a PhD in structural engineering, is a LEED AP, and is also a licensed professional engineer. “People often ask if something is possible, and
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“Having diverse capabilities gives me the unique ability to closely combine structure and architecture. When I put something to paper, it still looks like a dream, but visibly, I can see the structure behind it. There is a confidence in designing something that does not add to the cost.”
aBOve: Parts of the lower floor of the IMaMI Community Center, located in suburban Chicago, are covered with raised berms to reduce thermal transmission. OPPOsIte PaGe: the community center design also uses glazed brick to reflect heat energy.
The company has two green projects in the works. The first is the renovation of a historical bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Financed with grants from the City of Chicago and the US Department of Energy, the remodel focuses on training previously incarcerated individuals and embracing core green-building principles. “The goal is to have these individuals learn green-building practices as they remodel what will become their home,” Jahedi says. “They then find work and pay rent to live in the house.” Seeing the true value of Chicago’s green-housing program, Jahedi donated his firm’s design services,
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Dome Designers, Inc.
spaces/institutional
“when I put something to paper, it still looks like a dream but visibly I can see the structure behind it.” —Jamshid Jahedi, President
explaining how it will serve as an educational site for its future residents. “Plus,” he adds, “the organization has plans to remodel four additional units using the same concepts in each house.” Some of the key components were a geothermal system, with three 200-foot-deep wells, solar panels for hot water, foam insulation; and reflective metal roofing. All existing doors, trim, and wood flooring were reused, and a rainwater-collection system uses a large tank installed on the back porch for toilets and irrigation. According to Jahedi, there is a huge benefit to having this project serve as an educational site. “Unfortunately, the process of recycling materials and dedicating the time necessary to remove nails from boards can derails projects of this nature,” he says. “However, in this case we have the luxury of time because it is a training environment.” The firm’s structural expertise has come into play as it has worked to save the back porch by building a new foundation as well as making structural changes to eliminate the water seepage issues presented by the existing basement configuration. Dome is also in the process of building a community center for a church located on roughly three acres in suburban Chicago. The structure is a two-story brick building that Dome initially designed a few years back. After securing the construction contract, Dome revisited the design and made modifications to include various green characteristics. The building features a water retention pond planted with native vegetation, pervious concrete roadways, and white EPDM roofing and reflective brickwork. Inside, it boasts foam insulation levels of R45, low-VOC surface interiors, and a zoned HVAC system.
DOME DESIGN BUILD CORP. DESIGNERS, INC
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Designed to accommodate phased construction, the exterior is primarily complete, as are the electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems. Phase 1 of the project is scheduled for full completion in early 2011, accompanied by LEED certification. “We truly enjoy working on community and assembly buildings of this nature,” he says, “because of the unique mixture of architectural and structural elements—and the common freedom of design.” gb&d
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PROJECT PROFILE
open door policy the team said its goal was to turn a typical office into a state-of-the-art facility, and it feels like it’s “hit a home run.” Employee-owned general contractor DPR Construction’s new San Diego regional office, in University City, was completed in late Spring of 2010 and is pursuing LEED Platinum certification. Designed for net-zero energy use, the structure connects to the environment via operable windows, skylights, and glass garage doors. A 64-kilowatt photovoltaic system provides enough energy to offset usage given an innovative design that features Solatubes, high-performance daylighting systems, and energy-efficient lights, which combine to create a space that feels nearly like being outdoors.
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PROJECT PROFILE
a winning combination two creative professions merge in lamar Advertising’s new Baton Rouge office. Advertising and architecture both rely on the ability to create and deliver an iconic message, so for Lamar’s new space, they enlisted the help of New Orleans-based Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. With the adaptive reuse of a 1970s-era data center, the new space will create little waste and little need for new building materials. The interior will be reconfigured to allow for extensive daylight through various “courts” that are formed by removing walls and floors throughout the structure, which creates a diverse and natural flow of space. The design, based on the notion of interaction, won an honorable mention from the Louisiana AIA in 2009.
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inside job DBI Architects’ director Raj Banga takes the interiors-focused firm on a journey into sustainable design and shrewdly navigates the intersecting relationships of interior design and architecture by Julie Schaeffer
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dbi architects wasn’t originally a leader in the sustainability movement, but it’s certainly caught up: it now incorporates sustainable concepts on every project. Almost 75 percent of the firm’s design staff is LEED accredited, and the firm has a number of LEED projects under its belt. The company traces its roots to 1974, when Al Storm, a partner in the design firm Catterton-Storm Architects, decided to branch out and purchased a thriving office-furniture business, Design for Business Interiors (DBI).
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DBI Architects
“there’s a notion that some projects are not easily LeeD certifiable, but we don’t believe that. It just takes a commitment on the part of everyone involved in the project: the owner, the tenant, and us.” —Raj Banga, Director
more interesting things about our business model is our broad focus,” Banga says. “We’re about 60 percent commercial interiors, 25 percent furniture, and 15 percent architecture.”
“When clients came to DBI looking for office furniture and systems, they’d also want plans drawn and finishes selected, and Catterton-Storm was their ‘go-to’ design firm,” says Raj Banga, one of the DBI’s directors. “One thing led to another, and eventually Al purchased DBI, took the name forward, and created DBI Architects.” Today, DBI Architects is a recognized commercial interior-design firm and has even expanded into providing architectural design. But it has maintained its furniture roots through its furniture subsidiary D4B. “One of the
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Left: Cassidy turley offices, featuring fsCcertified veneers and recycled fabrics. Photo: eric taylor. aBOve: LeD-lit hall at Bae systems in the redland Corporate Center, rockville, MD. fOLLOwING PaGe: Bae systems breakout space, featuring recycled-content carpets and low-vOC paints.
Banga admits that DBI Architects wasn’t at the front edge of the sustainability movement—but it quickly got onboard. “We’ve always been committed to designing intelligent, highly functional spaces, and incorporating sustainable design practices is just an extension of that fundamental approach,” says Banga, who has driven the firm’s green-design agenda. “During my college years in the 1980s, I went through a period of interest in earthsheltered design, both commercial and residential. This was due to the interesting form factor more than any scientific or engineering basis. Like most of the design community, I wasn’t passionate about the idea of throwing solar panels on a roof, but I had an interest in combining form factor with passive aspects of sustainable design. The concepts of energy efficiency and sustainability continued to grow on me, and as the sustainability movement became firmly entrenched over the past five or six years, my interest was reawakened.” If anyone was in a position to drive DBI Architects’ commitment to sustainability, it was Banga, who has long
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spaces/office been interested in new technologies. In the early 1990s, for example, he left his career in design for a 10-year sojourn in computer-aided design (CAD). “As new practices and technologies evolve, I believe we should all keep up, and even innovate ourselves,” he says. That said, Banga notes that it isn’t always easy to incorporate sustainability into interior design, because architecture typically drives sustainability. “When we serve a project from the interiors side only, we just have to make sure we aren’t taking away from that,” he explains, pointing to one of the firm’s recent design projects, the US consulate’s 10-building complex in Mumbai, India, which hopes to achieve LEED Silver certification. “We were brought onboard by URS, a national architecture and engineering firm, to do all the interiors, so our task in the sustainability piece wasn’t driving the ship. But we did play an important role by ensuring that all of our design decisions were helping to keep the sustainable mentality alive.” It is getting easier for interior designers to contribute to sustainability with the advent of new products. “To some extent, sustainability in interior design is influenced by what materials manufacturers are producing,” he explains. “Carpeting, flooring, wall covering, paints…it’s easier for us to use sustainable materials when manufacturers are producing those materials, either to comply with standards or simply because they want to.” Clearly, DBI Architects’ approach is working. The firm is enjoying considerable growth: one of largest locally owned design firms in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, it works on approximately 400 projects a year and in 2009 was ranked the number four interior design firm in Washington, DC, and within the top 50 interior design firms in the United States by Interior Design magazine. The firm’s sustainability focus is also growing, with more than a dozen LEED projects completed or on the boards. “There’s a notion that some projects are not easily LEED certifiable, but we don’t believe that,” Banga says. “It just takes a commitment on the part of everyone involved in the project: the owner, the tenant, and us.” gb&d
A MESSAGE FROM K3 CONSTRUCTION GROUP K3 Construction Group has grown to be one of the top 25 general contractors in the Washington, DC, metro area. A full-service general contracting firm, K3 delivers high-end interiors, building renovations, and base-building construction to a diverse set of clients including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, defense contractors, and many institutional, retail, and financial clients. We are proud to have formed a relationship with DBI, upon which we are building for the future.
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a convenient truth J. Randolph Parry Architects recognized the truth and power of Vice President Al Gore’s environmental advocacy and let it inform its award-winning design for a new office space
by Chris Allsop
al gore isn’t everyone’s favorite nobel peace Prize winner. But Jack Parry, president of J. Randolph Parry Architects and a registered architect for nearly 30 years, says it was Gore’s green coup that reminded him of his principles. And though sustainability has been a part of Parry’s design for a long time, it was then that he began to make a more conscious effort to educate clients and to be more effective in introducing green aspects into all of the firm’s works. J. Randolph Parry Architects has been completing projects, both commercial and residential, in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—with a focus on the reuse and renovation of existing homes and buildings—since 1996, and since his encounter with the former vice president’s book, it has become a member of the USGBC and pursued every possible chance to implement its reaffirmed sustainable principles—a pursuit most evident in its recent move from the company’s old offices in Moorestown, New Jersey, to new premises in nearby Riverton. Parry describes the relocation as an opportunity for the firm “to put its money where its mouth is,” creating a space that can act as a physical advocate for the sustainable materials and equipment that Parry prefers his large developer clientele to adopt. for irrigation purposes and a high efficiency HVAC installed. All windows that had to be replaced were done so with Anderson double-glazing, and, electrically, the building has no incandescent light fixtures at all, with either LED or fluorescent lights in their place.
“Our philosophy for the renovation was to use both green and LEED guidelines,” Parry says. “Not to try to get the project certified, due to budget constraints, but to show clients how you can be mindful of everything you do, from the materials you use (looking for every opportunity to recycle and donate) to the landscaping (using native and drought resistant plants).” The site for the new offices was a combined total of 3,000 square feet shared between two old buildings. The former daycare center’s front portion had to be completely gutted and rebuilt, and Parry worked with Habitat for Humanity to donate everything that wasn’t needed throughout both buildings. Solatubes were installed to bring natural light into the studio, and, for indoor air quality, all carpeting and paints used were VOC free. Rainwater capture was employed
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Despite this technical rigor, Parry still has some things to learn about conserving energy via the light switch. “My son works with me,” Parry says, “and every time I turn a light off he yells at me, saying that I waste more energy by turning them on and off, that it’s better to leave them on. This has been a re-education for me also.” aBOve: a former daycare center has become the new, award-winning office space for J. randolph Parry architects.
One of the biggest challenges for the firm was keeping to its budget, not only because of the reality of its limits, but for the renovation to retain relevance as an example to clients. The needs of the firm’s 3D-animation side
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“Our philosophy for [our office] renovation was to use both green and LeeD guidelines. Not to try to get the project certified, due to budget constraints, but to show clients how you can be mindful of everything you do.” —Jack Parry, President
of the business, which walks clients through virtual tours of projects, provided a crunch point for the budget. “That side of the business uses a very sophisticated computer nerve system. Air-conditioning requirements there are much more important than anywhere else in the building,” Parry explains. “However, our contractor, K2B, did a great job and, after about five or six different designs, we installed new in-line AC units that fit between our computer racks and into our accounting.” Ultimately, the project did run a little over, adding up to around $80 per square foot, but despite not being able to add waterless urinals due to cost considerations, Parry was happy with the end result. He also reports that clients, as they are beginning to emerge from the economic downturn, are starting to show an increased willingness to talk about the various aspects of green design. For its part, Parry’s firm has begun a blog dealing with its new office and sustainable experimenting therein (ever wanted to know which flushing system works best?) and is in the process of launching a new business called DH Green Energy, which will design and install photovoltaic panels for clients. The firm’s office has already won a design award from the Builders’ League of South Jersey, but the best thing about the new offices, Parry says, is that they can open windows on beautiful spring days. “We came from a two-story office building that was built in the 1970s, and people got sick from the recycled air,” he says. “I haven’t purchased the picnic table to put out back yet, but that’s the next thing I’m looking forward to—we have a nice big backyard and I want to meet out there and enjoy the birds and the trees.” gb&d
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point of convergence Kideney Architects explores how to best represent two well-established clients: the Seneca Nation of Indians and M&T Bank, whose values converge in environmental stewardship
by Suchi Rudra
eighteen months ago, kideney architects of Buffalo, New York, made a company-wide push to formalize its commitment to responsible design, training a majority of their staff to be fluent in the use of the LEED program. Today, 24 staff members (60 percent of the professional staff ) are LEED accredited. Kideney has worked with clients in the corporate office, education, healthcare, historic preservation, municipal, and housing sectors over the firm’s 84 years of experience and has completed a diverse array of projects, including two recently completed buildings that—alongside the staff accreditations—illustrate the practice’s interest in sustainable design.
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Seneca Nation of Indians, Allegany Administration Building When the Seneca Nation of Indians began searching for an architecture firm to design a new building for their municipal headquarters, they were looking for a firm that would create a building that was truly representative of their culture. Kideney Architects was ultimately selected because of past successes interpreting clients’ needs and values. Designed in cooperation with Two Row Architects of Hamilton, Ontario, the 3-story, 90,000-squarefoot Allegany Administration Building opened in March. “Sustainable design is very important to [the Seneca Nation] and is part of their culture,” says Joe Lenahan, an executive associate at Kideney. “They have a tradition that leads them to design for the ‘seventh generation.’ This means that Council members act on behalf of the community to consider the impact of the building on seven generations to come.”
aBOve: Kideney architects used thermallymodified lumber for the exterior siding of the seneca Nation’s allegany administration Building.
Although the client chose to not pursue LEED certification, Kideney Architects used the LEED checklist as a design guideline, implementing many sustainable features in the Salamanca, New York, building, including a highly insulated building envelope, high-performance glass
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Kideney Architects with low-E coating, full-condensing boilers, a digital energy-management system, and a high-tech air-based system perimeter. Adjacent to an outdoor deck on the south side of the building is a green roof planted with a mix of sedum plants, which are highly tolerant of various weather conditions. Lenahan says that even though the roof was put into place last fall, “the plants sat through the winter not formally installed and have thrived beautifully.” He added that the indoor environmental quality is very responsive to control of environment by the occupants, with individual control of heating, cooling, and lighting. The HVAC system was also designed to provide high-quality ventilation air and is paired with operable windows to allow natural ventilation. Materials of no/low-VOC and low-formaldehyde content were used throughout the building.
“sustainable design is very important to [the seneca Nation] and is part of their culture. they have a tradition that leads them to design for the ‘seventh generation,’ to consider the impact of the building on seven generations to come.” —Joe Lenahan, Executive Associate
and coordinated with the ceiling and lighting design to create a cohesive built environment. “When you enter [the chamber], it feels like something important happens in there,” Lenahan adds. “The soft natural light, the roof structure, a built-in desk that’s large enough for the 16 council members and president to sit at—it’s all very impressive.”
Lenahan believes that the building makes quite an impression when first seen across the two-acre meadow that makes up the foreground of the building, pointing out that the building fits the site, especially due to the replanting of indigenous plants, native flowers, and wild strawberries to restore the natural meadow and support wildlife. The seven-acre building site—originally used for agriculture—also features a 20 foot drop in elevation, bordered by a bank of mature trees that were protected during the construction and now impart a “comfortable, natural feeling,” Lenahan says. “It was important to the client to preserve the natural environment.” The natural feel is extended to the building’s framing and exterior, which is a combination of stone and wood, “giving it a permanent grounded feeling—very warm and very comfortable,” he says. With a goal of reducing artificial light, exterior shading devices were used to mitigate solar gain, and an abundance of glass was utilized to bring in natural light. There is more to the cultural building than preservation. Upon approaching the entrance, visitors encounter the first of many symbolic elements of the site: a ceremonial circle made of 3-foot-high boulders arranged into a 60foot ring that serves as an amphitheater for community events. It also includes a monument to American Indian veterans who served in the US military. Lenahan says the design of the Council chamber was also especially significant because it is a sacred part of the building. The chamber consists of an elliptical, inward-facing space framed in heavy timber and complemented with high windows, stone walls, and a dome roof supported by 13 columns. The number of columns comes from the original Iroquois calendar, which had 13 months since it was based on the cycles of the moon. In the space, the expressive wooden structure is exposed
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M&T Bank Corp. Prototype Branch, Southgate Plaza The Southgate Plaza prototype branch for M&T Bank Corp. is, like the Seneca Administration Building, aware of the convergence of its own historical and modern contexts. The client sought to build a modern, model bank in which the grandeur of architectural detail would support the goals of sustainable design. The Buffalo, New York, branch was the first of the M&T Bank’s many mid-Atlantic branches to completely embrace eco-friendly design. Originally aiming for an owner-mandated LEED Silver designation, Glenn Pawloski, Kideney Architects’ executive vice president, says the 9,200-square-foot, single-story structure “now looks like it is going to comfortably get Gold certification.” OPPOsIte PaGe; tOP: Drawing from the seneca Nation’s history and traditions, the architects used a symbolic number of columns and an elliptical shape for the tribal Council Chamber and incorporated heavy timber framing into the chamber’s design. BOttOM, Left: Grand Hall at seneca Nation’s allegany administration Building. BOttOM, rIGHt: the administration Building’s main entrance, exhibiting tree of Peace wampum.
Kideney Architects served as the Architect of Record, working together with Pentagram Architects of San Francisco and London, and assisted by HHL Architects, of Buffalo. “Everybody learned from the prototype—the design team and the owner too,” Pawloski says. “The structure...held its grand opening in March and has been well received throughout the corporation and by the customers as well.” Key features of the design reinforce the sustainable aspects of the project: shading louvers at the east and south elevations, which provide light to the interior while limiting solar gain in the morning and afternoon hours; and a 20-percent reduction in water use by installing dual-flush fixtures and waterless urinals. “A true measure of where we were able to accommodate a lot with LEED,” Pawloski says, “was the mechanical
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spaces/office system in the design of the envelope of the building,” which includes a VAV and VAV-rooftop system. He adds that the most challenging, but also most enjoyable, aspect of the project was the emphasis on energy modeling. “There weren’t any preconceptions—it was a matter of budgeting how much energy we were allowed to spend for various pieces,” he explains. “It was like building the building from the bottom up from a very analytical point of view.” A high-efficiency boiler system was also installed to provide hot water heat along the exterior of the wall along the window areas, due to the high percentage of glass built into the exterior of the building. In fact, the building’s glass cube design serves as a unique identification marker for the prototype and was designed to be as transparent as possible. “The bank wanted to show off activity inside the building to customers, since it is a retail facility and is located with a major roadway to both the east and south,” Pawloski explains. Additional LEED points were obtained with the large amount of natural light coming into the space, accomplished partially by the use of three radius skylights in the public area. Pawloski adds that the large amount of glass area allows there to be a view of the outdoors for 90 percent of occupied areas. Both the Allegany Administration Building and M&T Bank’s Prototype Branch show the limitless potential of Kideney Architects’ expert and experienced staff. Most of all, however, they illustrate one thing: the client’s values—the most important piece of the equation. gb&d
A MESSAGE FROM IBC ENGINEERING IBC Engineering has provided mechanical, electrical, and sustainable engineering services for numerous successful projects completed by Kideney Architects. Our relationship with Kideney is not only professional, it’s sustainable. We appreciate being part of the M&T Bank Project Team, delivering the Bank’s first LEED Silver branch. Learn more at www.ibceng.com.
A MESSAGE FROM M/E ENGINEERING, P.C. M/E Engineering, P.C. is a full-service 200 employee mechanical- and electrical-consulting engineering firm committed to valuedriven solutions for its national clients. As one of the first members of the USGBC and with more than 40 LEED APs, M/E Engineering has a dedicated focus toward efficient, sustainable building design. M/E Engineering has successfully teamed with Kideney Architects on several types of projects including commercial, educational, healthcare, historical, and municipal facilities.
Mechanical/Electrical Engineering Consultants M/E Engineering, P.C. is a leading mechanical and electrical engineering Consulting firm, offering professional design services in: • Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning • Central Heating/Cooling Plants • Energy Services • Electrical Power Distribution • Co-Generation • Lighting • Data/Telecommunications/Security • Fire Alarm/Security Systems • Plumbing/Fire Protection • Systems Commissioning • LEED Green Building Design • Computer Aided Engineering Services • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling Buffalo 60 Lakefront Blvd., Suite 320 Buffalo, NY 14202 (716) 845-5092 Rochester 150 North Chestnut Street Rochester, NY 14604 (585) 288-5590 Syracuse 441 South Salina St., Suite 702 Syracuse, NY 13202 (315) 218-9564 Albany 10 Airline Drive, Suite 201 Albany, NY 12205 (518) 533-2171 www.meengineering.com Value-driven solutions.
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a sunny outlook Paying homage to southern Nevada’s sun-drenched environment, JMA Architects uses solar photovoltaics to capture renewable energy for some of the region’s highest-profile buildings
by Julie Schaeffer
during his 38 years in the architecture business, Tom Schoeman, AIA, has had a front row seat to the evolution of the sustainable design movement. “JMA Architects has always been interested in designing buildings that are appropriate to the environment and incorporating passive energy-saving features, but when the process became more formalized, we jumped on the wagon,” the principal says. The firm jumped quickly. JMA Architects was the first architecture firm in Nevada to join the USGBC and quickly went on to start working on LEED projects. In 2007, the telecommunications building it designed for the College of Southern Nevada was the first LEEDcertified new construction project in southern Nevada. “Initially, we had to encourage clients to adopt sustainable design principles,” Schoeman says. “Today, we don’t have a single client that doesn’t ask for a sustainably designed project. They’re all interested in doing the right thing.” Even so, Schoeman says clients have had to evolve in regard to their knowledge of sustainable design. “Originally, clients looked to sustainable design because they wanted to minimize operational expense across the life of a building,” he says. “Now they also want to contribute to the sustainability of the environment as a whole, so they’re adding renewable-energy systems to projects that they previously weren’t willing to capitalize.” Schoeman says some of JMA Architects’ most exciting work is ‘solarizing’ three College of Southern Nevada campuses as part of an overall sustainable design effort. “On one hand, we’re improving the existing buildings themselves by reviewing their existing mechanical systems and building tighter envelopes; on the other hand, we’re adding renewable-energy systems by installing photovoltaics,” Schoeman explains. “In doing so, we’re finding that we can achieve about 60 percent of a campus’ energy demands. With Southern Nevada Energy incentives, that can result in a payback of six years.”
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SuSTAInABLE REALITy fOR VIRTuAL HIGH ScHOOL One of JMA Architects’ most recently completed projects is a 115,000-square-foot facility that serves as a virtual high school for the Clark County School District and a digital media facility for Las Vegas PBS. A building with such a unique use deserved unique features—and one of the most notable is the 202 geothermal wells drilled 400 feet into the ground under the site and connected to a heat-pump system. In the summer, heat is extracted from the building and pumped into the ground. In the winter, the system runs in reverse, bringing heat from the ground to heat the building. Another unique feature is a photovoltaic farm on the building’s roof. It currently generates more than 300 kilowatt hours of energy per year, about 18 percent of the building’s needs—but the infrastructure is in place to expand that to fill up to 25 percent of the building’s needs. These features, as well as a number of others, added up to a LEED‐NC v2.1 score of 44 credits, leading the building to qualify for LEED Gold certification. But perhaps more important than the LEED points is what the building is doing for the environment. “The client made an interesting statement about the project,” Schoeman notes. “He said, ‘Today I have a building that’s twice the size of my old one— but it costs 20 percent less to operate.’ That’s what sustainable design is about.”
TOP, OPPOSITE PAGE: This building, expecting to achieve LEED Gold certification, serves as a virtual high school and a digital media facility for Las Vegas PBS. It uses geothermal energy for heating and cooling.
JMA Architects also added a 3.3-megawatt photovoltaic system to the design of the approximately 1 million-square-foot hospital for the Veterans’ Administration and an 11-kwdc photovoltaic system to the 300,000-square-foot city hall for the City of Las Vegas. “The city hall’s photovoltaic application consists of roof panels as well as photovoltaic ‘trees’ that filter light onto a plaza,” Schoeman explains. “We wanted it to represent the future of Las Vegas and southern Nevada, which we believe is solar energy.” But that’s only the beginning for this veteran firm that continues to remain on the cutting edge of sustainable design with eight LEED projects currently under its belt. “We want to continue to push the envelope,” Schoeman says. “Our goal is a net-zero building.” gb&d
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JMA Architects
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“tom axtell of vegas PBs said, ‘today I have a building that’s twice the size of my old one—but it costs half to operate.’ that’s what sustainable design is about.” —Tom Schoeman, Principal
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no separation of church and business Fusing technology and biblical principles, the founders of Intelligent Design Group LLP have created a unique, “virtual” way to handle projects, which has only furthered client satisfaction and company growth by Meghan Boyer
for greg peterson and todd havekotte, religion and technology need not be at odds. The men founded Intelligent Design Group LLP on Christian principles (“Those same biblical Christian principles make good business principles,” Peterson says), which is one thing that makes them unique among competitors. The other is a “virtual” component to the firm’s operations.
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Intelligent Design Group has provided expert consulting services in the areas of master planning and architecture since 2004. The focus on clients led to the development of the virtual network element, which enables them to build skilled project teams tailored to each project’s needs and reduce overhead costs and environmental impact. In action, the system works thusly: the 22 contract associates in Intelligent Design Group’s network are located throughout the United States but can contribute their expertise to a single project without being onsite through CipherShare. The design group also works with network business partners, such as Design 4 Studio and Tusick & Associates, who can also access the online system and contribute their expertise. The virtual system enables the company to save costs and reduce environmental stress by eliminating a physical office, Havekotte points out. “Our friends went out and bought Priuses—we got rid of the car and the office entirely,” he says. “We tell clients we have eliminated all the overhead that does not add value to their projects.”
“The cornerstone of our operations is a computer program called CipherShare that allows anybody from anywhere that’s in our system to access our project work the same way a server works in a conventional office,” Havekotte explains. The values and technology really are intertwined—two sides of the same coin, the latter further enabling the former, which at its core is about treating people well. “We try to do the right thing for our clients,” Peterson says, noting that most clients come from networking
endeavors or referrals. “We are very careful to treat our clients in the right way so they keep coming back and understand the value we provide. From the day we conceived the structure of the company to the present, we have tried to value our clients and look at things from their perspective.”
BeLOw: rendering of the 16-story rivervue project in Pittsburgh, Pa.
From single-room residential additions to large-scale construction, Intelligent Design Group completes roughly 20 projects annually and organizes its team members into different groups based on skill sets, in
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“from the day we conceived the structure of the company to the present, we have tried to value our clients and look at things from their perspective.” —Todd Havekotte, Partner
1340 Old Freeport Rd. Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Design Engineers HVAC | Fire Protection | Plumbing Electrical | Tele/Data LEED Certified
- Fifty Years of Innovation Continuing Client Commitment Means Your Satisfaction order to best address the needs of each individual project. “The key to success on a project is to get the right people on the job,” Peterson says. “Firm size is not a driver of quality or size of project that you get. The quality and capability of the people assigned to the project is the driver.” The company put its people-based strategy to use for the former State Office building that Millcraft Industries is developing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 16-story, 295,000-square-foot office building is being converted into residential apartments in a striking adaptive reuse of an existing building in a downtown urban environment. “Usually in an urban environment, for this kind of building they would tear it down and put up a new building,” Havekotte says, but under the current design, the building will likely attain LEED certification, since the developer believes in incorporating sustainable principles into its urban projects. Intelligent Design Group works closely with clients to determine how best to incorporate green and sustainable principles into their business models, Havekotte continues. “We ask them what their goals are and how they view those things. Is it important to them to have a LEED award? How much are they willing to spend?” The company also educates clients about the impact of their choices to their business models and the environment. Not every green system or choice may be right for a project, and it’s important to Peterson and Havekotte to partner closely with clients to ensure they are making the right decisions. “There’s a place where it makes sense for them and a place where it hurts their business,” Havekotte says. “We want to make sure they are making choices cognitively and not just responding to a trend.” In statements such as these, the wisdom of putting moral values into a business is fully grasped. gb&d
Our Principals are Involved in Every Project!
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world-renowned wellness just like sustainability goes beyond fixing the worst pollution problems, healthcare goes beyond treating the worst illnesses. For those who desire holistic wellness, Miraval melds health and sustainability. The Tucson, Arizona, oasis was voted the number one spa in the world by Travel & Leisure and Conde Nast. The 105,000-square-foot spa project consists of a renovation and addition, which will include space for yoga, meditation, and outdoor treatments, and the grounds include a design that enables native flora and fauna to thrive, adding to the natural healing process. As part of the master-planned expansion, Seattle-based Mithun also designed 16 LEED-certified residential villas that, due to the desert location, required considerable design efforts for water conservation and erosion avoidance.
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a hub for carbonneutral care a new hospital in sweden holds a traditional motto in “patient first,” but in actuality, it puts the Earth on equal footing. Seeking to become a hub for doctors and patients in need of the latest technology, Stockholm’s Karolinska Solna University Hospital will also be carbon neutral and the first university hospital to be receive a LEED rating and be certified by Sweden’s “environmentally classified building” system Miljöklassad Byggnad. Designed by Tengbom Architects and expecting completion in 2015, the hospital will utilize advanced lighting and ventilation controls and ultra-durable materials made from renewable resources—the structure is designed to last at least 100 years. Photos: New Karolinska Solna/White.
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modern maternity in korea in what kmd architects calls a “triple green design,” the modern woman now has an attractive healthcare option. The CHA Women and Children’s Hospital, in Seoul, Korea, is designed as a celebration of advanced medical technology, sustainability and natural grace, and traditional Korean aesthetics. Covering the gamut of women’s health services, the facility includes natural materials, extensive daylighting, rooftop gardens, and plant and water features. The green design’s use of fritted glass within the interior allows for natural light while retaining patient privacy. The 165,000-squarefoot hospital received an AIA National Healthcare Design award, and its modern services coupled with contemporary healthcare design represents a paradigm shift for the Korean society. Photos: Jong O Kim.
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green bill of health Madison Construction is helping bring green, affordable healthcare to the Chicagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s poorest neighborhoods by Jamie Morgan
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while reviewing plans for the lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago, the project managers at Madison Construction saw an opportunity to add some energy savings at no cost. The building needed structural caissons drilled into the ground to support the building structure, and although the depth is substantially shallower than a traditional geothermal well, the hole is much larger in diameter and allowed a slinky-like tube to be inserted. The ad-hoc geothermal design is expected to handle up to half of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heating-andcooling load.
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founded the company 10 years ago on that very premise. While running a $350 million program at a previous construction company, he noticed a drastically underserved market in the $10 million and less range—projects that were complex but too small for larger companies and too difficult for smaller ones. “Many of these projects were for nonprofits that had limited budgets but complicated issues,” Ferrino says. “We took the time to solve those problems and bring the projects in under budget and deliver a better project than they originally specified.” Now the company has an extensive client list, ranging in sector from government to residential. The company provides pre-construction, construction, and post-construction management services for new or renovation projects. Its newest and growing service, performance contracting, analyzes and revises client’s current energy and operational systems.
President Robert Ferrino says caissons have never been used for geothermal energy, and if it has, there hasn’t been an official study. “We’re doing a complete study to see how much energy we can get out of these caissons for free,” he says. “We think it’s going to be pretty dramatic, and what I hope for in ten years is that it’s just another standard green, sustainable product.” The $15 million project is scheduled for completion in 2011 and exemplifies what Madison Construction is all about: innovation that adds value to a project. Ferrino
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aBOve: the PCC austin family Health Center is at the cutting-edge of green design and serves one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. rIGHt: New exam rooms in the PCC Health Center. Photos: Ballogg Photography.
Ferrino, who was the inaugural president for Chicago’s Southwest Suburb USGBC chapter, finds that today’s client is more receptive of green techniques and LEED certification. It’s a building philosophy that Madison Construction has always pushed, and with the emergence of new technologies and lower premiums, it’s something that clients want. One of these clients was PCC Wellness, desiring a healthy building for its new Austin Family Health Center in Chicago. The building was completed in January 2010 and achieved LEED Gold certification, a rank above its initial target. It’s a non-profit health center serving one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, and
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Madison Construction
“we truly partner with our clients and approach a project as if it’s our own. we look at it and say, ‘If this was my building, what would I do?’” —Robert Ferrino, President
aBOve: reception and waiting areas at PCC austin family Health Center. Left: New dental suites located in the Health Center.
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with a budget of less than $5 million, the team sought ways to save money yet deliver a state-of-the-art facility. With the help of architect Manske, Dieckman, Thompson, the construction company and its joint-venture partner Kingdom Community produced an 18,000-squarefoot, two-story ground-up medical-office building, complete with offices, classrooms, examination rooms, a pharmacy, laboratories, and procedure rooms with as many sustainable elements: a geothermal heat-pump mechanical system, green roof, a wetland area (for storm-water management), a curtain-wall glazing system, polished concrete floors, and recycled carpeting. Through these and a daylight control system, solar water heating, and water conservation, the building is 20 percent more energy efficient than the standard medical-office building.
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Ferrino describes the management process as an extremely fluid one: “The team met with the owner, met with staff, understood the needs, and just nailed the project.” Madison Construction took on the challenge of not only assisting in the design and building of the center but also in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy grant programs, something the company has also done for other clients. “We truly partner with our clients and approach a project as if it’s our own,” Ferrino says. “We look at it and say, ‘If this was my building, what would I do?’” This is the way Madison Construction earns its clients’ loyalty, and with a backlog that has grown from $500,000 in 2001 to $50 million in 2010, it’s fair to say that their loyalty is worth something. gb&d
Stoltzner Plumbing & Sewer Contractors, Inc. 92 Turner Avenue | Elk Grove Village IL 60007
Residential | Commercial | Multi-Family | Solar
Over 45 years of serving Chicago and the surrounding communities Proud to be a sub-contractor of Madison Construction on the PCC Wellness Center
Fax: 847-427-1457 | info@stoltzner.com
847-427-1450 www.stoltzner.com
-A New Standard of Innovation-
Madison Construction evaluates each project based on the client’s programming to produce the most environmentally friendly building and maximum tenant comfort. This process includes reviewing various systems and design assumptions while considering initial construction costs as well as life cycle costs that will be incurred long after construction is completed.
Specialties: General Contracting Construction Management Design Builder Pre-Construction Green/Energy Conservation Developer Support Services Performance Contracting
Phone: (708) 535-7716 | Fax: (708) 535-7791 15426 S. 70th Court, Orland Park, IL 60462
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hospitals for the new frontier Though it works in uncharted territory, HFP Architects may have the answer: sustainably built healthcare facilities that take into consideration the health of all people and simultaneously boost the local economy
by Suchi Rudra
in what other kinds of buildings will you find both life-saving and life-threatening situations going on 24 hours a day? For Barry Mosesman, president of HFP Architects in Montecito, California, this exact question attracted him to designing healthcare facilities—the firm’s area of specialty. “A hospital is more complicated than a cyclotron,” he notes, adding that for his preferred project types—smaller and medium-size facilities, especially free-standing buildings—designing a new building is much easier than working with an existing structure. “It’s a lot easier when you’re starting from the ground up.”
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aBOve: entry view of the salinas valley Memorial Hospital Heart Center. to keep money in the community, HfP architects works to source labor and materials locally for its healthcare projects. OPPOsIte PaGe: Interior view of the staircase at salinas valley Memorial Hospital Center.
For instance, though the firm has done some historic renovations, new imaging and surgery centers have a much higher possibility for sustainable features. Most recently, the firm completed a Women’s Center as an addition to San Benito District Hospital in Hollister, California, utilizing mostly local and regional sources for the steel and concrete to keep the project as sustainable as possible. Because the addition is for a community hospital, HFP has ensured that the contractor and subcontractor are regionally based or as local as possible, so that distance traveled to the site is minimal and money is kept within the community. “We work specifically for non-profit hospitals and try to make sure that money is expended on behalf of the community. So we deal with a lot of consultants and try to find them locally,” Mosesman explains. The Women’s Center features 13 labor- and delivery-recovery rooms, “so mama never has to move throughout the course of her stay,” Mosesman says, “and it’s also great for the staff.” He adds that this method of designing and building women’s and maternity centers, which include resource libraries, mammography suites, gift shops and spas for mothers and prospective mothers, are standard in California and are now starting to catch on across the rest of the country.
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HFP Architects Established in 1972, HFP has always tried to use sustainable products, though the team used to call it “life-cycle costing,” Mosesman says. “And [we] used products and machines that wouldn’t wear out over the long haul.” Hospitals, however, of which HFP has designed 30 nationwide, are difficult to design to LEED standards due to the enormous amount of energy consumption necessary at all times. According to Mosesman, there is only one LEED Platinum hospital in the country, and yet hospitals are very interested in sustainability, not just for the sake of acquiring LEED certification, but “for the sake of being efficient and sensitive to the community and the environment as a whole. And [hospitals] see natural sources of power and water as a benefit to their own cost.” And yet there are more challenges to building green hospitals. One difficulty, “at least in California,” Mosesman notes, “[is that] there aren’t a great number of brand new hospitals where you can start from ground zero. There’s a lot of retrofitting because of the earthquake-safety regulations we have to meet. Back in the Midwest and the East Coast, those hospital buildings are much older, so it’s time for those to completely rebuild. They’re stone, brick, and mortar and can’t be retrofitted too well. … The west is still a new frontier.” gb&d
HFP Architects is a national architectural design and planning firm offering a broad range of services to professional, commercial and residential clients while providing fully attentive personal service. Full architectural services include programming, master site planning, code analyses, building design, project budgets, construction documents preparation, equipment planning, construction supervision, landscape design and interior design. Over thirty eight years of experience in planning, design and construction has brought HFP a proud record of over 98% repeat clients, and a reputation as one of the top health care planning and architectural firms in California.
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“we work specifically for non-profit hospitals and try to make sure that money is expended on behalf of the community.” —Barry Mosesman, President
HFP Architects | 116 B Middle Road | Montecito, CA 93108 Barry Mosesman AIA President | bmosesman@hfparchitects.com Phone (805)969-6887 | Fax (805)969-6888
www.hfparchitects.com
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beta testing the future demonstrating the environmental prowess of technology, the lighting and HVAC systems of one new Orange County office have earned it the title “Office of the Future.” In June, sustainable engineering firm Glumac successfully became the first Office of the Future (OTF) pilot project to be completed in North America. Created by the OTF Consortium and managed by New Buildings Institute, the program partners with utilities to invent the highest-performance integrated energy systems in the commercial environment. Glumac’s facility uses groundbreaking technology such as self-powered, wireless, task/ambient lighting that was designed to communicate with the lighting system and share a sensor network. Designed by Gensler Architects, the project is targeting LEED Platinum. Photos: RMA Photography.
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new yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new landmark a city the size of new york needs more than Central Park if residents are to be replete. The Bryant Park revitalization has turned the once decrepit green space into a well utilized urban cloister, and the only public park operated by a private company. The efforts began in the late 1970s, with completion of the project coming in 1992. Now in 2010, OLIN, the Philadelphia landscape architecture behind the design, has received a Landmark Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. In addition to obvious sustainable features, the park serves as an inconspicuous green roof to an annex of the adjacent New York Public Library, which houses nearly 6 million volumes beneath the park. Photos: Peter Mauss/Esto.
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the facts of the green life
of establishing and promoting green practices, it’d be foolish to pass it up. C.R. Crawford, suffice it to say, is not letting the opportunity go to waste.
C.R. Crawford Construction—not one to let opportunity pass it by—answers the question: why all this green business? By David Hudnall
two reasons, he says. “the first is that it’s the right thing to do, environmentally. The second is about marketing: people want to be environmentally responsible, and if we offer what people want, and people view us as environmentally responsible, we’re a stronger company.” Those are frank, refreshing words. And they come from Jason Keathley, the vice president of estimating at C.R. Crawford Construction in Fayetteville, Arkansas. What he says is true: one of the biggest reasons for the increase in sustainable, energy-efficient building in the United States is that the idea of building green allows people to feel both socially responsible and cutting-edge. If a business has the capability
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aBOve: this LeeD silver Olive Garden is the first LeeD restaurant for this arkansas owner. Photo: stephen thetford.
The commercial contractor has four LEED projects under its belt in the Midwest and South and is actively seeking more. Founded in a different iteration more than thirty years ago by Mike Forbis, the firm has an additional full-service location in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the years, C.R. Crawford—65 percent of whose work is actually outside Arkansas—has worked on hotels, restaurants, retail stores, and medical buildings. “We do a little bit of everything,” Keathley says. “We don’t do residential or heavy highway work, but otherwise, we’ve done it.” C.R. Crawford’s work on a Jonesboro, Arkansas Olive Garden helped it become the first LEED restaurant for the owner. The building received LEED Silver certification and included a system that captures the heat from exhaust fans in the kitchen and redirects it to heat the building during the winter. At the Stepping Stone School for Exceptional Children, in Alma, Arkansas, the company finished a $9 million, 55,000-squarefoot job in August, for which it is tracking LEED Silver. “We were involved from the beginning of the project and actually brought our own LEED consultant in,” Keathley says.
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QUALITY CRAFTMEN ENTERPRISES
“When Quality Counts”
“People want to be environmentally responsible, and if we offer what people want, and people view us as environmentally responsible, we’re a stronger company.” —Jason Keathley, Vice President of Estimating
And then there’s ClubHaus, a fitness center off Dickson Street in Fayetteville. C.R. Crawford is currently in the process of applying for LEED certification for the building, which is tracking Silver. The firm helped design the building, and recycled all lumber on the project, upgraded the HVAC systems, and recycled all the wall insulation. Keathley says he’s most proud of the water systems. “We recycle all the water,” he says. “All shower, water, and sink water goes through a system and is repurposed for flushing the toilets,” he says. “That was probably the most significant LEED element on the job.” The company has fifteen employees in the field and twelve in the office, all of whom collaborate on the roughly thirty projects C.R. Crawford takes on a year. The size of those projects varies from $500,000 all the way up to $10 million; $40 million in sales is the firm’s goal for 2010. The hope is that an increasing percentage of sales will be composed of sustainable projects. “All clients are interested in LEED in my experience,” Keathley says. “They just want to know what the cost is and what the paybacks are in utility bills down the road. I always say you can pick the low-hanging fruit and get a basic LEED certification relatively inexpensively. The Silver and Gold certification are where it gets more expensive. But that’s really where you want to be.” gb&d
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Phone: (479) 419-9170 Fax: (479) 927-3012
1206 Dyer Street | Springdale, AR 72762
www.qcenterprisespro.com
14020 Goose Creek Rd. | Fayetteville, AR 72704
Commercial Residential Industrial Service Dale Hill-Owner Office Cell
479-267-2403 479-871-3017
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solutions
the construction of Ontario International airport’s new terminal complex included an associated parking lot, roads, and site work with electrical power.
heLIx eLeCtrIC INC. In order to push Congress for more renewable-energies funding, this electrical contractor has partnered with Green Bank and created a renewable energy division to handle its sustainability initiatives
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lobbying is tough business. ask green Bank—a group dedicated to finding more money in congress for renewable-energy projects. But participation in policy and government funding is how a company proves that it’s not just interested in the future of renewable energy but committed to making it happen. And that is the modus operandi of Helix Electric Inc., one of the country’s largest electrical contractors and the only such company with membership in Green Bank. “We have a dedicated staff that promotes renewable energy across the country, with full in-house design capabilities for such work,” explains James Gunther, who serves as vice president of Helix and began his work there eight years ago. “The company is, I have to say, one of the most amazing companies I’ve ever been a part of, certainly
the best collection of talent I’ve seen in my 20-something years in the business. Helix is truly a staff of A+ players; we recruit and hire the best staff not only from the United States but from around the world.” Gunther is based out of Helix’s Nevada office—the company also has locations in Arizona, California, Guam, and Hawaii—and is one of the largest electrical contractors in the nation. With more than 1,500 field workers and a skilled management team, Helix specializes in highly technical, complex, large-scale projects, including design-build projects and prime contracting jobs. In the past, they have worked on a variety of projects, including airports, civic centers, schools, hospitals, prisons, hotels, office buildings, residential projects, and convention centers.
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“[Helix electric] is…one of the most amazing companies I’ve ever been a part of, certainly the best collection of talent I’ve seen in my 20-something years in the business. we recruit and hire the best staff not only from the united states but from around the world.” —James Gunther, Vice President
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With such a portfolio comes a great deal of expertise, but also strenuous continuing education and safety programs, something that the company stresses. “We have a lot of LEED accredited professionals, something you rarely find in an electrical subcontractor or general contractor,” Gunther notes. “The tenure of the people here both in our executive, middle management, and field operations is a testament to how well the company is run and how well it takes care of its employees.” Helix is excited about the development and success of its renewable-energy division, headed by Helix’s Boris Shekhter. The division works to stay up to date on the latest models and advancements in green, sustainable, and renewable energies and heads up all of the company’s green work, including its connections within Green Bank. The company as a whole works to ensure that every project incorporates as many green techniques as possible.
A recent example is its work on the navy’s primary electrical-distribution system in Guam. The mission? Upgrade and harden the system. “The project not only hardens the system to mitigate damage caused by frequent typhoons but also increases system capacity for future increased electrical loads,” Gunther explains. The project included conversion of selected 13.8 kilovolt primary distribution circuits, including conductors, switches, and transformers—both overhead and underground—as well as the conversion of secondary distribution systems affected by the primary system work and outages for the conversion of more than 60 naval buildings. Helix demolished the old system and installed new dead-end poles and riser poles for the existing 34.5 kilovolt and 13.8 kilovolt overhead, as well as waterline extensions to provide acceptable levels of water flow at newly installed fire hydrants for fire-fighting
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solutions/electrical contracting
Helix Electric Inc.
purposes. It also provided major surface restoration for asphalt roadways, sidewalks, and landscaped areas. “Helix Electric provided all components of quality control, safety, and environmental control and used only workers who were local residents of Guam,” Gunther says. “We also worked with the Navy in altering start times to help lessen the traffic load at the naval entrance.”
aBOve: Helix electric’s work at the Los angeles world airport included a kinetic lighting installation of 15 glass-encased pylons forming a circle, 560 feet in diamater with an average height of 100 feet. the company also created a lighted 32 foot ‘LaX’ sign.
OPPOsIte PaGe: the 469,000square-foot uC–Davis surgery and emergency services Pavilion is comprised of three above-grade levels with a partial basement having direct connection to the south and east face of the existing Davis tower building.
Helix is involved in more than 100 projects a year, most of them currently for the government, and has participated in many LEED projects and many solar projects as well. As Helix peers into the future, it sees many more renewable technologies, a fresh crop of clients, and a continued passion for its work, something Gunther is very familiar with. “We are looking at new markets and new sectors with a big push in the renewables market,” he says. “Of course our current business model is based on ultimate client satisfaction, so as we look to the future, we cannot forget about what has made us so strong today. We cannot sacrifice at the sake of our current client base.” —by Thalia Aurinko-Mostow
INDUSTRY LEADING CONSTRUCTORS AND ENGINEERS Design Build Commercial | Residential | Industrial Solar, Wind Turbines and Financing Arizona | California | Hawaii ï Guam | Nevada helixelectric.com
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solutions/electrical contracting
SPrIg eLeCtrIC Co. In nature it’s known as anas acuta. In California’s energy sector, it’s the inspiration for business. sprig electric traces its name back to a particularly inspirational species of duck. “[Sprigs] are very swift swimmers, and their speed is accompanied by a lot of grace and elegance,” says Mike Glogovac, Sprig’s vice president. His admiration not only reflects a deep appreciation for a unique bird (scientific name: anas acuta) but also, on a grander scale, how the company generally perceives its relationship to, and responsibility for the natural environment. Indeed, Sprig’s commitment to environmental thinking runs deep. The company was founded in 1970 in the home of Pepper Synder, an entrepreneur and, as the company’s name suggests, avid conservationist. Since the initial $5,000 investment that brought the business into existence, the company— which specializes in electrical- and data/ communication-contracting services, and has recently entered the renewable-energy market—has experienced remarkable growth, now topping $100 million in annual volume. And though it is officially listed as an “electrical contractor,” Glogovac believes the more apt designation for the certified green business is “energy contractor.” “We move, control, monitor, conserve, and protect energy,” he says. Central to Sprig’s business and environmental initiatives is the use and installation of cutting-edge technologies. “Our customers look to us to bring solutions to the table in the way of the latest technologies to improve efficiency and performance,” Glogovac says. Acting as a knowledgeable and reliable source for the most effective and efficient concepts in the field has been especially important given the company’s client base: California not only boasts some of the nation’s strictest energy codes but also a large number of businesses that seek to establish and maintain green reputations. “There’s a huge awareness of sustainability [here],” he adds, “and there are companies willing to invest in
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aBOve: a sprig electric project using BIM.
it, even if it costs more initially, because they want to be allied with the green movement and because they see that it’s good both for the environment and for business.”
traditionally suffered from dim, uneven, and bluish light output—enough, perhaps, for a nice ambient effect but not for a functional workspace.
The company is careful, however, to ensure that its clients don’t serve as guinea pigs. There are many promising products that end up fizzling out when put to the test in the real world. Thus, Sprig uses its own workspace—including the vice president’s office— as a testing ground for new ideas. “You want to be on the leading edge without going over the ledge,” he laughs .
That’s all changed, Glogovac says. The test-version LEDs in his office have all the sustainable features as previous generations but with far superior light spectrum and control features. The cost remains elevated, he admits, but Glogovac believes it will soon drop as people realize the product’s benefits and manufacturing volume increases. “This is the direction that lighting is going,” he says. “Fluorescent will be antiquated; it’s just a matter of time.”
Glogovac is working with one developing technology that seems to be living up to its potential: the latest generation of LED lighting. Some LED light fixtures use about the same energy as fluorescent lights but have the added benefits of not containing mercury and having a vastly expanded lifecycle, lasting more than five times longer than fluorescent bulbs. The problem is that LEDs have
In addition to energy conservation, Sprig is also deeply involved in energy generation. Glogovac highlights one recent job as a good example of Sprig’s commitment to sustainable power production. The firm partnered with Chevron Energy Solutions to replace a school’s open-air parking lot
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solutions/geothermal design
“Our customers look to us to bring solutions to the table in the way of the latest technologies to improve efficiency and performance.” —Mike Glogovac, Vice President
with a series of covered carports, each with a solar panel on top. The carports don’t just provide much-appreciated shade to the school’s employees and visitors—at a total size of 500 kilowatts, the solar panels also significantly help reduce the load on San Jose’s already stretched electrical grid. Sprig has taken in-house actions to reduce its own electrical load. The company retrofitted its entire warehouse—approximately 20,000 square feet—with 200-watt fluorescent lamps. (LED technology has not quite achieved warehouse-volume cost effectiveness yet.) The project immediately reduced power consumption by close to 40 percent and paid for itself in less than seven months. “If you’re going to talk it, you want to walk it,” Glogovac says. Indeed, ensuring that the company’s image is backed by reality is something Sprig has sought to do since its inception. “We strive not just to complete a project but to exceed expectations,” he notes. That includes their own expectations: even in the current economic environment, the company hopes to double in size in the next five years—“at a minimum,” Glogovac stresses. At the end of the day, all this ultimately points back to Sprig’s unique name and character. It’s no accident that the company is named after a bird. It’s not only an apt metaphor for its commitment to conservation and sustainability, but also, to stretch the analogy a little further, for its soaring aspirations. “Now that we’ve got wings,” Glogovac says, “we’re getting ready to fly.” —by Matt Petrusek
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Left: a mud rotary drill rig utilizing a polycrystalline diamond compact drill bit to provide enhanced water management during rock drilling operations.
geotherMaL ServICeS INC. A tight focus on the Earth’s natural system has spawned countless achievements for the New Jersey firm
of business now as its own entity, enough to remain solely focused in the Northeast, completing projects in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and others.
seven million feet of geothermal loop systems is simply one achievement Geothermal Services Inc. (GSI) can claim. Others might include its pedigree—formed in 1993 by F. Gordon Craig—or the successful carrying out of its mission—to provide design and construction of closed-loop, ground-coupled heat exchangers—or its vast list of past clients—primary and secondary education facilities, colleges and universities, hotels, nursing homes, historic sites, municipal, county and state facilities, and military bases.
Each project is inherently environmentally conscious, as the company provides a service that allows customers to tap into a renewable source of energy as close as their own back yard. “By taking advantage of the Earth’s nearly constant subsurface temperatures that are maintained by daily exposure to the sun, geothermal heating-and-cooling systems are the most energy-efficient heating-and-cooling technology available today,” says Craig, who serves as president. “As members of the USGBC, we have directed our sales and marketing efforts toward sustainable design projects. Over the past four years, we have completed a total of seven LEED projects and foresee this trend continuing to grow into the future.”
The achievements of the Mays Landing, New Jersey, firm all stemmed from its beginning: as a division of Craig Test Boring Co., a regional geotechnical test-boring and soils-engineering firm. With its current 15 employees, GSI has found plenty
Though sustainable from the start and with a positive future outlook, the company discovered when it was founded that geothermal systems were just starting to take hold in the residential market, due to the promotion of energy-efficiency rebates from local
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solutions/geothermal design utilities. Sustainable construction techniques were still in the early stages of development. Yet Craig spotted an opening in the market, saw an opportunity to expand its existing business as a test-boring company by moving into the geothermal market. “The similarities between geotechnical test boring and geothermal drilling allowed us to use our core competencies and skill sets to successfully expand into the geothermal market,” Craig says. “After several years of working in the residential market, the technology continued to make strides in the commercial sector, and we were able capitalize on opportunities there as well.” Most recently, GSI finished work on the New Jersey Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics at Kean University. This six-story, 117,000-square-foot academic building—expecting LEED certification this year—consists of classrooms, laboratories, and seminar space. The geothermalloop field was integrated into a hybridHVAC design that included a cooling tower to deal with peak demand conditions.
Geothermal Services Inc.
“Over the past four years, we have completed a total of seven LeeD projects and foresee this trend continuing to grow into the future.” —F. Gordon Craig, President
aBOve: Kean university’s science and technology center uses a geothermal-loop field and cooling tower to deal with peak demand conditions.
GSI will also begin work at an Air National Guard 177th Fighter Wing at the Atlantic City airport, as well as a Navy facility located at the recently merged mega-base of McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix, and Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey. Though a desire to “go green” is certainly a reason clients approach GSI, many are just as interested in keeping costs low. “I think that most of our residential and commercial customers tend to be green consumers and see the environmental aspects of geothermal systems as beneficial,” Craig says. “But these days, the bottom line of operatingcost savings is driving a lot of purchasing decisions. … Geothermal heating-and-cooling systems allow our customers to take advantage of both saving money and reducing their carbon footprint at the same time.” A final achievement of GSI: its astounding team of people. “I believe,” Craig says, “we have found success because of management team and our employees. The innovative ideas they come up with to make the job safer, more productive, and less physically demanding has been a team effort.” —by Zipporah Porton
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designer to watch
SArAh BArnArd For LA designer, historic preservation and green design go hand in hand by Julie Schaeffer
A daughter of historic preservationists, sarah Barnard has always been interested in conservation—and now it’s become a fundamental part of her interior design career. Barnard, who grew up and studied architecture and interior design in southern California, worked with a number of interior design firms before ending up with Johnny Chao, a noted interior designer with a focus on kitchens and baths. although Barnard enjoyed her experience with Chao, who remains a mentor and friend, after working with him for a number of years she wanted to expand her scope. “I fancy myself an artist first,” says Barnard. “I make compositions, and compositions don’t end at a doorway.” thus it was in 2003 that Barnard decided to take her career to the next level with the founding of sarah Barnard Design, a Los angeles interior-design firm that undertakes a broad range of projects, including private residences, offices, restaurants, and spas. >
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Sarah Barnard
“It’s our professional responsibility as designers to design spaces that are not only beautiful, but are also healthy for the people and planet.”
all of the firms’ work is mindful of healthy living, which to Barnard means not just being respectful of the environment, but also the structure’s history and the space’s inhabitants. It’s something Barnard learned from an early age, thanks in part to her parents. “My father spent most of his lifetime restoring antique furniture and millwork, and he and my mother started a grassroots non-profit organization, the Olmstead Preservation association, which works with their community to preserve and protect its historical resources,” Barnard says. “Being around ‘old stuff’ taught me its value in the fabric of the community.” that sensibility was further ingrained in Barnard’s thinking by her first job at a fabric store. “It was a family-owned business that had inventory going back to the 1930s, so the textiles were like no other, and a number of fantastic designers had accounts there,” says Barnard. “I was only in high school at the time, but the experience further solidified my approach.”
1. This powder bath was designed with locally made bespoke vanity, marble countertop and rose pattered wallpaper. Photo: Brad Nicol. 2. A classic walnut desk and green velvet Queen Anne chair create a lovely spot to sit and gaze at the garden. Photo: Scott Van Dyke. 3. An antique vessel and Eucalyptus pod arrangement sit a top the limestone mantle. Photo: Brad Nicol. 4. This locally made, limestone mantle was designed to pay tribute to the home’s Spanish roots while conveying the homeowner’s love of roses in an unforgettable way. Photo: Brad Nicol. 5. The modern luxury of this patio family room reflects the individuality and youth of the homeowners. Photo: Charlie Daniels.
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when Barnard founded her own firm, then, it was natural for her to take her mindfulness of healthy living to the next level by becoming a LeeD aP, as well as an International Institute for Bau-Biologie & ecology Building Biology Practitioner. “Historic preservation and green design go hand in hand,” says Barnard. “a lot of people don’t see it that way, but for me they’re fundamentally the same idea, which is making the most of what you have instead of wasting.” as an example, Barnard points to Habitat for Humanity’s recycling program. “You can go to Habitat for Humanity and buy a window for $10 or a stove for $30, all because some conscientious homebuilder took the time to unbuild his job site and salvage the materials instead of demolishing the site and throwing everything in a dumpster for transportation to a landfill.” today, many of Barnard’s projects are LeeD certified. she’s currently working, for example, on the remodel of a landmark historic resource preservation center for the santa
designer to watch
Monica Conservancy, a non-profit group dedicated to the preservation of santa Monica’s unique history and architecture. “for this project, the clients, who are the board members of the Conservancy, were willing to take the steps necessary to seek LeeD certification,” says Barnard. “so we’re proposing a number of sustainable features, including the reclamation of rainwater, the solar powering of appliances and lighting, daylighting, and landscaping that’s mindful of water usage.” Often, however, clients aren’t interested in pursuing LeeD certification due to the expense—but that doesn’t stop Barnard from recommending sustainable features. “even someone who isn’t willing to take a project all the way through LeeD certification can still use LeeD guidelines, picking and choosing which energy savings or water savings features to incorporate,” she explains. that’s not to say Barnard won’t work with clients who aren’t interested in sustainable design; she’s happy to. “some people think sustainability is a marketing ploy and are tired of hearing the word ‘green,’ so I definitely get clients who don’t care about incorporating sustainable features.” says Barnard. “for those folks, it’s important to be careful to avoid judging, because the green movement for a lot of people is a guilt movement, where an architect or designer comes into your life and tells you how you’re not living correctly. In those cases, its my job is to make people feel happy with the process, not forced to conform. so I don’t present options as green; I present them as healthy living. some clients may not be interested in recycling water or using solar power, but I can probably convince them not to put poisonous furnishings in their baby’s room.” In that way, then, it’s easy to see how Barnard’s approach comes full circle. “It’s our professional responsibility as designers to design spaces that are not only beautiful, but are also healthy for the people and planet,” she says. “Health and preservation are good places to start, and you can branch out from there.” gb&d
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last look a. project Wuhan Energy Flower
d. project Interactive Study Lamp
designer Grontmij, Soeters Van Eldonk
designer Rahul Shirbhate
inspiration Calla Lily B. project Nature LED Lightbulb designer Process Design AG Taiwan Branch inspiration Iconic design vocabulary, petal shape a
inspiration Flower petals e. project Future Flower designer Tonkin Liu inspiration Convergence of industry and nature
B C. project Forest Seating Collection designer Robby Cantarutti & Francesca Petricich inspiration Tree structure
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literal biomimicry Humans have always taken cues from nature for how best to adapt their practices, but biomimicry as a field has never been more important than it is today. though some nature-inspired designs are masked by their technology (e.g. video screens, if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know, are based on a butterflyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wing), these up-and-coming designs and their creators are unashamed of their overt likeness to nature. for more inspiration, read about the seven petals of design on how to create a Living Building, outlined by the International Living Building Institute (p.65).
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