Ian Lefcourte / Portfolio by I. Lefcourte

IAN LEFCOURTE Urban Planning Portfolio

Master of City and Regional Planning Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, 2014 Bachelor of Arts in Political Science University of Washington, 2011

Dept. of Energy Design Competition Sayreville Redevelopment

Affordable Housing Alliance Pine Tree Park Energy Analysis ArcGIS Static Graphs

Selected Works

01|SITE DESIGN 02|DATA VISUALIZATION 03|REPORTS

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SITE DESIGN Dept. of Energy Design Competition

The Resilient House represents a holistic approach to sustainable home design. The individual elements present a whole that succeeds as a net zero energy ready home.

PROJECT BRIEF In Spring 2014, the participants of Professor Clinton Andrews Green Building Seminar formed a team to participate in the Department of Energy’s Challenge Home Student Design Competition. The competition entry was a collaborative effort by Team Rutgers. My primary role on this project was to lead the conceptual interior and exterior house design. This included structural design analyses and production of graphics. Consideration of the interior and exterior simultaneously allowed for sustainable design synergies. The house qualifies for L.E.E.D. Gold certification and I.B.H.S. Fortified designation.

The Resilient House is 45’ x 40’ for a total 1,800 square feet. A cozy home size reduces heating demand. The design provides a near maximized ratio of floor area to home perimeter. Exterior walls are more expensive than interior walls, and thus the nearly square shape of the Resilient House reduces construction costs. Further, the nearly square shape maximizes roof space to support photo-voltaic panels. The panels rest flush with the pitched roof to prevent detachment issues during storm-strength winds, while maximizing the capture of solar energy. The PV battery is placed in the mechanical room. The living space is elevated onto the second floor. The first floor is a garage and storage area, with walls designed to break-away during strong flooding.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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SITE DESIGN Dept. of Energy Design Competition

Shadow (red) at noon on Dec 21st

Shadow (red) at noon on Mar 21st

Shadow (red) at noon on Jun 21st

PASSIVE SOLAR The Resilient House entrance is oriented northeast with especially energy efficient windows along the southeast walls of the home. To reduce summer overexposure, Azimuth calculations were used to determine the proper length of roof overhangs. Thus, the low winter sunshine enters and heats the house while the high summer sunshine is blocked.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

Bed HOUSE ORIENTATION

Bath

Bed

Mech th

Kitchen

The bedroom cluster is located on the north and west while the common areas are located on the south and east. This layout creates definitive public (orange) and private (red) spaces. The Resilient House design provides passive heating and natural daylight to the common areas of the home.

Bath

Bed

Living

Bed PLUMBING EFFICIENCY

Mech

Kitchen

Bed

Bath

The floor plan of the Resilient House is designed along a central plumbing corridor. The laundry, bathrooms, kitchen, and mechanical room all share the same wet wall. This minimizes the cost of plumbing materials and facilitates the installation of plumbing into the home.

Bath

Bed

Living

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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SITE DESIGN Dept. of Energy Design Competition

1) AMERICAN HOLLY (Ilex opaca)

2) SERVICEBERRY (Amelanchier arborea)

3) LONGHAIR SEDGE (Carex comosa)

4) NORTHERN BAYBERRY (Myrica pensylvanica)

NATURE The Resilient House is landscaped with native plants that are easy to transplant, are cost effective, and require minimal maintenance. Longhair sedge facilitates greywater treatment. Evergreens on the north and east of the site protect the home from cold winter winds. The deciduous serviceberry provides mild shading of the hot summer sun, while ensuring full solar exposure to the home in winter. Plants that were susceptible to flood, snow, and wind damage were avoided.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

LONGHAIR SEDGE

NORTHERN BAYBERRY

SOLAR PANELS

AMERICAN HOLLY

SERVICEBERRY

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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SITE DESIGN Sayreville Redevelopment

TRANSFORMATION OF A DORMANT SPACE INTO AN URBAN VILLAGE PROJECT BRIEF The Sayreville project focused As a mixed-use development, on the redevelopment of an area the site provides increased with unrealized potential. walkability and a corner location for commercial use. The focal In this hypothetical scenario, the point is a comprehensive dog park is severely underused by park with a split big-dog smallthe public, while also offering dog layout. attractive real estate. The redevelopment demonstrates The design process involved the planning of a small downtown development of; hand-drawn neighborhood. land use maps, hand-drawn concept sketches, AutoCAD site At first, the notion of redeveloping plans, SketchUp 3D models, and a public park seems anathema. Photoshop image manipulation. However, the project emphasizes pragmatism over doctrine in the pursuit of sustainability.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

INFRASTRUCTURE ADDITIONS The dense trees and concrete median help protect the surrounding community from noise and pollution. In addition, the extensive landscaping will help mitigate the urban heat island effect. A transit route will run through the boulevard.

Av e ur Ar th Ma c

cA rth

Av e

Main Street

The proposed downtown development would greatly increase the population density and warrant the addition of transportation infrastructure. A boulevard (60 feet wide) would connect MacArthur Ave to Main Street and serve as the primary traffic artery for the neighborhood.

treet

Dolan S

treet

Dolan S

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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DATA VISUALIZATION Affordable Housing Alliance Pine Tree Park Energy Analysis

This study discovered the savings in energy costs provided by new Champion Home manufactured houses, relative to current energy costs. As part of the final report, findings were merged with existing site maps from Kennedy Consulting Engineers. PROJECT BRIEF I was hired in the summer of 2014 by the Affordable Housing Alliance of Monmouth County for an energy analysis internship. The AHA had a portfolio of assets which included the Pine Tree Park, which contained manufactured homes. My goal was to determine the financial and environmental costs of existing energy use in Pine Tree Park. Then, I was to evaluate the financial and environmental costs if those manufactured homes were replaced by modern, energy efficient Champion brand manufactured homes. I created R-value energy models for three age categories of manufactured homes; Pre-1976, 1976-2010, and 2011+. These energy findings were monetized to provide a total costbenefit analysis of energy use and home efficiency for Pine Tree Park.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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DATA VISUALIZATION Affordable Housing Alliance Pine Tree Park Energy Analysis

BEFORE Estimated CO2 released by existing Pine Tree Park homes.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

AFTER Estimated CO2 released if existing inefficient Pine Tree Park homes were replaced with Champion energy efficient units.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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DATA VISUALIZATION ArcGIS

PROJECT BRIEF

ORIGIN-DESTINATION SERVICE AREA FOR PARIS

PARIS ANALYSIS The Network Analyst Extension in ArcGIS allows the creation of service areas and origindestination cost matrices. The green polygons represent the distance traveled, along actual roads, in minutes. This Paris example shows the service area of six warehouses in; three minute, five minute, and ten minute distances. The origindestination cost matrix shows the shortest routes for the delivery of goods from warehouses to all stores within a 10-minte drive time.

PARIS ANALYSIS Increased logistic efficiency through ArcMap.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

SUITABILITY ANALYSIS FOR DELAWARE TOWNSHIP, NJ

PROJECT BRIEF DELAWARE ANALYSIS The suitability analysis is a hypothetical exercise on site selection for new residential land use. The objective was to coordinate three distinct goals of the municipality in defining the best site locations.

(1) Protect agricultural land. (2) Protect the environmental quality of the township. (3) Encourage high and medium density housing. The combination of the three maps into the final suitability analysis required weighting based on regional preferences.

This exercise reinforces the principle that quantitative planning is guided by qualitative values.

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP, NJ The most suitable sites for new residential use. Created from three distinct maps based on the three municipal goals.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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DATA VISUALIZATION Static Graphs

PROJECT BRIEF

URBAN FOREST ANNUAL BENEFITS FOR SIDNEY, MONTANA

MONTANA FACT SHEETS As a planner for the Davey Tree Expert Company, I contributed to a state-wide urban forest inventory for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Project responsibilities included; data collection, data quality assurance and quality control, data visualization, and production of the final documents. The deliverables I produced were unique fact sheets for each of the 61 communities included in the inventory. These one page fact sheets, front and back, highlighted the priority information. An element example from the fact sheet is the annual benefit pie chart.

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

Rate of Return to Investment in Human Capital

HECKMAN MODEL

PROJECT BRIEF HECKMAN MODEL REVIEW

Opportunity Cost of Funds Preschool School Post School

Age

FINDINGS: HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS Benefit-Cost Ratio (Return on Investment)

$8.00

$7.14

$7.00 $6.00 $5.00 $4.00

Preschool (Child-Parent Center I)

$3.00 $2.00

School (Child-Parent Center II)

$1.66

$1.00

$0.26

$0.00

I authored “Evaluating the Return on Investment in Human Capital Development Programs; Case Studies from Three Stages of the Life Cycle” to analyze the Heckman framework of human capital development. Heckman’s economic model of skill formation as a life cycle process is the culmination of research on human capital development. The model was designed so that the financial capital invested for each age group was equal. I conducted return on investment analyses for several human capital development programs across the three age groups and compared the results to what the Heckman model would suggest. The findings supported the Heckman argument that it is more efficient to develop human capital earlier in the life cycle of the individual, rather than later in the life cycle.

Post School (Job Corp)

Age (Program)

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

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REPORTS Selected Works

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

Somerset County Development Opportunities; a Millennial Perspective

KEYWORDS: Generations, Baby Boomer, Amenities, Affordability, Access, Health, Synergy, Agri-Tourism

Green Building Codes in Action; Case Studies from Washington

KEYWORDS: Seattle, IECC, Strategies vs Tactics, USGBC, Programming, Interdependence

Advantages and Disadvantages of Strict Energy Efficient Building Code Adoption

KEYWORDS: Non-Government, Technology Experts, Elected Officials, Economists, Ethics and Morality, Time and Flexibility, Green Buildings

Evaluating the Return on Investment in Human Capital Development Programs; Case Studies from Three Stages of the Life Cycle

KEYWORDS: Benefit-Cost, Heckman Model, Education, Opportunity Cost, Child-Parent Centers of Chicago, Job Corps, Life Stages, Human Capital Development

Urban Planning Tools to Promote Energy Efficiency

KEYWORDS: Building Codes, Standardization of Data, Retrofits, Resilience, Benchmarking, Incentives, Education

Logistic Regression for Energy Efficient Window Replacement among Detached Single Family Home Owners in the U.S.A.

KEYWORDS: Discrete Choice, Binomial Regression, STATA, Consumer Behavior, Residential Energy Consumption Survey, E.I.A., TriplePaned Windows

Professional Portfolio - City & Regional Planner - Ian Lefcourte

Ian Lefcourte - Urban Planning Portfolio