G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N N OV E M B E R+D E C E M B E R 2017
Designing beautiful homes with Timbercraft Sunbrella’s awe-inspiring fabric architecture
UP FRONT
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In This Issue November+December 2017 Volume 8, Issue 47
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Patagonia’s Rick Ridgeway shares what it means to walk the talk.
Meet the winners of this year’s Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards.
In Conversation
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WSLA 2017
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The Road to Sustainability Leadership
Harlan Stone looks back at what continues to make Halstead/ Metroflor great a century later.
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Sasaki’s focus on resiliency transforms projects like the Chicago Riverwalk.
Explore some of the most sustainable—and inviting—properties in and around Boston.
Building the Future
New England Green
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Table of Contents November+December 2017 Volume 8, Issue 47
Up Front 12
In Conversation Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia
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Editors’ Picks Curated by gb&d staff
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Event Preview Check out GreenBuild International Conference & Expo and Design & Construction Week.
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Typology 68
Inner Workings
Living Buildings These buildings do more to help the environment than they do to harm it.
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Playing with Light Architectural Grilles & Sunshades’ sun control innovations transform the Research Support Facility in Colorado.
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Innovations in Fabric Architecture Sunbrella’s versatile design takes beautiful spaces and makes them even better.
Defined Design 3 Civic Plaza in British Columbia is a landmark in innovative design.
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The Beauty of Timbercraft Experts share the best design strategies for building with wood.
Making an Apartment a Smart Home With Nest, even renters can get in on the smart home movement.
Building a Better Bottom Line Investing in R&D led Crestron to become a smart lighting pioneer. Living Roof Guide Architek shares five things you need to know to create a thriving green roof.
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Features 94
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Building a Better Future The NewSchool of Architecture & Design is training students to be great architects and designers as well as great leaders. A Higher Standard for Roofs The R&D team at GAF stepped up its game with innovative products to meet sustainable roofing goals. Better Economics for a Thirsty World Bio-Microbics makes water treatment systems around the globe that save money and improve processes.
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Spaces
Punch List
126 Bright Ideas General Electric’s Innovation Point in Boston is much more than a headquarters.
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Warmth in Wellesley This Massachusetts house combines comfort and beauty with energy efficiency as one of its town’s most eco-friendly buildings.
130 On the Porch William Rawn Associates breathes new life into one of the country’s most beautiful libraries in Boston.
Greenbuild: Past, Present, and Future USGBC’s CEO takes a closer look at the impact of the event that shapes the green building movement.
135 People and Nature Amanda Sturgeon explores the beauty of—and need for—biophilic design. 136
Person of Interest Mindy Lubber shares why CERES’ Roadmap for Sustainability matters to companies and investors alike.
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Editor’s Note Chris Howe In this issue, so many of the business owners and thought leaders we talked to spoke about the importance of building and buying things that are built to last. We were particularly moved by Kate Griffith’s interview with Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s vice president of environmental initiatives (page 12). “When you consider the growing population on the planet, and you especially consider the increasing material affluence of that population, you get to the point in the not too distant future that the natural systems of the planet collapse. Without addressing consumption, there isn’t a solution,” he says. “We’re making the best, most durable product we can, and we’re also asking our customers not to buy it unless they really need it. And if they are using it, to keep it and maintain it. And if they aren’t going to keep it, to give it away.” Ridgeway talks at length about Patagonia’s durable products and earth-friendly programs like Worn Wear. Why not give that old Patagonia jacket back when you don’t need it anymore so someone else can use it? But smaller companies are walking the talk, too. Take, for instance, furniture maker Skram (page 36), who promotes a “buy it once and buy it right” mentality. Designer Jacob Marks challenges today’s culture of disposability—the popular practice of buying cheap, mass-produced pieces that will ultimately go to the landfill when they start to break down or their charm has worn off. “We try to offer people a chance to confront their attitudes about the objects that surround them,” he says in the article. “To choose things that are more precious, and to embrace the scratches and dings that develop over time or when your kids draw on them.” Sustainability, at least in part, means never having to replace that beautiful, timeless chair.
Then there are manufacturers like durable, dependable Halstead/Metroflor (page 104), another company committed to making products that last. The global flooring empire has long been an industry leader of low-toxicity flooring materials, and we talked to their leaders in this issue about what it really means to be sustainable. CEO Harlan Stone told us, “The most sustainable act is not wearing out. If you wear out quickly then you have more entering the waste stream.” Part of what makes this November/December issue of gb&d truly special, though, is the announcement of our fourth annual Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards (page 98). These 10 women are standout examples of what it means to live and work sustainably. We’re so excited to celebrate with them this season, and to share their stories of triumph as they continue to push the envelope and ask us all how we can be a little greener. Sincerely,
Chris Howe, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
ON THE COVER Meet the 10 winners of the 2017 Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards.
G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N N OV E M B E R+D E C E M B E R 2017
Illustration by James Olstein
Designing beautiful homes with Timbercraft Sunbrella’s awe-inspiring fabric architecture
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Publisher’s Note Laura Heidenreich
gb&d Green Building & Design gbdmagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Christopher Howe chris@gbdmagazine.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
The November/December issue of gb&d is packed with inspiring stories from powerful women who are shaking things up in the green building industry. As part of our cover story on the winners of the fourth annual Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards (page 98), our editorial team got the chance to discover why these 10 leaders do what they do, from starting their own firms when no one dared to changing how people across the industry think before selecting their building materials. Before the now well-known health product declaration (HPD), no accepted standard existed for reporting the makeup of building materials and their impact. “Today, there are more than 3,000 published HPDs—growing weekly—that have been completed by manufacturers, publicly and freely available to anyone in the HPD Public Repository,” says Wendy Vittori, executive director of HPD Collaborative. While we have no doubt that these 10 women will continue to inspire us throughout their long careers, this issue also led us to meet other great leaders, like
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the team at NewSchool of Architecture & Design (page 94). The school welcomes students from all over the world and maintains an inclusive and diverse student body and faculty. Five out of eight members of the school’s board of directors are women, as is nearly 40% of the teaching faculty. “My job is to be a model for other women, especially for young female students. To show that the world of architecture is not only run by men. We have the responsibility to recognize that,” says Daniela Deutsch, NewSchool professor of architecture specializing in sustainability. More than 40% of nearly 11,000 architecture degrees in 2012-13 were awarded to women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but that number drops to 18% when looking at the number of active professionals in the field. Other leaders in this issue run the gamut, from Rochelle Routman at Halstead/Metroflor (page 104), who’s helped the global flooring empire further its sustainability commitment even more by using Declare Labels and HPDs across products, to the countless stewards at Sakaki (page 116), where teams work around the clock and all over the U.S. to make sure communities are resilient and prepared even for the worst, including major floods. This November/December issue is our largest of the year, and one thing is for certain. These pages are packed with leaders who aren’t afraid to take a stand. We’re thrilled to be able to tell just a few of their stories.
Laura Heidenreich laura@gbdmagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR
Laura Rote lrote@gbdmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR
Kristina Walton Zapata kristina@gbdmagazine.com SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER
Brianna Wynsma
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Julia Stone
CONTRIBUTORS
Elizabeth Atkinson, Brian Barth, Tyler Brockington, Rachel Coon, Colleen DeHart, Kate Griffith, Russ Klettke, Jessica Letaw, Caroline Eberly Long, Shay Maunz, Margaret Poe, Mike Thomas, Emily Torem EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Anthony Brower, Gensler Jason F. McLennan, International Living Future Institute
Green Building & Design 1765 N. Elston Ave. Suite 202B Chicago, IL 60642 The Green Building & Design logo is a registered trademark of Green Advocacy Partners, LLC. Green Building & Design (gb&d) magazine is printed in the United States using only soy-based inks. Please recycle this magazine. The magazine is also available in digital formats at gbdmagazine.com/current-issue.
Sincerely, Green Building & Design is a certified B Corp. B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk. B Corps are certified by the nonprofit BLab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
Laura Heidenreich, Associate Publisher
gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
gb&d
12 In Conversation Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia 14 Editors’ Picks Curated by gb&d staff 15 Event Preview GreenBuild International
Conference & Expo and Design & Construction Week
16 Defined Design
3 Civic Plaza by ZGF Architects will bring life to Surrey’s city center in British Columbia.
18 Sustainable Solutions
From sustainable furniture design to living roofs, see the latest trends in green innovation.
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In Conversation Rick Ridgeway Patagonia’s VP of Environmental Initiatives talks environmental stewardship through smart business.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF PATAGONIA
By Kate Griffith
Rick Ridgeway and Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor apparel giant Patagonia, met in the early ’70s as climbing partners, spotting each other along climbs through California. It was a golden age for the sport and the beginning of an environmental renaissance. When the duo first met, the company that would become Patagonia, was still relatively nascent. In addition to climbing, plus a bit of surfing, Ridgeway was a photographer, filmmaker, and a writer as well as a content licensing contractor. He worked with Patagonia on the side, maintaining a strong relationship with the founding cohort, while continuing his own adventure-oriented photo and film business. But in 2005, Patagonia was looking for someone to take over its growing environmental initiatives and create public awareness around its sustainability projects. With the encouragement of his wife—try a real job, she joked—Ridgeway joined the team. “It was the first time I’d ever worked for a company other than my own,” he laughs. More than 10 years later, Ridgeway is still around. Despite his previous misgivings about corporate drudgery and 9-to-5s, he found himself having a great time. Today he’s the vice president of environmental initiatives, and Patagonia is no small player in the global push for sustainability and environmental awareness. Both values are core to the company mission, which has led the organization to go as far as placing ads in major media outlets against the purchasing of their apparel and, more recently, led Chouinard to declare war on threats to national public lands. Patagonia walks its talk, too. Consumer-driven initiatives like the Worn Wear program, which sells used Patagonia merchandise purchased back from customers who are done with it, promote the company’s anti-consumption mission. At the same time, internal initiatives drive employee engagement and work-life balance. “It feels like it keeps getting better,” Ridgeway says. “The company has continued to deepen its commitment to environmental protection.” Ridgeway regularly runs the speaker circuit for environmental conventions and conversations, but his passion for mission-driven work hasn’t flagged. He’s fierce in his condemnation of the Trump administration’s plans to pull federal protection from wilderness areas and in promoting the need for business leaders to look beyond consumption-driven business models. Integral to business health is human and social health, he says, and that all depends on environmental stewardship. How the future will be shaped by the actions of the global business community remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Ridgeway says, Patagonia’s energy is just getting hotter.
gb&d: What has it felt like to watch Patagonia’s commitment to sustainability deepen over the years? Ridgeway: Patagonia has always had a commitment to cutting-edge products, and it’s always had a commitment to environmental protection, but those commitments have never been stronger and never deeper than they are right now. The company is doing everything in its power for environmental protection. It is increasingly fierce. It’s a place that’s a privilege to work in. The group has always been a range of climbers and surfers and skiers. Company values can get diluted over time in some ways, but here it’s the opposite. gb&d: What has inspired that strengthening of mission? Ridgeway: The owners have always been that way; nothing has changed there. What’s continued to evolve and get even deeper is the highest level leadership in the company. Under our current CEO, it’s just on fire—that roll up the sleeves mentality and that commitment to resistance.
“There is no business on a dead planet.” gb&d: What are some Patagonia takeaways about mixing business with mission-driven advocacy that other companies can learn from? Ridgeway: One of the most fundamental philosophies in this company is the commitment to quality products. The first part of our mission is “Make the best product, and make it with no unnecessary harm.” But that This conversation continues on p. 15
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Editors’ Picks Curated by gb&d staff
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PRODUCT COLORID COMPLETE
COMPANY ROOST
Lighting can be as dynamic as life itself. USAI Lighting recently launched ColorID_Complete, a collection of personalized lighting scenarios. The easy-to-use wall controller provides full control over lighting options, including work, play, and sleep. With more than 170 color formulas, lighting solutions can accommodate every location, from homes to hospitals. USAI Lighting is continuously advancing LED growth and innovation with every new product they design. usailighting.com
Creating new space just became much easier. Roost lessens the burden of new construction by delivering sustainable ready-to-finish exterior spaces “from site to structure” in eight to 10 weeks. To help make dream cottages a reality, Roost jumpstarts the exterior building process using a system based on core volumes of space. Dedicated to sustainable methods, Roost maintains LEED standards to provide efficient handcrafted buildings. roostdiy.com
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COMPANY FREIGHT FARMS Freight Farms is reinventing the world of sustainable urban farming. By using refrigerated 40foot shipping containers, farmers can grow crops year-round in urban areas. More affordable than rooftop greenhouses, these “leafy green machines” include cutting-edge climate control technology and growing tools like LED lights, a hydroponic system, and sensor-based temperature and humidity panels. Plus, all you need is an internet connection to oversee and control all the environmental settings in your farm-in-a-box. freightfarms.com
COMPANY CARBONCURE
PRODUCT ECO MACHINE
By chemically isolating waste carbon dioxide during the concrete manufacturing process, CarbonCure’s retrofit technology creates more durable and eco-friendly concrete. The expanding industry of CO2-utilization technologies is anticipated to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030. As an industry leader, CarbonCure is launching an educational seminar and two-part blog series to help the design and construction industry understand the sustainable benefits of concrete masonry. carboncure.com
The Eco Machine is a chemical-free, solar-powered water reclamation system that purifies water by emulating natural processes. Created by John Todd, the Eco Machine treats all wastewater from Omega’s campus through the use of algae, fungi, bacteria, plants, and snails. Omega is a nonprofit educational retreat center in New York’s Hudson Valley. Designed to process up to 52,000 gallons of water per day, the Eco Machine is a game-changer in the world of ecological design. eomega.org
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF FREIGHT FARMS
Freight Farms makes it possible to grow crops year-round in urban areas.
UP FRONT
Event Preview Winter 2017
IN CONVERSATION with Rick Ridgeway Continued from p. 13
product trumps everything. And we recognize a commitment to the best, most durable product isn’t itself an environmental commitment. Instead this is born out by lifespan. The footprint of an apparel product decreases exponentially as the life and durability of that product increase, from 5 years to 10 years to 15 years or more. If the footprint of making and transporting a product can decrease exponentially as its life extends, then making the best product we can is also the most important environmental commitment that we have, with regard to product. It’s a commitment that’s a refreshing change from consumerism. It’s not new. It’s profoundly retroactive of the values around not only how we made things in this country but also the way we cared for them and appreciated them. Patagonia can only do this by its commitment to making the best products it can. And, of course, we make it as sustainably as we can. I’m really proud of this.
By Julia Stone
gb&d: What’s the reasoning behind your anti-consumption messaging?
DETAILS Greenbuild International Conference & Expo
When November 8-10 Where Boston, MA Web greenbuildexpo.com
This year, thousands of building professionals— from architects and engineers to educators—will gather at Greenbuild, the world’s largest green building conference and expo. Industry leaders devoted to cutting-edge sustainable building practices will connect and learn from one another at this must-attend event. The 2017 conference includes green building tours, happy hours, and interactive discussions on topics such as The Great Indoors: Green Building and Health Outcomes. With noteworthy educational sessions and an expo of more than 600 top manufacturers of the latest green building technology, there will be plenty of opportunities to renew your passion for sustainability. And the team from gb&d will be there, too.
DETAILS
PHOTO: COURTESY OF GREENBUILD
Design & Construction Week
When January 9-11 Where Orlando, FL Web designand constructionweek.com
The fifth annual Design & Construction Week (DCW) will bring together 80,000 design and construction professionals in Orlando for three days of mingling, educational programs, and must-see exhibits. DCW features two simultaneous trade shows presented by its founding partners, The National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show (IBS) and The National Kitchen & Bath Association’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS). This year, DCW will continue pushing the boundaries of residential design and construction by highlighting the latest products and industry trends.
Ridgeway: When you consider the growing population on the planet, and you especially consider the increasing material affluence of that population, you get to the point in the not too distant future that the natural systems of the planet collapse. Without addressing consumption, there isn’t a solution. We’re making the best, most durable product we can, and we’re also asking our customers not to buy it unless they really need it. And if they are using it, to keep it and maintain it. And if they aren’t going to keep it, to give it away. gb&d: What does the future hold for this impact? Ridgeway: With the Worn Wear program, we’re now in the used clothing business and taking back products people can no longer use. Patagonia has a model that’s working. We’re taking market share, and we know that. But if other companies have to lose business to reduce overall consumption, that chips away at the underpinnings of capitalism. And no one yet understands what a new system will look like. We want to be a company that encourages other companies to look at this. gb&d: You’ve spoken a lot about new, This conversation continues on p. 17
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Defined Design
Passive Natural Ventilation is any system that uses naturally occurring pressure differences to move air instead of mechanical fans to move air. For example, windows open on opposite sides of a room will let air in on the high pressure side (windward) and allow that same air to escape on the other side (leeward). Or, if basement windows in a home are open at the same time as a roof skylight, hot air will rise from the top of the building and draw in cool air at the basement windows.
3 Civic Plaza By Julia Stone Surrey city developers in British Columbia envisioned a thriving downtown framed around a landmark building when they set out to bring 3 Civic Plaza to life by the end of 2017. The 52-story project designed by ZGF Architects in partnership with Century Group and Surrey City Development Corporation has a distinct look, featuring more than 300 residential suites, a Marriott hotel, Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s urban campus, a rooftop garden, a modern fitness center, and more. ZGF’s striking design has a unique look, including some guitar pick–shaped windows. The estimated total cost of the project is $175 million CAD. Construction began in May 2014 and was scheduled to be complete in December 2017. With its sustainable elements, towering height, and many uses, the project team says this building is truly ahead of its time. The ZGF team faced the project’s complexity head on, setting a new standard for inventive design focused on sustainability and improving human comfort with features like passive natural ventilation and an external shear wall frame. “3 Civic Plaza required us to take more risks to build an aggressive and complex building,” says Patrick Cotter, architect and managing partner of ZGF’s Vancouver office. gb&d
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Stack Effect Also known as chimney effect, this is the same principal that makes a hot air balloon rise, as hot air is less dense than cold air and naturally rises. Instead of blowing air downward through the building using fans, ZGF harnessed stack effect with vertical shafts to save energy and money. This method brings in fresh air from outside. “Our goal was to give every resident access to fresh air,” Cotter says.
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UP FRONT
IN CONVERSATION with Rick Ridgeway Continued from p. 15
Ü Read more about
3 Civic Plaza at gbdmagazine.com.
External Shear Wall Frame This two-foot thick frame externally supports the building, allowing for individual structural grids for public and residential areas, as well as exit stairs. Every building must resist the force of the wind without falling over. Almost all high-rise buildings have a central steel or concrete core that acts as a strong spine, standing up to these forces acting sideways against the building. An external shear wall system relocates this central structural element, moving it to the exterior surface of the building. Because there is more area available on the exterior than at the central core, the shear walls can have many openings or in some cases be rigid open frames of steel or concrete.
evolved thinking. How has Patagonia been guided by philosophical underpinnings to turn that thinking into action? Ridgeway: One thing that hasn’t evolved at Patagonia is the mission that guides us. Our mission was developed in the early ’90s after years of consideration. It came out of thinking that goes back to the early ’70s and the economists who first started to question the trajectory of the global economy. Part of that thinking is the importance of conserving and protecting the natural parts of the planet, which is also in Patagonia’s DNA. It’s not just because we’re in the business of making gear for people who love outdoor sports. There is no business on a dead planet. A healthy planet is essential to a healthy business. Business, society, planet—we understand how interrelated it all is. Take the Worn Wear program or our partnership with customers to keep things in repair—these came out of the 2011 “Don’t buy this jacket” ad. That’s just one example of many showing how an initiative can connect to the original philosophies a company can be founded on. What are the missing pieces in our business model that could help us be most responsible to our customers?
RENDERINGS: COURTESY OF ZGF ARCHITECTS
gb&d: Can you talk a bit more about the Defend initiative and how you’ve been involved in Patagonia’s efforts to save public lands?
Hydronic Heating & Cooling System A system where hot or cold fluid is circulated in a series of small pipes in the surface of a ceiling or floor, transferring hot or cool air to the space and its occupants. In 3 Civic Plaza, there is a shared system of three tanks on every floor. Each residential suite has its own temperature controls.
Ridgeway: The initiative’s roots go all the way back to the beginning of the company, those founding values and early experiences of the old guard. We were in our 20s and developing our skills as climbers and backcountry skiers. As the wildness of those favorite areas started to shift, and as we became more attuned to that, we became more alarmed. To see complete wilderness turned into a city, grassland become deserts, all in your own lifetime—that’s where the commitment to environmental protection comes from. We’re bearing witness to it. It’s in defense of what we loved in our youth. So when we are faced with an administration that wants to decrease the size of the country’s protected areas, well those are fighting words for us—certainly if you understand the need for natural areas to business health and human health. It doesn’t add up in any sort of economical calculation. gb&d: Turning back to Patagonia prodThis conversation continues on p. 138
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Clearing the Air on
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Material Selection A closer look at the benefits of steel
BY R ACHEL COON
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T
he world is made of steel—the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, iconic structures, soaring skyscrapers, your local rec center, even the doors you throw open at home to let in fresh air. Steel is our very infrastructure—and yet, it is misunderstood as an antiquated industry. So you might be surprised to learn modern-day steel-making is remarkably that— modern. “A common misconception about the steel industry is that it is somehow a dirty process, but if you were to visit a modern steel facility, you would see it’s actually very clean and efficient,” says Mark Thimons, vice president of sustainability at the Steel Market Development Institute (SMDI). Over the past 25 years, the North American steel industry has significantly reduced its environmental impact—reducing energy intensity and greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third, making the production of steel more sustainable than many competing products. “The industry is constantly striving to make the steel production process as efficient as possible. In fact, we’re rapidly approaching the efficiency limits defined by the laws of physics with the current technology we have. This is why AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) is working to develop breakthrough steelmaking technologies,” says Brandie Sebastian, director of Life Cycle Assessment at the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI). The material has always been and continues to be a popular choice for building construction—though, it’s also one of the primary components in the automotive sector as well as for containers and cans for packaging. “Steel is everywhere,” Thimons says. And it’s constantly evolving and advancing. “There are new grades of steel being developed and produced all the time. The steel produced today is strong and versatile, allowing flexibility for builders and designers to try unique applications.”
THE BENEFITS OF STEEL Steel can be used for anything—from framing and walls to floors, roofing, doors, and windows. Unlike its counterparts like wood, steel doesn’t expand or contract in the presence of moisture and is not vulnerable to pesky issues like termites. “Compared to other materials, it doesn’t rot, warp, split, or crack,” Thimons says. But what’s more, steel lends itself to several types of fabrication, allowing for unique structures. “Steel creates very durable, resilient, and adaptable buildings that both endure and meet modern needs,” says Sebastian. That’s the very nature of steel structures—they can be easily assembled and disassembled, allowing for building adaptability and easy recyclability. Virtually all steel products are composed of at least 25% recycled content, while some construction products like hot-rolled steel, rebar, and some heavy plate products are made from essentially 100% recycled steel. And while nearly 50% of wood products are landfilled and concrete is often down-cycled, steel can be recycled, reused, or repurposed—into steel beams, refrigerator doors, you name it. “As long as we can get steel back to a recycling facility, that steel remains within society for a very long time,” Sebastian says. And if a builder or designer wants to create a building that qualifies for green building rating programs like LEED or the Living Building Challenge, steel counts towards multiple credits. Plus, because steel can be so easily pre-engineered and prefabricated, very little waste is produced in the process of making or installing steel products. “The amount of waste generated at a job site is very low—and any that is generated can be easily recycled,” Thimons says. Financial gains can also be achieved with the precise off-site production of steel construction components or assemblies, leading to significantly reduced labor and construction time. Steel’s durability, adaptability, and recyclability all add up to remarkable sustainability, meaning the lifespan of steel products and construction is greater than that of almost any other industry alternative. “If sustainability is a consideration, then industry professionals should be thinking about what will happen to that building at end of life, including whether or not it can be disassembled and recycled,” Sebastian says. “Throughout the entire life cycle of a building, steel has a really great story.” gb&d
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PHOTO, THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: PIXABAY
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THE NUMBERS 31% reduced energy intensity per ton of steel produced (since 1990)
BILLIONS— the number of dollars the North American steel industry has invested in innovating new technologies
Steel is 100% recyclable
60 TO 80 MILLION tons of steel recycled annually
36% reduced CO2 emissions per ton of steel produced (since 1990)
HUNDREDS— the number of different grades of steel available
VERY LITTLE— the amount of waste typically generated in any aspect of steel production or construction
50% of wood products get landfilled at their end-of-life cycle
20 MILLION TONS of wood products are annually contributed to the ever-expanding landfills
Steel has been very popular for building construction since the late 1800S
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UP FRONT SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION
Adam Morris and Brian Mavraganes provide consulting services that save time, money, and energy.
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UP FRONT
Data Details Drowning in building data, but getting nowhere with energy savings? Option One Energy says leave the numbercrunching to them.
By Brian Barth PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER FREE
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“ A S I N H A B I TA N T S OF THE EARTH, Energy use is the single largest expense for owners of commercial real estate, comprising around one-third of the total operating budget on average. And according to the U.S. government, the electricity consumed in offices, hotels, and other commercial properties represents about 20% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Option One Energy, an energy management and consulting company with nationwide service, has honed a unique formula for dialing down both of those numbers. While most large commercial real estate developments include building automation features, such systems are not always living up to their potential for energy reduction. In older developments, building automation systems are likely to be completely outdated, and smaller developments often lack this sort of infrastructure entirely. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to extract data about building energy usage—the prerequisite for devising a plan to reduce it—and achieving massive savings on monthly bills, all while giving cities a needed boost in the fight against climate change. “Building owners and facilities managers often lack the time and wherewithal to wade into these details themselves,” says Adam Morris, president of Option One Energy. “Unfortunately, that means they’re missing out on a lot of savings.” Morris is an expert in establishing energy management information systems (EMIS)—the data-driven infrastructure that enables greater efficiencies—which the U.S. Department of Energy has found to reduce energy consumption by 10 to 20%. The Institute of Real Estate Management has found that EMIS produce cost savings of up to $0.47 per square foot. Morris and his business partner Brian Mavraganes routinely find “energy management opportunities” of this magnitude once they’ve dug into the data of their clients, which range from regional restaurant franchises to large Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and sporting facilities. “It not only makes sense from a business perspective,” says Morris. “As inhabitants of the Earth, we have a responsibility to take care of it— and that means making sure our buildings are running at their optimum potential.”
GETTING GRANULAR WITH BUILDING DATA Data is useless if it does not produce actionable insights—which it certainly doesn’t do on its own. Option One Energy provides a Certified Energy Manager to each client who sifts through data from individual buildings, and across large
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WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY T O TA K E C A R E OF IT— A ND T H AT M E A N S MAKING SURE OUR BUILDINGS A R E R U N N I N G AT THEIR OPTIMUM POTENTIAL .” ADAM MORRIS OPTION ONE ENERGY
portfolios, to produce a customized action plan. There are several steps to the process. The first step includes a review of current and historic energy usage, utility invoices, and contracts with service providers. Data may be extracted directly from building automation systems, through utility companies, or even through optical character recognition (OCR) of the client’s past utility bills. Based on this initial analysis, Option One Energy recommends a series of actions designed to cut costs and energy use quickly, which may include anything from changing light fixtures to changing energy suppliers. In the former case, Option One Energy’s sister company, Green Scope gbdmagazine.com
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The U.S. Department of Energy has found that energy management information systems reduce energy consumption by 10 to 20%.
SCREENSHOTS: COURTESY OF OPTION ONE ENERGY
Certified Energy Managers sift through data to produce customized action plans.
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OVERCOMING AN EPIC ENERGY MANAGEMENT TO-DO LIST A skilled energy manager is a specialist in using data analytics to drive down usage and cost. But they need to understand a wide range of building technologies, and be able to converse with experts in those fields, to do their job effectively. It’s the very reason Option One Energy’s services are in demand across the country: By consolidating data from every aspect of a building’s operations, they are able to tweak the system toward the desired result. Below are the areas of expertise the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) requires for Certified Energy Managers. • Codes and Standards • Energy Accounting & Economics • Energy Audits and Instrumentation • Electrical Systems • HVAC Systems • Motors and Drives • Industrial Systems • Building Envelope • CHP Systems and Renewable Energy • Fuel Supply and Pricing • Building Automation and Control Systems • High Performance Buildings • Thermal Energy Storage Systems • Lighting Systems • Boiler and Steam Systems • Maintenance and Commissioning • Energy Savings Performance Contracting and Measurement & Verification
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PHOTO: PEXELS; SCREENSHOT: COURTESY OF OPTION ONE ENERGY
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“ OUR APPROACH IS TO PUT ALL B U I L D I N G DATA Solutions, a lighting retrofit expert, takes the baton to provide seamless implementation of recommended cost-saving features. The latter case requires other forms of expertise. In the era of deregulated energy markets, one important role of an energy manager is to navigate the web of rates, regulations, tariffs, and available incentives, which vary drastically from city to city and state to state. Option One Energy’s experts work strategically to facilitate bids from energy suppliers, involving price, products, terms, customer service, and billing options, on behalf of each client. The goal is to put together a package that best suits the unique needs and context of each building and portfolio. “I’ve found that all too often portfolio managers are paying far too much for utilities, simply because they lack the time and expertise to negotiate more favorable terms and to take advantage of opportunities they may not know exist,” Morris says. Mavraganes adds, “We take the guesswork out of the equation, using our proprietary data analysis process and software systems to ratchet down overall energy use, as well as the cost per kWh.” But that is only the beginning of the relationship. Once theses initial measures are implemented, Option One Energy’s powerful analytic software continues to track building data, alerting the energy manager assigned to each client of aberrations that represent system errors that need to be remedied, as well as highlighting changing trends in energy use over time. No building’s energy needs are static, and in today’s dynamic commercial real estate market, things are changing faster than ever—which is why it makes sense to hire a professional to stay on top of things. In the long term, Option One Energy’s cloudbased platform acts as a turnkey service—not just for energy management, but for invoice automation, benchmarking, budget projections, Energy Star compliance, and sustainability reporting and certifications—while expert staff provide ongoing oversight, fine-tuning the system over time and enabling portfolio managers to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. “Our approach is to put all building data and energy management needs under one umbrella,” Morris says. “That’s really important because there are thousands of moving parts that need
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AND ENERGY MANAGEMENT NEEDS UNDER ONE UMBRELLA. T H AT ’ S R E A L LY I M P O R TA N T BECAUSE THERE ARE THOUSANDS O F M OV I N G PA R T S T H AT N E E D TO B E CO O R D I N AT E D.” ADAM MORRIS OPTION ONE ENERGY
to be coordinated. Clients have often come to us with three or four different companies handling their data, and are pleased to find an opportunity to bundle it all into one service. Streamlining these complex processes makes everyone’s life easier and ensures that buildings are reaching the optimal level of energy performance.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
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How to Create High Design Spaces with uPVC in Mind REHAU’s modern window and door systems ensure high-performance building designs. By Rachel Coon
Windows change everything. Just think about it: A once-dark space becomes your craft studio or favorite reading nook. A room with previously obscured peeks of the great outdoors suddenly becomes a room with a view. You walk into a boardroom and are struck by a stunning city vista, and instantly that meeting isn’t so boring anymore. Yes, windows can change everything—and no one understands that better than the team at REHAU, a global company that’s been leading the market in uPVC fenestration solutions for more than 60 years. Beyond what a window can do for a building’s structural integrity—which, with REHAU windows and doors, includes exceptional thermal and acoustical insulation, weather and forced-entry resistance, improved energy savings, and better sustainability— REHAU proves what an effect windows can have on a space.
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CREATIVE FREEDOM With high-end, luxury product lines like GENEO and ÄSPEKT, REHAU provides the next generation of design solutions. “REHAU’s high-performance window systems allow architects to fulfill their traditional design intent with better results—better energy efficiency, better sustainability, and more comfort,” says Ralph Childs, REHAU commercial sales manager. But perhaps even more notably, REHAU provides these coveted building details in myriad design options, giving clients the opportunity to get creative through customization. “As designers of high-quality window and door systems and solutions, we offer custom profile shapes that allow our customers the ability to build aesthetically different, finished products while maintaining the same high quality, high performance, and identical functionality as our more standard
Installing REHAU windows can make any building more energy-efficient and comfortable.
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF REHAU
“A LOT OF THOUGHT AND ENGINEERING GOES INTO REHAU’S SYSTEMS FROM DAY ONE.” Randy Hoover, REHAU product development manager
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF REHAU
designs,” says Randy Hoover, REHAU product development manager. Customized window shapes range from round, half-round, and triangular to raketop and ellipsoidal, while clients seeking to complement the exterior or interior palette of their home or building can select foil laminated windows in Mahogany, Golden Oak, or Douglas Fir wood patterns, for instance, or in warmer tones like Bronze, Silver or even Black. “Our color offerings consist of three main base profile colors—white, beige, and clay,” Hoover says. “When combined with REHAU’s standard array of foil laminates, the options are many, and should a customer choose to seek foil laminates beyond our standard ones, the options are essentially endless.” At the core of its modern, European-innovated window systems, however, is REHAU’s proprietary uPVC formula, which allows for fusion-welded corners along with compression-seal technology, triple glazing, and multi-chamber frames—a combination that results in windows that are built to last. But REHAU is also known for its groundbreaking innovations like RAU-FIPRO®. The REHAU GENEO® window system is the first to use this fiber-composite material, and it is certified through the German standards for Passive House. RAU-FIPRO combines the strength and durability of fiberglass with uPVC’s zero-leakage design, bendability, and recyclability.
A MODERN LOOK Beyond the structural superiority of REHAU’s window systems is the company’s dedication to designing solutions that increase comfort, improve natural lighting, and provide the ultimate viewing experience. Imagine uninterrupted floor-to-ceiling windows showcasing your majestic ocean views as you enjoy an early morning cup of coffee or entire walls of glass with artistically designed window configurations that frame the sparkling metropolitan skyline at night. “A lot of thought and engineering goes into REHAU’s systems from day one,” Hoover says. “With our ÄSPEKT casement design, the ability to configure many larger openings within one perimeter frame provides our customers with many ways to create unique, multi-light designs to suit their needs. While with GENEO, we have the ability to build larger-than-normal windows and doors that benefit from the strength of our RAU-FIPRO material, allowing the larger sizes and making it possible to provide homebuyers with larger views.” At REHAU, significant consideration is also given to comfort—especially making sure buildings are secure, relaxing, and quiet. Multiple locking points provide forced-entry resistance. A high-definition finish enhances weather resistance, reducing fading and wear, gb&d
REIMAGINE WITH REHAU Design the home of your dreams with any one of REHAU’s modern, European-inspired window and door systems made with the company’s proprietary uPVC formula. Making this investment today means reaping the benefits for years to come within the comfort and serenity of your home. Whether you opt for the GENEO or ÄSPEKT window system, you can rest assured you’ll be sealing the integrity of your home’s building envelope with these key elements: COMFORT.
With REHAU, cut noise pollution by 25% without compromising thermal insulation so that no matter the time of year, you’re not only comfortable, temperature-wise, you’re also enjoying peace and quiet. CREATIVITY.
Personalize your home with REHAU’s countless design options, from customized profile shapes to brilliant colors and patterns. SUSTAINABILITY.
With fusion-welded corners, compression-seal technology, triple glazing capabilities, and multi-chamber frames and sashes, REHAU’s windows are built to last, increasing energy efficiency and improving your home’s building envelope. SECURITY.
Appropriate hardware combined with multiple locking points ensures superior forced-entry resistance. WORRY-FREE.
Easy cleaning and
maintenance are guaranteed with REHAU’s high-definition finish.
and makes for easy cleaning. And sound pollution is cut by 25% with REHAU’s systems-wide compression-seal and trpleglazing technology. But perhaps the greatest stereotype to debunk when it comes to vinyl windows is the lack of design options. Gone are the days of choosing from white, white, or white. REHAU’s high-performance systems are sleek, modern, and clean with thousands of options for colors, patterns, and configurations,
“REHAU’S HIGHPERFORMANCE WINDOW SYSTEMS ALLOW ARCHITECTS TO FULFILL THEIR TRADITIONAL DESIGN INTENT WITH BETTER RESULTS—BETTER ENERGY EFFICIENCY, BETTER SUSTAINABILITY, AND MORE COMFORT.” Ralph Childs, REHAU commercial sales manager
allowing for optimal high-design customization and personalization. “Architects, builders, and developers are looking to change the traditional trend,” Childs says. “They’re looking for better building solutions, sustainable products that hold their value longer, new materials, countless colors, and configurations that meet their design intent—and that’s what REHAU stands for.” gb&d november–december 2017
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10 Ways to Keep Buildings Dry and Assets Safe A look at Absolute Weather Shield’s innovative waterproofing products By Colleen DeHart
Water damage to a building can be both costly and all too common. In just minutes, water can destroy property and render assets useless. A study from the EPA looking at 100 public and commercial U.S. office buildings showed 85% of buildings previously had some type of water damage. While there are a variety of solutions on the market to help protect buildings and assets, installation can be costly, with some products requiring crews of 10-plus workers, says Nik D’Annunzio, vice president of operations for Absolute Weather Shield. That’s why Absolute Weather Shield products were created. The spray applications allow a crew of three to install more than 1,000 square feet an hour of rubber waterproofing—more than 10,000 square feet a day. “It is a very
economical option for contractors. This is big because construction labor is probably one of the hardest jobs to fill at the moment,” D’Annunzio says. The cold fluid, water-based application is safe for the environment and does not require any special ventilation when applied. It contains no VOCs and has a life of 10-25–plus years, thus cutting down on environmental waste. “Waterproofing keeps your indoor environment dry and healthy,” D’Annunzio says. The self-repairing product can stretch and contract with the building or other structure it’s applied to and will adhere to any surface. It’s also quick drying, with 90% setting instantly, and the other 10% taking 4-12 hours, depending on weather conditions. Here are some ways Absolute Weather Shield products can keep buildings dry and assets safe:
2.
Absolute Weather Shield has solutions to reduce your building’s temperature and cooling costs.
1. APPLY D-MAX RUBBER SHIELD TO AN EXISTING ROOF SYSTEM TO DOUBLE THE LIFE OF THE ROOF.
The durable D-Max membrane—a combination of modified rubber and emulsified asphalt—self-seals when punctured, preventing a small hole in the roof from leading to a big problem.
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REDUCE BUILDING TEMPERATURE AND COOLING COSTS IN WARMER CLIMATES BY USING THE TAN ROOF SPRAY. THE COMPANY IS ALSO DEVELOPING A WHITE ROOF APPLICATION. THE LIGHTER COLOR IS DESIGNED TO REFLECT SUNLIGHT WHILE ALSO KEEPING WATER FROM ENTERING THE BUILDING. gbdmagazine.com
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8. 3. USE D-MAX LEAK RESPONSE SEALER TO PERMANENTLY REPAIR ANY LEAKS IN ROOFING OR THE FOUNDATION OF A STRUCTURE. The elastic, monolithic membrane seals defects with no seams, thus preventing the need for further repair. The leak-sealing material can be sprayed on. It’s also available to brush on for smaller surfaces.
4. THE D-MAX PRODUCTS CAN BE APPLIED AROUND WINDOW SEALS TO HELP PREVENT LEAKS. The products are designed to lock out moisture and other contaminants, especially in areas where adverse weather conditions may cause damage.
5. A PENETRATING CONCRETE SEALER PRODUCT CAN BE USED ON ALL CONCRETE, INCLUDING CONCRETE FLOORS TO KEEP THEM FROM CRACKING.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ABSOLUTE WEATHER SHIELD
The product PLS-107P Sealer blocks and reduces vapor emissions while leaving concrete breathable. It purges soluble chlorides and prevents reentry into the structure, and it cures and chemically hardens in one application.
6. THE ABSOLUTE WEATHER SHIELD VAPOR BARRIER CAN BE USED TO PREVENT THE TRANSFER OF UNWANTED COMPOUNDS FROM ONE SPACE TO ANOTHER. This product has been used by farmers to seal silos and keep conditions ideal.
7. KEEP TANKS OR OTHER FLUID-FILLED STRUCTURES FROM LEAKING BY INSTALLING D-MAX RUBBER SHIELD ON THE INSIDE OF THE TANK. gb&d
THE RUBBER TECHNOLOGY WILL ADHERE TO ANY SURFACE MATERIAL— INCLUDING SURFACES THAT ARE WET OR DAMP—AND THEREFORE CAN BE A SOLUTION FOR KEEPING MOISTURE OUT OF METAL ELEVATOR SHAFTS.
The product is free of VOCs, anti-corrosive, and resistant to non-petroleum based chemicals. It has commonly been used as a pond liner.
9. THE FOUNDATION OF AN EXISTING STRUCTURE CAN BE A COMMON PLACE FOR WATER TO ENTER.
Applying D-Max Rubber Shield to the foundation’s interior or exterior can seal any existing leaks and envelop the structure to prevent future problems. The product is recommended for use above grade.
10. INSTALLING THE D-MAX WATERPROOFING PLUS SYSTEM— CONSISTING OF A FLUIDAPPLIED, RUBBERIZED ASPHALT MEMBRANE AND DIMPLED MEMBRANE DRAINAGE SYSTEM— ON CONCRETE, WOOD, OR FOAM WILL HELP STOP ANY WATER FROM DRAINING INTO THE STRUCTURE. It can be used on new and existing structures, both interior and exterior, and in all climates.
ABSOLUTE WEATHER SHIELD’S SPRAY APPLICATIONS ALLOW A CREW OF THREE TO INSTALL MORE THAN 1,000 SQUARE FEET AN HOUR OF RUBBER WATERPROOFING A DAY. november–december 2017
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Can You Change Culture Through Furniture Design?
ð
This principled, sustainability-driven company thinks so.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF SKRAM
By Caroline Eberly Long
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ð Working from a reclaimed knitting mill in Burlington, North Carolina, furniture designer Jacob Marks and his team are fine-tuning the ergonomics and styling of a new chair design. Marks first scrawled dozens and dozens of tiny details of the piece in his sketchbook. His colleague then carefully rendered and refined the design using a 3D modeling program. And now the piece is in line to be manufactured— and rigorously evaluated—as a prototype over the course of several months. “There comes a day when everyone sits in it and has their say,” Marks laughs. As this picture suggests, Marks and the team at Skram Furniture Company aren’t interested in taking shortcuts. Rather, they commit to the process of creating beautiful, modern, and “heirloom quality” furniture—pieces that are designed and built to last as long as the life of the trees from which they’re made. The founder’s thoughtful approach to furniture-making is in part inspired by his unlikely background. “People laugh when they hear that I was a history major who doesn’t have any formal design training,” Marks says, “with the implication being that [the two pursuits] don’t relate. But for me, designing and building well involves the same blend of precision and creativity that the craft of writing history required. That overlap enabled me to skip from one to the other with the same fascination and motivation.” Marks began exploring this fascination in the early 2000s, leaving San Francisco to pursue furniture-making and setting up a small studio in the woods outside Chapel
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Hill, North Carolina. There, he learned the craft of woodworking by reading books about the trade and submitting his hands to the discipline of repetition. “There’s a lot of muscle memory involved [in furniture-making],” he says. “And that needed to be developed over time.” To learn to hand-cut a traditional dovetail joint, for example, he would make one sample every day and number it for each of the days of the month, in order to track his progress. The next month, he’d start over. “It was on-the-job training,” he says. Marks carried on as a solitary craftsman, selling traditionally made minimalist furniture to galleries and private customers, until 2004 when he decided to debut his first furniture line, Wishbone, at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. The design industry took note. “That’s when you can mark the transition from a one-man shop in the woods to a company with a legitimate presence in the world of modern design,” he says. Over the next five years, Skram took on new employees and responded to new demand, building made-to-order high-end furniture for interior designers and dispatching pieces to design-forward showrooms in major cities. The company moved into a 17,000-square-foot facility in Hillsborough, North Carolina, before settling into the Burlington mill-turned-factory where it operates today. Yet in all of this, despite the company’s steady rise, Marks has resisted the distraction of growth trajectories and gimmicky product rollouts in the name of quick attention. “In terms of continued growth and success, for us it’s mostly a matter of simply making people aware of what we believe and how we build what we build,” he says. “Spreading the word about how we approach sustainability is a constant.” Skram’s commitment to sustainable manufacturing shows up at many levels of the company’s operation. Take the rooftop solar array that powers around half of factory activity, or the policy of using formaldehyde-free glues and finishes in its pieces, or the practice of sourcing wood from within a 500-mile radius. Yet while Marks is serious about these practical concerns, his interest in sustainability is also philosophical. “We try to offer people a chance to confront their attitudes about the objects that surround them,” he says. “To choose things that are more precious, and to embrace the scratches and dings that develop over time or when your kids draw on them … the kinds of things that bring meaning to objects.” In promoting a “buy it once and buy it right” mentality, the designer challenges today’s culture of disposability—the all-too-familiar practice of buying cheap mass-produced pieces destined to become landfill castoffs when they’re ousted by the next big trend or start to break down. In fact, when designing, Marks and his team resist trends, envisioning pieces that “fully ignore fashion” in favor of enduring style. Skram’s seating, tables, case goods, lighting, and other furniture essentials embody clean lines, sculptural angles, and bold negative space. The qualities of the materials themselves—the swirling lines of woodgrain, the subtle luster of brass—bring character to pieces in place of put-on ornamentation. (In other words, you won’t find any soon-to-be-dated patterns or curlicues here.) Marks’ team then manufactures the furniture on-site, pairing handcraft with modern machining to incorporate the best qualities of both. If you were to look in on the factory in another 25 to 30 years, chances are good the team would be following much the same practices—perhaps applied in new ways, yet according to the same principles. That’s because the mission itself is sustainable; it won’t dry up or lose relevance over time. And in the same number of years, the company’s pieces will likely have migrated to the homes and spaces of the next generation—wearing the subtle, meaningful marks of time, of course. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
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BEHIND THE SCENES AT
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF SKRAM
SKR AM
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If These Walls Could Talk Precast wall pioneer Fabcon has revolutionized the way buildings of all sizes are built. By Margaret Poe
How do you build a 1-million-square-foot warehouse in just three weeks? With precast wall panels and an entire team, from design to installation, willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. That’s the spirit at Fabcon, which has been refining its approach to precast walls for more than 45 years. Well before Amazon was building a warehouse on seemingly every corner, Fabcon was finding ways to build efficiently and sustainably. That efficiency stems from Fabcon’s approach.
HOW THEY DO IT “We do everything in-house, start to finish in the process,” says Joe Dammann, a sales engineer who’s been with the company for 20 years. Unlike other manufacturers that outsource various elements of the process, Fabcon does it all. For customers, this means they have one point person who works with them from design to fabrication to installation. Dammann says Fabcon has also taken the design process to the next level with a custom version of CAD they developed internally. The software transmits the design to the automated equipment in the plant, projecting an image of the design directly onto the panel. This reduces the amount of measuring done manually, enhancing accuracy and speeding up produc-
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF FABCON
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Fabcon’s precast wall panels go up quickly— with up to 250 lineal feet of wall per day installed.
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“CUS TOM E R S
WHO M AY H AV E B E E N E X C L U S I V E LY U S I N G CONCRETE BLOCK O R M E TA L PA N E L S I N T H E PA S T A R E TURNING TO PREC AST WA L L S B EC AUS E O F T H E R - VA L U E T H E Y O F F E R .” JOE DAMMANN, SALES ENGINEER, FABCON
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tion. “The more accurate the panels are coming out of the plant, the quicker we can erect them in the field,” he says. Thanks to the all-Fabcon team, customers are never stuck waiting for a sub-contractor to finish one element of the project before things can move along, Dammann says. In addition, any tweaks can be easily accommodated. “We’re extremely flexible in being able to make changes along the process,” he says. “If somebody has a plan change within days of the panel going into fabrication, we’re able to incorporate the change—often without negatively impacting the schedule.” Fabcon’s highly insulated walls are built in the controlled environment of a factory, so weather doesn’t pose an issue. Whether it’s below zero or 85 and sunny, construction can continue on schedule, Dammann says. Once the walls are built, they’re quickly installed in the field, with crews able to put up an average 250 lineal feet of wall per day, he says. Fabcon’s flexibility and affordability stems from a sophisticated supply chain that serves its large volume of production. The company has plants in Minnesota, Ohio, gbdmagazine.com
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Johnson Controls, New Freedom, PA. BELOW: Shakopee Community Center, Shakopee, MN.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF FABCON
Pennsylvania, and Kansas. Depending on the day, some 35 to 50 truckloads of precast panels are transported from those facilities to job sites, says Paul Schreifels, manager of supply chain at Fabcon. Schreifels has spent the last eight years working with suppliers to meet the constant need for materials within those plants.
THE MATERIALS THEY USE Fabcon has always been on the cutting edge of the precast market, Schreifels notes, but it renewed its focus on cost containment and efficiency during the recession. Material sourcing was an important part of that effort. Steel makes up about half of Fabcon’s total material cost, Schreifels says, with cement and aggregates making up the balance. Fabcon uses from 20 to 100% recycled foam within its products, which boosts its sustainability. And the walls are built to last: Schreifels says longevity is always a top gb&d
concern when selecting materials. That means finishes are suited to the climate where they’ll be installed. In Minnesota, for instance, exposed aggregate finishes are often used, which never have to be painted—a boon for a state with harsh winters. Fabcon patented its VersaCore+Green™ solution in 2007 to offer a highly sustainable product with a range of R values (up to R 28.2) depending on the thickness of the panels. The thermal value, combined with the quantity of recycled materials, gives customers the opportunity to gain LEED points as well as tax credits and incentives depending on the project location. In addition to assessing the company’s material sourcing, Schreifels and his team have also pursued ways to reduce their water use. Thanks to a conservation initiative at their Minnesota plant, they now recycle basically all of the water
that goes into the facility—with much of it being used multiple times, he says. Fabcon has invested significant time and energy into developing new finishes for its products, from sandblasted styles to exposed aggregate, all in an infinite variety of colors. This allows them to meet a dizzying array of needs, from a 20,000-square-foot church to a 2-million-square-foot data center, Schreifels says. And all of those customers receive the highest levels of service, efficiency, and quality. “Fabcon’s ability to economically produce our walls in our precast plants is what starts to set us apart,” Schreifels says. “The sheer volume of product we can produce in our plants is impressive. Even to me today. We’re installing a building in a matter of days.” gb&d november–december 2017
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The Beauty of Timbercraft The best design strategies start with some of the very finest wood.
By Mike Thomas
Timber framing, an ancient artisan craft, brings the beauty of wood to life in a dramatic way, and Tecumseh, Michigan–based Timbercraft has perfected the art. During the nearly two decades Bob Sternquist has owned Timbercraft, a company founded in the late ’70s, his team has crafted roughly 1,500 timber frame homes in the United States and abroad. While many of those projects stand out in his mind, one in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is particularly memorable. The clients asked Timbercraft to help honor their late father, who had a lifetime love for old-fashioned timber frame barns and always dreamed of having a timber frame home of his own. Sadly, he passed away before realizing that dream. As a tribute, his kids wanted to build a large timber frame vacation home for the whole family to enjoy. Timbercraft did just that, sending its staff of experts to design and assemble a house that met the client’s exact specifications. The reaction is what Sternquist recalls most vividly. “On that job, while gb&d
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Timbercraft homes can typically be framed in days, as each piece of timber is designed, engineered, and test-fitted at the factory.
the frame began to take shape against the backdrop of the Colorado Mountains, tears flowed as the clients brought their father’s dream to life,” he says. “They were hugging and excited, I was almost in tears myself.” Wooden structures stand out both visually and functionally. Timbercraft most often uses responsibly forested Douglas fir from Oregon, and the results are impressive—whether the client has commissioned a simple and moderately priced cottage or an intricate multimillion-dollar showpiece like one Sternquist erected in Aspen. “The beauty of it is just absolutely unique,” says Sternquist, whose own home is a partially timber framed structure set on 30 acres. “It is so warm and inviting. I love coming home at dusk. I have lights that shine upward to accent the frame and bring the drama of my wood ceiling to life. I totally dig my house.” But timber framing, a style of construction that goes back thousands of years, is more than just aesthetically pleasing—far more. Timbercraft homes, whether modest or grand, can usually be framed in a matter of days. Because every piece of timber is designed, engineered, and testfitted at the company’s Michigan factory,
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the erection process is streamlined when the wood arrives on-site. Timbercraft structures are three times stronger than conventional “stickbuilt” structures. The timber frame is joined with kiln-dried oak pegs in the traditional “mortise and tenon” method, or with metal fasteners (“post-and-beam”) that can better withstand heavy snow loads and earthquakes. And contrary to common belief, it’s all extremely fire resistant. Conventional structures burn quickly once the flames find wall studs. Timber framing uses solid wood, which requires tremendous heat to burn. Timber framing also offers major ecological advantages. Not only does it use 80% less wood than conventional stick-built structures, it is far more energy-efficient. According to Sternquist, Timbercraft’s materials and methods result in energy efficiency that is six times greater. So even though a timber frame project typically will cost around 20% more, backend savings eventually make up for the additional outlay—and then some. “I don’t want to design a home where your furnace is going to turn on every 10 or 15 minutes,” Sternquist says. “I want better efficiency, so there’s a more even heat throughout the house. I kiddingly say we’re trying to design a structure that can be heated with a candle.” gb&d
THE NUMBERS 1,500 homes crafted
40 years in business
3 Timber frame structures are three times stronger than conventional stickbuilt structures
80 percentage less wood used compared to conventional stick-built structures
6 Timbercraft’s structures are six times more energy efficient than others
Or kept cool with minimal airconditioning. The secret is Timbercraft’s Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs). Made with polyurethane, they help keep temperatures constant by blocking the exit of hot air through walls and ceilings and better containing cold air. “The reason it’s a happy marriage for timber frames and SIPs is that timber frames are these tall, vaulted structures in desperate need of energy efficiency,” Sternquist says. “But SIP panels need structural lumber to sit on. So both products need each other.” Whether prospective buyers are in the market for a fully timber framed home, commercial, or outdoor space, a hybrid that deploys timber framing only in high-traffic areas, or a simpler cosmetic enhancement that Sternquist dubs “trimber framing,” Timbercraft offers options to suit a wide range of budgets and tastes. But they all have one thing in common: gorgeous, longlasting, handcrafted wood. “Part of the reason people come to Timbercraft is we’re building a legacy,” Sternquist says. “It’s a beautiful piece of art.” One that might just bring a tear to your eye. gb&d november–december 2017
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FROM PROBLEM TO RESOURCE
Turning a 20th Century Infrastructure Crisis into a 21st Century Opportunity Brentwood knows public-private cooperation is the hidden key to smart stormwater management.
By Jessica Letaw
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu’s observation that “nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it” is as true for cities as it is for continents. A sustainable city is able to meet the environmental, financial, social, and cultural needs of its current and future residents, and sustainable infrastructure is an integral component, helping cities achieve their goals in all four dimensions. Smart stormwater management is necessary to sustainable development; well managed, water can actually serve to strengthen the resilience of a community’s social, natural, and economic responses to change. In an era when severe weather events are on the rise and climate patterns less and less predictable, cities are increasingly looking to residential and commercial property owners to help them accomplish their short- and long-term goals with respect to stormwater management.
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The modularity, multiple sizes, and customizability of the STORMTANK MODULE system enables owners to work easily within the constraints of existing structures.
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CITIES AND RAIN: THE EVOLUTION OF STORMWATER
Historically, cities have managed stormwater with vast and resource-intensive underground pipe systems. The challenge in recent decades is that, as cities continue to grow, the percentage of area requiring infrastructure to manage rainfall has risen. Systems built 50 to 100 years ago (or more) are becoming more inadequate to serve residents’ daily needs, and they can be overtaxed by even minor deviations from established weather patterns. According to the EPA, many communities are not adequately prepared for the increasingly common weather extremes brought on by climate change, much less the projected future impacts on their communities. Managing stormwater effectively in the future will mean managing rainwater where it falls. Doing so entails a distributed, rather than a centralized, approach, working with property owners on sitespecific solutions for which they are responsible. Enter Brentwood, the family enterprise in its second generation of manufacturing natural solutions to these challenges. Their stormwater management products, like the StormTank Module, lend themselves to a wide variety of applications and customizable solutions; it’s 97% air, is able to hold a high volume of water, and yet is suitable for placing under load-bearing gb&d
conditions. Brentwood also offers the StormTank Pack, with similar benefits more suited to landscaping and other low-impact areas; and the StormTank Shield, which reduces pollutant and other undesirable discharge, the final complement to a complete stormwater management system. Brentwood also offers the Urban Root System, an application that utilizes the StormTank Module to reduce tree-related damage to sidewalks and curbs through gentle root management, while also promoting healthier trees. BRENTWOOD IN ACTION Havana Square Apartments is a
new development in Tampa’s fast-growing North Hyde Park neighborhood. Completed in 2015, owner Pollack Shores Real Estate Group built this residential complex on a previously vacant lot. Their financial goals required a dense design; the final design developed 2.87 acres of the 2.9-acre lot into two apartment buildings situated around an open courtyard and an on-site parking structure for its residents. City ordinances mandated that the site be able to process a storm event equivalent to one acrefoot of rain, translating to approximately 326,000 gallons of water, or 43,560 cubic feet of storage volume. Surface capture and infiltration in the form of a pond would have detracted from the buildable land and reduced the project’s november–december 2017
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“BRENT WOOD PRODUC TS GIVE OWNERS THE FUNCTIONALIT Y T H E Y N E E D ; T H AT ’ S W H E R E T H E C O S TEFFECTIVENESS C O M E S I N .” PAT W YSOCK I , R . H . MOORE & A SSOCI ATE S
income potential, which meant the development was going to require a below-ground stormwater management solution if they were going to meet both their financial and environmental goals. Pollack had collaborated with project engineers, King Engineering, on a project some years prior in which they’d explored different stormwater management systems and ended up choosing Brentwood’s StormTank Module system because it allowed them to exceed the storage requirements well within the allowable footprint of the site. For Havana Square, the engineers designed a pair of Brentwood systems to meet the site’s needs: one under the courtyard to manage rainfall on the site itself, and another under the parking garage to help with flood mitigation of excess stormwater from the surrounding area. gb&d
“As with any development, the stormwater system will have impacts on financial aspects of the project—from costs incurred for installation to amount of revenue that can be generated,” says Jason Bailey, product line manager for Brentwood. “We utilized the StormTank Module system on this project for its flexibility, sizes, and price.” Havana Square’s Brentwood system occupies 11,713 square feet, less than 10% of the site’s overall footprint, and yet can store almost 330,000 gallons of water—meaning its residents and neighbors will likely never have to worry about getting trapped in or flooded out of their homes. True sustainability means meeting the natural, social, and financial needs of sites and communities. Design teams for new construction sites and redevelopments find that Brentwood’s stormwater november–december 2017
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BENEFITS u
FLEXIBILITY
u
REDUCED FOOTPRINT
u
AFFORDABILITY
management products not only meet local requirements, but the projects contribute to the sustainability of their communities, and both property owners and cities benefit. The modularity, multiple sizes, and customizability of the StormTank Module system enables owners to work easily within the constraints of existing structures, greatly simplifying the development process and enabling access to sites where doing so has been traditionally difficult. “Brentwood products give owners the functionality they need; that’s where the cost-effectiveness comes in,” says Pat Wysocki, product installation specialist with Brentwood distributor, R.H. Moore & Associates. “Its compact footprint requires less material while storing a greater volume of water; it all adds up to a significant cost savings for the owner.” gb&d
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StormTank Module is 97% air, is able to hold a high volume of water, and is suitable for placing under load-bearing conditions.
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A LIVING ROOF GUIDE Architek’s five key things you need to know to create a thriving green roof By Julia Stone
Green roofs are much more than just beautiful rooftop gardens. They help decrease air and noise pollution, reduce heat by absorbing sunlight, and manage excessive stormwater runoff. Green roofs can even improve your overall wellness by increasing your energy levels and brightening your mood. With the number of benefits green roofs provide, it’s not surprising that the living architecture industry is thriving. But what really goes into creating a thriving green roof? “There’s no one size fits all approach to the green roof industry,” says Ron Schwenger, a certified green building professional and principal at Architek, a leading living architecture distributor based in Vancouver, British Columbia. “All horticultural and architectural circumstances must be taken into account.” With a background in architecture and fine arts, Schwenger founded Architek in 2005, hoping to strengthen the living architecture industry in North America. By partnering with well-established developers like the German company ZinCo, Architek provides design support, installation, and maintenance for living architecture systems, including green roofs. These are just a few of the most overlooked and essential factors that must be considered to build a green roof that not only survives, but thrives.
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1
MAKE SURE THE PLANT SELECTION IS BEST SUITED FOR THE LOCATION.
When selecting plants for a green roof, you should reference your location on a Regional Hardiness Zone map. Most regions in North America are divided into unique horticultural Hardiness Zones. These maps rank areas from 1-7, 1 being the harshest growing conditions, 7 being the mildest. Using plant species that are native to the area gives your green roof the best rate of success. In general, the most popular plant species for green roofs is the succulent sedum, which is well-suited for shallow roof systems. Sedum is also tolerant of harsh conditions such as droughts.
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USE AN ENGINEERED, RELIABLE GREEN ROOF APPROACH.
Green roofs have been around for hundreds of years. During the Viking Age, green-roofed villages were quite common as sod acted as a natural insulator. However, engineered green roofs are a more recent development. The practice of engineering green roofs began about 50 years ago in Germany. Architek has a strong, collaborative relationship with ZinCo, a green roof manufacturer that was founded in Germany in 1957. ZinCo uses an efficient layered design that separates the three main goals of a green roof: protection, drainage, and growth. “Using an engineered system is the best method to ensure long-term success and a green roof that thrives,” Schwenger says. The green roof industry in North America is still in its infancy compared to Europe. “We have a tendency in North America to think that we can do things better,” Schwenger says. “But why not benefit from the expertise and the proven track record of the well-established green roof industry in Europe? That’s been my approach from the very beginning.” Schwenger encourages green roofers to stick with trusted European methods rather than falling for gimmicks and trends. In Europe, the green roof industry is performance-oriented, focusing on durability and sustainability. In contrast, the North American green roof industry is driven by economic and value engineering. At Architek, Schwenger attempts to bridge the gap between the two, bringing European knowledge and skill to the North American marketplace while still being highly cost-effective.
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USE THE PROPER SUBSTRATES AND/OR ENGINEERED GROWTH MEDIA. “Using low grade topsoil and inappropriate substrate is the leading factor for green roof failures and subsequent building envelope damage,” Schwenger says. He recommends always using a grow media mix that is best suited for the horticultural environment and building architecture. If you are dealing with a landlocked, arid environment, you need to mix grow media suited for water retention. On the other hand, green roofs in coastal, rainy environments should have grow media that are less absorbent, allowing for effective water drainage.
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ENSURE THE GREEN ROOF HAS THE RIGHT BALANCE OF WATER AND DRAINAGE. Green roofs act as sponges. By soaking up water and delaying the flow of water runoff, green roofs give sewer systems enough drainage time, which helps prevent flooding. Green roofs also serve as a natural filter, improving the quality of stormwater runoff. But depending on the region—from humid rainforests to arid prairies—you must account for distinct water and drainage needs. Water retention mats, soil mixes, and plant and regionally appropriate irrigation plans must be considered ahead of time. “Proper levels of water retention, drainage measures and irrigation options need to be designed in from the beginning,” Schwenger says. You need to make sure the average amount of rainfall in your region does not outweigh the green roof’s saturated weight, or the maximum amount of water that a green roof can hold.
KEEP UP WITH WEEDING AND MAINTENANCE.
It’s a common misconception that green roofs don’t require any maintenance. “Every green roof is different when it comes to maintenance needs.” Extensive landscaped roofs require the least amount of upkeep because they are lightweight and shallow. “Extensive green roofs with sedums can do quite well with minimal maintenance, however some weeding and maintenance is required even on the simplest of green roofs.” On the other hand, intensive roofs are essentially rooftop gardens; they need more continual maintenance because they have a deeper build-up. Your regular upkeep routine for an intensive roof depends on which plants you choose (lawns, perennials, shrubs, trees, etc.). For slope green roofs, irrigation systems require seasonal maintenance. Despite what you may think, maintaining a green roof costs less than a conventional roof. “If green roofs are done extremely well, they’ll protect the building,” Schwenger says. “They last three or four times as long as normal roofs.” In short, green roofs provide a return on investment because of their durability.
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Building a Better Mousetrap— and a Better Bottom Line How investing in R&D led one company to become a smart lighting pioneer. BY J E S S I C A L E TAW
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“B
uild a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” This quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, himself an innovative thinker, is often floated by inventors and innovators reminding themselves that pioneering work is frequently less about the invention of something new and more about making things work better that people already know they need. Crestron has held this as its informal motto since the late George Feldstein, a self-described tinkerer, founded it in 1969. The company came to life in the field of industrial design, entered into innovative AV products, and evolved to become what’s now the world’s most successful smart-building technology developer, employing more than 2,500 employees worldwide and serving clients as diverse as homeowners in suburban Arizona to the Federal Bureau of Land Management, as well as other individuals, businesses, and governments worldwide.
INNOVATIVE DNA To say Feldstein founded Crestron in 1969 is somewhat overstating history. Finding himself unexpectedly unemployed, he began hiring his engineering services out to any company who needed a better product or a better production process, operating out of a small office over a deli in Cresskill, New Jersey. He was all hustle, working on widely divergent projects and assiduously growing his small company one client at a time. Crestron’s first big boost came in the early 1970s when Feldstein invented a wireless remote controller for audiovisual equipment, cementing Crestron’s reputation as an AV pioneer. He hired his first employee shortly thereafter. In the decades since, he and his team stayed on the leading edge of technology, first in AV and later as they continued to develop products in areas like shading, home automation, and commercial lighting. Today Crestron is on the forefront of the technology that drives smart buildings, automating energy management and continuing to chase ever-greater efficiency in their products and systems. THE LIFE CYCLE OF AN IDEA “I have a direct pipeline to engineering and a short path to development of new products,” says Bill Schafer, executive sales director in Crestron’s commercial lighting division. “I bring back conceptual ideas from the field, ideas customers need on the job.” Evan Ackmann, Crestron’s technology manager, sees even more opportunities. “An idea can come from anywhere—a sales meeting with a client; an onsite review with a contractor or fellow tradesperson; a blue-sky idea in Crestron’s R&D lab.” Ackmann says a key to successful R&D is to keep the work customer-focused. “If it’s too far afield from where customers are or where they are going, it won’t be interesting. Part of Crestron’s innovation isn’t just in its R&D; it’s in the process it wraps around determining which ideas to test and work on.” Every idea has to pass through multiple filters before being chosen and, in the end,
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WHEN A PRODUCT DOESN’T MEET THE R&D TEAM’S EXPECTATIONS OR MAKE IT TO MARKET, IT’S NOT A FAILURE; IT’S AN OPPORTUNIT Y TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW. every investigation is understood as one part or set of parts in an entire system of design. Once an idea is chosen, the team takes it through iterative design cycles, working from diagrams and prototypes through to final products. The point is to put all their basic assumptions and knowledge on the table and then test each point methodically. So where do these ideas end up? If it’s a fixture, it’s probably thinner, sleeker, and easier to use. If it’s a process, it’s probably cheaper to install, more efficient to produce, and faster to bring online. Either way, it will use open-standard fixtures and open-standard drivers. This means any standard parts manufacturer can make it and any standard service provider can maintain it, making Crestron systems more economical in the long run for customers. Sometimes, the ideas don’t end up anywhere at all. “Mr. Feldstein used to have tons of ‘skunkworks’ projects on his desk, projects that never saw the light of day,” says Ackmann, and the owner seems to have passed that attitude along. When a product doesn’t meet the R&D team’s expectations or make it to market, it’s not a failure; it’s an opportunity to learn something new. As long as the team stays mindful of the goal—keeping systems gbdmagazine.com
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customer-focused and with the business’s long-term goals in mind—Schafer says that work can’t help but end up yielding better products.
BRINGING INNOVATION TO LIFE The Zūm commercial lighting system is one of Crestron’s most recent R&D successes. The team received feedback about how their products affect construction and renovation projects and got to work on something new. Because lighting is one of the last pieces of any project, its installation can make all the difference in bringing a project on time and under budget. Knowing, as Schafer says, “the biggest hurdle of any commercial lighting job is bringing a job online,” the team set to work on a remedy for this pain point. The result: a preconfigurable, all-in-one wireless smart lighting system whose stand-alone components pair effortlessly with each other, making a Zūm installation faster, less error-prone, and more affordable. THE BOTTOM LINE As cool as shiny new gadgets are, you still have to keep the lights on, so to speak. “[Feldstein] always had a good balance of ‘Let’s gb&d
try something new’ and ‘Let’s make sure we’re taking care of the business,’” Ackmann says. What does that mean? Making sure you have the right balance of projects—expanding existing systems, reducing costs, and simplifying already exciting systems, while keeping an eye on the overall vision. And it’s not just about the fanciest new gadget. “Cost reduction projects can be innovative as well,” Ackmann says, meaning there’s plenty of room to improve systems people already love. Schafer agrees. One example? A lighting system whose sensory pattern is square instead of round, more accurately reflecting the geometry of most rooms; the innovation requires just two sensors instead of five, requiring less energy while at the same being more aesthetically pleasing. Maintaining an effective R&D portfolio still comes down to being effectively customer-focused, answering questions and providing solutions a few steps ahead of the market. Crestron, now nearly 50 years in the business and earning upwards of $1 billion in sales and continuing to grow, seems to be following its founder’s golden rule. Ackmann says, “Mr. Feldstein always told us, ‘Just do what’s right.’” gb&d november–december 2017
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Taking
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Next Level By Margaret Poe gb&d
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MASA Architectural Canopies creates sustainable shading solutions for beauty and comfort. The entrance to a building is more than just where you enter. It marks your transition from outdoors in, and it lays the groundwork for your experience once you walk through the door. In other words, it leaves an impression. One way to ensure it’s a positive one is to invest in smart sun control solutions. A canopy will protect you from the rain, sleet, or snow, offering shelter from any storm. A sunshade will block or redirect the sun’s powerful rays, creating a pleasant environment that encourages you to linger. Taken together, these elements create a beautiful, functional entryway that simultaneously conserve energy and maximize comfort. Creating these solutions has been the mission of MASA Architectural Canopies for nearly three decades. Its team of architects, engineers, and designers develops innovative shading and canopy solutions for a wide range of projects, from senior living facilities to schools. No matter the size of the installation, MASA takes pride in the details, says Michael Bradley, founder and CEO. “We don’t look at our projects as run-of-the-mill,” he says. “We treat every project as a unique build.” Here are seven features that set MASA’s custom sunshades and canopies apart.
The Power of Passive Shading A well-designed sunshade blocks the sun’s harmful rays and reduces their impact on a building’s HVAC system. Effective light control is as much about using the sun to create beautiful spaces as it is about controlling heat gain, Bradley says. Preventing solar heat transfer reduces overall energy usage. In addition, MASA customizes each installation to a site’s location and climate. Based on these details, MASA designers optimize the shading to make the biggest impact. By doing so, customers can add LEED credits to their building envelope.
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Effective light control is as much about using the sun to create beautiful spaces as it is about controlling heat gain.
Made (Sustainably) in the USA All of MASA’s products are manufactured in the U.S., with three major production facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida. These strategically located plants reduce the time it takes to transport products to a job site. As for materials, MASA uses recycled aluminum in all its products, and Bradley notes that 50 to 75% of all additional materials are made from recycled components.
Aesthetic Appeal There’s a lot more to a MASA product than immediately meets the eye. Behind the clean lines and sleek structural framework are a number of innovations, Bradley notes. For instance, bolts and facets can be hidden within the structure. Beams can serve double duty as gutters and conduits for electrical systems. On each project, MASA designers work with the customer to design and refine the architectural sketches to ensure the highest quality of both form and function.
Benefits of a Hybrid System Combining shade and canopy solutions gives you the best of both worlds. Say you’re designing a storefront. You’d want some water protection to keep rain off visitors moving in and out, Bradley suggests. That’s where a canopy, such as MASA’s Extrudeck product, would come in. But you wouldn’t want the sun’s rays blocked entirely along the whole front of the building, he adds. That’s why an awning like the Ecoshade comes in to play, possibly adjacent to the canopy. This allows rain to come through to water plants and flowers, as well as sunlight to brighten the area and cast attractive shadows.
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Integrated Design Architect Peter Elliott of Perkins Eastman experienced the difference an integrated design makes firsthand. While developing plans for a recent project, the team initially drafted a steel canopy in the traditional way, but quickly reconsidered after seeing the high costs and number of subcontractors that needed to be involved. “What attracted me [to MASA] was the ability to do a more integrated design of a canopy,” he says. He worked with MASA designers to craft a cohesive approach that got more uses out of each element of the structure: having the beams serve as gutters, for example. This, coupled with the use of structural aluminum instead of steel, reduced costs and allowed the team to streamline the installation.
Turnkey Installation MASA knows the success of a project hinges on its execution. It prides itself on being a true design-build firm with engineering and installation capabilities in all 50 states. These turnkey services set the company apart, Bradley says. By giving customers one point person, they always know who to turn to with any questions or concerns throughout the process. Elliott says another benefit is that, because MASA manufactures its canopies in large sections, the on-site installation goes quickly. On a school project, MASA was able to install a canopy in one day over a holiday break, preventing any disruptions while the building was in use.
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MASA’s shade solutions are aesthetically pleasing and easy to install.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MASA
Depending on the climate, a canopy or sunshade can be called upon to serve a range of functions, from cutting a cold winter wind to blocking the scorching sun from heating up the pavement. Architect Jennifer Colley, also of Perkins Eastman, recently worked with MASA on a canopy for a senior living project. They settled on a design that would create a welcoming environment for residents and family to gather, possibly with visiting pets, while somewhat protected from the elements. “When you’re designing for seniors, it’s so important you get thermal comfort right,” she says. By creating an inviting environment, an entryway becomes an asset—not just a place to pass through. gb&d
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FRONT GREEN BUILDING UP & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
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70 Bringing a Living Building to Life
The Cafritz Foundation Environmental Center is almost as energy-efficient as the greenery that surrounds it.
72 What Would Nature Do?
The Living Building at Georgia Tech strives to answer this question and more.
74 Google Search: Sustainability
Google pursued not one but three green building certifications in its Chicago office.
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Living Buildings THESE BUILDINGS DO MORE TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT THAN THEY DO TO HARM IT.
BY SHAY MAUNZ PHOTO BY TOM HARRIS
The designers we interviewed for this story said the Living Building Challenge changed their lives— and in ways you may not expect. Since he worked on his first Living Building, one architect has started biking and carpooling to work. Several have changed the way they source materials and think about a structure’s energy needs. All of them felt reinvigorated after working on projects that seem to be moving the needle on sustainable design. The Living Building Challenge from the Living Future Institute is the world’s most rigorous performance standard—it’s sometimes referred to as LEED on steroids. To qualify for full Living Building Challenge Certification, buildings must harvest more energy than they consume, get all the water they need by harvesting rainwater, and filter used water to be returned to the ecosystem. They have to salvage more material during construction than they send to the landfill, and use only materials free of chemicals found on the “Red List” of polluting and unsafe toxins. They have to be beautiful, user-centric, and built to foster a connection with nature. “What the Living Building Challenge wants is for buildings to be not just less bad,” says Alissa Kingsley, an architect at Lord Aeck Sargent who worked on the Living Building at Georgia Tech. “They want them to do good.” gb&d
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BRINGING A LIVING BUILDING TO LIFE PHOTOS BY RE:VISION ARCHITECTURE
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The nickname for the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Environmental Center is the Grass Building, and it perfectly captures its spirit. It’s a structure so thoughtfully designed it’s almost as energy-efficient and low impact as the greenery that surrounds it. The Maryland building is part of an educational farm on the Potomac River Watershed that the Alice Ferguson Foundation used to teach people about the natural world. This new building— which became the 13th in the world to receive full Living Building Challenge certification in June 2017—is an educational facility designed to blur
the lines between indoors and out, while still providing shelter as needed. “Part of the intent of the building is to be in the landscape and still have a bathroom to use,” says Scott Kelly, principal-in-charge at Re:Vision, a Philadelphia-based architecture and design studio. Conveniently, that goal aligned neatly with the LBC’s emphasis on biophilia, design that forges a connection between a building’s occupants and the natural world. At the Grass Building, that begins as soon as visitors step foot on the property. The main entrance encourages a pedestrian approach, and visitors are led along a meandering path that essentially leads them on a nature stroll through a grove of trees, over a footbridge, and across some wetlands. When they reach the building and ascend the stairs, crossing between salvaged white oak posts holding photovoltaic panels, they find themselves in a breezeway framing a view of the tree canopy and understory. It’s like a front row seat to the forest. Nature remains omnipresent even when you gbdmagazine.com
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This environmental education center in Maryland is a testament to the Living Building Challenge.
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step indoors, where walls are painted with murals of local wildlife and the width of the structure was carefully considered so no one is ever seated more than 30 feet from a window. The most challenging part of the project was balancing the LBC’s demand that the project use an ecological water system with local regulations that don’t account for such a thing. The design team envisioned a building that takes advantage of captured rainwater, composting toilets, and a low-energy irrigation system, but were told by county officials that these innovations wouldn’t be permitted. Instead, they’d have to install a
conventional septic system. The team pled their case to one official after another, all the way up to the EPA, but they were never able to get the approval they needed to use rainwater as a potable water source. They did have some success, though: After years of lobbying county officials, the project was granted an exception and allowed to install an “experimental” irrigation system that filters water through plant roots and biologically active soil to safely return it to the aquifer. They were also allowed to use composting toilets, which transform human waste into fertilizer. Those permitting hurdles meant the building took much longer to complete than most projects—11 years from start to finish—but obstacles like those are part of the point of the Living Building Challenge. Every time a new structure is built to meet LBC certifications it’s a win for the environment and the health of that building’s occupants, but it’s still only one building. It’s through the activism of architects and designers who work on those projects that larger systems change to become more eco-friendly. Kelly likens it to the massive changes he’s seen in the industry since LEED first came on the scene more than two decades ago. “Let me put it like this. The first LEED project we ever did, we called the manufacturer and we asked them to tell us how much recycled material is in the product. They hung up on us,” Kelly says. “At first, these manufacturers were looking at us like we had three heads, but now they get it.” That same pattern is already playing out with the most famously daunting piece of the Living Building Challenge—the Red List of harmful and polluting chemicals that are banned from every Living Building. Architects tell horror stories about spending months trying to learn the components of a piece of plywood, but as transparency in manufacturing catches on, it’s getting easier. That’s especially true because of the Declare Label, the Living Future Institute’s “nutrition label for buildings,” a database that includes a breakdown of all the components of a material for any vendors willing to submit themselves to that kind of transparency. “The advocacy work we’re doing,” Kelly says. “It’s having a ripple effect.” gb&d november–december 2017
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What Would Nature Do? When the team working on the Living Building at the Georgia Institute of Technology came across a design problem, they often asked themselves one question: What would nature do? “If this building is really going to be a regenerative building, a living building, it needs to act like nature,” says Dan Nemec, the assistant director of capital planning and space management at Georgia Tech. “So we kept coming back to that question and striving to find the most naturalistic answer.” When it’s completed in 2019, the Living Building at Georgia Tech will be a veritable temple to green design, the most environmentally advanced educational building in the Southeast. Designed by The Miller Hull Partnership and Lord Aeck Sargent, the project was funded with a $30 million grant from the Kendeda Fund, an Atlanta-based nonprofit. That’s the largest single grant Kendeda has ever made, and one of the largest capital gifts Georgia Tech has ever received. The money came with one stipulation: Living Building Challenge certification. Among the myriad things the building has to do to nab that designation is achieve net positive energy, meaning it has to harvest at least 5% more energy than it consumes. In hot and humid Georgia, getting to net zero energy is tricky in any building. Achieving it in a building this large—seven classrooms, study areas, offices, an auditorium, and a “maker space” for students’ creative projects—that will be used 18 hours a day, 12 months a year—is really tricky. And dealing with unpredictable energy needs that depend on class schedules and the whims of college kids who may or may not want to charge their laptop on any given day? “That was the biggest wild card,” says Brian Court, a partner at Miller Hull and the building’s project lead.
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And Georgia Tech has promised to pack this building to capacity— they want it to be visited by tourists, used by students, loved by the community. That’s the only way it will inspire green design in the region and other warm climates for years to come. But how to generate enough energy to account for all that use? Theoretically, the team could install solar panels to cover the load, but it’s almost always cheaper to find a way to reduce energy consumption than to generate that energy using solar panels. The team used several techniques for passive energy saving: triple pane windows, an exposed thermal mass of concrete flooring to capture the sun’s energy and gradually release it to regulate temperature, and trees and a wide overhang on the roof to provide shade. After making those energy-saving maneuvers—and running exhaustive models to calculate the building’s energy needs—the team decided to install photovoltaic panels on the roof that will generate nearly 300 kilowatts of electricity. When it came to sourcing materials for the building, Georgia Tech had one advantage: Access to buildgbdmagazine.com
TYPOLOGY
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE MILLER HULL PARTNERSHIP/LORD AECK SARGENT
The Living Building at Georgia Tech is set to achieve net positive energy.
ings on campus and around the state that were slated for demolition. The team was able to salvage used lumber and slate from an old house on campus, and before the old Georgia archives building was demolished last spring, the team went in to save whatever they could, including finished wood and granite curbing. Georgia Tech has embraced the Living Building Challenge as a series of teachable moments, engaging students, faculty, and staff in every step of the process. The landscaping team has been doing pilot projects around campus to learn more about how a natural landscape will perform in the environment, gb&d
the facilities management team is developing a manual to educate the community about a Living Building’s maintenance needs, and the university is funding several research projects that are related to the Living Building Challenge. This fall, students were even invited to a DIY activity on campus to make their own cornhole boards out of reclaimed materials. “At our core, our mission is driven by education,” Nemec says. “And we believe that if we do sustainable buildings on campus, students will see that, come to understand it, and they will take that knowledge back to their communities when they graduate.”gb&d november–december 2017
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The Google office in Chicago is among the greenest workplaces, with passive daylighting, an open floorplan, and responsibly sourced materials.
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GOOGLE SEARCH: SUSTAINABILITY PHOTOS BY TOM HARRIS
When Google signed the lease on a 350,000-square-foot office in a former meat warehouse in Chicago, they got a hip space with an industrial vibe, but the bare expanse of concrete was far from the inspirational workplace Google favors for its employees. To guide the transformation, Google decided to pursue not one green building certification, but three: LEED v4, the WELL Building Standard, and the Living Building Challenge’s Petal Certification. Chicago was the first Google office to pursue all three. While helping to design the space, the first challenge faced by the architecture team at Stantec was to find a way to draw daylight into the deep, dark former warehouse, both to make it a more pleasant environment for employees and to take advantage of passive daylighting to save energy. Their solution was to punch through all seven floors to create an atrium in the center of the space, drawing sunlight into the core of the building and visually connecting the floors. To ensure the structure takes full advantage of all that sunlight, the lightgb&d
ing system is responsive—the brighter the sun, the less energy used on electricity. The atrium is surrounded by a stairway with large landings designed to stimulate conversation among employees and encourage movement between floors. Donald Dorsch, the project lead, says the team thought of area around the atrium as the city center, where all the hustle and bustle is, then followed that idea to its natural conclusion by organizing the rest of the office around a city blueprint. The space becomes less congested as you travel away from the center of town, through the suburbs, and into the countryside—or, in this case, toward the office’s perimeter, where most employees have their workstations. “That kept all the built environment toward the core and left the windows at the outer edge exposed,” Dorsch says. “There’s not one built thing along the windows, it’s all for the employees, to let in the light and the views.” That dogged insistence on sharing all available sunlight with Google’s employees was guided, in large part, by the Living Building Challenge, which stipulates that a building be designed to lift its occupants’ spirits. When they set out to source materials for the building, the team analyzed the three certifications they were pursuing and found that by focusing on the LBC’s guidelines they’d also meet the standards for LEEDv4 and the WELL Building Standard. Google also placed a huge emphasis on finding local and sustainable solutions to provide a safe and healthy work environment for their employees. To conquer the rigorous standards, the team took a multifaceted approach. First, they reached out to vendors who had already chosen to disclose their ingredients list, then they sent letters to those who hadn’t already to advocate for transparency. They also developed educational materials that broke down the requirements in a simple way—namely, using a board they called the “cliff note” in meetings so they’d always have those sustainability points on hand. The team ran into one roadblock when they tried to source wood doors and couldn’t locate any that were both Forest Stewardship Council–certified and free of formaldehyde. In the end, the team decided to use hollow metal instead. “The experience opened our eyes as far as the contents of materials goes,” Dorsch says. “You can specify a material that you think is green, but then you start looking into the actual chemical composition of the material and find out there are these bad chemicals in there. We now look a little deeper into the actual materials we’re using in lieu of just saying it’s green.” gb&d november–december 2017
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GREEN BUILDINGTYPOLOGY & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Trendsetters Features Spaces Punch List
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78 Playing with Light Architectural Grilles &
Sunshades uses daylighting to revolutionize a research facility.
82 Innovations in Fabric Architecture Sunbrella shines in
delivering durable, flexible designs in compelling styles.
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Making an Apartment a Smart Home
Nest puts renters at the forefront of the smart home movement.
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PLAYING WITH LIGHT By Emily Torem
Architectural Grilles & Sunshades’ sun control innovations transform the Research Support Facility in Colorado.
The conference room and lobby at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Research Support Facility (RSF) face south and east, and in Golden, Colorado, that means quite the view. To frame the postcard like environs, the team at RNL Design, including Senior Project Manager Michael Simpson, wanted full, clear glass to capture the views, but a glass vista comes with issues that ants under a magnifying glass know all too well—melting temperatures and pounding glare. Fortunately, innovative sunshades offered a beautiful fix. These customizable features were installed on the outside of the RSF, shielding it from direct sun, while allowing all the benefits of natural light into the building. The custom sunshades from Architectural Grilles & Sunshades (AGS) block and diffuse direct sunlight in summer, while allowing the sun to heat the space passively in winter. This is especially beneficial in a room with a lot of glass, which can be a finicky material to properly insulate when temperatures drop. AGS also makes grilles, light shelves, and trellises, although sunshades are their flagship product. UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Daylighting effectively is a delicate balance between heat gain, adequate light, usage of power, and insulation— especially in a facility as big as RSF’s more than 350,000 square feet. “It’s essential in offices to have enough light to
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF AGS
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Custom
sunshades from AGS block and diffuse direct sunlight in summer while letting in sun to passively heat a space in winter.
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Sunshades like the
ones used by NREL cut glare while still providing full views.
minimize electrical loads, but too much direct light equals glare, which makes the office less comfortable,” Simpson says. The RNL Design team didn’t want to use too many blinds. Instead, they wanted an option that allowed them to diffuse sunlight from the outside. To keep artificial lighting at bay, RNL knew it was crucial to keep sunlight flowing into the facility. Simpson worked with AGS to develop sunshades that would eliminate heat build-up and glare without blocking natural light. Sunshades at the conference room, lobby, and conference center did the trick; they were placed so they redirected harsh light with a more diffused version. “We pretty much eliminated direct sunlight year-round,” Simpson says. CUSTOM CREATIONS
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF AGS
John Trainor, founder and general manager of AGS, is no stranger to innovation, whether it’s starting his own company or making products in-house so he can deliver custom orders to his clients. AGS also ships all of its sunshades fully fabricated in large crates instead of shipping them as individual parts that need to be assembled onsite. This saves clients costly field time. “RNL knew exactly how much shade they needed, but they didn’t know how to make it work. That’s where we came in—we get involved with engineering pre-design. Architects like us because if they can draw it, we’ll build it,” says Eric Niemeyer, national director of sales for AGS. To create the perfect angles for the sunshades, AGS works with the sun at different times of year. “At 8am in June it’s at 28 degrees and at 8am in December it’s at six degrees,” Trainor says. The design of the sunshades was tailored to RSF every step of the way. On the east facade of the facility, a lobby and common area link the two office wings. RNL wanted to use a vertical orientation of the sunshades, despite the fact that sunshades on this facade are generally horizontal. Instead of stainless steel cables to support the sunshades, RNL wanted to simplify the engineering. “We were able to minimize gbdmagazine.com
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Keyword Pull Different styles of sunshades can complement a wide range of aesthetics across climates and orientations. Below are some of the styles. u Tubular Sunshades look like round metal tubes. Their size can be changed according to specifications. Adding a perforated layer can diffuse sun even further.
u Airfoil Sunshades are blade-shaped and angled. They provide a slatted effect so that views are not obscured but sunlight is still filtered.
u Vertical Sunshades are most effective on the east and west elevations of a building. These can cover a great surface area without protruding too much and are especially suited to very hot regions, where they can help in additional heat blockage.
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF AGS
their sight line by coming up with a small enough tube—a two-by-two square tube of extruded aluminum—that also minimized cost,” Niemeyer says. Tinted or mirrored glass, which is generally more expensive, reflects and filters glare, but for clear glass applications, sunshades secure the best of both worlds by cutting glare and still providing full views. Sunshades help buildings save money, too; by cutting passive heat gain, smaller HVAC units can be installed and subsequent heating bills are slashed for good. “Sunshades help promote a better work environment,” Niemeyer says. “You’re not going to want to sit in a corner office that has direct sun from 10am to 8pm.” The addition of sunshades helped the project achieve LEED Platinum and net zero status, too, and that’s as important to NREL as a leader in renewable energy as it is to AGS. BUILT TO LAST
Aluminum, a 100% recyclable material, is a staple of AGS. “It’s important for us to protect the environment we live in and to build a building that will last for 50 years or more, as opposed to something disposable you’re throwing in a dumpster,” Trainor says. “We want to leave the planet better than we found it.” As one of the nation’s largest net zero projects, RSF demonstrates that net zero design can be contemporary, livable, and even cost effective. “Anybody can stick a bunch of solar panels on top of a building and make it net zero, but that’s not really the point of net zero design. You have to have a whole building approach,” Simpson says. “Sunshades are a part of that.” gb&d november–december 2017
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INNOVATIONS IN FABRIC ARCHITECTURE Sunbrella’s versatile design takes beautiful spaces and makes them even better. By Laura Rote
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Sunbrella helped to transform one Columbus, Ohio, eatery.
TAKING RISKS
Sunbrella is always up for a challenge, says Vince Hankins, Sunbrella’s industrial business manager, who’s been with the global manufacturer for more than 25 years. He says the company seeks to work with true innovators who want to break the mold when it comes to design, durability, flexibility, and protection. “This is the community that’s really driving the innovation and design train into the future, and we want to make sure shading is part of that,” he says. Kellogg says the biggest challenge in the Watershed project was to convince the client to go custom, choosing a high-quality, professionally designed fabric instead of a cheaper standard design the owner would have to install himself. Fortunately, it was worth the investment, especially as Sunbrella’s high-performance product was so attractive, matching the rest of the restaurant’s ambience. “The shade sails were at the front of the restaurant, just to the left of the front door, and the appearance of the shade sails was part of every customer’s first impression,” Kellogg says. HIGH DESIGN
Each of the three 9-by-12-foot shade sails is made of Sunbrella Contour with a cable sewn into a perimeter hem and attached with stainless steel turnbuckles and eyebolts through existing wood posts. “They fit perfectly within the rectangle areas, and they provide an artistic flair to the space, which contrasts with the industrial building that was repurposed into a restaurant,” Kellogg says. And they took just five hours to install. “The customer was so pleased with the appearance and function of the first three Sunbrella shade sails we provided that he ordered a fourth shade sail for the western end of the patio.” The quality, warranty, brand, and look of the fabric were reason enough to choose Sunbrella, Kellogg says, but the color was also exactly what the gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF SUNBRELLA
Sometimes people just want to sit outside, enjoy a drink and a lazy dinner, and soak up the sun. But not too much sun. And maybe it starts to sprinkle. So it’d be really nice to have a little protection overhead. Sunbrella, a leading manufacturer of high-end performance fabrics like those used in shade sails, has the perfect solution to all this and more—delivering durable, flexible designs in compelling styles, like Sunbrella Contour, recently used for a custom solution at Watershed Kitchen & Bar. “This bar is in an area that is very hip and up-and-coming, and the owners are young, creative, and innovative, so it was fun to enter this atmosphere and have such a ‘hit the nail on the head’ success,” says Tim Kellogg, a fabricator who has worked on multiple projects using Sunbrella shade fabrics. Kellogg installed shade sails using Sunbrella fabrics at the Columbus, Ohio, restaurant and distillery in spring 2017. He says the restaurant owner not only wanted to provide shade for the outdoor seating area but also to cool the eating space inside. Sunbrella’s unique design exceeded expectations and ultimately made the customers comfortable, too. “It could not have turned out better,” he says. The installation also extended the usable patio area.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF SUNBRELLA
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RECLAIMED MATERIALS Sunbrella doesn’t just say its product is recyclable. It follows through. “We bring the material back and it is repurposed and reconstituted,” Hankins says. Reclaimed materials then go into high-value products, setting Sunbrella apart from its peers. This is nothing new for the company, though. They’ve been repurposing fabric scraps into felt materials for things like underlayment and liner material for years. But in the last decade, they’ve taken that idea much further with collections like Sunbrella Renaissance, now one of its best-selling collections. Sunbrella Renaissance fabrics combine up to 50% postindustrial recycled Sunbrella fiber with virgin Sunbrella fiber for vintage charm, rich color, ultra softness, and top-notch performance. “We have partners who help us process waste streams back into a usable fiber,” Hankins says. “We render this material back into fiber form so it can be spun into yarn. From yarn, we create beautiful, highperforming fabric.” All Sunbrella fabrics are zero landfill, GREENGUARD Gold Certified, and OEKOTEX certified, among other environmental certifications.
client wanted. “Contour is a much richer looking shade cloth fabric than any of the other shade sail fabric we presented to our client.” If the owner hadn’t chosen Sunbrella, he would have been faced with a choice between other materials, which Kellogg says simply aren’t as nice. “Most of them are plastic-looking,” he says. “Sunbrella Contour is very soft to the eye and offers a much higher perception of quality and value.” Of course, Sunbrella’s offerings improve not just restaurants and bars, but office buildings and even private residences, too. “In modern design, we want to have office environments that are conducive to innovative thinking, conducive to a community of colleagues working together to advance the mission of their firm,” Hankins says. He believes having comfortable, inviting places for people to work and think inspires greatness. Hankins says Sunbrella strives to work with leaders in architectural design and those who are pushing the design envelope for a myriad of spaces. Incorporating soft surface products from Sunbrella has the added benefits of design flexibility and better sound absorption, too. Glen Raven, the maker of Sunbrella, has more than a century of history under its belt and continues to lead the industry when it comes to its long lifespan. “We were the first shade fabric to extend a warranty,” Hankins says, adding that that warranty—now 10 years—is worldwide, including in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Sunbrella promises its shade fabrics will stay bright and strong for many years to come. “The basis of its DNA is performance. It’s a highly tuned performance product,” Hankins says. R&D
Sunbrella fabrics are manufactured in facilities around the globe, with its main manufacturing location—a 1 million-square-foot facility in South Carolina—having an impressive R&D center and testing lab. Sunbrella’s expert designers are all over the U.S. and Europe, too. Sunbrella puts tremendous investment into its people, making sure they have the best team to deliver high design and high-performance products that last. They’re constantly looking to unlock new and enhanced performance criteria and find the best shading materials. “We don’t just listen. We hunger and seek input from all kinds of diverse thought leaders
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PHOTO: COURTESY OF SUNBRELLA
and sources. And we utilize our human capital to search the globe for new ideas,” Hankins says. As people become increasingly aware of the need for shade—both for comfort and health reasons—manufacturers and businesses alike look at how they can best deliver. That’s where Sunbrella steps in to move the conversation even further, asking: What else can be done? What else should they consider? And how can they help? “Shade markets and structures aren’t going to just grow on their own by coming out with a few new colors every couple of years or some different styling,” Hankins says. “We’ve got to much more actively engage and challenge the professional design and architectural community.” Sometimes considering a shade structure isn’t top of mind for some design professionals, but Hankins says it should be. “It can enhance the facade. It can enhance the overall campus and site layout. It’s flexible. It can change and evolve. It can be styled over the lifespan of the building.” gb&d gb&d
Sunbrella was able to provide shade for the outdoor seating area as well as cool the eating space inside.
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MAKING AN APARTMENT A SMART HOME With Nest, even renters can get in on the smart home movement.
By Shay Maunz Renters tend to be excluded from the latest advances in green design. Homeowners can plot their solar panel project, and the hospitality industry is always racing to one-up the competition with a new living wall or efficient toilet—but sign the lease on a rental and what do you get? “Typically, you rent this super standard box,” says Meggan Shaw-Butler, vice president of asset management at Pensam Residential, a Miami-based asset management firm with 15,000 rental units spread across 10 states. Pensam is trying to change that by putting their residents at the forefront of the smart home movement. They’ve installed the Wi-Fi enabled Nest Learning Thermostats, which adjust to tenants’ routines to reduce energy consumption, at Pensam properties across the country. “We’ve become enamored by the idea that everyone should have access to cutting-edge technology and products like the Nest Thermostat,” Shaw-Butler says. “So they’re able to enjoy very customized but efficient and impactful home solutions.” Pensam is in the business of adding value to its portfolio of multifamily dwellings; they buy up Class B properties and transform them into Class A properties. When the company started in 2009, they did that using classic upgrade tools—a granite countertop here, some stainless steel appliances there. But in 2015, Pensam found itself with an apartment complex in Austin, Texas, that happened to get super-fast gigabit-speed internet thanks to Google Fiber. The team at Pensam started exploring high-tech products from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and stumbled onto Nest. “We discovered that Nest could give us an opportunity to meaningfully differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” Shaw-Butler says. “Pensam likes to try different things, throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. We thought this could be very unique, very different—and it could give people an opportunity to have much more control over their home, which is not the norm in the rental market.” gb&d
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Pensam Residential is taking its rental units to the next level with Nest.
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TODAY, THERE ARE NEARLY 1,600 NEST THERMOSTATS INSTALLED AT PENSAM PROPERTIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
PHOTOS, THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF NEST
They started with a trial period, installing Nest Thermostats in just five apartments each month as units turned over, then sat back to look for signs telling them whether or not it was a good idea. The answer was unequivocal. “Demand was astronomical,” Shaw-Butler says. “Then we started adding them to every single unit possible.” By the end of the year, all 184 units in that Austin complex had Nest Thermostats. Today, there are nearly 1,600 Nest Thermostats installed at Pensam properties across the country. Apple alums Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers started Nest in 2010 out of a Palo Alto garage. Their idea was to take the lowly thermostat—omnipresent in American homes but woefully energy inefficient and underappreciated—and transform it into something tech-forward and sexy. “We focus on simple, beautiful, delightful hardware and all the software, services, and apps that enable those products to work so elegantly,” says Gene LaNois, general manager of the Professional Channel at Nest. “Our mission revolves around creating a thoughtful home that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it.”
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est Thermostats can be connected to the internet and controlled from anywhere using your smartphone, but the idea is that after a week or so, users hardly have to control them at all. Instead, Nest’s software uses machine learning to understand your preferences and adjust accordingly. It uses motion sensors and can even use your phone’s GPS to determine if anybody is home, keeps track of the weather using the internet, and learns how long it takes for your home to be cooled or heated. “It’s always optimizing itself to meet your comfort demands and run the most efficient cycles,” LaNois says. On average, Nest has saved users 10-12% on heating and 15% on cooling, thanks to the smarts packed into Nest Thermostats.* The result is a device that’s easier to use and much more charming than a traditional thermostat. Before coming to Nest, LaNois worked for a leading thermostat manufacturer “and never once did I run into a scenario where somebody said, ‘Hey, for my mom’s birthday, I’d love to get her one of your thermostats,’” he says. But now that he works at Nest? “Literally that happens every year.” Shaw-Butler says when prospective tenants step into a rental unit, they’re transfixed by the little glowing circle on the wall. november–december 2017
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I
n addition to thermostats, Nest offers Wi-Fi security cameras and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. And through the Works With Nest program, Nest devices are compatible with more than 170 products from other providers, from Google Home to Whirlpool appliances to Sleep Number beds. Because the Nest Thermostat can tell whether a user is home, it’s uniquely positioned to act as conductor for a symphony of smart home tech. Connect your Phillips Hue lightbulbs to your Nest Thermostat, and they’ll turn off when the Thermostat notices you’ve left the house. Link up Nest and the Whirlpool mobile app, and Nest will help your dryer optimize its cycle to reduce energy consumption (no need to waste energy rushing to dry that load of laundry on high when nobody’s home anyway). At Pensam, the team is already offering Google Home, the voice-controlled speaker that acts as a hub for Google’s Assistant in some units and is exploring options for connected lights and door locks. They’ve also seen residents add products on their own. “We kind of refer to the Nest Thermostat as the center of our connected homes,” Shaw-Butler says. “We love the idea that
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* Individual savings are not guaranteed. Source: https://nest. com/downloads/ press/documents/ energy-savings-whitepaper.pdf
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF NEST
you can come in and tweak and adjust and expand as far as you want to really make it a home that works for you.” Residents have exclusive control over their thermostats, so Pensam’s tenants don’t have to worry about their landlords or previous tenants adjusting the temperature. As owned homes become increasingly connected, tenants are sure to expect the same technology in their rentals. Shaw-Butler hopes other rental properties will look to Pensam as a model. It would take the edge off Pensam’s competitive advantage, sure, but energy savings across thousands of apartments could add up into something huge. “It sounds a little idealistic, but if operators as a whole can come together to try to improve quality of living for people and impact our environment in a positive way, then why not?” she says. “This is an area where we have an opportunity to make a big impact.” gb&d
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GREEN BUILDING INNER WORKINGS & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Features Spaces Punch List
94 Building a Better Future The NewSchool of Architecture & Design is preparing future leaders.
98 WSLA 2017 Meet the winners of the Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards.
104 The Road to Sustainability Leadership Halstead/Metroflor is committed to sustainability.
108 A Higher Standard for Roofs GAF delivers innovative roofing solutions.
112 Better Economics for a Thirsty World
Bio-Microbics’ water treatment systems are used worldwide.
116 Resiliency: Building the Future These award-winning projects are built to last thanks to Sasaki.
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FEATURES LEADERSHIP
LEADER. PACESETTER. PIONEER. Imaginative R&D, groundbreaking product solutions, and inspiring leadership—you’ll find all of this and more when you turn the page and dive into our special section showcasing some of the industry’s top trendsetters. While every issue of gb&d highlights inspiring leaders and even pioneers, this issue is quite literally packed with them. These movers and shakers ask tough questions and search for the best solutions, even as the answers are always changing. Turn the page to uncover the answers to just a few, from “Why is leadership education important?” to “What does it mean to be resilient?”
u u u u u u u
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BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE The NewSchool of Architecture & Design is training students to not just be great architects and designers, but great leaders in human-centered design.
BY TYLER BROCKINGTON “If everybody is thinking alike, nobody is thinking very much,” Marvin J. Malecha says his mother used to always tell him, paraphrasing the famous quote from General George S. Patton. As the president of the NewSchool of Architecture & Design, Malecha carries this wisdom with him every day. Founded in 1980 by Richard Welsh, the NewSchool has adapted over the decades to train its students to become open-minded leaders in their communities as well as highly skilled professionals. Eight years after its creation, NewSchool’s campus moved from Chula Vista, California, to downtown San Diego’s design district in the 85,000-square-foot campus where it currently resides. In more than three decades, the school has strived to continue challenging and inspiring all who enter its doors. gb&d
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A COMMITMENT TO INCLUSIVITY NewSchool’s continued commitment to diversity is one of the ways it stands out from the crowd. The school welcomes students from all over the world and maintains an inclusive and diverse student body and faculty. Five out of eight members of the NewSchool Board of Directors are women, as well as nearly 40% of the teaching faculty. “My job is to be a model for other women, especially for young female students. To show that the world of architecture is not only run by men. We have the responsibility to recognize that,” says Daniela Deutsch, NewSchool professor of architecture specializing in sustainability. It’s a welcome example in an industry that remains predominantly male. More than 40% of nearly 11,000 architecture degrees in 2012-13 were
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awarded to women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, but that number drops to 18% when looking at the number of active professionals in the field. For Malecha, inclusivity isn’t just a numbers game—it’s a necessity. “People learn from each other as much as they learn from a professor or anyone else, so to have a truly diverse studio provides the opportunity to have many viewpoints,” he says. Faculty at NewSchool come from many backgrounds—from healthy urbanism to neuroscience—and NewSchool offers specialized programs and interdisciplinary courses in its undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs to encourage students to explore the possibilities. gbdmagazine.com
FEATURES
TEACHING RESPONSIBILITY
DID YOU KNOW? NewSchool is rich in diversity. In 2015, more than 100 international students from 26 countries joined the student body, including students from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Italy, Kuwait, Peru, India, Brazil, Russia, Iran, Turkey, China, Japan, Iceland, Iraq, Venezuela, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Australia, South Korea, Libya, Romania, and more.
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PHOTOS, THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF NEWSCHOOL
NewSchool expects its students to be not only great architects, but civically engaged citizens as well. Malecha believes architecture students should be prepared to engage and invest in the prosperity of their neighborhoods. “I like to believe what we’re doing is preparing individuals to be citizen architects and designers—people who will take an active role in their communities and have an impact on the future of their communities.” Students are expected to explore different schools of thought throughout their time at NewSchool, too. “We are teaching students how to solve real problems out in the field and how to apply all of the ideas and concepts they get in class to specific design problems. It’s almost a revolutionary act in attempting to reform design education,” says Tatiana Berger, professor of architecture. Third-year design students have the opportunity to spend their spring quarter studying abroad to put what they’ve learned in action, traveling to renowned institutions, such as the Domus Academy in Milan. There they get handson experience during Milan Design Week that they wouldn’t get anywhere else, says Elena Pacenti, dean of NewSchool’s School of Design. “It’s a full immersion and a total exposure to design,” she says.
LOOKING AHEAD To keep up with a changing world, architects and designers must continue to create works that reflect the attitudes and needs of their communities. To do that, they have to be perceptive of the world they’re building for, understanding its shortcomings and strengths, and use the skills they’ve learned to create more than just buildings; they must create solutions. “What academia needs to be able to do is answer the next question. To do that you have to be able to identify it first,” Deutsch says. Strong leadership is the difference between being good and being great in architecture. “Leadership [skills are] essential for architecture and design students. Architecture is one of the most collaborative disciplines today,” Berger says. “Architects need to be able to collaborate productively with subcontractors, team members, and—most importantly—with the communities for whom they build.” Tomorrow’s designers and architects are expected to have more tools at their disposal than ever before, designing works to positively affect all who encounter them. “We want to educate and graduate individuals who will enter the profession ready to lead,” Malecha says. “[We also hope] they have been educated to understand the deeper underpinning of where form and objects come from and how they relate to what people need. If we do this, we will ground ourselves in the community as something valuable.” gb&d november–december 2017
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MEET THE WINNERS OF THE FOURTH ANNUAL WOMEN IN SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP AWARDS
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DR. DUYGU ERTEN Principal TURKECO Consulting
CHOOSING HEALTHY BUILDING
materials, adopting electric vehicles, changing city policy for more compact construction, and building greener all over the world—these 10 inspiring women do all of this and more. And they don’t just do it from 9 to 5. These leaders are changing the world at all hours, in all parts of the globe, and they’re often doing so in the face of serious obstacles. They’ve overcome stereotypes, risen to the top, found positive mentors, and gone on to share what they’ve learned by counseling others. The winners of gb&d’s fourth annual Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards are stellar examples of what it takes to truly lead. These women didn’t always have the answers, but they worked hard to find them, never afraid to ask tough questions to hopefully make the world a better place. “My older brother once observed that my path to growth has seemed to involve my taking on a challenge that I had no idea how to tackle, and then working my way through it,” says Susan Rochford, one of this year’s winners and the vice president of sustainability, energy efficiency and public policy at Legrand North America. “He calls it ‘throwing yourself over the edge.’ There are studies that indicate women will refrain from doing something until they believe themselves to be truly expert. For me, like many women, a major obstacle to overcome has been fear of failure. But I have found that if I stay focused on a mission that is meaningful to me, I find the courage to take the risks that can lead to great reward. I also have come to accept that there is much to learn when things do not go as planned.” BY LAURA ROTE & JULIA STONE
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GREEN BUILDING IS GLOBAL. Dr. Duygu Erten, founding vice president and later president of the Turkish Green Building Council, initiated the first LEED trainings in her home region—training more than 2,500 professionals in Turkey, Bahrain, Russia, and Georgia. “I started my own firm in 2009. I was back from the U.S. after 17 years, and Turkey was almost foreign to me, though I was born here,” she says. “The business culture was very unusual. Being a woman was definitely working against me in sustainability consulting.” Even as people suggested she “find a man business partner to deal with the market,” she persisted. She began hiring women and training them to be LEED and BREEAM APs. She maintained an international seat on USGBC’s Board of Directors, representing a critical global voice to advance green building practices worldwide. She’s trained students in six universities in Turkey, and the university construction club she cofounded in 1988 went on to become an umbrella organization for many universities.
DEB FRODL Global Executive Director GE Ecomagination FROM MAKING IT EASIER TO ADOPT ELECTRIC VEHICLES to helping one of the biggest companies reduce its carbon emissions worldwide, Deb Frodl is at the forefront of good business. For nearly 30 years with GE, she’s taken on roles like chief strategy officer for GE Capital Fleet Services, global alternative fuels leader, and her current role leading GE Ecomagination, working to accelerate innovation and growth through clean technology solutions. As CSO for GE Capital Fleet Services, she created the Vehicle Innovation Center so customers could experience electric vehicles to accelerate their adoption in the market. Frodl also led the development of seven industry partnerships with companies like Intel, Walmart, and MWH Global. “In our partnership with oil company Total, we are developing a solar-gas hybrid solution and a new energy-as-a-service business model for the developing world,” she says. “The goal is to support the change to clean and more cost-effective energy.” Mentorship has always meant a lot to Frodl. “While not always in my explicit job description, I have always brought
sustainability, change, and giving back to support other women into my work,” she says. She’s been involved in the GE Women’s Network since its inception in 1997, being given a new senior executive mentor every two years early in her career. “This helped with exposure to different role models and leadership styles.” She mentors six women each year through the company’s Commercial Women’s Leadership Council of the Women’s Network and was named the Executive Champion for the Minneapolis Hub in 2010. She also serves as an ambassador to the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy, Education and Empowerment (C3E)’s women program, and as a board member of Women in Sustainability, Environment and Renewable Energy (WiSER).
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CATHERINE LUTHIN President & Founder Luthin Associates, Inc.
Catherine Luthin has continually focused on improving energy efficiency during her 30-plus years of financial and energy management experience. Since 1992, she has been actively involved in regulatory
ILANA JUDAH Principal Director of Sustainability FXFOWLE Architects
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proceedings at the FERC, NYISO, and the New York Public Service Commission. She also held a position on Mayor Bloomberg’s Energy Policy Task Force, where she focused on long-term planning and energy sustainability for New York City. Currently, she participates on Mayor de Blasio’s 80 by 50 taskforce in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050. Founding an energy management company in 1994 was no easy feat. Luthin invested her own money to build Luthin Associates from the ground up at a time when sustainability was a new sector in the industry. Her company helps clients develop and implement energy-related initiatives like competitive energy purchasing, energy conservation projects, and bill auditing services. She’s an inspiration for many others in the field, too. “My position as a female entrepreneur has taught me the importance of sharing my knowledge with others,” Luthin says. To ensure other women have ample opportunities, she commits much of her free time to mentoring and actively supporting women in the energy industry. “I feel it is important to offer the same mentorship opportunities I was fortunate enough to have to other women in this industry to help build a sense of community.”
Ilana Judah strives to create a sustainable built environment through advocacy, education, and research. At FXFOWLE Architects, she fosters a sustainable agenda, ensuring more than 80% of staff are LEED accredited. “My proudest moments are when staff members push the sustainability envelope on their own and advocate what is right to our clients,” Judah says. “Planting the seeds of sustainability in others is the key to long-term change.” Early in her career, Judah worked for many tenacious women. Anik Shooner—who is highly influential in Montreal’s architecture community—put Judah in charge of a major hospital expansion. “When she told me I was going to run the project, naturally I said, ‘I can’t do this. I don’t have the experience. I’m not ready.’ Anik said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be behind you.’ I was frightened, but she was right; I was ready and I took on the challenge. Anik was a highly empowering mentor.” Judah strongly believes in nurturing female leaders in a staunchly male-dominated field. At FXFOWLE, she leads Team Green—a group of designers, each with expertise or interest in a specific area. “Team Green has been a great vehicle for young women at FXFOWLE who tend not to speak up. I encourage designers to research a specific issue and then share their work, helping them develop a voice at FXFOWLE.”
SANDRA LEIBOWITZ Managing Principal Sustainable Design Consulting Sandra Leibowitz has been living and breathing sustainable design and construction for 25 years. She founded Sustainable Design Consulting (SDC) in 2002 to fill a void in the mid-Atlantic region. Motivated to advise others in the architecture community, she grew her company into a major regional entity that has worked on 500-plus green building projects—more than half of them LEED. SDC recently obtained certification from JUST, the International Living Future Institute’s social justice transparency platform. “When establishing SDC’s standards, I remembered my experiences—good and bad—as a female employee,” she says. “Since becoming a female employer, I have placed a high priority on fairness in the employment relationship.” Earlier in her career, Leibowitz practiced stoic self-reliance, but after realizing the limitations of this approach, she started to turn to women as peers. “At the 2015 Greenbuild Women in Green Power Breakfast in D.C., I was struck when the discussions turned toward the shared experience that women of my age group and older did not have female mentors in their careers.” Building relationships with other women has allowed her to learn from their shared experiences. Leibowitz herself leads—and mentors— by example, including both female and male SDC staff members as well as emerging leaders of not-for-profit organizations where she served on boards of directors. Most recently, she mentored women via the steering committee for Richmond Women in Design.
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SUSAN ROCHFORD VP of Sustainability Energy Efficiency and Public Policy Legrand North America
When Susan Rochford joined Legrand North America in 2010, the term sustainability was neither used nor understood. “Legrand made reference to ‘going green,’ but these efforts were narrowly focused on implementing the ISO 14001 management systems at a small number of manufacturing facilities.” One of her colleagues may have said it best—Rochford’s mission to integrate sustainability into business at Legrand was a start-up operation. “I had to simultaneously educate, initiate, and demonstrate positive impact to gain the support of the leadership teams across the company, while also convincing my fellow associates that our commitment to sustainability was genuine and something of which they could be proud.” Three months into her newly created position, she convinced the CEO to make a public commitment to the Secretary of Energy that Legrand would reduce its energy intensity by 25% in 10 years. “In January 2011, Legrand became a Challenge Partner to the US DOE Better Buildings, Better Plant program. By December 2012, we exceeded the goal, achieving a 28% reduction in energy intensity. One year later, after furthering the intensity reduction, we reset our baseline and recommitted to another 25% reduction by 2022.”
“LEARNING TO SPEAK MY TRUTH EVEN THOUGH IT MAY NOT PLEASE EVERYONE WHO IS SITTING AROUND THE TABLE HAS REQUIRED A LOT OF COURAGE.”
GILLAN TADDUNE President & CEO Banyan Water
DEFINE “LEADERSHIP”
Expansive. Leadership is opening up oneself, being vulnerable, so that others can see their possibilities.
LYNN N. SIMON Senior Vice President Thornton Tomasetti
FOR MORE THAN 25 YEARS, Lynn N. Simon has been a role model in sustainability. She was a pioneer in USGBC—she was the first salaried employee, helping to shape the organization and LEED. She was and is still today often the only woman in the room in the male-dominated industries of architecture, engineering, and construction. Simon started her own green building consulting firm, Simon & Associates, in 1994. In 2013, global engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti acquired her company, providing an even larger audience. She’s also a certified integral coach with New Ventures West. As a LEED and AIA fellow, she’s consulted on countless LEED projects, including some of the earliest to achieve certification, like the Energy Foundation Headquarters, the first LEED CI Platinum in the U.S. Simon also helped form Women Empowered for the architectural, construction, and engineering industries in the Bay area. The organization connects women of all backgrounds, offering an informal place to network and share experiences. She is also co-chair of Women at Thornton Tomasetti in San Francisco, leading bimonthly meetings about issues like unconscious bias and work-life balance.
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Gillan Taddune is a trailblazer in the renewable energy sector and is currently focused on combating water scarcity—one of the world’s biggest concerns. “Technology solutions are the most effective way to combat inefficiencies, waste, and resource exhaustion. I have dedicated my life and career to these complex technological systems in order to maintain and protect our planet.” As chief economist of the Texas Public Utility Commission, she was tasked with creating a renewable portfolio standard (RPS). Despite heavy opposition from the oil and gas sector, Taddune implemented rules designing the RPS that resulted in more than 9,000 megawatts of new wind energy. Texas is now the sixth-largest producer of wind power in the world—many countries and states look to the state as a model. “It has taken more than 20 years for renewable energy to become mainstream and widely adopted by businesses across the globe,” Taddune says. “At Banyan, we work tirelessly to bring technology solutions across a variety of environmental sectors and convince companies to move in a more sustainable direction.” She’s also determined to provide opportunities to female leaders on her team. “Women are extremely intuitive, a characteristic that is vital in the workplace and leads to a diversification of business ideas, opinions and, consequently, decisions and actions.” She encourages healthy debate among her female and male employees to help reach wellinformed decisions.
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MEET THE JUDGES
VIRGE TEMME
CHRIS HOWE & LAURA HEIDENREICH GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Architect, General Contractor Virge Temme Architecture
Virge Temme has been on the job site since she was a girl. “My father was a general contractor. From the time I was out of diapers he took me to job sites and meetings with him, so building construction has always been in my blood.” Temme now devotes her time to LEED-certified projects in Wisconsin while being active in USGBC and the steering committee for the Climate Change Coalition of Door County. In 2015 she set out to design a home that was both nearly net-zero and
affordable on the average Wisconsin income of $52,000. “I worked with contractors to achieve a balance among energy reduction, materials’ impact on the environment, and cost. Based on that input I created a house I call S.A.G.E (Small, Affordable, Green, and Expandable), roughly 1,100 square feet, near net-zero energy, affordable for the average Wisconsin household income, and pre-designed for expandability to adapt to changing life needs.” The first S.A.G.E. house required
variances from the city to allow for things like a smaller lot. Temme had to make her case to the City Planning Commission about the advantages of creating smaller, low-energy homes to reduce environmental impact and utility costs. Now the LEED for Home–registered house is a teaching tool to educate the community about water conservation, site planning, and advanced framing. The City of Sturgeon Bay has since revised zoning codes to allow for smaller homes, green roofs, and more compact development.
Chris Howe is the publisher and CEO of gb&d, and Laura Heidenreich is the publication’s associate publisher and president.
ROCHELLE ROUTMAN HALSTEAD/METROFLOR
Rochelle Routman is the chief sustainability officer of Halstead/Metroflor, a global leader in the resilient flooring and decorative products industry.
KIMBERLY LEWIS US GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL
A WORD OF ADVICE
“FIND THE PATH THAT IS GOING TO WORK FOR YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.” gb&d
WENDY VITTORI Executive Director HPD Collaborative IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE NOW a time before Health Product Declarations. But just six years ago, Wendy Vittori helped lead the effort to create the voluntary industry standard for reporting just exactly what is in your building products. The result—the Health Product Declaration® (HPD) Open Standard—recently celebrated five years since its initial approval. “Our goal was—and is—to provide a means for building professionals and, ultimately retail consumers, to make an informed choice in selecting and specifying building products, considering the material health attributes of those products.” Before the HPD, there was no accepted standard for reporting this information. Often, the information wasn’t available or, when it was, it wasn’t consistently reported. “Today, there are more than 3,000 published HPDs—growing weekly—that have been completed by manufacturers, publicly and freely available to anyone in the HPD Public Repository.”
Kimberly Lewis is the senior vice president of community advancement and conferences/events for USGBC.
AMANDA STURGEON NTERNATIONAL LIVING FUTURE INSTITUTE
Amanda Sturgeon is CEO of the International Living Future Institute and was a 2015 WSLA recipient.
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Halstead/Metroflor’s Harlan Stone knows sustainable business is good business.
U S TA I N A B I L I T Y LEADERSHI
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HARLAN STONE LOOKS BACK AT W H AT CONTINUES TO MAKE HALSTEAD/ METROFLOR G R E AT M O R E THAN A CENTURY L AT E R BY COLLEEN DEHART
HARLAN STONE LOVES BEING IN THE FAMILY BUSINESS, now running an enterprise started by his great-grandfather as an immigrant in the U.S. in 1912. Now Group CEO of Halstead/ Metroflor, Stone is committed to making sure the world at his feet is safe for future generations—from his own children to future greatgrandchildren, too. It’s part of why he continues to set an example for the flooring industry. While Stone naturally cares about profits, he cares more about doing things the right way. “I could convert my entire program to all-natural that doubles the cost of my product and then double my prices, but it is not
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sustainable,” Stone says. The family man, who has a decades-long business relationship with his Asian manufacturer—also a family business—has made sustainability part of the business’ core. “The reason more people don’t practice sustainably is because they don’t focus on the next generation. They care mostly about current profits,” he says. “In a family business, you think multigenerational. It is a very powerful asset.”
LEADING THE WAY
Halstead/Metroflor—now a global flooring empire—has long been an industry leader of lowtoxicity flooring materials while keeping quality and durability at the forefront. “The most sustainable act is not wearing out,” Stone says. “If you wear out quickly then you have more entering the waste stream.” The US-based company was the first major manufacturer to eliminate ortho-phthalate plasticizers from its resilient flooring products. “It’s the right thing to do—for our planet, our people, our users, and our manufacturers,” Stone says. The road to sustainability poses many challenges, but Stone sees that as a good thing. “It has been my experience that things that are difficult are good. It is an opportunity for us to be innovative, creative, and different.” His focus on sustainability started more than 10 years ago when the company began using more recycled content, reducing water usage, and creating a healthier work environment for all employees.
THE MOVE TOWARD TRANSPARENCY
Transparency on all fronts is the essence of Halstead/Metroflor. “It may be the single greatest opportunity we have as a company,”
Stone says. “It is an opportunity for us to show the world what can be done in the right way.” The company brought on its first chief sustainability officer (CSO), Rochelle Routman, in July 2016, choosing her ultimately because of her passion and enthusiasm for sustainability. “We felt it was a good move to double-down on sustainability and product development (by hiring Rochelle),” Stone says. “It has been a great decision.” Routman—who’s also chair of the Women in Sustainability Alumnae group and head of the Multilayer Flooring Association’s Sustainability Committee—says her time at Halstead/Metroflor has already been exhilarating. “This job has given me a voice in a very new category, and it is growing by leaps and bounds,” she says. Since bringing on Routman, the company’s commitment to sustainability has increased dramatically, as they’ve begun using Declare Labels and Health Product Declarations on all products, among other initiatives. Transparency, Stone says, has been a welcome addition to the culture at Halstead/Metroflor. “There is a lot less of ‘who yells louder’ and a lot more of ‘how much are you willing to disclose?’ It is a much better conversation.” That innovative spirit has led to Halstead/Metroflor leading the industry in many ways. The company was the first to develop a pure, homogenous vinyl floor tile, as well as one of the first to introduce LVT (luxury vinyl tile) in the U.S. The company has remained committed to leading that LVT charge with new products and designs, and continues to have the largest assortment of LVT in the industry today.
A GLOBAL EXAMPLE
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company wasn’t easy. For starters, Halstead/Metroflor manufactures most of its products in Asia—a tradition that began in the 1960s when Stone’s father traveled to Japan in search of superior products. The first hurdle was convincing their Asian partners of the value of sharing their business practices. Stone says there was a natural tendency to protect business secrets, so to speak, but as younger generations came on board, the benefits of being honest and open outweighed any perceived risks. The company also had to examine its material suppliers to make sure everyone down the production line was using sustainable manufacturing methods. “There are a lot of questionable manufacturing practices in Asia as well as in the U.S. and Europe. We had to
“THE MOST SUSTAINABLE ACT IS NOT WEARING OUT. IF YOU WEAR OUT QUICKLY THEN YOU HAVE MORE ENTERING THE WASTE STREAM.” HARLAN STONE, HALSTEAD/METROFLOR
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Halstead/ Metroflor was the first to develop a pure, homogenous vinyl floor tile in the U.S.
Entire Aspecta line, over 200 designs, have Declare labels and Health Product Declarations
Halstead/Metroflor holds a coveted platinum NSF/ANSI 332 certification—a first in the resilient flooring industry—for its Aspecta Five products, as well as Gold certification for Aspecta Ten and Aspecta One
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HOW THEY STAY GREEN
PHOTOS, THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF HALSTEAD/METROFLOR
First major vinyl flooring manufacturer to eliminate ortho-phthalate plasticizers from flooring products
Major emphasis on biophilia includes the new Ornamental collection and a CEU course co-developed by in-house artist Robert Langstaff, director of design
All flooring products are thirdparty certified as having low VOCs through FloorScore
To avoid predecessor chemicals, offers products manufactured from 100% pure first generation vinyl
LEED Platinum Customer Support Center
be thorough and make sure all the way down the line it was sustainable,” Stone says. Both Stone and Routman see transparency as an opportunity to lead the conversation on sustainable manufacturing in Asia. “The social responsibility aspect of what is going on in factories in China is something we can communicate that others cannot,” Routman says. In her position as CSO, she has brought Chinese partners to the U.S. to network and share business practices, while using social media to spread the word about sustainable manufacturing in Asia. Halstead/Metroflor’s relationship with their Chinese manufacturing company is built on trust, ultimately knowing how the company operates inside and out. It’s the kind of partnership Stone is eager to broadcast to others. “The world was built on international trade, and it will continue to grow throughout our lives and our children’s.” The company is currently working on becoming the first manufacturer in the world to get a JUST Label for a Chinese factory. “This is a unique opportunity for us to separate ourselves from the people sourcing in China,” Stone says. “We don’t source in China, we manufacture.” The difference, Stone says, is knowing how things are produced, rather than just accepting the product that is being constructed. That commitment to working together and to continue making better products continues today. Halstead/Metroflor is currently working on introducing new materials, including organically based compounds, into their product line. The company is also working to establish environmentally responsible standards with participating organizations and retailers. As Stone says, the possibilities are endless. gb&d november–december 2017
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ANDARD FOR
BY RUSS KLETTKE
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residential) and membranes (flatter roofs, largely used on larger commercial structures).
T
he roofs on buildings, all buildings, perform multiple jobs. All are expected to keep the weather out. But depending on the building itself, we expect many other things from what’s on top of where we live, work, play, shop, attend school, worship, and do business. We ask a lot of our roofs, but our requests are increasingly demanding and varied. This is why a leading manufacturer in the roofing industry, GAF (a subsidiary of Standard Industries), invests so heavily in research and development. The $3 billion company, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, is the largest manufacturer of commercial and residential roofing in North America. More than 75 employees in five locations are tasked with developing longer lasting, higher performing, and more economical roofing shingles (sloped roofs, mostly
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“FIFTY TO 70% OF OUR RESEARCH IS FOCUSED ON SUSTAINABILITY.” DAN BOSS, GAF
FOCUS ON S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y “Fifty to 70% of our research is focused on sustainability,” says Dan Boss, senior vice president of research and development. “That includes enhancing reflectivity, increasing R-values (insulation effectiveness), reducing the use of solvents, and improving upon durability over the lifetime of a roofing system.” GAF is committed to sustainability in all areas of its business by developing energy-efficient technologies and Red List–free products, optimizing the use of materials, engaging in recycling initiatives, and helping roofing contractors do the same. All of that is important to product development, Boss says. But this is not a cookie-cutter scenario, just as no two buildings are alike. “Different buildings have different problems,” he says. “What’s needed on a tall tower is going to be different from what goes on a big-box store. We try to walk in a building owner’s shoes to find the right solution for their specific needs.” I N N OVAT I V E SOLUTIONS Some of the newer technological innovations from GAF address the residential market, largely defined as steepslope roofing. Boss cites DecoTech™, a low-profile gbdmagazine.com
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PHOTOS, THIS PAGE AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF GAF
GAF offers sustainable solutions for residential and commercial projects alike.
solar system that visually and physically integrates into the roof itself, as among the R&D team’s top priorities. Also, Timberline HD® Reflector Series™ Shingles, which can be used to comply with California Title 24 cool roof requirements and come in a variety of dark, vibrant colors that are new to cool roofs. But when it comes to those huge flat and lowsloped roofs, things get even more interesting. Boss’ colleague, Michelle Carlin, senior product manager of coatings, points out that there are millions of low slope roofs in the U.S. The older roofs might use less reflective surfaces, which gradually are being replaced with more reflective singleply roofing membranes or restored with reflective liquid applied roofing products. GAF has expanded its EnergyGuard™ polyiso product line by adding a variety of EnergyGuard™ NH Polyiso insulation boards that are Red List– free, have been issued a Declare label and a Health Product Declaration, and can contribute to achieving LEED® v4 and Living Building Challenge certifications. Another is EverGuard Extreme® TPO, a single-ply thermoplastic polyolefin roofing membrane specially designed with solar installations in mind. Thanks to proprietary stabilizers and ultraviolet light absorbers, the material performs well in high heat applications like roofs that include buildingintegrated solar systems. As solar energy continues its double-digit growth on large, flat roofs, this product in particular will complement gb&d
that growth by easing building owner concerns. The company also offers the HydroStop® PremiumCoat® System, a fabricreinforced liquid applied system that can be used to restore roofs that may be exhibiting some signs of wear and tear while providing the benefits of reflectivity and helping to reduce waste produced by tear-offs. Carlin emphasizes the economics of roofs and roofing materials as a key driver for adoption of GAF’s innovative
sustainability-oriented materials and systems. “While some of the products can be a little more expensive than traditional products, the long-term benefits, like the potential for cooling cost savings and stress reduction on HVAC equipment, are very appealing,” she says. Boss agrees, reminding us again that every roof is different. “Most facilities managers want to do the sustainable thing,” he says. “But it has to be reliable, and it has to be cost effective.” gb&d november–december 2017
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BIO-MICROBICS D E V I S E S W AT E R T R E AT M E N T S Y S T E M S IN USE AROUND THE GLOBE.
WATER REUSE: BETTER ECONOMICS FOR A THIRSTY WORLD BY RUSS KLETTKE
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Bio-Microbics is leading the way when it comes to sustainable water management.
W WITH GLOBAL POPULATION projected to increase from 7.6 billion today to 8.6 billion by 2030—a 13% rise in a dozen years—it surprises no one that the demand for water will increase proportionally. We don’t have enough now as it is: About two-thirds of the world’s populations live in regions of water scarcity at least one month each year, according to a study out of the Netherlands (“Four billion people facing severe water scarcity,” Hoekstra and Mekonnen, University of Twente, February 2016). Indeed, water for drinking, agriculture, sanitation, and energy production are essential to modern civilization. These problems are most heavily represented in India and China, but also have a material effect on California and Texas, conflict regions such as Syria and Yemen, and some of the most populated cities outside of Asia, including Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Karachi.
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Still, the history of humankind shows that previous water shortages were met with human innovation. Technology writer George Dyson (“Darwin Among the Machines”) ranks indoor plumbing and filtration systems to provide potable water among the top five inventions that enabled civilizations. As civilizations change, so too must our water systems. Among the contemporary innovators is Shawnee, Kansas– based Bio-Microbics, a developer and manufacturer of sustainable water management systems. Its founder and president, Robert Rebori, makes clear there is a lot of water out there. The problem is we’re throwing it away. “We should pay for our water once,” says the welltraveled industrialist and businessman. “Today, most municipalities treat it and use it, then put it back in the river. Then they have to retrieve it again.” In effect, those waterways—where treated wastewater gets dumped—are an unnecessary middleman. THE FUTURE OF WASTEWATER Rebori has extensive experience with this. The company has installed more than 60,000 wastewater treatment systems in 70 countries. Some of those systems cut out the intermediary, the rivers and lakes, by doing closedloop recycling of greywater (e.g., water used in showers and washing machines) and even blackwater (toilet waste). Some call it net-zero water use. And almost everyone thinks it’s icky. But the city-state of Singapore reuses more than half its greywater and blackwater, more or less because it has to. With no natural groundwater and largescale desalinization being impractical (converting saltwater to freshwater is the most expensive and energy-intensive means to extract potable water), Singaporeans experienced a gradual stepping up of water reuse that started in 2002, increasing a bit more in subsequent years. Singaporeans now have an environmentally responsible water source that isn’t dependent on neighboring countries. But Rebori cautions some paradigm shifts are in order for modern, sustainable water treatment to provide a favorable impact. The first of these is decentralization. That means fewer systems and fewer pipes and pumps to push wastewater to a centralized treatment plant. The future might be advanced treatment technologies— what Bio-Microbics makes—at your office, your mall, the high-rise condo building nearby, your cruise ship, or even your backyard. Each of these from the company’s credo: the solution has to be simple, robust, and low cost. SOLUTIONS IN ACTION Where are these technologies being implemented today? Rebori cites the examples of shopping malls and seaside resorts. “We worked on the Rosslyn Riviera Mall in Kenya,” he says. “The waste is more than just what comes from toilets. It has food courts and a food market, all of which create high strength waste. “Resort hotels have all the waste that is typical of a residential area, with more laundry and a lot of food and sugary alcohol [sugar concentrations are particularly problematic in effluent],” he continues. “Yet, you want to keep the water clean and very often that water is from desalinization.” In other words, the Caribbean Sea is a pretty expensive middleman if the water isn’t reused. gbdmagazine.com
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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BIO-MICROBICS / PREVIOUS SPREAD: PIXABAY
Reza Shams, vice president of advanced process technology for the company—who finds ways to use the company’s allocation of 5% of annual revenues to conduct research and development—talks about a situation closer to home, in America’s heartland. “In reality all natural bodies of water have some sewage in them,” he says. “There are 102 cities that put their outflow into the Kansas River before it reaches Lawrence, Kansas.” That’s probably not in the brochure sent to prospective students looking at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. But ignoring the problem and depending on legacy systems is a widespread phenomenon. Rebori says it takes a lot of work to convince public administrators to try new technologies. “Millennials will change this,” he says.
NEW TECHNOLOGY Some of those millennials might be alumni of the University of Miami (Florida), where a small dormitory served as a test site for a net-zero water treatment system that incorporates onsite biological, iron-mediated aeration, and vacuum ultrafiltration. This technology, developed by Bio-Microbics, uses less energy than a more traditional membrane treatment. The system also incorporates realtime risk detection mechanisms to monitor water quality. While drinking water is still sourced from the city system, all other water is recycled or from a rainwater collection cistern that is also treated. A lot of energy is saved when water is cleaned and reused in place. The principal investigator on the UM project, James Englehardt, says the conveyance of water— from plants to users, and from users to wastewater treatment—uses four times as much energy as with the treatment itself. Treatment onsite makes a lot of sense. In fact, it is energy savings as much as water conservation that is driving the market for Bio-Microbics’ marine wastewater treatment systems. Jim Bell, the company’s executive vice president who oversees engineering, says water reuse onboard ships has always been possible. In fact, that is how the FAST® technology got its start in 1969. “Vessels are always moving, they have limited space onboard, and EPA regulations disallow waste dumping.” He echoes Rebori’s criteria for devising modern treatment systems: Making marine sanitation devices that are simple and robust is evident in their work to serve this market, which ranges from workboats and research vessels to larger ocean-going commercial ships and cruise/ferry lines—not to mention luxury yachts and offshore platforms. With four types of wastewater treatment technologies available, the company’s largest markets exist in commercial systems, multi-family developments, and residential (single-family) alternatives to conventional septic systems. The globe’s populations may be urbanizing, but populations will also sprawl in such places as Siberia, predicts Rebori; the company won a technology leadership award in 2017 for its work in sustainable development of rural community water treatment systems. Meanwhile, huge urban centers like Mexico City will more likely engage the company’s onsite treatment systems one or two buildings at a time. The driver is better economics and faster implementation. “When the costs are reasonable, everyone wants to be green,” Rebori says. “Water reuse is pragmatic. There is so much upside for this worldwide.” gb&d gb&d
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BUILDING THE FUTURE
R E S I L I E NC Y W R I T T E N B Y K AT E G R I F F I T H
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By the end of 2017’s hurricane season, it was clear to communities across the United States that our understanding of nature’s fury and the metrics by which we measure human safety are quickly shifting. When 100-year floods happen every 10 years, or 500-year storms happen multiple times in one lifetime, it’s obvious that communities need to do more than just armor themselves: They must adapt. Infrastructure must protect, and to do that, it must flex. Above all, it needs to nurture future growth. At Bostonheadquartered global design firm Sasaki, this has been obvious for nearly a decade. “Resiliency,” says Brie Hensold, urban planner and principal at Sasaki, “is really the ability of a place or community to respond to whatever is thrown at it and to bounce back stronger. It’s the ability to recover and achieve a new level of operating that is stronger than before.”
SASAKI IN ACTION It’s hard to imagine bouncing back, stronger than ever, after storms wipe out entire towns. In 2008, flooding in Cedar Rapids forced thousands to flee and caused more than $6 billion in damage. Ten square miles were inundated, devastating homes and cultural icons. And yet, just months later, Cedar Rapids was ready to begin rebuilding. Community leaders called in Sasaki to lead flood recovery efforts as well as planning for future flood infrastructure around areas most likely to see future inundations. The process began and finished with community engagement. “We started out proposing a range of options to help residents understand what was possible,” says Laura Marett, a senior landscape architect whose first day at Sasaki had her boarding a plane to Cedar Rapids. One of those options was to build a series of walls that disconnected the community from the river but
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that would allow homes to be rebuilt in place. A second was to retreat from the floodplain and turn those areas into a riverfront park. “I was very surprised the community landed on a floodplain park that gave the river room for future flooding,” Marett says. “They wanted not to turn away from the water, but instead to use it as part of the community.” Throughout the Cedar Rapids project design, the community and Sasaki landed on a flood-wall-cumamphitheater as well as revised evacuation planning, interim flood protection, improved warning systems, and larger civic initiatives addressing watershed issues.
THE BIG PICTURE Of course, to do any of this requires a deep understanding of ecological systems, human systems, and the ways the two interact. It also requires planners and designers to change their own thinking. Sasaki staff describe the rebuilding after 2012’s Hurricane Sandy as a critical turning point in which the firm’s approach—already staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of architects, designers, and engineers—pivoted to a new concept of design and planning. Individually, as one team member put it, changes in thinking continue to arrive as natural progressions. “It’s a longer term appreciation for the benefits of looking holistically at a project,” says Victor Vizgaitis, gbdmagazine.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF SASAKI, CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS PHOTOGRAPHY, EDWARD CARUSO (2) PREVIOUS SPREAD: CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW ONE INTERDISCIPLINARY PLANNING AND DESIGN FIRM IS REIMAGINING THE FUTURE O F S U S TA I N A B L E COMMUNITIES
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PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE Sasaki’s designers, architects, and engineers use their multidisciplinary, systemsbased approach in more than just client projects. Team members teach seminars and classes, training the next generation of planners from top design and engineering schools like MIT and Harvard. Sasaki’s young professionals often enter the firm as talented interns and return after graduation as staff. Moreover, interns and staff regularly go back into their communities to encourage community education and participation around resiliency issues like climate change. Jill Allen Dixon, now a senior associate and planner at Sasaki, started at the firm in 2009 as an intern. In 2012, she and other team members were working on grant-funded projects that continue to shape Boston’s disaster preparedness. “There is a lot of complex scientific information out there, and it’s important for us to help translate that to the public,” she says. Data translation and illustration is a large part of the community education process, which is integral to all future resiliency planning efforts, Vizgaitis says. “A lot of the conversations around climate change and sea level rise are abstract. Our Sea Change research project (page 118) was a good eye-opener for a lot of people to push denial aside because the maps tell all. It’s maps and mapping— no opinions anymore.” The project included a curated showcase highlighting Boston’s vulnerabilities and demonstrating options for design solutions. It won a 2016 ASLA Communications Honor Award for its ability to connect with all kinds of audiences. A push toward change and a future based on resiliency comes, Vizgaitis says, when disciplines join together to help the public understand what’s at stake and speak out for public action. “That’s when people have to start to pay attention.”
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Sasaki assists clients with everything from watershed planning to grant-writing to designing built environments for greater resiliency. CLOCKWISE: Chicago Riverwalk, Bristol Community College Health and Science Building, Chicago Riverwalk (2)
PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE: CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS PHOTOGRAPHY, EDWARD CARUSO, CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS PHOTOGRAPHY (2)
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principal and chair of Sasaki’s Urban Studio. “At Sasaki, we are having conversations that constantly take you from a focused consideration of how a building might operate or function on its own right to how it might operate on a community scale, how it would impact stormwater flow, energy use, cars and pedestrian access, safety measures, sustainability measures, and day-to-day occupancy.” It’s a widening of scope that allows communities to build smarter.
TRANSFORMING THE CHICAGO RIVERWALK Chicago’s river is as famous as the city itself, thanks to historic engineering that reversed the waterway’s flow and its integration with the industries that built the Second City. But despite its deep connection to Chicago and its people, the river remained, in many ways, separate. Over the last decade, the city has worked to reconnect its people with its aquatic artery via the Chicago Riverwalk project. Sasaki came onto the initiative in 2009, tasked with transforming six blocks of riverfront into a community gathering space. The design team was dictated by requirements including a 25-foot build-out limit to navigate under bridge connections and pedestrian activities. This was complicated by annual flood dynamics that threaten any permanent infrastructure on the site. “We had a robust framework of desires and wishes for the space,” says Gina Ford, Sasaki principal and landscape architect. “We were nestled into a broader, longer conversation about the river that we had learned from.” But Sasaki has been doing waterfront projects for decades, and early into the riverwalk design, the team established four major pillars for their design: economic, recreational, cultural, and environmental. gb&d
“It’s an expansion of the triple bottom line used in sustainability measures,” Ford says. Resiliency, after all, is about more than environmental standards. It’s about people and communities, too. Each of the Chicago project’s four interests regularly compete, but the design team found balance through its use of materials. “There’s an elevation to which, based on historical data, we knew the river would rise, and everything below that elevation would be under water,” says Zach Chrisco, a Sasaki principal and civil engineer who worked on the project. “Critical infrastructure, pedestrian walkways, electrical, all of it could be submerged.” For these spaces, the team sourced electrical components rated for occasional flooding, landscaped with plants that can be submerged without drowning, and used construction materials that can be flooded without holding on to water or debris. Within its opening week, the Chicago Riverwalk flooded and a mini media panic ensued. Yet, “12 hours after that first flood receding, the city had cleaned it off,” Chrisco says. The walk was open again for business. This sort of flexible thinking and multi-layered approach to resiliency has earned the Sasaki team numerous awards. One of the firm’s proudest achievements can be found closer to its home base in Fall River, Massachusetts, where Sasaki designed the first lab science zero net energy building in the northeastern United States. The Bristol Community College Health and Science Building is a 2017 AIA COTE winner and, perhaps more importantly, a true community effort. Like the riverwalk, this project wasn’t just about the construction itself, but its connection to the landscape. gb&d november–december 2017
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GREEN BUILDINGFEATURES & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Features Spaces Punch List
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126 Bright Ideas
General Electric’s Innovation Point in Boston is the pinnacle of innovation.
127 Warmth in Wellesley
This Boston area house is easily one of the area’s most energy-efficient houses.
130 On the Porch
The newly renovated Boston Public Library is a stunning example of what libraries can be.
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NEW ENGLAND GREEN B E H I N D T H E S C E N E S AT SOME OF BOSTON’S BEST S U S TA I N A B L E B U I L D I N G S
As one of the most progressive cities in the U.S., it’s no surprise Boston would also be on top of its game when it comes to sustainability. At a time when the effects of climate change are very clear, the city continues to lead by example, being proactive in the face of flood risks and more. The city’s commitment is clear, from eco-friendly renovations to net zero construction projects. “Boston is proud to have been recognized as the most energy efficient city in the country this year by the The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, and this recognition highlights how Boston is committed to continually improving our city,” says Austin Blackmon, the city’s chief of Environment, Energy & Open Space. “We are becoming a more resilient city through Climate Ready Boston, our residents and small businesses are becoming more energy-efficient through Renew Boston, and we are committed to being carbon neutral by 2050.” Blackmon says the city will continue to pursue policies and engage residents in a way that promotes sustainability, building on the work that has already been accomplished. Climate Ready Boston, one of the city’s current priority initiatives, assesses the city’s vulnerability and outlines goals, from developing local climate resilience plans to creating a coastal protection system to address flood risk. It details actions big and small, like having an expanded urban tree canopy and a protective, floodable waterfront park. Many of Boston’s current and recent building projects are a further testament to how serious developers, architects, and even homeowners are when it comes to building better, greener buildings. We recently sat down with a few of those leading the way to take a closer look at some of the most inspiring green projects, from the Boston Public Library renovation to Gensler’s new GE building and even this beautiful LEED Platinum house in Wellesley.
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WRITTEN BY LAURA ROTE
PHOTO: ERIC ROTH
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General Electric’s Innovation Point in Boston will be much more than a headquarters. Looking at the renderings for the future GE Innovation Point, you might first be struck by its shape—or shapes. The design itself is the very picture of innovation, with a three-building campus, plentiful access to the outdoors, and abundant space for groups to come together and explore big ideas. The project’s three pillars make it special,
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both preserving history and building for the future, according to Todd Dundon, a principal at Gensler, the architecture firm behind the remarkable design. “GE will redefine what a campus can do for a company, city, and the environment,” Dundon says. “In addition to being home to 800 GE employees, Innovation Point will host collaborators
from the innovation, start-up, and learning communities.”
PUBLIC PERKS The community will benefit from the project when it’s all said and done, too. Approximately 75% of the ground floor will be open for public use, including a planned coffee shop, work lounge, and GE experience center. The final campus will include
a new and improved public outdoor space like a new public dock, outdoor event space, enhanced harbor walk, and, in general, 1.5 acres of green space—all of it for everyone. GE’s vision is to bring those in the innovative Boston ecosystem together, Dundon says, including new and established businesses, academic groups, and others. “A key piece of this strategy is a convener space on the 11th floor that can hold up to 500 people. To accommodate this space while respecting the Massachusetts waterfront development setback requirements, we had
the opportunity to get creative. A twostory truss runs along the sixth and seventh floors to support a cantilever on the west side, providing adequate floor space for the convener space.” The property will also host something called the Brilliant Career Lab, a first-ofits-kind interactive mobile technology lab aimed at preparing college students for STEM careers.
OLD MEETS NEW Renovation of the two historic brick buildings—former Necco candy manufacturing properties that will become GE’s North Point—began in midgbdmagazine.com
PHOTO: COURTESY OF GENSLER
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2017. Once complete, the project’s second phase will begin, which includes the new 12-story building to be known as South Point and the public open space. For the renovated buildings, which originally had six levels, the design removes the second floor in order to raise the first floor by 4.5 feet and protect against flooding. “It was interesting to approach the Landmarks Commission about potentially eliminating one floor of a historic structure,” Dundon says. But considering Boston’s vulnerability to climate change impacts like stormwater and coastal flooding, he says the commission was receptive, understanding that resiliency was key to the building’s longevity.
GOING GREEN When South Point opens, its solar veil is expected to generate approximately 10% of the campus’ energy use. The photovoltaic panels will also be easily removable, so that as panel technology and efficiency improves, Innovation Point’s generation capabilities may also advance. Dundon says
the flexible framework of the veil will also shade the southern façade to reduce solar heat gain and solar glare. In addition to the plentiful solar panels and rooftop gardens, Innovation Point will focus efforts on water recapture and reuse and include charging stations for electric vehicles. You’ll also never be more than three floors away from outdoor space when you’re in South Point, Dundon says, with massing shifts at the sixth and 11th floors, and the 13th floor roof terrace. “With plants, informal seating, fresh air, and city views, the rooftop gardens will connect campus residents and visitors to nature and the surrounding city.” “GE’s Innovation Point will build on the proud history and tradition of Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood in ways that are emblematic of GE’s transformation from an industrial company into a digital industrial company,” Dundon says, “emphasizing community and collaboration, sustainability, resiliency, innovation, and transparency.” gb&d
LOCATION Boston SIZE 390,000 square feet
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF GENSLER, ERIC ROTH
COMPLETION North Point: 2019 South Point: mid-2021 COST $200 million TEAM Gensler OJB Landscape Architecture Paladino RDK Engineers Consigli Construction
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Warmth in Wellesley This Massachusetts house combines comfort and beauty with energy efficiency as one of its town’s most eco-friendly buildings.
W
hen the team at ZeroEnergy Design (ZED) set out to tackle a California couple’s need for a taste of home in New England, they weren’t without challenges. But this 4,200-square-foot house is not only comfortable and convenient, it’s also LEED Platinum certified. “The challenge was to fit an ambitious family-oriented program on a tight lot while fitting in with the local vernacular and introducing a hint of modern at the back of the property,” says Stephanie Horowitz, ZED’s managing director. “We also wanted to fit a two-car garage without the doors facing the street, which was a challenge with the lot width.” november–december 2017
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The couple wanted a home that was energy-efficient and easy to clean, and ZED chose solid surface flooring throughout for just that purpose. Durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework throughout the house have low or no VOCs. The team also designed a mechanical system with ventilation to provide constant fresh outdoor air. The house in Wellesley— roughly 16 miles from Boston—is easily one of the most energy-efficient houses in the area. The design blends in seamlessly with the neighborhood around it while not skimping on green features, including an impressive solar array that faces the backyard. The house incorporates many of the top building enclosure strategies—continuous insulation, an airtight envelope, and triple-pane high-performance windows—combined with an efficient HVAC system.
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Horowitz says airtightness is key, nearly eliminating infiltration, a cause of energy loss, while significantly reducing the moisture that flows across the wall, ensuring a durable and long lasting assembly. “We test the air barrier at various points during construction and observe its progression to help ensure a successful execution. This home tested at 0.65 ACH 50, measured with a blower door test,” she says. “For reference, the stretch energy code in Massachusetts requires 3.0 ACH 50 and the Passive House standard is 0.6 ACH 50. This home is extremely airtight.” In the event of a winter power outage, the house would very slowly lose heat, thanks to its envelope. The ZED team says it would take multiple days to drop to 60 degrees, even with no heat source. The house’s drainage system would help to keep the finished basement dry,
and a generator would keep the all-electric house fully functional. While the homeowners have not, fortunately, had to deal with a power outage since living there, Horowitz says they’ve been particularly impressed by how little heat is required to keep the house warm in winter. Other efficient systems within the house include an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and, of course, high efficiency appliances. But Horowitz says her favorite feature of the house is the roof deck off of the master suite—a wonderfully private escape for the homeowners, with large raised garden planters and a stellar view looking out over the property. Horowitz hopes to see more projects like the Wellesley one, with similar energy perforgbdmagazine.com
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A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space.
P R OJ E CT
TEAM
LOCATION Wellesley, Massachusetts
ARCHITECT & MECHANICAL DESIGNER
COMPLETION Spring 2016 SIZE 4,200 square feet CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum
ZeroEnergy Design CONTRACTOR Bevilacqua Builders Inc. CIVIL ENGINEERING Creative Land & Water Engineering
PHOTOS: ERIC ROTH
LANDSCAPE DESIGN Barbara Peterson INTERIOR FURNISHINGS Nest & Company
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mance, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. “Incorporating building enclosure strategies on a new custom home is really a no-brainer,” she says. “It’s a small percentage of the overall cost, it’s more costly to retrofit in the future, and provides the benefit of low energy use, unsurpassed thermal comfort, and a resilient wall assembly.” ZED’s strategies also allow them to use all
electric heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, even in New England. While building code is slowly moving in this direction, requiring less and less energy to operate houses, Horowitz hopes homeowners like this Massachussetts couple—clients who keep her motivated and excited about the future of green building—continue to step up and fill in the gap. gb&d november–december 2017
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ON TH E PO RC H William Rawn Associates breathes new life into one of the country’s most beautiful libraries in Boston.
Bunker-like. That’s how people used to describe the 1970s inward-facing Johnson Building, an addition to the Boston Public Library (BPL), which itself dates back to 1895. But not anymore. The beautifully renovated second wing is now flooded with natural light and packed with people who come together to read, study, or even just socialize. Completed in July 2016, the renovation by William Rawn Associates is a stunning example of what libraries should be, as it connects a vital public building with the community just outside its doors. A lightfilled space spills out into a new public plaza, complete with Wi-Fi and outdoor seating on one of Boston’s liveliest thoroughfares. “This project creates a new civic idea for public libraries—with a heightened sense of being open, welcoming, and seamlessly connected to the city streets,” says Cliff Gayley, principal architect on the project. There’s a state-ofthe-art lecture hall, a business library and innovation center, a new children’s library and teen area, a high-tech community learning center, and more. Unlike many large libraries, the new Johnson Building goes to great lengths to connect the library to the city, Gayley says. The project team put the most active library spaces along the street; used clear, low-iron glass to heighten transparency; created a front porch to bring the life of the library out onto the
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The scalloped ceiling in Boylston Hall serves as an acoustically permeable screen to absorptive material above. Its scalloped shape also plays off the indirect lighting to give the ceiling a sense of movement.
sidewalk with outdoor seats (and Wi-Fi), large trees, and charming catenary lighting overhead. Inside, architects raised the ceiling and replaced dark-tinted glass and stone walls with floor-to-ceiling windows. The library also boasts multiple entrances now—a departure from your average library with one front door. Physically opening the library to the city streets while following historic preservation guidelines was a challenge to say the least, but in the end, the project was quite the success. Architects worked closely with the library and city every step of away, even reviewing the original architect’s notes about what could be done better. “We read everything
we could find about (Philip) Johnson’s work and from that developed a set of Johnson Principles,” Gayley says. “These principles included his ideas like the nine-square grid as well as procession and moment of arrival. We also found specific statements and criticisms Johnson made about his original building that we could address. These principles guided how we thought about transformation as we, the library, and the city worked closely with the Landmarks Commission and their staff to achieve fundamental change, while respecting the legibility and integrity of the original building.” They removed walls and mezzanine floor plates to create a single two-story space the length of Boylston Street and
PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE: BRUCE T. MARTIN (2), ROBERT BENSON PHOTOGRAPHY, MILLICENT HARVEY
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PHOTO: BRUCE T. MARTIN
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removed 10-foot tall granite barricades that blocked the library interior from the street. They essentially transformed the library sidewalk into the building’s front porch. Increasing natural light was a huge goal for this project, especially as the original building suffered from poor and inconsistent daylight, with some spaces experiencing harsh glare from one side and other spaces receiving no daylight at all. Insulated ultra clear glass replaced the dark tinted single pane original glazing and also reduced the need for as many light fixtures. In other places, lights were replaced with LED fixtures to further efficiency, while removing dividing walls and making the two-story space invited more balanced natural light from multiple directions. Green features abound, too. Low-flow plumbing fixtures were installed in new and
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existing toilet rooms, plus non-electric flushometers. The design included occupancy sensors and improved controls, and CAV (Constant Air Volume) boxes were replaced with VAV (Variable Air Volume) boxes to reduce energy and conditioned air usage. Unlike CAV systems, which supply a constant airflow at a variable temperature, VAV systems vary the airflow at a constant temperature. Gayley’s favorite feature, though, is Boylston Hall—or what he calls “the big urban room.” It’s a new idea for libraries, and one he hopes will continue to catch on. It’s the area with the newest books, an inviting cafe, and even a streetside broadcast studio from Boston’s public radio station, WGBH. “It’s the place where the library and the city overlap, and where visitors are immediately surrounded by the library’s most active uses,” he says. gb&d
P R OJ E C T
TEAM
COST $78 million
ARCHITECT William Rawn Associates
SIZE 156,000 square feet
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER LeMessurier Consultants
COMPLETION July 2016
CIVIL ENGINEER Nitsch Engineering
AWARDS 2017 AIA/ALA Library Building Award 2017 Congress for New Urbanism Charter Awards, Grand Prize 2017 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award for Design 2017 Preservation Massachusetts Paul & Niki Tsongas Award 2017 Boston Preservation Alliance Achievement Award
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Reed Hilderbrand LLC MEP ENGINEER Cosentini Associates INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE LAB [3.2] Architecture LIGHTING DESIGN Lam Partners CODE CONSULTANT R.W. Sullivan Engineering SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT The Green Engineer, Inc. NEWSFEED CAFE ARCHITECT Darlow Christ Architects OWNER’S PROJECT MANAGER PMA Consultants, Inc. CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Consigli Construction Co.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Typology Inner Workings Features Spaces Punch List
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134 Greenbuild: Past, Present, and Future
USGBC’s Mahesh Ramanujam discusses this event’s impact on the green building industry.
135 People and Nature
The CEO of the International Living Future Institute highlights the tenets of biophilic design.
136 Person of Interest
Mindy Lubber shares CERES’ efforts to make better, greener choices.
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Greenbuild: Past, Present, and Future A closer look at the impact of the annual event where the future of the green building movement is shaped
Mahesh Ramanujam President & CEO, USGBC and Green Business Certification Inc.
PRESENT
The ideas and passions of the diverse and far-reaching green building community come alive each year at Greenbuild (this year’s event takes place in Boston from November 8-10). Here, people come together to discover solutions, become inspired, cultivate key business relationships, and recognize and celebrate innovation. It’s a place where people from around the globe come to reconnect and remind each other why they do what they do—and why they work hard every day to better the built environment and the life of billions who call this planet home. This year will be a turning point for Greenbuild, for USGBC, and for the future of our movement. Now more than ever, we stand at an important crossroads, and collectively we must carefully consider the direction in which the movement will march. At USGBC, we’re encouraged by the future because we’ve witnessed the
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green building movement double down its efforts to bring people in, lift communities up, and demonstrate that green buildings and communities are all about people, the environment, human health, and wellness. We’ve been moved by the continued commitment to build a sustainable future for all. This year’s event includes a stellar lineup of inspiring plenary speakers, including a keynote address from President Bill Clinton and a closing session with acclaimed astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Greenbuild education includes Special Sets, which reinvent traditional breakout sessions with alternative formats and new engaging environments. We will also hold three summits: the Communities and Affordable Homes Summit, WaterBuild—The Water Summit at Greenbuild, and the popular International Summit. Working with USGBC’s partner, Informa Exhibitions, we expect more than 25,000 attendees from 100 countries to join us in Boston, with several hundred exhibitors of green products and service innovations on the show floor and more than 150 presentations and educational sessions by business, environmental, government, and social leaders. This year’s theme, “All In,” encompasses the breadth of the sustainability and green building movement. The movement itself is living proof that real change starts with people—it starts with you and me. PAST
Over the past 15 years, Greenbuild has brought forth world leaders, environmental
“To carry this movement forward, we need a network of fellow change makers who keep building.” activists, media celebrities, nonprofit organizations, real estate and architecture leaders, and technology and manufacturing giants. It’s the world’s largest green building exposition of its type, and this year, its legacy of greatness continues. The sustainable conference is a four-time recipient of the IMEX Sustainable Meetings award. FUTURE
To carry this movement forward, we need a network of fellow change makers who keep building—who keep building net zero office buildings and hospitals, who keep building the homes we open to one another and the schools for our children, who keep building communities that run on brilliant minds and diverse backgrounds, who keep building the community centers where we gather and the headquarters where we commit to doing better for our nation. And most importantly, those who keep building trust in one another and keep building bridges and bonds and breaking barriers. In order to keep building, we must be “all in” for the ideals of equality, opportunity, diversity, and acceptance. And we must be “all in” for creat-
ing a future we all can believe in—a more sustainable future for all regardless of economic, social, cultural, or political background. We must be “all in” for fighting inequity and injustice, ending poverty, and tackling climate change. “All In” showcases the depth of the commitment we feel to our community, to our mission, and to our world. We leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of what’s next— new technology, new ideas, and new ways forward. We are dedicated to transforming the market and changing the way people all over the world experience buildings. gb&d
Mahesh Ramanujam grew up in India, where much of the population around him faced economic and environmental hardships. He learned from a young age to be grateful for what he had and to give what he could to others. He brings this philosophy to USGBC. Before becoming CEO of USGBC, he served as USGBC’s COO and CIO. He also sits on the advisory council of the International WELL Building Institute and the Board of Directors of GRESB.
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People and Nature The evolution of biophilic design
PHOTO: COURTESY OF VANDUSEN
Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the International Living Future Institute
Humans have been practicing biophilic design for thousands of years, building shelters with what they had in response to their climate. These were practical—they helped people stay warm or cool, protected them from weather, and helped preserve food and other possessions. But these dwellings often did much more. They were expressions of culture, reinforcing and reflecting people’s traditions and spiritual beliefs. Not all of this knowledge has been lost. Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright dedicated their careers to creating climate-adaptive, place-based buildings. Look at Fallingwater. Integrated into a waterfall in a forest, it’s a beautiful example of a place created in response to its site, promoting interactions between people and nature. Before architect Jørn Utzo ever put pen to paper designing the Sydney Opera House, he studied the interactions between people and water. His final design features dramatic white “sails” that evoke boats and the movement of waves and gb&d
clouds; it’s an iconic building Australians embrace as a cultural symbol. The opera house fosters a deepening relationship between people and nature. As visitors approach, they engage on a path of continual ascension, up the exterior steps and into the underside of the soaring sails. As they continue up the steps, openings between the sails provide glimpses of the harbor. The journey from street to music continually reinforces the relationship to place. Indigenous architecture holds many lessons about how to create shelters in response to climate by using the resources nature provides. These structures, built from locally sourced materials and in response to the conditions of the place, exemplify biophilic design. GURUNSI EARTH HOUSES
The Gurunsi are one of many ethnic groups in the culturally rich region that includes southern Burkina Faso and northern Ghana in western Africa. Their earth houses are excellent examples of structures that utilize readily available materials while also providing an avenue for cultural expression. These round and rectilinear dwellings are made from a mixture of clay, straw, and cow droppings. The Gurunsi people have adapted their homes to the harsh climate, constructing thick walls with few openings, which keeps them cool during the hot day and comfortable during the cool night. What makes these dwellings unique are the elaborate paintings on every square inch of the exterior. Using paint made from a mixture of water, mud, cow dung, and colored soil or chalk, the Gurunsi decorate their dwellings with symbolic patterns, scenes from daily life, and animal motifs.
MESA VERDE CLIFF DWELLINGS
In southwest Colorado, the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde provide a window into the Pueblo Indian people and their amazing architectural minds. Constructed almost 900 years ago, theses dwellings were built into high alcoves along the canyon walls and are astonishingly well preserved. The structures, which number over 600, range from small storage rooms to elaborate complexes with 50 to 200 rooms. Built with adobe and later with stone, mud, and wood beams, these ancient feats of engineering and construction persevered in heavy snow, thunderstorms, and extreme dry heat. Cliff Palace, the largest dwelling at Mesa Verde, demonstrated passive solar design centuries before modern-day practitioners embraced the approach. A massive rock overhang keeps the dwellings cool and shades them from the hot desert sun, while the thermal mass of the walls helps to moderate interior temperatures. NATIVE AMERICAN HOUSES
American Indians built many types of dwellings throughout North America, each reflecting a specific tribe’s lifestyle and regional climate. From wigwams and tepees to longhouses and grass houses, these structures varied in materiality and form, but they were all made with earth-based materials and fashioned with an attitude of respect for the land. The Algonquian Indians, who lived in the woodlands of New England and Eastern Canada, built wigwams. These small, easy-to-construct domed dwellings consist of a wooden frame covered with woven mats and sheets of birch bark. Ropes
ABOVE Creating Biophilic Buildings calls for a biophilic design renaissance, exploring how to create places where people and nature thrive together. The book is due out from Ecotone Publishing in late 2017.
were used to wrap the mats and hold the birch bark in place. The Iroquois built longhouses. While structurally similar to wigwams, longhouses could measure up to 200 feet long and house as many as 60 people—a cultural expression of the Iroquois’ community values. These few examples show how indigenous people retained the connection to the land while meeting their physical and cultural needs. Designs shaped by climate, available building materials, and people’s lifestyles, these shelters illustrate the ingenious ways humans adapt. While these have inspired architects around the world, their lessons don’t impact the average building built today. Most conventional buildings constructed in industrialized parts of the world are designed with cost as the main driver; while budget is a constraint on every project, good design considers many factors: energy performance, aesthetics, material choices, site and neighborhood relationships, and programming needs. Biophilic design goes a step further and considers how these design decisions can promote the health and wellbeing of the building’s occupants by connecting them with nature. Biophilic design is ultimately about making happier, healthier spaces where both people and nature can thrive. gb&d Amanda Sturgeon, FAIA, is CEO of the International Living Future Institute.
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Person of Interest Mindy Lubber bility to enact significant, long-lasting change using principles that date back to 1989, after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of nonprofit Ceres, has been at the helm since 2003, working to create Ceres’ Roadmap for Sustainability, a corporate leadership program and blueprint for best practices for investors. Lubber says the conversation on sustainability has changed considerably in the last 20 years, with companies genuinely interested in making better, greener choices, from what and how things are made on the production line to lowering energy use in their buildings. But there’s still a long way to go. We talked with Lubber to find out more about Ceres’ efforts. gb&d: How did you get involved with Ceres?
“In 2017, more and more multinational companies and other large companies realize acting on sustainability is important for their market. They’re speaking out, and in the absence of political leadership they’re speaking out more.” Interview by Elizabeth Atkinson
Making sustainable choices is not an issue to be addressed one person or even one company at a time; action must be taken on a larger scale. That’s what Ceres specializes in—working with companies and investors to create corporate responsi-
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Lubber: I spent most of my career as an advocate and lawyer, running the EPA office under President Clinton. When I left the EPA, I took a little bit of time to think about what I wanted to do. I decided we really needed to contextualize sustainability and environmental protection to all capital markets and companies with the largest investors—that these were as much their is\sues as environmental issues. When I joined Ceres in 2003, it had just launched a global reporting initiative that many thousand multinational companies now use for corporate reporting on disclosure of environmental and social issues. gb&d: What are the biggest projects Ceres is involved in now? Lubber: We’re working to implement increased disclosure on the front of companies and investors as it relates to climate risk, and what it will take to reach the commitments of the Paris Agreement. The U.S. pulling out of the Paris Agreement is unfortunate, but not the end of the world. If we can continue through our effort called “We Are Still In,” an effort to get
companies and cities and investors to continue to make the adjustments they would have under the Paris Agreement, that could get us to where we need to go. We’re working with companies to keep the Paris Agreement goal of the global temperature rise 1.5-2 degrees Celsius below pre-industrial levels this century, looking at what kinds of changes a company has to make, and what it means to the company. We’re hoping to get companies to commit to 100% renewables over the next five years in addition to reducing their carbon footprint and supporting climate policy. gb&d: What is Ceres doing on the policy side? Lubber: We are hoping to keep—rather than seeing rolled back–fuel economy standards. We fought hard to get fuel economy standards for the average vehicle from 27 to 52 miles per gallon coming off manufacturing lines. Everybody had to agree to the standards, including oil companies. However, after President Obama left office, there have been movements to cut back on those standards. We’re also working with several dozen companies to reduce their use of water and manage their overall custodianship of water in a much more comprehensive way. gb&d: How does Ceres build leadership among networks of investors and companies to drive economic solutions for the biggest sustainability challenges? Lubber: First, we work to change policy. If there’s a limit to the amount of carbon emissions, that will change hundreds of companies in one fell swoop, as is the case with the Clean Power Plan, which is being held up in the courts for fuel economy standards. Second, through our day-to-day practices. We work with several hundred companies that are members, and with 125 companies who are members through our investor network. With companies, we create a model for what leadership should look like; we call it gbdmagazine.com
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the Ceres Blueprint or the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability. We work with each of the member companies to integrate the roadmap, which means making sure sustainability issues are being discussed at the top level of the company, boards and CEOs, as well as being fully transparent for what the company does for sustainability. We help companies integrate sustainability metrics into new buildings and facilities, as well as products. We work with the supply chain of each of the companies to supply more sustainability for them to set their own goals. And finally it means, with many of these companies, to support policy changes. Whether it’s working with companies that want to figure out how to make themselves 100% renewable or how to have 25% of their vehicles electric or how to come up with zero-waste products and reuse everything in their waste. With investors, it is working with them on how they analyze risk in their portfolios, what kind of companies they buy, what policy positions they take, and how they interact with the companies in their portfolios to get them to be more sustainable.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF MINDY LUBBER
gb&d: What is Ceres doing with regard to clean energy policy? Lubber: We work with hundreds if not thousands of companies who are starting to get to 100% renewables or change fuel economy standards. Creating change company by company or investor by investor will take longer than we have. It’s imperative to be working on climate change, because the timing of when it happens matters a lot. Whether we’re working on an existential threat or a non-manageable world threat, we want to make these threats that we can actually manage, which means we need to move faster gb&d
Ceres CEO Mindy Lubber speaks at the 2016 Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations in New York.
than one company by one company or one sector by one sector. The only way to do that is by changing policy. We’ve worked in many states to support renewable portfolio standards, where a state might commit to 20% renewables in 2022. gb&d: How have views of sustainability changed in business? Lubber: The day before President Trump pulled out of Paris, we had an ad in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal with 32 companies, from General Electric to Monsanto to Apple. In 2017, more and more multinational companies and other large companies realize acting on sustainability is important for their market. They’re speaking out, and in the absence of political leadership they’re speaking out more. No one looks at sustainability and says, “Why are you talking to me about water and climate change? We’re a big company, we don’t do that.” That discussion is long over. gb&d: How is sustainability leadership changing on a company level? Lubber: Companies are thinking about a number of things. For people who are looking for a job, they’re
looking for a specific company. Every company’s competing for the best and the brightest, and those people are looking for companies that are sustainability leaders. So for these people, one of the most motivating features, along with culture and values, is sustainability support. Whether it’s consumers who are shopping, employees, or investors, when a company is called out for being a major polluter, companies take a shareholder hit for reputational damage. They take hundreds of millions of dollars for advertising campaigns to maintain their reputation and their image. And one large irresponsible act could take away hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising. gb&d: What does the future hold for sustainability? Lubber: We’ve got a good start, but we’ve got a long way to go. We have thousands of companies that have to change and investors that have to change and policy that has to be implemented. If we’re going to get to the world that the Paris Climate Agreement called for, we need thousands and tens of thousands of companies changing their practices. We still have a ways to go, but I think that the wind is at our back. gb&d november–december 2017
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Directory & Index
IN CONVERSATION with Rick Ridgeway
ucts, what was the inspiration behind the Workwear line? Do you have any favorite pieces?
ADVERTISERS
A Absolute Weather Shield, 34 absoluteweathershield.net 616.717.5757 Architectural Grilles & Sun Shades, 78 agsshade.com 708.479.9458
Architek, 58 architek.com 604.714.0028 B Bio-Microbics, 112 biomicrobics.com 913.422.0707 Brentwood, 48 brentwoodindustries.com 610.374.5109 C Crestron, 54 crestron.com 855.791.5322 F Fabcon, 40 fabcon-usa.com 800.727.4444 G GAF, 108 gaf.com 973.628.3000 Greenbuild, 15, 134 greenbuildexpo.com M MASA Architectural Canopies, 62 architecturalcanopies.com 866.449.6780 Metroflor, 104 metroflorusa.com 866.882.440 N Nest, 86 nest.com 855.469.6378 NewSchool, 94 newschool.edu 212.229.5600
T Timbercraft, 44 timbercraft.com 888.676.9870 PEOPLE & COMPANIES # 3 Civic Plaza, 16 A Ackmann, Evan, 54 The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 124 Association of Energy Engineers, 22 B Bailey, Jason, 48 Banyan Water, 98 Barbara Peterson Landscape, 130 Bell, Jim, 115 Bevilacqua Builders Inc., 129 Berger, Tatiana, 94 Blackmon, Austin, 124 Boss, Dan, 108 Boston Public Library, 130 Bradley, Michael, 62 Bristol Community College Health and Science Building, 116 C Carlin, Michelle, 108 Century Group, 16 CERES, 136 Chouinard, Yvon, 12 Chicago Riverwalk, 116 Childs, Ralph, 30 Chrisco, Zach, 116 Cliff Palace, 135 Clinton, Bill, 134 Colley, Jennifer, 62 Consigli Construction Co., 132 Cosentini Associates, 132 Cotter, Patrick, 16 Court, Brian, 72 Creative Land & Water Engineering, 129
O Option One Energy, 22 optiononeenergy.com 312.985.7987 R REHAU, 30 rehau.com Eastern USA: 800.297.6371 Western USA: 800.944.1011
D Dammann, Joe, 40 D’Annunzio, Nik, 34 Darlow Christ Architects, 128 Design & Construction Week, 15 Deutsch, Daniela, 94 Dixon, Jill Allen, 116 Domus Academy School of Design, 94 Dorsch, Donald, 74 Dundon, Todd, 126
S Sasaki, 116 sasaki.com 617.926.3300
E Elliott, Peter, 62 Englehardt, James, 112 Erten, Duygu, 98
Skram, 36 skramfurniture.com 336.222.6622
F Fallingwater, 135 Federal Bureau of Land Management, 54 Feldstein, George, 54 Ford, Gina, 116 Frodi, Deb, 98 FXFOWLE Architects, 98
SMDI, 18 smdisteel.org 412.922.2722
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Sunbrella, 82 sunbrella.com 336.221.2211
november–december 2017
G Gayley, Cliff, 130 GE Ecomagination, 98 GE Innovation Point, 126 Gensler, 126 Georgia Institute of Technology, 72 Glen Raven, 82 Google, 74 Green Business Certification Inc., 134 The Green Engineer, Inc., 132 Green Scope Solutions, 22 H Halstead International, 104 Hankins, Vince, 82 Heidenreich, Laura, 10, 98 Hensold, Brie, 116 Havana Square Apartments, 48 Hoover, Randy, 30 Horowitz, Stephanie, 127 Howe, Chris, 9, 98 HPD Collaborative, 98 I Institute of Real Estate Management, 22 International Contemporary Furniture Fair, 36 International Living Future Institute, 135 J Judah, Ilana, 98 K Kellogg, Tim, 82 Kelly, Scott, 70 King Engineering, 48 Kingsley, Alissa, 68 L LAB [3.2] Architecture, 132 Lam Partners, 132 LaNois, Gene, 86 Legrand North America, 98 Leibowitz, Sandra, 98 LeMessurier Consultants, 132 Lewis, Kimberly, 98 Living Building Challenge, 68 Living Future Institute, 68 Lord Aeck Sargent, 72 Lubber, Mindy, 136 Luthin, Catherine, 98 Luthin Associates, 98 M Malecha, Marvin J., 94 Marks, Jacob, 36 Mavraganes, Brian, 22 Marett, Laura, 116 Massey, Bill, 116 The Miller Hull Partnership, 72 Morris, Adam, 22 Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Environmental Center, 70 N National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), 78 Nemec, Dan, 72 NewSchool of Architecture & Design, 94 Niemeyer, Eric, 78 Nitsch Engineering, 132 P Pacenti, Elena, 94
Patagonia, 12 Pensam Residential, 86 Perkins Eastman, 52 Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, 48 PMA Consultants, Inc., 132 R Ramanujam, Mahesh, 134 Re:Vision, 70 Rebori, Robert, 112 Reed Hilderbrand LLC, 132 Research Support Facility (RSF), 78 R.H. Moore & Associates, 48 Ridgeway, Rick, 12 RNL Design, 78 Rochford, Susan, 98 Rosslyn Riviera Mall, 114 Routman, Rochelle, 98, 104 R.W. Sullivan Engineering, 132 S Schafer, Bill, 54 Schreifels, Paul, 40 Schwenger, Ron, 58 Sebastian, Brandie, 18 Shams, Reza, 112 Shaw-Butler, Meggan, 86 Simon, Lynn N., 98 Simpson, Michael, 78 Society of Materials Engineers (SME) Standard Industries, 108 Stantec, 74 Steel Recycling Institute, 18 Sternquist, Bob, 44 Stone, Harlan, 104 Sturgeon, Amanda, 135 Surrey City Development Corporation, 16 Sustainable Design Consulting, 98 Sydney Opera House, 135 T Taddune, Gillan, 98 Temme, Virge, 98 Thimons, Mark, 18 Thornton Tomasetti, 98 Trainor, John, 78 TURKECO Consulting, 98 Tyson, Neil deGrasse, 134 U University of Miami, 112 USGBC, 134 V Virge Temme Architecture, 98 Vittori, Wendy, 98 Vizgaitis, Victor, 116 W Watershed Kitchen & Bar, 82 William Rawn Associates, 130 WSLA, 98 Wysocki, Pat, 48 Z ZeroEnergy Design, 127 ZGF Architects, 16
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Ridgeway: In the marketing department, I’m the old dude. I’m sitting here wearing one of the first things I got from Chouinard, a pair of black canvas pants that were informed completely by the pants he wore as a blacksmith—really rugged and durable. When I had to go out and do work other than writing and photography, often carpentry, I wore these pants as much as I wore them climbing. And when I started taking photographs, more than half the time I photographed workers using these products. I photographed carpenters building houses, a ceramist creating huge pots in a big art studio, a worker in San Francisco who worked on repairs for the Golden Gate Bridge, window washers in high-rises, a myriad of different people. The clothes we made back then were used for work wear as much as they were for climbing. There’s always been that close alignment for the gear we make. It was just a natural evolution for the company to actively promote work garments. Of course, the fabrics have continued to evolve. I just bought a pair of pants last week, and I can tell just by the feel of the fabric that this new hemp-cotton poly-blend is a whole new order of durability. I’m really looking forward to wearing these things. Any apparel company can call products heavy duty. But these are built to last for years, and they are literally heavy. When I first put them on, it was like déjà vu back to the fit of the blacksmithing design I had in the early ’70s. gb&d: Any words of advice for business leaders who also want to stand up for sustainability, resiliency, or other mission-drive values? Ridgeway: My top piece of advice is also the hardest to implement, but I think it’s the most important. That is to do your homework—to study the macroeconomics of global consumption, its long-term trends, and to understand as deeply as you can the impacts humans are having on the plant. Here’s the hard part: From there, it’s to pressure-test your business model against those trends. To understand the consequences of those trends, and to then figure out how you’re going to adjust your business model to be as resilient as possible. Once you do that—if you’re a person of moral character, you’ll understand you have to do every thing in your power to help avoid and reduce the consequences you now understand. gb&d
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