We received some good news from Washington today, via the AIA, which issued a strongly worded press release praising the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for approving the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act.

The proposed law would encourage energy efficiency throughout the built environment. In a not-so-veiled reference to Section 433 , the AIA goes onto to say: “We are also pleased that the bill keeps energy requirements as they pertain to new federal buildings.”

The reason this isn’t great news is simple: Section 433 is still not safe from oil company meddling. According to congressional sources, when the proposed bill reaches the Senate floor, Senator John Hoeven (a Republican from North Dakota) may introduce an amendment that would weaken or eliminate Section 433. Or, failing that, he may introduce separate legislation aimed at gutting or killing Section 433. Stay tuned.

The chart demonstrates the steadily improving Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) for the building sector. At each interval measured, buildings have become more efficient. The gap between the most recent projected 2013 AEO, and the projected 2005 AEO represents the added savings gained through better building design, and low and renewable energy systems.

The American Gas Association is at it again. If you recall, about a year ago the organization pushed unsuccessfully to repeal Section 433 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.  According to that provision, all new federal buildings and older structures undergoing renovations of more than $2.5 million are required to drastically slash their use of fossil fuel. The law sets rigorous but wholly realistic (given today’s technologies) targets culminating in the total elimination of fossil fuels by 2030. As I pointed out in a blog post a year ago, it represents nothing less than the federal adoption of Edward Mazria’s 2030 Challenge.

That groundbreaking piece of legislation is currently threatened. A new energy bill is circulating through Congress called the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013. According to durabilityanddesign.com, the proposed bill, sponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), “would promote greater use of energy efficiency technology in commercial and residential buildings…”

But of course in the loopy, cynical, alternate reality of Washington, there’s a catch: the AGA is now pushing to include an amendment in the new bill, or introduce separate legislation, that would weaken or eliminate Section 433. Last week more than 350 of our leading architectural, engineering, design, consulting, and construction firms presented a letter to Congress protesting the move. It’s a veritable who’s-who of the built environment, with one conspicuous absence: the U.S. Green Buildings Council.

What gives? When asked about their glaring absence, Roger Platt, Senior Vice President Global Policy & Law at the USGBC, responded, “I wouldn’t read a thing into not being on that particular letter. We’re fully in support of all federal policies that have helped make the vision of the 2030 Challenge so consequential, including those in Section 433. We’re in continuing communication with Rep. Wyden’s office and many other members of the committee, and will be sending in our letter. This is a crucial debate. In our communications, we’re also looking at the short term consequences of the attacks on sustainability that this Senate debate has provoked, not the least of which is an effort to ban the use of LEED by the Federal government.” Read more…

Having followed Robin Guenther’s work for some time, when Fast Company named this FAIA and LEED AP one of “The World’s 100 Most Creative People in Business 2012,” I was delighted, but not surprised. The sustainable healthcare design leader at Perkins + Will is known as a strong and persistent advocate for human- and planetary health. Her crusade to increase her own knowledge about our material world gives her the authority of someone with genuine concern for her fellow creatures and long-term experience in the complex filed of health care design. Her advice to the magazine’s readers about the materials we live with every day, is dramatic in its simplicity:

“If they don’t tell you what’s in it, you probably don’t want what’s in it.”

“Consult your nose—if it stinks, don’t use it.”

“Use carbohydrate-based materials when you can.”

With this in mind, I asked Robin to talk about the Health Products Disclosure (HPD) initiative, and how it may change our material world for the better. Read her realistic, but optimistic observations on everything from HPD’s short and long term influence on the built environment, to the power of the design community in creating positive change in the marketplace, and more.

Susan S. Szenasy:  You have been an eloquent advocate for patients (in fact anyone who works or visits) in the healthcare segment for as long as I can remember. Your ammo has been finding the least toxic, most healthy products available for the interiors you design. In view of your long and inspiring campaign for healthy interiors, what does the formation of HPD signal to you?

Robin Guenther: The HPD represents a major milestone in the advocacy for safer and healthier building materials.  For the first time, we will have access to important, accurate information on the contents of building materials – “a nutrition label,” so to speak, that we can use to inform our specifications. As the HPD information is used to build Pharos, the Healthy Building Network comparative tool, it will accelerate the possibility of independent comparisons of products, another important aspect of this quest. Read more…

Something surprising has happened with many so-called “sustainable” buildings. When actually measured in post-occupancy assessments, they’ve proven far less sustainable than their proponents have claimed. In some cases they’ve actually performed worse than much older buildings, with no such claims.

A 2009 New York Times article, “Some buildings not living up to green label,” documented the extensive problems with many sustainability icons. Among other reasons for this failing, the Times pointed to the widespread use of expansive curtain-wall glass assemblies and large, “deep-plan” designs that put most usable space far from exterior walls, forcing greater reliance on artificial light and ventilation systems.

Before its cancellation, the Anara Tower was planned to be one of Dubai’s tallest buildings, and an icon of sustainability — despite its west-facing glazing, high embodied energy in materials, and, remarkably, a giant non-functional (i.e. decorative) wind turbine. The building offered the consumer packaging of an “image” of sustainability at the apparent expense of real sustainability. Illustration by WS Atkins PLC.

Partly in response to the bad press, the City of New York instituted a new law requiring disclosure of actual performance for many buildings. That led to reports of even more poor-performing sustainability icons. Another Times article, “City’s Law Tracking Energy Use Yields Some Surprises,” noted that the gleaming new 7 World Trade Center, LEED Gold-certified, scored just 74 on the Energy Star rating — one point below the minimum 75 for “high-efficiency buildings” under the national rating system. That modest rating doesn’t even factor in the significant embodied energy in the new materials of 7 World Trade Center.

Things got even worse in 2010 with a lawsuit [“$100 Million Class Action Filed Against LEED and USGBC”] against the US Green Building Council, developers of the LEED certification system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that the USGBC engaged in “deceptive trade practices, false advertising and anti-trust” by promoting the LEED system, and argued that because the LEED system does not live up to predicted and advertised energy savings, the USGBC actually defrauded municipalities and private entities. The suit was ultimately dismissed, but in its wake the website Treehugger and others predicted, based on the evidence uncovered, that “there will be more of this kind of litigation.”

What’s going on? How can the desire to increase sustainability actually result in its opposite?

One problem with many sustainability approaches is that they don’t question the underlying building type. Instead they only add new “greener” components, such as more efficient mechanical systems and better wall insulation. But this “bolt-on” conception of sustainability, even when partially successful, has the drawback of leaving underlying forms, and the structural system that generates them, intact. The result is too often the familiar “law of unintended consequences.” What’s gained in one area is lost elsewhere as the result of other unanticipated interactions. Read more…

The “classic” Silicon Valley stretches from Palo Alto to south of San Jose, CA,
about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

Bay Area locals are mighty excited about Greenbuild coming to San Francisco in November.  The conference theme, “@ Greenbuild,” references the mindboggling array of Internet and technology companies headquartered in our backyards. You know Google, Yahoo, Twitter (co-founder, Biz Stone, will join us at the Greenbuild opening plenary), LinkedIn, Yelp, and YouTube.  Smaller social media outlets are also ubiquitous, including StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious, Yammer, Pinterest, and many more.  Of the 17 companies mentioned in a recent survey on social media for designers, all but one are headquartered here. (Tumblr hails from New York.  Rebels!)  We also have our host of gaming companies, many of whom tap into social networks; gamejobhunter lists over 120 companies nearby, from tiny start-ups to titans like EA and Zynga.

Our social media bonanza has roots in the original tech boom in Silicon Valley – named after silicon chip innovators – back in the 1970s.  What is Silicon Valley exactly?  Although the name originally referred to a specific region around Stanford University and San Jose, its tech prowess has spread throughout the region; the San Jose Mercury News recently argued that “Silicon Valley” now includes five Bay Area counties.  For many of us, though, Silicon Valley is more about a mindset and an approach to business that’s become synonymous with high tech innovation.  It has remained in this area because, as I once learned in a city planning class, companies that demand a stream of employees with the tech sector’s specialized mindset and skillset tend to thrive when they flock together.  (San Francisco’s tax break for tech companies probably doesn’t hurt either.)

Autodesk, another Bay Area tech giant,
enjoys a LEED CI Platinum certification for its One Market St. office space.
Photo by David Wakely, courtesy of HOK.

Read more…

Boucher Grygier Shipping Container House, Innovation and Transition tour, photo courtesy of Jan Grygier

From giant redwoods to adaptive reuse, San Francisco is chock full of memorable sights – green buildings and beyond. At USGBC’s annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, held in San Francisco this November, you can sample from two dozen tours of buildings (and much more), specially curated by San Fran insiders.

Every year, the Greenbuild “host committee” of volunteers from USGBC’s regional chapters organizes a series of tours to help visitors learn more about the community and the buildings and the culture of each host locale. This year’s lineup is really impressive. The tour committee, led by Lindsay Baker (Green Team Consultant at Mary Davidge Associates) and Mark Palmer (Green Building Coordinator at City and County of San Francisco), has handpicked 12 half-day tours on Friday and Saturday, plus 12 full-day tours on Saturday.

McGee Salvage House, Berkeley Walking Tour, photo courtesy of Leger Wanaselja Architecture

How did they do it? The criteria for setting up the tours included a focus on educational content, the operational issues, showcasing the Bay Area, showing off unique approaches to green buildings, and making sure that the tours would be fun and interactive. The 25-person committee received a whopping 170 submissions and then scored and grouped them.

Read more…

It seems nary a week (or two) goes by without news of yet another “strategic partnership” or acquisition involving Perkins + Will (P+W).  Last week brought news that Envision Design—the Washington, D.C.-based architecture firm founded by Ken Wilson and Diana Horvat—had joined the P+W fold. For 13 years, Envision carved out a rather impressive niche as green interiors specialists. They designed offices for Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund, and, three years ago, the LEED Platinum headquarters for the U.S. Green Buildings Council in Washington. We did a major story on the USGBC offices and got to know the firm well. So last week I called Wilson and asked him about the process of being acquired by such a savvy-acquirer. P+W’s approach can be best described as that of a quietly persistent, strategically patient suitor:

On the long courtship: “They first reached out to us about eight years ago. They sent an emissary up from Atlanta. Someone whose firm had recently been acquired by Perkins + Will, who basically said, ‘We did it and it worked out for us.’ We met with them. We drank a lot of very expensive wine. But both Diana and I felt the timing wasn’t right.”

On why they said yes now: “It’s a bitch to run an architecture office these days. And we thought, if we could work something out where we could do less of what we don’t like doing, which is managing the day to day, and more of what we like to do, then we would be interested.”

Read more…

As we, at the American Institute of Architects’ Young Architects Forum (AIA YAF) www.aia.org/yaf celebrate our 20 year anniversary, we find ourselves at a critical moment regarding the future of our chosen profession. Every day and too often we hear talk about losing a whole generation from the practice of architecture. Though new grads have the highest unemployment rate, the situation isn’t much better for those who have been around for a while, whether they’re going through the licensure process or are already licensed architects. And the hidden resentment of those who do have jobs is growing; they see a bleak outlook for their immediate future. This emerging professional group is clearly a victim of the economic downturn. So, with YAF’s focus on architects licensed less than 10 years, we decided it was time to get a handle on this sad situation.

Earlier this month 65 young leaders headed to Washington DC from all directions of the nation. The YAF Summit20, taking place just prior to the AIA Annual Grassroots Leadership Conference, was organized by the AIA National YAF Advisory Committee to dig into the issues facing the new generation of practitioners. We wanted to know what YAF and the AIA can do to help, and what our action plan should be for the next five years and beyond. YAF summits are held every five years and it was intriguing to see that the top three issues from Summit15 (mentorship, leadership, and fellowship) did not appear in the top six issues of the Summit20. We have a lot of work to do! Read more…

When HOK was asked to partner with the USGBC on Project Haiti, a children’s center in Port au Prince, we decided immediately that the most appropriate approach to the project would require an integrated, multi-disciplinary team. So we assembled architects, landscape architects, lighting architects, sustainable experts as well as structural, mechanical, and plumbing engineers to tackle the many challenges and create an innovative design that will showcase sustainable building in Haiti.

Eric Cesal, Architecture for Humanity’s Regional Program Manager in Haiti and a good friend, gave us some invaluable advice before we began: keep things as simple and as passive as possible. Given the chance, anything that has multiple parts with the potential to break, probably will break. And, odds are, the Haitians will not have the resources to repair them. It became our responsibility to design with this in mind and take steps to reduce the likelihood of elements being rendered useless due to maintenance difficulties.

We began our work with a quick observation of the place. What is there? What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Haiti has a lot of sun and steady trade winds, as well as a moderate amount of rainfall. What can we take away from these observations?

Even before our site visit, we learned that the local power grid is unreliable. There are perhaps six to eight hours of electricity a day and those hours vary daily. Harnessing both solar and wind power will be essential. A building that relies on electricity to run incubators for sick babies cannot risk being without power. Therefore our first design task is to produce the entire project’s power on-site.

Read more…

This October 5, Project Haiti was announced at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre to an audience of 15,000 during the keynote at Greenbuild 2011. HOK is the USGBC’s official design partner for the project, the redesign of an orphanage and children’s center badly damaged in the 2010 earthquake in Port au Prince. The importance of this project was stressed by both the  USGBC’s Rick Federizzi and the official project video, which can be viewed here.

Project Haiti is a physical testament to the incredible work lovingly done by Gina and Lucien Duncan, founders and directors of Fondation Enfant Jesus. The Duncans’ mission is to provide a safe, nurturing environment to children whose parents are unable to care for them and to offer educational opportunities for families in the community. Programmatically this children’s center will focus on child health restoration and family planning education. Additionally, the team hopes Project Haiti – targeted for LEED Platinum certification – will become a model for sustainable building on the island.

To properly tell the story of Project Haiti, we need to go back to August 17 when representatives from the United States Green Buildings Council, HOK, and Adaptive Building Solutions landed in Port au Prince to see the site and meet the Duncans. Thrust into a culture foreign to us, we quickly realized that things in Haiti work in ways all their own.

Read more…