Category: Design Industry
Incorporating Passive House Design Standards
Virtual Connect: Efficient Transparency – The Evolution of Custom Glazing
Access Matters: What You Need to Know About ICC Accessibility Updates
Hospital Design and Maintenance in the COVID Era
CAHED, the Colorado Association of Healthcare Engineers and Directors, hosted its annual (Virtual) Speed Networking event on November 12. Speakers from Craig Hospital, Denver Health, UCHealth, Banner Health, NV5, SCL Health, and Children’s Hospital of Colorado divided among breakout groups via Zoom to educate professionals involved in building and maintaining healthcare facilities how they are coping in these strange times and what trends are evolving today. Following are takeaways from owners and facilities managers and how architects can adapt during this rapidly changing time in hospital design.
The New Normal
Healthcare leaders stressed that today’s “new normal” is likely temporary, and that COVID-19 isn’t necessarily going to change how they design and construct facilities in the future. They emphasized the need to not overreact, but to look at each instance calmly and objectively. Most are, however, delaying larger projects in favor of making smaller repairs, while still considering updating future policies and operations. Tasks are reprioritized daily. Many facilities have also reduced non-emergent care due to the pandemic, and projects that affect patient areas have mostly been put on hold. These days, whole portions of a hospital may suddenly become overflow for new COVID patients, sneeze guards are installed for every interaction, workstations are staggered, security cameras and personnel are added, and hotel stations are scheduled instead of serving practitioners on a first-come, first-served basis. Healthcare owners admit it is a struggle to comprehend what is needed currently—they work hard to properly prioritize regular projects compared to COVID needs, which change on a daily basis.
Mechanical Systems and Maintenance
One of the largest challenges is modifying HVAC equipment to accommodate HEPA filtration and ensure COVID-negative spaces. To change one air handling unit into a HEPA unit, some owners have shut down entire hospital wings—but shutting down so much space just to make modifications is a problem as they struggle to find enough beds. Flexibility in the future will be key, from mechanical systems to the creation of universal rooms. Mechanical systems that were cheaper to build may be harder to balance for COVID-negative rooms, especially if large zones are handled by one VFD unit, making it hard to shut down capacity to do maintenance. Hospitals are simply too busy and don’t want to turn an entire wing into a bio-containment ward. What will be necessary to handle future diseases?
Maintenance is also difficult. What is contaminated and what is not? How can they balance the need to protect both the people in bed and those performing maintenance? What do you have to do or wear to change out a filter? Are they getting the right number of air changes per hour? How do you cohort an ICU room to provide for two COVID patients while keeping safety paramount? Best practices are ever-changing, and restrictions vary by county—and by the day.
New Processes
Breakout areas have been created where personnel can remove masks and eat lunch socially distanced, but in general, no more than five to 10 may be in a room, even with masks. Departments need to find different ways to work together. Telemedicine has not made huge inroads into care and accounts just 10 percent for consultations. While many providers and patients do not gravitate toward telemedicine, hospitals don’t want caregivers out in the wider community. Still, therapy can occur in someone’s home, and hospitals are beginning to provide more of these services to accommodate patients outside of their facilities.
COVID Testing
There is little mass testing for COVID unless there is an outbreak, and many healthcare facilities use temperature screening in an attempt to avoid the spread of the virus. Often, nurse practitioners screen visitors, vendors, patients, and contractors alike, sometimes relying on visual control to determine if there might be a problem as colder outside temperatures obscure results, sometimes requiring people to wait 10 minutes until a true temperature can register. There are a variety of procedures, some more restrictive than others. Some only require visitors to self-report symptoms. Others have banned staff from traveling. All find it difficult to get a clear picture of emerging COVID infections.
Serving the Whole Community
Some facilities struggle with their own unique issues related to COVID. Denver Health has typically been the hospital that cares for the unhoused population, and they formerly would welcome everyone through their doors. Now, that is not possible. They have limited hours for visitors and can’t perform take-ins how they once did—allowing the general public to wander in, use bathrooms, and hang around the cafeteria. Denver Health has since upgraded the presence of security to ensure that no one is congregating around the premises without a direct need and have closed bathrooms for public use. Instead, they have installed portable restrooms outdoors to help reduce contact with those infected.
Supply Chains
Hospital supply chains are also in flux. It is a daily challenge to manage usage numbers and supply. Healthcare facilities have seen some increase in the domestic supply of important items, and most hope to end single-source procurement by diversifying their supply chains. They have turned away from large supplier overseas. Despite more domestic producers coming online, they still see companies move their factories across the border—an air filter company one owner depended on for years moved to Mexico.
How Designers and Contractors Can Help
Designers have been instrumental in helping owners imagine how to upgrade their facilities—for example, laying out floor plans to reveal how many beds can fit into a space. Designers, contractors, and vendors have brought new ideas to owners from other successful projects. Healthcare owners are eager to learn what has worked at other hospitals. With declining budgets and the day-to-day stress of reacting to COVID, they also better appreciate transparency and strong communication with their contractors. At the CAHED event, owners stressed that they strive to understand that surprises occur, and that they need designers and builders to be open and honest with them about cost changes as soon as possible.
Saving Dining—by Design
AIA Colorado teamed with the State of Colorado and the Colorado Restaurant Association for the Winter Outdoor Design Workshop—delivering hope with a side of hygge for the vulnerable restaurant industry.
Winter is coming, and like the north winds, the pandemic continues its chill on important sectors of our economy. We all hoped the COVID-19 curve would have flattened by now, but without extraordinary measures to keep establishments open and safe, Colorado’s restaurant and tourism industries risk being flattened instead. To help, Governor Jared Polis and the Colorado Restaurant Association teamed with AIA Colorado and several other AEC partners for the Winter Outdoor Design Workshop to develop outdoor restaurant design concepts, keeping Coloradans safe from the elements—and the virus—while dining in the dead of winter.
Early on in the pandemic, my colleagues and I reached out to our restaurant clients to find out how we could help. Costs aside, they felt permitting would be their biggest hurdle. We are glad to see state and city officials expressing interest in helping ease the path. “The restaurant industry is critical to the economic health of the State of Colorado, and it’s vital to the well-being of our local communities,” said Governor Polis in announcing the Colorado Winter Outdoor Grant program, an emergency assistance fund for Colorado restaurants experiencing financial hardship.
The restaurant industry operates on thin margins even in flush times, so the stay-at-home orders reducing indoor seating to just 25 to 50 percent capacity triggered a quick culling of revenues. Particularly hard hit were locations with little overflow space. Carryout sales—for business models that could take advantage of this market—got a boost when the state began allowing to-go alcohol, starting March 20. By May, restaurants began adding seating areas in public sidewalks and closed streets, as Governor Polis waived many state regulations and urged cities to do the same. Dave Query, founder of the Big Red F Restaurant Group, which operates Jax Fish House, Lola Costal Mexican and other popular concepts, says he’s been able to add extra outdoor seating to about half its restaurants. “Reducing indoor capacity to 50 or 25 percent means we need every outdoor seat we can find,” he said.
Ely Merheb AIA, founder of Boulder-based Verso and charrette participant, found “a silver lining witnessing streets become more people- and business-friendly.” Other groups also recognize the benefit of expanded pedestrian areas, especially onto side streets and parking lanes. Said Rob Toftness of the Denver Bicycle Lobby, who would like to see Denver’s temporary street closures made permanent, “Anytime we use public right-of way for something other than storing a private vehicle, it’s a win for everyone.”
As architects and urban planners, we’re taught early in our educations that a lively pedestrian presence serves to activate downtown streets and boost business. And to keep the party going through winter, we need to keep the customers warm. Cue the Winter Outdoor Design Workshop.
The idea sprung from Colorado Restaurant Association CEO and President Sonia Riggs. She reached out to AIA Colorado, where she formerly served as CEO. “Both organizations started digging into what that might look like,” said Nikolaus Remus, AIA, Advocacy Engagement Director at AIA Colorado. “After our first call, it was obvious we should bring ACEC Colorado on board since viable solutions were likely going to have engineering considerations.” Ultimately, the partnership included AIA Colorado, the State of Colorado, the Colorado Restaurant Association, Colorado Restaurant Foundation, American Council of Engineering Companies of Colorado, and the Associated General Contractors of Colorado for a daylong charrette to develop design concepts for outdoor dining. “I think there was a real buzz, an energy during this event to try to create and design amazing environments for our local restaurateurs,” said Scott Prisco, AIA, Denver’s Chief Building Official. “The selection of the team members was very relevant, as well. There were so many creative thinkers with differing perspective to achieve solutions to problems.”
After learning about the outdoor dining charrette while listening to a news conference from Governor Polis, “I reached out to AIA immediately, because I’ve been looking for ways to bring my skills to the table to help people,” said AIA Colorado member Jenny Edwards, of Ricca Design Studios. She along with dozens of other architects, engineers, restaurateurs, contractors, and public health and safety officials teamed via a videoconference to develop easy-to-implement concepts to encourage outdoor winter dining. The inclusion of fire and building officials was intentional, both for up-front input and to publicize an effort to promote faster emergency permitting.
Rob Duran, regional manager for the Blue Agave Grill concepts, joined the charrette after seeing that up to 60 percent of their revenue this year was being generated outdoors. “As data continues to show, outdoor dining is safest, and the diner’s willingness to sit outside through the elements is proving to be an obstacle that restaurants want to tackle.”
After an opening session with introductory remarks by the Governor, the nine teams broke into groups to each address a specific condition, from urban parking lots to mountain resort shopfronts to rooftop patios. Each team presented their rough concepts in a closing session at day’s end, then continued to meet throughout the following week to further develop their ideas. Major themes emerged: open modules with flexible seating vs. fully enclosed four-tops; open airflow to disperse airborne contagions while blocking the wind and keeping heat inside; efficient, yet safe heating under roofing; utility upgrades; heated benches and accessories; attracting diners on both sunny bluebird days and snow-dusted evenings; affordable and scalable modules that would allow customization to site conditions; snow loads; Brrrreckenridge. “Working with a group of amazing volunteers, we determined we could help temper winter’s chill with designs which created an experience that would draw guests despite the colder temperatures.” said Jeff Metheny, AIA, Principal at Studio Atlantis.
The resulting concepts landed in two camps familiar to every backpacker and trekker: tents and huts. Each team addressed these often-contradictory needs in unique ways, giving restaurant owners options that they can adapt to their specific locations. “We wanted to design with some flexibility, having both semi-permanent fixtures like posts and non-permanent units like panels,” said Edwards. “We considered the idea that this could be either disassembled and moved or become a permanent fixture for the park moving forward.” Each team was tasked with a different siting, and her Crinkle Commons concept considered the case of a nearby/adjacent park.
Added Jeff Metheny, whose team addressed urban streets and looked to Colorado’s own history as inspiration, “Using shapes derived from Conestoga wagons, teepees and A-frame shanties, each restaurant can create an upsized experience and much needed seating, all while maintaining safe distances from other diners. We were intentional in designing these structures to be easily and quickly fabricated and installed with the ability to be moved if needed.”
No matter the structure of the shelter, heating remains the key concern. “The primary obstacles for providing heat include available electric service, as well as code issues surrounding propane and gas units,” said Prisco. In response, the teams offered flexible, layered solutions for heating. For example, where gas capacity is available, remote and ducted portable construction heaters could provide the efficiency of gas at a code-compliant distance. With sufficient electric service, radiant electric heaters could be used safely under a roof. Heated walls, benches, or flooring could be added via off-the-shelf products customized to the specific site and structure. And personal heating accessories, from phase-change materials to good old-fashioned blankets provide the final layer. “Our Comfort Wall proposal focuses on maximizing comfort from a seated position, by creating a modular, low-wall system that blocks wind and concentrates heat from ground or under table sources, closest to seated customers,” said Merheb.
One takeaway? Cultural shift will be as important as a built intervention. As no outdoor space will be as cozy as last winter’s crowded tavern, we’ll need to coach our customers to expect a Colorado adventure. Add more hot-toddy cocktails to the menu. Normalize rugged après-ski looks. And naturally, promote a made-for-Colorado slogan: Bring Your Own Blanket.
Practice + Design Conference 2020: Day 3
Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference Day 3 Recap: “Justice Equity, Diversity + Inclusion”
By Victor Gonzalez
History seems to be repeating itself, and we cannot wait any longer to make architecture influence equitable change around us. Day three of the AIA Colorado Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference highlighted the constant effort in creating a more equitable practice, showcased by the AIA Colorado Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee. The committee itself realized that we needed an action to make sure there are more entryways into the field of architecture and were determined to increase awareness and access to architectural education. This continuous effort was highlighted nationally through the presentations of, “Just Speak Up,” by Carole Wedge and the importance of women leading the future of the profession. Following her presentation was, Milton S. F. Curry, who voiced his vision for the future of the design field through, “Just Constructions” presentation showcasing the power in outsourcing architectural education to other underserved communities. Day three of the keynotes closed with a powerful keynote, Pascale Sablan, who explained the various mediums in which the current and future generations of BIPOC designers have empowered themselves in order to shape the future of “Just Architecture.”
Over the noon hour, students joined members of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee for a virtual “Ask an Architect” event, where architects with diverse backgrounds answered questions on architecture as a profession and higher education. The afternoon featured three lively breakout discussions with the panelists, encouraging us all to become more self-aware and step in in our firms to begin to create change. A panel discussion with all presenters left attendees with powerful takeaways, and the event culminated with a virtual livestream of the “Women in Architecture” projection, which takes place in downtown Denver all through October.
Once again, the Practice + Design Conference left us informed, connected, and above all, inspired. Check out some of the key takeaway moments below, and we’ll see you next year.
PANEL DISCUSSION CAPTURE
SESSION NOTES
Carole Wedge | Just Speak Up
- Find your confidence and your voice
- Things that I have experienced made me realize that it is valid and important to learn to build your own capacity and ability to speak up.
- Alumni from CU Boulder – BENVD
- Alumni from Boston Architectural College – BARCH
- Kemper Award 2020
- CEO in 2018
- FAIA in 2008
- President in 2004
- Principal in 2000
- College and University Leadership 2000
- Library Leadership 1994
- Joined the firm in 1986 working in the mail room as a student at the Boston Architectural College.
- Was inspired by her father’s word that was finding her own confidence in the world
- “Journey of your career and your life is one you have to design and make happen.”
- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world, Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- Having that voice to have that conversation in order to open up that opportunity.
- “Stay open to learning.”
- Learning to speak up for things and learning to advocate
- How do women lead, how do people of color lead?
- “The culture and the people define the type of firm you are.”
- Any woman in America has experienced a sexist comment.
- You have to build your muscle through empathy.
- “Our core values guide us.”
- They shape our vision, our culture, and reflect our beliefs as a company, and as individuals.
- Passion: celebrate your passion for design.
- Diversity: Embrace different perspectives, listen to every voice.
- Empathy: realize the impact of what we do.
- Integrity: Do the right thing, the right way, every time.
- Balance: Whether it’s in design or in work and life, we strike balance in everything we do.
- Building culture:
- Inspire: we encourage each other to do better, be better.
- Foster: we empower the next generation of visionaries with a passion for design.
- Respect: we recognize the ideas and work of our peers with the highest regard.
- Shepley Bulfinch is women-owned and led.
- A more diverse team will be a naturally more successful team.
- Makes better design and makes a better field.
- The diversity needs to be measured at different levels.
- What is the interculturalism of the firm?
- There needs to be a pipeline built on where your employees come from.
- There should be an extensive outreach to BIPOC communities.
- We have to go look at other places that we are not accessing, because how are they supposed to access us if we are not present?
- AIA Convention
- Carole Wedge was inspired to create a scholarship stipend to get students to travel to the convention center in Boston.
- Justice and equity lead to diversity, inclusion and belonging.
- Racial justice is climate change.
- Designers can have a powerful impact on the environment.
Milton Curry | Just Constructions
- USC School of Architecture
- Focus on the process of making and becoming
- Making and constructing culture through the creation of buildings and spaces.
- From Fresno, CA (1960s)
- Parents had migrated from Denver.
- Born during the Civil Rights Movement
- As a profession you are not a profession that has distinguished itself from the causes of the Civil Rights Movement and you are most distinguished from your thunderous silence and…” (Whitney Young)
- I was going to have to view my life through activism.
- Individuality activism is not accessible to all and it is not guaranteed to be a success.
- Just constructions is a way of attending to our basic needs and our access to the natural world.
- I know how justice looked like and how people that were ethical constructed their lives and careers.
- There is power and meaning of protesting through structural change.
- Although the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, it was a gateway to replace this form of racism and oppression entrenched in our infrastructure.
- The university must be an ally on how we enable to build these social bonds with a common sense of values.
- Accessibility to all is what creates opportunities for all.
- Educating ourselves of the nature of the harm that was inflicted on us.
- Why is it that the urgency of now gets shifted to another business cycle.
- “I want to engage a social, political conversation about the contemporary world that I live in or my relationship to it, and at the same time I want to abstract it.”
- If we want our profession to change, we have to make the construction of our profession to change.
- Modern values were bonded together by myth.
- Rethinking architecture theory in order to recount how our profession has segregated and discriminated against certain communities.
- The same modern works have inflicted harm on indigenous communities.
- USC school of architecture is emerging as a global platform for cultural heritage architecture and urbanism. Our school is returning to the experimental DNA.
- USC is second among the top 30 raw numbers for diversity related to BIPOC.
- We are diverse, but we are not diverse as we need to be.
- Architecture development programs targeted at the high school level
- Pipeline for attracting underrepresented students continues to be a challenge.
- This issue is complex and recognize that systemic racism is determinate of educational outcomes and opportunities.
- Affirmative action is one of the ways to attain equity.
- The average Black and Latino students have to fight other influences such as educational inequality, food deserts.
- 2015 started a high school program that has launched the A-LAB.
- ACSA Diversity Award.
- Paul Revere Williams Archives Program:
- Involved in the transformation of the urban fabric of LA.
- He was the first Black American appointed to the AIA Fellows.
- He was the first Black American to attain the AIA gold medal.
- The Getty Foundation and USC School of Architecture
- Will be a multiyear of symposium that will leverage USC School of Architecture.
- Allows scholars the opportunity to view these archives and preserves the legacy left behind by Revere Williams
Pascale Sablan | Justice Through Action
- I was asked to stand.
- It didn’t just happen to me.
- Google “Great Architects”
- First 40 start from contemporary to historical.
- How many are women?
- How many are Black?
- How many are minorities?
- Zaha Hadid holds it down in two categories.
- Why was this the result?
- Google stated that this was the case since there was, “not enough content for BIPOC to be showcased.”
- Say it Loud exhibition
- Feel our impact and show our work through the great caliber that we have had.
- “Say it Loud” has even been brought to the United Nations.
- “Say it Loud” exhibition became an international movement.
- Say it Loud has a traveling activation.
- AIA team to put their exhibition in a mobile app.
- Say it Loud Virginia
- Has been brought as a set of lectures and presentations.
- Say it Loud Pennsylvania
- Selected in a venue for communities to have access to
- How to engage our communities into the exhibit work
- Say it Loud Georgia
- Say it Loud United Kingdom
- February 2020.
- The issues and challenges we face here are also found across the world.
- Beyond the Built IG takeover
- There are multiple ways of attaining this design profession.
- Great Diverse Designers Library
- Showcases as a resource to elevate us to collaborate on projects.
- This is also a way of protecting our history.
- Being strategic with our relationships with publications in order to preserve our history.
- Great Diverse Designers Textbook
- International designers featured.
- Leveraging the content of which we inspire.
- Learn Out Loud – Kids Books.
- Lego Collaboration.
- It is a way of inspiring children to see their identity in the profession.
- Say it with the Media.
- Asking publications to take a position to increase a 5% every year on the amount of BIPOC content is held in their publications.
- Architecture as Advocate.
- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- “The lynching museum”
- Each medal has the name of the person that is lynched.
- This is not of the past, but of the present.
- As publications are going away from the term “slavery” we need to make sure that architecture is a way of a permeant statement.
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- It creates a place for celebration of Black history and culture.
- National Center for Civil and Human Rights
- Showcases the current rights we have today because of previous efforts.
- Max Bond Highway.
- African Burial Ground National Monument
- First project as an intern.
- 800 bodies found at this site of buried slavery.
- Haiti Campus
- ACE mentoring allowed us to create a campus for the underserved communities.
- Dismantling oppressive spaces.
- Project Pipeline
- 400 Forward
- Having more one on one mentorship with students.
- Design Justice
- Allows an online platform on how architecture can help resolve these issues.
- Hip-Hop Architecture Camp
- A gateway of music to architecture.
- See it Loud Camp
- Educating and empowering through design augmented reality.
- Embed information, young kids, augmented reality.
- Beyond the Built Environment
- See it loud camp
- Say it loud
- Learn out loud
- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Practice + Design Conference 2020: Day 2
Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference Day 2 Recap: “Just Sustainability”
By Victor Gonzalez
Architects have great power, and with great power comes the great responsibility of preserving our environment. The greatest challenges not only face our current profession, but also the design field as a whole. These were just a few of the takeaways from day two of the 2020 Practice + Design Conference focusing on environmental stewardship.
As architects, we are clear leaders in climate action and must direct our focus on sustainability. Staying resilient is what creates environmental stewardship, and with more focus on education and outreach in supporting our communities, we can achieve a more sustainable future. The conference today showcased innovative and vibrant designs that highlighted today’s theme, “Just Sustainability.” From the benchmarking requirements for museums by Joyce Lee to understanding the sustainable features of timber by Thomas Knittel and the maximized use of sunlight by Lake|Flato Architects, all entailed the influential factors of maintaining, “Just Sustainability.”
Afternoons were filled with member networking—of the digital variety. Each speaker held intimate breakout discussions and all reconvened for a thoughtful panel discussion. And from Denver to Durango, connections were made over happy hours with each of the sections with playful activities and reunions with old friends.
Below are key takeaways and along with a special illustration documented by a live illustrator Ellen O’Neill.
PANEL DISCUSSION CAPTURE
SESSION NOTES
Joyce Lee | Just Culture
- 1 of 300 LEED Fellows
- Faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania
- Serves on the COVID-19 taskforce
- Part of a firm that takes the place of sustainability and wellness
- Former national co-chair
- Works on a variety of museums
- Building benchmarking disclosures.
- 3 museum Categories: art, history, and science
- 3 size categories
- Museum building age
- Average site EUI by year
- U.S. Climate Zones are new to museum owners who own a collection throughout the country.
- Museum site EUI by climate zone
- How do museums perform today?
- Based on commercial building type and obviously there are consumption levels by climate zone.
- Benchmarking cities
- Example: Philadelphia
- Sustainable Development Goals:
- No poverty, zero hunger, etc.
- ASHRAE CH 24
- Collection: Public Space
- Collect: Nonpublic Space
- The culture of justice or just culture
- Practice is focused on sustainability and balance.
- Covid-19 Aerosol Transmission.
- Open windows help with delusion.
- Hospitals go through 12 air changes by hour.
- Not all schools receive this air quality change, which is why there is such a concern for students and teachers.
- Metropolis petition headline: Architects and designers are demanding healthier policy priorities.
- “Just Culture” a longer term in cultural institutions. Architecture can improve life at all economic levels.
- jlee@indigoJLD.com
Thomas Knittel | A Just Future Through Carbon-Balanced Buildings
- Looking at a recently completed hotel in British Columbia
- When we look at all the new construction that is projected to take place between now and 2050, we see the critical role.
- This conference is fundamentally about ethics.
- Architecture is a starting place of what it is available and what it can do.
- Materials matter for planetary health:
- Human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends.
- Understanding that what is good for us must be good for the world, we must make the effort to know what is the best for the world, and change for it.
- Rate of consumption per capita has significantly increased.
- The material consumption has caused the increase of landfills.
- The rural materials play a critical role in developing materials.
- Change happens, and architects have a big role to play in the super sizer of construction
- You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
- Seeking planetary help in what would nature do differently in comparison to our destructive behavior.
- Carbon fuel emissions are irreversible.
- You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
- It is more than carbon that we are responsible for and measuring.
- 30 Regenerative keys: How we process energy, how mass timber can help.
- Carbon-balanced buildings
- Our material determines these emissions.
- Cellular Flexibility
- Clinic floor, outreach and training centers provide healthy air as possible.
- This way it is key to work with our structural engineers.
- Changing to curtain walls is one small, but significant example on how to reduce carbon emissions.
- Orange County Sanitation District HQ
- Board room, gathering space, and educational gathering space, acoustic clouds, a central core that includes gathering for common areas
- Structural Carbon Balance Study – Mass Timber Option
- Mass Timber alternatives complement the California building code
- Timber should be recertified and reserved.
- Must advocate for timber sourcing and forest tree practices.
- There is a strong link between forest and people.
- Ecosystem services must be preserved.
- We must ensure that mass timber drives forestry.
- Mass timber buildings could be four stories and 84 feet tall.
- The story for the building is the tree itself.
- Carbon reduction at the urban scale
- Park City Initiative in China
- The west mountains provide natural resources to the people.
- Park City Initiative in China
- The urban form that is proposed is to give a sense of place.
- Buildings as carbon banks
- Provide a new carbon cycle
David Lake and Heather Holdridge | Vitality and Livability of Communities
- Urban design can strengthen the city.
- Just nature, place, craft, restraint
- Four ideals that drive work, that shows the best of “us”
- Respond to the context.
- Set sustainability goals for projects and then tracking.
- Social justice, equity, justice, and inclusion is definitely an aspect of becoming sustainability.
- “Just” label
- Being more clear about our plan and term on social justice and inclusion.
- Making sure that our building is day lit.
- “Library of the future”
- Every floor level had its own purpose and its connection to the other areas.
- Have it connected by different age groups.
- Stone civic building to demonstrate knowledge.
- Animate the streetscape.
- Add an event space.
- Using the library to show a connection to nature.
- Perimeter is lit by the daylight.
- Goal: is oriented around the daylight capture. There was more dense shading provided, so there was no visual discomfort.
- Maximizing daylight, reducing heat gain.
- Testing the ideas through computer simulations.
- How can we connect to the downtown district?
- Confluence Park
- Make sure that sustainability is present.
- Storying water was expressed.
- University of Denver – Wellness Center
- Constructed out of mass timber.
- Reduce the carbon impact emissions
HAPPY HOUR NETWORKING
NEGRONI WORKSHOP WITH THE DENVER SECTION
SKETCH COMPETITION WITH THE SOUTH SECTION
NOTECARD DESIGN COMPETITION WITH THE NORTH SECTION
Practice + Design Conference 2020: Day 1
Just Architecture 2020 Practice + Design Conference
Day 1 Recap: “Just Design”
By Victor Gonzalez
The 2020 AIA Colorado Practice + Design Conference debuted Wednesday, October 14, and focused on the theme of “Just Design.” Five keynote speakers in the morning sessions showcased the scale of architecture that is currently taking place from the capital of Peru to the heart of Chicago’s south side to the districts of Los Angeles.
The designs of Lima, Peru, from Sandra Barclay, showcased “Just Intimacy” in relation to how design can downscale the vastness of our environment all by taking inspiration from local culture. The eight designs highlighted by Neil Denari incorporated “Just Urbanism,” and how the busy urban grid of Los Angeles can help inform design by designing with the urban grid rather than against it. “Just Design,” wrapped with the presentations of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, highlighting the importance of creating a vibrant public space through storytelling, story making and how it can all adjust to the world. Day one was filled with many amazing stories and interpretations of design and how the current members of AIA Colorado continue to help shape the world around us.
Following morning keynote presentations, afternoons were filled with member engagement, featuring breakouts with each speaker, then a panel discussion with all, which resulted in high-level discussions on design alongside the humility of casual conversing with home as the backdrop for these world-renowned designers. Below are key takeaways and themes that emerged from the day’s events, which were documented by a live illustrator Ellen O’Neill (above).
PANEL DISCUSSION CAPTURE
SESSION NOTES
Sandra Barclay | Just Intimacy
- Working in Peru has unique challenges, such as climate change and the relationship between shelter and culture.
- She discussed intimacy within a further landscape.
Ingredients of architecture
- Culture, Territory, Climate, Place, Program, Technology
- All of these ingredients create the strategy for architecture.
For the territory climate: Lima, Peru
- This geographical climate creates the current environmental conditions.
- Peruvian climate is a mild climate, with lots of precipitation, storms, and winds.
- All of these conditions demand shelter.
Pre-Columbian legacy and landscape
- Downscaling obstruction
Puruchuco, Lima
- Forms a micro-form of intimacy
Casa Vedoble
- Defines an enclosure
- Provides a frame to the ocean view
- Houses that capture the sunlight
- Provides interior spaces with vastness
- Contained artificial beach with pools, all while still providing privacy intimacy
Paracas Museum
- Modifies landscape
- Thinking of an archeological museum
- Providing a correct space that inhibits the desert
- Working with the desert landscape
- Fifth facade provides protection from the strong wind and from the sun.
- The production methods provided rethinking on how we design.
- The Paracas Museum provides almost a huge human vase.
- Its porch acts as a threshold throughout the interior and exterior of the museum.
- The museum provides natural ventilation to prevent the use of air conditioning.
The Hispanic Legacy and the City
- Influences the relationship between the residents’ dwellings and the city
- Creates life and intimacy where it can all take place at once.
- Design a house in an intimate, but contemporary way.
- Uses systems of bedrooms that can help create a sense of intimacy that is lifted above the street.
- Space unfolds as interior and exterior through blurring the vaulted boundaries of house, garden, and pool.
- There is a relationship between intimacy and closeness.
- Creates community by connecting the interior spaces
Limana Restaurante
- Demonstrate Lima’s greatness
- The enclosure helps create a quiet place from the rest of the urban environment.
- Inside the closure, the volume is organized to capture the sunlight and create a module that receives natural light and ventilation.
- Creates a constant space of fluidity.
- The space unfolds into a total exterior space.
- The thresholds creates an enclosure of transition.
The Lessons from the Masters UDEP Academic Facilities
- Uses cross-ventilation to cool the space.
- Accept the simplicity and modesty of the space.
- The building condenses the collective human experience.
- Drawing foothills of the tropical soft forest.
- “We start by extending the shade of the forest and the space of the building.”
- The program grows from the rooftop to the ground.
- The spaces are left.
- The perimeter of the space acts as a protection.
- South facade is focused on receiving the natural bridge.
- The organization from east to west is in relation to the calendar of the sun.
- Sun clocks meet.
Neil Denari | Just Urbanism
- 8 Los Angeles projects
- Modulated grids for L.A.
- The grid respects ideas and logic of how Los Angeles is connected through its urbanism
- The democratic idea of a city and country in creating neutrality and equality through how the country was to continue growing (Thomas Holme idea).
Kyoto City Grid
- Is the importance of Chinese planning on how the palaces were off center and thinking about other strategies on how infrastructure to articulate geometry etc.
- There is a challenge between working with and on the grid for architectural works.
“The Continuous Monument”
- Near Superstudio created a grid that was empty.
Aldo Rossi
- Gallaratese, 1972
- Socialist idea of what it means to be an individual in a collective
- Being an individual during this time was to be in an open space, and only haven individual space to create humanity.
- Argues that architecture cannot predict well.
- 8 projects showcased are all commercial projects.
- All projects are informed through the zoning platform.
- Goal is to give as much life as possible to a project, but to respect the zoning regulations.
Silver Lake 1
- Politics evoked in the grid at all particular levels.
- It is a two-story commercial building including:
-Restaurant on the ground floor.
-It takes up the place on the city.
-It is filling the zoning envelope.
-The site is a parallelogram.
-Trying to resolve the vertical and horizontal through radius.
Half Court Housing
- 100 feet deep with a parking lot.
- 3-story, 8-unit housing project.
- Cushioning of the exterior to the internal organization
- Half court housing because it is filled half of courtyard space
- Courtyard Hotel
- Includes a portal with a courtyard that leaves space on the front with a restaurant in the front.
- The portal is what leads to the courtyard and the rooms ring around that look into the courtyard and there is a formal stair that connects the spaces to the courtyard.
Beveled Office Building
- 45 feet in height.
- The corner of the building is notched.
- The invisible infrastructure interacting and complementing the grid.
- There are different methods applied to the exterior of the building to make it unique to how it interacts with the grid.
- 221 Western Housing
- Uses a hybrid between linear building and butterfly cantilevers that dramatizes the gridded nature of the building.
9000 Wilshire Office Building
- Takes up its place in Beverly Hills tries to stand out in the way that it liberates the two floors and adds a garden in between.
- There is tension on how the building takes up a place on the site while also giving it a sense of monumentality.
- It is a modest project that adds urban infrastructure with a nice skin.
Santa Monica wellness Center
- The building fills in the parking and the 45-height limit.
- The volume is being sliced off to provide relief to the volume and how it fits on the grid.
- It incorporates public space.
La Brea Hotel
- It is a gateway to West Hollywood.
- Putting a large building within the zoning envelope
- It is located on a tight site, with a portal and large restaurant and kitchen.
- The urbanity of the projects is what facilitates the project with the rooms pushing the parking back.
- L-shaped building with rooms of privacy and views
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien | ADJUST
- How to address huge issues on how the issues seem overpowering on how to seriously address what we need to understand is that we work within our own best way.
- “We work to serve others.”
- We need to rethink the problem on our terms and how to best address the projects
The Barnes Foundation
- Inspired to empower through education, Barnes kept this collection of art and African artifacts throughout a house.
- Believed that all people could be taught and that every person deserves a chance with art.
- The project is located on the site.
- Barnes collection moved from the residency to the downtown city fabric of Philly
- There was a larger idea between the Barnes collection which was that his art was for all people.
- Gallery in a garden.
- Garden in gallery.
- Bringing light and life into the gallery.
- Oftentimes the work would be enclosed in artificial light.
- Wanted to include light and life into the collection.
- Keeping the neoclassical plan but adding an adjustment.
- The sense of a garden was still brought in.
- The entrance portrays the idea of walking through the building.
- The building focuses on using light and courtyard space from the interior of the building to the outside.
- The galleries are behind the public space that is open to other users.
- Included is a changing exhibits gallery and the existing collection.
Obama Presidential Center
- Libraries were noble buildings of books.
- Obama focused his legacy on ennoble and enable.
- Storytelling and story making.
- How do we change the present and future to make it better?
- Establishing a landmark
- Creating a campus, which makes other aspects to the building.
- Site: south side of Chicago
- There is a relationship between Obama’s homeland set throughout a park from Olmestead’s park.
- The plan includes: forum, museum, plaza, library, PAAC.
- Wanting to change the topography of the park.
- Adjusting the flat use of the landscape.
- The center focuses on political discussion and creating access to the library and the support systems for the center.
- Young people from around the world will come to learn new skills to do a variety of activities.
- This is home to many programs such as the Obama Foundation Scholars.
- The tower is included to provide a space to the public that can house events and public space in general.
- The use of sunscreen will protect the room at the top.
- The screen will be words from his important speeches.