Wonderful article on Thom Mayne's new Federal Building that just opened here in San Francisco. It touches on some of the larger issues, namely, how the LEED Green Building Rating System often does not apply to such a large, unusual and design driven building. Although the building original hoped for a rating of LEED Platinum, Mayne no doubts they will even obtain base certification.
I do not accept Mayne's cry of hardship.
While a Platinum level is very ambitious, it would seen any new, urban, dense building in California would be able to easily get base Certified. Our state requirements alone would bring you 19 of the 23 points needed.
A lovely excerpt: "...if architecture, unlike painting or sculpture, is at heart an exercise in balancing purely artistic goals with more prosaic ones — budgets, gravity and so on — then green design shouldn't require extraordinary skills or lamentable compromise."
Q: If I want to get involved in Green Building, where is a good place to start? What business opportunities are there? Where can I do the most good?
A: I cannot tell you how many versions of this question I receive. The popularity of the question indicates a growing desire by people to get involved in something larger than themselves. It is also a sign of real changes being made...
Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill to urge Congress to act now to combat Global Warming. He found a heated debate from several dubious Republicans.
Al Gore, at the House hearing: "I promise you, a day will come when our children and grandchildren will ask: What in God's name were they doing? Didn't they see the evidence?"
Although this should not be a partisan issue, several seem set on making it one. This politicizing of the issue might be why some feel Gore might be the wrong spokesman for Global Warming.
As Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said at the hearing: "You're not just off a little. You're totally wrong."
Gore's Response: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.'"
Barton added that Gore's proposed freeze on carbon emissions would mean "no new industry, no new people and no new cars."
Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) was also a skeptic, debating Gore on the soundness of Global Warming. He cited some dubious reports while ignoring the Peer Reviewed Scientific Report that announced they have "removed the question mark on whether Global Warming is man-made."
Inhofe was the one who famously called global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
Many Republicans did turn their opinion. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. surprised fellow lawmakers by agreeing with Gore's assessment that climate change is a real threat.
It is hard to not politicize Global Warming when so many politicians are being paid to ensure nothing will ever change.
This is a video of my interview for Let's Green This City. I have been blogging for their Green Building section for several months now. I have no idea how many visitors it attracts, but the advertisements seem to be everywhere around San Francisco.
By the way, that IS our office and our staff. Note there are NO LIGHTS on, all of that is natural daylighting.
I recently wrote a piece for Next American City entitled Last Exit: Reaching Inevitability. It is a short essay, summarizing my thinking on Green Building as a movement. While my thinking has evolved, it is funny how I am essentially saying the same things I wrote twenty years ago in my sketchbooks and journals. Maybe I am just able to explain things better now.
If you have ever seen any of my lectures, the article will be familiar to you as it covers an abridged version of the first 10 slides of my typical talks. Take a look and tell me what you think.
CNN has a great article on the story of the design of Apple's award winning retail stores. It turns out they designed the store the way they designed their product: they created prototypes. An excerpt: "One of the best pieces of advice Mickey ever gave us was to go rent a warehouse and build a prototype of a store, and not, you know, just design it, go build 20 of them, then discover it didn't work," says Jobs. In other words, design it as you would a product. Apple Store Version 0.0 took shape in a warehouse near the Apple campus. "Ron and I had a store all designed," says Jobs, when they were stopped by an insight: The computer was evolving from a simple productivity tool to a "hub" for video, photography, music, information, and so forth. The sale, then, was less about the machine than what you could do with it. But looking at their store, they winced. The hardware was laid out by product category - in other words, by how the company was organized internally, not by how a customer might actually want to buy things. "We were like, 'Oh, God, we're screwed!'" says Jobs.
But they weren't screwed; they were in a mockup. "So we redesigned it," he says. "And it cost us, I don't know, six, nine months. But it was the right decision by a million miles." When the first store finally opened, in Tysons Corner, Va., only a quarter of it was about product. The rest was arranged around interests: along the right wall, photos, videos, kids; on the left, problems. A third area - the Genius Bar in the back - was Johnson's brainstorm.
To me it shows how when you venture outside of your area of expertise, you forget the rules. Jobs went outside of computers and temporarily forgot the rules of design: design for the end-user first. It is a fascinating read.
Here is a great article on green roofs, The benefits of green roofs are extensive. From controlling storm water, to cleaning the air, to producing oxygen, green roofs have numerous ecological benefits. Plus, they are much more attractive than a gravel roof, and insulate the building at the same time.
According to the National Priorities Project, the COST OF IRAQ WAR is: $11 million per hour, $275 million per day, TOTAL: $406,592,561,811 and counting
According to The Census Bureau there are 111,162,000 households in the US.
If the average energy efficiency upgrade for a home is $10,000, then we could insulate EVERY HOME in the US in just 10 hours...
...with just the money we spend each day on the war.
We import 13.15 million barrels of oil per day. By doing these energy efficiency upgrades, we could save 15% of that, or some 2 million barrels a day.
That is more oil than we import from Saudi Arabia (about 1.5 million barrels/day).
The American Institute of Architects (the AIA) is a membership organization for architects. It has been around for 175 years and serves as a club for architects.
I have never bothered to join the AIA. After all, other than a discount on books, I do not see much benefit from joining. None of my friends who are members can explain to me why they pay $700+ a year to join. Plus, the AIA always seemed to be more focused on Architects and not on Architecture.
Case in point: At the AIA Convention last year in Los Angeles, the conference organizers removed all reference to the US Green Building Council and to LEED in the bios of the speakers. Censoring LEED did not make much sense. When I pressed for a reason why, I was told, "The AIA cannot be seen endorsing a specific rating system." Really? LEED seems to be alone in the marketplace. What other rating systems were they concerned about?
Well, the AIA just launched a new site called, How Design Works. Designed to help consumers choose an architect (but only AIA member architects), the site is well done. It includes this case study of a sustainable house. It is a great discussion on the process of building a green house. I think my previous soured experiences with the AIA might have tainted this very educational site.
I am proud to be one of the founding council member companies for the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3). This morning was the kick off meeting at City Hall. I encourage you to get your company or business to JOIN BC3.
I love that some major companies here in the Bay Area are doing more than simply talking about Climate Change, we are actually doing something about it.
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United Nations Global Compact, the City of San Francisco, the Bay Area Council and a wide array of Bay Area businesses have joined together in a unique partnership designed to provide meaningful actions that businesses around the world can take to combat global warming.
The program, called Business Council on Climate Change (BC3), will give Bay Area businesses a forum to share best practices to reduce greenhouse gasses in both large and small businesses. But more importantly, BC3 will create a model for climate action in the commercial and public sectors that the United Nations Global Compact will seek to place in companies and cities worldwide. BC3 launched officially on Thursday, March 1 with a symposium at San Francisco’s City Hall attended by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, top regional business leaders, and representatives of the United Nations.
BC3 member companies pledge to address greenhouse emissions throughout their operations and corporate cultures, and agree to follow the BC3’s five Principles for Climate Leadership: Internal Implementation, Community Leadership, Advocacy and Dialogue, Collective Action, Transparency and Disclosure.
BC3 founding members comprise a diverse range of companies, including: 3 Phases Energy; AccessFlow; ARUP; CH2M Hill; Clif Bar; EcoAdvantage Network; Food from the Park; Gap Inc.; Gensler; Google; Green Impact; Green Squared Consulting; Hallisey & Johnson; HOK; Natural Logic; New Resource Bank; Organic Architect; PG&E Ponderosa Homes; Shaklee; SMWM Architecture; Solutions; Swinerton; Waldeck’s; Webcor; Wendel, Rosen, Black and Dean; and William McDonough + Partners.
