Inclusive Urban Design Empathy with Nature: How to Leverage Play in Early Learning
The December issue delves into the future of architecture and design, exploring how our built environment can contribute to a more connected, inspiring, and sustainable world. Through innovative design strategies, sustainable practices, and cutting-edge technologies, the articles within these pages highlight the potential to address the challenges of the 21st century and create a better future for all.*
Designing Diversity: The Community Hub of a Public Library
Healing Spaces Architectural Design Strategies To Bolster Psychological Well-being
Designing for Humanity: How Re: Design Architects Transforms Historic Spaces with Accessibility and Wellness at the Core
* The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of AIA New York State. Any content provided by our authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.
President’s Message
A Year of Growth, Resilience, and Hope
Dear Colleagues,
As we approach the end of 2024, I find myself filled with gratitude for the incredible journey we’ve shared as a community of architects and designers. This year has been a testament to our resilience, our creativity, and our unwavering commitment to shaping a better future.
We’ve navigated challenges, celebrated successes, and witnessed the transformative power of design. The December issue of Architecture New York State offers a glimpse into the exciting possibilities that lie ahead. From innovative design strategies to sustainable and inclusive practices, we are poised to address the pressing issues of our time.
The 2024 Tri-State Fusion Conference was a highlight of the year, bringing together creative minds from across the region. It was a space for inspiration, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas. We explored cutting-edge concepts, discussed emerging trends, and celebrated the rich diversity of our profession.
Throughout my tenure as President of AIA New York State, I’ve been honored to work alongside such diverse, dedicated and passionate individuals. Together, we’ve made significant strides in:
Advocacy: Championing policies that promote the value of architecture and the role of architects in shaping our communities.
Education and Professional Development: Providing opportunities for lifelong learning and professional growth.
Community Engagement: Fostering connections with diverse communities and addressing societal challenges through design.
As we look ahead to the future, I am filled with hope. Let us continue to inspire and be inspired, to innovate and collaborate, and to strive for excellence. Together, we can create a world that is beautiful, sustainable, and just.
Thank you for your unwavering support and dedication.
Sincerely,
President, AIA New York State
AIA New York State: Stronger Together
Dear AIANYS Members,
As we reflect on the achievements of 2024, I am filled with immense pride and gratitude for the collective efforts of our dedicated members. This year has been a testament to our organization’s commitment to fostering innovation, advancing the profession, and serving our communities.
We launched our new AIANYS website, a dynamic platform designed to connect and inspire our members. The 2024-2025 Schools of Architecture Publication showcased the exceptional talent and creativity of our future generation of architects. Our Capitol Columns Newsletter kept you informed on critical industry issues and legislative updates. Our Walkable, Sustainable, Connecting Communities publication explored innovative strategies for creating vibrant, resilient communities.
The highlight of the year was undoubtedly our (Re)Connecting Communities Conference. This event brought together architects, planners, and community leaders to discuss groundbreaking ideas and celebrate the outstanding work of our members. The AIANYS Excelsior & Professional Service Awards and the AGC NYS Jeffrey J. Zogg Build NY and Distinguished Service Awards honored the exceptional achievements of our industry’s finest. Our Tri-State Fusion Conference was another resounding success, offering a wealth of knowledge and networking opportunities.
Looking ahead to 2025, our realigned governance structure will empower our members to shape the future of our organization. We will continue to invest in our members’ professional development through scholarships, mentorship programs, and cutting-edge educational opportunities.
As we move forward, let us embrace the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Together, we can build a stronger, more sustainable, and equitable future for New York State.
Thank you for your continued support and dedication.
Sincerely,
Georgi Ann Bailey, CAE, Hon. AIA Executive Vice President, AIA New York State
Vice President’s Message
01 DESIGNING FOR ALL:
NYC’s Blueprint for Inclusive Urban Design
by Erick Gregory, Chief Urban Designer and Director, Urban Design Office, NYC Planning
The process of city making and urban design is iterative, and quality is often an outcome of various inputs from an array of stakeholders.
The recently opened AIANY “Built by New York” Exhibit showcases projects from the last 20 years that represent the quality work of design firms operating in New York and abroad. The exhibit included a number of projects—varying in scale—that the NYC Department of City Planning had a hand in shaping. The Exhibit, that marks the conclusion of the 20th anniversary of the Center for Architecture, together with the recent release of The Principles of Good Urban Design Guidebook, highlight the important roles of planning and architecture and of the various tools that promote good design across projects serving a diverse range of populations.
From a modest apartment building to a larger neighborhood plan, urban design ensures that projects are integrated with their surroundings and helps the city function better for
its people and their daily experiences. This includes use of street space, how parks and open space are programed, how storefronts and ground floors of buildings interact with the sidewalk, and how architecture shapes a neighborhood’s character.
At the same time, urban design is practiced within dynamic contexts. Each project presents unique challenges in terms of how space is planned, negotiated and designed for, and a range of opinions on the best approaches to take. As such, successful design requires bringing often-conflicting voices into dialogue and consensus. But how do we go about accomplishing this? How can we as design professionals use our expertise in built and natural environments, our strengths in visual communication, and our skills in collaboration to bring a city’s residents into the conversation and build coalitions advocating for quality design?
The Principles of Good Urban Design Guidebook, released by the NYC Department of City Planning earlier this year, addresses this question with clear and accessible design principles that give New Yorkers a shared foundation for understanding and advocating for positive urban design changes across the city.
Established in partnership with members of our diverse communities, professionals in the city’s design and development fields, and our colleagues across other city agencies, the guidebook lays out four key principles:
• Enhance People’s Daily Lives
• Care for a Neighborhood’s History, Culture, and Identity
• Embrace the City’s Dynamism
• Confront Society’s Greatest Challenges
First established in 2017, these four principles were updated and transformed into an illustrated guidebook through an extensive public engagement process that reflects the input of a wide variety of stakeholders, including 1,500 New Yorkers who submitted feedback online. In addition to explaining how these princi-
The guidebook describes how urban design relates to our daily experiences and establishes why good urban design is fundamental to improving the quality and functionality of spaces across NYC.
ples help achieve better design outcomes at a variety of scales and project types, the guidebook shows how they work in practice with real-world examples of high-quality design. Furthermore, the guidebook explains how New Yorkers can participate in planning processes to better advocate for their communities.
By building consensus around these core design principles and encouraging public participation in planning processes, the guidebook aims to drive positive change, helping to create a more vibrant public realm that is accessible and safe, celebrate existing community spaces and networks, encourage building designs that complement their context, and plan for more resilient, healthy neighborhoods.
People from all walks of life can make use of these principles, whether they’re planners,
residents, developers or civic leaders. For example, architects can use these principles to substantiate designs to clients, while city agencies can share them with development teams to guide projects through a public review process. Residents can use the principles and resources to participate in public planning forums and ask productive questions about proposed projects. Capital and public entities can apply the principles in RFP evaluations, aligning project submissions with site-specific goals.
Throughout the years working with communities across NYC, we have witnessed the struggle that New Yorkers often have with reaching consensus on how best to shape the built environment. The principles stress that we should always begin from the same starting point of people so that we can collectively make a well-designed city for everyone. By emphasizing the importance of urban design in enhancing the public realm, these principles will influence development projects across a city, improving neighborhoods while maintaining the city’s unique look and feel. Cities across our state and country continue to face evolving challenges, from climate risk to housing affordability. As they collaboratively work to address them through urban design, we believe having a shared set of design principles can be a powerful tool to bridge between larger policy objectives and the daily experiences of people from all ages, race, gender and background, and foster productive dialogue.
For over 20 years, the urban design team at NYC Planning has built upon a legacy established in the 1960s to integrate good design into city policy and planning processes. Working on a projectby-project basis, the team helps ensure that good design is prioritized and that projects enhance the public good from the perspective of safety, accessibility, programming, sustainability, and architectural form.
Erick Gregory is the Chief Urban Designer and Director of the Urban Design Office at NYC Planning where he leads this team of dedicated civil servants.
01_Enhance comfortable Good design enjoyable of pride
03_Embrace dynamic, welcoming rhythm
01_Enhance People’s Daily Lives | Everyone should feel safe and comfortable moving around NYC and enjoying its many open spaces. design supports people by facilitating a more inclusive and enjoyable experience of every- day life in the city, fostering a sense and belonging.
03_Embrace the City’s Dynamism | New York City is an unparalleled, dynamic, and vibrant world capital. Good urban design creates a welcoming environment that embraces the entrepreneurial spirit and that defines NYC.
02_Care For a Neighborhood’s History, Culture, and Identity | People make our neighborhoods; the buildings, parks, and streets are their backdrop. Good design respects the histories, identities, and cultures that have shaped and continue to shape the city’s many diverse neighborhoods.
04_Confront Society’s Greatest Challenges | New York City must secure its future against many challenges, from the climate crisis to social inequity. We must make design choices that help us build a safer, stronger, fairer, more resilient city for generations to come.
marvin.com/architectural-resources
Empathy with Nature: How to Leverage Play in Early Learning
by Aybars Aşçı, AIA
Play is immersed in all stages of our lives. We play with ideas, we play with things, we play with people. We can actively participate in play, or we can watch other people play. It takes multiple forms; it can be spontaneous or structured. There are pickup games, sporting events, performing arts, role plays, imaginative plays, children’s plays, etc. In our adult lives, play is often associated with pastime recreational activities that are not “work”— we either work or we “play.” During early stages of our lives, on the other hand, it is not that binary. It is more visceral, and in fact, play is how we discover the world. German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller defines play as a crucial human drive, and he argues that it is only through play that we become human beings in the fullest sense of the word.
From a human development perspective, there is an authenticity to play. It caters to our curiosity, and the best forms of it can be
Top Left: Avenues Shenzhen Campus Roof Terrace before transforming into playgrounds.
Photo Credit: Aybars Aşçı.
Top Right and Bottom: Avenues Shenzhen Campus Roof Playground after transformation (left and center) and Roof Tensile Canopy(right).
Photo Credits: Si Hu and Zhang Chao Architectural Photography.
observed in young children, where life is not yet tethered by any preconceived notions, but a pure landscape of discovery. As child development psychologist Lev Vygotsy points out, for young children, play is a serious game, and when children play, the differentiation between imagination and reality does not exist. Young children have not yet acquired enough data points to constitute what adults assume to be real situations. Children discover the world through play, by using their imagination, like an explorer in a foreign land.
In the context of structured play, the discussion on play and architecture, such as sports arenas, is a stale topic, because the design of the physical environment is strictly dictated by the rules of the game just like the game itself. However, playground design can be playful in the sense that the play that takes place here is not structured by predetermined rules and,
therefore, creating spaces that encourage imaginative play is possible, and even desired. In the context of human development, a successful architecture of play creates an environment where games are invented, characters imagined, and new narratives emerge.
There is tremendous potential for creating environments that will foster empathy in imaginative play. For instance, young children can create new narratives and build new perspectives as they play. Moreover, particularly for early learning, there is a unique opportunity to create empathy with nature through play. As Schiller described, play gives us the power to shift perspectives. This shift in perspective can move us away from a human-centric perspective toward a more ecocentric perspective. Through play we can create empathy with nature, in purposefully designed learning environments for young children.
In the Avenues Shenzhen School Campus, we established a dialogue with urban nature. In this adaptive reuse project, located in a dense urban context, we completely renovated and repurposed the existing buildings. One of the central design strategies of the project was to create outdoor learning environments by activating the rooftops into playgrounds. The rooftops are transformed into a biophilic environment that utilizes natural materials and landscaping, covered with a series of light breathable tensile fabric roofs for a comfortable environment for the children. The uplifting lightness of the roofs creates a memorable playspace for an age group that learns through movement.
The Tanglang Mountains surround the Avenues Shenzhen campus, and the largest of the three tensile canopies is carefully organized to frame the long vistas toward the mountains, while creating a shaded and comfortable outdoor learning environment for the students. The catenary curves of the canopy cable structure create a roof profile that counterpoints the silhouette of the mountains. There is an interplay between the lightness of the canopy and the permanence of the mountains. This type of dialogue between the human-made
“Through play we can create empathy nature, in purposefully designed environments for young children.”
and the natural environment within the urban context is an important part of the design lexicon that we need to develop, especially in spaces for self-initiated play, to encourage the children to develop a language of connections with nature.
At the ground level, the playground for the campus’s Early Learning Center is lined by a row of native banyan trees. Their intricate root and branch structure define the edge of the campus. The engagement with this intricate organism allows for blending the boundaries of the playground and creates opportunities for children to engage with the trees. As a design strategy, the blending of the school playground with the banyan trees play a significant role in situating the school in its unique environment.
We connected the seven former industrial buildings of the campus with a series of bridges. These interconnecting bridges utilize a design strategy analogous to the intricate upside-down spatial growth of the banyan trees. As the bridges negotiate different horizontal levels of the campus, the columns and the beams merge into one another, forming a complex and ambiguous organism. Especially in the playground of the Early Learning Center,
where the bridge comes down to meet the ground, the elements of the structure suggest a sense of upside-down growth like the banyan tree, as the spaces within the bridge appear to be suspended. This labyrinthine spatial structure is occupiable at multiple levels, which in effect creates a “space of negotiations” between the horizontal and the vertical axes, or between the context and the school. The key functional element of this space of negotiations is a new typology: the vertical playground.
The vertical playgrounds create an environment for discovery that juxtaposes the playscapes with the banyan trees, allowing children to see this fascinating organism through different spatial frames of reference. “Play” is the critical activator of this spatial construct because it is through play that we can blur the lines between nature and architecture both physically and imaginatively. As children climb up and down the ladders or move down the slides, they see different parts of the trees in their perspectival space. When they walk at the bridge level, they pass through the canopy of the trees, observing the strangling branches growing toward the ground. The architecture of the vertical playgrounds does not try to mimic nature formally. In fact, the choice of materiality and color is designed to differentiate the structure from the
empathy with designed learning children.”
trees. However, the structure becomes an armature to encourage the children to experience the nature. Its purposefully choreographed elements are designed to integrate the banyan tree into the children’s innate perceptual space, so that their self-initiated play in these intricate, labyrinthine spaces can begin to construct a new perspective that builds connections with nature.
Footnotes
1 Friedrich Schiller, Essays: Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (The Continuum Publishing, 1993).
2 Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes (Harvard University Press, 1978), 104.
Architect and educator Aybars Aşçı is an advocate of research-driven design, with a focus on designing learning environments. His book “Designing for Empathy: The Architecture of Connections in Learning Environments” is published in September 2024 by AR&D. His projects range from planning large-scale campuses to designing play structures. As a practicing architect he has over 25 years of experience, working in New York and London, on projects located in North America, South America, Middle East, and Asia. As an educator, he has taught seminars and design studios at the City College of New York, Cornell University, Pratt Institute, and Northeastern University. As an inventor, he holds a U.S. patent for a high performance enclosure system (Patent #9003727; approved 4-14-2015). Aşçı is the President and Founder of Efficiency Lab for Architecture, a design practice based in New York. He holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University.
Avenues Shenzhen, Pedestrian Bridge & Vertical Playgrounds. Photo Credit: Si Hu
by Peter Wehner, AIA, Vice President, Director of Architecture, Passero Associates
The Community Hub of a Public Library 03
Designing Diversity
Since the early- to mid-1700s and by the direction of an American icon, Benjamin Franklin, public libraries have served communities as a central hub for human engagement and information. From the early roots of accessing literature to today’s digital age of global technology, these municipal buildings remain as a sense of place for anchoring information, dispensing education, and engaging in personal, business, and social activities.
Passero Associates has a team of experts who integrate these aspects of life into functional spaces, for a living. Based in Rochester, New York, this consultant firm of architects, engineers, and planners have delivered successful library projects to multiple communities throughout New York State. Each project begins with the human spirit in mind, essentially people’s curiosity, and is followed by a design that focuses on their diversity—from age and culture to access and disability.
“Libraries are ever evolving spaces as both technology and community needs change,” said project architect Emily Connors. “Libraries have evolved from a quiet place to borrow a book, to vibrant and active community hubs of learning. They are dynamic spaces, and we are always trying to design with future flexibility in mind,” she added. With a master’s degree in historic preservation, Connors is an expert in a variety of municipal, institutional, and residential projects, leading them through feasibility studies and concept design, to referendum and into construction. She often leads funding efforts for these types of projects, too.
Among them and most recently completed in July 2024 is the Greece Public Library in Greece, New York. Over a period of five years, this multi-phased project started with an exterior entry improvement to the nondescript front
doors. To help redirect visitors, Passero’s architects designed a new four-column, covered portico that emerged above the building’s roofline to immediately draw patrons from the parking lot into the main entrance. The next two phases addressed major upgrades to the original, 20-year-old building.
The Children’s Library, named the “Story Garden,” had outgrown its space and was in desperate need of a larger footprint. Passero staff designed a 7,000-square-foot expansion that enlarged the east end of the building, which featured a large rotunda with tall bay windows, more than tripling the previous Children’s Library size to 10,000 square feet. That additional space gave the architects and interior designers plenty of options to offer a fun, colorful, and vibrant redesign of the existing Story Garden. Using bright colors and elements of mother nature, a playful design emerged for young kids. The hanging, circular LED lights from a sky-blue ceiling earned national recognition and an award from Illuminating Engineering Society in 2023. Focused on youth, the entire space centered around early literacy with a multi-purpose story and craft room, outdoor reading patio, hands-on activity spaces, lower book shelving, and a family-friendly restroom.
Lastly, the main library’s interior renovation phase ensued, which was influenced by the design popularity and welcoming environment of the Children’s Library. A variety of specialized niche areas ensued for all ages, such as a teen library, gaming center, enclosed study space, collaborative section, and café. Similarly to the Children’s Library, new energy-efficient LED lights were hung in different arrangements to blend into features of the furniture and wood paneling. Lighting plays an
Top: The ‘Story Garden’ at Greece Public Library offers an engaging and playful space for children to learn and explore their own imagination.
Middle: The alcove of booths at Greece Public Library typifies a purposeful design space for people to collaborate and use media devices.
Bottom: For space planning design, well-appointed signage within the main library helps navigate patrons to their desired area. Photo Credit: Don Cochran
“Libraries are ever evolving spaces as both technology and community needs change.”
extremely important role for space planning in public libraries, in support of creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere that’s easy on the eyes. “Updated lighting fixtures not only freshen up the space, but serve a functional purpose of creating diffuse, non-directional lighting throughout,” said Connors. “This allows the shelving and furniture in the library to be modified in the future without creating dark spots or shadows.”
In addition to meeting clients’ requirements, Passero’s design focuses on people’s priorities first, including expanding patron services, improving sight lines, safety and security, accessibility, and energy efficiency. These human-centered design themes are commonplace in many of their library projects. Two award-winning facilities exemplify those integrations.
The libraries in Henrietta and Irondequoit, New York each won project of the year honors from separate industry organizations. Passero’s knowledge gives their technical staff a unique understanding of project issues and ensures they will thoroughly examine all potential alternatives to meet a community’s physical and technological needs for the future. Henrietta has one of the largest deaf and hard of hearing populations in Monroe County, and their design was tailored specifically to them. Making accessibility a high priority, Passero provided significant design features in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for this facility and another library in Livonia, New York, where at-grade site issues led to designing a combination of ramps and a lift for disabled patrons. In addition, all signage includes braille while other facilities designed by Passero have an induction loop, or T-Loop, that aid people with hearing impairments.
Centered on enhancing the symbolic and physical heart of the community, a public library should be a source of pride that inspires learning, enriches lives, and connects the community at-large for all walks of life. Major components of programming and planning
Lower book shelving at Henrietta Library improves overall sight lines and easy access. Photo Credit: Don Cochran
More than 37,000 square feet, the Irondequoit Library replaced two branch facilities and was designed to enhance the symbolic and physical heart of the community. The library features a traditional brick exterior that complements the nearby Town Hall building.
Photo Credit: Don Cochran
within the design vary in detail but remain constant considerations. Orientation of the exterior is just as important as the interior, such as drive-up services for book-drops that don’t impede the path for pedestrians. Once inside, convenient circulation and efficient service points enhance the visitors’ experience, as well as balance appropriate staffing needs, like their own functional and ergonomic workspaces.
Appropriate sight lines are a must, not only for patrons to understand the visual environment, but also for library staff to monitor ongoing activities of the public for assistance and/or any disturbances. A well-designed space invites people of all ages to find relief from stressful, daily routines where they can escape to a safe and trusted place. From elementary school youth to teenagers to adults, each group can pursue their personal, educational, or business interests as a place to gather and share ideas, in discussion groups, or in project-based creative gatherings. And with all the new influences of society, providing comfortable places for quiet reading, contemplation, tutoring rooms, access to the internet and exploring technology remain an important part of the library landscape.
Besides discovering electricity, which powers today’s complex infrastructure, we can also thank Ben Franklin for his foresight to institute the human-centered need of fulfilling people’s knowledge and curiosity – the public library.
Peter Wehner is Vice President, Director of Architecture at Passero Associates in Rochester, New York. He has presented current library design trends at conferences throughout his 38 years in the industry and is currently a Strategic Counselor with the American institute of Architects. When not focused on Library design at Passero he is also a Professor of Architectural Practice at RIT’s Graduate School of Architecture and an elected Town Councilman in his hometown of Irondequoit, New York.
by Sky Zhang, AIA 04
HEALING SPACES
Architectural Design Strategies to Bolster Psychological Well-Being
Interior rendering: view from client room with wooden niche.
Psychological health is complex, fluid, and multilevel. It involves interactions between the self, and constantly shifting spheres of human activity, economic conditions, social structure, political reality, and physical surroundings. In the face of this complexity, it is even more important to provide as a physical environment as a base of comfort and care, and it is increasingly recognized that the spatial environments that people occupy play a big role in their happiness and subjective sense of well-being.
Research suggests that humans have evolved to respond strongly to certain environmental characteristics due to our ancestral survival needs. Many of these responses are thought to be “hardwired” because they developed over thousands of years in response to natural selection pressures in our environment, and are believed to have been relied on for indicators of safety, happiness, danger, resources.
Architecturally, taking the considerations below when designing can serve as effective entry points
into creating spaces that support psychological health.
1. Sense of Safety
A sense of safety and security is a foundational requirement for the comfortable occupation of a space. Beyond meeting safety standards from structural and logistical standpoints, a building should offer a tangible feeling of refuge—inviting a sense of shelter, rest, and respite within its spaces.
Navigability, ease of movement, hygiene, having visibility over the
Spatial components concept, relationship between the public “street” and semi-public activity rooms at the forefront of the clusters.
surroundings, in addition to safety from social threats and prejudice, are key to feeling secure in a physical environment. Features in human-centered design should strive to communicate safety on the psychological level to the subjective experience.
A balance between shelteredness and visibility is paramount to this end; especially insightful is the prospect-refuge hypothesis (Jay Appleton, 1975) in delineating this balance. According to this theory, people are drawn to environments that offer both clear views and open spaces for observing surroundings (prospect) and protected areas that provide a sense of shelter and safety (refuge). This theory posits that such environments fulfill evolutionary preferences, as they allow individuals to survey for opportunities and threats while providing a place to retreat if needed, thus promoting feelings of comfort and security. Ideally, a sheltered area of a more intimate scale offers a vista over the surrounding area.
The GGZ High Intensive Care center (HIC) in Heiloo, the Netherlands provides a balance between shelter and visibility in both public and private settings. Oak niches in the bedroom create a zone where the resident can sit “protected” from behind and overhead while giving them the opportunity to look out into the courtyard.
Visibility serves another, practical end in healthcare environments: caretakers may need to quickly see whether a zone is occupied. On the public level, visibility is afforded through a long sight line down the street along which clusters of functions form volumes.
At the forefront of the clusters, pockets of activity rooms on the interior have visual access with the
Top: Materialization: clusters of wood with windows, street wood with storey-high windows, light aluminum canopy. Bottom: Exterior material differentiation employing complexity of patterns and materials which evoke experiences in nature.
street, yet can also be considered more “sheltered” as compared to the street itself.
2. Connection to Nature
In the GGZ HIC, access to nature is provided in both the literal sense and in the suggestive. Gardens are incorporated in between the volumes and are directly accessible by each cluster, and a warm, sensory material palette is used where the textures and patterns in materials such as wooden slats, reliefs and perforations in brickwork, textile weavework all reflect the richness and complexity found in nature. Extensive research enumerates the many benefits that exposure to nature can have on psychological health. As little as 60 minutes of nature contact can reduce immediate amygdala (part of the limbic system that responds quickly to
external stressors) activity during stress tasks. Depleted attentional resources are replenished when focus is shifted away from external demands and internal concerns to intrinsically and softly fascinating stimuli such as swaying plants and moving water which can hold attention in a non-demanding and relatively effortless way. Being in contact with plants reduces rumination, broadens attentional perspective and builds creative, problem-solving orientations and behavioural repertoires, thereby increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy. There can be many strategies when it comes to implementing nature in a built environment. More area cover by green isn’t necessarily more beneficial – being able to observe biodiversity, even within a small area, can provide significant benefits. The presence of water, non-vi-
sual connections to nature such as by smell and sound, can also be effective when direct contact isn’t possible.
Another way to evoke nature is through mimicking or using the materials, shapes, sequences and patterns found in nature. Biomimicking patterns, use of biogenic materials, and creating ordered complexities such as fractals are all examples of this.
3. Community
In order for the built environment to truly benefit psychological wellbeing, there must be space where genuine human connection can take root and flourish. Community is one of the most talked-about, yet perhaps one of the least tangible or predictable elements in architectural design. While it is true that human relationships cannot be forced or planned, architects are in
a unique position to articulate the spaces which enable and encourage these relationships.
In a mental healthcare facility, the human relationship component is often overlooked, yet a genuine sense of belonging and the ability to reestablish connection with yourself, others, and the surroundings is often imperative to recovery.
At the GGZ HIC, a variety of spaces are provided where residents can gather and enjoy different kinds of activities. These gathering spaces are designed to be inviting, easily accessible and visible, and able to be used as extensions of adjacent spaces such as living rooms. They are placed at the forefront of each cluster facing the street, forming a soft transition from the street into the cluster. These spaces and their positioning naturally supports connection with others, while also offering the possibility to withdraw into lower-stimulation zones further into each cluster.
As urbanization continues its expansive trajectory, more and more people are spending the vast majority of their daily life inside ar-
tificially-made environments. This means that it is ever more important for design to take into consideration psychological responses to environmental features. An environment that is safe, nurturing, inspiring, restoring, and reflects identities and values is a place where individuals and communities can thrive and tackle the complex challenges of the world today.
Bibliography
Appleton, J. (1975). The experience of Landscape. Landscape Research, 1(10), 15–16. https://doi. org/10.1080/01426397508705780
Browning, W., Ryan, C.O., & Clancy, J. (2014). 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design: Improving Health and Well-Being in the Built Environment. Gifford, R. (1987). Environmental psychology: Principles and practice. Allyn & Bacon.
White, M. P., Hartig, T., Martin, L., Pahl, S., van den Berg, A. E., Wells, N. M., Costongs, C., Dzhambov, A. M., Elliott, L. R., Godfrey, A., Hartl, A., Konijnendijk, C., Litt, J. S., Lovell, R., Lymeus, F., O’Driscoll, C., Pichler, C., Pouso, S., Razani, N., ... van den Bosch, M. (2023). Naturebased biopsychosocial resilience: An integrative theoretical framework for research on nature and health. Environment international, 181, Article 108234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. envint.2023.108234
Sky is an architectural designer with a background in psychology. She is energized by the potential of architectural design in working through the human subjective experience of space to impact feelings and behavior. She believes that a viable future lies at the intersection of planetary health, community wellbeing, and collective responsibility. After graduating from her Master’s at Columbia University, Sky began on an experiential journey in the Netherlands. She is currently working at Mecanoo. Based in Delft, the Dutch architectural firm is known for its international portfolio of projects celebrated for innovative and human-centered designs, including cultural centers, libraries, universities, and residential buildings, which blend functionality, sustainability, and aesthetic appeal.
by Natalie Rebuck, Principal Designer, Re: Design Architects
Designing for Humanity:
How Re: Design Architects Transforms
Historic Spaces with Accessibility and Wellness at the Core
We’re at a time and place when inclusivity, in all its meanings, is finally at the forefront of the conversation, and that means, first and foremost, within the architecture and design community. This goes beyond following the code, ADA regulations, landmarks, governing bodies and listening to the communities around us to understand their needs and how, as design professionals, we can best serve them and enjoy them. Being an architect is about serving the people and creating spaces for humanity—today, tomorrow and the future. Architects are creating the future. I recently attended a conference where someone said “architecture is human,” which is something I keep coming back to. Architecture is human. It’s all of us.
Re: Design Architects, a boutique architecture and interior design firm located in Brooklyn, recently
had the opportunity to work with long-standing client GFPRE to renovate the lobby and roof deck for 322 8th Avenue in the heart of Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan. The lobby, which finished in December of 2023, and the rooftop, to be completed in December 2024, allowed the firm to review and rethink how they approach commercial, institutional, and public spaces to make sure that all patrons and visitors can shift their focus to the beautiful design verses on how their personal needs–whatever they may be–are being met.
The firm first listened to the client and their goals for the spaces, followed by a holistic assessment of each space, who are the people they will service, and what was needed to allow people to show up, enjoy, and operate without question or concern.
What are our modern-day must-haves.
As architects and designers, it’s essential to bring beloved buildings that have served us for decades, perhaps even centuries, along the journey to meet the needs of people today without losing their historical effect and charm. The 21-story building at 322 8th Avenue was built in 1925 by the architects George & Edward Blum in a neo-gothic style. It received facade renovations in 2015 and building exterior and canopy renovations in 2016, with minor interior touchups over the years. It was in 2022 that GFPRE and Re: Design Architects began building out plans to renovate the lobby and rooftop spaces fully. Top of mind in both the lobby and the rooftop amenity space was to make it inviting and accessible. The firm started with reviewing accessibility requirements, followed by designing a more functional wheelchair ramp,
as well as replacing the previous turnstile gates to have a more universal approach with glass swint turnstile gates. This shift offers a more welcoming, equitable approach for all patrons while preserving the required security. Another must-have was visibility and better flow to the lobby for the tenants and visitors to the lobby; Re: Design modified the flow by changing the location of the reception desk and pushing the turnstiles closer to the elevator. By making some small shifts in the lobby layout, we were able to create better security, and more access, and progression for visitors and tenants. This allowed us to carve out a custom coffee bar, making a surprise and delight amenity. It was necessary to provide a modern desk that allowed the client to install all their new equipment for cameras, checking in people, fire alarms, and call stations. This needed to be arranged to provide better access to those in control of these systems
so that they could better serve the building tenants. Better lighting was also important for the success of the space. The it previously had poor, out-of-date, dim lighting, which made the space feel bleak and worn down. Selecting new energy-efficient lighting, we could accent the existing historic arch and mural and give them the visual command they deserved. We installed new hall lanterns so that it was graphically clear from a distance to highlight which elevator would serve the tenant in that moment.
What are our modern-day should-haves.
The building at 322 8th Avenue is a commercial space with over 2,500 tenants. Especially in a post-COVID era when companies have been slowly bringing employees back to the office–whether it be hybrid or full-time—it’s more important now than ever to make sure that the
322 8th Avenue Floor Plan and Lobby 3D Revit rendering.
Replacing outdated turnstile gates with glass swint turnstile gates provides a more universal approach, and enhances accessibility and security while creating a more welcoming and efficient entrance for all visitors. The redesigned lobby layout, featuring a relocated reception desk and strategically positioned turnstiles, optimizes visitor flow and provides clear visibility to the elevator. Photos credit: GFPRE/Julien Capmeil.
needs to help people acclimate to being in the office and offer them some of the same comfort and security they found while working remotely from home. GFPRE wanted workspace meet hospitality. Re: Design Architects, carefully thought through not only what people’s daily needs would be but what would capture and draw people in. One of the ways this was achieved in the lobby was by installing a living moss wall at the lobby entrance–it’s bright, vibrant, and offers beautiful texture along with the restored art in the space. Additionally, the green is visible from the street and helps draw people in and gives welcoming aspects of seeing nature in the city. As one steps further into the lobby, they will find the–previously mentioned–building-hosted coffee bar, making for a great stop-by on the way up to the office, perfect for inviting guests to wait, or even meet with them, and of course, for the afternoon pick-me-up. The modern should-haves will continue to be met on the rooftop amenity space, including privacy pods, giving space for any tenant within the building to take a moment to handle anything they’d rather not do in the office, a ‘mother’s room’ or lactation pod, a meditation room for a quiet moment to recenter. The space also provides a way for tenants to unwind and socialize providing, a lounge, or living rooms space with a variety of games–from board games to Playstation–for a bit of entertainment. The space can also serve tenant events, offering a kitchen and incredible views. Slated for early 2025, GFPRE will complete a beautiful 180-degree wrap-around rooftop terrace to provide outdoor space for tenants to unwind with fresh air and breathtaking views. There will be a lounge space and an outdoor conference room.
It’s an exciting time to be in architecture and see the evolution of how we review and approach projects in a way that is so humanly forward, because, again, architecture is human. This is how Re: Design Architects will continue to encompassing all client work, all the while continuing to look for ways to evolve and expand.
Re: Design Architects is an award-winning, boutique architecture and interior design firm, offering all services necessary to see projects through from beginning to end.
The Brooklyn and North Fork-based firm is led by Natalie Rebuck, the firm’s principal designer, who has over 17 years of experience managing a wide range of complex commercial and residential projects across the globe. She specializes in creating luxurious and timeless interiors with a focus on high-end materials and finishes. Recognizing that no two projects are the same, Rebuck strives to create unique designs tailored to client objectives, budgets, and the aesthetic of the space.
Prior to founding Re: Design Architects, Rebuck spent 8 years working as the Project Architect for the award winning firm, Kliment Halsband Architects. Notable projects of Rebuck’s include the Fashion Incubator for The Council of Fashion Designers of America, the Old Observatory at Vassar College, the Washington Mews at New York University, Avalon Morningside Park in New York City, as well as other institutional mandates from Yale and Johns Hopkins Universities.
Since forming Re: Design Architects, Rebuck has completed projects for distinguished clients such as GFP Real Estate, Newmark, SUNY Optometry, and a world-renowned DJ. Her wide range of experience in historic preservation and adaptive reuse in addition to high-end residential and hospitality projects demonstrates Rebuck’s versatile expertise.
Rebuck’s design style embraces maximalist, modern, and antique elements; all geared to optimizing and showcasing the space in which she is working. About her aesthetic, Rebuck says, “I love to be playful with color, textures, and patterns.
I want you to walk into a room and be immersed in the experience of color in a way that makes you feel like you’re being enveloped into an idea. Spaces, whether they be an office, a living room, or a museum, should feel comfortable and not intimidating.” To compliment her design choices, Rebuck often chooses to decorate spaces with both antique and contemporary pieces, resulting in rooms that feel modern yet timeless. She seeks inspiration through travel, vintage fashion and design, connection with others, and art. Her work is curated, thoughtful, and spirited; no detail is ever too small. Space and value maximization are key drivers.
by Yannik Neufang, AIA, Principal at Office JDY
Grassroots Appeal
And The Future of Small Firm Practice
Office JDY is a small architecture and design firm focused on creating beautiful and imaginative spaces for our clients. Much of our time is spent on the day-to-day pragmatics of this endeavor. In conversations with colleagues, we commiserate self-indulgently over issues like
practice management and how to build interesting projects. But we rarely discuss a topic particularly salient in today’s interconnected and information-driven society –how best to communicate what we do with those outside of our insular profession.
“We rarely discuss a topic particularly salient in today’s interconnected and information-driven society –how best to communicate what we do with those outside of our insular profession.”
This question is foundational to business development and is something every successful architecture practice has an answer to. The way in which most architects describe their work and process is thoughtful and potent in its promise of visionary design, but it is often also dense and abstract. Common assertions include technical competency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and dutiful professional responsibility. The truth is that the modern professionalization of the
industry, wherein most significant projects (even residential ones) involve not only an architect and a general contractor but also an owner’s representative, a construction manager, a wide range of professional consultants, and other forms of managerial bureaucracy, means that architects on these projects rarely interact directly with the uninitiated public. The architect’s response to the question, “What do you do, and how do you do it?” is afforded a great degree of leniency, since it is always filtered through one or more
layers of professional interpretation. While this approach is acceptable to large firms working on large projects, it is not well adapted for the way small offices interact with their clients. This problem requires a solution if the architectural profession is to remain relevant to the average consumer. The 2024 AIA Firm Survey Report notes that nearly 75% of firms in the United States consist of fewer than 10 people but that these practices employ only 11.5% of all available staff. The assumption then is that (1) the majority of potential
clients who engage an architect do so with one of the many small firms across the country and (2) most architects who now practice at or manage small firms were trained at large ones. It would appear that many small-firm practitioners are at least initially unprepared to relate their experience to clients who are not industry insiders.
Unlike in corporate professional practice, our firm interacts frequently and directly with clients on matters both quotidian and uniquely personal. Much of our work is
Top: Design process diagram. Bottom: Project phases diagram.
“The 2024 AIA Firm Survey Report notes that nearly 75% of firms in the United States consist of fewer than 10 people but that these practices employ only 11.5% of all available staff.”
in New York City, where individuals and small businesses are required to hire an architect for even relatively minor projects. Our clients are well-informed and increasingly adept at advocating for their needs, yet many come to us expecting their architect to be pretentious and distant, a noncommittal professional dictating a process widely regarded as opaque and fraught with aggravation. That this perception exists is no good. For one, it discourages people from voluntarily seeking assistance with their design problems, instead going straight to a contractor or designer for off-the-cuff advice. It also makes building client trust an uphill battle, a process that is critical to the success of every project and especially when the work involves creative risk. Most problematically, it prevents those outside a shallow socioeconomic pool from receiving design guidance, since those clients rightfully fear they will not be heard.
To dispel the notion of architects as aloof overseers, over the years we have developed a set of strategies when working with clients on smaller projects.
1. Prepare to offer practical advice on a wide variety of topics. This relies on expanding expertise into adjacent professional disciplines. For instance, a client
of modest financial means doesn’t want to be told they need an acoustician simply to review the feasibility of a desired acoustical floor assembly. Too often, the architect’s reaction is to push this responsibility onto a specialist consultant or contractor. This is not to say that the architect should assume liability for elements clearly outside their scope, but having the confidence to discuss a broad range of issues with the client during the design process enables them to make early decisions that enhance the project. Suitable experts can and should then be engaged to complete any necessary design and installation work.
2. Truly involve clients in the process. Trust goes both ways, and clients should be permitted to understand how the process will work for them. Don’t overcomplicate things and avoid technical jargon, but be as transparent and thorough as possible, even regarding aspects of the project which are not glamorous. Clients are more likely to appreciate and support the architect’s role in a complex process when they are aware of what’s happening behind the scenes. This is also the responsible approach, since it is ultimately the architect’s role to foresee and explain the difficulties a client’s project may face.
3. Consider project management holistically and as an integral part of the creative work. Just as construction means and methods vary, the process itself should be tailored to the client. The AIA offers comprehensive guidelines for every aspect of project management and while these resources are great, they are not gospel. Project design and delivery methods are malleable, and normal people are uninterested in procedural matters such as the delineation between different design phases. To this end, at the beginning of each project we provide our clients with a curated set of documents which clearly describe their project’s specific parameters: stakeholders and the relationships between them, project sequence, design approach, etc. Since process varies between firms, even experienced clients benefit from an understanding of how we propose to work with them. This is also the responsible way to practice, since it is ultimately the architect’s role to anticipate and plan for potential difficulties the project may face.
4. Engage the client on their terms while maximizing their potential. Our office is a creative practice and we present multiple design options at each
client meeting. At least one option will be the best possible version of what our client has indicated they are looking for, in a format that is legible to them. There is also always one other option which challenges their preconceptions. This latter scheme is not always selected for further development, but for many of our clients it opens their eyes to the promise of unconventional ideas and emboldens them to think more creatively in their collaboration with us. Their project is always better for it.
These strategies are about building trust and setting clear expectations. They presume a sensitive, patient, and empathetic practitioner. Our clients are often private individuals and small companies who are deeply invested, both financially and emotionally, in their project. Our firm can’t afford to be ignorant of the pragmatic minutiae and the cumulative effects of small decisions, aspects of practice which are simply overlooked on larger projects where funding and responsibility are more broadly distributed. Ultimately, these strategies represent a commitment to practice at a grassroots level, an effort to position high-quality professional service as something that average people find approachable without compromising on design ambition. The future is rife with fantastic opportunity – through globalization and the proliferation of beautiful imagery on social media, an increasing number of first-time clients are interested in learning how architecture can enhance their lives, even in small ways. This means that more people feel empowered to hire an architect and are placing value on well-designed spaces even when they aren’t strictly required to. As a small firm, we are excited to assist them.
Office JDY is a professional practice for architecture, interiors, and project strategy based in New York City. We design buildings, spaces, and the things that fill them.
We were founded in 2018 by Daniel Selensky and Yannik Neufang, friends united in optimistic inquiry. Our work is informed by an innate sensitivity to each project’s unique potential and the ability to interpret between the lines. We are interested in acts of facility which make room for respectful discourse, collective solutions, and rich personal engagement with our clients and collaborators – all in service of producing engrossing and unconventional experiences for users. In writing this, we prioritize a commitment to both creativity and pragmatism. Ours is a place of practice, an office for dreaming as well as doing.
Completed residential project for clients interested in a plaster room.
Adaptive Reuse:
The Best Form of Sustainability in Architecture 07
By Mark Thaler, AIA, NCARB, Partner, Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation
In an era of climate urgency, architects are increasingly called upon to design with sustainability at the forefront. Yet often, our conversation around sustainable design pivots toward new buildings outfitted with energy-efficient systems, renewable materials, and high-performance envelopes. While these innovations are vital, they overlook a fundamental truth: the greenest building is the one that already exists. Adaptive reuse, a strategy to repurpose existing structures for new uses, stands as one of the most impactful and enduring ways we can embrace sustainability.
At Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation, we’ve seen firsthand the profound benefits of adaptive reuse, most recently through our work on Universal Preservation Hall (UPH) in Saratoga Springs, NY. This project breathed new life into a
Once a condemned church, Universal Preservation Hall is now a premiere performance venue. Exterior work included new slate roofs on the towers; restoration of all stained glass windows and wood trim; restoration of original doors; replacement of three monumental bluestone stairs; masonry repairs; and architectural lighting of the façade.
historic structure, preserving its character while aligning it with modern sustainability principles. Using UPH as a case study, this article explores how adaptive reuse champions sustainable design by reducing waste, conserving resources, and fostering cultural continuity.
Preserving History, Reducing Waste
The adaptive reuse approach stems from a philosophy that existing buildings hold intrinsic value. When repurposing buildings, we honor their legacy and reduce the environmental footprint of new construction. Demolition contributes significant waste to landfills, while constructing a new building often involves high carbon emissions from the production and transportation of
materials. By contrast, reusing an existing structure minimizes these environmental costs, leveraging what already exists to deliver new functionality.
When our team embarked on the transformation of UPH, it was with a deep respect for its heritage. Built in 1871 as a Methodist church, the structure had served the community for over a century. However, after years of underuse and damage, the building was condemned in 2000 and faced potential demolition. Thankfully, a group of local citizens recognized the value of the building and stabilized it for future use as a performing arts venue. Rather than allowing an architecturally and culturally significant structure to be torn down, they saw the
Left: Before Photo - Sloping the grade three feet in the alleyway to the east allowed for an accessible public route from the sidewalk on Washington Street. A similar driveway on the west side of the building provides a separate service entrance.
Photo Credit: Mark Thaler.
Right: A new glazed addition provides an accessible public entry and space for the box office and main office. The new elevator tower can be seen in the distance with the gabled roof. It sits behind and lower than the bell tower. Photo Credit: David Sundberg.
the
Hall looking south. The program required that the space remain flexible for various types of events but at least 700 seats were required. The south balcony was moved forward one bay so that retractable seating could be added below the balcony and new tiered seating be installed above the balcony. This also provided an accessible route from the elevator.
of new tiered balcony seating and restored stained glass windows. The original wood pews were restored and new cushions provided in the balconies and as movable seating at the lower level. The hanging draperies provided needed absorptive materials to address acoustical concerns. Slot diffusers provide conditioned air along the perimeter of the space while the original oculus locations in the ceiling serve as return air registers. Fresh air is provided through louvers in the gable of the new elevator tower addition.
Credit: David Sundberg
promise in the building. More than a decade passed and as the Great Recession finally waned, we were engaged to develop a design that would allow its effective reuse while retaining its history and character.
Embracing Sustainability Through Adaptive Reuse
UPH was revitalized to become an arts and cultural center, providing performance space and gathering areas for the community. The decision to adaptively reuse the building for a new purpose rather than replace it with a new structure created environmental, economic, and social benefits.
Environmental Impact Reduction
Retrofitting an existing building saves a significant amount of energy. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it can take up to 80 years for a new energy-efficient building to offset the environmental impact of its construction. By focusing on reuse, we preserved much of UPH’s original materials, including its exterior stonework and timber structure, which reduced the demand for new materials.
In addition, adaptive reuse significantly lowers the emissions associated with building materials. The embodied carbon in a structure—the emissions resulting from its initial construction—is a one-time environmental cost that has already been paid. By reusing UPH, we avoided the carbon costs of demolition and new materials, making adaptive reuse a clear choice for sustainable architecture.
Energy Efficiency Upgrades
A misconception about adaptive reuse is that it limits modern energy-efficient improvements. In fact, we implemented numerous upgrades at UPH to ensure the building meets contemporary energy standards while preserving its historic charm. Window restoration and storm windows, insulation, modern HVAC systems, and LED lighting were introduced to improve energy efficiency without compromising the building’s original design. These systems not only contribute to the building’s environmental sustainability but also provide cost savings in the long run, ensuring that UPH remains economically viable.
Before Photo – View of
Great
Photo Credit: Mark Thaler.
View
Photo
Adaptive Reuse as a Catalyst for Community and Cultural Sustainability
Beyond environmental considerations, adaptive reuse fosters a sense of identity and continuity within a community.
Repurposing a historic building like UPH respects the heritage of Saratoga Springs, creating a link between the past and future. For residents, especially those who have personal or family histories with UPH, the restored building offers a meaningful connection to their city’s history, creating a shared cultural space.
By transforming UPH into a hub for performance and art, we have helped revitalize the
surrounding neighborhood, increasing foot traffic and providing a new venue that draws people downtown. This is a form of sustainability that extends beyond physical materials—it supports the growth of a vibrant, engaged community.
The Challenges of Adaptive Reuse
Adaptive reuse comes with challenges that new construction often bypasses. When dealing with a historic building, architects must navigate regulatory requirements, balance preservation with modernization, and sometimes grapple with unforeseen structural issues.
View of the Great Hall looking north. The portable stage allows for various configurations including the center stage layout seen here which provides a very intimate performance. The new lighting grid allows for maximum flexibility and houses a large screen which can be utilized for film screenings or presentations. Photo Credit: David Sundberg
Meeting Code Requirements
One of the most complex aspects of the UPH project was adhering to modern building codes while retaining the building’s historical features. In older structures, updating accessibility and fire safety can be challenging, as retrofitting often requires creative design solutions. For instance, to meet accessibility standards, we installed a discreet elevator that integrates with the existing architecture. We also installed fire-protection systems that blend with the original woodwork, protecting the building without compromising its aesthetic.
Structural Challenges
Older buildings often present structural challenges, particularly when their original purpose differs significantly from their new one. UPH, originally designed as a church, had to be adapted to func-
tion as a performance venue, which demanded additional structural support for modern lighting, sound systems, and seating arrangements. This required careful engineering to maintain the building’s integrity while accommodating these contemporary needs. Additionally, old heavy timber trusses had to be reinforced with steel plates where interior sections had dry rotted.
Adaptive Reuse as a Model for the Future
In a world where sustainability is no longer optional, adaptive reuse stands out as a powerful model for creating enduring architectural impact. Universal Preservation Hall is more than just a revitalized building—it’s a testament to the potential of existing structures to meet modern needs while preserving cultural and historical integrity.
At Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture
& Preservation, we believe that by choosing adaptive reuse, architects and communities alike can contribute to a sustainable future rooted in respect for the past.
As we continue to face urgent environmental challenges, let UPH serve as an example of how thoughtful design can honor history, reduce waste, and foster lasting community bonds. In the architecture of tomorrow, the greenest solutions may well be those built on the foundations of our shared history, where old spaces are reimagined to inspire and serve generations to come.
Mark Thaler, AIA, NCARB, is a partner in the firm of Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture & Preservation in Albany, NY. He has specialized in the restoration, renovation, and adaptive reuse of historic structures throughout his 40-year career. He has had the honor of working on the restoration of landmark buildings at Ellis Island, Valley Forge, Princeton University, and numerous other historic sites, including the rehabilitation of the Washington State Capitol which received a national AIA Honor Award. Mark is passionate about adaptively reusing our existing building stock to protect our cultural heritage and improve the sustainability of our communities.
The adaptive reuse of this former church for use as a performance venue has saved a magnificent historic building while greatly expanding the region’s cultural offerings.
Photo Credit: David Sundberg
Honoring the Past, Healing the Present:
The Future of Climate and Cultural Resilience at the Flatbush African Burial Ground
As a child, I spent summers in Nanka - my mother’s forested village in south eastern Nigeria, where I ran barefoot with my cousins, our feet saturated by the soft, rich red soil. I watched family members pull freshly grown yam from the earth, collect rainwater in tanks for bathing and cooking, and grow animals for food. These experiences in the nature-rich context of Nanka were a stark contrast to the concrete jungles of Brooklyn, where I spent the rest of the year. I remember walking to school alone through empty parking lots riddled with crack vials, past housing projects full of people that looked like me, while at times in fear of being targeted by the police. My family was eventually displaced from our community due to gentrification. These experiences navigating between my African and American realities
Image credit: AI image of Afro-Indigenous land stewardship created with Mid Journey by Ifeoma Ebo
has influenced me to integrate regenerative practice into my work as an urban designer and planner.
For the past year in my design courses taught at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York and with my design practice, Creative Urban Alchemy, I collaborated with a Brooklyn based organization, GrowHouseNYC, to engage the community living near the Flatbush African Burial Ground (FABG) in activities centering art and environmentalism. The FABG, a newly landmarked site in the heart of Little Caribbean in Flatbush, Brooklyn, hosted our culminating event Brooklyn Black Utopia, which took participants on an experiential journey across the African diaspora through music, dance, art, environmentalism and acts of rest. We created a village-like experience with a central altar honoring the ancestors that was surrounded by stations of creative activity. One station focused on sharing knowledge about indigenous land stewardship practices. We learned about native perennials such as Feverwort, Yarrow, and Sweet Goldenrod, –plants that naturally grow in Brooklyn and were used by indigenous people for health and wellness. We created balls using clay, compost and seeds with the intention of repopulating the sacred ground with these medicinal plants. This immersive cultural experience allowed people to develop a new appreciation
Above: Aerial View of the Flatbush African Burial Ground. Photo Credit: DaeQuan Collier.
Top: Flatbush community conversations. Bottom Left: Breathwork and meditation activities. Bottom Right: West African musician. Photo Credits: Zachary Schulman.
for the plants that grow wild around the city. Some community members shared childhood memories of these plants being used by their parents in the Caribbean. For participants the activity fostered a strong emotional connection to the Burial Ground, their natural surroundings and the stories of place. Central Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean exemplifies the intersection of climate and cultural justice. This vibrant Caribbean community faces compounded challenges of climate change, economic disparity, and cultural erasure exacerbated by gentrification. The Flatbush African Burial Ground (FABG) is a crucial site for both climate action and cultural preservation.
Climate justice addresses the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities, while cultural justice involves preserving and promoting cultural heritage. Extreme heat in Flatbush, Brooklyn, has become a pressing concern in recent years, particularly during the sweltering summer months. This densely populated neighborhood, characterized by its historic brownstones and vibrant cultural tapestry, is vulnerable to the heat island effect, because its abundance of concrete and asphalt surfaces leads to significantly higher temperatures compared to surrounding suburban areas. Many residents, especially the elderly and low-income families, struggle with inadequate access to air conditioning and cooling centers, heightening the risk of heat-related illnesses. The redeve-
lopment of buildings eliminates existing small businesses and leads to elevated property taxes in effect causing displacement and eroding the cultural fabric of the community. Community organizations and local government initiatives are working to mitigate these effects by planting more greenery, advocating for affordable housing, increasing public
Below: (l to r) Collage art by CUNY student Mohammed Chowdhury; Growing Little Caribbean by CUNY students Ornella Bonhomme, Nicole Girdo, and Evelyn Krutoy; Brooklyn Black Utopia event concept designed by Creative Urban Alchemy with rendering by Liminal SP; Brooklyn Black Utopia event concept designed by Creative Urban Alchemy with rendering by Liminal SP ; Brooklyn Black Utopia event concept designed by Creative Urban Alchemy with rendering by Liminal SP.
Top Left: Learning about seed germination and native plants.
Photo Credit: Zachary Schulman. Top Right: Seed ball making. Photo Credit: Zachary Schulman. Bottom Left: Meditation through music making. Photo Credit: Zachary Schulman. Bottom. Right: Fence Weaving.
Photo Credit: Deena Darby..
for rest and meditation.
awareness, and establishing more cooling stations. However, addressing extreme heat and affordability in Flatbush requires sustained and multifaceted efforts.
For the Little Caribbean, this includes addressing historical and ongoing environmental racism – the disproportionate presence of environmental hazards in communities of color – and protecting cultural sites , such as the FABG, and practices from climate change and development pressures. Marginalized communities are subjected to greater exposure to pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental hazards, often due to discriminatory policies and practices in zoning, land use, and urban planning. These communities frequently have less access to clean air, water, and natural resources, and they bear a heavier burden from the effects of environmental degradation and
climate change. Cultural sites like the FABG, which hold immense historical, cultural, and spiritual significance, are also vulnerable to climate change, as urban heat can accelerate the deterioration of cultural artifacts and sites. At the same time, climate change threatens to force the displacement of communities that are the stewards of these cultural sites. As people move away due to climate-related impacts, these sites may become neglected, while the legacy of environmental racism could mean that less attention and fewer resources are allocated to protect such sites. Moreover, development pressures in urban areas, often prioritized over the preservation of culturally significant sites for marginalized communities, exacerbate these risks.
Climate grief is a profound emotional response to environmental changes and losses due to climate change, and for Black communities, this grief is compounded by historical and ongoing injustices. As a part of our Brooklyn Black Utopia event at the FABG we integrated therapeutic activities centering cultural art and healing. We stood in a circle and honored our ancestors by saying their names out loud and sharing stories of how they influenced our life. In addition, community based organization Ibisanmi Relational Health led a series of expressive painting sessions, breathwork and heartfelt conversations helping participants process the deep emotions of grief, pain and resilience. We were serenaded with ancestral songs by the West African Kora player Salieu Suso who encouraged participants to get on their feet and into their bodies through dance. Some participants found their peace through fence weaving art as an offering to beautify the Burial Ground. Our collaborative artistic
Space
Photo Credit Zachary Schulman
endeavors and community workshops at the FABG provide space for collective healing and reflection, helping residents process grief and envision a future that includes cultural preservation and climate resilience.
The intersection of climate and cultural justice requires a dynamic and holistic approach that honors the diverse experiences of Black communities. From rural villages to urban neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn, ancestral cultural practices guide efforts to create a more equitable and sustainable future. By centering healing, repair, and regenerative practices, and leveraging traditional knowledge and modern technology, communities can address the intertwined challenges of climate change and cultural preservation. The work at the Flatbush African Burial Ground exemplifies this integrated approach, offering a model for other communities striving for justice and resilience against environmental and cultural threats.
Ifeoma is a Nigerian-American, Brooklyn based designer with a twenty-year track record in transforming urban spaces into platforms for equity and design excellence. Her work as a transdisciplinary designer, artist, and urbanist has been rooted in dynamic diasporic understandings of the Black experience, and she has used her craft to advocate for, design, plan with, and visually showcase the stories of communities of color. As Assistant Professor for Design & Sustainability at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York she engages in research and teaches trans disciplinary courses exploring cultural, climate and environmental justice. She has most recently received awards and fellowships from the Black Artists & Designers Guild, NYS Council on the Arts, the Associate for Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the Architectural League, and United States Artists. Ebo holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Master of City Design & Development from MIT.
Dikenga Pavillion designed by Creative Urban Alchemy and rendering by Liminal SP.
The architects focused on creating clean, resilient, climate-positive buildings are famous for their generosity with the information and lessons they’ve learned in the field, often hardwon as first movers on the “bleeding edge” of practice. What in other communities might be treated as precious intellectual property to lock away and protect is instead shared freely. Say you just implemented a cool new wall assembly detail, or found that perfect mechanical equipment solution, or uncovered a new source of green financing…chances are your first instinct is to share it loudly and proudly.
Maybe this instinct is simply a feature of a community doing mission-driven work, or maybe there’s more to it. But either way, it’s exactly what the world needs right now. The more learning we transmit to one another, the better we all get at delivering clean and resilient buildings. The faster we conduct this transmission, the faster we progress. And it’s through this progress that we can accelerate the urgent and necessary transition to buildings that will both slash greenhouse gas emissions and make us more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
When we work together, we move faster.
Since 2019 we at Passive House Accelerator have been working to help foster this collaboration by sharing lessons learned in building decarbonization practice: hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, videos, and Zooms by and for practitioners.
But we kept spotting a problem.
There wasn’t a good platform for building decarb professionals to connect in community in an ongoing way. Just small bursts of connection at events followed by isolation. That’s a problem because it’s through community that we support one another, get answers to burning questions, show each other the ropes. It’s where we access expert guidance and engage in cohort learning. It’s where old hands flag dangerous pitfalls for us. And it’s where we get energized by compatriots who are on the same path.
That’s why we created the online community, the Reimagine Buildings Collective.
At the Collective we are bringing together building professionals who want to step up and tackle climate change, gain and share knowledge in peer-to-peer exchanges, level up skills in cohort-based learning, and forge life-changing relationships with other practitioners on the same path. Working together, the Collective will help us all (1) create the healthiest buildings with the smallest carbon footprint, (2) deliver them cost-effectively and headache- free, (3) sell their benefits so they get built, and (4) make a good living while doing it.
We know the work of building decarbonization and resilience isn’t easy. Clients and project teams can be skeptical and resistant to change. Projects can get complicated, and complications can cost you. Given the potential pitfalls that abound, none of us should be going it alone. At the Collective, we’re building a community that will have your back as you create buildings that tackle climate change.
We hope you’ll join us: reimaginebuildings.com.
Modular House Coastal Prototypes 09
Designing with Sustainability and Resilience in Mind
Eric A. Gartner, AIA, LEED AP Principal, SPG Architects
Climate change requires new approaches to coastal settlements of all scales. Architects must respond with solutions at both the urban and single-family home scale. The single-family typology has been critical to the exploration of architectural ideas and basic societal needs. The transformation of this building type must be broadly available to communities with a wide range of economic resources. SPG seeks to meet this need using modular design that addresses resiliency, sustainability, and affordability.
The designs seen here seek to address issues such as adaptability, social relevance, and environmental consciousness. With the imminent threats of climate change, we apply sustainable strategies to all our projects. In the projects included here-in, we explore the environmental and economic effects of climate change on the single-family home.
THE
REALITY OF AN INCREASINGLY TUMULTUOUS CLIMATE
The clock is ticking on global warming and new construction must confront climate change. It must reduce environmentally
dangerous emissions during construction and through the life of the building. It must also be resilient enough to survive new and more destructive climate patterns. Additionally, housing affordability has become a rightly potent issue.
Sea rise and more extreme weather patterns are causing an unprecedented battering of coastal shores. The wealthy enclaves typically associated with US waterfront living and many homes in middle- and lower- income communities could be rendered uninhabitable.
160 million Americans live near the coast and over 1.6 million people live within FEMA’s 100-year coastal flood zones in the Northeast. New York has 269,165 occupied units in these areas. The 2012 Hurricane Sandy exposed the vulnerability of New York City’s 520 miles of waterfront communities. This storm and others like it raise larger concerns about how and where we build in coastal locales.
FINANCIALLY UNSTABLE WITH UNSUITABLE HOMES
Architect-designed houses are financially unattainable for most, and many populations have been living in ill-conceived or under-designed buildings that are especially unsuitable for the changing climate: 32,137 single-family homes in NY were damaged by Sandy, most of these in marginalized communities. Large storms will continue to hit especially hard on the most vulnerable in our population.
Architects must become more invested in creating affordable and resilient architecture. There is a clear need for a new kind of single-family typology that is financially accessible, has a small carbon footprint, and can adapt to changing coastal weather patterns.
Greater NYC and Queens Flood Map
OVERCOMING THE STIGMA OF MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
To many, “prefabricated home” recalls the lowest common denominator of housing— identical, dilapidated trailers and mobile homes—but modular design brings numerous assets to the construction process, providing significant economic and sustainability advantages over conventional construction methods. Modular designs can disprove the negative associations of factory-fabricated buildings and can instead contribute to a reduction in the environmental impact of construction, while providing thoughtful and affordable housing solutions.
Since prefabricated modular homes are built in factories, unlike traditional building methods, the cost saving strategies typically associated with factories can be brought to the housing industry.
THE RESILIENCE OF MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
Modular construction has the potential to reduce the energy consumption associated with the fabrication and use of residential typologies.
More efficient use of materials—thanks to optimized factory construction—reduces waste, increases recycling, and saves on the transportation of waste. These efficiencies contribute to a much lower carbon footprint than a stick-built residence constructed on-site.
Modular construction also presents several resilient advantages in the face of climate change. The benefits of factory-built construction extend to the strength of the building including better welds, stronger assemblies, and tighter joints. Consider that a building module is constructed to withstand the vibrations and
vicissitudes of on-road transport. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety found that prefabricated homes fared better then site-built homes under strong winds up to 145 mph due to the structural integrity of building modules.
Given the statistics of its affordability and inherent sustainability, modular construction provides the base upon which architects can resolve to hone design towards meeting the 2030 goals established by the AIA. The major centerpiece of the 2030 challenge is for all new construction to be carbon neutral. In articulating these designs, we saw two clear points on which to push the resilience of modular construction to meet this benchmark: changing its relationship to the site and adding passive design strategies.
POSITIONING THE MODULAR HOUSE
Linking a home’s interior to its site through horizontal sight lines expands the perceived size of the Modular House living areas. These houses disengage the house from the landscape by raising them. To re-link the house with its environs, the vertical planes of the enclosure are made transparent with large expanses of high UV rated and hurricane resistant glass fenestration. Outdoor terraces are also added to achieve a distinct and profound relationship between the houses and the land on which they sit.
These prototypical designs replace the traditional horizontal transition from exterior to interior employing piloti structure, providing an opportunity to re-build on land that might not be otherwise considered. The raised house solution will allow neighborhoods to be re-built with their social fabric intact while avoiding the harmful impact of new development in fragile, flood-prone, or previously undeveloped environments.
FACTORY CONSTRUCTION
The deployment of energy-saving and resilient strategies begins with factory assembly with its enhanced structural stability but has other advantages including the capacity to employ robust sprayed insulation. The fenestration is triple-glazed, and Energy Star approved. Top: Elevations. Bottom: Modular Plan
Caulking at fenestrations and intersections of horizontal and vertical planes greatly tightens the house’s envelope and decreases energy consumption. Additionally, all appliances and equipment specified for this house are Energy Star approved.
Once the house arrives on site, it is further outfitted with energy-saving technology. After installation, the roof is equipped with a white roof membrane, providing a high Solar Reflectance Index - a measure of the material’s ability to reject solar heat. Additionally, a rainwater collection system is put in place. The house will collect nearly 100% of rainwater through a series of roof drains and leaders that lead to water storage tanks.
MODULAR COMMUNITY AND ADAPTABILITY
The breakaway structure contains utilities, storage and/or circulation below the house but otherwise allows light and air to filter through the space without impeding storm or flood surges. Limiting the building’s overall use of artificial cooling devices is intrinsically enhanced by the one-room width of the
modules themselves. The constrained width and height of each module ensures no space will be too difficult or too costly to heat and cool, and with multiple exposures and in each room, natural ventilation reduces the need for air-conditioning.
Modular construction inherently lends itself to a wide range of solutions accommodating both traditional and non-traditional families. Studio living and up to four-bedroom solutions are easily achieved using pre-designed components so that bathroom and kitchen designs are easily incorporated into the varied modules, without undue design effort, providing a range of semicustom design solutions.
CONCLUSION
These designs enhance a fluid relationship between the built and natural environments, wherein the building does not impose itself on the landscape, but instead works harmoniously in concert with the environment. Rather than stand steadfast against the changing climate, these prototypes accept and absorb the flows of nature. Numerous components of these design do their part to slow the tide of climate change, but not at the expense of aesthetic quality. All of this is delivered at a cost much below typical costs for on-site construction, allowing for viable solutions in a changing world.
SPG Architects is a full-service award-winning architecture firm currently led by Eric Gartner. SPG provides a comprehensive range of design services and has worked with clients on a broad array of architecture and design projects. Our work includes projects of varying scales and character, with a range of regional, national, and international projects that include single- and multi-family residences, retail environments, corporate interiors, and institutional and hospitality buildings and spaces.
Eric A. Gartner, AIA, LEED AP
As SPG’s principal partner, Eric has been practicing architecture since obtaining his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia where he also received his undergraduate degree. He maintains an active relationship with UVA, having long served on the School of Architecture’s Foundation Board and he
regularly serves as a visiting design critic for student reviews at numerous schools of architecture. At SPG, Eric has broadened the firm’s range of project types and helped it to expand its national and international presence. SPG Architects’ built work is now located not only across the US, but also in Latin America and Africa, and it has been published worldwide. Eric’s ongoing commitment to both environmental and social responsibility has instigated and informed a series of projects that explore the benefits of sustainable design. Eric is a member of the American Institute of Architects, is registered with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards through which he is licensed in numerous states, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.
10 Photovoltaic Tensile Structures
Left: World’s first photovoltaic tent, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York City (FTL Design Engineering, 1998)
The modern theory and practice of tensile structure design was pioneered by Frei Otto in the 1950s and 60s. In the decades since, we have become accustomed to seeing roofs of major airports, stadiums, performance venues, and other civic structures made of thin translucent fabrics, spanning hundreds of feet and lasting decades like other building materials.
Initially, Otto’s approach to form-finding relied on physical models and manual calculations, but the advent of desktop computing in the 1990s, specialized analysis software, and CAD/ CAM manufacturing made the design, engineering, and fabrication process faster and more accurate. Practitioners could now not only design, engineer, and create fabrication templates for 3-dimensionally complex architecture, they had the means to complete projects in an economically competitive market.
As second- and third-generation practitioners, we’ve lived through these changes. At FTL Design Engineering Studio, where I began my career, early practitioners like founder Todd Dalland used the new technologies to transform the commercial and military tent industries, while simultaneously exploring how to integrate emerging innovations like thin-film flexible photovoltaics into tensile structures.
In 1998, we proposed and built the world’s first photovoltaic tent for the Under the Sun exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. This was a groundbreaking project, combining tensile architecture with solar power generation. This project laid the foun-
dation for future explorations into interdisciplinary practice where architects, structural engineers, electrical engineers, and fabricators would need to collaborate to create this new class of structures.
Eventually, we would learn that every aspect of the design, engineering, fabrication and installation needed to be reinvented. Surface forms required consideration of solar exposure, module positioning, curvature, prestress values, weld orientations, and fabrication details. We also researched and tested a wide variety of adhesion and lamination methods to ensure that the flexible photovoltaic fabric would last for decades. Additionally, we had to gain expertise in electrical systems, including battery technology, inverters, charge controllers, off-grid and grid-tied systems, and electrical codes.
Robert Lerner, AIA, Co-Founder, Pvilion
It came as a surprise to us when the US Army noticed this first project and chose to fund additional research and development of this technology through the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program. Under this program, we created the PowerShade structure, a lightweight transportable 2kW photovoltaic shade structure, which was used in worldwide deployments by the US Army for over a decade. Designed to be located over other military shelters, the PowerShade provided power while reducing the cooling requirements of the shelter below.
Upon successful completion of the PowerShade project, we were awarded three separate NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research Development Authority) contracts to develop commercial applications for photovoltaic membrane structures. These contracts provided necessary funding to design, engineer, and prototype modular struc-
PowerShade, (FTL Design Engineering
c. 2006 photo)
“Photovoltaic tensile structures are redefining architecture, merging energy production
tures for other diverse uses, such as parking shade structures and temporary pavilions.
As technologies evolved, so did our applications, and the capabilities of our team to design, engineer and fabricate also expanded. The flexible solar panels became more efficient, producing far more power per square foot than the initial technology, lithium-ion batteries became more reliable and less expensive, and our adhesive methodologies improved significantly. Our professional team is now comprised of architects, mechanical and electrical engineers, and specialized fabricators. With this technology and team in place, we have been able to provide the Air Force with a product line we call Solar Power Integrated Structures (SPIS), providing renewable power, shelter, energy storage, power distribution, environmental control systems, and even atmospheric water harvesting, reducing or eliminating entirely the need to transport water and fuel to remote locations. When the Air Force deploys, they need to carry fuel and generators for the majority of their power needs. With our solar arrays set up, these generators are practically never used. In New York City, we were pleased to do a demonstration project at the New York Botanical Gardens with funding by the City’s DCAS (Department of Citywide Administrative Services). Situated at the Mosholu Gate of the Gardens,
Power Integrated Structures) for Ukrainian refugees Photo courtesy of Spangdahlem Air Force Base. Middle: Solar Canopies, (Pvilion, 2020). Right: Single Pole Solar Sail, Brookhaven, Georgia (Pvilion,
Left: Pvilion SPIS (Solar
redefining the possibilities of with lightweight design.”
Pvilion’s solar canopy structures generate electricity to feed the power grid and provide device charging and canopy lighting, while offering shade and shelter for park visitors and vendors.
Our technology has also found a use in landscape architecture. For example, in a public park near Atlanta, Pvilion provided a number of photovoltaic canopies that power mobile devices and maintenance equipment for the park and visitors.
refugees in Poland (Pvilion, 2024) Canopies, New York Botanical Garden, New York City (Pvilion, 2018).
The durability of these photovoltaic structures is also notable. Projects like the Capital Cascades Connector Bridge in Tallahassee and the Techstyle-Haus, designed for the 2014 International Solar Decathlon competition, have demonstrated how solar membranes can provide long-lasting power while maintaining structural integrity in demanding environments. The bridge’s solar canopy, for example, has survived three hurricanes since its completion in 2016, and still stands as an architectural showpiece for the city of Tallahassee. The solar array captures energy by day
to offset its energy usage at night for dramatic architectural lighting. The Techstyle-Haus is the world’s first textile-based home to meet the Passive House energy standard. The house has been in use for a decade at the Boisbuchet Architectural Park in Lessac, France. Other recent projects explore new opportunities in the commercial sector. An “agrivoltaic” project on a working farm in Iowa demonstrates how solar tensile structures can be employed on wide clearspan buildings to provide significant power and utility in the agricultural sector. This 80’ wide by 150’ long structure will generate 225 kWh daily, providing most of the farm’s energy needs. Co-locating photovoltaics in proximity to agricultural land is an important goal identified by the US Department of Energy. The benefits include reduced competition for land, diversifying potential revenue streams for large land owners, and the ecological benefits of providing clean renewable power.
Looking Forward
Photovoltaic tensile structures are redefining the possibilities of architecture, merging energy production with lightweight design. At Pvilion, we continue to push the boundaries of this technology, delivering innovative solutions across civic, institutional, commercial, military, and landscape sectors. As solar technology evolves, these flexible membranes
Left: Capital Cascades Connector Bridge Canopy, Tallahassee, Florida (Pvilion Haus, PV Membrane Roof, Lessac, France (Pvilion with Rhode Island School as Solar Decathlon Team, 2014). Bottom Right: Agrivoltaic Solar Fabric Structure,
(Pvilion with FIGG Group Bridge Engineers, 2016). Top Right: Techstyle School of Design, Brown University Engineering, and Erfurt University Structure, Audubon County, Iowa (Pvilion for Accu-Steel, 2024).
unlock new opportunities for power generation, water harvesting, and climate control— particularly in environments where traditional materials fall short. Beyond their versatility, photovoltaic tensile structures are helping shape a decarbonized economy, offering sustainable alternatives at the intersection of design and energy. Frei Otto envisioned architecture as a way to live lightly on the land, conserving materials during times of scarcity and economic challenge. Today, by embedding photovoltaics within tensile membranes, we carry Otto’s legacy forward—creating structures that not only minimize environmental impact but actively generate renewable energy. This fusion of ideas points to a future where architecture meets the demands of sustainability with beauty and efficiency.
Robert Lerner, AIA, is an architect and co-founder of Pvilion, a Brooklyn, New Yorkbased Design/Manufacture/Build firm specializing in the design, prototyping, and fabrication of photovoltaic structures. To learn more, see www.pvilion.com
Architects: Specify IAS Accredited Metal Building Contractors & Fabricators
Accreditation Demonstrates Competence
When you specify a metal building, it’s important to know that you are choosing both metal building system fabricators and metal building contractors that are competent and that you can trust to do the work. IAS has made this possible with the AC472 Metal Building Systems Inspection Accreditation Program and the AC478 Metal Building Assembler Inspection Accreditation Program.
IAS only accredits the companies that demonstrate compliance with strict accreditation requirements. These lists of IAS accredited companies are available for free access on the IAS website at https://www.iasonline.org/services/metal-building-inspection/ and/ or https://www.iasonline.org/services/metal-building-assemblers/
Learn More on the Architects Page
The IAS accreditation programs for metal building systems are recognized by the MBCEA and the MBMA
The International Accreditation Service® (IAS) is a member of the International Code Council’s (ICC) Family of Solutions, an independent, nonprofit accreditation body, which accredits both metal building manufacturers and metal building contractors.
BURNOUT PREVENTION 101 WORKSHOP
A 90 minute workshop aimed to teach architects and design professionals how to:
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Implement maintenance strategies to prevent burnout
Actionable strategies to overcome burnout
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