gb&d Issue 60: Spring 2020

A M B I U S B R I N G S L I F E T O C O M M E R C I A L S P A C E S W I T H C R E A T I V E S C E N T S O L U T I O N S , P. 8 0

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ARE TODAY’S ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS CHANGING THE WAY WE DESIGN? P. 50

POINT OF VIEW

EXPERIENCE the ENTIRE HVACR INDUSTRY ALL UNDER ONE ROOF

FEB 3-5 • 2020

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In This Issue Spring 2020 Volume 11, Issue 60

No Stone Unturned NOMO STUDIO commits to sustainability even with this expansive layout in Spain.

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What are the benefits of installing an ERV/HRV?

Table of Contents 44 Aging in Place—and In Style ZeroEnergy Design builds for comfortable, environmentally friendly living on the Massachusetts coast.

Products 12 An Expert’s Guide to Plumbing Design

50 Grade A Design University of Kansas architecture students ace the design of these houses on Oak Hill Avenue.

Explore Champion-Arrowhead’s innovative plumbing and irrigation products.

32 Building a Living Laboratory Feldman Architecture takes on a very personal project—the principal architect’s own turn-of-the century home.

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experience with real granite boulders.

CORE Energy Recovery Solutions’ Exchanger takes care of stale air.

74 What should I consider for fire safety in my building?

56 High Marks

More institutions for higher education are emphasizing not just how their students learn, but also how their buildings perform.

Hexion’s products take flame resistance beyond the surface.

78 How do mobile ramps and systems make projects easier?

Temple University’s Charles Library is designed to last many lifetimes.

Architecture firm EHDD adds a playful twist to the architecture of this San Rafael school.

68 Why have an urban boulder in the city?

OnSite provides a unique urban rock-climbing

Typology

20 Higher Learning 26 An Old School Gets a New Heart

Only the best raw materials are used in Roppe’s rubber flooring products.

Projects

66 How does Roppe ensure its flooring is Red List-free?

70 Why use energy recovery technology?

16 An Expert’s Guide to Sustainable Kitchen Design InSinkErator shares some of the top features of their disposal systems and hot water dispensers.

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EZ-ACCESS ramps can adapt to any building situation.

80 How does scent impact a space?

Practice

Ambius offers scent solutions that improve commercial projects all over the globe.

64 How are ICFs more energyefficient?

The Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association explains how ICFs really save energy.

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Contributors

Green Building & Design gbdmagazine.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Christopher Howe ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Laura Heidenreich

MANAGING EDITOR

Laura Rote

ART DIRECTOR

Kristina Walton Zapata ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Julie Veternick

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Ciara Gomez, Isabel Ilbuga, Christian Van Epps EDITORIAL INTERNS

Lucy Miller, Jessica Mordacq

Eric Canan (“An Old School Gets a New Heart”) is a Chicago-based freelance writer who has studied civil engineering, education, creative writing, and publishing. He’s worked as a laboratory assistant, a middle school science teacher, and an editorial assistant at a nonprofit publisher. In his free time he performs improv comedy around Chicago. He looks to balance his experience and interests by writing about general science and sustainability in ways that are engaging, educational, socially useful, and fun.

PG. 26

GRAPHIC DESIGNER INTERNS

Carlos Bernabe, Mariusz Kozien CONTRIBUTORS

Eric Canan, Cap Green, David Miller, Mike Thomas, Matt Watson MAIL

Green Building & Design 1765 N. Elston Ave., Suite 202 Chicago, IL 60642 Printed in the USA. © 2020 by Green Advocacy Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for product claims and representations.

Cap Green (“High Marks”) is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. She researched spatial and societal constraints in 19th century French literary characters as a Tow Fellow in France and continues to write about the relationship between literature and the earth’s environment. She works full-time as the director of a nonprofit organization that provides charitable services internationally. Cap’s favorite stories are inspired by her Cajun French roots, which she shares on Southern Wild.

PG. 56

The Green Building & Design logo is a registered trademark of Green Advocacy Partners, LLC. Green Building & Design (gb&d) magazine is printed in the United States using only soy-based inks. Please recycle this magazine.

The magazine is also available in digital formats at gbdmagazine.com/current-issue.

Green Building & Design is a certified B Corp.

B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk.

B Corps are certified by the nonprofit BLab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

Mike Thomas (“What should I consider for fire safety in my building?”) is a Chicago-based writer whose work appears regularly in Chicago magazine and gb&d, among others. He also spent nearly 15 years at the Chicago SunTimes and is the author of two books. He has written about a wide range of subjects—from movie stars and bestselling authors to famous musicians and business leaders.

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Editors’ Note Share your comments on this issue.

Tweet us @gbd_mag

A M B I U S B R I N G S L I F E T O C O M M E R C I A L S P A C E S W I T H C R E A T I V E S C E N T S O L U T I O N S , P. 8 0

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POINT OF VIEW

ON THE COVER An architecture class at the University of Kansas designed two structures to address affordable housing needs in the city of Lawrence.

Photo by Corey Gaffer Photography

The population is growing in Lawrence, Kansas, and some architects are preparing.

Studio 804, a project of a University of Kansas Department of Architecture class, built “the houses on Oak Hill Avenue” as part of their education and focus on reports that show county growth.

The report points to medium to high population growth rates in the last two decades and, if the trend continues, housing for up to 60,000 more residents may be needed by 2040. STUDIO 804, PG. 50

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Did you know 74% of consumers are drawn into

Stantec proves anything is on the table when

Accessing outdoor rock climbing around Montreal

When architect Jonathan Feldman set out to

a store because of smell? And we’re not just talking about Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle. One study

by Premium Scenting found that while this is most noticeable in food-based outlets, the effects appear the same for non-food retailers, too. Similarly, Premium Scenting discovered that 35% of consumers would walk out of a store if they smelled something off-putting, whether it was unpleasant, too strong, or didn’t seem to fit with its surroundings. AMBIUS, PG. 80

designing a multifunctional space. On the outside, the Charles Library is fitted with granite that appears to change color depending on the time of day, and inside, an automated book retrieval system delivers books right into the hands of readers. The library considers both how a university building can look as well as how students can engage with one another and the community at large.

usually means a fourhour drive roundtrip.

On one of those long drives, OnSite cofounders Pascal Godin and Françis Larose started complaining about how far the climbing was and instead started dreaming up how to bring natural rock climbing closer to home. A month later they revisited that conversation and decided to take action.

Thus OnSite was born, and three years later the first natural rock installation found its home in Montreal.

remodel his own home in the middle of San Francisco, he knew he wanted it to be a sustainable oasis.

He had to push the city’s building department to allow a new type of water system previously unseen there. Two types of water reuse systems were then implemented on the property—rainwater and greywater harvesting—with the tanks concealed below the rear deck. The house achieved LEED Platinum. THE FARM,

CHARLES LIBRARY, PG. 20

ONSITE, PG. 68

PHOTO: COREY GAFFER PHOTOGRAPHY

5 Things We Learned During the Making of This Issue

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Editors’ Picks News

Powerhouse Brattørkaia

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF IVAR KVAAL

Cold temperatures and long Scandanavian winter nights didn’t stop Snøhetta from designing an energypositive building in Trondheim, Norway.

At 63° north of the equator, Powerhouse Brattørkaia is the northernmost energy-positive building in the world.

The building minimizes energy use with maximally efficient insulation, intelligent airflow, and heating and cooling systems that use nearby seawater. It maximizes its energy output with 3,000 square meters of carefully oriented solar panels on its roof and facade, storing energy from long summer days for use in the winter. Truly living up to its name, Powerhouse Brattørkaia is expected to produce more than twice its daily average electricity needs, sharing the surplus through a local microgrid. snohetta.com

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Carbontec Radiant Heating Systems

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CARBONTEC

Heating a room efficiently is tricky and can come at a major financial and environmental cost. Carbontec’s Radiant Heating Systems provide new heating technologies that run at a safe and cost-effective low voltage. Carbontec’s systems yield 98% efficiency without boilers or radiators—systems that are typically only 70% efficient. Waves of infrared energy are generated from a carbon fiber polymer film that can adhere to the walls, floors, and ceilings of any home or business. Connecting the transformer and thermostat to a Bluetooth device also allows you to regulate the temperature while the system remains completely out of sight. carbontec.world

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Plumen Hive Shade

PHOTO: COURTESY OF PLUMEN

Plumen’s latest light shades are an elegant answer to the task of brightening your space. The new Hive shade’s tessellating hexagonal design reflects the pattern of a honeybee moving from comb to comb, muting white light while keeping the form of the bulb visible.

Designer Luke Deering also wanted to bring together a graceful biomorphic lighting solution with a sustainable production process. The shade is 3D printed using PLA bioplastic, made up of 90% recycled plastic and other plant based resources. All six color options are made to order in the UK to eliminate waste and shipping costs. plumen.com

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IKEA’s FÖRÄNDRING After each harvest in North India rice farmers are left with fields of leftover debris in their fields—rice straw. Often huge swaths of rice straw are burned to make way for new crops, but IKEA is trying to find practical, marketable ways to prevent the air pollution that results. Enter FÖRÄNDRING (Swedish for “change”), the company’s first line of home goods made from rice straw repurposed as a raw material. The line, consisting of baskets, rugs, lampshades, and more, will be available in select worldwide markets, and IKEA has joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to help spread the mission of FÖRÄNDRING to other regions that practice crop burning. ikea.com

The JUST Program

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF INTER IKEA SYSTEMS B.V.; ILFI

The JUST Program from the International Living Future Institute is the “nutrition label” for how companies handle crucial issues like diversity, equity, and inclusion. And now, a record-setting 750 organizations have decided to pursue the JUST label. News of the huge influx of registrations proves that the number of companies ready to be transparent about social equity is steadily rising.

Working under the guidelines of the JUST Program, employees are more engaged and ready to have important conversations. The program has already been widely accepted as the standard metric for social equity from firms working in the AEC sector globally, marking a meaningful improvement in how companies manage social equity.

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Directory Interested in advertising? Contact Laura Heidenreich at laura@gbdmagazine.com for more information about advertising in our print magazine, online, and newsletter, as well as custom media.

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AHR Expo, 82

InSinkErator, 16

ahrexpo.com 203.221.9232

insinkerator.emerson.com 800.558.5700

Ambius, 80

ICFMA, 64

ambius.com 877.552.1865

icf-ma.org

Champion-Arrowhead, 12

Lifebreath, 72

champion-arrowhead.com 800.332.4267

lifebreath.com 855.247.4200

EZ-ACCESS, 78

New Building Institute, 76

ezaccess.com 800.258.8503

newbuildings.org 503.761.7339

Fantech, a Systemair Company, 70

OnSite, 68

fantech.net 800.747.1762

theonsite.com

Hexion Inc, 74

Roppe Corporation, 66

hexion.com 614.225.4344

roppe.com 800.537.9527

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PRODUCTS

Champion-Arrowhead provides outdoor pipe fittings that are lead-free.

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An Expert’s Guide to Outdoor Pipe Fittings

By David Miller

Perfect green lawns behind white picket fences are iconic. Picture an ideal suburban neighborhood and an image of a friendly neighbor waving with one hand while holding a hose in the other may not be far from your mind. But the water flowing from your neighbor’s hose isn’t magic; like most luxuries in our lives, it’s supported by a series of back-end technologies, tended to by experts so people can be free to enjoy their outdoor spaces.

That’s where Champion-Arrowhead, one of America’s few domestic providers of lead-free outdoor pipe fittings, comes in. Not only are their outdoor hose bibs and sillcocks certified lead-free by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, but they utilize a patented technology called the Arrow-Breaker to prevent backflow—a process that occurs when a drop in pressure causes outdoor water to be siphoned back into a pipe, potentially leading to the contamination of indoor drinking water.

“You use outdoor hose bibs to fill your child’s kiddy pool or the reserve tank in your travel trailer or the cooler you bring to your local baseball game,” says Michelle Wood, marketing communications manager at Champion-Arrowhead.

“Our mission is to help people understand that it’s important those fittings be lead-free.” gb&d

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Why LeadFree?

from regulations because they are not considered for potable use, says Will Schneider, product marketing manager at Champion-Arrowhead. In a word, outdoor hoses are for watering your lawn, not for drinking from. That said, it’s not hard to see that that isn’t always true. “Everybody knows if you’re outside on a hot day and you have a hose that’s running water to your flowers and you’re thirsty, you’re going to take a drink out of that hose,” Schneider says. “I did it as a kid, and so did my parents. Everyone I know has drunken water out of a hose.”

Residents should make a conscious effort to ensure their outdoor pipe fittings are certified by an accredited third-party organization like IAPMO to meet National Sanitation Foundation standard 372, which guarantees fittings contain a maximum weighted average lead content of 0.25%.

Champion-Arrowhead, for their part, switched the material used for their fittings from a red brass alloy employed since 1936 to a lead-free bronze alloy with no harmful additives or coatings. At under 0.09% lead content, the new alloy not only meets NSF standard 372; it exceeds it.

Keeping potable water—that is, water intended for drinking purposes—leadfree has long been a known must. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that, in 2016, lead exposure accounted for 63.2% of the global burden of developmental intellectual disability, 10.3% of the global burden of hypertensive heart disease, and 6.2% of the global burden of stroke.

According to the EPA, lead can enter potable water sources when plumbing materials like pipes, faucets, and fittings containing lead are corroded, often by water with a high acidity or low mineral content. To prevent this, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, mandating that pipes, valves, and other fittings used for potable water contain no more than 8% lead. In 2014 that requirement was reduced to no more than 0.25%.

However, outdoor fittings like hose bibs and sillcocks are often exempted

What is Backflow Prevention?

Backflow, sometimes referred to as back-siphonage, occurs when a pressure change in a water system causes the flow of water to reverse its direction. While this may sound harmless, it can contaminate local water supplies.

“Think about someone who has connected an herbicide or pesticide sprayer to the end of their hose in order to treat their backyard,” Schneider says.

“If there isn’t adequate backflow prevention, that water could get siphoned back into the water system, contaminating not only your household water supply, but the water supply of your entire neighborhood.”

Because failure to prevent backflow at a single home can affect an entire neighborhood’s water supply, plumbing codes have taken the issue very seriously and require backflow preven-

A CLOSER LOOK AT ARROWHEAD TOP PRODUCTS

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221QT

265LF

423-04

The Arrowhead Brass 221QT lead-free boiler drain has an easy on/easy off QuickTurn handle to allow for quick open or close of the valve. Boiler drains are used to help drain water, residue, and sediment from boiler systems to help maximize efficiency.

The Arrowhead Brass 265LF Arrow-Breaker lead-free sillcock has a built-in anti-siphon vacuum breaker to help prevent backflow pressure into your water system. The Arrow-Breaker technology prevents harmful contaminants from entering your water supply, keeping families healthy.

The Arrowhead Brass lead-free Anti-Siphon Frost-Free hydrant helps to protect pipes in frost-prone areas by separating cold weather from the water supply. The 423-04 also offers anti-siphon protection, an air vent for back pressure relief, and a weep hole.

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IMAGES: COURTESY OF CHAMPION-ARROWHEAD

A CLOSER LOOK AT CHAMPION PLUMBING & REDIGRIP TOP PRODUCTS

Angle Stop Valve

RGT Series

ASR Series

RGE Series

The Champion Plumbing angle stop valve is part of the interior residential plumbing line. This lead-free service valve is used to control the flow of water to individual fixtures within your home.

The lead-free REDIGRIP push-fit tee adapter connects to copper, CPVC, or PEX pipes and is perfect in emergencies as it instantly joins pipes without soldering or gluing. It’s ideal for homeowners and contractors alike.

The Champion Plumbing angle stop push-fit valve makes connection a snap.

This lead-free push-fit angle stop valve works perfectly in emergency repairs by instantly connecting pipes. No soldering or gluing needed.

The REDIGRIP push-fit elbow adapter makes repairs easy.

This lead-free, push-fit elbow adapter uses push-to-connect technology to join copper, CPVC, or PEX pipes in any combination without glue, soldering, or unions.

tion devices on all outdoor fixtures.

However, the most commonly utilized backflow prevention devices—vacuum breakers—are merely screwed onto an outdoor spigot during a plumbing inspection completed during the construction phase of a project. Moreover, because they often reduce water flow and pressure as well as causing irritating backsplash, Schneider says many residents are liable to simply remove them without realizing their importance.

To combat this issue, Champion-Arrowhead rolled out its patented Arrow-Breaker technology, which functions as an integrated vacuum breaker to prevent it from being broken, tampered with, or removed.

Rather than being a mere add-on to a spigot that can be easily unscrewed, the Arrow-Breaker is part and parcel of Champion-Arrowhead’s hose bibs and sillcocks, rendering it a safer, more reliable solution. Not only that, but it mitigates the pressure and flow losses of typical vacuum breakers. According to Schneider, a standard hose bib equipped with an add-on vacuum breaker can deliver roughly five to six gallons of water per minute at 60 gb&d

pounds-force per square inch (PSI), while a hose bib equipped with an integrated Arrow-Breaker can double that figure to reach 10 to 12 gallons of water per minute at the same PSI.

How Will Changing Regulatory Standards Affect Outdoor Pipe Fittings?

standard remaining in place indefinitely. As recently as October 2019 the EPA announced a proposed change to pre-existing lead and copper rules, which, if passed, would mandate that outdoor hose bibs and sillcocks be entirely lead-free, a measure that Champion-Arrowhead is well ahead of the curve in meeting.

The more stringent regulations are aimed at promoting health and safety in schools, childcare facilities, and at-risk communities—demographics Champion-Arrowhead is no stranger to serving. In addition to the residential market, Champion-Arrowhead products can be found at a plethora of schools, parks, and daycare centers. The company says it’s vital to ensure the integrity of the fittings utilized at these locations. “People don’t always understand the importance of purchasing a lead-free fitting for their home or business,” Wood says. “Our focus is on educating the public on the value lead-free products have and what impact they have on consumers’ health and safety.”

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An Expert’s Guide

to Sustainable Kitchen Design

By Matt Watson

As the world’s largest manufacturer of garbage disposals and instant hot water dispensers, InSinkErator is proud of its humble roots. The company was founded in 1938 by John W. Hammes and produced a total of 52 disposals at its Racine, Wisconsin plant that year. Today InSinkErator is still headquartered in Racine, but much else has changed; it now cranks out millions of disposals a year to customers around the globe from a state-of-the-art innovation center designed for LEED standards.

The design of its new main campus is a symbol of the company’s commitment to its core philosophy of sustainability.

With garbage disposals and hot water dispensers in nearly every sink, InSinkErator demonstrates first-hand the environmental benefits of their products. “An InSinkErator disposal has always been a product of convenience, but that convenience comes with the sustainable benefit of diverting millions of tons of food waste from landfills,” says Ron Sing, director of brand and integrated marketing at InSinkErator.

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PHOTO: COURTESY OF INSINKERATOR

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What is Sustainable Kitchen Design?

als and instant hot water dispensers, households can reduce their environmental footprint while enjoying modern conveniences.

“Left to decompose in a landfill, food waste creates methane, a greenhouse gas that, per the EPA, is 25 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide,” says Michael Keleman, environmental engineering manager at InSinkErator. “Grinding food scraps and sending them through The conversation on environmental the sewers to water treatment plants uses less energy and creates sustainability tends to focus less pollution than throwon a global scale, yet the way an average family disposes of ing those scraps in the trash and transporting them to a their food waste can have a Simple changes in huge impact on the envilandfill.” residential kitchen ronment. According to Sing, According to Keleman, Indesign may have a statistics calculated from the SinkErator internal research tremendous effect on combined with EPA data EPA show the average family the environment. revealed that for every comof four generates more than 1,000 pounds of food waste munity of 30,000 households each year. Through sustainable kitchthat grinds its food waste in a disposen design, including the use of disposal instead of sending it to landfills, it

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would have the same positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions as driving 4.7 million miles less per year in an average passenger vehicle. Simply making small changes in the design of a residential kitchen could have an enormously positive impact on the environment if implemented on a large scale.

What Products are Right for You? InSinkErator’s suite of garbage disposals and instant hot water dispensers are highly versatile, helping customers gbdmagazine.com gbdmagazine.com

PRODUCTS

solve a variety of kitchen needs. Before purchasing a disposer, you should consider how often you cook, how many people are in the household, and how often you entertain. “For instance, if you frequently entertain guests or have an open-concept kitchen, you’ll definitely want a Quiet Series disposer so the noise won’t interrupt guests’ conversation or f a m i ly t i m e ,” Consider the Sing says. For cusspace. For open tomers who cook kitchen concepts, homeowners often and plan to might consider put larger piecthe Quiet Series es of food waste disposer, as it down the drain, won’t interrupt the Power Series conversations with disposers would distracting noise. be an excellent fit.

When considering an instant hot water dispenser, it’s important to weigh the benefits of in-home water filtration against the alternatives like plastic water bottles or disposable filters. With the hot and cold instant hot water dispenser, customers can save a substantial sum of money on cold, filtered water as well as enjoy the benefits of instant hot water right in their kitchen.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF INSINKERATOR

What About Septic Systems?

It’s a common myth that using a garbage disposal to eliminate food waste will upset a septic system. “In fact, a disposer grinds food scraps into a slurry that easily flows through a home’s plumbing and into a septic tank,” Sing says. “Once there, food scraps decompose faster than other waste, and because food waste is 75 to 90% water, it adds very little to the solids that settle at the bottom of the tank.”

To further alleviate customer concerns, InSinkErator designed the SepticAssist® disposal, which releases Bio-Charge® enzymes into the grind chamber with each use to break down fats, proteins, and starches in food scraps before they reach the septic tank. Once there, they help break down other solid waste like toilet paper. gb&d

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Higher

Learning

A Temple University building engages students and the public in smart new ways.

B Y LU CY M I L L E R P H OTO S B Y M I C H A E L G R I M M

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PROJECTS

The shimmering granite chosen for the building’s base has bits of quartz that sparkle depending on the weather and time of day.

“The stone itself has been described as a corduroy pattern, where the stone is bush hammered on the exterior face. But there are also vertical saw cuts throughout the granite that create the two textures.

A very smooth texture connects to that bush hammered rough texture, and that also plays a little bit of tricks with the eye about the lighting level,” Sullivan says.

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Temple University’s sustainable campus update isn’t just green; it’s also incredibly eye-catching, thanks to the collaborative effort of Stantec and Snøhetta, who designed the new Charles Library. Finished in August 2019, the four-story, 220,000-square-foot library project is complete with an impressive green roof and expansive atrium lobby, all set on a textured granite base.

But the library is more than an attractive backdrop for selfies. It also pushes boundaries with streamlined energy use and a multifunctional layout. Versatility was a priority for Scott Sullivan, principal architect at Stantec. “It’s got the kind of adaptability because of the openness, transparency, and flexibility to not get stuck.

This is a building that’s going to have a good, long life.”

LEED Gold certifications were in mind from concept design to construction. Stantec designed the floor slats, fitting them with innovative hydronic piping to push hot or cool water through

the floor. Sullivan says the hydronic system represents a good 50% of how the building is heated and cooled, allowing for less ductwork and less fans needed to push air through the building. These new mechanics reduce energy use by around 30% compared to a typical library.

You’ll also find water bottle filling stations, bike storage, and recycling areas rounding out the library’s green features.

But you don’t have to register for classes to enjoy the library. Luis Vildostegui, a partner on the project, says the way Temple opened the building to the public and not just university students is extraordinary. “They have a laptop sharing program where you can go in and take out a laptop and find yourself a home in the building to use the Internet, then return the laptop before you leave. That’s heartwarming evidence of how Temple values and sees the library—how they see themselves as a steward and a responsible party in the city and as a member of the community.” gbdmagazine.com

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The Charles Library green roof—one of the largest in Philadelphia—provides major relief from rain and stormwater, using basins that slowly percolate precipitation into the surrounding groundwater system rather than diverting it to the city’s overburdened water system. The upper roof is an extensive

Much of the library’s facade is glass, making for a stunning exterior and reducing energy used. These windows are another example of the integrative design processes between Snøhetta and Stantec. “Snøhetta was looking for large glazed windows to increase the transparency of looking into the building.

The side benefit of that is that we’re bringing in natural

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roof system with 3-inchdeep soil strata, capturing most of the rainwater.

Smaller roofs on the fourth floor are visible to students inside. Intensive roof systems have about 10-inch-deep soil strata, allowing for larger flowers and plant life native to the Delaware Valley. “There were a lot of bees and

butterflies that showed up and were pollinating all the flowers,” Sullivan says. Vildostegui adds, “There’s an element of it that is just plain fun and feel-good, especially in a city as urban and as dense as Philadelphia where we have difficulties sustaining bee population and bird population.”

light to 90% of the occupied areas, reducing the amount of artificial light required,” Sullivan says. “All of our lighting inside the building has either a combination of photoelectric sensing or occupancy sensing. If it’s a nice sunny day, the lights won’t turn on.

If it’s a cloudy day or night, the lights will then turn on based on occupancy or darkness levels.”

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Transparency was key during the design process. The library’s intuitive floor plan is visible from all three floors of the lobby, so students and visitors can instantly see where they need to go for math tutoring, reading rooms, or other tasks. Vildostegui says, “You don’t see ducts, air distribution systems, grilles,

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or a whole lot of vents or louvers. When you have the engineers talking with the designers from day one, you don’t see all of that visual noise. We have all these systems, really high-tech technology, but it’s not burdening the space itself and what the space is trying to do.”

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The library’s automated storage and retrieval system is one of its most revolutionary components.

Books from the previous library were transferred and are now stored in a sustainable way to be retrieved by an accessible technological system. “It’s basically a warehouse

that has very highly condensed bookshelves that are 11 times more dense than standard, browsable, 6-foot-high bookshelves. Now we only have to heat and cool a 220,000-squarefoot building versus a 330,000-square-foot building,” Sullivan says.

Temple University Charles Library

From the first weeks of the library’s opening, Temple students were excited to see the BookBot in action. “They were all excited to see how the book was delivered from the warehouse racks to the librarian, who would then bring it out to give it to the students.”

Location: Philadelphia Completion: 2019 Size: 220,000 square feet Architects: Stantec, Snøhetta Civil Engineer: Hunt Engineering

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4

Structural Engineer: LERA

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Contractor: Daniel J. Keating

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IT / AV: Sexton Group

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LEVEL 1

Level 1 floor plan

1. Lobby 2. 24/7 Lobby 3. Cafe 4. Event Space 5. One Stop Service Desk 6. Exhibition 7. Special Collections Reading Room 8. Special Collections Office 9. Automated Storage Retrieval System 10. Instruction Room

Façade Consultant: Heintges Green Roof Consultant: Roofmeadow Lighting Consultant: Tillotson Lighting Design Programming Consultant: brightspot strategy

DRAWING: COURTESY OF STANTEC

Dome Geometry and Framing Fabricator: RadiusTrack ASRS/Bookbot: Dematic

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How EHDD helped a thriving school find a home in its own campus B Y E R I C CA N A N P H OTO S CO U RT E SY O F E H D D

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Creating a zero energy building wasn’t the big challenge when Scott Shell, princi-

pal at EHDD, and his team set out to design a new flagship building for Mark Day School in San Rafael, California. “We’ve done four or five LEED Platinum schools, and the formula for us has always been to essentially do a zero energy building,” he says. “Ten years ago that was hard.

Now it’s gotten—I don’t know if I’ll say routine— but the formula is clear and the economics are there.” The real challenge for this K-8 project was more abstract: For a community that prides itself on being “full of heart,” how could Shell and his team add a physical, emotional heart to the existing campus? “They really wanted something that reflected who they are and that showed off on the outside who they are on the inside,” Shell says.

The drab, sprawling 1960s campus didn’t do that.

He and his team were tasked with adding a maker lab and library and remodeling the administration building and school grounds. “The first thing was we made a two-story building so you could see it from the street,” he says. Having added an eye-catching new feature, the team then focused on what already existed. The original campus was low and underwhelming, but it

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did have one cool piece—an outdoor courtyard, or quad. “It was kind of an under-used quad. And we, with them participating in the process, reframed that as the heart of the school,” Shell says. Without disturbing the two mature trees already growing there, they redesigned the existing outdoor amphitheater, building it up instead of leaving it dug into the ground. Then they replaced the straight, forward-facing benches with curved seating to foster a strong sense of community during weekly all-school meetings. “It’s about the students seeing each other and interacting with each other,” Shell says. “It’s about the whole community and not just the head of school or the faculty up in the front teaching.”

For all the sustainable and thoughtfully designed features in the new building, it’s the way the building interacts with the revamped quad that makes it truly special. The libraries and maker space all feature huge windows and sliding glass doors. “It all opens out to a balcony and sidewalk that then opens onto this quad, the heart of the school,” Shell says. It’s an easy, flexible progression from indoors to outdoors, and it’s a progression that keeps the school’s focus on the shared space—and community—at its core. gbdmagazine.com

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Since completing construction, Shell has returned to Mark Day School for an all-school meeting in the new amphitheater.

“They’re loving it,” he says.

“The head of school says something; somebody from the soccer team gets up and talks about their games; somebody from the music department talks about the concert they had and shows some pictures; a student can get up and tell a joke—it’s amazing to watch.”

Building on their experience with zero energy schools, EHDD used familiar tactics: a highly efficient heat pump, all-electric power, daylighting, sun shading, and top-tier insulation. They even found ways to use the existing infra-

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structure to reach their energy goals. The roof of the gym just happened to face southwest with a perfect angle and uninterrupted view. It now sports a huge solar array that produces nearly twice the electricity the new building uses.

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“Too often all of our building systems are hidden and people don’t know how a system works,” Shell says. So EHDD made sure to prioritize visibility for teachers and students to learn from. Rooftop water is prominently collected and funneled through visible infrastructure into beautiful rain gardens in the courtyard, and the building’s structural components are left out in the open for all to see.

Shell feels a sense of pride in building maker spaces that prepare students for a life of creating. “I’ve always been a maker—I’ve always loved building things,” he says. But he got his start in design and construction years later than students at Mark Day School

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will. “This amazing set of digital tools they can use to design and then fabricate—it’s just incredible. Just imagine if you’re able to do that in third grade, what a head start you have by the time you’re in college or your career.”

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Mark Day School Location: San Rafael, CA Size: 12,000 square feet Architect: EHDD Structural Engineer: Pivot Structural Engineering Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing: Integral Group Civil Engineer: AECOM Contractor: Wright Contracting Landscape Architect: CMG Landscape Architecture Acoustics: Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc.

Site plan

Fire Protection: Jensen Hughes

the future. The library includes tons of options beyond regular tables and chairs: soft seating, hangout spots, reading nooks. “The main thing is to give the students a choice and options so they can find the place they want,�

Shell says.

DRAWINGS: COURTESY OF EHDD

The space inside the maker lab and libraries is designed to give teachers and students as many options as possible.

Tables move, walls slide, and the entire building is clear span, giving the school the option to redesign the internal layout some day in

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Building A Living

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An architect’s 20th century San Francisco house puts innovative green building practices to the test.

B Y L AU R A R OT E P H OTO S B Y M AT T H E W M I L L M A N

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The original house had no way of accessing the side or rear yards. New back doors, combined with the deck that bridges across the sloping lot to connect to the rear lawn, create a strong indoor-outdoor connection and bring light and garden views to the interior rooms.

It’s not always easy to transform a turnof-the-century home, let alone aim for net

zero. Feldman Architecture always encourages its clients toward sustainable design, so incorporating cutting edge green building practices was nothing new in this case, and the client made the process even easier—it was architect Jonathan Feldman and his wife Lisa Lougee themselves.

Feldman approached the remodel of their 1905 house as a laboratory, constantly asking himself and his team, “How can the home be at the leading edge of sustainability?” “I was excited to not only create a contemporary, modern, and functional home for my family within the building constraints of urban San Francisco, but also to innovate and experiment with cutting edge sustainability best practices,” he says. “The house is a New England brick and shingle style residence sitting next to an overgrown lot, which we transformed into an open, airy, flowing home.

We wanted a space that both respected the traditional character of an Edwardian building, while integrating modern architectural and sustainability features that I use in my work with my firm and my clients.”

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The design pushed the boundaries of San Francisco residential sustainability and design, and the team jumped at the chance to beta test innovative greywater systems and energy monitoring technology not previously attempted in the city. “We installed water and energy monitoring devices and software to tell us how much water and electricity the building was harvesting, recycling, and consuming. Living in this house is a great opportunity to see firsthand how the systems perform in the real world,” Feldman says.

“In my design practice, we use the research and data gathered from this project to improve and better implement these strategies in the buildings we design for our clients. But living in this house tells me so much more than looking at clients’ utility bills.”

Of all of the impressive features, Feldman says he loves the rain and greywater collection systems best. “It means that even in our everincreasingly common droughts, I can feel good looking out at a lush garden, knowing that it has been irrigated with second-use water. And I don’t feel quite as bad when I treat myself to a long shower.” gbdmagazine.com

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The Farm Location: San Francisco, CA Completion: 2018 Architect: Feldman Architecture Contractor: Jeff King & Company Structural Engineer: Strandberg Engineering Mechanical Engineer: Monterey Energy Group Interior Design: Lisa Lougee Interiors Landscape Architect: Bernard Trainor + Associates Windows: Jeld-Wen Kitchen Cabinets: Mueller Nicholls Additional cabinetry: Mark Brady Flooring: Galleher ERV: Zehnder Home Automation: Savant

N

Level 3 plans

Level 2 plans

2’ 4’

8’

24’

Combined Plans

heat partially heated by solar water panels, an HRV system, and sustainably sourced, non-toxic materials in addition to the impressive rainwater and greywater harvesting systems, with tanks concealed below the rear deck.

DRAWING: COURTESY OF FELDMAN ARCHITECTURE

The 4,630-square-foot home sits next to an overgrown field and has the tongue-in-cheek name of The Farm due to the rarity of backyards and outdoor living spaces in the city.

The house achieved LEED Platinum and has radiant

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The home’s original, poorly laid out spaces were a challenge, and the systems were primitive—including nob-and-tube wiring, old plumbing, and no insulation. “Without altering the historic facades, we needed to completely rebuild from the inside,” Feldman says.

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“We shored up the house and dug in new foundations below. We opened all the walls, floors, and roofs to weave in new structure and new systems. We added high-performance windows, batt and foam insulation, liquid-applied waterproofing, and a rainscreen facade.”

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Feldman utilized “found space” in what used to be a closed, unused attic to make a loft. “We wanted to carve away some of it as a way to bring light and volume to the floor below, as well as providing a flexible space away from the rest of the house where one can find a quiet couch to read a book, play guitar, or do some focused homework.”

The staircase connects four stories and acts as a lightwell to funnel daylight into what would have otherwise been the dark core of the narrow house.

At the top, the team placed

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four large skylights and opposing dormer windows to pour light down the core.

Clear glass rails and floating stair treads maximize how much light penetrates down to the lower floors.

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How an architect in Spain made one family’s dream of an island summer house come true B Y L AU R A R OT E P H OTO S B Y J OA N G U I L L A M AT

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No Stone Unturned

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When a family of six wanted a summer house in Spain that they could entertain guests in, they weren’t joking. The goal? A minimum of 16 beds and a large space where everyone could gather. Barcelona, Spain–based architecture firm NOMO STUDIO delivered.

The completed project has six bedrooms and many other open spaces, all organized around what founding partner and architect Karl Johan Nyqvist calls a “magnificent double height space that connects both physically and visually the two floors.” “Thanks to its large upper floor glazing, this space becomes a very bright lightshaft for the whole house.” Without that glazing, Nyqvist says the house may have lacked light in its core because of its depth. “All the villa’s circulation spirals around this void, liberating it from narrow dark corridors and activating its heart.”

But Nyqvist says the project’s biggest challenge wasn’t the light, but rather the client’s wish to strongly reflect local traditional architecture without feeling like a replica. To solve

that, NOMO STUDIO designed a facade that reinterprets the Minorcan custom of framing windows and edges with white plaster, creating a geometric patchwork of off-white plaster and light stone. Thin steel frames project beyond the solid facade to protect the windows from the direct sun and support the foldable wooden shutters. To emphasize the thick/thin contrast, windows were aligned to the interior and frames embedded from the outside to create the illusion of open holes on a stone wall. “This game of referring to local architecture but executed in a modern way creates an interesting house that can bridge the old and the new,” Nyqvist says.

The project is incredibly sustainable, too, thanks in large part to the facade’s thickness, the insulation, and the windows. The large porch works as a winter garden and helps to create shadows in the summer and a buffer zone in the winter. All windows have wooden shutters to control the sunlight. The house also has an air source heat pump.

This family summer house is built using the same technique and material as the ancient limestone walls enclosing most of the farmlands on the island of Minorca where it’s located. Its sequence of superimposed stone layers blend

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architecture and landscape.

“We really like how the walls of the plot merge into the facade of the house and how everything blends with nature,” Nyqvist says. The facade’s stone was collected from the onsite excavation for the villa’s foundation.

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From its generous covered porch, the homeowners and their guests can take in the the cliffs of Minorca, Spain. The indoor/outdoor space also functions as an extension of the kitchen, dining, and living room, making it a perfect spot to gather on nice evenings. Thanks to the room’s openable double

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glazed facade, it’s also a true thermal buffer, offering up a shaded porch on hot days and the perfect hot-air insulating system in the winter. In the garden, wild olive trees and local vegetation surround a large limestone platform with a greystone-coated swimming pool.

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Stone House Location: Minorca, Spain Completion: 2019 Building Engineer: Mus&Segui Size: 450 square meters Architect: NOMO STUDIO Project Team: Alicia Casals, Karl Johan Nyqvist, Mira Botseva, Jennifer Méndez

North elevation

Landscape Architects: Cristina Gil de Biedma, Bárbara Saavedra

wardrobes were custommade by a local carpenter.

Details like a solid hovering stair with integrated handrail-lighting create an interesting dialogue between traditional and contemporary architecture.

DRAWING: COURTESY OF NOMO STUDIO

Similar to the exterior, the house’s interior is a combination of continuous sand-colored concrete pavement, whitewashed walls, pine wood carpentry, and white-veiled wooden beams. All builtin kitchen furniture and

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Aging in Place and in Style

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ZeroEnergy Design’s modern design emphasizes accessibility and sustainability on a challenging terrain.

B Y M AT T WAT S O N P H OTO S B Y G R E G P R E M R U P H OTO G R A P H Y

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While the interior of the home is bright and airy with accents of bold colors, the exterior was designed to subtly blend in with its natural surroundings. “In contrast to the expressive interior, the home is rather demure

when viewed from the street,” Horowitz says. A cladding of muted wooden siding is complemented by slate-gray stones, allowing the greenery of the local flora and blue of the ocean beyond to stand out.

A couple from the Boston suburbs knew just what they wanted when they comm-

issioned ZeroEnergy Design to plan their empty nesters’ getaway in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. “They were looking for a home where they could enter the next chapter of their life,” says Stephanie Horowitz, managing director of ZeroEnergy Design. “They wanted something that engaged with the stepped site, took advantage of the beautiful views, and gave them a respite away from the city.”

The result was a modern, multi-tiered home that embraces sloped topography while providing privacy and offering breathtaking waterfront views.

Considering this project’s coastal location, external cladding needed to be more resilient than that of a traditional inland home.

“The corrosive coastal environment plus the potential for high wind speeds certainly added a level of complexity to the project,” Horowitz says.

The team went with non-corrosive materials like stainless steel flashing on the home’s exterior.

One of the homeowners’ main goals, though, was accessibility. “The client wanted to be able

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to age in place, but the site didn’t lend itself to single floor living, so we incorporated an elevator into the design of the project,” Horowitz says. This facilitated an improved flow between the garage entrance, office, master suite, and laundry on the upper level and the main living space below.

As with all of ZeroEnergy Design’s work, environmental sustainability was key. The roof features a photovoltaic array that produces nearly enough energy to offset the home’s consumption.

The super-insulated airtight enclosure further lowers the home’s energy needs.

The project also incorporates features that both accent the design and help to manage heat gain. In one example, exterior shades help to better control the interior temperature of the home. “Low sun angles on the property warm the house throughout the day, so the exterior shades help to block the sunlight before it enters the home,” Horowitz says. Not only does this reduce energy consumption, but it also creates a more comfortable living environment. “If it’s not comfortable, it’s not a great space.” gbdmagazine.com

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Showcasing the client’s extensive collection of artwork was a prime consideration when designing the home.

White walls, ample natural light, and minimalist accents create an ideal backdrop for their various pieces. “When guests enter the home, they’re greeted by an art wall that creates a degree of separation from the rest of the home,” Horowitz says.

The partially enclosed kitchen sits just beyond the combined living and dining space, providing a greater sense of privacy than a traditional open floor plan concept. White counters and cabinetry combined with floor-to-ceiling windows create a space that is both sunny and clean, yet comfortable and down to earth. “Directly outside the kitchen is a screened-in porch, which itself connects to a grilling area and lawn that is perfect for entertaining,” Horowitz says.

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OCEAN

POOL

LAWN

RESIDENCE MOTOR COURT

The Dartmouth Oceanfront Location: South Dartmouth, MA Completion: 2018 DRAWINGS: COURTESY OF ZEROENERGY DESIGN

The open floor plan and stepped topography of the site created an ideal opportunity for a hybrid indoor-outdoor living space.

“You have a kitchen that’s semi-enclosed, and open dining and living space, and this whole area is flanked on either side by programmed

outdoor space,” Horowitz says. Past the living and dining area, a manicured lawn opens up to a pool and views of the sea beyond. “With a stepped site, creating the living space with a close connection to grade allowed that integral connection between outdoor and indoor space.”

Size: 3,600 square feet Architect: ZeroEnergy Design Mechanical Design: ZeroEnergy Design Interior Design: Eleven Interiors Landscape Design: Soren Deniord Design Studio Windows: European Architectural Supply

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Grade A Design

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Anacapa Architecture tucked a modern family home into the hills of Coastal California.

B Y KAT E G R I F F I T H P H OTO S B Y E R I N F E I N B L AT T

A University of Kansas architecture class put its knowledge to the test.

B Y LU CY M I L L E R P H OTO S B Y CO R E Y G A F F E R P H OTO G R A P H Y

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The extensive decks that run alongside each of the houses are a gorgeous and eco-friendly feature. The buildings are surrounded by the deck on three sides.

One elongated side is for easier access to the front and back of the buildings by foot, while the other sides are more traditional deck settings, where you

Studio 804 recently transformed a patch of land on Oak Hill Avenue in Lawrence, Kansas into the perfect plot for a pair of stylish, comfortable homes. The houses at 1501 and 1503 Oak Hill Avenue are largely the product of the 2019 class of the University of Kansas Department of Architecture, but the students’ ideas are refined and guided by Professor Dan Rockhill of Rockhill and Associates. Springing from the corner lot of Oak Hill Avenue, the twin houses boast sustainable elements like metal sloped roofs and floorto-ceiling windows. The sleek homes shine as the crown jewel of a year’s worth of Studio 804’s hard work and collaborative design.

Rockhill has been at the helm of the evolving collective known as Studio 804 for nearly 25 years, and he’s been teaching for 40. “I was first teaching a design studio called Architecture 804.

It’s students’ very last studio experience before they go out into the working world,” Rockhill says. He says that when he got students involved with a project for his firm, renovating a schoolhouse just by chance, he saw a powerful enthusiasm for design and building that wasn’t coming

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can relax and watch the sun set. Sassafras wood sourced from Tennessee— only two states away—was used to complete the decks. “The wood deck becomes the wood interior wall. It’s simple and not overwrought in any way, and we work hard to try to keep that aesthetic,” says Rockhill.

out of students’ typical design studio experiences.

“So I went to the city of Lawrence and said, ‘I have some eager builders, and you have an affordable housing initiative. Why don’t we get together?’”

All of the students’ abilities are put to the test in Studio 804. They design and construct the projects from start to finish, making hundreds of decisions every week. The Oak Hill houses also prove that these budding architects are doing more than building their portfolios—they’re building structures that are sustainable and affordable for Lawrence residents. Constructing two separate dwellings on the land works for both of these goals. “Studio 804 prefers to set examples of how the public can address those issues. We created a subdivision on that site that basically divides what had been one large parcel into two,” Rockhill says. “You have the advantage of the streets, roads, electricity, and sewers already being in place, so it’s in the city’s best interest to promote increased density in these areas. It’s been a topic in our planning department here for the last several years, and we’re in a good position to be able to demonstrate these things.” gbdmagazine.com

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Metal roofs that cascade down the exterior give the appearance that the houses have been dipped in silver.

Each roof is sloped, a design choice made for better assimilation to the site’s natural environment. The metal used is also 100% recyclable. Rockhill says, “If you get tired of your siding, you take it to the scrapyard and not the dump, and they melt it down.” The

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material contributes to sustainability in another way: helping to control internal temperatures. “The houses themselves are ‘super insulated.’ We exceed our thermal energy code by at least 25 to 30%,” he says. “All of the outside walls are heavily insulated. We have very hot summers here, but we never exceeded $30 for either house in the electric bill.”

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Special care was taken to make sure that the houses were sustainable from the inside out. The kitchen appliances come from the German company Blomberg, and they all meet the standards of the Energy Star rating system. To reduce the consumption of water, the team installed WaterSense–rated faucets in the kitchen and bathroom. Instead of installing ductwork which clutters the visual field, mini-

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splits were implemented for the heating and airconditioning systems and they also help control the amount of refrigerant used. Rockhill says, “This stuff works, and I’d like to demonstrate to the public that you can achieve these things. You might have to demand it of your builder to work hard to try and meet these goals, but I do think it’s achievable—and increasingly becoming more affordable.”

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5'

FLOOR PLANS

0' 1' 15'

2

Oak Hill Avenue Houses

4 7

3

1501

1

6

5

Location: Lawrence, KS Completion: June 2019

LEGEND

LIVING ROOM KITCHEN FLEX ROOM MECHANICAL / LAUNDRY ROOM FULL BATHROOM WOOD DECK CARPORT / DRIVEWAY

1501

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8

6

4

5

3

LIVING ROOM KITCHEN FLEX ROOM MECHANICAL / LAUNDRY ROOM FULL BATHROOM BEDROOM WOOD DECK CARPORT / DRIVEWAY

1503

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

2

1

1503

Architect: University of Kansas 2019 Department of Architecture Class as Studio 804 Structural Engineer: Norton & Schmidt General Contractor: Studio 804

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Floor plans

The extensive windows that cover one side of each house do more than just pack a visual punch. Big windows capture a ton of sun, lowering electricity costs, too. The sunlight makes the interior appear more spacious, which is a plus for homes that are 600 and 950 square feet, respectively. The glass is also totally recyclable.

In fact, its use in the Oak

DRAWING: COURTESY OF STUDIO 804

UDIO804_19 - THE HOUSES ON OAK HILL AVENUE - MODERN SUSTAINABLE RESIDENCES - LAWRENCE, KANSAS

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Hill houses speaks to its recyclability, versatility, and affordability. “That glass had been dedicated for a use prior to landing on Oak Hill Avenue. It was part of a project in Kansas City, but then the contractor was left with all this glass,” Rockhill says. “We bought that glass for a song compared to what it cost initially—so there’s also a savings there for us.”

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High

Marks High-performance educational buildings encourage connectivity and experiential learning.

BY CAP GREEN

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P R OJ E CT NAME Tepper Quad

Buzz Yudell, urban planner and cofounder of Moore Ruble Yudell, brought Carnegie Mellon University’s vision of interconnectedness to life with the new Tepper Quad Project. “It begins with the campus and the School of Business committing to a project that goes well beyond the school of business to foster integration, collaboration, and experimental teaching on many levels,” Yudell says. “The experience of the building was developed to build upon the idea of breaking down barriers and enhancing collaboration, even between the university and its neighborhood and the community at large.”

Traditionally business schools dwell in their own sort of bubble on college campuses, but the Tepper Quad sought to enhance collaboration and blend the school of business with all disciplines. With a mix of spaces like an office for students with startup businesses, breakout spaces for meetings or group study, and private kiosks akin to telephone booths, the new business school has more of an experimental, first job feel than you might see in traditional university halls. You’ll find areas for independent work, but the design was intended to work as “a very flexible, fluid network of spaces rather than a strict hierarchy of defined spaces,”

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Yudell says. Almost all rooms are adaptable. The 600-seat Simmons Auditorium, for example, has retractable theater-quality seating and acoustic partitions that allow the space to be reconfigured into several smaller spaces.

One unique sustainable aspect of the building is the voided slab technique created with 9-, 10- and 12-inch spheres from Bubble Deck. The spheres are manufactured from recycled kayaks and reduce floor thickness, allowing for smaller foundations and columns. “After testing several systems, it became clear that to do a fully concrete slab and structural system would allow us to expose most of the ceilings, most of the floors, and almost all of the structure,” Yudell says. The voided slab was the largest to date when Tepper Quad opened. It reduced construction cost by 10% and cut the building’s total height by several feet without reducing the volume occupied.

Yudell and his team sought to make the experience of the Tepper Quad uplifting. The project includes areas that connect to outdoor spaces so students can work and experience the seasons at the same time. The building also has a fitness center, bike storage, and a café with healthy food options. “Sustainability

LOCATION Pittsburgh, PA COMPLETION August 2018 SIZE 315,000 square feet COST $201 Million ARCHITECT Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT Renaissance 3 Architects ENGINEER BuroHappold CONSTRUCTION MANAGER P.J. Dick LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Sasaki PHOTOS, DRAWING, AND PREVIOUS SPREAD: COURTESY OF MOORE RUBLE YUDELL

Locally sourced bricks from Beldon Bricks have a modern, sleek design that complements the campus’s long-standing traditional look.

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BSN Architects’ design for the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Center focused on reconfigurable spaces and community areas.

was integrated with health and wellness, which is one of the things we are all pleased about. The building has become a magnet for students, faculty, staff, and the greater community,” Yudell says.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business isn’t the only business school obtaining significant marks in sustainability. Barry Sampson, principal architect at Baird Sampson Neuert, employed his long-standing interest in bioclimatic design for his work on the Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Center at York University. His firm has been interested in climate and biological responsive design for many years, and Sampson says their work on a butterfly conservatory nearly 25 years ago really focused their minds on how a building has to maintain a certain environment for living creatures.

“We’re very interested in buildings that promote biological well-being, and we’re very interested in buildings that reduce their burden on the environment,” he says. The team’s focus was reflected in the McEwen Graduate Study & Research Center’s high-performance design. In addition to meeting York University’s sustainability concerns, Sampson’s design fits the school’s advanced curricula with reconfigurable spaces that allow creative and spontaneous interaction between educators, students, and peers. The central atrium has the digital technology needed for top public events and is set up with tables and lounge furniture for informal meetings. It serves as a sort of gathering place for students to linger with peers, make spontaneous connections with faculty, or study on their own. “Off one of the corridors there’s a ledge where you can sit and do some brief work,” Sampson

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The solar chimney extends nearly seven stories high and induces stack effect ventilation.

PHOTOS: TOM ARBAN; DRAWING: COURTESY OF BSN ARCHITECTS

P R OJ E CT NAME The Rob and Cheryl McEwen Graduate Study & Research Building

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Blackwell Structural Engineers

LOCATION Toronto, Canada

MECHANICAL ENGINEER Crossey Engineering Ltd.

COMPLETION 2019 SIZE 66,360 square feet COST $40 million ARCHITECT Baird Sampson Neuert Architects

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ELECTRICAL ENGINEER Crossey Engineering Ltd.

CONTRACTOR Ellis Don CLIMATE ENGINEER Transsolar Klimaengineering CIVIL ENGINEER RV Anderson ACOUSTICS Swallow

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Plant Architect

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PHOTOS: LAURIAN-GHINITOIU; DRAWING: COURTESY OF BJARKE INGELS GROUP

Five rectangular platforms create continuous space that extend the learning scape and encourage connectivity.

says. “We’re always thinking about ways in which people can be encouraged to linger if they want to and have opportunities to meet either their peers, students, professors, or colleagues.”

The McEwen Graduate Study & Research Center was originally intended to be a mixed-use academic building with a residential area above classrooms, offices, and labs, but changes in university policy required the team stick to a strictly academic design. Still, even after reverting from the original plan, Sampson’s early rendition for a nearly 92-foot solar chimney that induces stack effect ventilation remained a key element. “This is the second tallest solar chimney in Canada that we’re aware of,” he says. “When it was determined the residence would be provided elsewhere on campus, we had a discussion with our client about the value of retaining the solar chimney.” The solar chimney exaggerates effective ventilation in the three floors of classrooms and offices. Where a typical building may be able to use natural ventilation for 52 days of the year, the solar chimney, along with other bioclimatic design elements like intentionally sized windows, extends natural ventilation for 160 days.

Interconnected learning spaces are also making their way into public school systems. Daniel Sundlin, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group, worked closely with students and teachers to design The Heights, a new secondary school in Arlington that houses the H-B Woodlawn Program and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Program. H-B Woodlawn’s studies focus on visual and performing arts while Shriver provides extensive resources for students with specialized educational needs. Bringing the programs together required a design with gb&d

a sense of connectivity that still allowed different programs to work within their own spaces. “We had a lot of meetings early on in the process where we shared a lot of ideas,” Sundlin says. “For me, what was really special was the close relationship built between the team and the tenants.

It’s been a very fun and educational journey in many ways.”

Working within a strict budget and limited space, Sundlin designed roofscapes that offer untraditional learning spaces and a hybrid of functions. “Since the site was so small, we knew early on that we needed to provide sufficient outdoor space,” he says. The terraces are designed with H-B Woodlawn students’ sovereignty in mind and encourage them to venture outside. Terraces on the upper floor are intimate and quiet to accommodate independent study while terraces on the lower level are open and community-driven to promote connectivity between students.

For the Shriver Program, Sundlin considered students’ sensitivities to light and commotion as well as accessibility needs. Features like recreational areas and a sensory cottage are located on the first two floors, accessible from the ground.

“We wanted to make sure there was a relationship between the two programs,” Sundlin says. “The sort of cascading stair in the middle of the building terminates in the Shriver program, so they both have privacy, but they are both very much a part of the daily life in the school.”

The Heights features an on-site rainwater system, high-performance glazing, LED lighting with sensors and dimming capabilities, and an 18,700-square-foot vegetated roof. It is expected to receive LEED Gold certification.

P R OJ E CT NAME The Heights COMPLETION October 2019 LOCATION Arlington, VA SIZE 54,790 square feet ARCHITECTS Bjarke Ingels Group, LEO A DALY ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER EHT Traceries SUSTAINABILITY Sustainable Design Consulting

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Brian Corder, Marketing Chair of the Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA)

Ask the Expert How are ICFs more energy-efficient?

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We’ve long known ICFs are an energy-efficient building solution, but a recent study showed just how sustainable they are, as ICF walls actively resist changing temperature while delivering higher R-values than alternative insulation materials.

From a structural standpoint, ICFs are no different than having a poured concrete wall, and the dense concrete

core is surrounded

by EPS foam insulation that doesn’t degrade. Heat moves in and out of a building in three ways: conduction, convection, and radiation. Foam insulation is the only building material that effectively stops all three.

At the CLEB Lab in Quebec, researchers discovered just how well an ICF wall performs. We compared a twoby-six traditionally

insulated framed cavity wall with a standard six-inch core ICF wall. The wall was cooled to negative 35 degrees on one side and room temperature maintained on the other to see when the wall would reach a steady state.

How long would it take before they had to add energy to maintain a 70-degree room temperature?

After approximately 60 hours, the wood-framed wall reached steady state and was cold. The ICF wall reached steady state after 300 hours.

When you have a solid mass wall that never changes temperature because it’s airtight and insulated from temperature changes,

you’re significantly reducing the strain on your HVAC system. We recently replaced the geothermal system in one of our office buildings, and we didn’t have heat in the 22,000-squarefoot building for about a week. The temperature was in the teens, but even with no heat, the temperature inside never got below 65 degrees thanks to ICFs. You can have a structural wall that delivers between an R-45 and R-55 with no more investment in materials and less investment in labor. If you want to design a building that will deliver extremely high energy performance, ICFs offer all of this and more. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ICFMA

The Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA) is the North American nonprofit trade association for the ICF industry, founded in 2014 by a group of manufacturers who are committed to improving the quality of and spreading the word about ICF construction. For starters, advocates like Brian Corder, marketing chair of the ICFMA and president of BuildBlock, want people to know how ICFs punch above their weight class—with a material R-value of R-23 or R-24 (higher than more conventional walls, which are typically R-20) and deliver performance from R-45 to R-55. We talked to Corder about why this matters and how ICFs lead to 50% more in energy savings. Even though R-values are close, the thermal mass of the concrete moves ICFs into a class of its own.

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In 2016 the ICFMA commissioned an independent scientific study comparing a wood-framed cavity wall to a standard sixinch core ICF wall.

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Rahul Dhavalikar, Roppe Chief Polymer Chemist

Ask the Expert How does Roppe ensure its flooring is Red List–free?

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All of Roppe’s Red List-free rubber flooring products are made in the US. In other words, they don’t contain any of those “worst in class” materials that are so prevalent in the industry. We know they’re Red List–free through careful selection, testing, and validation of raw material ingredients.

When we began screening our raw materials, the Inter-

national Living Future Institute had not yet published its Priority List and Watch List for harmful materials, but today it’s easy for manufacturers and product designers to access this information.

Early on, we didn’t want to make substitutions for materials we might regret, so we used GreenScreen to identify high-concern chemicals and safe alternatives.

To ensure our

products are not harmful, our rubber tile and sheet flooring products are uncoated, which means they’re manufactured without any factory applied permanent coating.

Polyurethane-based surface coatings are generally used on high performance flooring products to improve durability. These surface coatings are either applied in the manufacturing plant as a factory finish or at the job site after installation. In order to deliver superior performance from surface coatings at competitive market prices, the coating recipe has to be formulated with ingredients from the Red List. The key components in these coating recipes are hazardous; extreme caution is required for handling during manufacturing. Skin sensitization and

rashes are immediate outcomes when mishandled. For Roppe, that simply won’t do. Our owners put the health of our employees and customers at the center of every decision. Our ownership chose not to apply permanent surface coating on rubber flooring products, opting to reformulate them instead in a way that a wear layer will not be required to deliver product performance. As a result, we have Red List–free rubber flooring products.

Not having this coating also means the customer saves money in the long term—they don’t have to maintain the coating or re-apply to maintain original durability.

Read more from Roppe in the Summer issue of gb&d when they tackle maintenance.

gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ROPPE

Roppe has been in business since 1955, and Chief Polymer Chemist Rahul Dhavalikar says the family-owned company continues to show clear commitment to manufacturing the safest, healthiest products. Roppe products are not only Red List–free; they’re 100% recyclable in the U.S. Reaching Red List–free status took Roppe about four years, but the process doesn’t stop there.

Dhavalikar shares his insights around how and why the company continues to learn about the safety of chemicals and finished products. Find out how Roppe’s rubber flooring offers an excellent combination of performance, environmental, and health benefits at lowest overall lifecycle costs.

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Roppe’s Tuflex® Spartus multipurpose sports flooring tiles are Red List–free and manufactured using a simultaneous vulcanization process. This recycled product is free of crumb rubber and hazardous chemicals that can leach through the top layer of other sports flooring, causing discoloration and toxic emissions.

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Pascal Godin, Cofounder and Head of Design, OnSite

Rock climbing is a great way to connect with nature and challenge yourself—all while getting a workout. But until recently, if a city dweller wanted to go rock climbing on a natural surface made of real granite they had to plan a trip, load up the car, and head out into nature. Now, thanks to the Montreal-based company OnSite and its team of engineers, designers, and passionate rock climbers, cities are bringing that natural experience into local parks. Pascal Godin, cofounder and head of design at OnSite, explains the benefits of installing a natural climbing boulder in an urban environment.

Why have an urban boulder in the city?

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something that doesn’t exist; it’s not offered anywhere. We began OnSite five years ago with a vision to change that.

We go into quarries, and we carefully shop our pieces. We look for rocks that have interesting features that we know are going to be fun to climb. We use those natural features, and we climb them over and over, tweaking them—sculpting

enjoy the boulders.

We want to create an atmosphere where people can rock climb while they picnic or hang out with their families and friends.

We also have to be focused on safety, and we work with each city’s unique set of norms and rules to be sure we’re providing a safe experience.

Finally, each rock is positioned beautifully so it improves the landscape and makes the park look great, resulting in natural monuments that are both visually interesting and actually useful.

Read more from OnSite when they tackle indoor rock climbing walls in the Summer issue of gb&d.

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PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ONSITE

Ask the Expert

A bunch of people today are only climbing on artificial walls with plastic holds, and that’s OK. It’s a complete sport with tons of health benefits, but it’s very different from climbing on real rock. The experience of climbing actual granite is more adventurous—there’s no bright pink hold showing you where to put your foot.

But climbing on rock in the city is

the rock face to add or change holds—so the climbing experience is optimized.

We put all those routes into our app so climbers can find the route that matches their skill level.

Then we bring these huge rocks into the urban landscape so people can commute to local parks and climb for free. You don’t have to take your car and drive for hours to get to the mountains.

Just bring your landing pad and you’re ready to go.

When installing our urban boulders we work with each city and their landscape architects to make sure our rocks are placed in the best possible locations. First, climbers need to be able to find and

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OnSite brings real granite boulders carefully selected from quarries to cities and parks, so you don’t have to spend hours traveling in a car to go rock climbing.

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Bruno Poitras, North American RAHU Product Manager, Fantech, a Systemair Company

Ask the Expert Why use energy recovery technology?

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CORE Energy Recovery Solutions’ Exchanger is a key component of Systemair’s fresh air appliances, as it offers up clean air, high performance, and low maintenance.

But what, exactly, does a fresh air appliance do? Our units bring fresh air into your dwelling while removing stale air. This is

crucial, as people don’t always realize how much bad air is trapped inside their homes, including volatile organic compounds that may off-gas from your furniture, paint, and carpet.

Without proper ventilation, those aren’t going anywhere unless you open a window, and who wants

their windows open all year?

We supply fresh air and recover the energy from the air we send outside.

Using CORE’s crossflow exchanger, the supply air and exhaust air are conducted perpendicularly to each other, allowing the transfer of energy from one airstream to another without the crossover of contaminants. The air comes inside at a more comfortable temperature than if you opened a window in January, too.

In multi-unit buildings with our products, you get individual ventilation. While some manufacturers supply a system that ventilates hallways and uses undercuts in doors, that gives you air from hallways rather than from outside.

We install in each

dwelling so you get fresh air directly from outside.

And why pay to heat or cool your space only to lose that air and pay to heat or cool again? Opening a window or just installing a supply fan and exhaust fan is throwing out that temperature you’ve just paid to temper. We can recover most of that energy.

Maintenance is straightforward.

The CORE Exchanger with its polymer membrane is washable. Simply take it out, rinse it, let it dry, and pop it back in every three to six months.

The multi-unit residential units also negate the need for an air handler on the roof, so your building has more usable space and no need for duct shafts. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF FANTECH

Bruno Poitras knows the importance of fresh air.

As part of the Systemair team, which has long worked with CORE Energy Recovery Solutions, he’s an expert in the inner workings and efficiencies of crossflow exchangers. CORE’s crossflow exchangers, with their patented polymer membranes, allow both sensible and latent energy recovery. They are water washable, have no moving parts, and are low maintenance and easy to access, making them an ideal solution for projects like multi-unit residential buildings as well as schools, health care facilities, and other commercial applications. We talked with Poitras to find out more about how this technology works.

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Inside every CORE Energy Recovery Solutions exchanger is CORE’s patented polymer membrane, which transfers both heat and humidity from one air stream to another driven by thermal differences and the partial pressure difference of water vapor between streams. The membrane separates the air streams and has a thin dense polymer barrier layer that allows the water vapor to absorb and permeate through while blocking the transfer of gases, VOCs, and other contaminant compounds.

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Rob Kingshott, Vice President of Sales, Lifebreath

Lifebreath’s patented HRV and ERV cores are the key components that exchange heat to guarantee clean, fresh air without adding workload to the HVAC system.

Ask the Expert What are the benefits of installing an ERV/HRV?

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In the quest for the perfect room temperature and efficient energy use, houses are built airtight, with no room for fresh air. Many homeowners struggle with high humidity, with condensation on windows, lingering odors, and even mold. Lifebreath ventilation units exhaust stale indoor air and replace it with fresh, filtered outside air.

No one wants to wipe windows all the time or deal with nasty mold that can lead to serious health issues.

An ERV or HRV eliminates all that, removing humidity and bringing the house under control to create an environment with the highest indoor air quality. The fact that we can help people with that is tremendous.

From a health

perspective, when you think about kids bringing home germs from school, what better way to get rid of those than replace stagnant air with fresh air? With an ERV or HRV, homeowners tend to have fewer colds, less allergies, and sleep better. It’s especially important considering most of us spend 90% of our time indoors.

Beyond health benefits, though, are clear and proven mechanical benefits. A Lifebreath ventilation unit reduces the load on air conditioners and the wear on furnaces, resulting in significant operating and maintenance savings.

Some modular home manufactur-

ers won’t even put a structural warranty on their buildings unless they include an ERV or HRV. That’s a pretty strong statement.

From a structural point of view, a house is going to be much stronger if it doesn’t have excessive moisture in the walls, leading to rot and decay in structural components.

In addition, the cost of running an ERV or HRV is negligible. People think that because it uses power, it must be expensive, but in fact, since it’s recovering up to 92% of the heat and the motor is small, the costs are quite low. Lifebreath EC Motors, for example, use as little energy as an efficient LED lightbulb. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: CAMILO GUTIERREZ

Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators, or ERVs and HRVs, improve indoor air quality and the longevity of a house by bringing in fresh, filtered air. Lifebreath offers ventilation solutions that allow homeowners to breathe better. “When you buy a new house—all that cabinetry, carpets, paint, et cetera—there’s some off-gassing of materials,” says Rob Kingshott, vice president of sales. That new house smell? It’s actually formaldehyde and other toxic fumes. A ventilation unit can help control and eliminate pollutants by replacing stale air in the house with fresh outside air.

In this issue, Kingshott explores more of the benefits of having an ERV or HRV.

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Lifebreath ERV and HRV units come in different sizes to guarantee optimal balanced airflow, depending on the application for residential and commercial projects.

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Ramesh Pisipati, Global Business Development Director of Hexion

Hexion’s resins are inherently flame-averse.

Ask the Expert What should I consider for fire safety in my building?

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A key focus for us at Hexion is to enhance the flame resistance of components fabricated with our products.

Rather than mere surface application, flameproof qualities are built right into the backbone of the raw materials we supply for several commonly used building products.

Insulation is one of them.

Hexion makes world-class resins used for stone wool insulation—a product impervious to flames and made of cooled molten stone that’s extended into long, thin fibers and

coated with our proprietary resin.

Hexion’s resins offer stone wool enhanced rigidity with good mechanical strength.

Perhaps best of all, it won’t burn.

Another fireresistant option is our polyols, which enhance the flame resistance of the polyurethane spray foam commonly used in building insulation. Hexion is developing this proprietary material and working to get it tested and certified by spray foam systems suppliers.

Our resins are inherently flameaverse—so much so that the structural

wood products (like I-joists and glue laminated wood) in which they’re incorporated are more fire-resistant than solid lumber, without the need for additional flame-retardant additives or gel coats.

Hexion also supplies resin for a new composite siding product called Qora Cladding, which delivers the authentic look of masonry cladding through an innovative panelized design that only requires general carpentry skills to install. This innovation, developed

by Arcitell and built on Hexion’s resin, provides for an easy to install flame resistant cladding product.

Hexion’s flame retardant resins are easy to process and have allowed mass transit OEMs,

e.g. train builders, to meet strict flame resistance specifications. The same properties also enable the fabrication of architectural composites with complex geometries, like domes and other decorative components, that are lightweight, durable, and fire-resistant.

In addition to robust performance, engineered wood products made with Hexion’s raw materials can be carbon neutral and a more sustainable building material.

Hexion is committed to advancing technologies and chemistries for the future by developing innovative, high-performing products that create solutions for our customers and help them deliver safer, more efficient products. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: ISTOCKPHOTO

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Hexion is a centuryold supplier of high-performance binding and bonding materials that are used in a wide variety of applications, from coating and transportation to energy and construction. Committed to responsible chemistry that enhances durability and increases safety, Global Business Development Director Ramesh Pisipati says the company is intensely focused on quality and sustainability while adhering to unwaveringly strict ethical standards.

We recently chatted with Pisipati more about just what should be considered when it comes to fire safety in buildings.

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Structural wood products that incorporate Hexion’s resins are more fireresistant than solid lumber, without the need for additional flame-retardant additives or gel coats.

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Ralph DiNola, CEO, New Buildings Institute

Energy targets range based on climate zone but generally fall between 20 and 30 EUI, or energy use intensities. You can find out your optimal energy target by building type and climate zone at newbuildings.org.

Ask the Expert How do energy targets play into zero energy performance goals?

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Zero energy buildings are highly efficient, surpassing even the most stringent energy codes.

These buildings use so little energy that they meet all their demand with onsite or nearby renewable resources like solar panels.

But designers, policymakers, and owners aiming for zero energy performance must first ask: What’s my energy target?

Target setting focuses the design team on a common goal. Of 23 zero energy buildings studied by New

Buildings Institute (NBI), the design teams of every project believed setting an energy target early was critical to successfully achieving zero energy performance. These targets are typically represented as energy use intensities (EUI), measured in kBtu/ft2 per year, and are “pre-renewable,” meaning the total energy consumption of the building without discounting energy generation from renewable resources.

With an established energy

target, decisions regarding the design that impact building performance are reframed in the context of meeting that target, which brings cost-effective design solutions forward, including optimal orientation, passive strategies, windowto-wall ratios, wall section design, glazing selection, HVAC system type, and other decisions that optimize energy performance.

This is true for new construction and major renovation projects.

On the policy side, targets are effective tools to move the market toward meeting energy, emission, or cost goals. As buildings account for 39% of US carbon emissions, climate action policy is increasingly turn-

ing its eye to the built environment.

Energy targets fit into building policy in several ways, including performance pathways (modeling), outcome-based approaches (metering), incentives and penalties, and other innovative mechanisms.

Incorporating both near-term and long-term energy targets primes the building community and product manufacturers on what’s to come.

As we enter this new decade and new era of climate urgency, more design and construction professionals will be called to deliver buildings that go well beyond what they’ve done before. Setting their sights on a target is the first step. gbdmagazine.com

PHOTO: COURTESY OF VMDO ARCHITECTS; NEXT PAGE: DAVID LIVINGSTON

Ralph DiNola has dedicated his professional life to bringing sustainability, green building, and energy efficiency innovation to scale. As CEO at New Buildings Institute, he oversees the nonprofit’s work to advance building efficiency all the way to zero energy and zero carbon performance levels. For more than 20 years DiNola has been an industry thought leader and advised developers, governments, and Fortune 500 companies seeking quantum advances in their building practices and projects. He recently shared with us a little more about how to best set energy targets—and why it matters.

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NBI recently released a study on building energy targets involving several common building types. Researchers leveraged data from hundreds of high performance building examples in NBI’s Getting to Zero Buildings Database in combination with published energy modeling analyses to create ambitious yet attainable EUI recommendations. Read more at newbuildings.org/resource/ zero-energy-commercialbuilding-targets.

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Mike Johnson, Vice President of Commercial and Industrial Sales, EZ-ACCESS

EZ-ACCESS Modular Access Systems provide ease of access into and out of spaces with elevated entrances. Whether it’s an emergency medical trailer, portable classroom, or polling place, these durable, easy-to-install aluminum ramp systems are ideal when the access need is temporary and will be relocated. The system’s modularity allows for infinite configurations so you can assemble the solution you need to fit each location. When it’s time to relocate the system, you can add or subtract parts easily to meet each site’s specifications, something you simply can’t do with wood or concrete. Mike Johnson, national vice president of commercial and industrial sales at EZ-ACCESS, recently provided even more insight.

Ask the Expert How do mobile ramp systems make projects easier?

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The modular design and durability of EZ-ACCESS products make them the best choice for any project, especially ones needing code compliant temporary access.

EZ-ACCESS has been designing and manufacturing aluminum ramps and other access systems for more than 35 years, so we’ve worked with nearly every type of site—from portable

jobsite offices to stages, stadiums, and distribution facilities. Most sites require ramps at exit doors for accessible egress, and EZ-ACCESS has what it takes to safely get people where they need to be.

Our systems’ modular design with high-quality, prefabricated components make them not only highly mobile, but also easy to install, take apart, reuse,

tilely in situations where temporary access is needed.

It has a variety of options—including length, width, and handrail style—to suit the functional and aesthetic needs of any structure. It can also be constructed and adjusted to accommodate each site and reach a range of entry point heights.

Our standard product ships in 24 to 48 hours and can be installed the same day as arrival for convenient deployment and redeployment. No matter your situation, EZ-ACCESS has a simple access solution fit for your project.

Read more from the EZ-ACCESS in the Summer issue of gb&d, when Johnson explores the sustainability of aluminum.

gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF EZ-ACCESS

Industry professionals are increasingly turning to aluminum, as they love the reusable, cost-effective nature of EZ-ACCESS ramps.

and even store or transport, which you can’t say of wood or concrete.

While wood and concrete have their uses, it’s nearly impossible to uninstall, reuse, and store or transport ramps made of these materials.

Our systems also sit atop the ground using self-supporting base feet so no poured concrete footers are needed, adding to the ramps’ portability.

The beauty of our simple product solutions, in part, is that you can get a modular ramp that fits any space’s needs. There’s no need for heavy duty equipment, because our systems use universal hardware for fast, easy install every time. We use our commercial grade ramp system, the TITAN™ Code Compliant Modular Access System, versa-

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At this growing high school, EZ-ACCESS replaced deteriorating wood ramps for a number of existing portable classrooms, as well as designed a series of ramp, step, and platform systems for their new portable classrooms.

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Janice Nath, Ambience Expert, Ambius

Janice Nath started her career at Ambius, a global leader in creating enhanced commercial spaces with features like living walls and scenting solutions, more than 20 years ago. With her architecture and design background, she was also soon intrigued by scent. Research shows that three out of four people are drawn into a store by smell, and 77% of consumers said a pleasant hotel smell would have a positive impact on them, according to an International Monetary Fund report. Nath attests to this firsthand. She talked with us about how scent can affect a business and make a lasting memory—for better or worse.

How does scent impact a space?

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scent in the right space can create. I want to help create positive, happy memories—and 75% of emotions are triggered by smell.

At Ambius, we provide scent solutions to take experiences to the next level. When a guest walks into a scented hotel lobby for the first time, their sense of arrival is triggered by scent more than decor.

At work? An office

ager about adding plants to the lobby to improve guest experience, the hotel team knew something was lacking and assumed greenery was the solution.

Their decor was stainless steel, black, red, and mascline; they were missing a scent to go with it.

I asked if I could install a scent demo while we talked.

Halfway through our meeting, the manager smelled the scent and agreed—they needed ambient scenting. Two years later he still raves about the difference the scent made.

Read more from the Ambius in the Summer issue of gb&d when we explore why hotels should embrace biophilic design.

gbdmagazine.com

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF AMBIUS

Ask the Expert

First impressions are everything. When I walk into a space, I may think it’s beautiful, but with a compelling scent, it’s even more memorable. Take the smell of wood, for example. I love woodworking, and when a space has that smell, it draws me in. I love sharing my passion for fragrance, especially when I see the positive emotions that the right

space with hints of citrus increases employee productivity, as citrus scents show an increase in people being alert and focused.

Beyond offering a warm welcome, scent marketing can also include using scented zones, or areas that may increase time spent in a specific place. This concept uses scenting to draw patrons on a certain path—perhaps toward a spa or restaurant, for example.

When I design I consider a space’s size, colors, demographics, clientele, and what we want to achieve. Are we trying to reduce anxiety in a doctors’ office? Do we want to increase productivity in an office? Are we after the best first impression at a hotel? When I met with a hotel man-

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Scent can change a person’s mood and perception. Studies show scent can elevate mood by up to as much as 40%.

Consider a medical setting.

By introducing scents like lavender in a health care environment, patients have reported feeling less anxious.

Ambius can control the levels of scenting through HVAC or wall-mounted units.

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Event Preview Spring 2020

By Lucy Miller

Sponsored by ASHRAE and AHRI, the AHR Expo 2020 will return as the world’s

As the first major North American trade show event of the year for solar

largest HVACR marketplace. Manufacturers of all levels, from start-ups to established brands, will share and collaborate on ideas. Industry leaders will hold more than 50 seminars during the expo as a part of its expansive education program. Winning products, technologies, and systems of the AHR Expo 2020 Innovation Awards have already been announced, but they will be presenting one of the category winners with the Product of the Year Award, recognizing originality and innovation in the field.

and energy storage professionals, Intersolar North America will highlight the latest technologies and organizations in sustainable energy. Education workshops covering the industry’s best practices will be followed by two days of product exhibition and face-to-face networking. Partnering with the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, Intersolar has also established a new feature in which professionals can register for NABCEP-approved continuous education classes at the event, which can be used to work toward board certification and recertification requirements.

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WHEN Feb 4–6 WHERE San Diego WEB intersolar.us

PHOTO: COURTESY OF AHR

WHEN Feb 3–5 WHERE Orlando WEB ahrexpo.com

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