G R E E N B U I L D I N G I S S U E 68
+ INSIGHT FROM GENSLER, HOK, PERKINS EASTMAN, PERKINS&WILL, STANTEC, & MORE
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Shaping the Future MOORE RUBLE YUDELL & JONES STUDIO
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Moving Metals Metal wall panels and solutions are changing the design game.
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Circular Economy Exploring the circular economy with Aquafil and Gensler
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Why Choose Rubber? Commercial rubber flooring is durable and has more aesthetic options than ever.
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Design Strategies for the Modern Offic 3form enables flexible workspaces.
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Comfortable Work Environments Salesforce knows the importance of both quiet and collaborative spaces.
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Drained and Disrupted Staying healthy at work
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Why Daylighting Matters New ways to bring in natural light
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A Feeling of Home Top health care flooring products and more
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Vibrant, Healthy Spaces Durability, color, and healthy materials in hospitals and beyond ON THE COVER Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix Photo by Inessa Binenbaum
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Strength, Beauty, Heritage
The façade features metal wall panels in a dramatic palette including a custom wood grain finish that ties the building to the tribe’s historic home in a reservation in the woods of Northwest Minnesota.
Mino-Bimaadiziwin Apartments, Minneapolis Architect: Cuningham Group Architecture
Installing contractor: Progressive Building Systems
GC: Loeffler Construction & Consulting
Photo: alanblakely.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF GENSLER
Flush Panel
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Products
Projects
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Editors’ Picks Sustainable wood designs we love
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Stainless Steel 5 benefits of stainless steel aquatics
Garden Oasis Students at George Washington University are surrounded by light and life.
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High Tech, High Touch The world is at your fingertips at the new Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU.
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Back to School Perkins&Will and Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects transformed a vacant mall into a thriving community college.
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Embracing the Streetscape Perkins Eastman is preserving history while planning ahead.
People-Centric Design Signal Architecture’s Mark Johnson on designing for the community
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Silver Rock Jason McLennan designs a special Living Building and place of refuge for clients on Bainbridge Island.
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Breath of Fresh Air HKS’ Allison Smith promotes responsible material selection and materials transparency.
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Winthrop Library A community library doubles as a place to weather the storm.
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Bright Future Inside colorful community spaces and affordable apartments in San Francisco PHOTOS FROM TOP: COURTESY OF FRITZ HANSEN; CÉSAR BEJAR ; GABE BORDER
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Casa Candela Mayan ruins and candlelight inspire this luxury villa design.
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contributors Editor-in-Chief Christopher Howe Associate Publisher Laura Heidenreich Managing Editor Laura Rote Art Director Madison Wisse Content Marketing Director Julie Veternick Marketing Coordinator Lark Breen Contributors Sophia Conforti, Miriah Hamrick, Zack Harold, Jason McLennan, Ian P. Murphy, Mikenna Pierotti, Myah Taylor, Matt Watson, Yuyan Zhang, Jessica Zuniga
ONLINE gbdmagazine.com gbdmagazine.com/digital-edition SUBSCRIPTIONS Online shop.gbdmagazine.com Email service@gbdmagazine.com
IAN P. MURPHY (“Embracing the Streetscape,” pg. 56) is a freelance writer and editor based in Chicago who covers travel, marketing, education and design for a variety of publications.
gb&dPRO Online gbdmagazine.com/ gbdpro Email info@gbdmagazine.com MAIL Green Building & Design 47 W Polk Street, Ste 100-285 Chicago, IL 60605
Printed in the USA. © 2022 by Green Advocacy Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Green Building & Design (gb&d) is printed in the United States using only soy-based inks. Please recycle this magazine.
MATT WATSON
(“Why Choose Rubber?,” pg. 96) is a Chicago-based writer who specializes in research-based stories related to architecture, urban planning, and sustainable design. A graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a degree in journalism, Matt has more than seven years of experience working with numerous publications and nonprofits, including the Chicago Tribune and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
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. The Green Building & Design logo is a registered trademark of Green Advocacy Partners, LLC.
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JESSICA ZUNIGA (“Back to
School,” pg. 48) is a freelance writer with a bachelor degree in Journalism from Indiana University. Originally from the Midwest, she now spends most of her time on the move. She is often writing from her laptop in remote areas of National Parks. Her passion for sustainability comes from a love for being outdoors.
Acoustic Timber™ Raft in W3 Oak
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Bring the outside indoors
Blur the line between nature and the built environment with Acoustic Timber™ while achieving acoustic comfort in your space. A lightweight alternative to traditional timber, Acoustic Timber is a high-performance, acoustic treatment made from 100% polyester fiber designed to imitate timber realistically. Visit our website to learn more.
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products that are healthy, socially responsible, and give back to the environment. “We want to make fundamentally good products out of responsible materials,” says Ryan Smith, chief creative officer at 3form. Modern Office, pg. 104 3
Health care facilities increasingly have lavender rooms in light of growing awareness of the strain facing health care workers. These private areas allow staff to decompress in a calm, uncluttered place with flooring that absorbs sound. The goal? Prevent burnout and compassion fatigue by providing an outlet to process acute stress as it emerges. A Feeling of Home, pg. 134 4
The Casa Adelante 2828 16th Street project makes space on its ground floor for HOMEY—a nonprofit in San Francisco. For more than 20 years HOMEY has identified community issues that adversely affect young adults and families in the city, working to empower community members to make transformative change. “The synergy between these programs is very important,” says architect Ryan Jang, about the nonprofit as well as arts gallery and childcare center in the building. Bright Future, pg. 62
5 Things We Learned Behind-the-scenes extras and fun facts discovered making this issue.
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3form is a founding member of Living Product 50—a group of forward-thinking companies defining, adhering to, and promoting the rigorous benchmarks of the ILFI’s Living Product Challenge (LPC). This comprehensive framework is the peak standard for developing
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Kingspan Light + Air and Solatube International’s daylighting solutions can be felt from the moment you walk in the door. “Daylight is one sustainable attribute of a building that occupants actually see and experience,” says Neall Digert, vice president of innovation and market development for Kingspan Light + Air in North America. That differs, he says, from energy solutions, as often occupants won’t see the energyefficient HVAC system, for example. “When you walk into a daylight space it is remarkable how it makes us feel.” Why Daylighting Matters, pg. 124
PHOTO BY BRUCE DAMONTE
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Autex Acoustics’ threedimensional Ceiling Tiles provide an option outside of composite ceiling tiles while their Acoustics Timber solution combines aesthetics and acoustics—imitating timber and acting as a high-quality acoustic treatment that can be applied to panels, baffles, or ceiling tiles. Autex’s Composition velour acoustic wall covering is durable and applied like wallpaper. Ot maintains its smooth finish over time. Cultivating Comfortable Work Environments, pg. 112
company index
directory ISSUE 68
3form pg. 102, 104 3-form.com 800.726.0126
Hörmann pg. 7 hormann.us 877.OK.HORMANN
NeoCon pg. 26 neocon.com
Armstrong pg. 164 armstrongceilings.com/commercial 877.276.7876
Kingspan Light + Air pg. 15, 124 kingspan.com 800.759.6985
PAC-CLAD | Petersen pg. 5, 80 pac-clad.com 800.PAC.CLAD
Autex Acoustics pg. 112 autexacoustics.com 424.203.1813
Malarkey Roofing roducts pg. 163 malarkeyroofing.com 800.545.1191
Rocket Door Frames USA pg. 146 rocketdoorframes.com 770.252.2661
Construction Specialties pg. 140 c-sgroup.com 800.233.8493
Mean Green Products pg. 17 meangreenproducts.com 513.738.4736
Roppe Corporation pg. 96 roppe.com 800.537.9527
ECONYL by Aquafil pg. 88 econyl.com
Mohawk Group pg. 134 mohawkgroup.com 800.622.6228
Solatube International pg. 12, 124 solatube.com 888.765.2882
G Wood Products
Modernfold
Zip Water
pg. 2
pg. 19
pg. 118
gwoodpro.com
modernfold.com/en-US
na.zipwater.com
800.869.9685
833.233.2358
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Have a commercial project requiring daylighting design? Call 888.765.2882 and learn how Solatube can help. www.solatube.com/commercial
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PHOTOS BY TK TK
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Plank Collection
PHOTO COURTESY OF FRITZ HANSEN
This expanded collection now includes a chair and table alongside the popular Plank Bench. Each piece is crafted from FSC-certified teak and will patinate to a beautiful silvergray over time. Designer Aurélien Barbry sought to create sustainable products with minimal materials, heightened functionality, and an airy, playful, and modern effect with this collection. SKAGERAK.COM
THE PLANK BENCH WAS LAUNCHED IN 2018 AND HAS BECOME AN IMPORTANT PART OF SKAGERAK’S OUTDOOR FURNITURE COLLECTION. IT’S NOW JOINED BY THE TABLE AND CHAIR.
In the Woods Sustainable wood for the residential and commercial designs of today
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Harrison Credenza The new Harrison credenza from Medley is, like all Medley products, handcrafted in California with FSC-certified maple or walnut. It’s protected with a natural matte beeswax finish that is odorless, no-VOC, and water- and heat-resistant. The tiered, dualsided cabinetry creates intentional space for anything that needs to be hidden away. Medley was cofounded by brothers Travis Nagle and Ryan Schultz, who wanted to make beautiful, sustainable furniture that is better for our homes. MEDLEYHOME.COM
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF MEDLEY
Your Source for Daylighting Systems + Natural Ventilation Solutions
PHOTOS BY TK TK
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Mohma Modular Homes The mohma modular home is a beautiful response to a growing demand for sustainable, flexible living environments. Mohma uses Garnica products, materials, and wooden panels in its design and is part of Woodville—created to meet current demand for sustainable dwellings in nature with lodging like eco-hotels, rural hotels, glamping sites, and homes. Woodville specializes in designing and building mobile, sustainable, modular, and wooden dwellings; mohma was the first. The innovative, industrially manufactured product created to Passive House standards was designed to achieve maximum energy efficiency with the potential to be self-sufficient. BEWOODVILLE.COM/EN
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF WOODVILLE
MEAN GREEN® ELECTRIC ZERO-TURN MOWERS
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Interior Wall Coverings by Tantimber Decorative interior wall coverings like these bring biophilic design and a cozy sense of comfort to all types of spaces. Tantimber’s wall coverings are produced from different tree species with plentiful design options and ease of application. Make a statement in a library or living room space, design a unique headboard, line the back wall of a hotel lobby, and more. Leading Thermowood manufacturer Tantimber produces its thermally modified timber products according to International Thermowood Association standards. TANTIMBER.COM
Wood-Mode Cabinetry All Wood-Mode cabinetry is handmade with hand-applied finishes. Based in Pennsylvania, the family-owned company has nearly 600 employees—many of them second- or third-generation. In early 2022 Wood-Mode announced its Focus Forward program—one of the largest strategic financial investments in the company’s history. Backed by more than $10 million in funding, the initiative included factory improvements, production equipment upgrades, new cabinet styles, and enhanced dealer marketing support programs. Its commitment to sustainability is clear across its facilities, as a 16-acre solar array is set to power 100% of two main buildings. WOOD-MODE.COM
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF TANTIMBER, WOOD - MODE
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF MOVABLE GLASS WALLS
PHOTOS BY TK TK
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5 Benefits of Stainless Steel Aquatics The strength and flexibility of stainless steel offer architects endless design opportunities. BY MATT WATSON
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hether in a home or commercial setting, the decision to add aquatic features like a pool or spa to a new project or existing property comes with a multitude of considerations—including construction timelines and material choices. “It’s never too early to plan for a pool or spa,” says Mike Sage, vice president of sales and marketing at Bradford Products, a leading designer and manufacturer of stainless steel aquatics. “Integration is key. How are we going to integrate this vessel into a building or backyard, run the required power, plumbing, and water features? And material choice is an important factor here.” While concrete has been the traditional mainstay for building in-ground pools for a generation, stainless steel is quickly gaining ground as customers understand its numerous benefits. As one of the original innovators of stainless steel aquatic solutions, Bradford has an institutional knowledge of the market and material that architects, builders, and homeowners have leveraged for decades. The company recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and is a third-generation family-owned firm with roots in the steel fabrication trade. After founder Dale Brodeur fell in love with the wine PHOTO BY WHIT RICHARDSON
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barrel hot tubs he experienced on a trip to California wine country in the 1970s, he decided to build his own spa with the material he knew best back home—stainless steel. “Family members, friends, and neighbors all came over and discovered this amazing experience he had created and wanted one for themselves, and that’s how things got started,” Sage says. Since then Bradford Products has become the leader in stainless steel aquatics with high-profile projects in cities across the globe. And as concerns about quality and sustainability become more pressing, the market continues to grow. These are some of the benefits of stainless steel aquatics and how customers can integrate them into their next project.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF G WOOD PRODUCTS
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PHOTO COURTESY OF POLYCOR PHOTOS, FROM BOTTOM LEFT: JASON HAWKES; COURTESY OF BRADFORD PRODUCTS (2)
Stainless steel aquatic features are quickly gaining market share from traditional solutions like concrete. The strength and fl xibility of stainless steel offer architects endless design opportunities.
At left, the Sky Pool at Embassy Gardens in London is a crystalclear, 82-foot-long pool that seems to flo t in the air as it stretches between rooftops.
1. VERSATILE USES One of the primary benefits of utilizing stainless steel for pools and spas is its versatility and the ease at which the materials can be incorporated into any environment—whether residential or commercial. Consumer interest in backyard pools surged during the earlier stages of the Covid pandemic as people spent more time at home while beaches, public pools, and resorts were closed and people practiced social distancing. Since then stainless steel solutions have captured a larger share of the market from traditional concrete manufacturers. “Our residential business exploded during the peak Covid years. People were inspired to turn their homes into an oasis and getaway, a place for peace and comfort,” Sage says. Stainless steel is particularly advantageous over concrete in urban settings—one of the market’s fastest growing segments—because the process of installing a stainless steel pool is much less disruptive to the surrounding areas. This is an especially important consideration in dense neighborhoods with smaller lot sizes. Yet the majority of Bradford’s stainless steel aquatic applications are designed for use in tall buildings, within rooftops or amenity decks on residential, hotel, or mixed-use high-rises. This is because developers need to ensure elevated pools and spas do not crack or leak, causing massive damage to everything below the pool deck. And unlike with stainless steel, providers of concrete solutions cannot guarantee that the material will not eventually become compromised. It’s also far lighter, which reduces the load requirements and stress on the overall structure. “Any time you put aquatic features in the air, you have to worry about what’s underneath,” Sage says. 2. DESIGN FLEXIBILITY One of the biggest evolutions in the aquatics market in recent years is the increased demand for sophisticated designs that incorporate add-on features like acrylic viewing windows and cantilevers. And compared with traditional pool and spa materials, stainless steel allows designers to go further with their creative visions. “I don’t think I’m overstating it when I say the design possibilities are limitless,” Sage says. The strength, weight, flexibility, and fabrication methods of stainless steel provide versatility that concrete lacks, and it can be incorporated with other materials seamlessly. This helps facilitate one of the other major trends in pool design today, which is a movement toward sleek, minimalist, and modern designs in aquatic features. “The uniqueness and sophistication, the hand-built nature, and the quality of these ISSUE 68
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vessels, it’s timeless and beautiful, and the combination of stainless steel and water together is just visually stunning,” Sage says. One of the most striking examples of stainless steel’s design potential for aquatic features can be seen in the Sky Pool at Embassy Gardens in London. Christened in 2021 as the world’s first “floating pool,” the vessel is suspended 115 feet in the air and spans an 82-foot distance between the building’s residential towers. Bradford Products designed and constructed two open-ended stainless steel pools, which were engineered with rebates in the walls and floors to secure the 14-inch acrylic center into place. The bearing system, similar to that of a bridge, keeps the pool intact by accommodating the building’s natural movements. “I couldn’t imagine designing this pool out of concrete and not having the base leak or crack,” Sage says.
3. SAVES TIME AND MONEY As with any construction project, pool and spa installation schedules and budgets are tight, and any deviation from the timeline of construction phases can result in enormous cost overruns. “Time is one of the biggest deciding factors when homeowners or developers decide to go with stainless steel,” Sage says. Most clients will save weeks, if not months, in vessel construction and installation time versus traditional concrete solutions—which translates into significant dollar savings as well. “If you’re only looking at first-cost, you’re only getting a fraction of the story.” A quicker turnaround also affects when customers can start enjoying their aquatic features. For those in Northern states, summers can be relatively short, and customers want to be able to enjoy their pool or spa between when the ground thaws in spring and when the swimming season ends in autumn. “Concrete can take three to four months to install. In some places that’s your entire summer,” Sage says. “Because we custom prefabricate everything we build, we’re onsite and finishing up construction in a much shorter time frame.” When high-rise developers balance the upfront costs of stainless steel versus the extraneous costs of concrete—like its heavy weight and the usable space lost in the building—stainless steel more often than not comes out on top. That’s because the material weighs one-third to one-fourth of what a concrete pool would weigh, reducing the structural load and saving head space below. “In some of these taller buildings, you can sacrifice almost an entire floor below for a concrete pool,” Sage says.
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At right, Stadium Swim in Las Vegas features pool side boxes, water couches, daybeds, cabanas, and more. Tantimber is made from solid wood and, as such, stands up to harsh climate and physical conditions.
produc bene f it s ot sf
The Brickell Flatiron is a residential skyscraper in the Brickell district of Miami that features a rooftop pool.
4. DURABLE For Bradford Products engineering its stainless steel aquatic solutions to ensure exact specification for clients is the most critical part of the process. “We spend an extraordinary amount of time engineering each vessel,” Sage says. Every wall panel, support frame, step, and fitting is engineered down to the thousandth of an inch in dimensional tolerance. By the time the material gets to the production floor, it’s a matter of assembling the pieces and welding them together for a vessel that fits precisely in place once delivered onsite. “Once it’s installed and water-tight it stays that way,” Sage says. This dynamic process only adds to the natural durability of stainless steel, a highly powerful material that can withstand extreme elements and natural corrosion. Bradford’s fully welded stainless steel vessels are designed to withstand structural loads, building settlement and movement, and environmental conditions without compromising the structural integrity of the vessel. The same can’t be guaranteed with traditional materials. “There are some beautiful concrete pools out there, but they require maintenance,” Sage says. “It’s not a question of if, but when that concrete is going to crack or become otherwise compromised.”
5. SUSTAINABLE The durability of stainless steel isn’t just a benefit for the owners and operators of pools and spas; it’s a huge positive for the environment as well. “Sustainability starts with durability,” Sage says. “And I can’t think of anything that’s more sustainable than stainless steel when talking about aquatic features.” The long life cycle of stainless steel means fewer materials and energy are used on further extraction and manufacturing. On top of that, Bradford Products utilizes raw materials that are a minimum of 60% post-recycled content. “Because of the precision engineering process, there’s very little waste, and 100% of that manufacturing waste is recycled— sent right back to the mill where it ends up in another future sheet of stainless steel,” Sage says. A stainless steel pool or spa will certainly outlive the 25-year warranty Bradford offers. But if the decision is made to upgrade those features at some point in time, the material itself is 100% recyclable and can be sent right back into the circular supply chain where it began. g
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRADFORD (2); RYAN GOBUT Y PHOTOGR APHY
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projects
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THE PROJECT ADDED MORE THAN 4,000 SQUARE FEET OF INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE GREEN ROOFS. PLANTS ARE WATERED USING CAPTURED RAINWATER.
Garden Oasis George Washington University students are surrounded by light and life thanks to recent renovation by VMDO Architects. WORDS BY YUYAN ZHANG
PHOTOS BY ALAN KARCHMER
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The project concept is focused on two elements—the sun to the south and the students’ entrance to the north. In the middle of these two elements sits the main courtyard,
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around which Thurston’s student life is centered. The design team wanted to accentuate and celebrate that southnorth connection and carry that through the entire building.
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Students studying inside can see outside and feel the contagious energy from the courtyard.
Just four blocks away from the White House, students at George Washington University can find themselves immersed in a garden in the city. But it wasn’t always this way. A few years ago, students had a lot of complaints about the first-year residence Thurston Hall—from slow elevators to moldy bathrooms. A recent renovation by VMDO Architects reinvigorated life to this 1929 brick building. Courtyard Transformation The Thurston Hall renovation started with one bold question: What possibilities open up by carving away a portion of the building? Going into the project, the design team heard recurring themes from their client, including the university’s mission of “spark, energize, develop, and belong.” The design team was inspired by the existing light well in the building. “We asked ourselves, ‘What if the sun allowed us to bring that spark and vitality that this space is lacking right now?,’” says Andres Pacheco, a senior associate at VMDO. Although the lightwell was visible from some student rooms, the space was not ac-
cessible to the students. The design team thought if they removed a portion of the south-facing facade of the lightwell, they could create a courtyard that brings more light to the student residence while creating an inviting social space. “It’s an adventurous, bold move to pitch to an owner to take away some thousands of square feet and a number of existing bedrooms to allow you to make the whole place come alive,” says Joe Atkins, a principal at VMDO. But their client was thrilled by the possibility. “People were excited about taking this dark and dirty courtyard and turning into the building’s heart,” says Michelle Amt, director of sustainability and inclusion at VMDO. Orientation Starting from that clear vision and the first decision to remove the south-facing lightwell facade, many of the other design choices fell into place naturally. “The building was already laying out where we can make the biggest impact,” Pacheco says. The orientation allows lots of natural daylight while simultaneously providing
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shade. Opening up the courtyard also presented an opportunity to add vegetation to the space. The design team was intentional with the material they chose for the courtyard and the story it would tell. With terraces at different levels in the north-south direction, they wanted to create an effect of cascading greenery. To complement that they used earthy-colored cladding to create a warm, natural feeling. In the east-west direction they painted the original red brick walls with a lighter color to help reflect more light. Lighting With daylight an important priority, the projects used thermally broken windows with High-performance glazing units to allow light in while maintaining energy efficiency. Bringing in more natural light to interior spaces like corridors and common spaces, the project achieved a reduced lighting power density by 65%.
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Community and Wellness The changes to the courtyard to enhance daylight and provide more community spaces also aligns with the health and wellness goals of the project. “We know that from a number of different mental health surveys that the primary drivers of mental health problems for students is a lack of community and social isolation,” Amt says. Students’ physical environments play a large role in that. Prior to the renovation, stepping into Thurston felt like going through an endless loop of doors and dark hallways. There were very little community spaces. In the new design the team created different scales of community. Everything revolves around the giant courtyard, but there are also two-story kitchens that connect between floors, large study areas that allow students to study together, and smaller nooks that feel more intimate. “You have all these spaces of prospect and refuge that give you this aspect of security and belonging,” Amt says.
Inside, the color palette incorporates the school’s colors (blue and buff) to align with the university’s brand image, with occasional pops of color to make the spaces feel age-appropriate.
commercial
The design team wanted to make the interiors feel like home – cozy and welcoming. This informed warm color choices, with no stark whites or finishes that would feel too austere.
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Air Quality Before the renovation Thurston Hall was not ventilated. Although this is common for older residence halls, research shows that air quality affects cognitive function, depression, and anxiety. The renovation adds a dedicated outdoor air system to bring in fresh air. CO2 levels were averaging around 1600 ppm and reached as high as 3000 ppm before the renovation, now staying below 900 ppm. Water The renovation also added a 3,000-cubic-foot cistern to capture rainwater, allowing Thurston Hall to use 40% less potable water than the standard residence hall. This is a significant feat, considering that Thurston Hall has all-gendered bathrooms, Amt says. “Because we don’t have urinals, we’re not able to get the extreme water reduction numbers you would normally see in a LEED project.” Energy Efficienc The renovation added insulation to the exterior walls and roof and improved the airtightness. The project added water source heat pumps but had to keep the existing boilers because they were shared with another building. Still, the renovated building used 38% less energy than the average residence and dining hall. Embodied Carbon The renovated building keeps 80% of the existing walls, floors, and roof. “A good deal of the existing structure was reused and augmented to bring it to current standards,” Amt says. “We’re reinvigorating this old structure with new life which prepares it for another 100 years in a much more human-centric, 21st century approach to creating community in residence halls.” g
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Research shows that college students who are able to connect with one another experience better overall well-being and academic success. The architects worked to curate a variety
of spaces to support a range of student activities at different scales, from places for one person to take a phone call to larger spaces for group studying and interaction.
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PROJECT DETAILS
PROJECT: George Washington University’s Thurston Hall ARCHITECT: VMDO ARCHITECTS LOCATION: Washington, D.C. Completion: August 2022 Size: 200,000 square feet Contractor: Clark Construction Company Interior Designer: SMBW Wayfinding & Environmental Graphics: Iconograph Landscape Architect: Siteworks Civil Engineer: Wiles Mensch Mechanical Engineer: CMTA Structural Engineer: Dunbar Geotechnical Engineer: ECS
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High Tech, High Touch The future is being shaped inside the new Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU.
WORDS BY L AUR A ROTE PHOTOS BY INESSA BINENBAUM
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The global headquarters was designed using a highefficiency envelope, low LPD lighting with occupancy sensors, glazing optimized for daylight access and reduced solar heat gain, and elevated temperature setpoints in cooling season to reduce energy use.
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Parametric modeling optimized the building’s energy use, shading, comfort, and life-cycle costs, preparing Thunderbird to withstand the extreme environmental conditions of the Phoenix valley.
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The world is at the center of the new Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU in downtown Phoenix. Quite literally, an 8-foot-wide retractable digital globe hangs from the center of a large room, surrounded by LED screens, as part of many interactive components inside the school’s Digital Global Forum. Within the facilities students can connect with people all over the world in real time using active and multi-dimensional technologies. With a modular approach to space planning and AV and IT fit for future plug-and-play, the headquarters is prepared to adapt to short- and long-term needs. Communal gathering spaces are designed for multi-use programming, with the ability to quickly transform from a study space to collaborative work or event space. The design teams said the building had to embody the past, present, and future while also emphasizing tech. “It was an interesting paradigm to operate in, especially when you kind of have two clients
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in Thunderbird and ASU and are trying to navigate the needs of both to make sure they get the architecture they need for the next 50 to 100 years,” says Shawn Swisher, an architect at Jones Studio. Much of the Thunderbird School is open to the public. The headquarters connects the ground floor to the public realm through the two-story Digital Global Forum open rotunda event space. Plentiful daylight pours in across five floors. Dedicated learning spaces include nine flexible classrooms, two sandbox classrooms, and seven group study rooms. People can attend lectures and events in the Global Decision Theater, experience a virtual reality language lab, 1,600-square-feet of digital displays, and a green screen studio. The History The building was designed to be a welcoming, inclusive space for international students, faculty, and alumni while connecting to the city. The Thunderbird School
The Digital Global Forum event space features a stadiumstyle ring of LED video screens that forms an encircling digital presentation field, while an LED globe at the center of the rotunda plays dynamic videos. The Digital Global Forum opens to the plaza through a two-story curtain wall glazing and a nearly 40-foot wide operable partition, establishing an openness between interior and exterior.
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PROJECT DETAILS
PROJECT: F. Francis and Dionne Najafi Thunderbird Global Headquarters ARCHITECT: Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, Jones Studio LOCATION: Phoenix Size: 110,000 square feet Cost: $67 million Contractor: Okland Construction Structural/MEP Engineer: Buro Happold Consulting Sustainability/Daylighting Consultant: Buro Happold Consulting Interior Design: Vallone Design Landscape Architect: Trueform Landscape
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All lighting uses LED sources. Acoustic baffles by Ceilings Plus in Barz Lumin White and Standard Silver.
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was on the verge of closing when it merged with Arizona State University and a plan was made to create a new location in downtown Phoenix. Architecture firms Moore Ruble Yudell and Jones Studio were tasked with designing the new headquarters for the Thunderbird School of Global Management. They wanted to make sure the design didn’t alienate current students and alumni, instead celebrating the old school and location while looking ahead excitedly to the future. “Early on we said it was going to be probably the most technologically sophisticated business school—potentially in the world. It really had to be a welcoming, multicultural place,” says Buzz Yudell, partner at Moore Ruble Yudell. “It was the idea of balancing high tech with high touch, and it also had to be very much a place of Phoenix and of the region.” The Thunderbird School of Global Management was founded after World War II with the goal to bring people from different cultures together to collaborate and study. It was an effort toward peace and understanding in a new world, and it started in a little area called Glendale on a former airbase. It was a tight-knit community, Yudell says, almost like going to camp, and students formed lifelong personal and professional relationships there. The new school needed to be cutting edge, offering the most technically enhanced learning environment while still being inviting to neighbors. The design team wanted to honor the original campus, as alumni had been going there for almost 70 years before they had to relocate and merge with ASU to stay afloat. “How do you re-envision all of the memories and the significance of that place while also integrating it into a new home of downtown Phoenix—not closing your doors and turning your back to the city that you’re now making your new home for the future?” Swisher says. The Latest Technology Every space was designed with technology in mind. “The whole building is set up for a tremendous amount of digital technology for teaching and collaborating,” Yudell says. The Global Form is a standout example of tech in action, as students and faculty can easily call collaborators on the other side of the world and work on problems together, surrounded by a floor to ceiling digital wall. “That room has a goal of being a globally connected, immersive space,” Yudell says.
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Louis Poulsen and David Trubridge make the round pendant light fixtures.
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The Innovation Labs on the ground floor near the Global Forum offer more flexible space and include table-size interactive virtual reality and augmented reality tablets.
Knoll Rockwell Highback Chairs with wire bases in colorful combinations overlook views to the outside.
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The Innovation Labs on the ground floor near the Global Forum offer more flexible space and include table-size interactive virtual reality and augmented reality tablets. “People are encouraged to experiment, move things around, and bring in new kinds of projects,” Yudell says. He says the design teams wanted to make the technology as user friendly as possible while investing in wireless hookups to make future tech expansions easier. Location Swisher says the downtown Phoenix location helped the new headquarters connect to the business core of the city. Jones Studio completed an ASU Law School project on the same block less than 10 years before. “They carved out this little postage stamp of a site to be used for a future project, and that ended up being the Thunderbird School. There was already this existing grain of pedestrian movements and the frontage to the streets.” This allowed the architects to capitalize on public space. “There’s very little open public space in downtown Phoenix, and the significance of that—of creating spaces where people can be part of these incredible academic institutions in the heart of downtown, we wanted to draw focus to that,” Swisher says. “We put glass on that ground level to create this transparency from the city into the school so there could be this visual connection; you could see the action happening in the school at all times, and the school could also have a connection back to the city.” He says the Global Forum is a huge example, as it has the ability to open at the ground level directly to the outdoor plaza. “That connection to community, that connection to Phoenix while also being around technology and highlighting public space in academic institutions—all of that is threading the needle of all of those goals between ASU and Thunderbird,” Swisher says. Planning for the Future The architects knew they wanted the project to be at least a 100-year building. Part of that meant not only using robust and, where possible, local materials that were very durable but also making the building extremely flexible for years to come. “One of the biggest missions we collectively had was to think about sustainability in the broadest, most holistic sense,” Yudell says. “We’re targeting LEED Gold, but we wanted to really think beyond the checklist of LEED or any other guidelines.” The tight site and university budget were
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challenges. They needed an efficient grid for the whole building. “If you look at the plan, it’s about a 38-foot structural grid across the whole building with a very simple core and very simple organization,” Yudell says. They paid special attention not only to designing to make future implementation of tech easier but also to allow for the spaces themselves to evolve. “We can never fully predict how pedagogy or research or collaboration is going to change, but essentially everything in the building can be reconfigured within this otherwise very straightforward organizational system,” Yudell says. He says most business schools have been adding flat-floored classrooms to their traditional tiered classrooms but still have a significant number of tiered setups. “We took a leap and said—what if everything in the building were flat-floored and every room in the building had a really robust infrastructure for AV and digital technology, and everything could be flexible, changeable, adaptable, both in the short term and long term?” Since teaching in many schools is moving more toward active learning with collaboration and reconfigurable spaces, the design team realized they didn’t really need tiered classrooms despite their long tradition. “We can set up more traditional configurations if we want to with furniture that steps up rather than floors that step up, for example,” Yudell says. He says not doing tiered classrooms also saved the project money. Designing in the Desert The new building also minimizes water and energy—vital in Phoenix’s desert environment. Materials and products were sourced locally to reduce emissions, and the design team emphasized passive design techniques. Water and shade were important parts of the project—from low-flow fixtures to landscaping that helped to create cooler spaces. They harvest water from the roof to use in rain gardens rather than sending it straight to storm drains. “Those rain gardens are creating cooler spaces underneath deeply shaded, outdoor patio spaces,” Swisher says. Native, drought-resistant plants absorb heat while being a beautiful representation of the Sonoran Desert. “One of the real challenges here was planning and designing in a desert environment for comfort and appropriateness of shade and materials but also for energy conservation,” Yudell says. “We were targeting a very low total amount of glazed areas—like 25%. That ended up being distributed with a great deal of transparency on the ground
The modular carpet squares seen above are from Interface’s Driftwood line. Classrooms were intentionally kept fairly neutral and calm in palette with accents of metal and wood to warm up the space.
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The landscape design brings the desert to downtown Phoenix by integrating habitats for birds and native pollinators in the heavily paved urban center. Native Mesquite trees pitch in with the building’s overhang
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to provide shade for the plaza throughout the day, creating a comfortable public space in the arid downtown. Plants were selected to minimize water use while offering abundant shading and mitigating heat island effect.
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The Knoll k. lounge bench sits in an area that celebrates Thunderbird’s with art and artifacts.
Tall, deeply recessed windows with shade fins bring more natural light deep into the interior without the glare and solar heat, too. The Global Forum space posed one of the biggest design issues, as they had to figure out how to put a big glass room on a west facing open side of the block. “We had to carve and shape the mass of the building and bring shades down to do everything we could to get that space to be comfortable,” Swisher says. “It’s performing quite well in part because we have this bridge that completes that western edge of the forum that helps keep shade in the building and keep the sun out.”
The headquarters is topped with a rooftop pub filled with artifacts from the original Thunderbird Control Tower Pub and offering views of downtown Phoenix.
level and quite a lot on the roof level—which has this pub that’s a kind of recollection of the historic Glendale campus and another really important public place.” Smaller, carefully placed openings can be found all around the building, helping to further create energy-saving and provide comfortable conditions inside. Swisher says they very intentionally recessed that storefront on the ground level 10 or 12 feet back from the building’s edge to create outdoor covered patios—almost like little living rooms. “On the southeast corner of the block there’s this small plaza that’s almost a 30-foot square that is recessed back into the building where people can sit and enjoy times of the year when it’s actually quite nice to sit outside.”
Interior Design The design teams very much wanted to honor the history of the original Thunderbird School with the design of the new building. Beautiful, two-story heritage spaces connect the floors and provide a place for students to relax during the day, surrounded by art collected from all over the world at Thunderbird. The heritage spaces are organized by continent, with an Africa heritage space, Asia heritage space, and so forth. The colors, materials, and furnishings in each were designed to mirror the cultural expression of the artwork there. “The building is welcoming everyone as a multicultural experience and celebration of diversity, which is very important,” Yudell says. The art, history, and tech are all working together to connect people, Swisher says. “The building uses technology to create human connection, and technology connects Thunderbird with their centers across the globe. It creates a unique and rich educational opportunity for the students of Thunderbird to connect anywhere in the world.” That’s embodied in part with the large interactive displays, but also by the physical layout of the space, with opportunities for human connection with the community, the city of Phoenix, and opening the building to the public. “Sure, we’re looking at a bunch of screens, but those screens are the focus of this communal public space, and then that public space is reaching out to the world through technology,” Swisher says. “Those are the ways I think you start to resonate with, ‘How does the digital display really speak to innovation?’” g
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Back to School Perkins&Will joins Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects to transform a vacant mall into a thriving community college.
WORDS BY JESSICA ZUNIGA PHOTOS BY DROR BALDINGER
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An 18-foot grade change exists from one end of the site to the next. A large exterior staircase helps you move between levels as the grade changes throughout the promenade. Large landings on the staircase are equipped with power and sound systems to create an outdoor stage.
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Austin Community College’s Highland Campus is the kind of place where a professional dancer and a future dentist mingle over a meal prepared by a chef in training. When you walk through the campus’ open floor plan and peek through the glass-walled classrooms, you can feel the energy of thousands of people learning. It all takes place in a building where people once flocked to buy a new pair of shoes. In April 2022 ACC announced they had finished remodeling the more than 400,000 square feet of what was once the Highland Mall. The mall originally opened in 1971 and flourished until the brick-and-mortar shopping experience fell out of favor with consumers. For more than a decade ACC had planned on revitalizing the empty building. The first phase was executed by Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects, who completed the second phase with Perkins&Will years later. There was a lot of excitement in moving the project forward, according to Gardner Vass, design principal with Perkins&Will.
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“There was potential to make a huge impact within the neighborhood, becoming a center for innovative learning and bringing a renewed energy to a very important part of Austin,” Vass says. “The mall site has many advantages—being a central hub near major roadways, having several adaptive reuse building opportunities, and being close to public transportation.” Vass has seen more developers interested in adaptive reuse, not just for the economic advantage of reusing what already exists, but also to address the issue of finite resources and development space. Repurposing materials allows developers to decrease their carbon footprint and reduce the amount of debris sent to a landfill during a project. But not every building can easily be revitalized. Fortunately the Highland buildings’ strong infrastructure made it an ideal candidate for a large-scale multi-use project. Its steel structural allowed for flexibility in re-creating something spectacular. “Having good structural bones and volume allowed the team to craft a tailored design
Exposed interiors are meant to foster creativity and inspire students while paying homage to the building’s original form as a shopping center.
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Open spaces, light woods, and playful colors bring life to the Austin Community College Highland Campus.
Many of the mall’s original materials were reused in the project. Steel that once supported the building now frames jewel boxes designed for student interaction. Salvaged glass from the
original storefronts was used as aggregate in new sidewalks and concrete floors. The project provides state-of-the-art training facilities for in-demand jobs while serving as a model of adaptive reuse.
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reflecting the college’s innovative curriculum,” Vass says. To transform a 1970s era mall into a multi-use learning center, Vass and his team turned empty spaces from the former shopping plaza into bright learning spaces. “We took classroom program spaces and placed them within double volume spaces so as to activate the center circulation space,” he says. “In some ways the mall had attributes that allowed us to be even more creative.” One of the team’s first steps was to create an open-air promenade to connect the many programs within. Public spaces like a culinary arts restaurant, auditorium, and art gallery are located off the promenade, transforming the campus into a walkable neighborhood. Many of the mall’s original materials were reused in the project. Steel that once supported the building now frames jewel boxes designed for student interaction. Salvaged glass from the original storefronts was used as aggregate in new sidewalks and concrete floors. Other sustainable efforts include solar panels that offset energy usage and strategic light fixtures that work to reduce light pollution. An irrigation system is supported by harvested rainwater, while low-flow plumbing fixtures reduce water consumption by 34%. ACC has also made its campus easily accessible by the city’s metro system to incentivize students to reduce their carbon footprint and support a walkable community. It’s these efforts that earned the project LEED Gold. The ACC Highland Campus is built with the future of the community in mind—both environmentally and by stimulating urban revitalization. “If you drive by you’ll see there are all kinds of new retail shops, coffee shops, and restaurants. There’s also a major housing boom,” Vass says. “I think it has a lot to do with ACC being there and the draw it brings for students and families.” ACC’s master plan allows for more growth in the future, too, and Vass is excited. “You sit back and say, ‘Wow. That’s a lot of programs and a lot of opportunities. We were able to make spaces and create areas for all of those programs to occur.” g
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Glass-walled classrooms allow for an interactive experience at Austin Community College.
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PROJECT DETAILS
PROJECT: Austin Community College Highland Campus ARCHITECTS: Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects, Perkins&Will LOCATION: Austin, TX Completion: April 2022 Size: 411,000 square feet Cost: $115 million Civil Engineer: MWM Design Group Structural Engineer: Datum Engineers MEP Engineer: Shah Smith Contractor: Flintco Landscape Architect: Coleman & Associates Awards: LEED Gold
Plentiful natural light fills this collaborative learning space at Austin Community College’s Highland Campus.
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Embracing the Streetscape
WORDS BY IAN P. MURPHY PHOTOS BY ANDREW RUGGE
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Varied heights and setbacks lend to the project’s pedestrianscale appeal while making it look like “a collection of books on a bookshelf.”
DRAWING COURTESY OF MUTANT ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Perkins Eastman’s Collection 14 incorporates historic structures, multiple uses while adding to the character of the community.
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The block-long Collection 14 is framed by two apartment towers and incorporates several historic structures and facades. Exteriors emulate the warehouse-industrial vernacular of the 14th Street corridor, incorporating the historic facades on the site.
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The lobby’s green wall brings the outdoors in with shade plants, wood floors, and a sleek receiving counter.
Collection 14 is the sum of many parts—or at least that’s how it looks from the sidewalk. Initially conceived as two distinct buildings, the project grew to encompass a full city block, incorporating a handful of historic properties while maximizing space and livability for a 21st century clientele. Two parcels on the block—14th St. between V and W streets—had belonged to Martha’s Table, a longtime D.C. social services provider. As the neighborhood upscaled over the last 15 years, the nonprofit found itself with fewer locals to serve but valuable real estate. It opted to sell and build a new headquarters in another area with the proceeds. Part of the design process for that project, Perkins Eastman DC began looking for developers interested in redeveloping the 14th St. site, attracting family-owned Madison Investments to partner. “We were looking to take the character of the place and make sure that we added to it,” says Tim Bertschinger, associate principal and project manager for Collection14. “The developers felt a sense of responsibility because they’ve been working in the city for a long time.” Madison initially envisioned building two apartment towers, an arrangement that would have left both “with big, blank faces on the sides,” Bertschinger says. Per-
kins Eastman DC convinced the developers to acquire another narrow parcel and the gas station at the north end of the block, leaving a contiguous site with two historic facades and a protected building in the middle. It presented a design challenge but also an opportunity. The purchases allowed Perkins Eastman DC to take advantage of the site’s slope to adjust the project’s official measuring point upward in keeping with D.C. height restrictions. “By acquiring the additional sites we were able to add some additional floors to the project, including a mezzanine that created 7,000 square feet of office space,” Bertschinger says. The historic structure was an automobile showroom dating to 1918. Perkins Eastman DC surgically excavated the development’s parking garage beneath it, leaving the building intact on stilts and needle beams. Once the concrete set, the rest of the development went up around it. The design reconceived the showroom as a retail space with rooftop terrace and event space. “We repurposed it in a way that you can experience the inside of the building from the retail side, but you can also take in the whole environment from the rooftop terrace,” Bertschinger says. EHT Traceries helped the firm restore the historic facades, and the leasing of-
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fice occupies a reconstructed townhouse. Seven-story residence buildings frame the varying heights and setbacks of the project, which lend the block a walkable scale and give it the feel of “a collection of books on a bookshelf”—hence the name Collection 14. With 233 rental apartments, retail, office and event space, the flexible urban environment satisfies multiple goals for sustainability. “Sustainability is more than just environmental value; it’s also social and economic value,” says Heather Jauregui, Perkins Eastman’s director of sustainability. “We look at the wellness of the planet and the wellness of people at the same time.” For planet, the building boasts optimized energy performance thanks to a vapor-permeable envelope with three inches of insulation, low-flow plumbing, and central hot water systems. Daylighting strategies make more than 55% of the space daylight-autonomous, meaning electric lights are unnecessary when the sun shines. “It’s a pretty high threshold for any building to reach,” Jauregui says. Collection 14 doesn’t have a repeating f loorplan, instead stacking kitchens and bathrooms to create efficiencies. And with 100-year rain events now happening yearly on the Atlantic coast, the entire development features green roofs, plus a bioretention pond planted with marsh grasses to hold stormwater runoff back from the sewers. All paints and coatings, flooring, and wall coverings meet or exceed VOC content and emissions thresholds for six categories in the LEED system, and more than 50 products specified had health product declarations (HPDs). “We can be more assured that we’re not putting toxic materials into the spaces to begin with,” Jauregui says. “We paid a lot of
attention early on to creating quality indoor environments for the residents.” A VRV and dedicated outdoor air system provides fresh air with 100% return to rooftop units that recover conditioning energy; residential units also offer operable windows. While LEED certification was a permitting requirement, the firm achieved LEED Gold through its holistic design process. The final product is almost a neighborhood unto itself. “The creation of a place that has places to live, places to work, and places to shop and visit takes advantage of the asset,” Bertschinger says. “That kind of urbanism is a big part of sustainability. Environmental, economic, and social benefits attract people to a place.” In the heart of a burgeoning cultural area, the building uses upscale finishes and includes areas for public artworks. Biophilic design incorporates natural materials to bring the outside in. It also offers excellent transit options—with 69 parking spots, EV chargers, and bicycle parking with showers and lockers. “The location of this project is a big part of the sustainability story,” Jauregui says. “Collection 14 is a block from the Metro and has great bus lines. If you design a high-performance building, but it’s in the middle of nowhere and everyone has to drive there, is it really sustainable?” The firm’s holistic approach and attention to detail helped Collection 14 enhance the neighborhood, Bertschinger says. “Nothing about this project is groundbreaking or trendsetting,” he says. “It’s not about the 80% of making a new thing; it’s about the 20% of making it perfect. There’s no one solution; there’s only a process.” g
The design stacks kitchens and baths to create economies during construction. All units benefit from daylighting, operable windows, low-VOC materials, and energyefficient appliances.
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PROJECT DETAILS PROJECT: Collection 14 ARCHITECT: Perkins Eastman LOCATION: Washington, D.C. Completion: Spring 2022 Developer: Madison Investments Size: 235,000 square feet Structural Engineer: Ehlert Bryan Civil Engineer: VIKA Capitol MEP: Interface Engineering Contractor: McCullough Construction Lighting: Setty & Associates Interior Designer: Perkins Eastman Landscape Architect: VIKA Capitol Preservation Specialists: EHT Traceries
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Bright Future Inside new affordable family apartments and creative spaces designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects.
WORDS BY L AUR A ROTE PHOTOS BY BRUCE DAMONTE
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The colorful tiles seen on the exterior of the Casa Adelante 2828 16th Street project are from Daltile’s Natural Hues Collection.
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A light playfulness fills the Casa Adelante at 2828 16th Street project. From splashes of color on the facade to inviting outdoor areas at ground level and on the roof, the project is a positive response to a community need for family-centered homes, affordable arts space, and cultural preservation. Casa Adelante 2828 16th Street is one of several Casa Adelante projects that are part of efforts to provide more affordable housing in San Francisco. This project in the Mission District is one of several in the area that were recently completed, with more in the works, according to Ryan Jang, principal at Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (LMSA), who designed the project. “It’s really about fighting displacement within another predominantly Latin American community,” Jang says. “It’s about what we with MEDA (Mission Economic Development Agency), our client, call cultural resilience and cultural preservation, fighting against gentrification and displacement so families can find a way to live affordably within the neighborhoods and community they’ve been a part of for a long time.” The 143-unit development provides ground floor services for families—an art gallery, childcare center, and an organization to empower youth—while affordable family apartments surround colorful spaces. The seventh story and roof space above are dedicated to urban agriculture and food production for residents. The project also features a rooftop photovoltaic array and solar hot water array, targeting LEED Gold. Designing for Resilience The community and commercial spaces on the ground floor serve to emphasize the mission of cultural preservation, Jang says. Environmental sustainability was also important, as people from disenfranchised backgrounds might be more at risk should a natural disaster occur, he says.
Landscape Forms MultipliCITY collection is at home on the rooftop deck alongside stone counters from Absolute Black Granite.
Jang says LMSA wanted to emphasize resilience from the beginning. That meant including things one might traditionally think of with regard to a highly sustainable building, but also going beyond things like solar hot water panels to look at other areas of risk. They wanted to design for everything from an earthquake to flooding to civil unrest, as San Francisco faces all of these hazards. The architects worked with the owner and engineers to determine what they could do about each hazard to make the building more resilient. As a result, the team raised the building on the ground floor to come up above the floodplain. This was especially important considering the flooding California has experienced recently. “This winter the flood waters came up 18 inches or so—nearly to the front door,” Jang says. They raised the building a few inches above the 100-year floodplain. Then they looked at HVAC and how that might work in the event of wildfires. “A lot of multifamily housing developments, particularly affordable housing in San Francisco, are going to a more localized solution with ventilation louvers on the side of the facade of the exterior wall, which provides fresh air to the units. In our case we decided to bring air in centrally through larger air handling units at the roof, such that they’re filtered at a pretty high filtration rate so clean, tempered air can always be delivered down into the units, and those filters can be easily changed by maintenance personnel instead of changing filters at each unit. To have filtered air flow down from the roof through the corridors and into each of the units is important in Northern California with fire danger becoming more prevalent every year.” The ventilation system was paired with a small electric heater that helps to heat the building in the winter. Air is tempered at the ISSUE 68
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GLS Landscape | Architecture out of San Francisco designed the project’s landscaping, including a large inner court with greenery that connects to additional open space on the podium level.
PROJECT DETAILS PROJECT: Casa Adelante at 2828 16th Street ARCHITECT: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects LOCATION: San Francisco Completion: 2021 Size: 155,000 square feet Structural Engineer: Tipping Structural Engineers MEP Engineer: EDesignC Civil Engineer: LUK Associates Contractor: Nibbi Brothers Construction Furniture: Market Design Furniture Interior Designer: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects Landscape Architect: GLS Landscape | Architecture Awards: Targeting LEED Gold
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roof air handling units and each resident has an individual heater to give them a bit more control in their unit.
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects worked with Mission Economic Development Agency and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to foster and celebrate an interconnected and vibrant community as part of this project.
Exterior Choices The design team incorporated colorful tile to accent the exterior, pulling from colors in the Mission District. “One of its defining characteristics is this series of murals,” Jang says. “They bring a vibrancy and life to the neighborhood as a whole.” Above the main 16th Street entry is a two-story portal, soon to be framed by a new, large mural later this year. “We really wanted to make the building an authentic representation of the folks who live within it.” The colors of the exterior tile also frame the residential units. The windows that look out toward 16th Street have dynamically shaped sun shades. “The main long facade faces south, so we wanted to be sure to shade the windows as the sun moves throughout the day. They extend a little bit further both on top and toward the west on the vertical side to reduce heat gain into the windows and into the units.” A lot of transit happens around the build-
ing, too, with buses running up and down the street and a lot of pedestrian, car, and bicycle traffic. The team wanted to bring some of that life inside the building while connecting people back to the community. “It’s a pretty active street within a neighborhood that is both residential and industrial at same time,” Jang says. Bringing the Outside In “We really did want to bring that life from the streets up in and through the building,” Jang says. The two-story portal gives a glimpse of the residential open spaces beyond and above. Below the portal is the front lobby, which is characterized by an open transparent storefront, and behind that is a community room for residents to gather for meetings or even to watch cartoons, considering it’s a family building. “That leads to the inner court on the ground floor, from where the community room and some other offices get their light.” The large inner court with tree is connected to additional open space on the podium level. There you’ll find residential open space and several large stormwater planters. “All
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At right, Mojow Yomi Eko’s inflatable thermoplastic polyurethane armchair brings a sense of playfulness to the public spaces.
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of the water from the roof is routed through these lush planters that are relatively tall,” Jang says. “Since flooding is such a big concern in the area, they retain the water so that when the municipal system is overflowing like it does every year, the water from the impermeable surfaces on the roof do not contribute to that flooding. It slows the whole thing down.” On the seventh story and roof space above, a large roof deck is filled with specially irrigated bed planters where seasonal vegetables are grown and distributed for free to residents here and at similar buildings in the city. “Food insecurity is a very big and valid concern for the populations the building serves. This idea of combining food and housing security together helps with these huge housing issues that are present in San Francisco and elsewhere,” Jang says. Interior Design Choices Beyond the outdoor areas and plentiful greenery around the building, the project features plentiful wood as a way to warm up the space and use durable materials inside. It’s also helpful acoustically, Jang says. They used FSC-certified wood throughout the project. LMSA wanted to emphasize wellness throughout—including being careful of what went into different the products they chose. They wanted to avoid petroleum as much as possible, for example. “We tried to keep things as natural and durable as possible— from the concrete floors to the metal in the reception desk to the wood ceilings to the fabric wrapped acoustical panels. It just seemed like a simple and healthy thing to do.” They also wanted to have fun with the furniture. In the community room area you’ll find inflatable chairs. “This is a building for families and children and all sorts of people,” Jang says. “We wanted the community room and the furniture to be a little bit more playful—like the color on the outside of the building, a little more fun and less serious.” The community room opens to the outdoor courtyard with a large sliding door and also the lobby, so all of the spaces on the ground floor are interconnected and easily transition into event space. Kids and families can spill out into bright areas and run around and have fun. “We really wanted the life of the interior building to be as dynamic and vibrant as the neighborhood itself,” Jang says. g
9Wood’s panelized linear ceiling system in solid western hemlock is seen throughout the space,
often accompanied by Acousti-Tack’s fabric-wrapped panels with Guilford fabric.
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Casa Candela
Mayan ruins and candlelight inspired the architecture and design of Casa Candela in Tulum.
WORDS BY MYAH TAYLOR PHOTOS BY CÉSAR BEJAR
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DRAWING COURTESY OF MUTANT ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
Designing residential villas in Mexico with cultural integrity and sustainability
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In Tulum, Casa Candela takes inspiration from the area’s towering Mayan ruins and the dense jungle around it. Mexico-based architecture firm Macías Peredo Architecture Studio and interior designer Studio Habitación 116 partnered with Coba Capital on the project to embody the distinct culture of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and preserve the land indigenous peoples have inhabited for eons. Paying homage characterizes the entire Candela project, which will ultimately include villas in both Tulum and Valladolid. The first villa in the Tulum community was built in 2021, and construction continues. The final Tulum project will include 12 private, luxury villas near the beach. Candela has been designed to be at home in its surroundings. “Candela aims to create an architecture that feels like it belongs in its setting,” says Salvador Macías, cofounder of Macías Peredo Architecture Studio. “It doesn’t attempt to imitate anything; it attempts to recall what has existed there since ancient times. Celebrated as an integral architectural feature, the surrounding nature filters light through its lush foliage to alter the environment within Candela as the sun moves across the sky each day. This connection—
both indoors and out—creates a meaningful conversation between nature and structure. Sustainability Protecting the natural area was a major goal of the Candela design team. In Tulum lead architect Diego Quirarte says they achieved this by preserving the soil as well as the flora and fauna on the peninsula—the villas coexist with a botanical garden-style arboretum. The community stretches across 2.5 acres of land, with more than 70% of it is preserved. More than 1,000 trees have been preserved and 500 have been replanted. Water treatment facilities and firm waste management regulations were also implemented, with the goal to improve the water pumped and returned to the ground so that it’s cleaner than its original condition. Candela partnered with Watch Water Mexico to ensure water treatment plants and biodigestors are at each development. Candela also utilizes a circular waste system that composts organic waste through a local farm that uses the fertilizer for fresh produce.
The villas at Candela were designed to resemble the ancient archeological ruins that rise amidst the trees to maximize panoramic views of the jungle—the centerpiece of life at Candela.
Inspired by the Ancients Enclosed in the jungle, the completed villa rivals a pyramid with its terraced design and neutral color palette. “We like to visit
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historical vestiges where so many years have passed that nature has done its thing, and where buildings have slowly been eroded and taken over by it,” says Magui Peredo, the firm’s other cofounder. Large windows carved throughout the exterior give the home an open-air feel, reminiscent of the mysterious structures found on an archaeological site. The building’s warm and glowing nighttime light is a nod to candela, or candle in Spanish. “Even the land is in a shape that is almost like a candle,” says Jana Miháliková, who represents the property for Candela, of the circular positioning of the villas around a courtyard. A private pool and rooftop terraces with 360-degree jungle views bring modern luxury to the Mayan-inspired structures and help architects limit their footprint, Quirarte says. Rooftop sunbeds double as an observatory at night—another tribute to the Mayans, known for their love of astronomy. Architects utilized chukum, an ancient stucco material with roots in the Yucatán, both for its notability in Mayan architecture and its water-resistant properties, as it’s composed of resin from native chukum
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trees and limestone. “It’s matching the environment where it is built,” Miháliková says. Interior Design Choices Inside, the commitment to sustainability and honoring indigenous culture continues. While the terraced architecture is aesthetically pleasing, it also creates more opportunities for natural light, Quirarte says. Indirect light, along with the neutral coloring of the walls and decor, plays into the candle motif. “It gives you the soft, calming atmosphere as a candlelight does,” Miháliková says. Wood, in abundance on the Yucatán Peninsula, features throughout the inside of the villa, which is decorated with interiors and furniture custom-made for Candela—including what Miháliková calls the Candela couch. To combat the Yucatán’s hot and humid weather, the property is well ventilated. Thick walls support heat isolation. Three-layered windows improve energy efficiency. Tree coverage provides plentiful, natural shade. All of these elements limit the need for air conditioning and cater to the sustainability goal to further supporting wellness. g
The first Candela Villa was completed in 2021, with three more nearly finished in late spring 2023. Both Candela Tulum and Candela Valladolid are expected be complete in December 2024.
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PROJECT DETAILS
A calming neutral color palette dominates the design inside the Casa Candela villas. The project encompasses 2.5
acres of land—more than 70% of it preserved. It’s an unprecedented approach to residential sustainability in Tulum.
PROJECT: Casa Candela Villas ARCHITECT: Macías Peredo Architecture Studio LOCATION: Tulum and Valladolid, Mexico Completion: Ongoing Size: 5,587 square feet Developer: Coba Capital Interior Designer: Studio Habitación 116
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Inside Candela residences feature eco-friendly materials, energyefficient walls and windows, and a structured layout to maintain a light carbon footprint.
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The villa rises up in a pyramidal formation to minimize the jungle footprint and follow strict building and construction practices. The project also follows set limits for the distance of freighted materials. Water treatment facilities and strict waste management protocols are also in place.
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M O V
Metal wall panels and solutions from PAC-CLAD | Petersen are changing the design game.
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M Metal facades that change color with the sun, perforated metal, uniquely shaped panels—metal can seemingly do anything, and that’s part of why designers love it. “It’s definitely one of the materials I’ll use in any project,” says Devin Norton, senior project designer for HOK based in San Francisco. We talked to global design, architecture, engineering, and planning firm HOK as well as a leading manufacturer of metal panels Petersen (which makes the PAC-CLAD brand) about how they design with metal, its benefits, and how the material is changing. ➜
The Footprint Center in Phoenix emphasizes sustainable design strategies, including a metal panel facade.
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PHOTOS THIS SPRE AD AND PRE VIOUS BY CHRIST Y R ADECIC
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The 298,000-squarefoot stadium project is eye-catching to onlookers, covered in metal flaps that move in the wind.
LIMITLESS DESIGN FLEXIBILITY “You look at any type of project that has been done over the years—some of the most complex projects out there—and metal panels are used,” Norton says. “It can be bent, and it can be molded and panelized to any shape for the most part.” Metal walls, metal roofing, metal tile systems, perforated aluminum—the options are endless across most projects. Norton says architects can clad virtually any building to bring their vision to life—something you can’t often do with glass. “Glass has certain restrictions. A metal panel has a lot more flexibility. Just like
you can’t do certain things with concrete. A metal panel can take any type of shape.” Norton and the HOK team used a metal panel facade that moves in the wind to bring life to the Footprint Center, home of the Phoenix Suns NBA team. The 298,000-square-foot stadium project is eye-catching to onlookers, covered in metal flaps, and Norton says the look was easy to achieve across a large area as compared to, say, using full metal panels or another alternative. “The building has this kinetic energy as it transitions throughout the day because the flaps move with the wind.” The metal uses a special color-shifting paint that is especially dynamic, he says, and the changing light and wind cause the building to appear in shades of deep red, yellow, and even white. “It’s a representation of wind through metal.” When buildings like the Footprint Center were initially designed in the ’90s they were essentially “big, dumb boxes,” Norton says. “As the architecture developed in the community and in Phoenix we looked for a way to re-energize those facades. This was a very cost-effective way to use metal panels that are mass produced on a unitized system. We could ultimately create something that is both dynamic as well as efficient—a new facade for the entire building.” Whether you want a simple facade or a dynamic moving exterior like at the Phoenix stadium, metal can make it happen, Norton says. “A metal panel is a very malleable material.” Standing seam panels are standard for roofs, while for walls you have options like hidden or exposed fasteners as well as perforated panels or panels that are dimpled. “It’s a material you can get a lot of different looks out of.” Metal walls have taken off and are Petersen’s largest area of growth, according to Tom Becka, a regional sales manager at the company, overseeing 13 states. “New construction, renovations, rehab—whatever it is there’s really no limit to how these can be used.” Some of the most popular PAC-CLAD products are the aluminum wall panels and flat sheet. Perforated aluminum can provide a contrasting look with any non-perforated metal to create visual interest on any project. Architects can specify perforated aluminum to diffuse light, air, or sound (it’s showing up more in acoustic interior projects, too), or simply for aesthetics. Typical applications include equipment screens, partitions, sign panels, parking decks, guards, and enclosures. You can easily mix and match metal profiles and colors, too, Becka says.
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“A METAL PANEL IS A VERY MALLEABLE MATERIAL.”
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A Marco Island residence features Snap-Clad in Cityscape.
PHOTOS BY ALAN BLAKELY(2), MATT HORTON
Specifying PAC-CLAD metal cladding can help projects earn LEED points. Metal panels can be 100% recycled at the end of their life cycle of 30 to 50 years, Becka says, further decreasing the amount of building materials thrown in a landfill. Metal panels also help to block UV rays, thanks to resins in the Kynar coatings that are applied to PAC-CLAD products. Buildings clad with Kynar-coated products can reduce their carbon footprint by ref lecting the sun’s energy to keep interiors cool during warm weather. PAC-CLAD panels are manufactured using coatings with high solar reflectivity numbers and qualities. Their perforated metal is available in countless combinations of hole sizes, spacing, and open-space percentages, and the mills manufacturing these products are on a journey to be zero carbon. PAC-CLAD | Petersen’s nationwide facilities also help keep the cost of shipping down with shorter transportation times.
ENDURING DURABILITY ➜
Opposite, from left: The Lone Star College East Aldine Satellite Center in Houston features PAC-CLAD Profiles Highline S1 and Flush panels in Copper Penny and Cardinal Red. The Wichita State University Partnership Building 7 features PAC-CLAD the Reveal Panel and 7.2 Panel in Graphite and Cityscape.
Metal is also very durable. Petersen’s metal products are manufactured to adapt to a world of climate change. They’re denser than concrete or wood, and their metal wall and roofing systems stand up to harsh environments like pollution and extreme weather. Their finishes are made with Kynar 500 70% PVDF high-performance fluoropolymer resin, allowing them to retain their color and gloss year after year—so much so that they come with a 30-year, non-prorated finish warranty. One private residence on Robins Bay, designed by Marco Island firm WHL Architecture, features a PAC-CLAD roof from Petersen that’s intended to stand up to the harsh coastal weather. Ten-thousand square feet of Snap-Clad .032-gauge panels featur-
ing a Cityscape finish were installed on the home. The standing seam panels feature a continuous interlock to ensure weather tightness and finishes are guaranteed not to fade—even with ongoing exposure to sun and salt air. Once in the design-develop stage, Becka suggests architects reach out to the structural engineer to get their opinion on wind loads as well as how close the project is to salt or brackish water. Then, together with Petersen, they can select the system most appropriate for where the building is located. “You can use single-skin metal on a variety of buildings,” Becka says. “It depends on the conditions, and we have systems that can accommodate snow loads and wind loads better than others.”
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BRILLIANT COLOR
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FINISHES PAC-CLAD architectural metal is offered in 46 standard colors, including rich metallics and weathered metal finishes. Architects and designers can also choose from 16 wood grain finishes as well as 16 ore finishes that replicate the look of natural metal patina, all with the durability of steel or aluminum. “You can mix and match profiles and colors on the same elevation to really jazz it up,” Becka says. One of their panel systems can even curve with the building. Flush and Reveal wall panels provide a flush (or flat) appearance, while the Modular AL panel system, launched in 2023, invites designers to create unique cassette-style metal cladding surfaces using panels of various sizes, depths, and colors. The Modular AL metal wall panel and siding system is made of 100% recycled aluminum with concealed fasteners and a 30-year non-prorated finish warranty. Thirty-five of PAC-CLAD’s wide range of colors are rated by the Cool Roof Rating Council, as they reflect heat. Most colors meet LEED requirements, too. “Just by putting our metals on the walls or roof you will help reduce the heat gain inside the building and therefore reduce the strain on the HVAC system,” Becka says. A children’s museum in Portland, Maine used a variety of colors of aluminum from Petersen, inspired by the neighboring bay. Approximately 15,600 square feet of PACCLAD Precision Series Tiles were used on the project. The tiles were specified in .032-gauge aluminum to stand up to the waterfront location, in finishes of Stone White, Granite, Cityscape, and Berkshire Blue. A two-person crew installed all the tiles at the impressive rate of, on average, 500 panels a day in the field. “It’s gorgeous,” Becka says. “I can’t wait to bring my grandkids there.” g
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The Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine features the Precision Series TS Tile.
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Experts at Gensler and Aquafil are paving the way for circular design.
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Nylon is being spun into spools.
By 2050 we will consume three planets worth of resources. If you haven’t felt the gut punch of the last sentence yet, here’s another: Construction is responsible for more than 30% of resource use worldwide, plus 23% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from material production. Whether it’s a building, interior, or object, materials are the cornerstone of any design. But the reality is, resources are dwindling. And as they do architects and designers must get smart about the ways they tie function and aesthetics together to bring a space or designed object to life. We may not be able to get back resources that have been depleted, but we can collectively prevent sources from diminishing further. It starts with embracing the circular economy. In a circular economy objects and materials are reclaimed, remanufactured, and
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reused. Unlike recycling, which focuses on finding the right way to dispose of waste at the end of its life, a circular approach looks to prevent waste from the start. “The way I like to think about it is, what you’re putting into the world today, you’re going to see again tomorrow,” says Marcus Hopper, senior design manager at Gensler, based in San Francisco. “As a designer you need to think about when you put something in, how it’s going to be used again, either by you or somebody else.” Circularity isn’t new, but most of the industry is just beginning to shift to a circular approach. Really it’s not so much a shift that is needed but a complete transformation, as designing for circularity will require changes in thinking, process, and practice—not to mention collaboration from all fronts. Meanwhile, others are ahead of the game. In 2011 Aquafil, the leading manu-
facturer of synthetic fibers for the textiles industry, for instance, introduced a regenerated nylon material called ECONYL®—a fiber made from nylon waste otherwise polluting the planet that can be recycled and recreated into something new infinitely without additional resources. “Nylon is a versatile material that plays an integral role in almost every product— from flooring to furniture to textiles in automotive and fashion,” says Giulio Bonazzi, chairman and CEO of Aquafil. “However, we needed to find a way to reduce its environmental impact. Nylon is typically made using oil derivatives that are high energy-consuming and high emission-producing. But how do you change a material we’ve been using for more than 100 years?” Today a circular future is more tangible, but the experts at Aquafil say we still need buy-in from all parties to make the shift.
The Shift Toward a Circular Economy
Let’s take a step back. The circular economy was first coined in 1988, in Allan Kneese’s The Economics of Natural Resources. Yet here we are, nearly 40 years later, still struggling with how to push it forward. “It’s never really been built into the design system,” Hopper says. “Historically, if you’re thinking about implementing reuse, the process is still very linear. It’s based on schedule, time, and costs. And to start to turn it over, it takes the entire industry to do that. It’s going to take not only the architects, clients, and consultants, but also it’s going to take government agencies with policy to help us turn that linear process that we’re all so used to into a circular process.” Bonazzi agrees. “In order to change the world, we need the collaboration of the entire value chain,” he says. “Without good collaboration, we will never be able to change the world on a large scale.” Places like Europe already have that government support. The circular economy action plan (CEAP) went into effect there in March 2020 to reduce pressure on natural resources, stop biodiversity loss, and support the European Union’s 2050 climate neutrality goals. Last year the EU also published a directive on making textiles circular before 2023. No such circular policies exist in the US. Lack of policy is another barrier to circular success, sure, but the industry—and planet—can’t wait. To be successful designers must implement circular economy strategies early into the process. And even in the beginning they must think of disassembly and end of life. “Designers have to think in reverse,” Hopper says. “Don’t think, ‘I’m going to design it, then I’m going to find the material and specify it.’ Design is what you have. You have to look at what’s available versus starting with something new.” In a way the design thinking required for today goes back to the elemental building inspiration we had as children. “Architects and designers, they were the folks building things out of cardboard boxes when they were kids,” Hopper says. “You have to go back to that mindset, where you get that box, take it apart, and there are all kinds of materials. That’s what you have to a build a fort. It’s really thinking about materials as a possibility. Creativity is needed, and that’s where architects and designers shine.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF ECONYL BY AQUAFIL
Waste—including fishing nets, industrial plastic, and carpets—is collected to be regenerated into ECONYL nylon. ECONYL nylon is used by more than 2,500 design and fashion brands.
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The Circular Economy in Practice
Back in 2006 when Aquafil began to develop ECONYL nylon, the challenges were so numerous Bonazzi jokes that if he knew then what it would take to create it, he might have never done it. “The process starts with trying to understand where products end their life,” he says. And by end of life, Bonazzi clarifies that, in the circular economy, we are talking about the end of a product’s first or second use. Not every waste product can be recycled, though, which is where the first complication arises. “Waste is not a standardized product. You have to be prepared in the beginning that every scrap you are taking home is different than the previous one,” he says. In developing ECONYL nylon, Aquafil had to transform itself into a sort of waste management company. Through lots of trial and error, it identified two viable waste streams: recycled carpets and discarded fishing nets. The next challenge was developing, as Hopper said, a reverse logistics system to not only obtain waste but also transform it into a regenerated material. In essence, Aquafil had to invent an entire supply chain. Creating a new way of working is not an option for every designer or manufacturer, but there are other ways around it. The City of San Francisco Department of the Environment, for instance, received grant funding to create an online materials marketplace where designers, manufacturers, contractors—everyone—have access to information on materials available. Though regional in location, other states have received similar funding, and these marketplaces have begun to pop up around the country. “It creates more of an inclusive environment so everyone can participate in the circular economy,” Hopper says. Last year Hopper also participated in a research project with the San Francisco Department of the Environment to study materials more deeply. “We wanted to look at and analyze materials that could potentially be coming out of projects 10 years out. What are those materials, and when they come out of projects, where are they going to go?” he says. Storage of materials, especially in a city like San Francisco, is expensive. The concept they landed on was the Building Resources Innovation Center (BRIC), a physical space
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that would temporarily store and redistribute salvaged and surplus building materials. “The idea goes back to time. If materials are not ready to go to a new site yet, they would sit at a site like BRIC, and then go to the site that they were meant to go to,” Hopper says. The city worked with California’s Department of Transportation to rent staging areas under the interstate—essentially large open parking lots—to host these material retail pop-ups where contractors, designers, and architects could come and shop. BRIC also worked with the online exchange to tag materials as they came in and included community partnerships to educate and engage the local community. The city is currently applying for funding from the EPA to keep BRIC going, and Hopper is hopeful. “BRIC is a great example of how the circular economy can work that could be applied anywhere.”
ECONYL nylon is made in the Aquafil Arco facility.
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The Road to Circular Success
Above: The Beaumont Range Collection from Interface was created with ECONYL nylon. Left: An alcarol room divider was created from melting fishing nets and ECONYL. Opposite: Luna Yellow Gold was designed by Rols and created with ECONYL nylon.
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Like anything, the path to a circular economy is a learning process. ECONYL regenerated nylon didn’t just appear one day; Bonazzi and the Aquafil team made the infinitely recyclable material happen because of years of research, waste collection, innovations, and system changes. It was a long process—but a necessary one. “You have to talk about and implement circularity for many different reasons. First of all, it’s the right thing to do. In the medium- to long-term, the availability of raw materials will be less and less. The crisis of raw materials will grow indefinitely,” Bonazzi says. “We are trying to create a new world for plastics and fibers that can be regenerated to open the doors to solutions. Making raw materials from renewable sources, recycling them at the highest possible level without the necessity of taking new resources from the planet—this is our vision. This is where we want to go.” As for the rest of the industry, there is still a lot of work to do to create a circular economy. But with full industry and government collaboration, a new way approach to design, and experts like Bonazzi and Hopper leading the way, it is possible. The industry can get there. It has to. “We have a long, long journey in front of us, but I’m also seeing that the industry is reorientating. Of course, the speed of change will be dramatically influenced by the legislation. If legislation pushes toward the right direction, everybody will move much quicker,” Bonazzi says. “But do we have an alternative? No, I don’t think we do.” g PHOTOS COURTESY OF INTERFACE, ALCAROL , ROL S
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Why Choose Rubber ?
The design of rubber flooring has evolved greatly over the years to be a great fit for educational spaces. The Pearson Ranch Middle School in Austin features Roppe flooring, shown here.
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Rubber flooring is growing in popularity in part for its durability and recyclability. BY MATT WATSON
➜ PHOTO COURTESY OF ROPPE
E Economic indicators may have sent mixed signals from 2022 into 2023, but the US flooring market continues to see robust growth buoyed by population growth and urbanization as well as an increase in demand for residential and commercial renovations. But for architects, developers, and building owners who prioritize resilient and sustainable design, not all flooring materials are created equally. Materials that were once considered niche, like rubber, are breaking into the mainstream as customer demand rises for products that will last longer and make their way back into the circular economy at the end of their life cycle. Fortunately for designers who haven’t yet worked with rubber or other resilient flooring options, it’s easier than ever to incorporate them into any project—whether that’s a renovation or new construction. “The best way to incorporate rubber flooring into a space is to first define who the occupants will be,” says Dee Dee Brickner, marketing manager at Roppe, a top manufacturer of resilient flooring products. “Does the space require resiliency? Do the users require flooring that reduces fatigue? Does the flooring design define a particular space use?” Roppe was founded in 1955 in the small midwestern town of Fostoria, Ohio, where the company’s headquarters remain today. The firm got its start manufacturing high-quality rubber materials like durable wheelchair tires before transitioning into commercial flooring products. “We are family-owned and operated, and our employees are an integral part of that family,” Brickner says. “We see generations of family members among our team. It’s a really special place to work.” Though many flooring manufacturers have been hampered by inflation and supply chain issues, Roppe has been able to mitigate the worst of the impact through the advanced purchase of raw materials. This has allowed them to take advantage of the strong demand for new flooring. “Our marketing message, ‘Roppe is Ready,’ continues into 2023. We have the raw materials, the capacity, and staffing to ship products within three weeks of receiving the order,” Brickner says. In the past rubber flooring was traditionally used in hospitals and other health care settings or in industrial facilities where aesthetics took a back seat to greater concerns about durability and ease of cleaning. But what originally started as a more utilitarian product “has definitely evolved into a product that now takes center stage in many designs across many segments,” Brickner says. Today rubber flooring is available in a wide variety of visual colorations and patterns that can coordinate with or complement other
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Rubber flooring continues to be popular in health care spaces, too, because of its durability and ease of cleaning.
PHOTO PHOTOS COURTESY BY OFTK ROPPE TK
“ Rubber flooring has come a long way in the last 10 years.” PHOTOS BY TK TK
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➜ flooring materials. Designers also have the ability to custom-cut floors in-house or with skilled craftspeople, facilitating its use in a much broader array of use cases. “Rubber floors are applicable for all spaces,” says Brittany Walker, interior design studio lead at Stantec. “The design of rubber flooring has come a long way even within the last 10 years. We think of rubber flooring for all education spaces, workplace common spaces, retail, and community buildings.” There is also a greater appreciation in the design community for how the color of a space impacts its occupants. For example, brightly colored spaces can invoke feelings of joy and inspiration among students, while neutral colors encourage relaxation and provide a calmness and familiarity for aging guests that also promotes comfort and healing. “Choosing flooring that supports the desired emotion of the space while functioning appropriately is the goal,” Brickner says. Advances in design may have opened the door to a far greater range of applications for rubber flooring, but the material’s multitude of tangible benefits remain its biggest selling point. While it may cost a bit more upfront, its strength and longevity mean it lasts far longer. “Rubber flooring wears well, offers great durability, and requires minimal maintenance, so over the life cycle it’s a smart investment,” Brickner says. Although initial costs average slightly higher than some competing products, rubber comes out on top when comparing life cycle costs, given that it won’t need to be replaced every five to 10 years. The durability of rubber flooring is rooted in the vulcanization process, where exposure to heat, steam, and pressure bonds the rubber molecules together into a resilient yet flexible material. Other flooring options, like thermoplastics, PVCs, or Linoleum, are void of molecular crosslinking and require layers of coating to protect the material, which must be frequently reapplied. That was the case with Westerly High School in Rhode Island, which was originally built with less expensive vinyl composite tile flooring that required numerous layers of refinishing over the years and, eventually, an extensive matting system to prevent slip incidences. Roppe was commissioned to replace the flooring in the STEM program department with its smooth and hammered marbleized rubber tile, which is resistant to scratching and can withstand high
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foot traffic for years—while also helping to reduce fatigue on occupants’ legs and backs. “Rubber flooring offers an inherent slip resistance while also providing an under-foot comfort that eases fatigue for occupants,” Brickner says. “This is an especially important benefit where employees or guests are expected to utilize the space for extended periods of time.” Another primary benefit rubber flooring offers for building owners and occupants is the ease at which it can be cleaned. Unlike competing materials rubber is nonporous so moisture and debris are not ground in by food traffic. It also has built-in properties that helps naturally repel dirt from its surface without the use of harsh chemicals. This has become especially important as staff shortages make regular cleaning more challenging. “Demographic changes and economic challenges in the US have resulted in a shortage of qualified custodial staff knowledgeable about cleaning and maintaining flooring in commercial spaces,” Brickner says. “Commercial building owners are stretched to fit the increasing costs of cleaning and maintaining floors into their already tight budgets.” Roppe’s Envire Rubber Sheet and Tile, for example, is a versatile application that can be utilized for any high-traffic commercial, education, or government setting—and it’s free of Red List chemicals. Eliminating harsh chemicals is not only healthier for occupants but also far more sustainable for the planet. “Know what you are putting into your building,” Walker says. “Before specifying always read the material’s Health Product Declaration. Compare manufacturers against one another to be sure you’re selecting a product that aligns with your goals. End-users deserve safe and healthy spaces that are free from Red List toxic chemicals.” On top of that, rubber flooring is intended to perform for more than 20 years, meaning less wasted materials on maintenance and replacements. And when the flooring has reached the end of its life, Roppe’s IMPACT recycling program offers a sustainable alternative to landfills. “We continue to strive for improved processes that result in a reduction of greenhouse gasses, energy intensity, and landfill waste while increasing our waste conversion into sellable products,” Brickner says. g
This new high school project features Roppe Envire Rubber Tile for its tonal chip look and was specified in white, smoke, and charcoal. The designer elevated the installation by cutting the 24-by24-inch tiles in half diagonally, creating a unique aesthetic at the ends of the hallways that trails into the solid field color of the corridors.
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Product | Hush Screen
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Pattern | Maze
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Design Strategies for the Modern Office
Cultivating Comfortable Work Environments
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A BETTER WAY TO WORK From how we collaborate to where we do quiet work and how we refuel, today’s office design conversations center around flexibility and well-being.
››
DESIGN STRATEGIES MODERN OFFICE FOR THE
HOW FLEXIBLE WORKSPACES AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE EVOLVING
By Laura Rote
FLEXIBLE, INCLUSIVE WORK ENVIRONMENTS COMBINED
with sustainable, easy to clean materials are among some of the top design initiatives architecture giants like Gensler are employing today. “US workers favor offices that offer a desirable mix of experiences and support multiple modes of work,” says Scott Star, director of product development and global practice area leader at Gensler, pointing to a recent workplace survey conducted by Gensler. “From a product development perspective I’m seeing increased interest from both our manufacturer clients and interior design teams for products that do a bunch of things.” “Modern office design needs to promote flexibility, he says, as employees want to work in spaces that support their immediate work needs, allowing them to be both productive and innovative.” “Interior designers and their clients also want great spaces that look and feel more integrated,” Star says, noting a demand for designs that fit seamlessly into a space.
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3form’s Flek Charge features a design made from recycled Varia samples displayed in a beautiful terrazzolike pattern.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF 3FORM
FLEXIBLE Flek Pure is made up of 100% recycled materials with a terrazzo-like design that brings depth, subtle pattern, and sustainability to any project. Flek Pure delivers a closedloop product perfect for a variety of applications.
SOLUTIONS ENTER MANUFACTURERS LIKE 3FORM, WHO’VE LONG BEEN
innovating to deliver translucent materials that harness form, texture, light, and color for clever solutions like partitions, wall features, and sound absorbing solutions in the office. “This is a great time to be in the industry,” says Ryan Smith, chief creative officer at 3form, who’s been with the company since 2008. “We may not know entirely where offices are going or where we all land on some future materials, but we’re at the forefront of this conversation, and it’s a lot of fun.” Smith says many design conversations today are focused on getting rid of traditional workspaces in favor of spaces that feel more like home. People want flexibility as well as the feeling of nature and warmth. “These themes are now ubiquitous across the design universe,” he says. Star also expects the demand for privacy to increase. “Open workspaces are frequently repurposed during the course of the day. Just think about one example where freestanding panels might be pulled into position to surround a meeting table to provide privacy and then pulled away when the meeting wraps to reset the space and create a more open feeling. As spaces become more flexible that’s going to change the requirements of the products used to furnish the spaces.” He says flexibility promotes productivity and innovation by allowing workers to easily alter their environments—quickly creating spaces to best support their specific activities with products that are more “hackable” and user-controlled. Star also expects spaces to become much more inclusive. “The key is to design products with an elegance and inconspicuousness so the intended audience doesn’t feel singled out because of their limitations. Everyone should feel like they’re being treated the same. That’s the best inclusive design,” he says. “Products that are designed to be inclusive can really benefit the broadest group of people because they frequently harbor benefits for the general population.” He says products that support hyper adaptable work environments and that can be easily altered by individuals will be in higher demand.
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The Global Expressions Kuba pattern is seen here. Kuba cloth designs originated in Central Africa. 3form’s rendition is focused on its bold geographic repeats.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF 3FORM
GLOBAL EXPRESSIONS
COLLECTION 3FORM HAS RESPONDED TO THIS DEMAND FOR FLEXIBIL-
ity and comfort by updating some of its most beloved patterns and forms to be even more biophilic in style, too. Smith says “bringing the outdoors in” creates spaces that are not only textured and warm but also provide the look of greenery without having to maintain actual greenery, for example. “You can use our materials to create this incredible emotional feel. To me that’s innovative.” 3form recently collaborated with Gensler to create the Global Expressions Collection—six patterns for the manufacturer’s etched glass and signature Varia resin inspired by six traditional textiles from across the planet. The complete range of office products can be used for panels, partitions, cladding, feature walls, elevator lobbies, and more. “Global Expressions can be used for screens around workstations and reception desks. It can also be used for signage. And the patterns, while attractive and compelling even without explanation, are especially appropriate when elements of artistry and craft and a human touch make sense,” Star says. The collection’s six patterns—Kente, Yakan, Jakar, Shibori, Kuba, and Ochre—reinterpret traditional weft techniques, material dyeing processes, and brocades through asymmetrical grids, faded corners, and intersecting shapes. Shibori’s faded edges represent an ancient Japanese tie-dyeing method, while Kuba reimagines traditional handcrafted designs in an irregular gridded repeat. The collection also offers material resilience with long-lasting application in high-traffic environments. “These products bring visual texture, diffused light, and privacy to multiple interior applications,” Star says. “And each can be scaled and colored to achieve the precise look designers are after.”
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THE DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABILITY ALL OF THE MATERIALS IN THE GLOBAL EXPRESSIONS
Collection are GREENGUARD Gold–certified and LBC Red List-free, too. 3form works tirelessly to move the needle on sustainability. They are a founding member of the Living Product 50 group, which follows ILFI’s Living Product Challenge benchmarks, and are celebrated for their products that carry EPDs and Declare labels. 3form was also recently awarded the Just Label for company-wide social justice. It’s one of the reasons Gensler loves working with 3form. “Emissions reduction is something manufacturers are increasingly aware of when they develop new materials, and HPDs and Declare labels are also becoming increasingly common,” Star says. “Circularity is hugely important. We want to make sure product is designed to be reused or recycled. We want to keep it out of the landfill at the end of its life. And the longer the residual life, the better.” Star says materials are becoming more hygienic, too, both in relation to cleanability and their inherent ability to combat germs. Flek is an easy to clean, sustainable 3form product that combines aesthetics with sustainability. Made using waste material from production of 3form’s Varia panels, Flek is ground into small pellets and pressed into new panels. “It’s like a translucent terrazzo,” Smith says. “Terrazzo has always been a little bit timeless, and it also has this modern recycled aesthetic that is much more interesting to people now.” 3form applies its colors and finishes to Flek to give the recycled material an even greater high-quality look. “That is how we’re thinking about some of our new products going forward. We’re not only reusing our own materials but also streams of materials outside of our building,” Smith says. Another example is the Coil Collection from 3form’s lighting division LightArt. The Coil Collection utilizes the same scrap material as well as ocean plastic waste that is then 3D-printed into beautiful pendant lights.
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3form earned the Just Label for companywide social justice. Started by the International Living Future Institute, Just is a nutrition label for ethical companies. “We have labels that acknowledge our products; the Just Label acknowledges our people,” says Ryan Smith, 3form’s chief creative officer. “We’re excited to bring our company culture to the forefront and set a benchmark for our future efforts with full transparency.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF 3FORM
DESIGNING
THE BEST
SPACES
CREATING A BETTER WORKPLACE CENTERS LARGELY ON
how people feel in that space, Smith says. 3form is seeing many requests from clients who want ultra unique and beautiful spaces. “Being able to get this specific color or a specific design aesthetic to the designers is something we’re really good at. We have such a broad portfolio of materials and ways to combine those,” he says. At the end of the day, though, 3form always comes back to the same questions: “How do we improve the aesthetics? How do we improve the design? How do we make all that better for the user?” Smith says. “That’s why we build spaces. We build spaces so we can occupy them and enjoy them, and so you can feel more productive in them. And that all comes down to the materials and the colors you pick. Not only do we want to be part of that; we also want to make fundamentally good products that are made out of responsible materials.” g
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CULTIVATING
COMFORTABLE WORK ENVIRONMENTS FROM CONCENTRATION TO COLLABORATION—HOW HEALTHY MATERIALS, ACOUSTIC TREATMENTS, AND MORE CHANGE THE WAY WE WORK
By Laura Rote
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PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTEX ACOUSTICS
Autex’s contributions to well-designed, acoustically comfortable co-working spaces help even diverse spaces meet individual working needs. Pictured here are Vicinity Desk Screens, Lanes.
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“WE SPEND A TON OF TIME INSIDE BUILDINGS,” SAYS
Relina Bulchandani, executive vice president of real estate and workplace services at Salesforce—the massive American cloud-based software company based in San Francisco. Often the buildings we spend so much time in are our workplaces, and Salesforce is constantly thinking about what that means for both their employees and the environment. One of Salesforce’s newest projects is its Chicago tower—a 60-story office building designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and opened in spring 2023. Bulchandani says Salesforce continues to think through how it lays out space for employees to make for the best experience. The Chicago project in particular pays close attention to that—with a design that progresses from quieter to louder and more collaborative spaces. “We’re creating libraries and different zones that are separated acoustically,” Bulchandani says. Designing quiet zones and collaborative areas was done to support the neurodiverse population initially, but it was soon clear that everyone benefits from a diversity of spaces, Bulchandani says. “It’s really making sure that we can support many different employees who come in—that they have spaces that really work for them.” Separating spaces properly—with the right acoustic controls—can be a challenge in some large offices, and collaboration is only also expected to grow across most offices. Salesforce expects work to continue to move in that direction; in their new offices they’re increasing collaborative spaces from 40% to 60%. In many cases a return to the office means having to adjust to distractions, says Antonio Holguin, sustainability lead for Autex Acoustics, a leading designer and supplier of innovative acoustic in the US. “Whether we were working by ourselves at home or working with other people in the house in a different room, we’re going from a place of not having to worry about a lot of office noise into an open concept space where you may have 10 conversations going on around you. It’s a big shock,” Holguin says. He says more offices are working to reconfigure and redesign their spaces to accommodate employees. Some have had to downsize or share space, and he says Autex is seeing a lot more common areas in designs. “All of that really has contributed to a big demand for acoustic solutions.” Bulchandani has seen firsthand the effects that proper acoustics can have, as some people work better in quiet areas and need more “head down” time, while others crave a livelier space. “We’re trying to really think about our spaces—does it work for our employees? Does it meet the diverse needs of employees?” Holguin says one way to ensure everyone is more comfortable is to pair Autex’s baffle systems with their Quietspace wall panel. This combination is one of Autex’s best sellers as it gives designers both vertical and horizontal coverage
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for better sound absorption. “Designers tend to gravitate toward those because they are very easy to implement into their designs but also customizable to fit their design vision.” Solutions like these work great in commercial spaces with large open areas like conference rooms, foyers, and open offices, he says. Bulchandani says the modern office also needs to be enticing, healthy, and fun, with natural light and biophilic design elements. “People spend a lot of time at work, right? How do we have more access to plants and to healthy materials?” The healthiest offices are designed using sustainable materials—low or no VOC and with no Red List ingredients, for example. All of Salesforce’s offices since 2016 have been built to meet LEED Gold or Platinum standards, and the company is also working toward being entirely zero carbon, Bulchandani says. Its San Francisco Tower, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and completed in 2018, is a great example of sustainable design down to the last detail—the carpet, paint, custom HVAC, and more. The project saves 30,000 gallons of fresh water each day by blackwater recycling, 75% of occupied spaces receive natural daylight, and fresh air reaches each floor from intake louvers in the facade. Autex Acoustics solutions are also free of Red List chemicals. Holguin takes pride in the fact that the company makes their own acoustic panels, unlike a lot of their competitors. They are both durable and minimize waste in their production. All of their products include at least 60% recycled post-consumer PET. You can download Autex’s full sustainability report online. Autex is carbon neutral in everything it does, but healthy goes beyond materials and translates to well-being, too. Autex Acoustics products are designed to reduce and control reverberated noise and echo in interior spaces—and noise has been proven in studies again and again to significantly harm well-being. Autex’s Quietspace panel is en-
Above: The Ohana Floor on the 61st floor of 415 Mission Street, Salesforce’s San Francisco Tower, can accommodate up to 250 guests. Right: Salesforce Tower Chicago is a 60-story tower on the Chicago River.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SALESFORCE
PHOTOS BY TK TK
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Rockingham Youth Centre was designed as a flexible active space with workstations for staff and service providers. This award-
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winning project is designed to encourage collaboration in an acoustically pleasing space that includes Autex Acoustics’ Frontier Axis.
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gineered to absorb a minimum of 85% of sound energy, while their lightweight Cube panels absorb excess reverberation. Just like they did with Quietspace, Autex’s New Zealand design team is constantly innovating with smart products that solve problems. “It’s not just going to be a new fancy design for the sake of it. They’re really focused on innovation within the acoustic space.” That innovation centers around developing new carbon neutral product lines. For biophilic options, Autex’s print solutions are also in demand in today’s offices. “People want to come back to a space that’s not only inviting but feels luxurious or fun,” Holguin says. “We’ve been seeing a lot of demand for our printed baffles or printed panels.” This includes their Acoustic Timber, which looks like wood, and their new Stone collection. “We’re providing the visual of a luxury material for much less cost, and you get the sound absorption,” he says. “We are helping people curate higher-end fit outs that are not only sustainable because we’re using post-consumer plastic but it’s also sound absorbent. It’s the best of both worlds.” Autex’s internal design team works with project architects and designers from a project’s inception to make sure they get exactly the acoustic solution they need. They excel at providing custom solutions, too, for anyone who doesn’t want an “off the shelf” product. “Designers are often scared of the word custom because they think we’re adding lead time or cost,” Holguin says. “For us it’s part of the field we’re in; we can make these 4-by-8-foot panels into anything. We’ll have our design team work with the client to make sure all the hardware is correct and that we know how to install it. And we look at what they’re trying to do to get the most yield out of our sheets so it’s not a wasteful design.” Beyond acoustics, Bulchandani is also concerned with people’s overall experience of a space—how do you design to be more inclusive, for example? She references UC Berkeley Professor John A. Powell, an equity and inclusion expert and law professor. “He was talking about how people of color have to constantly code switch in their work environments,” she says. “How do we create spaces that people feel really welcome in so they can bring their authentic selves to work?” Salesforce is pushing for more flexibility in the modern office across the board. “We all have to re-recruit employees to come back into the offices—not just to come in but to come in consistently,” she says. “I want employees to have agency and choice. You find the right space at the right time for the right activity.” But what do the people themselves really want out of an office? And what makes an office healthy? Salesforce has been surveying people on that most recently for months, and those conversations and interviews are ongoing. One thing, she says, is for certain, Bulchandani says. “Healthy, sustainable spaces attract folks.” g
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The Zip Water HydroTap is seen here in chrome.
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PHOTO BY GUY DAVIES
DRAINED DISRUPTED
AND
THE TRADITIONAL OFFICE SPACE IS POISED FOR CHANGE—FROM THE WAY WE WORK TO THE WATER WE DRINK.
By Mikenna Pierotti
PICTURE AN OFFICE. DO YOU SEE DARK GRAY CUBICLES
and beige paint? Hear the glug of a watercooler and feel the rush of stale, dry air? If this kind of space makes you drained, even ill, you’re not alone. As early as 1991 the EPA had coined a term for the phenomenon where occupants of certain buildings were continuously unwell: sick building syndrome. Since then research has continued to show just how much our office lives impact our health and productivity. And the pandemic only sped up this inevitable scrutiny. Today, as return-to-work requests (and mandates) begin circulating, workers are finally feeling empowered—especially the rising generation—to demand healthier, modern, f lexible offices in which to spend their 40-hour weeks (90,000 over the course of a typical career). Designers, as well as innovative businesses, are responding with new methods, products, and services. “The pandemic has caused the most disruption to office design in the history of the contemporary offices we see today,” says Liz Fallon, studio practice leader of commercial interiors at HKS— an international and interdisciplinary design firm. Fallon works closely with researchers and advisors at HKS to apply the latest science and social data to transform workplace design for clients across the world. “There are three main themes coming out of the pandemic as far as how organizations are using the office—so it is productive both for employees and for businesses,” she says.
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WELL
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BEING
THE FIRST AND ARGUABLY MOST RESEARCHED THEME,
Fallon says, is using the office as a tool to increase employee health and well-being rather than drain it. “The bar has been raised. You have to be healthier when you leave your office than when you came in,” she says. Before 2020 many offices were still relying on the same outdated and unhealthy equipment, materials, and practices. Harsh cleaning agents, aging HVAC, inadequate lighting, dull design, and little opportunity to maintain mental or physical health while working were commonplace. But employees called back to the office today are demanding better. “Gen Z entered the workforce during the pandemic,” Fallon says. “It’s really added to the shift in priorities of the workplace. It has to go beyond luring people in with the amenities or incentives. Coming to the office has to be better for you than staying home.” What would make the modern office healthier than staying home? HKS set out to answer that question in their own Chicago workspace starting in 2017, creating a living laboratory to test their theories. To promote health and well-being HKS designers used biophilic design strategies to bring the rich Midwestern landscapes inside—graphics of Lake Michigan at dawn, an Illinois wheat field washed in midday sun. Lighting incorporated high-efficiency LED circadian design, leading to better employee sleep, while acoustic treatments cut down on overwhelm and distraction while working. An assortment of employee-chosen plants brought nature indoors and added whimsy as well as beauty. All this led to an incredible, and measurable, level of increased employee satisfaction and well-being. But Fallon cautions, the basics—air and water—are just as important as the look and feel in healthy modern office design. “State-of-the-art air filtration and water filtra-
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tion have become baseline requirements, especially in a post-pandemic world and workforce.” To address this the HKS design team retrofitted the HVAC system in their 1907 building to use displacement ventilation. The result: “The air here is cleaner than most of our homes,” Fallon says. They also outfitted the office with sensors and monitors for things like CO2 and temperature to maintain the highest levels of health and comfort (no more fights over the thermostat or turning on the space heaters in summer). Replacing the big blue water cooler and dusty stacks of sparkling beverages, once staples in the office pantry, was another priority. Maria Papadopoulos, product and portfolio manager at Zip Water, part of Culligan International Company, has been working to bring such high-tech hydration systems (like those used at HKS’s Chicago office) to the US market over the last four years. They’re already indispensable in Australian offices. Soon, she says, this technology will be a given around the world. One product in particular, the HydroTap, is set to revolutionize communal hydration—offering a choice of highly filtered, chilled, boiling, and sparkling water all from a single, stylish tap. “Our filtration [a built-in 0.2-micron filter that meets NSF standards] is certified to reduce the six most harmful contaminants—including the ones you can’t see, taste, or smell. Things like sediments, including microplastics, cryptosporidium [a parasite sometimes found in public water sources], lead, limescale, and chlorine.” And with the Touch-free Wave option, users can simply wave a hand and have access to ultra-clean water without spreading germs throughout the day. Papadopoulos says the use of HydroTap in offices has helped fight chronic dehydration, increasing worker health and well-being as well as productivity and alertness. According to customer surveys, some 80% say they drink more when there’s a HydroTap around, she says. HydroTap even adds to the beauty of a workspace. Designers can match the HydroTap to any aesthetic, with seven trendy color choices (like matte and brushed gold) and seven modern profiles, from a graceful arching faucet to a minimalist tap. “It lifts the health and wellness of an entire office.”
HydroTap office water dispensers offer filtered boiling, chilled, and sparkling water from a single tap.
“GEN Z ENTERED THE WORKFORCE DURING THE PANDEMIC ... IT HAS TO GO BEYOND LURING PEOPLE IN WITH THE AMENITIES OR INCENTIVES. COMING TO THE OFFICE HAS TO BE BETTER FOR YOU THAN STAYING HOME.”
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INCLUSION AND FLEXIBILITY THE SECOND AND THIRD THEMES ARE INTERTWINED, CEN-
tering around an increased need for inclusion as well as flexibility, Fallon says. Both the cubicle farm and the traditional open office “have alienated different groups of people and kinds of work modes for many years. Gen Z is said to be the most diverse generation in US history, prioritizing mental health,” she says.” The new trend is toward flexible spaces, providing employees with different work habits more choices: private escapes as well as collaborative regions. Creating spaces that are adaptable to different teams and new generations has become paramount and money-saving in the long run, as these spaces can easily evolve with the business over time. At HKS’s Chicago office the environment was divided into types (such as “me space” and “we space”) that offered employees constant choice and freedom of movement. Choosing office technologies with the same built-in adaptability is just as important. Products like the HydroTap can easily fit into the design and needs of a laidback communal kitchen where employees gather to cook and share meals as well as ideas, or a more formal boardroom where a minimal, beautiful tap provides individualized refreshment during long conversations among smaller teams. Fallon believes we are “moving away from having dedicated space for individuals in each office” and toward “a more shared, community-driven mindset.” Papadopoulos agrees. “The office of now will be the place where people go to collaborate,” she says. You’ve got your individual work you might do at home, but for team building, workshops, or breakout activities once relegated to event centers or even local bars, you’ll go to the office. The days of corner office-claiming and comfy chair-stealing might be nearing its end, but employees will always want a permanent stake in their place of work—a shared set of values and culture. Fallon says Gen Z employees especially
PHOTO BY GUY DAVIES
Drinking more water offers a range of benefits—including better concentration and less fatigue.
are encouraging other priorities, too, like sustainability and social responsibility. Designers can take a step in that direction by choosing products and technologies that support a long-range vision. HydroTap, for example, isn’t just a safer, more convenient way to stay hydrated in the office; it’s a value statement. “We have a really clear purpose, which is to provide cleaner, safer, great tasting water to change people’s lives and improve the environment for all,” Papadopoulos says. In that vein, minimizing the impact of office products is crucial. For example, HydroTap uses patented PowerPulse technology to precisely maintain boiling water at the set temperature, unlike other heating systems that overheat or cool the water resulting in wasted energy and inconsistent temperatures. The tap’s air-cooled refrigeration system is 100% water-efficient and ensures rapid chilling, delivering consistently colder chilled water, which is also essential for a premium sparkling water delivery. Zip Water is also committed to transparency in things like product life cycle and impact. “As part of the Culligan International organization we serve 20 million-plus customers globally. And we save 1.8 billion plastic bottles every year from landfill,” Papadopoulos says. The company is also working to roll out an impact calculator for customers to use, so they can see the impact in terms of single-use plastic saved, kilograms of plastic saved, and CO2 emissions. For these innovations HydroTap achieved a Gold sustainability rating by EcoVadis, a global environmental assessment company. Zip Water is currently ranked in the 93rd percentile for corporate responsibility. Fallon believes the coming changes to the modern office will be long lasting and lead, ultimately, to a better lifestyle for us all—one that extends far beyond the buildings where we meet, create, and earn our living. “Businesses, frankly, must respond to help us all live more resilient, productive lives—both at work and at home.” g
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Why ✱ Hope Lodge, designed by Perkins&Will
Daylighting Matters
Expanding architects’ understanding of bringing natural light into spaces. By Laura Rote
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Daylighting is having a renaissance. Its effect on our health and well-being has long been
considered, but the data is backing that up now more than ever. Scientists at the Lighting Research Center have reported that quality exposure to daylight (as a source of interior illumination) results in improved occupant comfort, mood, and productivity and decreased stress and rates of depression. It also provides the mental and visual stimulation necessary to regulate human circadian rhythms and the production of neural transmitters like serotonin. ➙
PHOTOS BY PETER MOLICK
➙ “We are on the cusp of transitioning from anecdotal research for the benefits of daylight to evidence-based design requirements for daylight,” says Neall Digert, vice president of innovation and market development at Kingspan Light + Air and Solatube. Digert studied structural engineering, lighting, and energy, and focused his Ph.D. on the biological and psychological impacts associated with daylight. He’s now been with the Kingspan and Solatube families—both leaders in innovative lighting solutions and more—for more than 20 years. “It’s important to ask: How can we use daylight in a meaningful way to artfully illuminate architecture and reveal it in a fun and compelling way for the occupants while also meeting the visual requirements to ensure people can use the space effectively and consistently and be happy doing so?” Digert says. Daylighting strategy is considered very early—from conceptual design through schematic design—at Perkins&Will, according to Tori Wickard, senior project architect at the global firm. “Something we use a lot at Perkins&Will is ClimateStudio software,” she says. “It helps us to predict the amount of and quality of light that’s going to enter the building at various times of day or year. We can take that information and use it to optimize the design and make sure the building is going to be adequately illuminated while also minimizing energy use.” Digert calls Perkins&Will a master of applying groundbreaking lighting strategies using ClimateStudio. Solatube worked with Solemma, the developer of ClimateStudio, to pioneer new applications of engineering data for tubular daylighting devices, or TDDs, of which Solatube is known for. “That allows us to account for the optics of optically complex systems such as a Solatube product and how those interact with the light from the daylight resource—whether
it’s the sky or the sun, for any given hour of the year in any climate,” he says. “As you predict how that light is going to be harvested, redirected, and ultimately placed in the space, ClimateStudio allows for incredibly sophisticated visualization of light within the space, accounting for any aperture type or electric lighting solution, and more importantly, to very quickly and accurately predict daylight sufficiency.” These critical metrics are now being referenced in design guides like LEED as well as code requirements, Digert says.
✱ The Sunnyvale ISD Intermediate School in Texas uses Solatube TDDs with luminous shades.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOL ATUBE
✱ Translucent facade with vision glass creates a modernist luminous beacon of health and fitness.
PRODUCT
SOLUTIONS
Solatube and Kingspan Light + Air continue to offer new applications so architects can choose the best solution for what they need, whether that’s based on performance, human perception, or longevity. “We can create really incredibly beautiful spaces with a level of confidence that didn’t exist just 10 years ago,” Digert says. Solatube solutions minimize the potential for glare or contrast between the bright glazing system and perhaps darker architectural, adjacent surfaces. They also collect light from daylighting resources at head height and higher and bring that in to light the environment. They can do that using translucent or transparent systems at the vertical wall or using new technologies
at the roof plane or ceiling plane to bring light in from the top, for example. Solatube’s SkyVault is a large tubular daylighting device that works great in large commercial spaces, with tubes 29 inches in diameter and extending up to 100 feet long to fill vast spaces with natural light. Kingspan Light + Air also offers translucent wall and roof assemblies, fiberglass reinforced panels, and more. Architects can mix transparent windows with translucent wall, incorporate translucent glazings, and punch windows in a translucent wall system for great aesthetic effect. One of Digert’s favorite creative approaches to lighting is seen at a Sunnydale Independent School District middle school in Texas. The school’s media center is in the core of the building with no windows, but when you see the space it’s gorgeously lit. “That is clearly a daylit environment,” Digert says. “It was done using Solatube tubular daylighting devices at different tube diameters to harvest daylight at the roof, drive it into the building, then deliver it through the optical diffuser.” The architects worked with Solatube experts to craft beautiful cylinders of light for the project. “It’s like these stalactites of light that hang below the surface of the Solatube diffuser and hang below the struc-
ture of the building at different heights in different diameters in response to the size of the TDD used to harvest daylight,” Digert says. “It’s this really fun interplay of luminous chandeliers.” Those chandeliers not only provide daylight throughout the day; they have integrated LED lights to provide nighttime illumination. They’re also fully dimmable by day using an optical dimming device. “Thinking about where daylight is going, it’s all about giving occupants control over their environment—allowing them to tune the space and the lighting solution to suit their needs or mood at any given time. In the past we couldn’t do that with fenestration. Today we can. That’s huge.”
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THAN SKYLIGHTS MORE Kingspan and Solatube offer a robust portfolio of product solutions that architects, designers, and building owners can access to choose the best solution or set of solutions to fully illuminate a space effectively given a building’s specific need, climate, or location. Digert has seen the industry evolve tremendously since he started his career with Solatube and now Kingspan. He started as a design consultant, working to better bring light into buildings all over the world. “In that process I discovered that every single project was basically reinventing the daylighting wheel because we didn’t have a robust set of products to allow us to highly engineer the placement of light,” he says. “A significant portion of my process was educating the architectural team on why daylight was important.” Today Digert continues to help to define the commercial application of TDDs and other innovative solutions. He says many people have misconceptions or think daylighting is simply a skylight or big window, but those often don’t control light in the best ways. “A lot of people grew up with this notion that it’s a one size fits all solution. You have a window or you have a skylight. The reality is we’ve gone way beyond that,” he says. “We understand that buildings are dynamic, people are dynamic, and the daylighting solution needs to be dynamic.”
✱ Specular architectural finishes like polished concrete at BWI Airport seen here interact with diffused light
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from a translucent linear architectural skylight. This creates sparkle—reinforcing the essence of what we expect from daylight.
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DAYLIGHTING HEALTHIER DESIGN FOR Daylighting has always been understood as a key strategy for achieving green, sustainable building designs and certifications like LEED, but in recent years architects have put more emphasis on using daylight to enhance the health and wellness of a space, Wickard says. “That’s where I see the primary change—moving beyond using daylight for sustainable, environmental purposes and really using it to enhance health and wellness.” In Houston Perkins&Will employed daylighting strategies at Hope Lodge, an American Cancer Society facility for cancer patients that provides a supportive home away from home for patients and their caregivers. Structured as two residential towers wrapped around a central courtyard, the facility provides a peaceful escape complete with healing garden. “Exposure to natural light has been proven time and time again to have numerous benefits for people, from visual comfort to psychological and neurological benefits like improving mood, reducing stress, enhancing the body’s immune response, and allowing for better sleep,” Wickard says. “The benefits you can receive from daylight are especially important for cancer patients dealing with physical and emotional stress.”
The project was designed to locate all of the programs on the building perimeter and put the circulation route around the healing garden. “As you move through the space you’re moving along this beautiful healing garden with really nice, dappled light, and that’s creating a more welcoming and comforting environment for patients and their families.” It also creates a sense of openness and biophilic connection to help patients and their families not feel so isolated or anxious. Perkins&Will conducted a lot of research as to how they could make the building itself healthier, too. They designed the project to the WELL Building Standard and explored sunlight and vitamin D’s critical role in regulating the immune system, as it lowers the risk of chronic disease like cancer and improves mental health. “It can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and enhance your mental alertness and focus. Another idea the building standard addresses is how important daylight is on your body’s circadian rhythm, and how that ultimately impacts your immune response.” In other health care spaces natural light can play a vital role in helping physicians evaluate patients more accurately, says Kevin Mereness, interior design principal at Perkins&Will in Dallas. “Natural light renders color much differently,” he says. “As they look at their skin and evaluate their health, being able to see more accurately for diagnosis is very important. There can be opportunities where they’re not just under a lamp but in spaces that have some controlled amount of natural light that can get you a better opportunity for a more accurate diagnosis.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SOL ATUBE; PETER MOLICK (2)
✱ Healthy and natural building materials, advanced mechanical and water filtration systems, and thoughtful lighting were key to Perkins&Will’s design of the Hope Lodge.
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✱ The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation American Cancer Society Hope Lodge was designed by Perkins&Will using plentiful daylighting strategies.
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Perkins&Will is seeing a lot of interest in innovative daylighting for educational spaces, too, especially as it relates to allowing for renewed energy and improved health of building occupants, Mereness says. “Our clients are looking for strategies to benefit well-being. Daylighting is something that, as creatives, we have to bring to the forefront of their understanding, to allow those mechanisms to be possibilities for greater design.” Perkins&Will always assesses the client’s priorities first—from how the space is being used to what kind of light they need—before laying out a lighting strategy, whether that includes clerestory windows, tubular daylighting devices, light shelves, or other products. “There are a lot of ways you can bring daylight into a space,” Mereness says. “You have to think about different strategies. How can we integrate daylight into the center of a building, for example? And from a perimeter to the center, each area is going to require a different approach.” At Parker University in Dallas the firm used reflective surfaces in place of gypsum board to maximize natural light. “We had back painted glass to reflect the natural light coming in from the outside. We thought about different technologies and mechanisms for how we could extend that light or create indirect light opportunities,” Mereness says. “We believe artificial light can do its job, but utilizing light sensors around the perimeter so we can maximize the amount of daylight as long as possible before the artificial light turns on was something we brought to the client.” After a tornado destroyed half the buildings on campus, Parker University leadership saw an opportunity to modernize the campus and build cutting-edge learning environments. The central library is visible from the building’s exterior, floating within a natural light-filled two-story atrium that creates a living environment as the sun moves. All spaces have access to daylight, fostering a connection with the outdoors and the broader Parker community. Mereness agrees using the right type of glazing and solar control as well as considering a building’s natural functions are important. “There’s sometimes a misconception that daylighting is putting as many
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windows in a building as you can, and you’re done. As designers we really need to bring thoughtfulness and intentionality to how we approach daylighting and how we let light infiltrate a building.” Questions of eliminating glare and assessing thermal heat gain while maintaining sightlines are also of utmost importance. “We have to evaluate: What’s the right solution for the right situation?” Mereness says. He says tubular daylighting devices are one great option for bringing natural light to the center of a building. Perkins&Will often turns to TDDs for K-12 projects, as those tend to have long, dark corridors. “We look to put clerestory windows in to bring in
more light, and we can also bring in TDDs that have direct access to the roof, and then we can bring light down even to the first level of a multi-story building.” While some clients think “I don’t want skylights,” he says it’s the architects’ job to educate them that there are other options for bringing light from above into the building in a cost effective way. “Clients have their money to spend and as designers we want to stretch that in the most appropriate way to bring the most value as we think about the beauty and design of our spaces. Being aware of innovative solutions that bring light further into the building is something we prioritize.”
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✱ Perkins&Will used reflective surfaces in place of gypsum board to maximize natural light at Parker University in Dallas.
Just as there are now building codes around ventilation, Digert expects to see more codes around daylighting, especially as data proves its importance. “We know this is good for us. All that changed in the early 2000s when the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) were discovered.” The ipRGCs are now proven to provide the critical input that drives hormone production and neurotransmitter production in our brains and bodies. “That vehicle is now what we understand as this critical element that defines how and what specific spectrum of light we need. Hopefully, if we do it right, it boosts and supports our critical circadian rhythm and how we function over the course of the day.” Digert expects the conversation around lighting in buildings to evolve the same way ventilation once did. “When we think about building design we would never think of building today without some sort of ventilation. We know buildings have to be ventilated because it’s good for people’s health and comfort,” he says. “I think we’re going to start to see building codes and energy codes mandate the application of daylight as the dominant light source, with electric light as the supporting character, to provide infill when needed.” He says, “The name of the game today is creating a building that is robustly daylit and beautifully illuminated through daylight to reveal the architecture in a really meaningful way. But also driving us biologically—making sure we’re happy, healthy, motivated, in the buildings where we live and work.” g
✱ All spaces inside Parker University have access to daylight, fostering a connection with the outdoors and the broader Parker community.
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A Feeling of Home
Mohawk Group provides comforting flooring options health care settings. By Miriah Hamrick
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FORM AND FUNCTION
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terials. “Now we’re considering visuals for the floor that might look more like natural wood, even in a hospital room where you typically wouldn’t see that kind of thing,” Bonner says. “It’s going to increase your comfort level in a space like that versus feeling like you’re lying in a lab.” The Pueblo Community Health Center East Side Clinic, designed by RTA Architects, is a great example of what’s possible. There, washes of green and natural textures give the space warmth. In the waiting rooms and corridors Mohawk Group’s Lichen collection of carpet tiles is used; the design was inspired by the hues and textures of lichens and their regenerative role in the ecosystem. In clinical spaces where heavy equipment is located and easy maintenance is needed, Mohawk Group’s Healthy Environments Collection—featuring the Serenity style resilient sheet—combines the look of warm wood with the performance of specialized hard surface flooring. Studies have proven that connecting health care environments to natural healing motifs can aid in better outcomes, as the biophilic design is linked to health gains. A beautiful space can also provide a more comfortable backdrop for the circumstances we all face in health care settings. Hospital rooms are where we first meet our children, fight life-threatening diseases and illnesses and say goodbye to loved ones. “A lot of times you’re interacting with these spaces on what could possibly be some of the worst days of your life. If you can provide a touch of comfort on those days, it makes a big difference,” Bonner says. Patients aren’t the only ones who benefit from these changes, though. The pandemic peeled back the curtain on unhealthy patterns affecting health care workers, and the design of health care spaces is increasingly informed by strategies and techniques to improve the staff experience. For example, lavender rooms are being incorporated to allow for moments of respite during stressful situations for health care workers. Creating these spaces can help staff meet demands and ultimately produce a better experience for patients, says Jolene Mudri, senior interior design project manager with Perkins&Will. “Providing those healing amenities for health care providers will help mitigate staff burnout, which is extremely critical right now,” she says.
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Infusions of color can create a warmer, more welcoming space compared to the chilly, sterile impression that dominated the industry for decades. This is especially true in clinical settings, says Elizabeth Bonner, director design segment at Mohawk Group, who specializes in healthcare and hard surface flooring. The weight of medical equipment demands a durable product that can stand up to pressure, necessitating a focus on function over form. “Compression becomes an issue. We want to make soft, cushy floors for health care that feel great underfoot, but that does not work with the equipment that’s there,” Bonner says. Color is key in creating a product that performs at a high level while still aligning with biophilic principles. “Where we may have offered products that really suited a technical need in white, off-white, black, and a really narrow range of grays, now we’re seeing those products expand to include colors that are a little more comforting—some blues, greens, warmer tones,” Bonner says. Mohawk Group’s catalog of durable hard flooring products also includes visuals that mimic wood, bamboo, and other natural ma-
Mohawk Group’s Lichen flooring was designed by Jason F. McLennan, the founder of the Living Product Challenge, and is the first floor covering to achieve Living Product Challenge Petal Certification.
A FEELING OF HOME
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f you close your eyes and picture a stereotypical health care setting, you probably don’t envision a beautiful space. Instead, it might look functional with machines and specialized equipment but dressed in a drab palette of gray and beige and awash with fluorescent light. Perhaps a beach scene adorns a wall, or a plastic plant sits on a counter. Thankfully there’s a much warmer, vibrant approach taking hold. Today’s designers of health care spaces are embracing biophilia by incorporating natural light, calming color palettes, and natural textures to bring the aesthetics up to the standard of their caregiving. These changes are evident from the wall coverings all the way down to the floor— where Mohawk Group leads the industry in developing flooring solutions that are beautiful, durable, and sustainable, among other benefits. Here we explore the importance of modern health care flooring.
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“W e ’ r e c o n s i d e r i n g visuals for the floor t h at m i g h t l o o k m o r e l i k e n at u r a l w o o d . It’s going to increase y o u r c o m f o r t l e v e l .” T H E S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y S T O RY
Sustainability is top of mind for both health care clients and Mohawk. Following a decade-long commitment, all of Mohawk’s products are carbon neutral. Soft surface options that are manufactured in Living Product Challenge–compliant facilities are also water-positive. Focusing on manufacturing is how the company fulfills its pledge to provide sustainable options at all price points, ensuring clients with fewer resources can still make responsible choices that look good. “We’re giving you solutions that are both. We’re building sustainability into everything,” Bonner says. “We talk a lot about design equity and inclusion, that a space with a low budget should be able to make the same informed decisions as a space with a higher budget.” Mohawk Group is committed to transparency so clients can make informed decisions with Declare Red List Free labels. Knowing a product’s contents is especially important in health care spaces. “When you’re in a hospital and you don’t have operable windows, having good indoor air quality is extremely important. Being able to specify products that are in alignment with indoor air quality to create holistic healing environments is extremely important,” Mudri says. Mohawk Group makes these decisions easier with clear labeling. “If you’re looking for their metrics and whether or not they comply with Red Label listings, they have all that readily available on the website. It’s very user-friendly,” Mudri says.
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Mohawk Group also leads in providing hard surface options that don’t off-gas, like the newly launched Medella Well line of resilient sheet. This resilient sheet is the preferred choice in clinical areas with the most complex performance demands—think surgery suites with heavy equipment and intense pressure for the cleanest possible environment—and polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is the chemical compound that most often keeps this flooring product stable. Earlier this year Mohawk Group answered the call for PVC-free resilient sheet flooring with Medella Well—an unparalleled resilient sheet product that is free of plasticizers, ortho-phthalates, halogens, isocyanates, and Red List chemicals of concern. “That’s at the forefront of our sustainability conversation for those spaces,” Bonner says. Medella Well was stringently designed and tested to ensure it performs. “It does all of the right things for those types of spaces, just without one component,” Bonner says. And just like other products in Mohawk’s Healthy Environments line, Medella Well is coated with Mohawk Group’s M-Force™ Ultra protective layer. “It’s your last coat between the product and the world,” Bonner says. “Ours is set up to be super easy maintenance. It’s not something that has to be polished and waxed. It’s just regular mopping.” A high-performance product that meets the demands of the clinical setting without plasticizers is a breakthrough, Mudri says, with the potential to improve patient outcomes. “Getting rid of all those resins is an amazing step forward,” she says. g
Mohawk Group’s Serenity combines the look of warm wood with the performance of specialized hard surface flooring.
A FEELING OF HOME H E A LT H C A R E
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Vi b r a n t, H e a lt h y S pa c e s
Stanford is known for its forward-thinking, patient-centric places. By Laura Rote
PHOTO COURTESY OF STANFORD, CONSTRUCTION SPECIALTIES
V I B R A N T, H E A LT H Y S PA C E S
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ccess to natural light and nature views, custom imagery on walls, chairs that are easy to clean, and doors that are durable—some of the features in modern health care design are expected, while some are increasingly in demand. For years Stanford Health Care has been moving the needle in health care design, developing patient-centric spaces with features like light-filled lobbies and garden patios, plus special attention to material choices. “Stanford has always been a very responsible designer when it comes to designing buildings that meet our academic needs and the needs of patients,” says Helen Wilmot, chief facilities and sustainability officer for Stanford Health Care. Stanford is continually looking at what sustainability means for a building—from the materials in its spaces to the health care system’s design guidelines to what happens decades after a building is built. “How is the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing designed such that over the life of the building it’s very aware of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water usage, natural gas usage?” she says. “How can the design of a building address that in a much more prescriptive way than before?”
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Stanford focuses in part on the finishes, materials, and interior furnishings in spaces, as all affect patient and staff experience, says Rachel DeGuzman, vice president of facilities planning design and construction at Stanford. Stanford’s space designs are meant to be flexible, with minimal construction waste. Block E, a nine-story, all-electric medical office building being designed in Redwood City, emphasizes flexibility. “Covid brought to light the need for adaptable spaces for emergency needs, so we’re looking at modular systems—having the core shell be traditional construction but looking at building each floor with clinical pods in a modular way, not only with walls but also with a vacuum plumbing system. That allows for a big reduction in water usage,” DeGuzman says. “The modularity of those clinic pods will allow us to reconfigure space in a short time frame.” It also reduces
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The Texas Children’s Hospital Legacy Tower is brought to life in part with Acrovyn Wall Panels woodgrain product.
construction waste, as the components are easily interchangeable an interchangeable kit of parts. COLOR & TEXTURE
Another way to easily improve health care spaces is with consideration of color. Most health care spaces are a lot livelier and more comfortable than the spaces of old, and things like custom imagery on walls and biophilic design elements are growing in popularity. Wall coverings and wall protection in particular have grown leaps and bounds over the past decade, says Amy Sweeting, product manager at Construction Specialties (CS), which specializes in manufacturing and selling specialty architectural products all over the world. “You’re not just looking at a white or a sterile gray corner guard; there’s a variety of beautiful options that blend seamlessly into the environment while protecting the space. There are on-trend woodgrains, custom images, and even real textiles that are fused into our Acrovyn® wall covering—all of which are bacterial resistant,” Sweeting says. Acrovyn Wall Covering + Panels collection of finishes includes PVC-free Acrovyn solid colors, woodgrains and brushed metals, and Acrovyn by Design® embedded digital imagery (think nature scenes and biophilic design), giving designers even more freedom. Acrovyn is more durable than laminate and stained wood, too. More health care designers are incorporating solutions like Acrovyn wall coverings to protect walls and also offer cheerful decor or act as wayfinding. “A lot of healing spaces and medical spaces are shifting their focus to provide a positive human experience,” Sweeting says. “Health care designers are creating environments that lessen the anxiety that people have sitting inside waiting rooms and lobby areas and instead promote positivity about going to the doctor or waiting for a loved one.” Wall coverings also protect high-traffic areas like in emergency departments. CS puts a lot of effort into choosing the right materials to have the right texture for its wall protection products, especially as wall coverings and doors can get really beat up over time. “We put a lot of focus on what that texture is,” Sweeting says.
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V I B R A N T, H E A LT H Y S PA C E S H E A LT H C A R E
The finishes, materials, and furniture in spaces affect patients, says Stanford Health Care. Construction
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Specialties’ new Acrovyn Curved Door meets hospitals’ need to save space and maintain critical patient sight
lines. The right wall protection products and wall coverings set the tone for hospitality-style settings.
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Healing s pa c e s a n d medical s pa c e s a r e shifting their fo cus to p rov i d e a positive human experience.
Suede is Acrovyn’s standard texture for wall covering finish options. “Because it’s wall protection and there is a lot of impact along the surface of the wall, you need to have enough texture to minimize the appearance of scratches without having so much that you can’t easily clean the sheet. Our Suede is a perfect balance of hiding any scuffs and not harboring dirt or bacteria.” In patient rooms and flex spaces CS offers the Hush Curtain, which protects patients’ privacy, not just visually but audibly as well. The Hush Curtain is designed with pockets to hold acoustical panels that provide noise absorption, perfect for open spaces that need a quick conversion to patient space. DURABLE DOORS
CS also manufactures heavy-duty doors that are built sustainably to stand the test of time. Acrovyn Doors can contribute to LEED credits and are made using optional FSC-certified wood cores. Acrovyn Doors are available in dozens of color and pattern options, and they’re easy to clean and bacterial- and fungal-resistant. They also include recycled content and undergo VOC emission tests. Their durability, though, is among what makes them the most special, Sweeting says. “We are publishing a new white paper that talks about the longevity of a door. Our Acrovyn Door is characterized as a heavy-duty door—tested up to two million cycle slams. That means you can beat the door up, and it’s not going to show any wear and tear.” The door has special edges designed to be curved like a car bumper. “Instead of having this sharp 90-degree corner, when you open a door or bump a gurney or a cleaning cart, it deflects that impact,” Sweeting says. CS completed a life cycle cost analysis to show how much the average facility pays for a wood door. Initial investment for 500 doors totaled $270,000, and maintenance cost over 10 years was estimated at $195,000, not counting other operating costs. “If that starts chipping, you have to take the door down, you have to sand it, repaint it, stain it, whatever. If it’s a hollow metal door and it gets damaged, you have to replace it. If you have an Acrovyn door and
it gets really banged up—I don’t think we’ve had to replace any edges so far—we have an ‘Edge of a Lifetime’ warranty.” Sweeting says most doors and Acrovyn products in general—wall protection products, wall coverings, handrails, and so on— will outlive people’s preference for them aesthetically, and that’s a good thing. It means they’ll often last more than a decade. “Sometimes we don’t think about how long something is going to stay in a building, or how much is going to be contributed to a landfill because you’re throwing out old doors versus being able to remove components of a door.” The newest product, the Acrovyn Curved Door, launched in May. The innovative design was born out of a hospital’s need for space savings and critical nurse-to-patient sight lines. By eliminating the extra wall space and curving the sharp corner of the patient bathroom, more space was devoted to the footprint of the patient room and the staff had clear visibility into the patient area. H E A LT H Y D E S I G N , H E A LT H Y PAT I E N T
Wilmot says a building can be healthy in many other ways besides being sustainable. And how a building contributes to the health and the recovery of the patient or the ability for the family to relax is all part of the mission at Stanford. “Some of that well-being is cultivated by paint colors, furniture, and patterns—both natural and designed. It’s taking it a step further to consider the impact and the experience of the patients in a space,” DeGuzman says. In a previous design of a Stanford neuroscience health center they learned from a patient advisory committee the true impact of things like patterns and colors. The neurological patients, for instance, were particularly sensitive to certain colors, patterns, and textures. “We’re trying to be sensitive to what their needs are in terms of the simplicity of the space but also being able to bring in elements that contribute to healthy environments and enables conservation of resources.” g
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THE COTTONWOOD CANYON EXPERIENCE CENTER IN WASCO, OREGON WAS DESIGNED BY SIGNAL ARCHITECTURE + RESEARCH.
Mark Johnson on Balancing the Needs of People-Centric Design The founder of Signal Architecture + Research shares his experience in designing for community. BY MATT WATSON
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fabric first,” he says. “What season is this going to be used for? How many times are you going to wear it a year? These are the questions that need to be asked of everyone involved. Starting at the beginning of the beginning and walking that path of understanding the need clearly, then you start to figure out the fit.” The Seattle-based firm, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year, has a diverse client roster and an ethos centered around a human-centered, site-specific design approach. The details of this process can be seen through the lens of two ongoing projects: the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center, as well as Fort Worden on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula—both of which include the adaptive reuse of historic structures and require substantial input from the local communities. “Time has flown by, and we continue to refine our approach to designing with deep curiosity for people first—creating places of meaning beyond the object of architecture,” Johnson says. Johnson recently sat down with gb&d to discuss how these design principles guide his firm’s work, the centrality of sustainability in his design philosophy, and what’s next for Signal. How would you describe a people-centric design process, and how do you build a collaborative approach that involves the community? The old way of doing things was, “We’ve designed something already and then we’re going to ask people to come and give us feedback.” But in many cases the developer hasn’t had the chance to ask the community what it wants there, and they haven’t been given the tools to realize that vision. Then expectations aren’t met, and this results in a lot of mistrust. Getting the community involved in the conversation as early as possible is key. Part of a successful process is to ask: What are the services needed in this neighborhood, and what is missing? If the answer is a grocery store, then the rallying cry is: We’re finally getting a grocery store. Now all of a sudden this whole development has an identity. These are things the community can help inform. The goal is to find out what the forces are, what context we’re designing within. But the old way has been the curse with community engagement where so many architects are beaten down because they were tasked with designing first in a vacuum. I think city agencies and tons of architects are clamoring for this type of relationship with the public because you could do so much more.
O nce completed, a piece of architecture becomes a semi-permanent fixture of the place it’s built in, woven into the community fabric in a way that impacts everyone—not simply those who commissioned it. Thus, unlike the practitioners of other forms of art, architects and designers must consider the needs and desires of the broader community in their work. Many architects consider this to be a key challenge. But for Mark Johnson, founder and principal of Signal Architecture + Research, the community engagement process is an opportunity to continually improve his work. “I like to think of design like tailoring. Say we’re going to make a suit. Let’s pick out the
PHOTOS BY GABE BORDER
How does this process work in practice with your recent work?
THE COTTONWOOD CANYON EXPERIENCE CENTER IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF THE FIRM’S COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATION.
The Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center in Washington is a great example. We’re beginning the schematic design phase for this project in April 2023 and will proceed toward construction in 2025. Our first brief for this historic rehabilitation was to do a feasibility study and physical assessment of the buildings, looking at how they perform today, evaluating the physical aspects and how the systems operate, and asking folks, “What’s the building doing for you?” With that great foundation we were able to convene neighbors, museum members, visitors, local businesses, and city agencies to understand the individual, cultural, and community importance that this place holds in the city. Our initial meetings focused on asking for insights about the social, physical, and functional aspects of the museum. Rather than asking the community to pick one option, we asked what characteristics, features, or services would inspire them or would expand on the museum’s current offerings. In this way we were establishing a framework that we would design to, with, and for—beginning with community voice rather ISSUE 68
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than compromising when we designed what we thought was right from a distance. What were the results of this process? It was like a giant lightbulb went off for the staff—no one had asked them that before. Their challenge was, from a curatorial standpoint, that all of their work was in the basements, which weren’t connected—so they had to walk up the stairs, cross the bridge connecting the two buildings, and then back down. Then we heard from the community about what the experience was like, and their experience was that it was hard to find their way around the museum. People couldn’t see out, and there was no daylight. We brought about the simple solution of opening up the buildings and connecting them at the ground plane. From a community standpoint, another challenge was that the door to the museum was on a busy street. We zoomed out and saw there’s a park on the other side of the museum that had been underutilized for about a decade. I had been working on the Seattle Design Commission overseeing park expansions, so this made me think of how we can make the park the front door of the museum if we flip the entryway and bring people in that way. The historic downtown is right there, and so the city council and the mayor said, “If you can do that then that’ll put all these other things in motion.” This gave the museum director all this force to raise money around a museum improvement that wasn’t just about upgrading the exhibits, but about upgrading the center of downtown. It’s a magnet; now people are coming because it’s a place to be. The process is like those Russian dolls where you take things out and keep finding new things, and it’s really revealing.
HISTORIC REHABS LIKE THE WENATCHEE MUSEUM AND FORT WORDEN OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN. THE LATTER IS A PROJECT ON WASHINGTON’S
OLYMPIC PENINSULA THAT EMPHASIZES THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF HISTORIC STRUCTURES WHILE INCORPORATING SUBSTANTIAL INPUT FROM LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
What does sustainability mean to you and the firm? Sustainability has been part of my practice since before I had a practice. Looking at building systems from a mission-driven side was always something that meant a lot to me. My generation knew we had screwed things up for a long time, so we needed to do something different. A sustainable building has optimized its systems—is it the right size? Is it the right orientation? Is the sun going to blast it? You figure those things out first, then you have less to deal with. I love to think about sustainability as low-tech or no-tech. Can we use no-tech solutions that are available that cut energy use, like passive ventilation? Air barriers, if you treat them as “let’s minimize the air leaks and take steps to seal the building’s envelope;” it’s a really simple move, but the amount of energy it saves over the long term is huge. It’s also about doing better, and about doing less bad. Making sure that it’s resilient over time so that all of the forces of the future are also applied. Thinking, “How can the building change and how can it adapt? How can it become something in the future that we can’t imagine today?” How are sustainability and adaptive reuse interconnected for you? As an adaptive reuse project Fort Worden generates less carbon through its new use since it utilizes existing foundations and most of the walls, roofs, windows, and systems that enclose the building. The project—located in a state park that was once a turn-of-thecentury Army base—started out as a vision for a lifelong learning campus. The idea is you can take your whole family to Fort Worden and you can stay there, you can play there, learn there, and keep coming back. The priority and need was for art-focused classrooms, studios,
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in conver sat ion
and work spaces that could be shared between multiple groups. The recently completed first phase of work was rehabilitating Building 5, known as the Quartermaster’s Warehouse, along with buildings 308 and 324, celebrating the markings of time and work in an interior character that inspires the future artists and makers who will occupy the spaces. There was a real balance there to do just enough that would keep the vintage and authentic character while making them operate almost like modern buildings. We removed fossil fuels from the energy system and added insulation, dramatically reducing lost energy and carbon emissions. Taking inspiration from history and borrowing from the traditional steam-heat radiators in the building, we replaced them with a hot water loop and radiators rather than a ducted system. This not only preserved precious program space that would otherwise be occupied by ducts, but it also inspired a ground-source ready energy district on the campus. What does the future hold for Signal? Part of not naming the firm after myself is that it keeps on going, and that it continues to act as this translator. The name Signal comes from this idea that there are signals out there; every project has a message, and it has a message because it has a client who has a need. We’re the translators who translate that into something that doesn’t exist yet. I’d like to see us moving more toward design solutions that can meet those needs. It’s a matter of can we serve and continue serving groups in this way, that are meaningful to them and really creating facilities, buildings, and places that do something more than what they are. g
PHOTOS BY ARTHUR ROSS PHOTOS BY TK TK
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Silver Rock
and views, and the home was designed to frame two courtyards— an entry courtyard for vehicles on the north side of the home and a garden courtyard on the south side of the home. Inside the home an east-west corridor organizes all of the spaces and was affectionately nicknamed “the Hallway of Life” during the design process—so called because every major space enters off of this singular wide and gracious hall. On either side of the hallway spaces are organized into primary rooms that have double-height pitched roofs—notably the family great room and the master bedroom suite or secondary spaces that have flat roofs/green roofs like the children’s bedrooms, home office spaces, and garage. The house interior feels connected to the gardens and outdoors, as all primary spaces have windows and views on at least three sides. No matter where you stand inside there is at least one view out to nature. Biophilia was an important consideration to create a home that feels connected to place and life itself.
Inside a Living Building home in the Pacific Northwest forest BY JASON F. MCLENNAN
N estled within a beautiful forest glade on Bainbridge Island, Washington (an island a short ferry ride from Seattle) sits Silver Rock—a modest, humble, poetically enchanting home dedicated to a family’s personal values of peace, serenity, and environmental stewardship. I designed the house for a family of four—two working professionals and their two young children—who value their privacy and wanted a homesite that would connect them to nature and all that it provides. The three-bedroom home is simple in its conception, located in the far northeast corner of their property to have the best solar exposure and to preserve as many large, mature trees on the site. All of the major spaces look out to the south for warmth
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Living Building Challenge The home was designed around the principles of the Living Building Challenge and, as such, all of the materials in the house were vetted for Red List compliance to ensure a healthy interior in addition to the use of FSC wood and rammed earth construction. The home features energy-efficient windows, high levels of insulation, and airtight construction and utilized a heat pump and radiant heating in floors to provide internal comfort with a heat recovery ventilation system. As an all-electric home, no combustion means cooking with induction cooktops and avoiding the traditional family hearth. The project demonstrates that you can have a deep green outcome and prioritize beauty and functionality at the same time.
THE SILVER ROCK DESIGN INVITED ITS OWNERS TO LIVE MORE SIMPLY.
Solving a Major Site Challenge Perhaps the most challenging part of the design process was figuring out where to site the home to meet the project’s many goals—including a balance between solar access for daylight, passive solar gain, energy production, and site preservation. The project site had an abundance of second growth trees (all of Bainbridge Island had been previously logged at the turn of the previous century), and the tall trees would make having a solar
DRAWING COURTESY OF MCLENNAN DESIGN
From Earth The home was built with a palette of natural materials—in many cases literally from the site itself. A major organizing principle within the design—the hallway of life—features a massive two-foot thick rammed earth wall made from soil from the site and nearby quarries. The rammed earth wall utilized SIREWALL technology that features insulation in between two steel-reinforced wall sections, creating an energy-efficient and durable construction that is beautiful and creates a feeling of solidity and permanence. Complementing the rammed earth construction was the use of extensive wood inside and out from responsibly sourced FSC forests or salvaged sources—including some giant salvaged columns that were repurposed. Even trees from the site that were cut down for the project were milled and used in a variety of ways, including for all of the exterior siding (cedar) and some interior wood (Douglas fir). The effort created a “localist construction” with considerably reduced embodied carbon and habitat impacts compared to most new homes. The outside of the home features charred shou sugi ban cedar siding to ensure longevity without the use of chemicals, paints, and stains. The house feels natural and part of the landscape as a result of its materials and color palette. Using plentiful natural materials, some from the site itself, made the construction process the most meaningful in construction lead Brant Moore’s career. “The home has a good soul,” he says.
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home impossible without proper consideration. As a result the team did extensive solar shading analysis to determine hours of solar exposure at various places on the site to understand yearround availability. The team also looked at the health and age of site trees as well as their suitability for possible reuse for construction materials. The following solutions emerged from the initial site challenges:
DESIGN DETAIL This efficient space realizes a 34% reduction in embodied carbon when compared to workspaces of similar size and focus. The firm achieved this through minimal interventions, constructing walls only where necessary, subtracting extraneous elements, and sourcing from local vendors and manufacturers.
• Preserve the majority of the site as a nature preserve by locating the house in the corner of the property and creating a future land trust designated area to protect habitat. • Create a small clearing to the south of the home site itself—size determined only by what is needed to ensure solar access or the removal of hazard trees—then use all of the suitable trees from this clearing for building material (reducing off-site habitat impacts). • Orient all major spaces internally and externally to the sun to help during the long, dark Pacific Northwest winters. • Put solar on the garage—the most northeastern portion of the property that gets the most hours of sun year-round.
A Place of Refuge Our goal was to design a place of deep beauty and environmental stewardship, but the best judge of that are the clients themselves: “Our house feels like it’s part of the woods around us. The big windows and natural light create a sense of connection to the meadow and the woods. Every time I look at our cabinets, floorboards, or baseboards I remember which trees were cut down to mill those boards … Everything feels deeply connected to the land and the woods here.” The also told us, “The house has invited us to live more simply. Keeping our furnishings PROJEC T Silver Rock simple, relaxed, and relatable really bolsters that connection to the LOC ATION outdoors—for us and our Bainbridge Island, WA visitors. It keeps the focus on the ecosystem we live in. Our visitors often say SIZE that they don’t want to 3,234 square feet leave when it’s time to go. ‘It feels so peaceful here’ ARCHITEC T is a typical refrain.” McLennan Design As an architect nothing could make me more CONTR AC TOR pleased by the places we Brant Moore strive to create than a teswith B&L tament like this. g
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Meet the Architect
Jason F. McLennan is principal at McLennan Design and is the chief sustainability officer for Perkins&Will.
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Breath of Fresh Air HKS’ Allison Smith takes to the skies with health and sustainability design. BY ZACK HAROLD
T
here are few places more claustrophobic than an airport terminal. It’s a paradox of modern life—the same space that can be your gateway to the world is oftentimes cramped, dull, uncomfortable, and stale. That’s exactly the kind of space Allison Smith of HKS Architects wanted to avoid in her work on San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Harvey Milk Terminal 1. The airport brought in HKS Architects to the project in 2015, knowing the firm had a commitment to earth-friendly—and people-friendly—designs. But when Smith
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HKS ARCHITECTS WANTED TO BRING FRESH AIR INTO SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TERMINAL 1.
became the company’s sustainability coordinator a year later, that focus became even clearer. HKS asked Smith to expand the sustainability coordinator’s role within the firm. And no project better suited that goal than Terminal 1. “The design lent itself well to earning WELL certification,” she says. WELL certification wasn’t originally in the plans for the terminal. The certification was relatively new at the time—the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) launched its points-based system in 2014—and was originally focused on office spaces. But its focus on creating spaces that improve human health through water, air, lighting, fitness, and comfort were a natural fit for the airport project. Although the project was already designed and under construction when Smith came aboard, she says that wasn’t a big deal. “WELL digs beyond the design and construction,” she says. Her first goal was to identify areas where the project would already qualify for WELL. For example: an art museum space was already planned as part of the terminal, which would earn points toward a certification. The terminal also featured the first gender neutral restroom. That also earned the project points. But then came the challenge of figuring out other ways to make the space align with WELL’s standards. Smith said one early challenge was figuring out who would be considered the “occupants” of the terminal. Travelers, airport employees, airline staff, people working in shops and restaurants, security personnel, and cleaning staff all used the space. But SFO could not control what benefits the airlines, restaurants, and shops offered to employees. And some hallmarks of WELL-informed design—like task lights at workstations—didn’t always make sense, either. But then, in spring 2018, IWBI released its pilot program for WELL v2. This gave builders a little more flexibility, allowing them to earn extra points, many of which focused on air quality. And improving air quality, as it turns out, was already a cause of concern for SFO. Smith says the airport had already conducted research and found the air outside the terminal contained a lot of pollutants, both from the city of San Francisco and the planes idling on the jetway. She worked with the build team to introduce displacement ventilation—bringing fresh air into the terminal near the floor at a low velocity that occupants can’t hear or feel. The air comes in low, then slowly drifts toward the ceiling, taking pollutants, smells—and viruses—with it. “It’s not swirling all around and potentially infecting people,” Smith says. To complement this the designers also swapped out forced air heating and cooling for chilled beams and radiant heat to improve energy efficiency, air quality, and comfort. These changes earned the project points toward its WELL certification—as did the use of large windows that reduce the need for electric lighting and help occupants keep a natural circadian rhythm. The windows also feature a special glaze that changes with the sun’s location to reduce glare. Smith and her team cut down on sound pollution by using sound-dampening surfaces and quieter mechanical systems like walkways and escalators. SFO instituted a “quiet airport” program to cut down on PA announcements and music. The project also earned points for material precaution and transparency. This included making considerations for the off-gassing of materials used in the space as well as policies for green cleaning procedures and the handling of hazardous waste like cleaning products and batteries. Once the project was finished and all the points were tallied, Harvey Milk Terminal 1 earned WELL Platinum certification in October 2022. This is the highest level available under the WELL system, and it was the first airport terminal in the world to achieve that certification. Airport Director Ivar C. Satero thanked the projPHOTO BY JOE FLETCHER
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“It’s a lot of fun to work with a collaborator who also shares a passion for using sustainable materials.”
BIOPHILIA WAS ALSO A KEY PART OF THIS AIRPORT PROJECT’S DESIGN.
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ect team for “setting the new standard for how airport facilities can truly benefit the people who use them.” Smith credits the design team and SFO for holding firm to their goals through the build process. “It didn’t just happen. It was very intentional to meet these types of requirements,” she says. She is now working to shape the WELL system for other airport projects by serving on the IWBI’s airport advisory group, which launched in 2020. She says at the time she was the only member of that group actively working on an airport project, which helped the group think about how WELL principles apply to the unique challenges and uses of an airport terminal. Another recent non-air-travel-related highlight of her career was working on the Walter P. Moore’s office building in Washington, DC. “It’s a lot of fun to work with a collaborator who also shares a passion for using sustainable materials,” she says. “It’s been a lot of fun on both sides, to explore a project in a different way.” That project earned LEED Gold, which was a thrill for Smith. “I’m on the US Green Building Council’s Materials and Research Technical Advisory Group, so being able to use the newest beta version of LEED is bit of a nerdy moment. To certify a project under that system was personally a lot of fun.” g
w
Project: SFO Harvey Milk Terminal 1 Location: San Francisco, CA Completion: 2021 Size: 617,700 square feet Architects: HKS, Woods Bagot, ED2, Kya Design Group MEP Engineer: Arup Energy Consultant: Ambient Energy Contractor: Austin Webcor
PHOTOS BY JOE FLETCHER (2), JASON O’REAR (3)
Landscape Architect: Surface Design Awards: LEED Platinum, WELL Core Platinum
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THE AIRPORT HAS LARGE WINDOWS THAT REDUCE THE NEED FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND HELP OCCUPANTS KEEP A NATURAL CIRCADIAN RHYTHM.
THE HKS PROJECT EARNED LEED GOLD AND WELL PLATINUM CERTIFICATION.
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at a glance
Winthrop Library
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Johnston Architects designed Winthrop Library to be a community gathering space that uses sustainable design principles, including water management and native plantings. “The town of Winthrop in the heart of the valley was previously underserved by a small library with inadequate access to resources and community services,” says Harmony Cooper, project architect. “Residents were eager for change and seeking more robust library services and access to materials for education, entertain-
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ment, and general enrichment.” The area has seen more wildfires and extreme weather events lately—increasing the need for a safe, clean place where people can go during smoky or extremely hot or cold seasons. The final library design also offers many cheerful places for people to escape—including cozy window seats and study areas, active teen areas, flexible meeting spaces, and more. There’s even a maker space fit for 3D printing and digital fabrication. Fun, natural design elements
were incorporated throughout the 7,300-square-foot space, including a sculptural “learning tree” made by a local artist. “The tree installation’s design and fabrication process was completed by third-party artists, Tori Karpenko and Hanna Viano, selected by the Friends of Winthrop Library,” Cooper says. “It is a stunning feature that connects with the community and library’s beautiful, rugged surroundings.”
—Laura Rote
Read more at gbdmagazine.com
PHOTO BY BENJAMIN DRUMMOND
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