Developing Our Sustainability Action Plan

A LEED Platinum project: The University of Oregon Student Recreation Center

The American Institute of Architects has long advocated for environmental stewardship. In 2006, the AIA adopted the 2030 Challenge, which seeks to achieve a dramatic reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 2030, and a complete phase-out of fossil fuel emissions by 2040. More recently, AIA’s leadership formally resolved to exponentially accelerate the decarbonization of buildings, the building sector, and the built environment. 

The AIA regards the development of a Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) by every member firm to be a useful step toward achieving its 2030 commitment targets. As the AIA’s guidance document states, each SAP is a declaration of a company’s unique approach to sustainable design. The goal is to follow an introspective process—thinking strategically and methodically—to translate sustainability values and aspirations into a comprehensive approach for transforming a firm’s practices and portfolio. A key aspect of every SAP is the adoption of metrics for measuring improvements, such as establishing Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and Lighting Power Density targets for every project.  

My office—Robertson/Sherwood/Architects—has pursued energy efficiency and sustainability in our work for many years—decades, really. We’ve reliably considered life-cycle implications, believing them to naturally be attendant to a sustainability-minded approach to design. We’ve designed numerous projects that by all measures have achieved exemplary levels of energy conservation, protected and conserved water, enhanced indoor environmental quality, and optimized operational and maintenance practices. Of these, several have attained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, including multiple LEED Platinum and Gold projects. 

Despite our commendable track record, until now we have not developed our own formal Sustainability Action Plan. We’re doing so now. My primary concern is that our SAP should truly be actionable. I don’t want our plan to be a collection of hollow statements. It needs to provide a measurement framework with a continual focus on evaluation, adaptation, and improvement in how we operate as a firm and conduct our work. Our SAP should serve as a long-term planning tool to ensure ongoing alignment of our values, goals, and practice. The plan must provide us with the means to “walk the talk” and practice what we preach.  

Everyone on our staff is involved in the process of developing our SAP. We’re a small enough firm (a dozen people) so all company members can participate equitably. We’ve already conducted an office-wide SAP kickoff meeting, as well as individually participating in a sustainability survey tailored to the specifics of our practice. We’ve discussed increasing internal training and education, as well as supporting staff development through LEED, WELL, Passive House, or other green-related professional accreditations. We’re talking about how we can operate more sustainability, from the way we handle office procurement and waste to minimizing reliance upon automobiles through telecommuting, use of public transit, and cycling. 

Screenshot from the Robertson/Sherwood/Architects SAP kickoff meeting

A significant byproduct of a Sustainability Action Plan for Robertson/Sherwood/ Architects will be its value as an information-sharing platform that communicates our values to our clients and staff. Even now, during the process of developing our plan, I sense among my coworkers an enthusiasm for helping to create the change they will be participating in. A welcome result of our change management process is the culture of empowerment and innovation it is spawning within the RSA team. As my office grows and evolves, our SAP will not only shape how we practice and approach our work but also represent a key investment in our firm culture and its future wellbeing.  

Many AIA-member firms have already developed their own Sustainability Action Plans. For examples, a huge sampling from AIA California is available for downloading online. They vary in quality but share in common an assessment and self-awareness of how each firm operates and the extent to which it aspires to reducing negative environmental impacts associated with its business practices and approach to sustainable design. Many plans clearly state the way the firms seek to keep themselves accountable.  

The AIA 2030 Commitment Program is entirely voluntary; that said, there’s little doubt the entire architectural profession bears a collective responsibility to do what it can to protect our clients, our communities, and our planet. As is all too evident to anyone paying attention, the climate crisis is escalating. In addition to threatening public health, the existential threat of climate change is exacerbating systemic racial injustice and economic crises. If you doubt the role architects should play in addressing climate change, note the urban built environment is responsible for 75% of annual GHG emissions globally; buildings alone account for 39% of the total.  

There are plenty of reasons to be less than optimistic about our planet’s future. The architectural community, along with many others, first began sounding the alarm a half-century ago. The moral imperative to act has existed throughout the entirety of my professional career and yet here we are, confronted by a situation more dire than ever. The chaotic, non-linear progression toward runaway global warming is only gaining momentum, a problem I first noted on this platform over thirteen years ago.  

So, are efforts like committing to the 2030 Challenge and developing a Sustainability Action Plan too little too late, tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? Perhaps. On the other hand, being proactive—doing what we can control—is empowering. Our SAP will demonstrate a commitment to addressing climate change in concrete, verifiable ways. We will be doing what we can to not contribute to the problem.  

Preparing our Sustainability Action Plan will be the easy part. Following through will be the true test. Shame on us if we fail to do so.

Contextual Character

 
Entrance to the Batu Caves, Malaysia (photo by Lloyd Alozie on Unsplash)

I’ve previously mentioned how Bill Kleinsasser constantly revised his self-published textbook SYNTHESIS, which served as the foundation for his introductory course on architecture at the University of Oregon. All told, he produced nine editions, of which I have three. He undoubtedly considered each an improvement over its immediately preceding version. Indeed, SYNTHESIS became progressively more concise and clearer with each successive printing, and less and less like the eclectic and shambolic scrapbook it initially resembled. That said, it is those meandering earlier editions that I find more rewarding, rife as they are with illuminating digressions and anecdotes. 

The following passage is from one of those earlier volumes, dating from 1981. A constant throughout Bill’s teaching was the essential importance of the connections between buildings and the places in which they occur. Read his words here, keeping in mind the intended audience. Bill’s writing is refreshingly unpretentious and free of academic arrogance, perfectly attuned to the needs of fledging architecture students. The directness of his message effortlessly expounds upon the fundamental association between the context of a place and the character of a design in response to it.

Contextual Character

When buildings and places are made to embody responses to the places in which they are located, they become more vivid, more inevitably right, [and] clear regarding their unique (and sometimes very unusual) character. We understand and appreciate them because they have fixed for us a silent explanation of the nature of where they are and why they are the way they are. 

Response to contextual character may cause an internally focused building program to expand. For example, the building program for the old Gerlinger gymnasium was enlarged considerably because of recognition of and response to the adjacent physical circumstances. This response could have been omitted, as it was in the new Gerlinger Gymnasium (Annex) next door. The old building seems exactly suited to its place; the new one could have been located anywhere and looks that way. It is not related to its place. 

Many typical spaces today have been made without developed response to surrounding place. The result is often disorienting, always lacking in interest, sometimes surreal. 

Every place is full of natural phenomena; therefore, every place is full of opportunity for our response. No two places are alike. All places are full of diversity. Natural phenomena are always changing. 

Response to the character of a place is both a way of making places fit in and a way of making them endlessly dynamic. Making buildings and places that focus on natural phenomena, that bring them to our attention, that dramatize them is a very inexpensive way of enriching and extending the meaning of the built environment. Charles Moore has found many examples of responses in built form to one natural phenomenon: water. The number of such responses seems endless. He pointed out how meager responses to the presence of water have ordinarily been.

 
Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (photo by Yuhan Du on Unsplash)

A room, building, place, or city has the capacity, if it is made right, to affect the way in which its occupants see the world. By providing clarified relationships with context, manmade places can establish (or intensify) one’s consciousness of the greater place one is in, or natural or manmade processes, or moments in time, or other people, and of other people’s values. Thusly, manmade places can establish connections. 

We apparently need to sense the connections between ourselves and all things (how we belong to each other and to the world); moreover, as we realize those connections, we expand our experience, we expand our conceptions of reality and life, and we expand our image banks; that is, we grow in our ability to imagine and to make a better world.

WK/1981

Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet: G

Gerlinger Hall, south elevation (all photos by me).

This is the next in my Eugene/Architecture/Alphabet series of blog posts, the focus of each being a landmark building here in Eugene. Many of these will be familiar to most who live here but there are likely to be a few buildings that are less so. My selection criteria for each will be threefold: 

1. The building must be of architectural interest, local importance, or historically significant.
2. The building must be extant so you or I can visit it in person. 
3. Each building’s name will begin with a particular letter of the alphabet, and I must select one (and only one) for each of the twenty-six letters. This is easier said than done for some letters, whereas for other characters there is a surfeit of worthy candidates (so I’ll be discriminating and explain my choice in those instances). 

This week’s selection begins with the letter G, for which my choice is Gerlinger Hall. 

Gerlinger Hall 

I find it challenging to precisely articulate why, but Gerlinger Hall is my favorite building on the University of Oregon campus. While it is unquestionably a noteworthy piece of architecture, it is likely a combination of its history, the particulars of its immediate context, as well as the virtues of its design that I find attractive. 

Named after Irene Hazard Gerlinger (the first woman on the University of Oregon Board of Regents, and the building’s primary champion and fundraiser), the building initially housed the Department of Physical Training for Women, the Department of Household Arts, the university infirmary, and various women’s organizations. 

The partnership of university architect Ellis F. Lawrence and William G. Holford designed Gerlinger Hall and its neighbors, Susan Campbell Hall and Hendricks Hall, in a Georgian Revival idiom, replete with symmetrically composed brick facades, classical elements, and white-trimmed windows and doorways. Gambrel roofs, dormers, towers, and chimneys considerably enrich their profiles. The university completed construction of the grouping 100 years ago, in 1921. Today the ensemble is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To the north, the trio frames the Women's Memorial Quadrangle and its iconic Pioneer Mother statue. Gerlinger’s classically proportioned east facade enfronts University Street to the east, while the tall windows of its south-facing sunporch overlook the broad expanse of the Gerlinger Field Green. Overall, Gerlinger Hall is highly expressive, more so than is typical of the Georgian Revival style. 

Perhaps the stark contrast in appearance between Gerlinger Hall and its modernist Annex (constructed in 1969 and located at the south edge of the Gerlinger Field Green) helps to explain why I like the old design so much. The older building displays a linked hierarchy of intermediate scales totally lacking in the Annex. The overall and localized symmetries, as well as the richness of Gerlinger’s Georgian Revival vocabulary, contribute to an intelligible sense of order. The plainness and simplicity of the Annex do not. 

I additionally find Gerlinger Hall appealing because it positively contributes to the shaping of the campus open spaces around it. It serves as a backdrop for both the Women’s Memorial Quadrangle and the Field Green, while forthrightly addressing University Street as befits its public functions. 

Inside, much of Gerlinger Hall remains as originally designed. Indeed, renovations over its long history have largely preserved its most notable original spaces, their character, and detailing.(1) Significant interiors include the sunporch, the Woodruff Gym (which at 5,664 square feet has capacity to seat up to 300 people in a banquet configuration), and the Alumni Lounge. The clarity of Gerlinger Hall’s internal organization contributes significantly to its architectural merit. According to historic accounts, Irene Gerlinger was greatly involved in the design and decoration of the building. 

Interior of the Woodruff Gym

Gerlinger Hall shares notoriety with other University of Oregon buildings (including Fenton Hall, Johnson Hall, and the Erb Memorial Union) as a principal setting for the low-brow comedy classic Animal House. In the movie, the building stands in for the fictional, women-only Emily Dickinson College, where the boys of Delta house go to pick up girls. Gerlinger’s front door and entrance foyer impeccably model the residence hall of an elite liberal arts women’s school. 

East (entrance) end of Gerlinger Hall facing University Street.

Notwithstanding its star turn in Animal House, Gerlinger Hall deserves top billing for its part in contributing significantly to the historic character of the University of Oregon campus. Lawrence & Holford’s exuberant interpretation of the Georgian Revival style rewards my every viewing of the building. 

(1)   These renovations include the adaptive reuse of Gerlinger’s lower level to house design studios for the University of Oregon’s Department of Architecture. My firm, Robertson/Sherwood/Architects, designed this renovation, which repurposed spaces that originally contained the swimming pool, a laundry, equipment storage, and a section of the women’s locker room.

Corvallis Museum Virtual Tour

The Corvallis Museum (photos by Jeremy Bitterman unless noted otherwise; all images here are screenshots from the webinar presentation)

A project I’ve been tracking for many years—literally decades—is now complete.(1) The gleaming new Corvallis Museum, designed by Allied Works Architecture and constructed by Gerding Bulders for the Benton County Historical Society (BCHS), proves to have been well worth the wait. 

Located at 411 SW 2^nd Street in downtown Corvallis, the museum adds a considerable cultural amenity and draw to Benton County’s principal urban center. It significantly complements the BCHS’s other extensive assets, which are primarily located in nearby Philomath and include the historic Philomath Museum and the Peter & Rosalie Johnson Collections Center (the repository of the massive and wildly eclectic Horner Collection). 

SW Adams Avenue elevation. The Museum Store animates the storefront along the sidewalk.

With the Corvallis Museum, the BCHS can now exhibit larger portions of its diverse cultural and natural history collections, connect with a broader audience, and bring new life to the downtown streetscape. In addition to 5,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, the facility houses the BCHS offices, exhibition preparation spaces, and an education room with the capacity to hold 100 people. Additionally, the museum features a museum store, a spacious lobby, a board room, a docent room, and the landscaped Starker Courtyard. The enclosed building area totals 19,000 square feet across two floors. Gerding Builders delivered the completed project for a direct construction price of $8.357 million, or $440 per square foot (a modest figure given the building type). The total project cost was $15 million. 

I haven’t visited the museum since its recent opening to the public; however, I have done the next best thing, which was to participate last Thursday in a virtual tour of the facility. That tour, presented by the Energy Trust of Oregon, was accompanied by a panel presentation. The multifaceted event was part of the Energy Trust’s ongoing series of Allies for Efficiency programs on high-performance buildings. 

Kriya Kaping of the Energy Trust hosted the webinar and served as moderator for the panel discussion. The panelists were: 

• Jessica Hougen, executive director, Benton County Historical Society
• Irene Zenev, former executive director, Benton County Historical Society
• Michael Schweizer, NCARB, AIA, Senior Project Manager, CH2M HILL (retired)
• Chelsea Grassinger, principal, Allied Works
• Katy Anderson, senior energy analyst, Glumac
• Elin Shepard, outreach manager, Energy Trust of Oregon

Jessica Hougen and Irene Zenev introduced the project and recounted its genesis and protracted gestation. BCHS inherited the Horner Collection from Oregon State University in 1998, later constructing the Johnson Collections Center in 2007 to accommodate its 120,000 artifacts. Wishing to additionally provide a suitable venue to display rotating selections from the permanent collection (as well as traveling exhibits), BCHS elected to build an entirely new, state-of-the-art museum in downtown Corvallis. The design process began in 2010, while the capital campaign would reach its fundraising goal in 2019. 

In many respects, the new museum is Irene’s baby. As I wrote in 2010, Irene “gets” architecture and recognized the fact the new museum would be a civic asset in the heart of Benton County. She understood that outstanding architecture would deliver added value to the display of the collections. During the architect selection process, she studied contemporary museum projects, visiting and being particularly impressed with the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City. She would be surprised to learn that MAD was designed by an Oregon native—Brad Cloepfil—and his Portland-based firm. Due in no small part to Irene’s advocacy, BCHS swung for the fences and chose Allied Works, ensuring an architectural landmark for downtown Corvallis. 

In addition to leading the virtual tour, Michael Schweizer described the qualifications-based contractor selection process and presented a slideshow featuring construction progress photos. BCHS sent the contractor selection RFP to three “known” firms, ultimately selecting locally based Gerding Construction, who in turn identified numerous subcontractors and suppliers who were likewise from the immediate area. 

I most looked forward to hearing from Allied Works principal Chelsea Grassinger. While she asserts Allied Works does not rely upon a trademarked style, the Corvallis Museum displays the hallmarks of the firm’s other work: a contemporary expression that respectfully complements each site through massing, detailing, and materiality. The latter aspect typically figures prominently in every Allied Works project, and the new building is no exception. The luminous, hand-raked Japanese tile cladding constantly shifts in appearance as the quality of light about the building changes, adding considerable life and visual interest to the museum’s exterior. 

Closeup view of the tile cladding (still image from virtual tour).

Chelsea described how the building’s four parallel structural bays echo the scale and meter of the neighboring storefronts, and how its projecting bays and windows fold out over the sidewalk, providing glimpses into the galleries visible from the principal cross streets. She cited the grand stair that leads visitors to the series of interconnected galleries on the second level and touched on the clerestories that bisect the galleries to deliver controlled daylight better accommodating the varied nature of the collection. 

Bruce the Moose greets visitors in the Museum's lobby

View looking back to the Museum lobby and up to one of the galleries on the upper floor from intermediate landing of the main stair.

Upper level gallery with opening to lobby below.

Gallery. Note the controlled use of natural daylight.

Because this was an Energy Trust of Oregon program, a natural part of the discussion centered around its energy performance. Katy Anderson and Elin Shepard described the museum’s use of a high-efficiency variable refrigerant flow (VRF)/dedicated outdoor air mechanical system (DOAS). Coupled with the galleries use of glare-free, controlled daylight balanced with LED lighting to illuminate the displays, the various energy-saving measures resulted in one of the most energy-efficient museums in Oregon, with estimated annual savings of 58,000 kWh. The design team targeted an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 30.9, which translates to a projected 24.4% savings compared to a code baseline building. This level of performance is impressive given the need to protect the displayed artifacts by precisely maintaining temperature and humidity within a tight range. 

View from intersection of SW Adams Avenue and SW 2nd Street

It was a pleasure to see the obvious pride and satisfaction expressed by each of the speakers. The project is the fulfilment of a long-held vision shared by the Benton County Historical Society’s board of trustees, its staff, and its patrons and supporters. The new building is a testament to that vision and the efforts and contributions of all involved in its realization. Through a range of curatorial strategies, the Corvallis Museum is bringing new educational, social, and cultural opportunities to the community. It is a celebration of collective heritage, an ideal vehicle for learning more about the history of Benton County. I’m looking forward to following up the virtual tour with an in-person visit sometime soon. 

*    *    *    *    *    *

The Corvallis Museum is open each week Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Admission is $5 for non-members, and free to BCHS members, children 18 and under, and Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College students (with valid ID).

(1)  I’ve written about the Corvallis Museum on two previous occasions. The first entry (SW Oregon Architect: A Museum for Corvallis) dates from 2010, after BCHS selected Allied Works, and includes some initial concept images. I wrote the second post (SW Oregon Architect: The Corvallis Museum) in 2018, following an in-person tour of the project during construction.