Achieving Net-Zero Water in Buildings

This coming Thursday, October 18, the Eugene Living Building Collaborative & Eugene Branch/Cascadia Green Building Council will present Achieving Net-Zero Water in Building, a lecture and roundtable discussion about the Water Petal of the Living Building Challenge. 

This will be the inaugural event of the Eugene Living Building Collaborative, focusing on the Water Petal requirements of the Living Building Challenge. PAE Consulting Engineers of Portland will start the evening with a presentation of their work on the Bullitt Center in Seattle. Touted as the "most sustainable office building in the world," the Bullitt Center is the first large scale commercial building under construction in a dense urban environment that is designed to achieve the rigorous Living Building Certification.

 

Following the presentation, the Collaborative will host a hands-on learning experience about applying the Water Petal requirements in the Eugene-Springfield area. This round table discussion will focus on three case studies: a single family home, a multi-family development, and a commercial building, with a focus upon balancing a water budget, working with local codes and conditions and identifying and understanding the challenges of the Water Petal. This will be a chance for participants to roll up their sleeves and learn the steps to achieving a net-zero water goal. 

 

What:      Achieving Net-Zero Water in Buildings 

 

When:     Thursday, October 18, 2012; 5:00–8:00 PM Lecture to begin at 5:15, followed by the workshop. Light refreshments will be served during the workshop.

 

Where:    Gerlinger Lounge, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. As always, please bike, walk, carpool or take the bus! 

 

Cost:      Free, but space will be limited so please RSVP to Scott Stolarczyk at (541) 342-8077 or email  eugene@cascadiagbc.org 

 

The Eugene Living Building Collaborative is a part of the world-wide Ambassador Network promoting the Living Building Challenge by providing focused opportunities to learn about and apply the Challenge to projects, and to help support active change towards a truly sustainable future.

 

Cascadia promotes the design, construction and operation of buildings in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live, work and learn. The Eugene Branch of Cascadia generates momentum towards a sustainable built environment by facilitating education and connections and celebrating our community. We host monthly lunchtime presentations and tours and quarterly evening events on the latest green building topics.

Living Over the Store

University of Oregon Professor of Architecture Howard Davis will present a lecture on Monday, October 15 on the subject of his latest book.  Living Over the Store: Architecture and Local Urban Life (Routledge Press) is the first scholarly account of buildings that combine commercial and residential uses—a kind of building that is increasingly important in current attempts at making sustainable, inclusive and humane cities. 

Combining investigations in architectural theory, architectural history, social history, planning, and urban geography, the book provides a cross-cultural and historical look at a building type that is among the most ubiquitous in cities around the world. It describes the fate of these buildings under the impact of zoning laws and development practices that supported the city of division rather than the city of inclusion and concludes with a description of architectural and policy efforts that support the reintroduction of this building to contemporary cities. 

Howard Davis' teaching and research focus on the social frameworks within which buildings are built, with emphasis on urban buildings and neighborhoods. This work is taking place in Portland; Guangzhou, China; and London. 

In addition to Living Over the Store: Architecture and Local Urban Life, Howard’s other publications include the coauthored The Production of Houses and The Culture ofBuilding, which was named “Best Publication in Architecture and Urban Studies” by the Association of American Publishers in 2000. He is also the recipient of the 2011 Thomas F. Herman Award for Distinguished Teaching at the University of Oregon, and the 2009 Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. 

What:   Lecture by Professor Howard Davis 

When:  Monday, October 15, 2012, 5:15 PM 

Where: 206 Lawrence Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene

Cost:    Free

The Octagon

Eugene mayor Kitty Piercy (left) officially opens the Octagon (all photos by me).

Another incredibly pleasant autumn evening this past Friday provided a perfect backdrop to showcase the Octagon, Eugene’s new center for architecture. Located at 92 East Broadway in the heart of downtown, the Octagon is now home base for both AIA-Southwestern Oregon and Architects Building Community (ABC). 

As a featured stop on October’s First Friday ArtWalk, the event attracted a large audience. Eugene mayor Kitty Piercy officially took the wraps off of the Octagon. Others who commemorated the occasion with brief addresses included 2012 Eugene Slug Queen Sadie Slimy Stitches, AIA-SWO president Kurt Albrecht, and ABC director Michael Fifield. 

2012 AIA-SWO president Kurt Albrecht, AIA cuts the first pieces of the octagon-shaped cake commemorating AIA-SWO's first sixty years as a chapter.

Everybody on hand appeared to thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to mingle with members of the AIA-SWO community, view the display of the 2012 People’s Choice Award winners, taste some outstanding wine or craft beer, and indulge in the octagon-shaped birthday cake celebrating AIA-SWO’s sixtieth birthday. It was a great time and a perfect debut for the Octagon. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Octagon’s name is a play upon the space’s unique shape as well as the namesake Octagon in Washington, DC—chosen by the American Institute of Architects as its headquarters in 1899 and now a National Historic Treasure. The providential coincidence of geometry and institutional allusion endow the modest structure with a measure of significance that AIA-SWO and ABC will make the most of. 

Travis Sheridan, Assoc. AIA and Will Dixon, AIA.

Huge credit for not only the success of the unveiling but also recognizing the potential of transforming the vacant space into the Octagon goes to AIA-SWO president-elect Will Dixon, AIA. He, along with his colleague Travis Sheridan, Assoc. AIA, did the heavy lifting when it came to setting up the People’s Choice display, securing sponsors and donations for the party, and generally ensuring the event’s success. Thanks Will and Travis! 

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Thank you to the following generous companies for providing goods and services for the Octagon opening and AIA-SWO 60th birthday celebration: 

• Cookie Conscious
• Cornucopia Catering
• Will Dixon, AIA Architect
• Harris Design & Print
• Oakdale Cellars
• Oakshire Brewing
• Rachel Rainwater Photography
• Rhythm & Blooms
• Gene Stringfield Building Materials

 

"Folk-Grass" performers Damiana provided the evening's entertainment.

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With its tall glass walls, the Octagon will be a wonderful means to exhibit the work of architects and support ABC’s mission "to support public education, community outreach, and well-informed public involvement in planning design excellence for our communities and public spaces." In addition to exhibits programmed by ABC, the windows can also be rented by members of AIA-SWO and the broader community for the purpose of displays dedicated to design and architecture.

The Octagon is also available for anyone to use as a meeting space. With parking conveniently located immediately south in the Overpark, it’s perfect for downtown gatherings of 6-15 people. AIA-SWO has established a very reasonable rate chart for use in three-hour slots or by the day. Check out http://www.aiaswo.org/2012a/Octagon_rates4AIA.pdf for more information about both meeting and public display opportunities.

Happy Birthday(s) to Us!

Everybody loves a party, right? How about three parties in one? Join your friends and colleagues for a big, happy celebration this Friday, October 5! We’re commemorating not only AIA-Southwestern Oregon’s 60th anniversary, but also the first birthday of Architects Building Community and the grand unveiling of the Octagon, the new home for both AIA-SWO and ABC. 

Thanks to its membership, AIA-SWO is stronger and more active than ever before. Sixty years on, our chapter continues to fulfill its charter promise to unite our profession in fellowship while ensuring its members are of ever-increasing service to society. We all deserve a big pat on the back for the countless positive contributions we’ve made to our community’s built environment. 

Architects Building Community is one year old and starting to find its footing. If you’re not familiar with ABC, it’s a new, 501c(3) charitable organization dedicated to supporting public education, community outreach, and well-informed public involvement in planning design excellence for our communities and public spaces. Come to the party to learn more about ABC and its exciting plans. 

The Octagon’s name is a play upon the space’s unique geometry as well as the namesake Octagon in Washington, DC—chosen by the American Institute of Architects as its headquarters in 1899 and now a National Historic Treasure. Located at 92 East Broadway, the Octagon is destined to become a downtown icon, the center of gravity for architecture in southwestern Oregon. We imagine great things happening here. 

The party is also a gala for everyone, the third stop for October’s First Friday Artwalk in Eugene. It’s our chance as architects to step out on the town, strut our stuff, and share our joy for architecture with our neighbors. We’ll showcase the 2012 winners of the People’s Choice, Colleagues’ Choice, and Mayor’s Choice awards. Mayor Kitty Piercy will commemorate the occasion on behalf of the City of Eugene. There will be musical entertainment, and fine wine by Oakdale Cellars. And of course it wouldn’t be birthday party without a cake, an octagonal one no less, courtesy of Cornucopia Catering. 

So, mark your calendars and be sure not to miss the social event of the season. We’ll save a piece of cake for you! 

What:               AIA-SWO & ABC Birthday Bash 

When:              7:00 PM – Friday, October 5, 2012 

Where:            The Octagon, 92 East Broadway, downtown Eugene 

Cost:               Free!

Revenge of the Specifiers

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(*not a real specifier)

Here it is, the evening of the last day of #SPECtember(1) , and I’ve only just completed this blog post devoted to the importance of construction specifications. I also missed CONSTRUCT, held earlier this month in Phoenix, AZ where thousands dedicated to the improvement of construction communications gathered to share and learn from one another. I’m disappointed I didn’t attend CONSTRUCT and meet members of the online community the Construction Specifications Institute has so vigorously nurtured. I do have next year’s edition of CONSTRUCT in Nashville to look forward to. 

There is no doubting the importance of proper documentation and communication of construction information in the successful realization of building projects. This has always been true but the formation of the Construction Specifications Institute in 1948 spurred the promulgation of consistent standards and formats for written specifications. Since then, the appearance of these standards and their widespread acceptance has been essential to the continued growth of the construction industry and has brought a semblance of order to projects of ever-increasing complexity. 

Despite the widely acknowledged value of construction specifications, there are some who still fail to understand their importance as essential components within an entire suite of construction documents. Worse yet, there is a worrisome minority of architects who dismiss specifications as the unnecessary busywork of a wonkish class of hopelessly unhip nerds who lacked the social skills and talent to become “A-list” architects. 

A case in point is a sardonic blog post by the uber-cool and popular team at BUILD LLC deriding specifications writers: 

“. . . [specifications don’t] matter because nobody reads them; the architects on a project don’t read them, the general contractor doesn’t read them, we’re not even convinced that the spec writers read them. For anyone who claims they read them, we’d assert that type of reading is actually called “skimming”, and that they’re “skimming” only bits anyway. . . 

. . . It’s never been determined whether spec writers were born dull and subsequently write superbly boring specs, or if years of writing specs makes them dull. It’s a chicken and egg conundrum that modern science simply hasn’t taken on yet. In our experience, spec writers are not only fun-suckers, but they also spend a great deal of their day being grumpy. We know this from our time working at a large corporate firm, whose name shall remain… well NBBJ. The spec writers were always holed away in the basement, probably because nobody wanted them pooping all over their great story about what they did last weekend. The only reason for a young optimistic architect to venture down to the basement and visit the spec writers was self-flagellation. So there they were, in the basement writing specs all day. No daylight and no office talk around the water cooler –probably because they knew they’d just poop all over each other’s stories. But we digress, where were we? Ah yes, specs are boring and nobody reads them.” 

http://blog.buildllc.com/2011/06/spec-writers-are-always-in-the-basement-a-case-for-changing-specifications/ 

Let me acknowledge that I am a fan of BUILD LLC’s superb design work and enjoy reading their blog. That being said, their mocking of specification writers certainly raised my hackles, no matter how tongue-in-cheek its intent may have been. I responded by commenting directly upon BUILD’s post: 

“The quality and in turn the usefulness of specifications, like any other aspect of a design project, is largely dependent upon the skill and aptitude of the person writing them. Think of specifications as you would computer software: garbage in, garbage out. 

Just as you would dedicate time and care to an elegant detail, you would be well-served to craft elegantly written specifications. By that I mean specs that are up-to-date, free of conflicts, economical of means, thoroughly coordinated, and elegantly concise. 

It’s all a matter of perspective: Embrace the zen of specifications. 

The standardization of written construction documents by the Construction Specifications Institute and other industry organizations has vastly improved how data in specifications form is organized and universally understood. “Skimming” is fine if it allows you to quickly find crucial information in the right place, where you expect to find it. 

In my experience, contractors do read specifications. The owner’s representatives and project managers I work with read them. My firm takes pride in producing well-coordinated, well-written project manuals. 

Fun-suckers? You sound like “mean girls” who find pleasure in making fun of those they deem to be members of lesser high school castes. C’mon, you’re better than that . . . 

Randy Nishimura, AIA, CCS (Certified Construction Specifier)”  

I admit that my defensiveness stemmed in part from an entrenched resentment I have for people who think they’re better than others . . . but let’s not go there (and perhaps I should see a therapist). Instead, let’s focus on the underlying fallacy that nobody reads specifications. 

What I didn't point out in my retort is that architecture and construction are increasingly dependent upon the effective conveyance of design intent. Good specifications are worth their weight in gold. Our world is only becoming more complex and litigious, not less, and achieving a desired end is commensurately more difficult. The bottom line is that written specifications are crucial to the creation of clear, concise, complete, and correct construction documents. It is neither possible nor necessarily a good idea to cram everything required to adequately describe a  complex project onto drawings alone. Even with the advent of Building Information Modeling, I cannot imagine written specifications ever disappearing completely. If anything, ever more sophisticated BIM technologies will further validate the importance of written specifications as a vital component of each project’s database. 

Specifiers themselves are well-positioned to become gatekeepers for the digital information that everyone—architects, engineers, contractors, and facility managers—will rely upon during design, construction, and beyond. These “knowledge managers” will help realize the full potential of BIM and perhaps tilt the project-control pendulum back toward architects, who have abdicated so much in recent decades to others more willing to assume the mantle of master builder. 

Should this scenario play itself out, experienced specifications writers would again be regarded among the most valued and senior members of architectural practices. Rather than fated for obsolescence as some in the industry are predicting, specification writing and construction information management may be the sector best poised for significant growth within the architectural profession. Specifiers are and will continue to be the indispensible managers of a project’s DNA—the information essential to its successful realization. 

I predict more and more of those up-and-coming in the architectural profession will recognize that a career dedicated to the management of a project’s knowledge base can be both intellectually and professionally rewarding, not to mention lucrative. Specifying would be cool because with knowledge comes power. 

Imagine that prospect: Specification writers occupying the hub of power and influence. No longer would specifiers be regarded merely as nerdy specialists. Specifications geek would be chic. Membership in the Construction Specifications Institute would be de rigueur for everyone whose work revolves around construction information. 

Such is the future I foresee for construction specifiers. I’m ahead of the curve because I already understand the importance of knowledge management. I may be out of my element making self-serious small talk about faddish neo-modernism at cocktail parties (earnestly staged for Dwell magazine) but I do know my way around a Project Manual. Specifications matter; soon enough even those who now fail to understand this will come around and realize how much excellent specification writing contributes to the most successful design projects.   

(1) The Construction Specifications Institute declared September “Spectember.”(Hashtag: #SPECtember) The point was to remind the industry of the value of good specifications through members’ blog posts and communications through CSI’s various social media channels.