With growing interest in sustainability, greater numbers of people are recognizing the benefits of becoming a LEED AP certification, with 132,052 individuals having achieved the rank at the end of June, up from 77,689 at the end of 2008. Image: FXFOWLE EPSTEIN An aerial view of the green roof planned for the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. “Within the design profession, if you cannot do a LEED building, you will lose out,” says Bruce Fowle, senior partner with FXFOWLE in New York. “We get requests for proposals asking about the number of LEED accredited professionals we have.
Changes in LEED version 3 also known as LEED 2009, are focusing project teams on strategies to save energy and water, reduce CO2 emissions and address issues impacting their region. Related Links: LEED Online Professional Accreditation In prior versions, credits were all created equal. DEANE “Measurement and verification of your mechanical system was given the same weight as a bicycle rack,” says Michael Deane, vice president and chief sustainability officer at New York-based Turner Construction. Critics charged that weighing credits equally did not properly emphasize energy consumption and climate change impacts. Others complained LEED did not account for regional differences
New starts are off, but many owners ready to move forward are still seeking greener structures. “Sustainable design is more important than ever, and the recession validates it is not about initial costs; it’s about operating cost,” says Rick Bell, executive director of AIA New York. Photo credit Ramapo College of New Jersey Ramapo College of New Jersey installed a geothermal system on its new Spiritual Center. Related Links: Top Green Design Firms Bill Amann, board chairman of U.S. Green Building Council New Jersey, president of M&E Engineers in Somerville, N.J., and chairman of the Somerset County Energy Council, says
On May 29, using words like “historic” and “groundbreaking,” New York City’s Construction Industry Partnership between union labor and contractors announced a project labor agreement both sides said would breathe life into an industry that had begun to circle the drain. Photo: Michael Falco Lou Colletti (far left) and Gary LaBarbera (far right) on the site of Tower 111, one of the first jobs that began after the passage of the project labor agreement. Since September 2008, the construction industry - already nursing a hangover from the city’s six-year development boom - had been bleeding jobs. After the collapse of
The captains of architecture and engineering practices across the New York region were already enduring hard times in the past year, and didn’t need reminders of how bad things were. But in June came news that one of the region’s most ambitious design efforts was retreating. Related Links: ‘Right-Sizing’ Design A Chance to Rethink the Practice Top Design Firms Forest City Ratner Cos. – developer for the $4.9 billion, 7-million-sq-ft, 17-building Atlantic Yards complex in Brooklyn, that was to be anchored by a transcendent sports arena design – announced it was no longer using “starchitect” Frank Gehry and his firm,
The legacy of a recession on the design world is seldom evident while firms struggle through it. But there is potential for big changes in the disciplines. “In downturns, in recessions, even in the Great Depression, different ways of doing things emerged, says Rick Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects New York City chapter. Related Links: Redrawn Landscape ‘Right-Sizing’ Design The downtime presented by lighter project rosters gives designers of all stripes time for “introspection” and a chance to “reexamine their process and look at ways to seriously improve the process of design and construction,” says Guy
The long-term impact of recessions is often most evident on projects altered by the economic realities. The most obvious example in the New York region this year was Forest City Ratner’s decision not to have Gehry Partners of Los Angeles as master architect of its massive $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards complex. In a statement about removing Gehry specifically from the complex’s signature sports arena, Bruce Ratner, CEO of the development firm, stated: “The current economic climate is not right for this design, and with Frank’s understanding, the arena is undergoing a redesign that will make it more limited in scope.”
The landscape architect on Brooklyn Bridge Park, which underwent 20 years of planning and advocacy before it started construction in 2007, is Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a 20-year-old, Brooklyn-based firm with more 350 projects from Texas to Korea to their name. Brooklyn Bridge Park, when completed in 2012, will offer more than landscaped lawns and boardwalks as it is meant to bring the visitor closer to the water. The design incorporates floating walkways, tidal marshes, reconstruction of Piers 1-6 – each one about the size of Bryant Park – as well as children’s playgrounds, sport fields, including three sand volleyball
The University at Buffalo, a flagship institution of the State University of New York system, has embarked on a $360-million capital improvement program designed to prepare the school to serve more than 38,000 students by 2020. Photo: Cannon Design Cannon Design created the South Ellicott Housing building at the University at Buffalo’s South Campus. Related Links: Market Report: Upstate New York “We just finished a university master plan, which is part of President John Simpson’s vision for UB2020, which is to expand the university by approximately 10,000 students and 2,000 faculty and staff,” says Kevin M. Thompson, director of facilities
The biggest technological advances for landscape architects have come from the integration of the pen and pencil with the computer. Graphics programs have made presentations, and sharing plans, easier than ever, but the greatest new tools come in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), allowing study of the work site long before an actual site visit. Related Links: No Longer Misunderstood Landscape Architects Enjoy Renaissance Not Just a Walk in the Park “[We are] using GIS at the planning level in terms of recreational uses, in terms of identifying travel routes, scenic value of those routes, studying impact of