The 2017 AIA QUAD Conference is a Great Success

If your office was a little quiet at the end of last week, perhaps your colleagues were participating in the 2017 AIA QUAD States conference in Albany, New York. This program was a joint venture between AIA New Jersey, AIA New York State, AIA Pennsylvania and AIA Connecticut.

 

The evening before the conference, AIA board members from all four participant states were invited to a dinner on Wednesday, the 8th of November.  This event was very well attended by over 80 people. AIA New York State president Robert E. Stark, AIA welcomed all of the guests together with their executive director, Georgi Ann Bailey, CAE.

Thursday morning kicked off with AIA New Jersey members participating in their very well attended board meeting. State president Ben Lee, AIA, presided and welcomed AIA National president Tom Vonier, FAIA, and 2019 national president, William Bates, FAIA, to join the meeting and share their perspectives on the Institute and profession.

At this meeting, AIA New Jersey’s executive director Joseph Simonetta, CAE, gave us a summary of what changes we might anticipate based on the results of the election earlier that week. Our Regional Representative, Bruce Turner, AIA, also provided an update on happenings at National and progress since the last AIA NJ Board meeting. Incoming AIA NJ president, Verity Frizzell, AIA, advised us that she has everything well in-hand for the transition at the end of the year.

 

Seth Leeb, AIA, New Jersey’s QUAD States conference chairman, said he was very pleased with the registration from New Jersey. The conference offered a full three days of tours, seminars and social activities featuring the Friday Expo floor, which was completely sold out.

For any members who had not been to Albany before, they were in for a wonderful surprise. The compact city is chock-full of interesting history and architecture, and AIA NYS secured the most experienced and knowledgeable tour guides. That is not to say that our fact-filled, AIA NJ PA Committee Co-Chair Bill Martin, AIA was not able to correctly expand upon the statements made by the guide on more than one occasion.

Our members participated in tours that took us to the New York State Capitol building, SUNY Polytechnic institute’s Zen Zero Energy Nanotechnology building, EMPAC, University at Albany School of Business, the Philip Schuyler mansion and The Egg Performing Arts Center on the Empire State Capital Plaza.

Friday afternoon, AIA New Jersey president, Ben Lee, AIA and co-workers Michael Ferment, AIA and Andrew Lewis, AIA, all of NK architects in Morristown New Jersey, presented a seminar entitled How Architects can Lead Change for Health and Wellness to the Built Environment. This program was well attended and provided an engaging learning experience for new ways to consider designing for wellness.

Thursday evening, all registrants were invited to attend the QUAD States Design Awards presentation and opening night party held at the New York State Museum. New Jersey was light on submissions for awards, but our members did attend the ceremony a-plenty and had a great time at the party. Some even rode the carousel!

Friday morning started off with the early morning Spec Academy and then rolled into a series of continuing education programs. The highlight of the Friday schedule was the opening of the Expo floor with over 80 exhibitors from across the region. Exhibitors commented on their satisfaction with the event, meeting plenty of architects and allied professionals.

Right before the Expo closed, AIA New Jersey management staff Laura and Lisa from PSI drew the lucky winners’ names for the distribution of Expo Contest prizes. They really enjoyed seeing the smiles on the faces of all the winners.

Later that afternoon, AIA New Jersey executive board members Kim Vierheilig, AIA and Jessica O’Donnell, AIA participated in a panel discussion about Designing your Career Path through Equity, Engagement, and Leadership.  This panel was filled with women leaders in architecture from each of the host states.

Following that, Friday night included a conference cocktail party in the Capital Center, an emerging professionals party and the New York State Design Awards reception. AIA NJ members that forgot their tuxedos gathered at The Merry Monk for a casual, festive dinner!

Photo by W. Martin, AIA

Photo by W. Martin, AIA

Photo by W. Martin, AIA

On Saturday, AIA New Jersey Young Architects Regional Director Jessica O’Donnell, AIA and Regional Associates Director Brandon Warshofsky, AIA, each were part of an educational seminar. Jessica’s was entitled Activating the Next Generation of AIA Architects while Brandon’s was called Emerging Advocates: Ways to Get Involved.

The convention also featured three outstanding keynote presentations. The first was presented by Steve Dumez, FAIA, of Eskew + Dumez + Ripple in New Orleans, LA. On Friday, members were treated to a healthy workplace presentation by Leigh Stringer from EYP in Washington DC. Saturday morning, our members learned about Automation in Design, Design by Automation by Michael Pryor, Pavlina Vardoulaki and Li Chen, all from Design Morphine in New York City.

While this conference was much smaller than a National Convention, with only 300 attendees, it offered a diverse, invigorating schedule from an educational perspective as well as for sightseeing and learning about the architecture and history of Albany.

The city was a great setting for this event, allowing for ease of transfer from the two featured hotels to the Capital Convention Center and beyond, to external tour sites. Everything is very compact and the city is clean and quiet.

New Jersey had around 60 members attend this event that replaced our annual Design Day program, and it was a success from every vantage point. Thank you to everyone who made this possible!

All photos by Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, unless noted otherwise.

In the 5 Years since Hurricane Sandy, AIA-NJ has Increased their Commitment to Resiliency

 

“AIA-NJ is really a model of how to get it done after a disaster.”

~ Illya Azaraoff, AIA

Contributors: Illya Azaraoff, AIA; Bruce Turner, AIA; Justin Mihalik, AIA and Laurence Parisi, AIA Editor: Stacey Kliesch, AIA

 

In 2012, in the weeks and months following Superstorm Sandy, AIA-NJ’s members were getting back on their feet. Many of them located in areas where the storm hit hardest not only were helping their clients to rebuild their homes, but were also figuring out how to rebuild their own. AIA-NJ architects were aware that the State still did not have a plan in place on how to rebuild, and FEMA was months away from updating base flood elevations. So how were homeowners to rebuild?

To make matters worse, the costs for elevating homes and rebuilding were four and five times the amount of available FEMA grants. It was at this time that AIA-NJ Executive Director Joseph Simonetta knew it was imperative for AIA-NJ to be at the forefront of the recovery and the first step was to meet with the Governor’s Office of Rebuilding and Recovery. Joe organized the meeting at the State House and AIA-NJ presented the issues that homeowners were facing approximately $150,000 in structural remediation per structure. Unbeknownst to AIA-NJ, the Governor’s Office was well underway preparing a report on the damage to real estate, infrastructure, and vital buildings.
The result of the meeting and the work of the Governor’s Office was the Reconstruction,
Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program (RREM). The program provides up to
$150,000 in grant funding assistance to eligible homeowners to repair or reconstruct their homes. Our Executive Director was vigilant ensuring that the recommendations of AIA-NJ were incorporated into the RREM program, which enabled thousands of residents to rebuild their homes within the following years.

Another achievement of AIA-NJ has been supporting the passing of the Good Samaritan Bill. Until Superstorm Sandy hit, the pushback from the legal community made passage of this bill impossible. In the wake of Sandy, AIA-NJ did not delay in moving on the legislation as the timing was right. Once again, Joe Simonetta knew this bill would be more impactful if the engineers joined on since they too would be performing building assessments along with the architects. Joe initiated lining up sponsors for the bill, drafting the bill and then coordinating the necessary meetings between AIA-NJ and NJ Professional Society of Engineers for the bill’s final language.
AIA-NJ reached out to the the New Jersey State Bar Association and addressed their concerns in order to pave the way for the bill’s passage. Through our executive director’s invaluable relationships with NJ’s key legislator’s, the bill was passed and signed into law by the Governor in 2013. Since passage, this legislation has become a template for other AIA Components as they work to have Good Samaritan legislation passed in their states.

Read more about the Good Samaritan Bill here.
Around the same time, the AIA-NJ Homeland Security Committee, founded by AIA-NJ

Knowing Sandy

By: Susan P Bristol, AIA, NJ PP, LEED AP                                                               spbarch@gmail.com

SPB Architecture LLC, Rocky Hill, NJ

609.924.7989

Spbarchitecture.com

(Adjunct Professor at NJIT, CoA+D, School of Architecture)

 

 

Architecture, having been consumed by the movement toward sustainability in recent decades, now has a new mandate. Resilience.  In post-Sandy NJ (and NJ River basins since the mid 20th century) the questions have been: How do we control water? How do we defend against other natural forces that can and have wreaked devastation? What are our policies toward construction on sites that have flooded multiple times? How do we build for future disasters to protect expensive infrastructure, architecture and neighborhood investment? What is the role of the architect in mitigating disaster?

Now the big question now is: how do we live with water?

Those of us in the ‘trenches’ of designing, building, planning, engineering and construction have been operating on multiple levels. In my Garden State Studio resilient design course at NJIT in Spring of 2013, I began using the term ‘Un-Building’ just after Sandy to think about treading more lightly on fragile (barrier island) ground, in floodplain redevelopment, in dense neighborhoods and coastal constructions. This does not mean do not build or do not re-build, it means that we need to examine our footprints: our constructed and environmental footprints.  If you think that Un-building is a provocative term for a profession that depends on building, then you are correct. It is meant to alert us to the conflicts embedded in our profession and to make us think.

 

The first thing that people think about resiliency after a storm, is that we need to update the building codes (government) and the second thing is how we meet those codes (property owners, architects, engineers, contractors). As I reminded folks at the 2013 Mayor’s Summit (sponsored by the Center for Resilient Design at NJIT), building codes are a minimum, FEMA codes do not even consider sea level rise, and best practice design must take many other factors into account.  Architects are well positioned to add nuance, insight, resiliency and vision to projects beyond the minimal codes.  However, some of those factors, it turns out, include human fragility and emotions.  Recently, the Nobel prize winner in Economics was announced.  Professor Rickard Thaler’s field is behavioral economics. Architects could learn something by his attention to the human component which is not rational.

 

We cannot assume that experiencing Sandy was a ‘wake-up call’ for everyone.  In fact, the emergency recovery mode pushes some to focus on ‘return to normal’, rebuild as before, make it look like nothing happened.  Our professional inclination is to do it better, do it differently, use design to integrate new codes into our work.  At our best, we

SUPER STORM SANDY- FIVE YEARS AFTER Lessons learned….. or not.

By Laurence E. Parisi, AIA

New Jersey has approximately 141 miles of shore coastline, a substantial amount of land along the Hudson River, and many inland marshy estuaries; a significant amount of these lands in our state are still unsettled and in disrepair from Superstorm Sandy. In retrospect, what have we learned?   On my trips down to the Jersey Shore, I see that many owners of homes, with the financial means, have rebuilt pursuant to FEMA regulations.  Other homes, whose owners may be without the abilities to repair, remain in uncertain condition. Notably, the more affluent communities appear the same as they did pre-Superstorm; as if they were not pressured to raise their homes during reconstruction. It appears as though most of the home raising occurred in moderate-to-middle income areas.  In the more densely populated coastline towns like Atlantic Highlands, the home raising is not a pretty sight.  It has been a slow process as more homeowners have to reconcile with their own circumstances.   For these owners, dealing with governmental restrictions related to home insurance and FEMA regulations have proven to be an arduous task.

 

      

 

My office is on the westerly bank of the Hudson River; around here, it appears that that post-Superstorm coastline construction advisories and warnings are not well heeded.  Shortly after Sandy tore apart the coast along the Hudson River, even up North into New York State, new buildings are being constructed on the river banks. One of these buildings is directly in front of my office on the Hudson.  

On October 29, 2012, when Sandy was approaching New Jersey, I went to my office early in the morning to tape windows and cover all the drawing boards and computer stations.  This was done in an effort to protect these items from water damage, should the roof have been torn off my building (my office is on the top floor).  The water of the Hudson had already risen over the banks and was 400 feet inland (pictured).  We got the full blast of Sandy when the storm made landfall at around 8:00 PM that evening. when she landed.   At my office building, there were over 3 feet of flood water, from the tidal surge, in the ground floor lobby. The 200-bed hospital and nursing home adjacent to my office had to be evacuated and shut down. A major PSE&G electrical sub-station just north of my office was flooded and damaged.

 

Two years after Superstorm Sandy, an outpatient medical facility, ancillary to the hospital, was constructed about 171 feet from the Hudson River coastline; this new building is closer to the Hudson than my office building.  The construction costs had to be a minimum of 15 to 20 million dollars. The soil required a lot of piling. Now, why would anyone build such a critical facility in a location that was inaccessible during, and for days after, Superstorm Sandy? Although the photograph shows a limited amount of raised parking, this building will be largely inaccessible in a similar flood disaster.  

 

In a similar situation, a nearby electrical substation was raised approximately sixty feet above the grade, in order to keep the station at its present location despite the potential for flooding (pictured). Notwithstanding the new raising of the facility, it is still a location vulnerable to flooding and becoming inaccessible.  It seems as though these risks are not adequately being considered.  Additionally, please note the appearance of these buildings that were likely designed by engineers.

          

 

The lesson to be learned from Superstorm Sandy is to carefully design and plan for disaster.  There is a practical common sense approach to these situations.  We must be cognizant of the fact that certain critical need facilities like hospitals, power stations, and the like should not be constructed in areas vulnerable to flooding. Good planning and good design is a must in order to make our communities safe and viable.

All photographs are the property of Laurence Parisi, AIA

 

Author Bio:

Laurence Parisi, AIA is a past president of AIA NJ, past president of the Architects League of Northern New Jersey and current and founding Chairman of the AIA NJ Homeland Security Committee.

Editorial Disclaimer

The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author(s) and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of AIA NJ or any employee thereof. AIA NJ makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information in this article and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.

AIA NJ reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable.

 

Oct. 24: Passive How?

AIA West Jersey General Meeting

Oct. 24, 2017: Passive How?

Attendees will learn the basics of Passive House standards from industry leaders, Scott Kelly, AIA, LEED Fellow, CPHC adn David Salamon, CPHD from ReVision Architecture  This presentation will cover best practices for designing Passive House projects, as well as lessons learned from their years of experience as Passive House Designers and Consultants.

This event has been approved for 3 HSW and 3 GBCI credits.

RSVP by October 19th to Jessica O’Donnell, AIA at westjerseyaia@gmail.com for our October General Membership Meeting on October 24th!

Come to the 2017 AIA NJ EPiC Emerging Professionals Night

Thursday, October 19, 2017Board Meeting: 4:30 pm Social Hour: 6:00 pm Food & Program:  7:00 pmSponsored By: Porcelanosa USA 65 Route 17 South Paramus , NJ 07652 Phone: 201.712.0556 www.porcelanosa-usa.comClick here for map and directions 2017 Sponsors: Pella Windows & Doors Platinum Sponsor Structural Workshop, LLC  Platinum Sponsor KSI Professional Engineers LLC  Silver Sponsor Prosurance Redeker Group  Silver Sponsor October Member Meeting Join us for our annual Emerging Professionals Event and the educational program: “How Architects Can Lead Change for Health and Wellness in the Built Environment” 1.5 LU/HSWIntroduction by: Ben Lee, AIA, AIA-NJ President Presentation by Emerging Professionals: Michael Ferment, AIA and Andrew Lewis, AIAGenerously Sponsored by Porcelanosa Please send your RSVP to rsvp@alnnj.org before 12 Noon on Monday, October 16, 2017.This event is open to members of all AIA-NJ sections, non-member NJ architects, and students, reservations required. Economic globalization has had a major impact on population health. Our population has become increasingly overweight and obese; early onset diabetes has become more prevalent. During the same period, the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed. A more sedentary life style is becoming the norm through all age groups. Can Architects lead the change to improve health & wellness through our built environment? Architects can incorporate life cycle evidence based design and health & wellness design principles to all building types; i.e. for healthier housing, schools, workplaces, commerce and institutions. Can Architects create healthier and more livable communities? To do this, we must venture beyond the physical boundaries of the buildings that we design. We must renew focus on the spaces between the buildings, the spaces beyond the property lines; the walking paths, bike trails, public transportation, the connections between the parks and community places, and the cultural/socioeconomic vibrancy that will create healthy and livable cities. If we, as architects, can design and promote a healthier built environment, we can lead the change to improve the health of our population. Ben Lee, AIA: Ben Lee is the 2017 AIA NJ President. He is a Board Certified Healthcare Architect by the ACHA, licensed to practice in 25 States and Washington DC. He is a Principal and CFO at NK Architects where he leads their national Healthcare Practice. He is an advocate for healthy & livable communities. Ben’s advocacy has included presentations to the NJ Future Redevelopment Conference, the Atlantic Health Knowledge & Networking Event, and East Coast Green Health & Wellness Conference, among others. Michael Ferment, AIA: Mike is a Registered Architect in NJ, and has earned certifications in Evidence-Based Design and Sustainable Design. He is dedicated to understanding how the built environment impacts human health and well-being, and helping our clients incorporate Evidence-Based Design principles into their facilities. As a veteran, Mike has concentrated his focus on healthcare planning and design with special interest in Veteran’s Affairs projects. Mike was recently appointed to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Architects League of Northern New Jersey. Andrew Lewis, AIA: Andrew is an advocate for wellness at NK Architects, where he oversees the company’s corporate wellness plan. Andrew is passionate about design, with a strong focus on building community through design. He is primarily focused on projects for Colleges & Universities.

Renovated Midcentury Modern Eero Saarinen Landmark Hill College House Reopens

Designed by renowned Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen and built in 1960, Hill College House at the University of Pennsylvania has undergone a 15-month, $80 million, LEED Gold-targeted renovation. The internationally recognized landmark will reopen to 500 student residents later this month.

The five-story, 195,000-sf brick residence has undergone a comprehensive renovation, preserving Saarinen’s revolutionary design vision for communal living with multiple public spaces at varying physical and social scales. Originally a women’s dormitory, Hill College House features an allegorical entry bridge over a landscaped “moat” and surrounding spiked metal fence. Student lounges and seminar rooms are built around a vast central atrium that overlooks a dining area on the lower level.

“In this complex and challenging renovation, Mills + Schnoering Architects has designed multiple deft interventions that accumulate into a complete refresh of this important building – one that respects and invigorates Saarinen’s design and the community life it so richly fosters,” said University Architect David Hollenberg.

Mills + Schnoering Architects of Princeton, N.J., led the design and construction team. Specialists in historic renovation, the firm previously worked on Saarinen’s Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Mo.

“Our approach respects the original Saarinen Hill College House design, preserving its legacy,” said Mills + Schnoering Partner-in-Charge, Michael Mills, FAIA. “Our choices were inspired both by the integrity of the architecture and by the contemporary student experience, with a design meant to balance the two in a welcoming, accessible student residence.”

Features of the renovation design include:

• Expansion of dining facilities by 50 percent, including major kitchen upgrades.
• Restoration of the iconic “drawbridge” entrance and landscaped “moat.”
• Removal, restoration, and refitting of over 400 windows.
• New furniture and finishes designed to echo the building’s midcentury style and reinterpret

  Saarinen’s bold color palette and furnishings.

• All new MEP systems and the introduction of air-conditioning.
• Conversion of all bathrooms to individual restrooms and shower rooms.
• Installation of LED lighting in the center atrium.
• New elevator and lift to provide accessibility compliance.
• Perimeter wall insulation, a new roof, and restoration of two outdoor courtyards.

  Project goals included strengthening the sense of community at the heart of Hill College House’s original design and respecting the historic significance of the building’s materials and details, by maintaining as much fabric and design intent as possible while inserting modern systems and amenities.

 

Hill by the Numbers

The renovated facility includes:

• 261 student rooms: 206 doubles, 41 singles, 11 ADA singles, and 3 RA singles
• 5 faculty apartments
• 15 graduate assistant apartments
• 161 gender-neutral bathrooms
• 5,750 sf main dining facility
• 300 main dining facility seats
• 1,810 sf of private dining
• 29,505 sf of social spaces
• 19 atrium lounges
• 17 corridor lounges

 

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About University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League institution with 12 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools in Philadelphia, serving a diverse community of more than 20,000 students from around the world. Ranked consistently among the top 10 universities in the nation, Penn has a longstanding reputation for excellence. For more information, visit http://www.upenn.edu.

About Mills + Schnoering Architects

Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC (M+Sa) is a full-service architectural firm with work focused on cultural buildings, public buildings, campus planning and design, and the preservation and rehabilitation of historic structures. The firm has a particular interest in the restoration, renovation, and adaptive use of midcentury modern buildings and sites. The Hill College House architectural team was led by Michael Mills, FAIA, Partner in Charge; Michael Schnoering, FAIA, Managing Partner; Alison Baxter, AIA, Project Manager; and Meredith Arms Bzdak, PhD, Interiors Coordinator and Architectural Historian. For more information, visit http://msarchitectsllc.com.

AIA NJ takes action to protect New Jersey from New Executive Order that exposes Government Infrastructure to Flood Risk

On Tuesday, August 15, President Trump issued a new executive order that rolls back Obama-era protections put in place to ensure that government-funded infrastructure projects in flood prone areas would be less exposed to flooding and the effects of climate change. Read more on this executive order here.

Illya Azaroff, AIA Regional Recovery Work Group, and a resiliency expert on AIA National’s Strategic Council says, “In the northeast alone 20% of the US GDP is accounted for from the Boston-Washington corridor or megalopolis. In that same 2% of US land area 48.6 million people reside and it is all connected by a tangled web of infrastructure that is very vulnerable to immediate shocks and stresses. Since Super Storm Sandy the way forward in not only this region but around the country has progressed toward comprehensive resilient building measures that account for risks of today and those predicted in the future. To reverse Obama era directives that aim to design for climate change across political and state boundaries is to say the least a short sighted failure of leadership. I believe the health safety and welfare of the public is at greater risk without these measures in place. ”

Here in New Jersey, we still hear residents speak of the effect of Sandy on our communities, the days before compared to the way things are now.  While the Obama regulations created a new landscape for many on the Jersey Shore, those changes brought a sense of security to people, allowing them to stay in their communities rather than relocating to higher ground. Will that now be ripped out from under our neighbors?

New Jersey’s environmental groups respond to the new executive order. See comments here.

AIA NJ is not in support of the new executive order. It goes against our core values:

• We stand for a sustainable future
• We stand for protecting communities from the impact of climate change

President Elect Verity Frizzell, AIA says, “Yes, there is some additional cost to raising projects another 2 or 3 feet, but it is nothing compared to the cost of rebuilding after a flood.  It shouldn’t cause any delays in permitting, at all, unless the original plans weren’t drawn to the higher standard and had to be re-drawn.  It is another example of our President’s shortsightedness and operating without full knowledge of the consequences of his decisions.”

AIA NJ President, Ben Lee, AIA has issued a plan of action that is already underway, with AIA NJ representatives scheduling Summer Recess meetings with our Congressmen and Senators,  and discussions with State Legislators being planned. Our Committee on the Environment is advising on the recommended plan for our state.

 

 

Architecture and the Solar Eclipse

By William J. Martin, R.A., AIA, P.P., LEED AP-H

 

We are about to experience one of the greatest wonders the natural world has to offer humanity.

 

In late August,  here in the New Jersey area, there will be a solar eclipse. Solar eclipses are not commonplace. They are actually very rare, especially events visible in the area of New Jersey.  This time around, the sun and the moon will provide a fairly substantial partial eclipse with about 70% of the sun covered at peak time.  This should occur about 2:44pm, local time, on August 21, 2017, and weather permitting, it will be visible throughout New Jersey.

 

A solar eclipse is a reminder from the universe that we are part of a larger environment.  As architects down here on the earth, we strive through design to make the best use of the effects of the natural world.  The occurrence of a solar eclipse visible in New Jersey is a great opportunity to discuss how architects use the movement of the sun through the sky to design better buildings.

 

Climate change, the high cost of energy, and reducing dependence on non-renewable energy sources is an important priority for professional architects.  Utilizing design strategies to reduce heat loss and heat gain allow for a reduced environmental footprint and a lower operational cost for the constructed building.  This business case for reducing the carbon footprint of buildings is strong.  It reduces the economic burden on both the building user, and the environment as a whole.

 

Our design strategies include proper layout and configuration of the buildings we design.  The layout we create responds to the north-south directions through careful building site orientation.  Our spaces are arranged within the building to take advantage of natural solar daylighting reducing dependency on artificial light thus reducing energy utilized.  We incorporate design features such as roof overhangs, that help to manage and minimize solar heat gain by shielding South facing wall surfaces during the hottest parts of the year.  Properly sized overhangs and windows also allow that same solar heat gain to enter the building at the coldest times of the year. Designing to make use of local environmental conditions just makes good design sense.

 

Roof designs can also be affected.  Architects design roof angles and slope direction to provide surfaces for photovoltaic solar panels to be installed.  We create building forms and shapes that maximize efficient renewable energy generation.

 

As architects, we play an important role in helping to reduce the effects of climate change through intelligent building design.  Architects understand how buildings can fit into the natural world and we have the skills to design buildings that will reduce, and not contribute to the negative effects of climate change.

 

This upcoming wondrous celestial event, once again, reminds us that what we do as architects is truly connected to the broader natural world in a most fundamental way.

 

https://www.aia.org/resources/77541-where-we-stand-climate-change

USGBC NJ Golf Benefit

US Green Building Council NJ’s 2017 Golf Benefit

Monday, October 16, 2017

• When
  16-Oct-2017

  11:00 AM – 7:30 PM

• Location
  Black Oak Golf Club, 169 Bartley Road
  Long Valley, NJ 07853