14. June 2011 by gleearch.

I decided to start writing a little about my involvement within the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Did I hear some groans and moans? The good old white boys club say some?  A organization that does nothing but lobbying and catering to the big firms, etc, etc.  The litany goes on.

So let me say my piece.  First, I’m an immigrant from Malaysia who is very proud to be an American and I definitely did not come from a privileged back ground.   As an immigrant, I really should have chosen a career path that had better income prospects but I really do love architecture.  I joined the AIA back around 1995 because my employer paid for my dues and to take advantage of the reduced fees a member derived for the ARE seminars.  However once I took the 3 courses I wanted, I never did anything again with the AIA until I broke away from my employer and went out on my own around 2005.

That year I tried to contact the AIASF about obtaining some contract documents but was unable to get through.  So since I was in the east bay anyway, called the chapter in Oakland, CA.  I fortunately managed to talk to Sidney Sweeny who happens in my mind to be the best darn Executive Director of any AIA chapter.  She was friendly, helpful and for the first time ever, made me feel I had a resource in the AIA.

The next thing I knew by the next year, I was chair of the YAF, Young Architects Forum and served in that capacity for two years before joining the Board of Directors for a year.  I was then elected Vice President and thereby became President elect by default and is the current post I hold with AIA East Bay.   The only reason I ever decided to become active was because I felt that whining and complaining about anything only goes so far.  To enact change, you have to get involved and try to be part of that change.

Does the AIA need to change? Well, yes.  In my mind it does and I want to be part of that change.  So in that regard, I doubt many long term hard core AIA members are going to like what I stand for.  Does the AIA do any good? Yes it does and much of it is unheralded and that is a big part of the problem.

However I am part of the East Bay chapter which has a proud tradition of promoting change.  I am but one person but I’ll do whatever I can while I have that capacity.  So I’ll post within my blog occasionally about things I feel strongly about in regards our profession and the AIA.  I have no further ambitions for office within the AIA and therefore don’t really care what the rest of them think about what I say or do.  I run a small business and that with my family already takes a huge chunk of my time and priority.  Taking anymore time away from that is not something I wish for.

Note: Whatever I write here is strictly my own personal opinion and is in no way an endorsement of any organization mentioned.

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7. June 2011 by gleearch.

In today’s hyped up LEED market, we see a plethora of products being pushed as being green products.  Everything including the kitchen sink is now “green” or are the very least able to get you LEED credits.

I was recently part of a team for a design build public bid project as the LEED administration consultant.  Needless to say it was a lot of work on the part of the entire team putting the proposal together and I came away very impressed by the builder who was the prime/ lead on the proposal.

However as part of the process we had to dissect the bridging documents put together by the original design team and in order to ensure a proposal that was buildable and met the project costs estimate it required doing extensive work including value engineering and design revisions.  There were some code issues not properly addressed in the original design and some LEED credits proposed which did not make sense.

The one thing many people forget in their pursuit of LEED, is that sustainability isn’t about glossing up the building and stuffing it full of building systems.  That does not make it green.  Ensuring the design is both climate and site responsive does wonders for a building.  Not tarting it up with large HVAC systems claiming super high efficiency because it’s needed to counteract all that glass facing west.

Nor should it be about placing green roofs on a building in one little corner so that you can claim a point for storm water treatment when the site itself can do that at grade.  While green roofs can be a good thing, as with many other “green” building systems, prudence should be used when judging when to use them.  Adding costs to a project with very little gain but making a big show of it when selling the idea to the client doesn’t help the environment.  Anyone remember Al Gore’s house?

Slapping on lots of bells and whistles on a building that was not designed to work with the environment isn’t going to be green no matter how many LEED points you score.  Fortunately the team I was on, understood this and the innovative ideas developed made for a better design.  Convincing the client already sold on the original idea would be a different story.  Sometimes doing the right thing can be an uphill battle.

Sustainability is about simplicity. Doing less in many ways means doing more for the environment.

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2. March 2009 by gleearch.

No, I’m not talking about what it’s like to live in a sustainably designed home. I’m talking about what a hot house cucumber feels like.

If you have been to the city lately you will notice a plethora of high rise residential buildings. Part of the recent (& fast decaying) boom in urban housing. The types of units range across the board but my focus today will be on the popular two level townhouse or loft units.

There are plenty of splashy modern multi-family buildings popping all across the urban fabric. Many of them look great. There are in fact many good architects who design these buildings and for the most part the people who live in them, love their homes.

However, once awhile, you get these two level units with floor to ceiling glass facing south (or southwest). Yes, dead on exposure to the sun all year long. Day lighting is great, don’t get me wrong, but not when you’re facing due south with no sun protection or shading. Forget window blinds and heavy curtains. Once the solar radiation gets past the glass, anything it touches heats up. You have to stop that particular wavelength before it gets into the unit or you may as well call up the local botanical society and offer your home as a green house for growing any number of tropical plants.

So you have all that great glass and fantastic views but you keep your blinds and curtains drawn most of the year because that air conditioner will be struggling to keep the unit just a shade close to comfort levels in Death Valley. How do I know this? Well I live in one such lovely building (though I did not design it). It looks great and I rarely ever have to use the heater in the winter but I do know how a hot house cucumber feels in the summer.

I have designed a few multi-family buildings in the past and I believe you can integrate climate responsive elements even in modern and high tech designs. Daylight should be invited into a home and the same with solar gain but the design should control it. Light and space can be poetic but not when it feels like a convection oven. Architects really should experience the buildings they design on a regular basis. It will make them better designers for it.

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27. February 2009 by gleearch.

Getting a project LEED certified is difficult enough but having a contractor who does not want to be on board will make it near nigh impossible. The situation is compounded if it happens to be a public bid project where the contractor is not part of the process from the onset. The public low bid atmosphere typically results in potentially adversarial relationships since the contractor needs to find ways to “gain” back profits left on the table via a lowball bid. Why on earth in a situation like that will they want to take on the added costs and overhead generated by the LEED process?

That said, I want to talk about my recent experience working as a LEED administrator consultant on a 42,000sf office building development in the Bay Area (not a public bid project). I’m not the architect but was brought on as the LEED admin. The contractor was on board from the beginning. The client, design team and contractor were all for LEED which made my life as the LEED admin far easier. This project fell neatly into the LEED CS (core & shell) category and we developed the LEED project vision and distributed the credit responsibilities to the appropriate team members.

The initial target had been LEED certified but as the project progressed and the team got even more fired up, the client pushed it to silver as the target. We have enough credits for Gold but we take into account that most times, a project tends to get denied a few credits and so it is more realistic to shoot for a higher level but assume you will hit the level below.

In the design phase we went after 19 credits and earned 18. Only one credit was denied.  Which we suspected we probably would not get it but tried anyway. Maybe one day I’ll talk about that particular credit.

Initially for the construction credits we pursued 15 credits but through the contractor’s efforts added two separate credits. This is why having a good contractor on board is essential. They have to work with their subcontractors and their vendors to ensure that we actually get the credits.

The contractor found a waste management facility that recycles at a rate close to 95-99% and therefore off hauled everything to the facility and diverted 100% of construction waste from the landfill. All wood procured for the job was FSC certified. We helped them develop a “green” construction job-site guide for their employees and the same with the IAQ plan. It was collaborative from the start which is far more enjoyable and rewarding than butting heads continuously.

Recycled and regional material credits all hit the 2 point mark because of their efforts. I worked closely with their project admin on completing the letter templates. Most people have no idea how much work goes into getting those done. Right now we are waiting word to see what we will need to clarify and what we will have earned outright. While we don’t have the final decision yet, it still made life a lot easier to work with a great contractor.

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