This is truly an option at the The Plenary Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Recently a guest from Australia enlightened me….so I am excited to pass this along. Check out this place out in action at the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tqlqYNo2TM

As a structural engineer, it was great to hear this podcast.  It was also heartbreaking, eerie.  If you have about 6 minutes, this is REALLY worth listening to (especially if you are a structural engineer)!

The link below is to a podcast that I listen to called “99% Invisible” done by an architect in San Francisco.  It is a short 6 minutes and is a recording of Les Robertson (structural engineer of the WTC) talking about his thoughts of his (and his team’s) design of the WTC structure.  Such a tough moment to listen to him take responsibility for the criteria used to design the structural solution for the WTC. 

http://99percentinvisible.org/post/9681215583/episode-35-elegy-for-wtc 

Many thanks to Charlie Lutz for bringing this to my attention. 

Photo taken from 99% Invisible site, by Charles Traub.

I have a confession to make.  I am an NPR junkie.  I pretend I am Michele Norris when she says her name on the radio.  I like to believe that in another life I would have ended up with Ira Glass.  I sometimes pretend Carl Kasell is my father (sorry, dad, you’re pretty cool too).  I do, however, often lust after some of the lesser-known stars of NPR – in particular, Kai Ryssdal.  He’s a babe.

You can only imagine, then my joy when I recently found out that Tom Polucci (of Inside the Designer Studio and Contract Magazine fame) was interviewed on none other than one of my faves, American Public Media’s Marketplace.  (mmmmm, dreamy, dreamy Kai)  Tom was joining Marketplace to talk about the end of the dreaded Cubicle as it’s been known.  His points about how collaboration has affected the interior space and design were interesting, and seem to be affecting all of us in one way or another.

LISTEN TO TOM’S INTERVIEW here

Now, back to put on my headphones – I have work to do!

I gotta say, I have never been so proud of one of our young and emerging talents.  I was completely engaged in the interview…her natural ability for communicating translates across all media…[if you have not heard it…it’s a ‘must hear’ for sure].

PLAY INTERVIEW

I sincerely hope we can always deliver on the nurturing work environment she describes.  I have traveled many miles, met and worked with the most amazing clients, on some incredible projects.  Of all of this, my most favorite project is in fact the project of weaving together this network of talented people like Megan. All over the world. Speeding to work every day totally psyched about helping their clients and teams solve problems and, let’s face it, build cool $#!%.  Creating the place and giving the space for that to happen means more to me than a thousand design awards…[but those are nice too…]

It is amazing to see that even with the tough years we’ve had economically, the resilience of our people, the strength of our network, the passion and creativity…those things never crash. I’m actually convinced that it’s the limits that make us stronger. Megan’s insight and perspective on what we do is proof of that incredible spirit…so real…and we are so fortunate to have among us.

ENJOY!

HOK Hong Kong’s beach party venue was located on one of Hong Kong’s most beautiful beaches, Pui O Beach for the Beach Olympics, Raft Building and a delicious BBQ dinner. 

Our fellow AP colleagues in Shanghai went to Go-Karting and had a nice Japanese dinner.

Colleagues in Beijing went to Shangzhuang Reservoir, which is known as the paradise for wild fishing in Beijing near downtown. The Rice-fragrant Lake is connected to the venue and they also enjoyed the delicious BBQ Dinner under a shelter.

Our energetic colleagues in Singapore had an exciting contest in Mount Faber Super Bowl, followed by a Myanmar Dinner after bowling.

Cheers!

 Listen here:

tsoya090619_merlinmann

This podcast is, simply put, about things that are awesome.  The host, Jesse Thorn (America’s Radio Sweetheart), asks lots of cool questions of people who are also cool.  It’s on public radio stations, but I never seem to catch it, so I’m catching up on my ITunes.

Although I love the extremely open layout of our office when it’s time for true collaboration, the super-openness doesn’t always work to our advantage when we’re trying to do tough stuff like numbers and letters.  I had the great opportunity to just run home and set up camp on my dining room table (far away from emails, phones, and other folks).  Some of us can’t do that (meeting later that day, etc) so I’ve taken the initiative to just jot down a few of the best tips I could find for how to GET STUFF DONE while at the office:

• Head across the street to a coffee shop.  Although you’ll still be on the internet (most likely), you can crank along and not have people stop by your side to chat. 
• Put on some BIG headphones.  Small little earbuds won’t work for this one.  Also, just come right out and say it – “when I’ve got headphones on I’m going to need some privacy”.  Sometimes I will put my headphones on and not actually listen to anything!
• Hold on to your hats – I’m actually going to suggest this one:  Close.  Your.  Email.  I know, it’s tough! We’re trained to just be plugged in all the time, but it’s nice to UNPLUG and actually crank some stuff out!
• Try coming in super early (although this is NOT my natural ability) or staying late – less people to stop by, less others in front of their email = more time for you to just work
• Slip into an unused conference room or huddle room and leave the lights off – nobody will know you’re in there, and if you just mention your whereabouts to a discrete coworker, people won’t bother you but still know how to reach you if you’re immediately needed.
• Broadcast your deadlines to your coworkers.  If they know you’re under a stressful deadline, they’ll commiserate and leave you alone.
• Gather your things (water, quick snack, pens/pencils, other office supplies) ahead of time so you don’t have to get up and appear unfocused by your coworkers.  This way you don’t need to break your own concentration unnecessarily.
• Place your computer so that you can see people approaching you in your peripheral vision, but so you can “stare at a wall” beyond your desk/computer screen.  Less visual noise will allow you to concentrate easier.
• Find things you like to listen to.  Talk radio too distracting?  Try music (I like Pandora)  Music with lyrics you know too tempting to sing or whistle along with?  Try instrumentals (i love bluegrass because it’s FAST and makes me work faster!)  And if that’s too much, try several of the online “ambient” noise services (when studying for my LEED exam I swore by the laundry noises here).

I hope this little run-down helps some of you fellow scatter-brains out there!  If your leadership doesn’t support alternative places (thank goodness mine does!)  give these a quick try next time you’re under a crunch.  Also, if you have other techniques you’re fond of, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

What does it take to design a net zero emissions office building? Because few of our clients are currently considering carbon neutrality in their projects, an HOK team — with help from some wonderful friends — is designing one through a series of virtual charrettes.

In response to Architecture 2030′s challenge to the global architecture and building community, HOK has committed to designing all buildings to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030.

The idea for the charrette is the brainchild of HOK Chairman Bill Valentine, who wants the firm’s people to gain the knowledge and experience required to design zero emissions buildings. This vision is being turned into reality under the guidance of Firmwide Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus and a diverse team of designers and consultants.

The challenge is to create a zero emissions design for a typical office building, which the team has defined as a multi-tenant, 200,000 gross-square-foot building that is 3-4 stories and built with 95% rentable-to-gross efficiency. Other goals are for the building to be affordable (10-year payback); marketable; buildable using today’s technology, materials, systems and codes; sustainable; and flexible. The design is being created on a site in midtown St. Louis with valuable market input from local developers Green Street Properties.

For this charrette, the team is defining a zero emissions building as one that produces at least as much emissions-free renewable energy as it uses from emissions-producing energy sources in a year.

The team is using building information modeling (BIM) to create a conceptual design driven by performance metrics. The deliverables will include a comparative analysis to a typical St. Louis office building built to code, as well as 10- and 25-year life cycle cost analyses.

Dr. Dayna Baumeister of the Biomimicry Guild is ensuring that the team looks at more than just reducing energy use while using life’s principles to inform the design strategy. “We need to consider what life has learned to do to adapt and thrive in this specific place,” she said. You can listen to her talk about applying this approach to the project’s St. Louis site here: daynabzeb

David Eijadi, FAIA, of The Weidt Group has committed his firm to providing quantitative guidance toward a zero emissions solution. “From pre-design, through virtual design and into building operations, the calculations matter,” he said. “We cannot guess our way to zero and have a real solution.”

To create the net zero design, the entire team will meet virtually for several design charrettes — with lots of smaller work sessions in-between — over a two-month period. Team members hope to complete the design and process documentation by the end of August.

The Team

The team for the first design session included:

Green Street Properties: Michael Clark and Phil Hulse (developers)

The Biomimicry Guild: Dayna Baumeister (biologist at the design table)

The Weidt Group: David Eijadi, Prasad Vaidya, Chris Baker and Vinay Ghatti (energy/daylight modeling)

HOK: Bill Valentine, Bill Odell, Alan Bright (design/architecture); Tim Gaidis (design/sustainability); Dave Troup (design/engineering); Gerry Faubert (integrated design/engineering); Mary Ann Lazarus, Colin Rohlfing (design/sustainability); Jeff Sanner (design/Ecotect modeling); Tyler Meyr (design/planning); Frank Kutilek (cost estimating)

The group will leverage these interconnected disciplines and link the building’s interdependent systems with an integrated design that creates a truly multifunctional, zero carbon solution.

Session One

For the first zero carbon charrette on June 26, the team assembled virtually in Advanced Collaboration Rooms in HOK’s St. Louis, San Francisco, Toronto and London offices. Other participants joined via WebEx. The technology in these ACR rooms enabled team members to see and talk to each other in real time and to sketch together on virtual white boards. As the team entered this uncharted territory, there was a palpable feeling of excitement and nervous energy in the air.

“My focus for the past 15 years has been on sustainability and whole building design, so this is the summit for me, the ultimate test,” said HOK Director of Integrated Design Gerry Faubert, who is based on Toronto.

Early in the session, the team agreed that documenting the process would be nearly as important as the actual design solution.

“The idea is to identify what we can do here while also developing a replicable process that can be applied to any site,” said Tim Gaidis, Sustainable Design Practice Leader in HOK’s St. Louis office. “We’ll highlight items that need to be customized for specific locations.”

“I think we’ll learn so much about how to use an affordable, simple process to get to zero carbon that we’ll be able to tackle any site,” added Valentine.

The team finished the first session armed with four different building schemes to explore before the next full-team charrette on July 31.

“It was an amazing day together,” said Lazarus. “This was a terrific example of an integrated team at work, mining everyone’s insights. As an example, we saw energy and Ecotect modelers challenging the ideas of senior designers. There were no silos by function or role.”

“It was great to see the team keep checking ideas against their local marketability so we can eventually compare the design to conventional buildings in the market,” said Green Street Properties Principal Phil Hulse.

Next Steps

To prepare for the next charrette, team members are running multiple models to identify the most important variables, creating baseline modeling and massing options, conducting a planning design parameter study and developing cost models for each scheme.

On July 23, several team members will meet in The Weidt Group’s offices in Minneapolis for a design charrette focused on balancing the equations for energy performance across multiple building systems: architectural, mechanical, electrical and controls. The group will bracket the ways the team can meet the design objective.

During the July 31 session, the team will select the preferred scheme and further refine the concept. The focus will be on optimizing all passive solutions before pursuing integrated active systems.

“The process so far has already demonstrated how hard it is to not fall into our natural design patterns,” said Lazarus. “We have to challenge ourselves to be driven by performance at each step.”

Two trains of thought. The city planned by the people, and the city planned for the people.

What do you think? Is one more democratic? Is one more successful and to whom? Is there a difference in the individual good and the collective good and do we view them differently? (think hard about that last one)

Maybe it’s both, I don’t know. But I have my assumptions. Maybe there’s just the ‘public’ and ‘planned’ framework that’s the most important part. Like New York City in the 1811?

One more thought. In the scheme of things, ‘What would nature do?’ Develop a framework or organize a system that builds its own framework? Instead of the ‘overlay’ for the greater good, it could be the organizational self-assembly if we design it with feedback loops. Without Janine and the Guild, I wouldn’t have been able to assemble that sentence a few years ago, that’s for sure.

I snagged this from our friends in HOK India.

We invited them into our office to help us celebrate the Arts and Education Council, and to help us raise interest in the fundraising effort we’re participating in this week and next.  The Arts and Education Council supports regional arts and helps them thrive and grow. 

If you’re interested in helping out, head on over to the Chamber Orchestra’s site or the Arts and Education Council’s site and help make arts a priority even in a down year.  Also, enjoy the video we snapped of the string quartet (and please, pardon any chewing on my part – it’s hard holding a camera AND trying to get your lunch break in!)

Click here to view the embedded video.