By Ryan Duffy, Communications Fellow
We are proud to announce a newly formed partnership with Silver-level sponsor Bruner/Cott Architects and Planners! Bruner/Cott employs a team mentality when tackling its projects. The company works together- -architect and client, architect and contractor — to shape ideas, creating buildings that are a pleasure to experience outside and in. Contractors appreciate Bruner/Cott's technological expertise and team approach. Clients appreciate its informed design, attention to economics and consideration of community. 80% of clients have worked with the company on more than one project.
Managing and operating buildings — a million square feet — the firm understands the balance between capital investment and operating costs. It has first-hand knowledge of the relationship between development, design, operation and maintenance, and skillfully leverages these variables.
Bruner/Cott has a distinguished 40-year sustainability record and clear commitment to excellent green building. The firm maximizes savings by minimizing the energy profile of each site. It designs with an eye towards total energy consumption, from construction through operation. The total energy consumed by a building is the sum of the energy used in its operation (latent energy) and the energy required to make the building (embodied energy) — including the harvesting and shipping of natural resources, manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of materials. Designing sustainably means finding an efficient balance between embodied and latent energy, understanding that latent energy has a far greater impact over time.
Bruner/Cott was working towards “net-zero energy” before it was widely understood as a sustainable concept. As leaders in design for latent efficiencies, the group built early examples of passive solar in 1973 and geothermal in 1978. Its continuing operation of the Rhode Island hydroelectric plant that the company built in 1981 offsets three times of the office building's annual carbon footprint. With little cost premium, the group's buildings achieve aggressive results: 75% energy reductions, 60% water use reductions, and 99% construction waste recycling — all beyond “business as usual.”
Bruner/Cott's sustainable portfolio is impressive– the company has worked on projects such as Hampshire College's Kern Center, which has a ribbon-cutting ceremony we will be attending on April 29th. The Center was built with the goal of becoming only the ninth building certified under the world’s most rigorous green building standard, the Living Building Challenge (LBC): operating net-zero energy, water, and waste; built using materials mainly from local and regional sources; and avoiding toxic “red list” materials, right down to the duct tape allowed on site.
To read more about Bruner/Cott, check out the company's website, or read about them in our blog!
Photos taken from Bruner/Cott's website
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