AEC Leaders Converge for CREATE+CONSTRUCT Symposium on Adaptive Reuse and Rehabilitation

By USGBCMA Communications

More than 100 experts and practitioners from across the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry converged in New York City last week for a full-day discussion on breathing new life into existing structures. Hosted by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) on 19 September 2017, the third-annual Create + Construct symposium featured a series of conversations with engineers, architects, contractors, owners, industry representatives, and city officials on adaptive reuse and rehabilitation projects.

“There are valuable opportunities throughout New York City to reposition and reimagine existing buildings,” said Vince Cammalleri, SGH Senior Principal. “It was great to hear directly from our peers and colleagues in the field about their experiences with these types of projects and what they think these structures will look like in the future.”

Highlights from the event’s agenda include:

  • A keynote presentation by Annabelle Selldorf of Selldorf Architects on architecture and design trends affecting these projects
  • A panel discussion on the current and future state of this critical market sector moderated by Guy Geier, FXFOWLE Managing Partner and AIA New York President-Elect
  • Conversations on how project teams investigate existing structures, recognize and develop their potential value, address life safety concerns, and preserve and adapt historic structures and enclosures

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH), a USGBC MA Chapter Sponsor, designs, investigates, and rehabilitates constructed works in the United States, Canada, and in more than thirty additional countries.  

Congratulations, SGH, on this successful event!

Greenbuild Legacy 2017

By Communications


The 2017 Greenbuild Legacy, Green building Tech Program had its first tradeshow demonstration of green building technologies Wednesday the 20th. 70 trade school students from Madison Park Vocational Technical High School attended this informative event.

Students were able to engaged with the vendors and experience a unique opportunity of how a trade show is run. Six vendors representing the HVAC, carpentry, plumbing, and facilities management industries set up a mini expo hall for the students to view demonstrations and learn about green building products.

The juniors and seniors were “very excited” to learn about career opportunities after high school. Students were particularly thrilled about the mentorship opportunity.

A raffle was held and four students received Dunkin Donuts gift cards as a thank you for their participation. After this event, nearly 30 students signed up for the first upcoming field trip to Cambridge's MLK School next week (a near net-zero school building).

Thank you to the companies that participated in the tradeshow: Conservation Solutions Corporation, CoolGreen Power, Water Energy Distributors, Tremco, Veritiv Corporation, and Stacks & Joules.

 

5 more sites you don't want to miss on Greenbuild Tours

By Rebecca Collins

We got a lot of positive feedback on our blog post 5 sites you don't want to miss on Greenbuild Tours, and we know that highlighting only five sights doesn't do the outstanding roster of 80 tour sites justice. So we've decided to highlight five more cool sites you don't want to miss on Greenbuild Tours.


The Howard Ulfelder, MD, Healing Garden at the Mass. General Hospital Yawkey Cancer Center

There is a growing body of research that shows that environments that promote a connection to nature reduce patient healing times. The Howard Ulfelder, MD, Healing Garden at the Mass. General Hospital (MGH) Yawkey Cancer Center is a meditation space that provides solitude among lush scenery.  The healing garden has served as inspiration for green roofs and healing garden development nationwide. This project demonstrates MGH’s leadership in championing high-performance healing environments. 

See the Ulfelder Healing Garden at MGH Yawkey Cancer Center on tour TS10 – Therapeutic Green: Helping People Heal sponsored by Perkins + Will.
Saturday, November 11, 1-5pm


The Sidney Research Campus

Cambridge is a hub for life science innovation, but designing energy-efficient laboratory buildings comes with a distinct set of challenges, especially when you have limited space to work with. The Sidney Research Campus illustrates how to effectively renovate existing buildings for not only energy efficiency but also to create a cohesive campus. 

See the Sidney Research Campus on tour TS08 – Sustainability in Cambridge’s Life Science Market
Saturday, November 11, 1-5pm


Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Field Headquarters

The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Field Headquarters is Massachusetts’ first net-zero public office building, demonstrating that large-scale net-zero buildings can be created within a state budget. It also won the “Energy Efficiency” award at USGBC MA's 2016 Green Building Showcase. The headquarters overlooks a beautiful wildlife management area totaling 1,000 acres. Get out of the city for a few hours and see this magnificent building.

See the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Field Headquarters on tour TS05 – All Green on the Western Front.
Saturday, November 11, 8am-12pm


New Balance Headquarters at Boston Landing

Boston Landing is slated to become Boston's health and wellness district, and it's anchored by the New Balance Headquarters, which achieved a LEED Platinum rating and was winner of “Building of the Year” at USGBC MA's 2016 Green Building Showcase.

See the New Balance Headquarters on tour TM11 – Developers Changing the Status Quo
Monday, November 6, 1-5pm

 


Walden Pond Visitor Center

Massachusetts' leadership in sustainability and the strength of our green building community can be traced back to our deep roots in the conservation movement. Walden Pond is considered by many to be the birthplace of the conservation movement due to its association with Henry David Thoreau. The spirit of the movement has carried forward into the design of the visitor center, a net-zero building designed to harmonize with its beautiful surroundings. 

See the Walden Pond Visitor Center on tour TM03 – Net Positive Revolution sponsored by Auburndale Builders, ZeroEnergy Design and Thoughtforms.
Monday, November 6, 8am-4pm

This is just another taste of the tour offerings. All of the tours have interesting sites that demonstrate all of the different ways Massachusetts is leading in green building. For a full list of tours and to register visit greenbuildexpo.com

 

Our Greenbuild Mixer with JLL

By James Robe, Outreach and Communication Manager


As the sun started to go down over One Financial Center in Boston on Thursday Sept 21st, over 90 passionate professionals came out for our Greenbuild Mixer with JLL. Drinks were shared over the beautiful skyline view overlooking South Station at our venue. Seeing our community come together is always inspiring for us at USGBC MA, but we were also impressed by the amount of new faces at the event, whether students from Boston’s many universities to new individuals with growing interest and professional level expertise in green building.

Welcoming the crowd was Jennifer Christakes, Regional Manager from JLL, who spoke about the excitement of Greenbuild approaching and the importance of sustainability in our state.

Kate Bubriski, Senior Associate at Arrowstreet, commented on the sense of community within the green building industry. She thanked our Local Partners and Regional Outreach organizations, who have all been supporting Greenbuild on a local level.

Our very own Celis Brisbin, Acting Executive Director of USGBC MA, talked about the importance of standing up and taking responsibility for the health of Boston as a city, as we remain in a flood zone.

We cannot wait for Greenbuild to come, and it was apparent from the energy of participants at our networking event that our community is also ready for the conference and expo.

Thank you to our friends at JLL to thank for this wonderful networking opportunity!

Union Point Development

By USGBC MA Communications

Union Point is a 1,500-acre re-development of a former naval air station south of Boston, which grew from collaboration between three towns, a visionary developer, local conservation commissions, and the state office of economic development.

Linnean guided decision-making around integrating sustainable water, wastewater, and energy infrastructure systems, and the potential to pursue a range of certifications for additional sustainability goals. Linnean helped the project team develop a common vision guided by sustainable and regenerative development parameters, and identified innovative technological strategies for urban infrastructure.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diagram depicts preliminary monitoring plan for the new development.

EMPA September Meeting with Boston Resilient Design on 9/18/2017

By Julie Salvatoriello, Emerging Professional MA committee

The EPMA met on the third Monday of September for their monthly committee meeting. With Greenbuild just one more month away and the end of the year approaching fast, agenda items centered around networking opportunities, expo volunteer opportunities and holiday parties (and how the BMC rooftop garden tour at the Boston Medical Center had been sold out for weeks!).


Pictured Above: EPMA Committee Meeting Feature Presentation

 

The meet up landed mere days after hurricane Harvey hit the U.S. mainland. John Gravelin, Project Manager at Linnean Solutions, kicked off his presentation on “Resilient Design in Boston: Responding and Adapting to Climate Change” with an image of three new hurricanes. Katia, Irma, and Jose were all pictured together with the remnants of Harvey still visible in the satellite imaging. In his presentation, Gravelin described resilient design as preparing “buildings, cities and communities to respond to and adapt to the hazards of climate change.” The image of almost 4 hurricanes at once emphasized the real importance and necessity of intelligent resilient design.

One of the more poignant points Gravelin makes is how much of current resilient design applications that are found today are more focused on protecting buildings and infrastructure, and not, to his dismay, focused so much on the health and lives of people. Resilient design has a few uphill battles to climb, including the necessity for areas outside of flood zones to still have a resiliency plan as so many flood zones don’t take climate change into account or are based on models that just aren’t accurate enough. Even the focus on flood damage ignores that the type of disruption that causes the most deaths are heatwaves, which affects all infrastructure.


Gravelin emphasized the need for all communities to have resiliency plans and support services, and for those services to including supporting community gathering places and organizations. He emphasized that communities supporting each other have been found to be a perfect place to begin a resiliency strategy. It was a good reminder that, though we were brought to the meet up by green building, it’s people that we design and build for.

Join us next month for our October EPMA meeting on Monday, October 16th at 6pm for updates on our upcoming events, a feature presentation provided by Andrew Breiter-Wu and, of course, snacks!

 

 

Project SIM Unlocks Inertia Issues

By USGBC MA Communications


If you’ve ever tuned in to a TV talent show, you’ll be familiar with the plate spinning act. Plates balanced on poles must be kept spinning at an optimum speed and constantly adjusted so that they don’t wobble and tumble.

There is an analogy here with Great Britain’s electricity grid, albeit with a dash more technology involved! We need to monitor the stability of the grid to keep system frequency within strict limits. It’s a constant balancing act between supply and demand.

 


Real-time data – Bernie Dolan, Business Change Manager.

Project SIM takes our ability to monitor the grid to the next level. Until now, system inertia – which is a measure of how stable the grid is at any moment – could only be estimated at specific points in time. These estimates gave us a snapshot but not the full picture.

Now, for the first time, a new GridMetrix system pioneered by Reactive Technologies, can provide data 24/7, based on actual, continuous inertia measurements. This is important on two levels. Firstly, it will give us clearer insight into how inertia changes on the GB system and we’ll be able to respond more quickly.

Secondly, we currently spend £50 million a year on managing the effects of inertia. From a consumer point of view, better data means we will potentially be able to develop more cost-effective ways of managing the system.

 

Behind the Story

Project SIM has its roots in an earlier innovation project called SAMUEL. We also worked together with Reactive Technologies on this piece of work. Both projects are funded via Ofgem’s Network Innovation Allowance (NIA). The allowance is a way of encouraging advances in state-of-the-art technology that benefit customers.

The SAMUEL project focused on demonstrating a new way of broadcasting signals across the network. It uses existing infrastructure and deploys Reactive Technologies’ Grid Data Measurement System (GDMS). Instead of using the Internet, GDMS harnessed system frequency as a communication channel to send instructions to electrical equipment.

During the project, Reactive Technologies built a series of five load banks around the country. These are devices that allow us to generate a small deviation of system frequency in a controllable way.

Sensors detect these tiny changes in frequency. Encoded messages can be sent to control demand side response services. It’s a new and hi-tech way of helping us to balance the system and keep it stable. For Project SIM (SAMUEL Inertia Measurement), the same assets were used but applied in a different way – this time to analyse inertia around the clock.

 

Why inertia matters

Britain’s energy system is undergoing a transformation, with more renewable sources of energy such as solar connecting to the network. Historically, our power was supplied by large power stations that provided higher levels of inertia because they use large rotating masses in the form of turbines.

Inertia is important to the grid because it acts as a buffer to fluctuations in frequency, helping to smooth their effect.

In contrast renewable sources, such as wind farms, do not detect changes in frequency and so do not provide inertia. Solar panels don’t have any moving parts, so when the sun stops shining, they stop generating power straight away. This acts to reduce inertia on the system.

As the amount of intermittent energy such as wind and solar on the network increases, the importance of managing inertia grows too. A sudden drop in frequency causes stability problems. For example, embedded generation, connected directly to the distribution network, can disconnect from the system as a precautionary measure.

 

Benefits and looking ahead

Project SIM is important because it will help us understand and deal with inertia better. The benefits of Reactive Technologies’ GridMetrix tool and its unique ability to accurately measure grid inertia are wide-reaching.

Our control rooms will be able to make better-informed decisions thanks to access to real-time data. We will also look to build models based on this information so that we can predict inertia issues before they affect the stability of the grid. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the overall cost of managing the system, which in turn benefits consumers.

Project SIM is just one of the innovation-led projects we’ve undertaken in 2016/17. In total, we’re investing the £6.7 million innovation allowance in a variety of studies. They range from better solar forecasting through to a reduction in our use of greenhouse gases. You can read more about the NIA projects here.

There’s also more work ahead to realise the full benefits of Project SIM. The technology has proven its ability to monitor inertia changes in real time. The next step is how to channel that data into making actual load adjustments to help balance the system. It’s not the whole solution, but it will help us keep those plates spinning successfully!

 

Codman Academy Charter Public School’s Lithgow Building Renovation, designed by MDS, is on track to achieving LEED Gold certification

By Nereyda Rodriguez, RA, LEED AP BD+C Associate, Director of Sustainable Design


Codman Academy Charter Public School provides a transformative education that prepares students for success in college, further education and beyond. Its K-8 Lower School is housed in the historic 1890 Lithgow Building, located in the heart of Codman Square. Previously a vacant retail building, MDS designed the comprehensive renovation and adaptive reuse that converted its interior into a vibrant school.

Our design approach was inspired by the theme: “A Walk in the Woods“ and draws on Trauma Informed Design principles. The design incorporates a warm palette with elements of nature to create nurturing and safe environments where young scholars will flourish. Core classrooms are supported by adjacent breakout space and tutor rooms for small group instruction. 

Good air quality, access to natural light, and acoustical privacy were key components to our design approach. Floors, ceilings and walls keep both mechanical and reverberation noise down within the teaching spaces and were constructed to meet the LEED for Schools acoustical prerequisite requirements. Mechanical spaces are highly efficient displacement systems and all new light fixtures are LED.  The school opened for the 2015-16 school year and is on track to achieving LEED Gold certification.


 

About MDS

MDS/Miller Dyer Spears is an architecture, planning and interior design firm based in Boston. Specializing in programmatically and technically complex renovation, expansion, and adaptive reuse projects, the firm works with institutions, schools, public agencies, developers, and communities to design buildings and spaces that enrich the user experience, advance mission and strengthen community. MDS is an adopter of the AIA Architecture 2030 Challenge and committed to reducing GHG emissions of the built environment and creating environments that support user health and wellness.http://www.mds-bos.com/

 

Cadmus: Rising to the Top!

By Louis Areniello

The Cadmus Group LLC (Cadmus), a leading consultancy in energy, climate, homeland security, the natural and built environments, public health, and international development, has earned a spot on the 2017 Hot Firm Award list, a Zweig Group ranking of the top 100 fastest-growing architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting firms in the United States. Placement on the list is based on revenue growth over the past three years. Cadmus has ranked five times since 2011.


Careers in Sustainability Panel at Northeastern

By Emily Kingston

We had a great turnout on September 19th for the Careers in Sustainability Panel at Northeastern. Co-hosted by the NU Energy Systems SocietyUSGBC MA’s Emerging Professionals, and the USGBC MA Greenbuild Volunteer committee, the event generated some great conversation from six stellar sustainability professionals.


Our panelists included: Alex Testa, Structural Engineer at Silman; Ryan Montoni, Project Manager at The Green Engineer; Blake Jackson, Sustainability Design Leader at Stantec; Lindsey Machamer, Senior Engineer at Pare Corporation; and John Gravelin, Project Manager at Linnean Solutions. The panel was expertly moderated by EPMA’s co-chair Aminah McNulty, Marketing Coordinator for Brown, Richardson + Rowe.


The panelists shared their unique experiences and varied career paths to their current position, the things they wish they knew when they started out, and tips for networking your way to your dream job. 

Join us for more events like this one including: How to Network at Greenbuild coming up on October 26th at Boston University and consider registering today as a volunteer at Greenbuild to take advantage of some incredible sustainability career opportunities.