SMMA is pleased to welcome a former SMMA employee, Nick Koulbanis, AIA and LEED AP, to its Architecture Practice. As a senior associate at SMMA, Nick will join the firm's Higher Education studio, bringing his significant expertise to projects throughout New England. Prior to joining SMMA, Nick led Tsoi/Kobus & Associates’ Higher Education studio, and most recently completed a joint medical simulation project for Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island's nursing programs.
Nick’s past work in higher education architecture, coupled with his experience in sustainable design and design research, will contribute to the detailed approach he’s taking in his first SMMA project: Brown University’s School of Engineering. As a past SMMA employee, Nick is especially looking forward to re-connecting with some of his co-workers and being part of a firm with such a diverse portfolio.
In addition to working full time, Nick is also a member of The Boston Society of Architects and The Society for College and University Planning. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Roger Williams University.
— Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE: BXP), a real estate investment trust, announced today that its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.75 per share of common stock for the period July 1, 2017 to September 30, 2017 payable on October 31, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 29, 2017.
The Board of Directors also declared a regular quarterly cash dividend for the Company’s 5.25% Series B Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock (the “Series B Preferred Stock”). The cash dividend of $0.328125 per depositary share is payable on November 15, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 3, 2017 and covers the period from August 16, 2017to November 15, 2017. Each depositary share represents 1/100th of a share of Series B Preferred Stock.
Boston Properties is a fully integrated real estate investment trust that develops, redevelops, acquires, manages, operates and owns a diverse portfolio of primarily Class A office space totaling 48.4 million square feet and consisting of 164 office properties (including six properties under construction), five retail properties, five residential properties (including three properties under construction) and one hotel. The Company is one of the largest owners and developers of Class A office properties in the United States, concentrated in five markets – Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
Wednesday evening, we gathered in the inconspicuous parking lot of the Facilities & Maintenance building for Boston Medical Center (BMC). A few feet above us, just out of sight, the 7,000 square-foot rooftop farm resides, overlooking 180 degree views of South Boston.
Lindsay Allen, farm manager for the BMC farm, Brendan Shea, Director of Operations at Recover Green Roofs and David Stickler with the Boston Area Beekeeping Association led our tour. Lindsay introduced the site to us and explained the context of urban farming and local food in the area. She personally wheels all of her produce through the hospital into the demonstration kitchen so no fossil fuels are used to bring fresh food to patient’s plates. There is a strong symbiosis between the farm and demonstration kitchen at the hospital, which includes a “farm medley” served to patients, CSA shares for new families and dietary specific cooking classes.
Brendan unpacked the technical side of how the farm was constructed. A modular system of milk crates filled with a porous lining and top-grade compost from the Vermont Compost Company made the operation simple and straightforward to install. The irrigation system has a weather sensor to monitor sound, atmosphere, temperature and precipitation. Irrigation will shut off if rain gauge reads above ⅛ of rain or there is more than ⅛ of rain in the forecast. Specific roof-top site constraints include the weight of rainfall, waterproofing the roof system and withstanding wind speed. The team had to come up with specific solutions to address these issues.
David walked us through some common misconceptions about urban beekeeping and explained the simplicity and importance of living close to pollinators. Interestingly, urban bees find more diversity in pollination sources than rural bees because of the wider variety of what people plant in their urban gardens and flower pots.
We gathered at Stella Restaurant in the South End after our tour for a networking event kindly sponsored by Vermont Compost Company. This tour was the first in a series of USGBC programming around urban agriculture, green roofs and food justice. Stay tuned for our next event!
I am relatively new to this whole world. I got my undergraduate degree in geology with a minor in math from Colby College in Maine. When I graduated, like a lot of people, I had no idea what I wanted to do.
I ended up getting a job as a staff geologist for a company in Framingham and stayed there for about three years. I was working in their environmental remediation group, which was really just a fancy way of saying cleaning up other people's messes. Most of our clients were oil and gas companies with contaminated properties, and I spent my time traveling around to various sites sampling soil and groundwater and eventually overseeing drilling and excavation projects. While I learned a ton in that position, I ultimately started to feel that I was just helping to clean up a mess rather than actually trying to prevent the mess in the first place.
While I was there, especially towards the last year, I started spending more and more time on active construction sites. The sites had contaminated soil, and I had to be the annoying person telling the construction crew where they could and couldn't dig. In a way, that was my first introduction to the built environment. Before then, I had never seen a building go up, I had no idea how that worked. I realized I was more interested in watching those processes than actually dealing with the contaminated soil that I was supposed to be watching. That spurred me to make a change.
This is the weird part – after that job I went to western Kenya for 6 months. It was completely unrelated, but I had this really incredible opportunity to volunteer at a community hospital through Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Global Health and Human Rights… which is a mouthful. I was not working on projects directly related to the built environment, I was doing more coordination and support of MGH’s teaching and research efforts at the hospital. But my work in Kenya exposed me to a different type of sustainability, in terms of understanding how different cultures use their resources and how any type of change or plan, as well-intentioned as it may be, won’t be successful without real community input.
While I was over there I started thinking about graduate school and how I could pivot myself into the world of sustainability. I ended up finding a masters program at Northeastern and applied before I got home. The faculty actually didn’t want to let me in at first… with reason, because I’m not an architect and I’m not an engineer. They felt that I was qualified for the program, but they weren’t sure what I would be able to do with it afterwards. But I was motivated enough, and I convinced them I would figure it out by the time I was done. I graduated in May, and while I was there I met Jim Newman, who I work for now. He encouraged me that it was an asset to be able to speak the languages of both architects and engineers without being on either side. He showed me there could be a different path through the consulting lens, and he has since given me a really fantastic opportunity to work with him at Linnean Solutions.
ENERGY STAR. It’s the little label with the big message: Better is Better.
Wright Builders is proud to offer new homes that have earned the ENERGY STAR® label. The ENERGY STAR label means that your new home has been designed and built to standards well above other homes in the market today. It means better quality, better comfort, and better durability. It also means that your new home is a better value for today, and a better investment for tomorrow. The ENERGY STAR label gives you the peace of mind that your home has undergone a better process for inspections, testing, and verification to ensure that it meets strict requirements set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ENERGY STAR certified homes are better because they are designed and built to provide homeowners: with a Peace of Mind. The result of a home that’s built better.
With the ENERGY STAR label on your new home, you can be confident that it will deliver. When ENERGY STAR requirements are applied to new home construction, an integrated approach to design combined with tried-and-true best building practices adds up to a durable, comfortable home with reduced utility and maintenance costs. Our ENERGY STAR certified homes have undergone more inspections and testing than typical homes to ensure that your new home was built to higher standards.
Enduring Quality. Better systems make all the difference.
Purchasing a new home is a big investment, so it’s important to be sure that it’s built to last. We design all of our new ENERGY STAR certified homes to include value-adding energy efficiency features, and a combination of materials and equipment that will deliver better performance.
LEED Certified
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ was developed by the US Green Building Council to encourage sustainable green building and development practices. We are enthusiastic USGBC members and sponsors and strive to achieve a minimum standard of Silver LEED Certified on our new construction homes and offices.
The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index is the industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. It’s also the nationally recognized system for inspecting and calculating a home’s energy performance. HERS® index functions as sort of energy efficiency version of a MPG (miles-per-gallon) sticker for houses, and informs home-owners about how their homes compare to other similar ones in terms of energy usage. All of Wright Builders’ homes are assessed by a local, reputable third party rater. In fact, this rating, as of January 2017, is a Massachusetts building code requirement. Wright Builders has been doing these ratings for over 10 years. Why should you care? Take a look!
What does ‘green’ really mean?
Looking at two seemingly identical houses, one ENERGY STAR/LEED Certified and the other minimally code compliant, you won’t notice much on the surface that seems to be different.
The code minimum house will be a little cheaper. Money’s tight, and you want to get the most for your money. So…don’t buy the cheaper house! Spending a little more on the energy-efficient home will save you money in the long run because of these differences in the construction:
Higher standards of insulation installation, leading to a more weather-tight house.
Prescribed detailing to virtually eliminate wind infiltration.
Minimal usage of low performance insulation products such as fiberglass.
Class 1 Cellulose insulation, a locally recycled product that is sustainable.
More efficient heating systems and sealed ductwork to reduce air leakage.
Floor system air sealing for greater comfort.
Efficient doors and windows.
Low E glass.
Sealing around doors and windows with high performance materials.
Sealed combustion direct vent heating equipment.
No fuel smell from oil heating equipment.
Attics and knee walls sealed from living spaces as if they were outdoors (which they are).
Up to 35% heating cost savings.
Minimum SEER 14 cooling equipment.
Indoor comfort at lower temperatures because of reduced drafts.
High efficiency lighting reduces lighting costs by 75%.
Higher humidity levels are achievable without damage to house – approximately 40% for greater health and comfort indoors.
Constant/periodic ventilation to refresh interior air.
Gas stove hoods vent outdoors for fumes and cooking odors.
Bewildered by the buzzwords? Check out our Vocabulary page for all the definitions!
By VHB – Kari Hewitt, Director of Sustainability, and Steve Anderson, Director of Applied Technologies
As professionals operating in the sustainability and applied technology space, we are no strangers to buzz words, nor to the perception that our work is part of a passing trend. It may be easy to pass off the concept of “smart cities” as the latest of such trendy phrases. What is a “smart city” anyway? Why is everyone talking about “big data” and “internet of things”? Isn’t all this smart technology just for the privileged anyway?
It is fair to be skeptical and cautious. However, imagine a community where we are able to connect all citizens to the internet. Imagine a building stock powered by a smart grid and meters that can respond to changes in demand and inform building managers and homeowners instantly of leaks or inefficiencies. Sensors that know when to light up a street or sidewalk for passing pedestrians or that can inform citizens and public health officials when air quality is poor. Smart waste receptacles powered by solar energy that tell haulers when they need to be emptied. A transportation network enabled with real time data and smart payment options to allow users to make smart and healthy choices about how to get to work or school.
We strongly believe that the cities that are leading the way on sustainability and resiliency are also leading the way on smart cities. And this is because their leaders recognize that these pathways are inextricably linked—innovation, sustainability, and resiliency are a necessity for cities to manage growing populations, remain economically competitive, and to advance solutions to global climate change challenges. They also recognize that city government exists to provide services to its citizens and that they need to be thoughtful about the user's perspective – using technology to better meet the needs of all citizens. Smart City technologies have the potential to:
Improve health and well-being
Enhance mobility
Boost economic development
Reduce disparities/inequities
Improve facility management
Improve safety, emergency response, and cyber security
Promote efficiency and environmental stewardship
Enhance transparency
Enhance resiliency
Measure & report on performance
A key tenet of sustainable planning, design, and management of buildings and communities comes down to effective decision-making. When people are armed with real-time information that they can compare to historic patterns, they are able to make smart decisions, and see if those decisions are actually making a difference. Smart Cities technologies have the ability to arm governments, businesses, and citizens with information to make their communities thrive.
