At the Chapter, we appreciate the presence of Perkins & Will on our Residential Green Building Committee and the input that they have during session. It is no suprise that the ideas proposed there are associated with a premiere architecture firm. We would like to highlight Perkins & Will and the advances that they are making in green buildings and thank them for pushing the standards of sustainability.
Perkins+Will believes sustainability is simply good design.
Since the firm’s inception, sustainability has been pivotal in all their work. And more than ever, it is a defining factor in how their clients measure success. As the strategic importance of sustainability grows, we are leading the next frontier– through research, tool development, design, and the services we deliver. We are committed to the financial, human, and environmental sustainability of our projects and to working with our clients to meet their sustainability goals.
The following are a few of the ways they are working to ensure a healthy environment (and bottom line):
Resilient Design and Climate Adaptation
They are partnering with clients to identify vulnerabilities to natural and manmade stressors in buildings, cities, and their communities, and to create design responses to help achieve stability and adaptability. They are working to help restructure the social, economic, and physical capital necessary to create buildings, cities, and communities that are more diverse, more resilient, and more vital than in the past.
Regenerative Design and High Performance Buildings
As a practice, they are leading sustainable design to the next level of building performance and resource conservation in our built environment. More and more of our clients are achieving net zero energy, water, and carbon goals through design. This requires a visionary and innovative approach to understanding the interaction between natural and technical systems and the impacts from all design decisions. Beyond just reducing a building’s impact, Perkins+Will is a leader in the pursuit and development of Regenerative Design strategies which seek to create systems that are waste free and actually restore resources to our environment.
Transparency and Material Health
Perkins+Will is at the forefront of the healthy building materials movement and has helped raise awareness of how building materials and finishes may relate to human and environmental health. Some of the research and tools we created are available to the public on our Transparency website. We initiated the first on-product ingredient label for building materials, detailing the complete make-up of a product, highlighting critical lifecycle information and potential human health impacts per published governmental sources.
Sustainable Communities
Their practice is active in the pursuit of sustainability at all scales. In order to achieve true sustainability, it must be addressed as a holistic system and at a community scale. Their Urban Design practice is pioneering the latest thinking in vibrant, sustainable cities and health districts. They engage communities in the design and development of urban frameworks that restore and sustain the environment, also integral to their client’s goals.
Designing for a Water-Stressed World
The world’s freshwater reserve—a finite natural resource that is necessary to sustain human, animal, and plant life—is diminishing. At Perkins+Will, they strive to design projects that can achieve net-zero water waste and reduce the demand on freshwater sources. They work on both building and city scale, and collaborate with academic institutions, public water agencies, districts, and commissions to inspire the next generation of sustainable water policies and building codes.
We had a great evening in Charlestown last Thursday night.
The view heading over to Charlestown from the Central Wharf Ferry
Thank you to AtSite for sponsoring the event. Thank you to Perkins+Will, TCI, and Copley Wolff Design Group for facilitating the amazing tours. Your dedication to this incredible project is noteworthy. Thank you to Deborah Rivers of P+W for organizing the tour leaders for us all.
We hosted our latest Networking Night on Tuesday evening June 10th at the Boston offices of Perkins+Will on Franklin Street at Post Office Square.
Thank you to the team at Perkins+Will for hosting us and especially to Juliette Bowker for presenting on their Transparency Tool! This is a tremendous resource for the many folks who are working to find materials and components of designs that will have better health effects on us all.
As we know, LEEDv4 offers points for reporting on materials through health product declarations and environmental product declarations. Many product vendors are racing to be relevant in this new marketplace where transparency into their processes and materials will become clearer.
Juliette led us through a great presentation about why we should care about environmental effects of materials in buildings, about how we can figure that out, and how we can then use that information to make better choices as designers and building creators so our communities are safer, healthier and stronger. She mentioned how she was really learning a lot about chemistry and health.
One stunning concept was “We are sharing this with everybody – there's no competitive advantage for us to hold onto this information” – so take a dive into the tool and learn more about materials and their impact on health!
Some of the staff at Perkins + Will were on hand to chime in about the tool and how they are using it to enhance the sustainability of their designs. Also, how it is helping their product vendors figure out how to be more relevant when selecting materials becomes more rigorous than just function, appearance and cost.
Juliette referenced the old “rubber duckie” and how examining that innocuous seeming toy could lead to an exploration of human health effects of common materials. And that we want to get to where the duckies really are cute and innocuous.
One of her quotes was from Dr. Claudia Miller, a renowned immunologist and a dean at the University of Texas School of Medicine: “Architects have a greater ability to improve public health than medical professionals” – due to the capacity of designers to remove health-threatening components from our buildings and thus reduce popular exposure.
Overall, it was really good to get the overview and to have an introduction to the transparency tool. Kudos to P+W for putting it out there – this will help our practice as an entire community! We can all help by adding to it as well. It was good to meet so many people who are new to the Chapter, from out of town, from firms we don't often connect with, and of course also many of our old friends and colleagues (you know who you are).
On Tuesday May 13th, the USGBC MA hosted two passive design specialists to present a case study on the zero net energy Weygand Hall at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.
Yanel de Angel and Jordan Zimmerman of Perkins+Will described the intricacies of a 500-bed dormitory being designed to achieve net zero energy requirements. You can read more about the project at Perkins+Will's research journal.
“Residence Halls provide a unique educational opportunity for students, since they can learn about and experience a lifestyle that embodies sustainable practices and engages them as active participants in reducing energy use for the building. The Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA) and Bridgewater State University (BSU) took advantage of a Zero Net Energy Building (ZNEB) pilot study to research design strategies and building systems that will advance the planning and design of future residence halls. Perkins+Will led a collaborative design and construction team, which included Rist Frost Shumway Engineering and Bond Brothers Construction. Working closely with MSCBA and BSU, the team developed a detailed case study that ultimately led to successful identification and implementation of low energy strategies for the Weygand Residence Hall at BSU.”
Thank you to Cyrus Dahmubed for organizing this month's Green Breakfast Club! We had a great turnout with many familar faces and some great new attendees, esp. notable was Catherine & Brian from Stone Source – who invited us to present at their showroom nearby sometime. Thanks!
Topics of discussion and hearty back-n-forth included:
How seasonal use patterns affect zero net modeling and potential.
How a new building's “cool factor” can lead to increased use (over modeled) and overwhelm the zero net intention, but that this actually offsets less efficient use elsewhere on a campus.
Will students really tolerate a lack of micro-fridges?? So far, yes and living at Weygand is viewed as a privilege.
How to engage occupants through outreach & education. During the freshman orientation, one of the students asked “well, isn't this how it's supposed to be done everywhere?”
It was amazing to hear that for a $1M premium on a $50M project, you could achieve net zero potential and that was at an 8-year payback. In the mid 2020's, the school will be essentially saving more than $100k per year in energy costs, ceteris paribus. Clearly a design intention to propagate throughout Massachusetts' institutional owners.
It was great networking following the presentation! These morning events help people connect and spend time delving into a topic: it's a chance for green building enthusiasts to really geek out. Thank you to all who came, and we'll see you at the next Green Breakfast Club!
Thank you especially to Jordan Zimmerman and Yanel de Angel, and to Cyrus Dahmubed for presenting and organizing the program.
