frontstepdesign

Regional Priority - According to LEED, what needs fixing in your neck of the woods?

So I'm playing around on the USGBC site as part of my study prep for the LEEDv3.0 exam, and I find the Regional Priority Credits lookup tables.

Oooh.  These are the extra points your project can get by making sure to address generally good issues that the experts think need special attention in your project's location.  Since I'm a "think global, act local" sort of person, I'm particularly intrigued.  Let's plug in some places that I know pretty well, or am curious about, and see what needs fixing.

Fort Walton Beach, Florida.  32548. I lived here for 21 years, did my internship and ran my own architectural practice here.

SSc3 - Sustainable Sites, Brownfield Redevelopment.  Somebody thinks that FWB has industrial pollution...which it does, being a low-density, car-dependent, minimally-managed-until-recently sort of place, with serious military munitions testing.

SSc5.1 - Sustainable Sites, Habitat.  FWB has a sound, and a beautiful bay, with lots of wildlife...but they are threatened by everyone wanting to have lawns and pools and azaleas.

WEc1 Option 2 - Water Efficient Landscaping, No Potable Water Use or Irrigation.  In a place that primarily uses shallow wells that draw down the aquifer for most landscape irrigation, to keep lawns planted in nutrient-poor sand green and pretty, despite scorching solar incidence....yeah.

EAc1 28% - Optimize Energy Performance (28% Improvement Over Baseline Modeling).  Most energy in FWB is used for air conditioning, and there is unfortunately NOT a culture of white roofs.  Or enough attic insulation.  Winter conditions are ideal for passive solar, except that buildings usually aren't designed for it. This 28% is pretty low-hanging fruit.

EAc2 13% - On-Site Renewable Energy.  At a place with the solar incidence of Cairo, Egypt, this probably means solar.  Which again, almost nobody has, and only five years ago I was begging the utility to not hang up on me as I re-pronounced "photo-voltaic".

WEc2 - Innovative Wastewater Technologies.  Again, it's a beach, there's a huge number of pools and other tourist facilities...why aren't there waterless urinals everywhere?  And rainwater cisterns?  I was so impressed when I went to Australia with the rainwater collection cisterns everywhere one turned.

Just for contrast, let's try same latitude, same state, different soil condition, history, and market:

Tallahassee, Florida.  32301. I attended graduate school here, and have family living here.

SSc2 - Community Density Development.  Tally has about 50,000 students, and then there's the state legislature and workers, in a fairly small city, that suffers from no natural density limits.

SS4.1 - Public Transportation.  I actually know a couple who have two cars, and don't use them on a regular basis.  But they are the exception.  I've never ridden the bus here.

WEc2 - Innovative Wastewater Technologies.  Lots of dorms, lots of restaurants...again, nice to see the toilets, urinals and showers go low-flow.  Tally gets significant rainfall, so rainwater cistern design would be driven by success, rather than scarcity.

EAc1 (28%) - Optimize Energy Performance (28% Improvement Over Baseline Modeling).  It's an air conditioning climate, with good passive solar potential (though still needing some humidity control at nearly all times).  Many buildings are not well-insulated, and there's no culture of white roofs here, either.

EAc2 (13%) - On-Site Renewable Energy.  Same latitude as Fort Walton, so sun is a great resource.

MRc5 (20%) - Regionally Produced Materials.  This piques my curiosity - I know that Tally is in the middle of an agricultural area, but I wonder what other than timber is made locally.

EAc4(3%/25%) - Enhanced Refrigerant Management.  Well, it's an air-conditioning climate, not just for temperature, but also humidity, and there are a lot of restaurants...am I missing something?

And finally, a place I'd like to know more about, since I'd really like to move there...

Huntsville, Alabama.  35801.

SSc4 (25%) - Alternative Transportation (in general, reduce by 25%).  There must be lots of single-person commuters.

SSc6 - Stormwater Design (quantity and quality).  Much rain, and nowhere for it to go?  Also a river basin to protect.

WEc2(20%) - Innovative Wastewater Technologies.  Again, this sounds like population density, and old plumbing that needs replacement.

EAc1 (75 rating/25 percentile)  Optimize Energy Performance.  This 'rating' seems to be from Appendix G, in ASHRAE's 90.1-2007, but I don't have that in the LEED Reference Guide.  I'd like to get my hands on this, to understand it better.

EAc4(3%/25%)  Enhanced Refrigerant Management.  I'm wondering if every zipcode south of the Mason-Dixon line with any population density has this listed.  I'd like to be more educated on the horrible things happening because we haven't been properly managing refrigerant.

IEQc2.3 - Increased Ventilation.  Bit of a puzzle here, since c2 doesn't have a c2.1 or a c2.2, let alone a ~.3 showing in my copy of the LEED Reference Guide...but let's see.  Is this commentary on goverment and other buildings that have no way to operate windows?

I'm really grateful that USGBC chapters have added this feature, because it's impossible for each of us to know every place intimately enough to make good design decisions about it.

Maas Coffee House packs an espresso punch of space usability in a tiny frugal package.

Four hundred square feet, the heart of a rapidly revitalizing downtown, a clientele that includes some of the best local area restaurants as well as local business owners, and roasting beans on-site.

It's an ambitious organizational punch, but Jim Maas manages it.  Check out how well he's used space:

 

Here's the view just coming in the door.  It looks at this on the other long wall:

 

That mirror increases the spaciousness and convivial nature (because Jim is the prototypical Neighborhood Friendly Coffee Guy) of the shop considerably.  Products for sale, with supplies stored above general eye range.  Just to the right, behind the glass storefront door, is a bulletin board full of neighborhood doings...

 

Wireless internet access is also a draw.  For more seating, especially for groups, there's the back garden...

The neighboring buildings do a good job of keeping the summer heat off.  Here's a view back at the front door...

Thanks, Jim!  See you soon!

*disclaimer: I feature Maas in appreciation, and had nothing to do with designing this space.  I think there are a lot of clever ideas here, and applaud his ingenuity.

Today's Awesome Sandwich - Turkey Club Swiss on Pumper with GuacSunSpin

(it is turkey + bacon that makes a Turkey Club, right?)

Turkey breast, deli slices
Bacon
Swiss
Pumpernickel
Guacamole
Sundried tomato paste
Spinach

Still studying LEED, still learning Revit.  Amazing how hungry one gets, studying.

Autodesk Sustainability Webcast Archive

More archived webcasts, though probably not with CEUs attached.

AUTODESK

• Energy Efficiency in High Performance Building Design 
• The Importance of Design Visualization for Creating Renewable Designs
• Bridging Environmental and Architectural Design to Nurture Renewability
• Trends in Constructability and Waste Reduction: The Architect & General Contractor Partnership
• Going Paperless and the Environmental Impact of Architectural Practices
• Revit Architecture and Design Visualization for Sustainable Design
• Revit and Sustainable Designs

Continuing Ed opportunities from Autodesk

Places to find continuing ed:

Online Continuing Education: Revit Architecture, Creating and Modifying Schedules

Online Continuing Education: Bridging Environmental & Architectural Design to Nurture Renewability

Revit - Daylight studies for inside the building? UPDATE

As if the universe was listening to me...after posting about wanting a way for Revit to help me decide what sort of energy optimization design moves to make, I stumbled upon a webcast that happened today about that very thing.

The answer might have been predicted:  Yes, and No.  Yes, there's a way to see the effects of a light shelf.  No, it's not within Revit.

There's two other wonderful tools needed for useful modeling and reporting:

Green Building Studio and Ecotect.  Both of these are from Autodesk, and both work well with the models that Revit produces.

In the webcast, staff showed how Green Building Studio can produce a detailed report on an "eggshell model" of an existing building, complete with estimated costs and payback periods!  And then, without making changes to the model, calculate the effects of various improvements.  Examples included a under-floor heating/cooling system and a rainscreen.

Ecotect was even more detailed in its investigation potential.  With this tool, one area of the building was isolated, cut into wireframe section, and various light shelves were calculated for optimum size and location.  These shelves then were assigned reflective values and the resulting sunshine vectors were hugely illuminating, pun intended!

The webcast should be posted onto this archive of past webcasts in this series; I intend to watch the others, too.

Places to find continuing ed:

Online Continuing Education: Revit Architecture, Creating and Modifying Schedules

Online Continuing Education: Bridging Environmental & Architectural Design to Nurture Renewability

Revit - Daylight studies for inside the building?

I saw this blog post at Green Building: Jetson Green, with a nice summary of all energy use in the US, broken down by place of use, and then type of use.

 Residential Energy Use (22% of total US use):

• 1%  - Computers
• 5%  - Cooking
• 5%  - Wet clean
• 7%  - Electronics
• 8%  - Refrigeration
• 11% - Lights
• 12% - Cooling
• 12% - Water heat
• 31% - Heating

Commercial Energy Use (18% of total US use):

• 2%  - Cooking
• 3%  - Computers
• 4%  - Refrigeration
• 6%  - Office equipment
• 6%  - Ventilation
• 7%  - Water heat
• 13% - Cooling
• 14% - Heating
• 26% - Lighting

I really like to get these numbers into total relative terms.  Let's look at the top offenders, Lighting, Water Heat, Cooling, and Heating, and multiply them out to see what piece of the total US pie they are...

• Residential Lights - 2.4% of all energy used in US, even counting industry and transportation
• Residential Cooling - 2.6% of all energy used
• Residential Water Heat - 2.6% of all energy used
• Residential Heating - 6.8% of all energy used
• Commercial Water Heat - 1.3% of all energy used
• Commercial Cooling - 2.3% of all energy used
• Commercial Heating - 2.5% of all energy used
• Commercial Lighting - 4.7% of all energy used

Okay, so Residential Heating and Commercial Lighting are the low-hanging fruit here.

Residential Heating would seem to be an insulation issue?  Must find out more about this - I've practiced the last decade in a cooling climate, and the electric bill in the winter in Florida is *far* lower than the summer.  What about airlocks for houses - older houses up north all seem to have them, but the newer condos and such don't.  Obviously efforts to upgrade windows and make sure envelopes are sealed would pay off.

(On the topic of cooling climates: What is the proportion of population in heating climates vs cooling climates?  It's hard to sell superwindows in a cooling climate - they don't seem to make enough difference - would something else, like a white/cool roof?)

Commercial Lighting - Can Revit run daylight studies for inside the building?  Will it report footcandles delivered to a desk?  I'm wondering about daylight shelves bouncing more light inside.  As I learn more about what Revit can help predict, I'm more and more excited about it.

Fire concerns for green roofs

So, apparently green roofs will burn.  (Here's a video of a green roof on fire, from the wonderful Green Building Law Update.)

This makes a lot of sense - I know someone who let a trash burning take over a meadow, so why would an artificial meadow be different?

What concerns me more is:

1) How resistant to heat/damage are the underlying parts of the assembly, which seem to feature plastics?

2) What does one do to the owner's insurance rates when one chooses a green roof?

3) How do the firefighters feel about their ability to do their job when a green-roofed building is on fire...I've heard that some firefighters don't like metal roofs, as they're harder to get through to access a burning attic.  Even though the insurance rates are lower, for metal roofs.

I'm sure more data will come to light on this notion soon.

Bjarke Ingels - listening to the client is the way to good design

Terrific TED Talks video by star-chitect Bjarke Ingels.  

I'm very encouraged (and jealous! I want to learn how to make movies, too!) to see this sort of presentation.  I don't think that the conventional magazine can really do the job, in comparison to a good video.  And now that we have the web - it's really easy to share.

Some outtakes I really like:

"Yes is More" - that solutions come more usefully from listening and brainstorming and 'breeding' of different good ideas, than by establishing rules to exclude solutions.

"Sustainability seems to be this neo-Protestant idea that it has to hurt to do good" - what about examples that improve quality of life?

I also like his humility...

"we didn't think that (our proposal) looked like anything in the north of Sweden...the Swedish jury didn't think so either, so we lost."  But they recycled the idea for China, given the resemblance to the Chinese character meaning 'people', which came from a Chinese businessman who saw the scheme.  So after "scaling the building up three times to Chinese proportions"...

Shanghai mayor Chen Liangyu called the scheme "a way to bridge the gap between the ancient wisdom of China" (as symbolized by the broad connection at base) and its high-reaching future.  "We obviously profoundly agree with him..."

See, listening to how people interpret your work is really important.  What you intend is not as important as what they experience.

Management challenge - A long letter to an enthusiastic new designer

Once again, my SCA involvement is providing some nice practice for the business world.

I've been asked by a young person to help him learn about graphic design, for the local chapter's website.

For some reason, the website changed, after the previous webmaster left.  I'm not sure why it was felt necessary - but what needs to be an informative, easy-to-use, attractive web presence now looks like an 80's metal band tee shirt.  Nothing wrong with that per se...but the SCA is about historic recreation, of the pre-1700 kind.  (Not so much the late-twentieth century.)

I don't want to discourage him, and I don't want to do the work for him - but I do want to show him how to find some examples of excellence, and I want him to understand:

• how strongly design work communicates.
• what the group is about to the larger organization, which has to coordinate future events with group members and needs information; 
• what the group is about to the public from whom it recruits and to which it represents the larger organization, so it has a duty to be fairly serious; 
• what the group is about to its own members, who would like a place to have group photos and history recorded, so they can brag on the group.

I've written up the last three points, with suggestions on how that might be done, but for the first one, I need to collect an updated list of websites.  When I was first figuring out how to think about unattended web communications (which is of course what a site or a blog is), I spent a lot of time reading the pros and just surfing around, collecting good ideas, developing an eye.  Of course that list will be very different, and again, I don't have to do the work for him...but he needs to be shown, "this here?  This is very good.  So is this.  Not so much this other."

After sending him a short email asking essentially, "how serious about help are you?" and getting back a "give me everything!" enthusiastic response, I dumped the following on him.  We shall see how what he does with it.

First - I can see that you have lots of ideas, and you like being creative.  That's fantastic! Consider this:

 

1. It is great to find your passion and work towards learning everything about it, but practicing your passion indiscriminately is not a stepping stone to success.
2. One really good idea is always better than six.  Always see if you can accomplish what you need with one creative idea.

 

General advice for you:

Establish your own website, and try things out there.  Keep everything, so you can see how you've grown.  Test things.  This is a good place for your phoenix.  This site will become your portfolio, with time.

 

Spend as much time looking at other people's work as you do playing on your own.  Look at all the other Shire sites in our kingdom.  Look at ones from other kingdoms.  Join a "webmasters" list, if it exists, and ask what sites are really good.  (If it doesn't exist, consider starting one!)

 

Look at non-SCA sites, thinking about how they work - not from a code perspective…you'll learn code and tricks as you go.  From an organizational viewpoint.  This is much harder to be good at, and is truly ARCHITECTURAL.  I have several architecture school classmates who do information architecture now - the skills are quite transferable.

 

Criticisms of the website as it stands today:

 

It is busy - too many ideas going on at once.  You have a fire.  And you have a fantasy phoenix.  And you have a shire device.  And you have a lot of text.  And pictures of people, or book images…you get it now.  Too much competing with each other.  First, cut down the types of content to the absolute bare essentials, then add ONE pretty thing.  For example: Greet's Middle Ages has just the brooch on the top - which I chose carefully to represent my persona focus, and that's why it has that blurb describing it.  I chose the title font to support that persona.  I chose the color to support it - woad is navy blue.  One idea: 6thc Kent.  What is the one idea for the PG website:?  I'd suggest: PG has interesting people.

 

It doesn't look "historical" - "metal band t-shirt" comes to mind.  Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it's not useful for someone's first view of the SCA.  Remember, every little design choice you make communicates - help yourself by reducing the number of choices, and then you reduce the opportunities for MIS-communication.

 

Many links don't work - Google "Firefox link checker", this will help you find broken links to fix.

 

Remember to keep your screen image size/resolution to 800x600 - this will help download time and many people are limited to smaller screens - laptops, etc.  Reduce photos to jpgs of a size that will allow them to load fast.

 

Choose clear fonts over fancy fonts - what you're doing with one fancy initial is a good approach to a fancy fonts, but you could get away with one per page.  It's period!  The study of fonts is one worth doing, by the way, and there's links below that will help you.

 

My own approach would be, take it or leave it:

Theme: Phoenix Glade has interesting people.

Collect a lot of photographs of PG people doing stuff.  If they're old, that's okay, though of course keep an eye out for new photo opps.  Match a photo to each topic of information: fighter practice, project night, events, demos, etc.  Stick all of those photos in one montage, and put that on the splash page.  That and the shire arms would be the only graphics on the first page - do everything else with LIMITED color and LIMITED fonts.  Make the montage an image map, with popup captions sending people to other pages: a fighter practice page, etc.  Duplicate these links on the basic page, so that people who can't see an image map can still use them.

 

On the second level, decorate each page with the SAME photo from the first page.  Repetition  helps people see things they might have missed, and be sure they're in the place they meant to go.  You could add some explanatory things here - like for fighting, a sidebar blurb(like on my Kentish brooch) about knights wearing white belts, if your picture has a knight fighting.  Something that makes the picture more understandable and interesting to people who don't know what's happening in it.  For project night, you could have a cropped picture of an illuminated scroll, together with people working on that, or maybe the people picture is of people casting, then a picture of the museum piece they were working towards.  Add a blurb to explain, and then have text about project night, where/when it is, maybe a list of things that people have made there.  The top ten things, with lots of variety.  Also you could list the people who have done those things.

 

Do not make people hunt for stuff in ordinary problem-solving tasks-they get annoyed.  Make a list for yourself of what the problem-solving tasks are, and try to minimize the hunting.  Ask for help with this - it's very hard to design something entirely from one point of view - boy, do I know this!

 

I've thrown a lot at you, and I don't expect you to understand it all right away, or make changes right away.  Please don't be discouraged.  You're making all the common beginner mistakes, which means you're progressing along the path, which is good.  Keep your eyes open, and try to maintain a beginner's mind - imagine how things look to people who don't know the things that you know.

-------------------

Some pro websites, which will help you with content as well as design:

 

http://www.alistapart.com/

http://www.webmonkey.com/

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://typedia.com/

 

-------------------

Some SCA-functional things to think about - this is where the ARCHITECTURE  comes back in.  (I know corpora has a bunch of web-specific requirements to incorporate, too - nobody said this'd be easy.  :D)  Writing this framework gave me the idea for the photos-of-people-based approach described above.  You may want to write your own, but you're free to use this.

 

Things an SCA group's website needs to accomplish:

 

MOST IMPORTANT - Serve the kingdom/populace about the group.

NEXT MOST IMPORTANT - Serve the public about the group.

LAST MOST IMPORTANT - Serve the group about the group.

 

Serve the kingdom/populace about the group:

 - because the group holds events, and outside people rely on the website to get information, and to get there.  The Shire isn't a shire if events aren't supported by attendance, and attending SCAdians are a lot less work than newbies at an event.  Right now, especially, PG is getting kingdom/populace support, so as a designer, give that interest what it needs to support PG.

--Event information and contact info for that event.

--Contact information about group officers, for future planning.

 

Serve the public about the group:

 - Recruiting.  Let's examine this further - if I were completely ignorant, what are the fewest and most basic things I need to know:

--Funny clothes and strange activities are cool.  (Need compelling pictures of this, without digging.)

--What events there are to do, when are they, and how to get there: Fighter practice/demos/project night/events.

--Contact information for further questions.  Reference to Yahoo! List.

 

Serve the group about the group:

-Recordkeeping: business meeting minutes, historian stuff (newspaper clippings, photo archive,etc.)

-Contact info - this is already covered by the above.

-Maybe other things?  Not sure, this is just a first pass in my own thinking.