Frank Duffy: Work and the City

3.8.10 | I was invited to join Contract magazine and its Editorial Advisory Committee at the publication’s annual Design Summit, last year held in Austin, TX. This gathering of august architects and designers practicing interior design/architecture (take your pick), seemed to have a good time listening to the two featured presentations:

>Second Life - a virtual reality technology and consulting business, as well as the host of the public web site of the same name

>Frank Duffy - the noted British architect, writer and thinker who presented some of the ideas from his new book Work and the City, 80 pages, (2008 Black Dog Publishing).

Environment >>, Events >>, Research >>

Catching Up with Crossville

2.1.10 | There’s no denying the beauty of the finished product, but despite tile’s ability to transform ordinary spaces into award-winning ones, the manufacturing process is a dirty business. It starts with a messy mixture of sand, feldspar clay and water that can yield considerable amounts of wet waste or “sludge.” “[We used to] collect, put in trucks and send to the landfill approximately 6½ million pounds of wet waste a year,” says Tim J. Bolby, Director of Technical Services, Crossville Inc., a manufacturer of porcelain, metal and glass tile based in Crossville, TN, and privately held by The Curran Group, based in Crystal Lake, IL,.

Environment >>, Manufacturing >>

Aluminum: How Sustainable is It?

01.25.10| Aluminum, it's everywhere: in our cars, trains, airplanes, buildings, soda cans, antiperspirants, dyes and right on our kitchen table in the form of food additives and kitchen utensils. Not a day goes by that we don’t depend on aluminum. Considering it was discovered only about 200 years ago and available at commercially reasonable prices only for the last 60 years, it is amazing how intimately connected it has become to our lives. The most prevalent non-ferrous metal, aluminum is strong and lightweight, recyclable and to many people, indispensable for modern living.

Environment >>

C3: Communicating with the C-Suite

01.25.10| Imagine the dashboard in your car. As you see in the following image, you find tools for measuring various aspects of automotive travel including: a speedometer (indicating your velocity) an odometer (measuring the total milage of your automobile and, with a submeter measuring the estimated progress to your destination), a gas gauge (indicating fuel reserves), perhaps a mileage barometer (indicating your average MPG, energy efficiencies), warning lights (reminders of priorities for required actions), and comfort controls (personalized adjustments for heating, cooling, and sound), and an assortment of more advanced metrics regarding mileage to empty GPS (time and gas savings through driving efficiencies), etc. 

Environment >>, Technology >>

Leigh Stringer: Workplace Sustainable Strategies

01.19.10| HOK’s New York Office hosted an event at the AIA Center for Architecture last Thursday. The occasion was prompted by the publication of a book by Leigh Stringer, VP of Advance Strategies for HOK. The book is entitled The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies That Benefit Employees, The Environment, And The Bottom Line. Among those in attendance were HOK principals Juliette Lam, Ken Drucker and Carl Galioto, as well as Victoria Cerami and Mark Hochlerin of Cerami Associates.

Environment >>, Events >>

Haworth Brings Mindshift to GreenBuild

11.30.09 | The benefits of eliminating waste in process are inestimable and, while it won't win any LEED points, it might do a lot for the planet and the people on it. One of the watershed events in the past decades was the formation of mindshift, a corporate real estate industry consortium studying the waste that is generated as buildings are currently designed and built.

Environment >>, Manufacturing >>

GREENBUILD 2009: MAIN STREET GREEN

11.16.09 | This past week Phoenix welcomed the attendees of Greenbuild 2009 with her usual warmth and near constant sunshine. During the opening statements and keynote addresses on November 11, the mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, announced the kick-off of a remarkable pilot program that has been made possible by a consortium composed of a solar technology provider (Solar City), the regional power company (Arizona Power Supply) and a local bank (Arizona Federal).

Environment >>, Events >>

MINDSHIFT WINS CORENET AWARD

10.19.09| Sustainability has to go far beyond racking up LEED points if thing are going to change enough to put a dent in environmental problems. Moreover, if any of your prospective new hires is adamant about sustainability in their employment but they can only talk about LEED, you will know they aren't serious.

Competitions and Awards >>, Environment >>

Humanscale Faces in the Wild Draws $42,000 in Donations

9.28.09 | Humanscale knows that sustainability and 'green' without a knowledgeable eye on the natural environment too easily becomes form without substance. But, Bob King and his troops have continuous contact with their adopted environmental concerns, and one manifestation of this is their annual Faces in the Wild art auction and fundraiser.

Competitions and Awards >>, Environment >>

DIRTT: Doing It Right With Solar Power

8.17.09 | DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time) is more than an anagram with intent. In fact, it only tells half of the story. The second half – of the name and of the story – is Environmental Solutions, and that’s not just an effort to catch the latest marketing wave.

Environment >>, Manufacturing >>