Product manufacturer LEED NON-compliance

I am publishing this post more for an entertainment value than anything else.  As I have been reviewing shop drawings and LEED submittals to make sure a certain percentage of our building materials either have some level of recycled content or are manufactured within 500 miles of our project site as dictated by the USGBC LEED-NC rating system.  I am presented with this document as backup information for this companies NON-compliance with LEED and our product specifications.

As you can see I have hidden the identity of the company because there is nothing wrong with their product (fire extinguisher cabinet), and I happen to agree with their statements, however amusing it was at first to read.  If we are anticipating this product to get us over the hump to meet our projects recycled content or regional material goal, then we have not been doing our job correctly.

Lesson in energy dependance

Well my family as well as my office just experienced how much we are dependent on our electricity. Hurricane Ike sent 75 mile per hour winds through our area which took out the power to a good portion of the city (Local news article). Over 650,000 were without power in the state of Ohio. My office and home lost power for almost 3 full days. Now I know that is nothing to complain about, because the damage created here was nothing compared to the residents along the coast of Texas.

The top of our neighbors tree fell onto the side of our house. Luckily it did not pull the electrical line out, or better yet, go thru the bedroom window.

The top of our neighbors tree fell onto the side of our house. Luckily it did not pull the electrical line out, or better yet, go through our sons bedroom window.

This storm just makes me think of the studies that have been done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which state that we can expect to see more extreme weather events as what we have seen the past couple of years with the devastation that has been created by some of these hurricanes. Which I don’t know how anyone would want to live in these areas that constantly are hit by these storms. So to bring this thought to a close, we can expect to see these high wind events that we experienced last week more frequently.

So I ask you, are you doing your part to curb climate change? I know my family is. Please, leave me a comment on what you are doing.

-Josh

Volunteering projects finally coming to life

Well September is off to a great start so far. Last week I was informed that the LEED home that I have been volunteering so much of time for will be featured on this years central Ohio solar tour and Green Energy Ohio (GEO) will be hosting a Gala at the Governors mansion. Which I have been invited to attend because of my involvement on this project. You can see a picture of the home on this issue of GEO’s quarterly magazine. http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=1967

Other good news that I recieved is that tomorrow after 2 long years of waiting, 3 more LEED homes will begin construction up in Cleveland. A ground breaking ceremony will held tomorrow (09/09/08).

http://www.cclandtrust.org/News.asp?id=80

These homes were created as a result of the Emerging Green Designers Symposium hosted by the Cleveland Green Building Coalition (http://www.symhome.net/php/clevelandgreencoalition.php). So with these 3 homes under construction, that will make a total of 4 green/high performance homes that have been built as a result of this Symposium. I am hoping to receive pictures from James Ptacek, who is the one that designed one of the homes that will be constructed as well as worked with the organizations involved to create the construction documents.

-Josh

LEED action plan and documentation

Well after 2 two years of working on design and construction documents for my first LEED project, we are finally in the construction phase. Which for any LEED project means additional paperwork to contend with, along with shop drawing review.

Well after a week and a half of reviewing hollow metal frame shop drawings (which had no associated LEED data attached may I add), I get to jump right into scrutinizing our contractors LEED action plan. Which is basically a spreadsheet that we provided to them (currently flawed) to document how they plan on meeting the required benchmarks for Recycled Content, Regional Materials and FSC certified woods. So with this not only my first LEED project, but the office as well as the project manager working for the contractor. So it is basically the blind leading the blind at this point. But I guess the frustrating part is some of the office expectations of the contractor, as well as the lack of research and understanding from the contractor along with the fact that they are not submitting the appropriate forms and data with the shop drawings that we need to track the progress of these credits to get our buildings LEED certification.

I don’t know exactly where I was going with this post, or who I ended up complaining about more. But I guess what I have learned so far in the two months that this project as been under construction are that even if the requirements are in the project manual, you will not necessarily receive them when you want them, and sometimes you just have to bite your tongue when people are expecting when no one else knows what to expect.

-Josh

Waiting game

This is one of the worst things about the profession of architecture, the waiting game. Last month I was able to bring in my first client to work with the office. Nothing too big, just a small addition renovation project to a cottage. However, what makes this waiting game so frustrating is that, as my wife puts it, “They are the perfect client”. Since as an office, we recently had a restructuring of firm goals and are now incorporating sustainability into all of our projects instead of select few, along with sustainability as a passion of mine. This particular client has two goals for the cottage, durability and energy efficiency.

So after almost two weeks of working on developing a few design schemes for the client to review, I sit here and wait. Wondering what scheme are they going to choose, how they want to alter them, or blend schemes together, etc. Plus there are things about each scheme that can make the project very exciting, such as taking advantage of the views, daylighting and utilizing prevailing winds for natural ventilation.

I just can’t wait to start with the next step of the process and refine the design to allow the cottage to work the way they want the house to function both today and as the family grows and changes.

-Josh